“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us…” (2Corinthians 5:20NIV)

We are now Christ’s representatives, His ambassador. An ambassador is a representative of someone. That means, as Christ’s ambassadors, we represent Christ in this world. And it is important that we see ourselves in this manner. You must see yourself as an ambassador of Christ, as a representative of Christ. Where you live, you must see yourself as an ambassador of Christ. Where you work, you must see yourself as His representative. Where you study as a student, you must see yourself as His ambassador. So, you now represent Him wherever you are. You no longer represent yourself or your family.

You know that there are parents that often say to their children when they are leaving home, “Always remember the son of whom you are. You know that you bear the image of this family and carry our name. So always represent this family well.” And that is good talk. But it all depends on what the family stands for. As I said already, most parents like to give their children that kind of prep talk. But what they don’t often ask themselves is, “What does this family stand for?”

See, it is not wrong to want your child to go out and represent your family well. But what does your family stand for? Does your family stand for righteousness? Does your family stand for purity? Does your family stand for uprightness? Unfortunately, parents that are hypocrites will also tell their children to go out and represent them well. Also, parents that embezzle public funds will tell their children to go out and represent them well. They will say, “Be a good ambassador of this family.” Even parents that are not trustworthy or dependable in any way will tell their children, “Be good ambassadors of this family.” That is funny, right?

Also, mothers who will not stay at home and be responsible will tell their children, “Go and be good ambassadors of this family.” And what such parents don’t understand is that such children will actually go and be good ambassadors of their families. They will represent them well. They also will go out and be hypocritical because that is what their family stands for. They will also go out and be immoral because that is what their family stands for.

Well, that is just by the way. We are talking about seeing ourselves as ambassadors of Christ, as representatives of Christ. We are not going to be His representatives in this world. He has already made us so. As many of us as have been reconciled to God through Him have made His representatives in the world. If you have not been reconciled to Him, you cannot be His representative. I know there are many who are trying to be God’s representatives in the world today, who they don’t know the one they are trying to represent; they don’t know what the one they want to represent stands for. They cannot succeed.

But those of us who have been reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ have been given the ministry of reconciliation. We have also been given the message of reconciliation. So we are now Christ’s representatives. But the question is, “How well are we representing Him?” That is what I want us to actually look at. How well are we representing our Lord? Sometimes you hear of certain ambassadors being called back from where they were sent for not representing their nations well. That happens from time to time. The country will say, “Let us call back that man. He is not representing us well. He is not effective. He is not efficient.”

And to say the fact, the reason some of us have not been called back home to heaven is God’s mercy. That is the reason we have not been called back home. Many of us are actually not representing Him well. And you can ask yourself, “Am I representing Him well in this world? Do I stand for what He stands for? Am I doing the works that He has asked me to do? Am I living the life He has called me to live? What is my contact with those of the world producing in their lives?” We all ought to continually ask ourselves such questions. Otherwise, we are not living thoughtfully.

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“Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Phil 2:4NIV)

What does it mean to be selfish? It means to be concerned about yourself alone, especially at the expense of others. It means to do things or go for things for the sole purpose of satisfying ourselves and without considering how others are affected. And the word of God says that is a wrong way to live.

Now is it wrong to be concerned about ourselves? No! Or is it wrong to want to satisfy ourselves? No! Unfortunately, there are people who think we don’t have to be concerned about ourselves at all but about others and that we don’t have to satisfy ourselves at all but others. These are the kind that would say, “Always think of others first.”

But as nice and gracious as that may sound, it is not at all a godly philosophy. Why did I say that? It is because there is nowhere in the Scripture in which God tells us to think of others first. On the contrary, what we have are Scriptures in which God says, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Why is God telling us to love our neighbours as ourselves? The reason is that until we learn to love and treat ourselves right, we cannot love and treat others right. (Cf. Matt 22:39)

By the way, even those who tell us to always think of others first are really not putting others first in their lives. I am saying this because the major reason they love to put others first is that it makes them feel good or accomplished. I mean that there is a measure of satisfaction these people derive or seek to derive from putting others first in their affairs. So, ultimately, their putting others first is not really about others but about themselves. Can we, then, say that they are putting others first? No!

Well, my point is that being selfish is not basically about not putting others first. That is because you can be putting others first and still be dubious. Yes, you can be putting others first and still be cheating them. If you have younger ones and you grew up with them, you should understand what I am saying. Here you were, sharing a lump of meat among you and your younger ones. And you decided to first give them their own share, so that they would see you as selfless. But was that to say you did not cheat them at all? You know the answer.

So, the idea of putting others first may not eliminate cheating or selfishness. However, it is possible not to put others first and still not be selfish. This is a situation in which you are not just concerned about yourself but also about others. And that is what Paul is speaking of in our opening bible text. There he tells us not to look at our own interests alone but also at the interest of others.

What is the difference between a selfish person and an unselfish person? A selfish person is only concerned about their own interests and not at all about yours. So, for example, if they make or sell to you a product, they will only be concerned about the profit they will make from the sale and not at all about your enjoyment of it. That, of course, is the foundation for all fake products and substandard services. The people behind them are only concerned about their own gain and not at all about the benefit or loss you may derive from what they offer you. They are selfish.

Something similar can be experienced in relationships, whether natural or spiritual. When people are merely concerned about how much they can squeeze out of you and not concerned at all about how that will affect you or concerned about what they also can do to show that they care about you, they are selfish. And selfishness irritates. Selfishness puts off kind people. In fact, it will only take a kind person that is walking in the love of Christ to remain forever kind to you, if you are selfish.

So, don’t be selfish. Don’t be concerned about yourself alone but about others as well. If people are helping you or working with you, be genuinely concerned about their welfare as well and show it as often as you can. Yes, be sure you are regularly considering how you can show them that you too care about them and that you are not a parasite.

See, selfish people are parasites, always seeking to drain others. Selfish people don’t move the world forward or contribute anything significant to make it better. It is unselfish people that are moving the world forward and making it better and more enjoyable for everyone to live in. They are the ones coming up with new inventions and easier and better ways and methods of doing things. They are the ones making and selling to us products or services that give us value for whatever money we pay for them.

Yes, they too may be making profit and probably getting richer through what they are doing for us, depending on the kind of relationship we have with them. But whatever they do for us is not just about them but also about us. So, God is happy with them because they are making us happy. And He will be happy with us too, if we will stop being selfish and start making others really happy by being unselfish in all that we do.

Cheers!

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“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isa 49:15NIV)

Those are God’s words to us. And He is asking us in them if it is possible for a mother to forget the baby that she nursed at her own breast and have no compassion on him. That is really something rare to come about. Mothers may ignore many things but not their hungry, crying or sick babies.

But then, we have heard of cases in which certain mothers abandoned their own babies in some strange places. We have even heard of cases in which certain mothers sold their own babies to some strangers and totally turned their backs on them. Why? They saw those babies as some unnecessary burdens in their lives.

In any case, the point the Lord is making is that since it is not natural for any mother to abandon her own baby and not care for him, we too should consider it unnatural for Him to forget us or abandon us to be destroyed by our lives’ challenges. Then He goes to tell us that even if a mother will be so callous that she will abandon her own baby, He will never forget or abandon us.

So, regardless of how tight or difficult things may appear for you or your family right now, I want you to know that God has not forgotten you. It may look like that to you. It may look like He no longer cares about you or the prayers you are offering to Him. But He has not forgotten you or forsaken you. And He will never ever forget you nor forsake you.

“What, then, is the problem?” you ask, “Why has He not come to my aid and rescued me from all these challenges that are seeking to swallow me up?” The truth is that He does not have to come to your aid. That is because He has never left your side to aid you. And the fact that you have not yet seen certain things He is doing on your behalf does not mean that He is not working on your behalf. He is always working on behalf of His people to fulfil all His good intentions for them.

Jesus says, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." (John 5:17NIV) Did you see that? God our Father never stops working. And what is He doing? Paul answers that for us, saying, “We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28GNT) Wow! Paul knew that God is in every situation working for the good of His people. Do you also know that? Do you know that God is working right now in every situation you are faced with to make everything work for your good? If you did not know that before, now you know.

Then, besides the fact that God is busy all the time working things out for our good, He is also not slow about it. Our Jesus says, “Now, will God not judge in favor of his own people who cry to him day and night for help? Will he be slow to help them? I tell you, he will judge in their favor and do it quickly. But will the Son of Man find faith on earth when he comes?"” (Luke 18:7-8GNT) Can you relate to these words? God is never slow in attending to our matters. Instead, He is always quick to handle them. So, if we cannot yet see what He is doing to lift us up or save us from some ugly situations, it will not be because He is slow or does not care about our matters; rather, it will be because a lot things, things beyond our understanding, are involved in making all things work together for our good.

Look at the case of Joseph, for example. When his brother was selling him into slavery, did it look like God was working on his behalf at all? No! Or when his master’s wife lied against him, and he was being dragged unjustly to the prison, did it look like God was working on his behalf at all? No! Instead, it looked as if God had totally forgotten or abandoned him. Yet God was working all the time and using all that this young man was going through to make him ready to take over the leadership of that great nation, Egypt. And when the time was ripe, God brought about the circumstances that led him out of the prison and straight to the throne. What a mighty God! (Cf. Gen 39-41)

In like manner, I want to assure you that God never forgets us but is always working our behalf in all the situations, pleasant or ugly, that we are going through. No, we may not see all that He is doing for us now. But He is working. And whatever good things we are experiencing or enjoying right now is a manifestation of His work in our lives. So, we must not give up on Him or on life, as our Lord Jesus has commanded us. Instead, we must keep on praying to Him, so that our joy will be full over every matter of our lives. But are we going to do this? Will the Lord Jesus find us keeping faith and trusting God to perfect all that concerns us, when He returns? I pray that He will find us so.

Have a blessed day.

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I pray for you today that God will awaken everyone that He has appointed to lift you up to make no effort to rest until they have done His will for you. Amen.

After Ruth had spoken to Boaz about the possibility of a marriage between the two of them, as she had been instructed by her mother-in-law, Naomi, to do, she came back to tell the woman how the whole thing went. And in response, she said to her:

“Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today." (Ruth 3:18NIV)

Interestingly, Boaz acted exactly the way Naomi had said he would act. He did not settle down to rest at all until the matter of Ruth’s marriage was settled. But who made that happen? It was God. It was He that drove Boaz to run up and down that day until Ruth no longer had to worry about being a widow or being childless. And if you too will entrust your life to Him, as Ruth did, He will also cause people to run up and down for you, taking no rest until they have established you in that place of fruitfulness, rest and prosperity that He has prepared for you.

Also, as we are shown in the bible, the very night before the day Mordecai’s, enemy, Hamman, was going to have him hanged, King Xerxes became so restless that he had to call in for the record book of the happenings in his kingdom. And it was why it was being read to him that he realised that he had neglected something important. He had not duly rewarded or honoured Mordecai for saving his life sometimes before from those who wanted to assassinate him. (Cf. Esther 6)

So, in his restlessness, he pondered on the matter till the following morning, when Haman came in to talk about how Mordecai would be hanged. That, of course, was what God used in overruling the plans of Haman. Therefore, instead of getting the king’s permission to have Mordecai hanged, what Hamman got was the king’s order to have him honoured all through the city of Susa.

What is that telling us? It is telling us that when God is set to honour and lift a man, He knows how to awaken those who are supposed to do the job, even if they are his enemies, and make them restless until they get it done. And that is going to be your experience this new week and throughout the remaining part of the year. God will wake up all the people He has already appointed to lift and honour you but who have been sleeping. He will wake them up and make them restless until they have done His will for your life.

Now if you believe that, banish anxiety from your heart. Then begin to thank and praise Him for what He is already doing. And before you know it, you will see all the wonderful things He has been doing for your exoneration and exaltation manifesting and causing people to praise His holy name on your behalf. Amen.

Do have a splendid week.

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My prayer for you today is that God will rid your life of everything that is hindering the full manifestation of His blessings in your life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In the parable of our Lord Jesus about a man who gave his servants certain amount of money to work with, we see a very important life principle. And it is that anyone who will not intelligently put their God-given relationships, abilities, opportunities or privileges to work will not increase in good works or in the good things of this life. It is only those who sensibly utilize and continue to utilize what God has given them that will continue to abound in good works and good things. (Cf. Matt 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-26)

As the account goes, a man, who was going on a long journey, decided to share some of his money among his servants, so that they may put it to work. In other words, he did not want all of his money lying fallow and gathering dust in his safe while he was away. So, he gave part of it to his servants to work with, according to the ability of each of them. To one he gave five talents. To another he gave two talents. And yet to another he gave one talent.

Now, after a long time, this man came back and began to settle accounts with the servants he had entrusted his money to. And to his surprise, only two of them worked with the money he had given them and multiplied it. The man with five talents made a profit of five more talents with his money. Likewise, the man with two talents made a profit of two more talents with his money. But the man that was given one talent only came around with excuses. He did nothing with the talent he was given and so got nothing in addition to it.

Why did he do nothing with his own talent? Well, the popular answer is that he did nothing with it because he felt that what he was given was too small, when compared to what others were given. But that was never the reason. In the first place, their master gave each of them money according to their abilities. So, what he could handle was what he was given. Second, historians will have us know that a talent at that time was about 20 years of a day labourer’s wage. So, it was a lot of money that this man was given.

It follows, then, that it was not because his money was small that he did nothing with it. Rather, in his own words, it was because he was afraid of losing it that he did nothing with it (Matt 25:25). But as his master told him, he could have deposited the money with the bankers, and he would have received it back with interest. So, fear was not enough reason for him not to do anything with such a huge sum of money. He had another problem, which was laziness. In other words, it was because he was lazy in his mind and with his hands that he made no effort to consider how to multiply what he was given. So, he allowed the very thing his master was trying to avoid to happen – he allowed his money to lie fallow.

To cut a long story short, apart from the punishment that this lazy and unprofitable man was given to serve, his master commanded that his money be taken away from him and given to one of the servants that had shown themselves worthy of receiving more. And in conclusion, our Lord Jesus says that is exactly how things work in God’s kingdom. Those who acknowledge all that God has given them – people, resources, skills, gifts, education, position and so forth – however small or insignificant these things may be, and are putting them to good use are the ones He will continue to promote and increase in good things. But those who do nothing with what He has given them can only expect what they have, even if it is little, to be taken away from them. This explains why poor people often get poorer and rich and influential people often get richer and more influential.

So, if you are not utilizing what God has given you or enabled you to acquire by His grace, you are simply showing yourself to be unprofitable and unfit to be introduced or elevated to higher heights in life. You are your own enemy then, regardless of what your excuses may be. You are the one limiting and pulling yourself down. Therefore, you should not expect things to get better but worse for you.

Now my prayer is that things will only get better and better and never worse for you. But praying about it alone will not do. You also need to wake up from your slumber, stop making excuses for failure or poverty and identify everything God has given you that you can use to increase yourself in relevance, good works and resources in life and begin to put it to work. And as you do this, you will be amazed to see all the blessings of God that have been inactive or dormant in your life fully finding expression.

Have a splendid day.

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As you begin this new day, I want you to begin to learn to look forward to a fulfilment of God’s word in your life for your good. God is always speaking to anyone that cares to listen to Him. It is, nevertheless, important that we do not just hear Him speak to us but that we also see His words fulfilled in our lives.

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“He (Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Rom 4:25NIV)

The scripture shows us that the reason Jesus died in the first place was our sins. Jesus did not die for himself or for his own sins (for he never sinned); he died for our sins.

However, Jesus’s death does not end the story; for he did not remain dead. The bible says:

“But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” (Acts 2:24NIV)

So, Jesus is alive now. He is not on the cross; neither is he in the grave. He is alive and well, sitting at the right hand of the father. And now, in opening scripture, Paul tells us what the resurrection of Jesus means to us. He says that his resurrection means justification for us. In the same sense that our sins meant death for him, his own resurrection means justification for us.

Therefore, we have been justified. Yes, we have been declared not guilty because of Christ’s resurrection. And this justification, Paul says, is what makes us at peace with God. Praise God! (Cf. Rom 5:1-2)

Consequently, the celebration of Christ’s resurrection that many Christians do every year is a celebration of our peace with God. God is no longer angry with us. God is no longer counting our sins against us. We have now been reconciled to him. And we are no longer without hope or without God in life.

Henceforth, we are expected to walk every day in the light of these realities. We must prove through the lives that we live that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus is not in vain. Therefore, as you face this new day, remember to put these truths to work.

It is well with your soul.

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“It's clear that you are Christ's letter, written as a result of our ministry. You are a letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, a letter written not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2Cor 3:3GW)

Here is a very revealing and instructive statement. God has sent a letter to the world. And that letter is not the bible. That letter is not the tracts, bulletins and newsletters that we distribute. That letter is the Christian.

See, it has always been God’s desire to communicate the truth about true and real living to the hearts of men. And his way of doing that is to package that message of truth in form of real and tangible men and women. People may misrepresent our sermons. They may misinterpret our writings. But they cannot mistake the lives that we live. That is exactly why God has chosen to talk to them through the lives that we live.

It is unfortunate, nevertheless, that many of us think we can separate the lives that we live from the message that we preach. But that is not possible. There is no way a man can separate the life he lives from the message that he preaches or from the things that he professes to believe. The life every one of us lives is a message on its own. And interestingly, those of the world know that. That is the reason they care more about the life that we live than the message that we preach. And the moment they notice that there is no agreement between the lives that we live and the message that we preach, they immediately label us ‘Hypocrites.’

But what message will God communicate through hypocrites? The answer is ‘NONE.’ God cannot say anything to our world through us until we acknowledge the fact that we ourselves are the message that he wants to send. We are the letter that he wants to write on the hearts of men. So, if our lives are wrong, then, the world will get the wrong message. And if, on the other hand, our lives are right, then, the world will get the right message.

Now what kind of message will your life and my life be to our world today? My prayer is that our lives will be the pure, undiluted, life-changing, message from God.

Have a lovely day.

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“This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the seas.”” (Isaiah 48:17-19)

This is God talking to us. And He is saying that He is the one who teaches us what is best for us. That, of course, tells me that He knows what is best for us. Otherwise, how can He teach us what He does not know.

Well, God knows what is best for you and me. I may not know what is best for me in life. You too may not know it. In fact, we may never know what is best for us in life. But God knows what is best for every one of us in every situation. He is the one to teach us what is best for us in life. He is the one to show us the best things we are to devote ourselves to, the best place to live, the best job to do and even the best relationships for us. He is the one to reveal all these things to us. So, He refers to Himself as the teacher of the best.

Also, God is the one to direct us in the way we should go in life. That means He will not just teach us what is best for us; He will also direct us in the way to go, so that we may experience and enjoy the best He has for us. But we must be willing to follow Him. He is not going to force us to follow Him. We are the ones that must be willing to follow Him, to learn from Him. And as we do so, He will daily teach us what is best for us and also guide us in the way we should go. Then, our lives will not be a waste but a blessing in every way.

Have a lovely day.

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“Then Samson said, "With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone I have killed a thousand men." When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi. Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.” (Judg 15:16-19NIV)

Why was Samson thirsty to the point of death, as we see in our opening bible text? It was because he had just, on that occasion, finished fighting and killing a thousand Philistine soldiers (Judges 15:16-17). Think about that. This man fought and defeated one thousand trained men of war in a single encounter. And with what? With a donkey’s jawbone! How did he do that? It was by the Spirit of God. It was the Spirit of God that supernaturally empowered and emboldened him to fight and gain victory over those people.

But then, as to be expected, he was utterly exhausted and thirsty when he was done fighting. Therefore, when he was supposed to be celebrating his victory, he found himself fighting for his life because there was no water for him to drink where he was. That, of course, is showing us that it is one thing to be made victorious by God; it is another thing to have the power to enjoy that victory.

Samson’s victory was evidently given to him by God. Yet he found himself lacking in the power to celebrate or enjoy it. And there have been many like him that received promotion, success, victory over some enemies or some provisions from God but who never enjoyed these things. Why? It may be that death, some sickness or robbers came in right after they were blessed with these things and made it impossible for them to enjoy them.

Yes, I know that when calamities befall people after they have just won some victories, others around them, including Christians, may grow suspicious of them. They may start finding fault with their victories and saying things like, “Who knows how she got promoted in the first place? Look at the way she was rising fast. Was she the only smart and hardworking person in that place? When people are rising fast like that you just have to watch out for them.”

But we see through Samson’s case that it is possible for God to be fully responsible for someone’s victory or success and the person won’t still be able to enjoy it. And will that be because God is wicked and just loves to do as He pleases? No! Yes, we are shown in Scriptures that God may prevent people from enjoying His provisions for them, if they will not acknowledge Him for it (Luke 12:16-21). But even when people acknowledge God as the source of their success or victory, they may still not enjoy it.

Now why will that be? There are probably a thousand and one things more that could be responsible for that. For example, in Samson’s case, thirst and tiredness were the things that wanted to rob him of the enjoyment of his victory. In some other people’s situations, it may be a reckless or thoughtless celebration of their victories that will ultimately rob them of the enjoyment of those victories.

Then there are equally times in which people’s victories may be bring upon them more battles to fight. And if they should let down their guard at such times, their enemies may pounce on them when they least expect and rob them of the enjoyment of their victories. So, don’t ever let down your guard, regardless of what degree of victory God has given you in life. Instead, always put on the whole armour of God. And you will be able to frustrate the schemes of the devil against you any day and any time. (Cf. Eph 6:10-18)

Well, as we see in Samson’s case, he was not going to allow thirst and tiredness to kill and rob him of the enjoyment of the victory God has given him. And what did he do? He sustained his victory with prayers. The bible says he cried out to God and said, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"

Did you see that? Samson, while praying, first acknowledged that the victory he had over those one thousand Philistine soldiers was given to him by God. Then he went on to tell him how ridiculous it would be for him to die of thirst. In other words, he was saying to God, “If you could give me victory over a thousand soldiers, is it water you won’t be able to provide for me to sustain what you have given me?”

Now did God answer him or not? The bible shows us God answered him immediately. God opened up the hollow place of the area he was and caused water to gush out from it. So, Samson was able to find water to drink and to be revived to fight another day. But what if he had not prayed to God? What if he had surrendered to the situation? He would have not have been able to sustain the victory God gave him that day. Instead, he would have died. But he chose to pray and sustain his victory instead of dying.

In like manner, you too can choose to sustain and enjoy every victory God gives you instead of losing it to another attack of the enemy. All you need is to be devoted to praying to God. See, when you are devoted to praying to Him, you will not see any time of victory as a moment to relax but as a moment to further strengthen yourself in the Lord. After King Ahab once won a battle against the Arameans, God sent a prophet to say this to him: “Strengthen your position and see what must be done, because next spring the king of Aram will attack you again." (1Kings 20:22NIV)

What was God saying to that king? Don’t relax! Don’t let down your guard! Why? His enemies would come for him again. And if he was not ready when they came, they would defeat him soundly. We too must learn from this. Victory not well managed can equal defeat. And victory without the strength to enjoy and sustain it may be as good as defeat. So, never stop praying, even in your moment of victory, for you may need more strength to sustain that victory than you need to win it.

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“Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites, who showed good understanding of the service of the LORD. For the seven days they ate their assigned portion and offered fellowship offerings and praised the LORD, the God of their fathers.” (2Chron 30:22NIV)

As we see in the bible, that is, under the old covenant, it was the duty of the Levites and their priests to learn and understand the written will of God about how He was to be served and worshipped. That way, they would be able to lead the whole nation of Israel to serve God faithfully and stay away from unclean and impure things. (Cf. Ezek 44:15-31; Malach 2:7)

But as we also see in the bible, it was not every generation of these Levites and priests that demonstrated understanding and faithfulness in handling the worship of God. To say the fact, most of their generations did not handle the service of God truthfully at all. Therefore, we have several prophets of God condemning them and pronouncing God’s judgment on them.

For example, we are introduced to the sons of Eli in 1Samuel and told how they were nothing but sons of the devil, even though they were the leading priests in the land. So, God had to ruthlessly judge them and their descendants after them. Also, we have God expressing His displeasure towards the ways of the priests of the time of Malachi. Look at how this is set forth in the bible:

“And now this admonition is for you, O priests. If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name," says the LORD Almighty, "I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me. "Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will spread on your faces the offal from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. And you will know that I have sent you this admonition so that my covenant with Levi may continue," says the LORD Almighty.” (Mal 2:1-4NIV)

Did you see that? God had no word of praise for those priests at all. And that was because they were corrupt and would not serve His purpose for choosing them. In other words, instead of leading the people in the true worship of God, they were misleading them and getting them into trouble.

Since the nation of Israel, then, had a history of having corrupt and irresponsible priests and Levites, what should be the response of the people, if they suddenly stumbled upon an upright priest? It should be a response of gratitude to God and encouragement to such a priest.

Now that is what we see Hezekiah demonstrating in our opening bible text. This king was leading a spiritual reformation and restoration in the land at that time. So, he needed all the spiritual help he could get. And given the history of corruption of the priests and Levites in the land, he must have been surprised to find that there were still certain priests that understood how God was to be served and that were also devoted to serving Him accordingly. So, the least he could do was to speak encouraging and kind words to those priests. That way, they would be inspired to do better and better in their service to God and to His people who had abandoned Him for years.

In like manner, any time we see people in our land who are devoted to doing what is right and to maintaining justice where they are, we should do all we can to encourage them instead of discouraging them. We know what our country looks like today. We know that it is hard to find in our neighbourhoods, schools, government offices and business centres people who are upright in heart, diligent and trustworthy.

Therefore, anytime we come across anyone who has these qualities, anytime we come across anyone who has refused to be corrupted and made irresponsible by sick our society, we, like Hezekiah, should do whatever we can to encourage them. That is how to strengthen goodness and righteousness in our world.

Interestingly, Paul admonishes us to do similar things in the church. He tells us that wherever we see church leaders that are doing well in feeding us with the word of God and leading us in His will, we should doubly honour them. Why? It is because such leaders are hard to come by. (Cf. 1Tim 5:17)

As the bible shows us, even in the days of the apostles of old, there were so many so-called church leaders that were greedy, corrupt and irresponsible. Therefore, Paul wanted the brethren to know that they must learn to encourage the upright and faithful leaders among them. Otherwise, Satan may, at some point, get these also to lose heart and start imitating the greedy, immoral, manipulative and injurious church leaders around them. (Cf. Phil 3:17-19; 2Peter 2:1-3)

The point I am making, at any rate, is that we all who love righteousness must learn to appreciate it in others. Then we can strengthen it in our world instead of weakening it.

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“The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” (Proverbs 12:26 NIV)

In life, we always have to choose friends. It is not something that we can avoid. It is not something anyone of us can run away from. Consciously or unconsciously, we make friends. But the scripture above is a guide, a guide telling every one of us that in choosing our friends, we need to choose them carefully and wisely.

First, you need to know that becoming a Christian does not mean you are not going to make friends with other people. It does not mean you are to isolate yourself from other people. But that is the idea some people have about Christianity. They think it means to isolate yourself from others or run away from them. So, they say, “Having become a Christian, I don’t want to have anything to do with others again.”

Now, sometimes, it is because people like such think that isolating themselves from others is what will prevent them from living in sin. But isolating yourself from others may not, in any way, keep you from living in sin. If you think you are living in sin because of the people you are walking with now—sometimes this could be true—what about the new set of people you are still going to meet later on in life? What makes you think you will still not live in sin because of your relationship with them?

Then even if you lock yourself up in a place, away from the world, away from friends, away from colleagues, away from family members, it still does not mean that you are going to live a life that is pleasing to God—a life of victory over sin. The only thing a man needs to live in sin is to think. According to the words of Jesus, immorality, fornication, adultery, hatred, murder, all come from inside a man. They don’t come from the outside. (Cf. Matt 15:19-20)

So, if there is sin in you, even if you lock yourself away from the world, it will still manifest. Staying away from people, then, is not the solution. You need people; and they need you too. You need friends; friends also need you. What is, however, important is the choosing of your friends carefully. What I am saying is that making meaningful friendships is what is important.

Today, a lot of people have identity crises. They have identity problems. And because they have identity problems, they find it difficult to stand alone. Even some people find it difficult to stand alone in a safe place. Truly, they are in a safe place; but because they are alone there, they run out into trouble. That is largely because they are unsure of themselves. They have to depend on others’ opinions of them. They always have to depend on what others have to say about them. They cannot carefully judge their own lives. They can’t carefully examine their own lives. So, they have to depend on what others feel about them or what they say about them.

People like that always choose wrongly when it comes to friendships. They are going to keep friends for the wrong reasons. They will allow people that shouldn’t come into their lives to come in. That is all because they have a problem standing on their own. Such people need to be taught how to choose their friends, at least, till they learn how to stand on their own feet. And if you are one of them, I pray for you today that God will begin to fill you with adequate wisdom and confidence to live on the basis of what He says about you and to choose the right people as friends and companions in life. Amen.

Have a pleasant day.

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“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2Cor 10:4-5NIV)

Can you relate to what Paul is saying here? First, he says that the weapons that believers are to fight with in life are not man-made. Yet they have divine power to demolish strongholds. That means God gets to work anytime we employ these weapons to bring down every opposition. And what are these weapons? Basically, they are weapons of righteousness, the word of God, faith and prayer.

Then this apostle goes on to tell us that we demolish arguments and every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. Doesn’t that tell you that the strongholds he is referring to are arguments and every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God? Those are the strongholds he is talking about. And those are the strongholds that he says the weapons of our warfare are capable of pulling down.

Now let me draw your attention to this: what we are dealing with here has to do with our personal lives, things in our personal lives that are limiting and hurting us. So, the struggle must start within us. That is because the arguments that Paul is talking about, which are bringing all kinds of setbacks into our lives, are within us. Also, every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God is within us. And we must take advantage of the weapons God has given to us to demolish these things. Otherwise, they will hold us captive and make us useless for life.

Then Paul says, “…we take captive every thought…” Whose thoughts is he talking about? He is talking about my thoughts and your thoughts. And he is saying that we must take them captive and make them obedient to Christ. Otherwise, these thoughts will keep making slaves of us and leading us to do things that will destroy us and the world around us.

If you, then, will ever be able to resist the devil, you must first of all deal with yourself. The struggle must begin within you. You must first deal with those things that have become strongholds in your own life. Some of these strongholds have been in our lives for years. Some of them are as old as you are, and so are deep-seated in your mind. They must be pulled down. And it is only when you have dealt with yourself like this that you will be able to deal with the external influences. When you have worked on yourself, then you will be able to handle these external influences.

So, the control must be taken over your life from your inside. The control of your life must be wrested from the hands of your mind, from the hands of your emotions and from the hands of your flesh and placed in the hands of the Spirit of God. But how do you place the control of your life in the hands of the Spirit of God? It is by employing those spiritual weapons I mentioned earlier. In other words, it is by entrusting yourself to God in faith and also by giving yourself to the word of God, prayer and the practice of righteousness. And as you daily do this, you will find yourself living a life of liberty from every work of the flesh and every work of the devil, as God intends you to do.

Have a great day.

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“…what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1John 3:2-3NIV)

I love what John says to us here. He says we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him. This is sure knowledge for those of us who are children of God. We know this. We are not guessing about this. We know that when Christ eventually appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

That means whatever Jesus looks like, whatever He resembles when He is made known, is what we shall be transformed to. And don’t forget that we are not talking here about our spirits; our spirits have been made like His already; our spirits have been recreated. But we are talking here about the totality of our person. We are saying that when our Lord Jesus shows up, whatever He looks like is what we are going to look like.

Now how should that affect us? Knowing that we will be like Him is good. But what impart should that knowledge have on us? How should that knowledge affect our conduct right now? Indeed, we don’t really know what we are going to look like, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him. And what should that imply to us?

John answers this for us in verse 3 of the same chapter of this epistle. He says:

“All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1John 3:3NIV)

That is what is important for us right now. All those who have this hope in the Lord purify themselves. That means if you have this hope that He will appear again to change us, you are going to be purifying yourself. You are not going to be getting yourself contaminated by the people and the things of this world. Instead, you are going to be taking advantage of God’s grace to keep yourself pure.

My prayer, then, is that your heart will be strengthened to daily take this seriously wherever you are and wherever you go, so that you may be pure and blameless in God’s sight when our Lord returns. Amen.

Have blessed day.

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“Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.” (Ephesians 4:28NIV)

Notice that Paul, in our opening text, does not just tell those who are stealing to stop stealing; he also tells them to start working. But someone else may say to a thief, “Stop stealing. You are a thief. The Lord is going to judge you, if you don’t stop stealing.” Alright then, when he stops stealing, what else is he going to do? He has to start working. He has to be taught to start working. Otherwise, he may soon enough find himself back in his life of stealing.

Furthermore, Paul does not say that the one who has been stealing should stop stealing and start begging; rather, he says he is to start working. This is why Christianity is involving. See, it is easy for me to give you kinds of rules and instructions. But if I do not participate in your life and you do not participate in my life, it becomes difficult for us to be mutually encouraged and affected for the better.

I may keep saying to you, “Stop stealing.” And you, in response to that, may say, “Yes, I really want to stop stealing. But I don’t know what to do.” What that suggests is that you need help. You have to be showed what you can do with your hands. If you have not learnt a trade, then, you have to learn one. Or if you do not have any formal education, you may need to get some.

But here is a guy who has not learnt a trade or gone to any school to receive a formal education, and you are telling him to stop stealing. How is that going to happen? Don’t you get it? That guy needs to be taught to go receive some formal education or to learn a trade. Then he can begin to do something useful with his own hands and also begin to share with others that are in need.

In 1Thessalonians, Paul says, “Each of you should make it his ambition to work with your own hands and earn your own living, so that your daily life will win the respect of outsiders, and you will not be dependent on anybody.” Can you see that? Christians were not taught in those days to be dependent on others. They were not taught to be parasites but to earn the bread they eat. (Cf. 1Thessalonians 4:11-12)

Sadly, people often come to church and think they have to function in a parasitic way, siphoning the resources of anyone that they come in contact with. God’s people were not taught to function like that in bible days. And we must not teach or train or allow ourselves to function like that today. Instead, we must do all that we can to encourage one another to find something legitimate to do with our hands. Then we will stop being devourers or parasites and start living responsibly and generously.

Have a blessed day

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“Then the king said to his men, "Do you not realize that a prince and a great man has fallen in Israel this day? And today, though I am the anointed king, I am weak, and these sons of Zeruiah are too strong for me. May the LORD repay the evildoer according to his evil deeds!"” (2Sam 3:38-39NIV)

Those were David’s words after Joab had murdered Abner, Israel’s army general, in cold blood to avenge the blood of his brother Asahel. But why did he say such words? He said them because he realised that even though he was the Lord’s anointed king, he did not have it takes to keep under control some of his men. And in this situation, he was referring to Joab and his brother Abishai.

Naturally, David was supposed to have the two of them executed or banished for the roles they played in the death of Abner. That was because he did not give them any order to have the man murdered. As we see in the account, Abner and David had just had a feast together to celebrate their alliance before Joab went after him and used deceit to kill him. So, as God’s anointed king that wanted to be just in leading the people, the right thing for him to do was to judge those murderers.

But he could not do anything to them. Why? First, as he himself admitted, they had become powerful and influential among his men. That was because they both of them were mighty men of war and had led his men to experience victory in battle many times. So, they were men that were feared, trusted and respected. That being the case, there was no way he would judge them and not create divisions among his own men.

Second, these men were David’s nephews, sons of his sister Zeruiah. So, if he chose to execute or banish them because of Abner, who was not entirely a good man himself, many of the people may see him as a heartless person. His blood relationship with them, then, also weakened him and prevented him from judging them for what they did to Abner. (Cf. 1Chro 2:13-17)

Now what did David miss? Was it his fault that Joab and Abishai were his nephews? No! And did he do any wrong by recognising their prowess and allowing them to lead his men in battle? No! But it is clear that he allowed their familiarity with him to breed contempt for his authority. If, right from the time they just came to him as young men, he had been strict or hard in disciplining them and showing them that he would not accept any form of disregard for his authority from them, simply because they were his blood, they would most likely not have become emboldened to do anything without his permission.

Also, David must have given these men, Joab and his brother, too much independence as leaders of his army. That was why they were bold to call Abner back on that occasion without first checking in with their king. But authority must always be checked. If you give someone some measure of authority and will not check it or place some restrictions on it, it will take the grace of God for that person not to use that authority to strengthen himself against you.

As we see in David’s case, Joab and his brother used their relationship with him and the positions he gave them in his army to strengthen themselves against him. So, even though they were loyal to him to the end, they also had a culture of doing whatever pleased them, even if it was contrary to what he wanted. And he remained weak in handling them till he died. The best he could do was to entrust the judgment of Joab to his son Solomon, who, of course, was too wise for the man to contend with (1Kings 2:5-6).

Well, what is the point of this? It is that you should not allow any relationship to make you weak in using your position to do the will of God. It does not matter whether it is a blood relationship, work relationship or spiritual relationship, don’t handle it in a way that it will introduce weakness of character into your life. We have seen husbands made weak by their wives and vice versa, so that they are now unable to always do the will of God with their positions. And we have seen parents made weak by their children and vice versa, so that they are now unable to do what is right where God has placed them. We have even seen employers, bosses and anointed preachers made weak through some unclean relationships with those under them, so that they are now unable to do what God wants with their respective positions.

So, you really can be made weak in doing what is right or in judging wickedness by the people you love, trust or admire. And that is what will most likely happen, if you will not exhibit discipline and self-control in your dealings with them all the time. Who, then, knows how far they will go in abusing your relationship with them? Remember that the only reason Abner responded to Joab’s call to come back that day was his relationship with David. And he took advantage of that to destroy him.

Therefore, don’t let anyone make you weak and, by so doing, turn you into a partaker of their sins. And be very careful too not to weaken anybody in doing what is right through your relationship with them or through the authority they have entrusted to you. Otherwise, like Joab, you may expose yourself to God’s judgment.

Have a blessed day.

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“Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to the assembly, 'Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.'" Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. He warned the assembly, "Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins." So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents.” (Num 16:23-27NIV)

Why did Korah, Dathan, Abiram, On and the men that joined in their rebellion against Moses and Aaron make no move to repent and ask God to forgive and spare them? It was because, all the time, they felt that they were doing the right thing. These men did not see themselves as going against the will of God at all. So, as we see in our opening text, even till the very moment that the ground opened up and swallowed them, their families and possessions, they still saw themselves as fighting the right cause and having nothing to fear.

What this means is that Korah and his people saw everything Moses was saying to them as nothing but empty words that could hurt nobody. They saw his words as the mere ranting of a frustrated man. So, they boldly stood at the entrances to their tents to see what he would really do. Unfortunately for them, Moses’ words eventually proved not to be empty; his words eventually led to their utter destruction.

What is the point of this, then? It is that it is possible for us to be in error and yet believe we are within our rights. It is possible for us to be walking in a path of destruction and yet see ourselves as doing the will of God. And where this is the case, it does not matter how zealous or passionate we are about doing whatever wrong thing we are doing, our passion can only hasten our destruction. So, in all that we do, we must aim for correctness.

Jesus once said this to His disciples: “See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.” (Luke 11:35NIV) What does this mean? It means we must be certain that what we believe to be right is actually right and that what we believe to be wrong is actually wrong. That is because if, for some reasons, we embrace what is wrong as right or reject what is right as wrong, there is no way we will not get punished for it at some point, unless we are shown mercy.

Korah and his people thought they were right in challenging and rejecting Moses and Aaron’s authority to lead them. And why did they think they were right in this way? They thought they were right because they were acting according to their own feelings and view of what was right and wrong. They just felt within them that there was nothing Moses and Aaron possessed that made them special or deserving of the kind of attention and respect they were getting from the people. (Cf. Num 16:3)

But Moses and Aaron did not choose themselves as the leaders of God’s people. It was God Himself that chose and ordained them. Also, there was nothing these men did that was their idea; everything they did was ordered by God. To oppose them, then, was to oppose God, who had appointed them. And that was what led to the destruction of Korah and his group.

So, if you are one who usually acts on the basis of how you feel or think instead of on the basis of what is revealed as the will of God in the Scriptures, you will often surely find yourself in error. And as long as you are walking in error, you cannot tell how dangerous the consequences may be. If you, then, don’t want to someday find out how dangerous the consequences of your walking in error could be, begin to give yourself to learning the will of God as taught in the Scriptures instead of following your feelings or reasonings. And the Lord, in His kindness, will lead you away from every path of destruction.

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I pray for you today that God will always see to it that nothing needed for your prosperity and peace of mind is hidden from you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As reported by Luke in his gospel, our Lord Jesus once wept over the city of Jerusalem, saying:

“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:42NIV)

What was hidden from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as indicated by the Lord here? What they needed for their peace!

In like manner, there are many today that what is needed for their peace of mind and prosperity is hidden from them. And as long as it is hidden from them, they will know no peace of mind or prosperity. Instead, they will only keep wasting their time, energy and resources, seeking peace and rest where they do not exist. So, among the prayers you ought to be offering regularly in life is that God will open your eyes to see those things that are meant for your peace and prosperity, according to every day’s need.

What made the widow of Zarephath and her son survive the three years of famine that the land of Israel experienced during the reign of King Ahab? It was the fact that God opened her eyes to see what she needed to do for their survival. How God did this we are not told. But we do know from the bible that God specifically told Elijah that he had commanded this widow to take care of him during the famine. And because the woman acted based on what God had told her, she and her son survived the famine. (Cf. 1Kings 17)

Also, what made Jabesh come out of poverty and a life of sorrow and pain? It was the fact that his eyes were opened someday to see that if he would pray to God about his situation, things would actually be turned around for good for him. And when he took a step of faith and prayed to God about his matter, God answered him and made him more honourable than all his brothers. (Cf. 1Chro 4:9-10)

Then what made the woman with the issue of blood receive her healing, after twelve years of looking for deliverance in vain? It was the fact that her eyes were one day opened to see that if she could just locate our Lord Jesus and touch the hem of His garment, she would be well. And when she found Jesus and touched the hem of His garment, she was instantly healed of her malady. (Cf. Mark 5:25-34)

Now notice that in all the examples that I just gave, nobody told these people what they needed to do to experience their salvation, prosperity or healing. It was God Himself that revealed to their hearts what they must do. And that may be what you too need. I mean that what you also need to experience the promotion, healing or peace of mind that God has prepared for you may not be something that any preacher or prophet knows or can tell you. Rather, it may be something God Himself has to reveal to you personally.

Therefore, pray that God will see to it that everything you need to experience the fullness of His goodness in your life will no longer be hidden from you but clearly made known to you. Then pray that as God is showing you what to do to move forward in life or to experience healing or salvation in your life, you will also have enough wisdom, strength and boldness to act accordingly. And so shall it be, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a splendid day.

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My prayer for you, today, is that God will always find you useful in communicating His goodness to those in your world. Amen.

God, as we see in the bible, is always looking for those that He can use to communicate His will and His goodness to humanity. And all He requires are those who will make themselves available to Him wholeheartedly. Then, even if they do not have any special ability that could make them outstanding among men, He will equip them with all that they need to serve His purpose. And if they will go on like that to faithfully serve Him, their names may end up being known all over the world.

What special abilities did people like Peter, James and John have to become men that God used in making His glory known all over the world? None that we are aware of! The bible indeed speaks of men like Joseph, Solomon and Daniel who were exceptional in wisdom, knowledge and understanding. But the men who were first called by the Lord to be His apostles in taking the good news of God’s grace all around the world are not described in the bible as exceptional in any way. On the contrary, we are told in the bible that most of them were unschooled. Yet God used them to do fantastic things, things too much for the wisdom of the world to grasp.

Why, then, did God pick such men to use? The bible says it is so that no one would be able to boast that it’s because of certain abilities that he possesses that God is using him. God is able to use anyone, regardless of their abilities or inadequacies. In fact, the bible says God is able to use foolish people to shame wise people and people that are considered to be nothing to shame very important people. (Cf. 1Cor 1:26-29)

Now what does God need to use such people? First, He needs them to be available to Him. Being available to God in this manner, of course, goes beyond being present where He is. It also involves showing that you are present where you are for Him. Someone can be present somewhere and still not be available to help or serve anyone. So, if you want God to use you, in spite of what you have or do not have, always show yourself as someone that is available for Him to use. (Cf. Isaiah 6:1-8)

Second, God needs those that He will use to willingly yield themselves to Him (Rom 12:1; James 4:7). That means they have to submit to Him to do things the way He wants them done and not according to their own desire. It follows, then, that anyone that is not ready to submit to God and do things His way cannot be used by Him to accomplish His good purpose, even if the person is available.

Third, God needs such people to be ready to purify themselves. God is not just after what we can do for Him but also after the heart with which we do it. The kind of heart with which we do His work will either make it effective in accomplishing His purpose or corrupt His work. So, we must be ready to let Him purify us of anything that could contaminate His work through us and make it unprofitable. Anyone, then, who is opposed to words of rebuke, correction or discipline is not a fit candidate for His work, however gifted he may be. (Cf. 2Timothy 2:20-21)

Well, the apostles of old met those requirements, even though they were not educated, influential or wealthy people at the time they were called by the Lord. They all made themselves available to be used by the Lord, yielded themselves to serve Him as He pleased and also surrendered themselves to be washed and made clean by Him. So, He took them, build them up and used them in ways nobody ever thought was possible. And if we too want to be used by Him in like manner, all we need is to do as they did.

Have a very pleasant day.

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“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” (Luke 12:25-26NIV) 

Did you see that? All our worrying and running around cannot make any of us live an hour longer than we are supposed to live in this world. Even our possession of all the wealth of the world cannot accomplish that for us. Yet the Lord says that is a very little thing for Him to do. It is a very little thing for Him to add an additional hour to our lifespan. 

And think about this: how long did it take Him to add an extra fifteen years to the lifespan of King Hezekiah? Just a moment! It took Him only the seconds that He used in uttering those words to Isaiah. And it was done. If giving a man an additional fifteen years was as simple as that for Him, then, we should know that there is no difficulty or impossibility we are faced with that will be hard for Him to fix. (Cf. 2Kings 20:1-11)

All that we are required to do, then, is to fix our gaze on Him. For example, as we are shown in the bible, there was a time that the disciples of the Lord saw Him walking towards their boat on the waters of a lake. That is something that is impossible for any man to do. But the Lord did it. And when Peter, wanting to confirm that it was the Lord i.ndeed that was coming to them, asked if he should come to Him on those waters, He said to him, “Come!” And without thinking about it, he stepped out of the boat to walk on the waters of the lake, just as the Lord was doing. 

Wow! Peter walked on the waters of that lake like it was nothing. Why? It was because the Lord Jesus said that he could. But the moment he turned away from the Lord and began to pay attention to the wind coming for him, fear settled in his heart and he began to sink. Thankfully, he lost no time to turn to the Lord again and call out for His help. And the moment he did, he was sustained. So, both him and the Lord walked back on the waters of the lake to the boat where the other disciples were. Hallelujah! (Cf. Matt 14:22-33)

What is the point of this story? It is that we too can walk in victory over seemingly impossible situations, as long as we are acting on the word of the Lord Jesus Christ and also fix our gaze on Him. So, as you continue your journey through this year, fix your gaze firmly on the Lord Jesus by continually meditating on His word and also praying without ceasing. And there is no difficult or impossible situation that you will not walk in victory over. 

Then, supposing you are already sinking in the ocean of certain challenges for any reason, lose no time in crying out to the Lord for salvation and sustenance. He will answer your cry, stand by you all the way and make sure you reach your desired destination safely.

Have a great day.

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“But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman." Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he said, "Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, 'She is my sister,' and didn't she also say, 'He is my brother'? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands." 

(Gen 20:3-5NIV)

Why did Abimelech end up taking Sarah as his wife? It was because he was led by both Abraham and Sarah to believe that they were siblings. And were they not siblings? They were. They were of the same father but different mothers. But they were more than that; they were also husband and wife. 

Well, because they had both told Abimelech that they were brother and sister, he freely took Sarah into his palace to be his wife. And that, of course, brought trouble upon his whole household. How? The moment Sarah stepped into their midst, sickness and barrenness also came in to them (Gen 20:17-18). Of course, it was not Sarah that brought these things with her. But it was her presence in their household that made God send afflictions to them. And if God had not been merciful to them and revealed to Abimelech what was wrong, they all would have perished in their barrenness one after the other.

Now could Abimelech have done anything to prevent that situation in the first place? I believe he could. But his lust got in the way. His lust did not allow him to do any proper investigation about Sarah, her age and her background. This man was a king. So, he had the resources to carry out a proper investigation on Sarah and Abraham before jumping into any conclusions. And that is usually what great and responsible kings do. They don't just pick any pretty lady they see and marry her without making some findings about her and her background. 

But as I already said, lust would not allow Abimelech to carry out any serious investigation about Sarah before taking her in to be his wife. And though he did what he did with a clear conscience and clean hands, he almost lost his life and nation for it when God began to judge the matter. That, of course, is telling me that having a clear conscience and clean hands may not stop one from suffering for making a bad choice or decision. 

See, there are choices that we must not make in life without doing some proper investigations. Otherwise, we may invite unnecessary troubles into our lives through them. And even though there is no trouble that is beyond what God can handle, it is always better not to face any kind of trouble that can be avoided than to first face it and then start crying out to God to rescue us from it.

For example, God placed a curse of untimely death on the house of Eli because of the sins of his sons. What that means is that anyone that married from his household should be expected to become a widow or a widower early in life, as long as that curse was working. If someone, then, should ignorantly and out of a clean heart marry someone from that family, would that stop the operation of that curse of death? No! A curse is like a law that will not discriminate. And like a law it will keep punishing even the ignorant ones, unless it is cancelled or overridden by a more powerful law. (Cf. 1Sam 2:30-36)

Therefore, if you don't want any law, be it the law of death, sickness, poverty or shame, to secretly work against you, learn to do your homework before you make certain choices in life. I am saying that before you rent that house, seek admission into that school, marry that man or woman, buy that land or acquire that property, do your thorough and careful background check-up. That way, you won't be ignorantly walking into Satan's traps.

Yes, if you truly know the Lord Jesus, there is no challenge you cannot handle and no pattern of experience of evil that you cannot reign in victory over. But the word of God also says that God's people can perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). So, if you have no knowledge of where or how Satan may afflict you, you can end up as his victim, even though you are a child of God.  

Don't be in a hurry, then, to make choices about matters that won't quickly pass out of your life. Instead, do your homework first. How? First, pray to God to fill your heart with the perfect knowledge of His will about such matters. Second, ask relevant questions from relevant people. Third, trust God to lead you to do the right thing, in spite of what you know or do not know. And may you always be kept from walking into traps of ignorance and destruction, in Jesus' name. Amen.

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“In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed…” (Dan 2:1-2NIV) 

What do we see here in our opening text? We see Daniel giving a brief description of the kind of people he and his friends had to deal with while serving Babylonian kings. And from what he tells us, it is clear that many of the people they dealt with were magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers (fortune tellers).

It follows, then, that the environment in which these men lived and worked was one that was full of wickedness. That, of course, should not be strange to us. That is because wherever people are given to idolatry, sorcery, witchcraft, divination and other similar things, wickedness is meant to be widespread there. People will, in such a place, freely oppress others and not give a damn. Why? They are operating by the power of the devil and believe no one can challenge them and not get hurt.

For instance, as we see in our opening text, there was a time that Nebuchadnezzar was ready to wipe out all the wise men in his kingdom because they could not tell him the details and the interpretation of a dream he had. Who does that? Who gets angry with people for not knowing his dreams? Who even gets angry because someone is not able to interpret his dreams? Well, the king of Babylon was once angry and breathing murderous threats because his wise men did not know a dream he had, not to talk of being able to interpret it. That's how cruel he was. (Cf. Dan 2)

Also, in this same book, we see Nebuchadnezzar telling people what to worship and that it was a must for them to worship it, even though it was a lifeless image. And he was ready to burn alive in a fiery furnace anyone that would not obey him. As if that were not enough, in the same book, we see another king signing an edict that all his people must abandon the worship of whatever gods they were serving for one month and give themselves to worshipping him and praying to him for their needs for that one month. And the punishment for anyone that would not obey this arrogant and cruel decision was a party in a den of lions. (Cf. Dan 3&6)

So, if you are living in fear every day because certain neighbours or colleagues of yours at work are into sorcery, you need to understand that your situation is not peculiar at all. Or if you are wondering how you will survive the wickedness and hostility against you and your faith where you are, you need to know that you will not be the first person to find yourself in that situation. And you probably won't be the last.

Daniel and his friends also had to deal with men that were utterly wicked and sold-out to the devil when they came to Babylon. Yet they did not lose heart or faint. Instead, they grew stronger and stronger in that land until they stood above all the people around them in character and in prosperity. And if we too will function the way they functioned, we will also walk in victory over all the activities of all the wicked and unreasonable people in our world and prosper.

Now what was the secret of their survival and prosperity in that foreign land? At least, as we see in the book of Daniel, he prospered in Babylon, not just during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who took him like a friend and god, but also during the reigns of Darius and Cyrus. How did he and his friends do it?

The main thing we see about these men was that they took God seriously. In other words, they were men of faith. Yes, they did not come to stay in Babylon out of their own volition. Rather, they were forced to come there. They were brought in as slaves. And that was enough to kill whatever ambitions for greatness they must have had as young men. 

But these people did not allow their predicament to make them lose their faith in God. They did not begin to blame Him for the condition in which they found themselves. Instead, they held fast to Him, even in their situation as slaves, knowing that He was able to show them mercy and favour where they were, even though it was the sins of their nation that brought them there.

In like manner, regardless of where we have found ourselves and what is responsible for our being there, as long as there is breath in us, we must hold fast in faith to the living God. That is because there is no situation that He cannot turn around for our good. So, stop complaining about your situation. And stop blaming God or anyone for your problems. Instead, put your faith in God. And He will surely take care of you and see to it that you prosper and flourish, regardless of how bad your life conditions may be at the moment.

Have a lovely day.

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“Then the LORD said to me, "You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. Give the people these orders: 'You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.'"” (Deut 2:2-6NIV)

Before God led the children of Israel out of Egypt, He had made it very clear to them that it was the land of Canaan that He was giving to them as their inheritance. But it was obvious that before getting to this land, they would have to pass through some other lands, which may also be very good lands. And while passing through these other lands, they may be tempted to want to possess them for themselves. So, through Moses, God had to warn them in advance of the futility of wanting to take for themselves what He had chosen for them. That is the reason for what we have in our opening text. 

As we see in that text, God makes it very clear to the Israelites that they would certainly pass through the territory of the descendants of Esau on their way to possessing the land He had promised to give them. But that land is not for them but for Esau. In fact, God specifically says that He has already given that land to Esau. Therefore, they are not to covet it or try to fight for it. Otherwise, their effort is going to be in futility. He Himself will fight against them and make sure they do not succeed in taking even a foot of that land. 

Furthermore, He warns them not to covet or try to fight for the lands of the Moabites and the Ammonites, the descendants of Lot. As He points out, they will surely pass through the territories of these people too on their way to taking their own land and may be tempted to want to go for their good lands. But if they should do so, what they will meet with is utter failure. And the very one that will be behind this failure is God Himself, who loves them and cares for them. (Cf. Deut 2:9-12&16-19)

Now that is the point of all this? It is that it is not every good thing, place or position that we see or come across in life that is for us. Yes, we may feel that we possess the ability, resources or wisdom to possess something good that we see. But if it is not what God has chosen for us but for someone else, we can only pray or labour in futility to have it. And even if we manipulate or force our way to have it, it won’t be without grievous consequences.

Remember what happened to David and his household when he took another man’s wife and killed the man. Remember also what happened to Ahab when he took another man’s vineyard and killed the owner. God did not act unconcerned in any of these cases. Instead, He moved in justice and dealt with those involved. (Cf. 2Sam 11-12; 1Kings 21)

In like manner, if we manipulate or force our way to possess something or someone God has not given to us but to someone else, we can be sure to have Him as our enemy. And remember that it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of God (Heb 10:31). So, we will do well to regularly pray that God will fill our hearts always with the perfect and exact knowledge of His choice for us in all things and that He will also make us content with whatever He has chosen for us. This is so that we will not destroy ourselves or lose what He has chosen for us, which is always the best for us, in our quest to have what He has not chosen for us.

(Adapted from ‘Fire in my bones’, Vol. 4, No. 23, October 2021)

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“When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."” (Judg 6:12NIV)

Where was Gideon when the angel of the Lord first appeared to him? He was hiding in a winepress threshing his wheat because of his fear of the Midianites. But God had chosen him to be the deliverer of his people. And why did He choose him? First, it was because He knew what He had endowed him with. He knew the fighting and leadership abilities he possessed.

Second, God knew that He was going to be with this man every step of the way. So, he was never going to face the Midianites alone. Yes, the Midianites had so oppressed them that many of them had deserted their inheritance and gone off to hide in some caves and on some mountains. But God was going to be with him in handling them. And since He was going to be with him all the way in handling them, success was guaranteed.

Unfortunately, Gideon did not know these things at all. He did not know what he was worth in the sight of God. He had no true and proper appreciation of the abilities He had endowed him with. So, when the angel of the Lord addressed him as ‘Mighty warrior’, he was quick to protest and tell him that he was nothing close to a warrior. And for him, the facts could speak for themselves. His clan was the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh and he was the least important person among his father’s children. How, then, could he possibly be the leader and saviour of the entire nation of Israel? That wasn’t even something that he could day-dream or fantasise about. (Cf. Judges 6:11-16)

Similarly, there are many of God’s children today that He has chosen and equipped for great things in life but who do not see themselves as He sees them. So, they are hiding in caves of fear, rejection, ignorance, sin, wrong relationships or irresponsible living. And unless they experience a divine encounter that will open their eyes to see God’s plans for them, they may live and pass away in obscurity.

Also, as we see from the story of Gideon, before the Lord came to him, he had no abiding consciousness of the presence of God with him. So, even when the angel of the Lord said to him, “The Lord is with you,” he lost no time to protest again and say, “How can that possibly be true? If the Lord is with us, how come all these bad things are happening to us?”

Unfortunately, most of us who are God’s children also often think and talk as Gideon did on that occasion. That is because we think that if God is with someone, there is no way bad things can happen to them at all. But the bible shows us that the presence of God with us will not always keep challenges from coming to us. However, if we are walking in the consciousness of His presence in our lives, there is no challenge that comes to us that we will not walk in victory over.

Remember the story of Joseph. Remember we are told that God was with him when he was a slave in Potiphar’s house and that He was also with him when he was in the prison. And because he knew that God was with him, he did not lose his mind or lose his character. Instead, he took advantage of God’s presence with him to shine like a star in those bad situations of life in which he found himself. And when the time came for God to vindicate him, he was exactly where he was supposed to be and ready to assume his new status in life. (Cf. Gen 39-41)

Gideon, however, needed to be shown series of signs in order for him to fully embrace the reality of God’s presence with him to give him victory. Perhaps you too need to see some signs in order to embrace fully the reality of God’s presence with you in order for you to go to that place He has always wanted you to be. You can ask Him, as Gideon did, to show you those things that will build up your faith and lead you to accept the roles He wants you to play in His kingdom and to begin to play them. (Cf. Judges 6-7)

Whatever the case is, I want you to know that it will not be a good thing at all for you to come into God’s eternal kingdom and realise that you have actually been in the world something less or far less than what you have been endowed by God to be. So, wake up and get ready to come out of your hiding place. Yes, wake up and begin to talk to God about filling your heart with revelations of all that you can be for Him and also do for Him in this world.

Now I am confident that He will answer you, if you will wholeheartedly pray to Him about it. That is because He has said, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jer 33:3NIV)

Have pleasant day.

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My prayer for you today is that your heart will be taught to know God’s love more and more, so that you can always freely and fully yield yourself and all that you have to Him. Amen.

Why did Mary, Martha’s sister, take a jar of a very expensive perfume and pour everything on Jesus’ feet? It was because she loved Him dearly. And why did she love Him so much? It was because He too had shown her and her family immeasurable love. Remember that the Lord had been a friend to their family, visiting them often to know their well-being and also transforming their lives through His teachings. Remember also that He was the one that brought this woman’s brother, Lazarus, back from the dead, having being laid in the tomb for four days. And on the day that she poured this expensive perfume on Him, a dinner was being given in His honour because of what He had done for their family.

So, it was because Mary had known and enjoyed the Lord’s love that she honoured Him with her substance the way she did. And though what she lavished on Him was expensive, expensive enough to pay a man’s one year salary, she did not consider it too much to be used in honouring Him. Therefore, the Lord said that wherever the gospel is preached in the world, what she did would also be talked about, in memory of her. That, of course, is why we are still reading and talking about it today. (Cf. Matt 26:6-13; Mark 14:1-9; John 12:1-8)

Similarly, if we too have known and have been enjoying the Lord’s love, if our lives have been saved and changed by it, we will want to love Him in return. And in doing so, it is not only our lives that we will willingly want Him to have, we will also want Him to have everything we have. In short, there is nothing we have that we will consider too much to give to Him.

Look at how we handle our natural relationships, for example. We don’t often care about how expensive things are when we are dealing with those what we love dearly. Instead, what we will be asking ourselves is, “Can I afford this?” And if we know that we can afford whatever it is we want to get for the one we love, we will just go for it without blinking an eye.

What is my point? It is that if you are not giving much to the Lord and for His cause, it is simply because your love for Him is not much. If your love for Him is much, you will give anything to honour Him, without considering how much it costs or what people will say about it. People complained about Mary’s gift to Jesus. They said that it was a waste. They said that it was not wise spending. But did she care? No! And did the Lord care? No! On the contrary, the Lord said, “The opportunity to honour me in love like this will not always be there for you. And now that it is there, this woman has done the right thing in utilizing it.”

See, only true lovers of God will recognize opportunities to honour Him in love with their substance. So, if you have not been seeing opportunities to honour God with your substance in any way, big or small, you need to check the fervency of your love for Him. That is because opportunities to honour Him are always there every day. But it takes a heart that is overflowing with love for Him to see and utilize them. My prayer is that your heart will be flooded with love for Him, so that you too can always readily recognize your opportunities to honour Him in such a way that people will never stop talking about it.

Do have a fabulous day.

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One of the things that is bound to move people to thank God for your life and to also pray heartfelt prayers for you is giving that is rightly done (2Cor 9:12-14). Some years ago, I prepared a bible study commentary for an assembly of God that I was attending. And some days after the commentary had been used by the various groups in the church for their bible study meetings, one of the group leaders sent me a gift.

But why did this group leader send me a gift? According to him, as he was reading the bible study commentary that I had prepared, the Spirit of God opened his eyes to see some bible truth that was of great benefit to his faith. So, right then and there, he decided that he was going to give the person that prepared the commentary a gift. And he did.

How, then, did I respond to that? First, I responded with thanksgiving to God. I thanked Him for giving me words to bless His people. I also thanked Him for causing at least someone to be blessed through what I was doing. Then I also thanked Him for moving this person to bless me with a gift. If he had not blessed me with a gift or come to tell me that he was blessed by the commentary I had written, I would not have known that he was blessed by it. There may have been others in that assembly who were equally blessed through the same bible study commentary. But I will not know them until we get to heaven. And the reason I will not know them until we get to heaven is that they did not show up to appreciate me for being used by God to bless them.

In any case, the one who showed up to appreciate me with a gift unconsciously inspired me to thank God for him. Also, he inspired me to say a word of prayer for him. You know when someone touches your heart with a gift, especially when you are not expecting it, it is natural for you to immediately start praying for the person. And such prayers are often heartfelt. So, they are bound to work mightily, as long as they are consistent with God’s will.

Then, apart from the fact that this person inspired me to pray for him through his gift, he also unconsciously sowed a seed of encouragement into my heart. When you know that what you are doing is not going to waste but is blessing somebody and also stirring up the person to want to be a blessing, you are bound to be encouraged to do more. And there are some people that have gone on in life to be a blessing to millions of people through the encouragement of just one person.

What is my point? It is that you have to learn to appreciate anyone God is using to bless you, especially in the church. And even if you have to be the only one that will appreciate this person among all the people that God is using them to bless, be sure you do so. That is because you cannot tell how far your appreciation will go in making that person better and more faithful in doing the will of God.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul speaks of how he always thanks God every time he remembers them and of how he always prays with joy for them. In fact, in the letter, he specifically prays that God will supply all their needs according to His glorious wealth in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:19). Why? It is because these brethren had proved again and again that they appreciated his ministry and what God was doing through it. Look at some of the things he says about them in his letter:

“Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account.” (Phil 4:15-17NIV)

Did you see that? Among all the churches that God was using Paul to bless at that time, it was only the church of the Philippians that always gave to support him and to encourage him. No wonder he was always happy to remember them and to pray for them. If you too want those ministering to you in your church to always be glad to minister to you and not just because it is their duty to do so, then, cultivate the habit of always appreciating them. And even if you have to be the only one that will be doing so, just like the Philippian church, do so. That is because you cannot tell to what extent God is able to use the encouragement you are offering them now in leading them to fulfil their ministry. And I pray that God will strengthen you to take this matter seriously, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a fabulous day.

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“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” (1Thess 4:11-12NIV)

One of the reasons God commands us to work, as we see in our opening text, is that we may gain financial independence and not be unduly dependent anybody. So, being financially independent must be the goal of every child of God. 

However, there are times that the child of God must seek help in order to be able to attain financial independence. And that is when he can see that what he is making from his work or business is not sufficient to take care of his bills or responsibilities.

Now don’t get me wrong. Seeking help in this sense is not simply about getting people to give us money to take care of our liabilities. Rather, first, it is about getting their help so that we do not sink into financial debt. Second, it is about getting their help so that we can use their help to establish ourselves in financial prosperity.

Will this kind of help always be readily available? No! Otherwise, many hardworking and diligent young men and women would have already come out of poverty and been established in prosperity. But it is important that you recognise when and where you need help and be ready to go for it. I pray that God will begin to open your eyes to see where the help He has provided for your financial independence is and also equip you with all that you need to go for it and make the most of it. Amen.

Have a lovely day.

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“In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. At that time, I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.” (Dan 10:1-3NIV)

As we see in our opening text, for three weeks Daniel kept on praying to God without receiving an answer to his prayer. But then, something happened at the end of those three weeks. An angel of the Lord appeared to him to give him the answer to his prayer. Look at some of the things he reports about that from verse 10:

“A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, "Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you." And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come."” (Dan 10:10-14NIV)

Did you see that? For three good weeks Daniel kept on praying to God about a matter. Yet it did not seem as though God answered his prayer at all. But he kept on praying until the twenty-first day. And that was when an angel showed up to tell him that God actually answered his prayer the very moment he prayed and also sent him to deliver the answer to him. But he was blocked and detained by an evil spirit. And he was held up by that evil spirit for twenty-one days, that is, until another angel, Michael, came and made way for him to go to Daniel.

Evidently, that evil spirit was powerful and wicked enough to stop that angel of God from bringing God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer to him. In like manner, there are times that Satan and his demons may be working in the realm of the spirit towards keeping us from receiving the manifestation of God’s answers to our prayers. And is that to say that God has not answered us? No!

On two occasions, as reported by Daniel in his book, God answered his prayers the very moment he prayed to Him. But on one of the occasions, the angel sent to give him his answer was detained by an evil spirit for three good weeks. And I am saying that there are times that answers to our prayers can be delayed from getting to us like that by evil spirits. But we will not know this, if it is not revealed to us. So, we have to follow what Jesus tells us, which is that we must continually pray and not give up. By praying like that, we will be able to remove all the obstacles placed on our way to receiving what God has provided for us. (Cf. Luke 18:1)

Now it may take days, weeks, months or even years for us to eventually access certain provision of God for us. It all depends on the situation we are dealing with. You know that it may even be certain individuals that are being used by the devil to keep us from accessing or receiving God’s answers to our prayers. So, we don’t stop praying. We don’t give up. Instead, we devote ourselves to prayer, knowing that God is faithful. He is not going to abandon us or be slow in attending to our matters. That is how to receive, find and see doors opened to us.

But then, again, Jesus asks, “Will I find faith on the earth when I return? Will people keep on praying to God, knowing that He will not ignore them or be slow about their matter, regardless of what they see or do not see when they pray?” Those are questions for us to answer. And I pray that He will find faith in us when He returns. Amen.

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“Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lam 3:22-23NIV)

What is Jeremiah telling us here? It is that it is because of the Lord’s great love and compassions that our lives are being preserved in these days of worldwide decay, corruption, violence and economic meltdown. And, according to Jeremiah, these love and compassions of the Lord are new towards us every morning.

Now that is simply marvellous. And what it tells me is that, even though nothing seems different about today or about this month, the Lord’s compassions and love towards us will remain ever new and ever fresh. So, we don’t have to be afraid of new challenges or old trials—the Lord’s love and compassions will take care of them all.

All that we simply need to do is to stay thankful and grateful to God. We should not relate to Him like those who have been blindfolded by the devil and kept from seeing the goodness of God towards them. Rather, we should, as the Psalmist says, get our hearts and minds ready to acknowledge every benefit we receive from the His hand and thank Him for it. (Cf. Ps 103:2; 2Cor 4:4)

Well, I want you to always remember, as you face this new day, that the Lord is on our side and will always be good to us, regardless of the conditions of our Land. Therefore, stop whatever fear or anxiety you have now; you will come out victorious in everything and in every way.

It is well with your soul.

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“Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'” (Matt 25:24-25NIV)

If we are ever going to become the persons God wants us to be and accomplish anything tangible in this life, one of the things we must rid our lives of is a culture of making excuses. An elderly friend once told me something a senior colleague had told him about excuses. And what was it? It was that excuses don’t move the work forward; excuses don’t get anything worthwhile done.

Now is that not true? Is it not true that excuses don’t get anything worthwhile done? It is true. So, don’t train yourself to be making excuses for not doing what you are supposed to do. Otherwise, you may end up keeping yourself stagnant for life.

As we see in our opening bible text, one servant that was given a huge sum of money to work with by his master only had excuses to give him, when he called him in to give an account of his service. His master, as the story goes, had gone on a long journey after giving him and two other servants of his huge sums of money to do business with. But while others went straightaway to put their money to work and profit with it, he was busy occupying himself with irrelevancies. (Cf. Matt 25:14-25)

Therefore, when his master came back and begun to question him about the money given to him, he lost no time at all to present his excuses. But he had months or perhaps years to work with what he was given. Why did he do nothing with it? Why was he comfortable playing around and doing nothing that his master would consider significant? The answer is simple. This man had no intention of working at all with what he was given. That was why, as his master pointed out, he did not even consider putting the money with him in a bank, so that he would receive it back with interest.

Now if you had ever dealt with people who have a culture of making excuses, you would have observed that they hardly use their heads. And don’t miss my point here. I am not saying that they are stupid. No, they are not. They are just people who usually don’t want to use their brains to get anything serious done well. So, while they are making excuses for their failure, non-performance or poor performance, what they could have done differently will be obvious to you. And you will be left wondering why they could not see something as obvious as that.

Well, the problem is that when someone has a culture of making excuses, it will rob him of initiatives. That is because instead of training his mind to solve problems, he will be training it to make excuses. Therefore, it does not matter how simple the task you give him is, he will surely find himself an excuse to fail at it or to defend his failure in handling it. And such a person has nowhere important to get to in life. He can only expect to daily diminish in relevance.

As we see in the case of the servant mentioned above, when his master would judge him, he called him lazy, unprofitable and wicked. Then he asked that the money with him be given to another person, who had shown himself profitable, and that he be thrown into a place of suffering. And that is the kind of sentence anyone who has a culture of making excuses can expect to receive from both man and God. (Cf. Matt 25:26-30)

So, if unconsciously or consciously you have been training yourself to make excuses instead of training yourself to get results in whatever you are meant to do, it won’t be long before you gain a reputation for being lazy, unprofitable and wicked at work, in your home, in your school, in the church or wherever you find yourself. Then all the people who could have done you good and help you rise in life will start withdrawing themselves and their favours from you.

Now that will be terrible for you, won’t it? It will. So, shape up and rid yourself of the evil mentality of making excuses for failure. And may God strengthen you to do so, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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“For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.” (2Cor 9:10NLT)

There are two main things that Paul makes very clear to us about God in our opening bible text. The first is that He provides farmers with seed to plant. This, of course, does not mean that it is only those that farm that God provides for. Rather, it is just to show us that anyone that needs seed to plant in life, whether into his education, business, family, ministry, people or even farm, can look to God to provide it for him.

Now what form of seed do you need to plant to make your life more fruitful and productive? Is it the seed of divine revelations, money, education or people? Whatever it may be, God is able to provide it for you. All you need is to ask Him to do so. For instance, you can say, “Lord, I need the seed of money to plant into my business and take it to the next level. Please, provide it for me from your fullness and generosity.” Or you can say, “Father, I need the seed of competent and faithful people to work with in my office. Please, generously provide them for me.” And you can be sure that He will answer you and make your heart glad.

But then, you need to be careful not to throw away or eat up whatever seed God brings to you because you think it is not much or enough. Remember that you cannot reap what you do not sow. So, even if what God has brought to you is little, as long as it is seed for you to plant, be sure that you plant it in the right place. Don’t eat it. Don’t throw it away. Otherwise, no harvest will come. And if no harvest comes to you, you will not have more seed to plant or more harvest to reap. That means you will not leave where you are for where you can actually be.

The second thing Paul makes clear to us about God is that He provides bread for people to eat. And remember that one of the lines of the prayer illustration once given by our Lord Jesus to His disciples says, “Give us today our daily bread.” So, we don’t have to go hungry any day in our homes. That is because we can tell God to make the food we need available to us, according to every day’s need. And He will answer us and make it available to us. (Cf. Matt 6:11)

But then, we need to understand that what God will be mostly concerned about is making today’s food available to us today. Yes, He may also make tomorrow’s food available to us today. And He does that to us many times. But if He does not make tomorrow’s food available today, we need to be careful not to become anxious, discouraged or discontented. Otherwise, we may block the flow of tomorrow’s food into our lives through our ingratitude or impatience.

In addition, we need to understand that even though God is committed to giving us today’s food today, He may not bring us delicacies. Yes, He will surely see to it that whatever He brings us satisfies us. But that which will satisfy and nourish our bodies may not be delicacies at all (Dan 1:8-16). 

For instance, God fed the people of Israel with manna in the wilderness and not with the delicacies of a king’s palace. Why? It was to teach them that they needed more than food to live meaningful and productive lives. They needed every word that came out of the mouth of God as well. And did the manna that they were fed with nourish their bodies well or not? It did. Also, did God ever fail to make this manna available to them? No! Instead, He made sure they had it everyday for forty good years. (Cf. Exodus 16:35)

Also, during the three and a half years of famine that the nation of Israel experienced during Ahab’s reign, God did not feed Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and her son with delicacies. Instead, He fed them with only bread and pastries. But He fed them every day. And He also made sure that what He was giving them nourished and sustained them. (Cf. 1Kings 17)

In like manner, we too can trust God to supply us what to eat everyday, even in a time of famine. What will come to us, however, may not be delicacies. But what will come to us from Him will surely satisfy and nourish us, if we will receive it with thanksgiving. And if we will continue to trust Him for our supply of food and water, He will not keep us forever in the wilderness of manna. Instead, He will surely lead us in due season into our Canaan, where we will have access to abundant milk and honey.

So, maintain an attitude of gratitude to God, regardless of what quantity or quality of food He now makes available to you. That is because your time of plenty and overflowing will soon and surely come. But if you have already died in the wilderness of grumbling, discontentment and ingratitude before it comes, you will have no one but yourself t

o blame. (Cf. Num 11)

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Welcome to another Easter Sunday. And today, all over the world, Christian faithfuls will be celebrating and talking about the significance of the resurrection of our Lord. So, I want you ask you, “What does the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ mean to you?” Your answer(s) to that will go a long way in determining the kind of experience(s) you will have in your walk with God.

There are people who don’t believe in the resurrection from the dead. They think the moment a man dies everything about his life ends. He has no future to look forward to; he has no past to be held accountable for. So, he can go on and live his life as he pleases, grab all he can for the moment, for tomorrow he will die and disappear forever. (Cf. 1Cor 15:32)

That line of thinking, however, diminishes considerably the purpose of living. It reduces man to nothing but a mere animal, which loses every trace and memory of its existence immediately it dies. But man is not an animal; he is an eternal being, created in the class of God. So, even if his body dies, his spirit will live on. And because his spirit will live on, God is able to hold him accountable for all the things he has done while in the body. (Cf. 2Cor 5:10)

Now that is one of the things the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is meant to lend credit to. He is the first person to be raised from the dead and never to die again. And just as he was raised from the dead, so will every man who dies be raised from the dead, whether he likes it or not. The question, however, is, “What will he be raised from the dead to experience?” (Cf. 1Cor 15:20, Col 1:18, Rev 1:5)

Jesus says this to us;

“Don't be so surprised! Indeed the time is coming when all the dead in their graves shall hear the voice of God's Son, and shall rise again-those who have done good, to eternal life; and those who have continued in evil, to judgment.” (John 5:28-29TLB)

This scripture presents to us a very significant truth about life. And what is that truth? It is that life does not end at death, as we understand death. So, the implications of the things we do here on earth won’t end here; they will affect us throughout eternity.

Now how often do we think about that? I mean how often do we consider the fact that the things we do now and the decisions we make now will have eternal effects on our lives? Among other things, that is what Easter Celebration should once again bring to our minds. And that is what it should propel us to tell others. My prayer is that the Spirit of God will help you live the rest of your life, keeping this in focus, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a very lovely week!   

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We ought to always thank God for His indescribable care for us in every way and at all times. We also need to continually thank Him for the blessings of His word that we enjoy day by day. That is because, as our Lord Jesus points out, many prophets and righteous men of old desired to hear what we now hear from Him, but did not hear it. Many of them desired to see the things we now see, but did not see them (Matt 13:17). But we are so privileged to have the blessings of God on our eyes, ears, minds and hearts that we are able to see, hear and understand the things of the Kingdom. Glory to God!

Now you may not understand how blessed we are until you consider the fact that many, even today, are struggling hard to be able to relate properly with the word of God. God is always talking. He is always giving His word of power, faith, life, hope and love. The reason many, however, have been unable to use this word to their advantage is that they have not realised that experiencing the word of God is not a function of man’s desire, effort or intelligence; it is a function of God’s grace and mercy.

Moses highlights this very clearly for us in his last words to the Children of Israel when he said:

“…You have seen with your own eyes the great plagues and mighty miracles that the Lord brought upon Pharaoh and his people in the land of Egypt. But even yet the Lord hasn't given you hearts that understand or eyes that see or ears that hear!” (Deut 29:2-4TLB)

Just imagine that! Many times, we get surprised at the unbelief, rebellion and insolence of the Israelites towards God, in spite of all the kindnesses that He showed them when He brought them out of Egypt to take their inheritance in Canaan. But as we consider what Moses says in this scripture, we can now understand why—the blessing to see, hear and understand was not at work in them. And why was it not at work in them? It was because their hearts were not sincerely after God (Matt 5:6).

And you know this scripture also explains why this people missed their Messiah when He was physically present with them, even though they read about Him in their synagogues, Sabbath after Sabbath (John 5:39-40; Acts 13:27). How many today are also continually missing Jesus, even though they are coming in contact with Him day after day?

I am sure you can now see what great privilege we have received from God that we are able to see, hear and understand His word. Therefore, responding with a good conscience, we must not take whatever we have received or are receiving from Him lightly. Instead, we must pay the most careful attention to them, so that we will not run out like leaking vessels (Heb 2:1).

Remember this: if those who are unable to see, hear and understand God’s word will still suffer the consequences of not living according to His word, then, we who are able to see, hear and understand His word will suffer even more, if we refuse to act on the basis of what has been made known to us. My prayer is that we will not err as far as this matter is concerned in Jesus’ name, amen.

Have a lovely day

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“Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Ps 103:2NIV)

The Message translation renders our opening bible text like this: “O my soul, bless GOD, don't forget a single blessing!” Now I find that very suggestive. That is because one will really have to be thoughtful not to overlook any of God’s blessings. One will really need to be keen-minded not to consider any of God’s blessings as trivial or unimportant.

Now you ask, “Can one actually summarise God’s blessings as unimportant?” Oh yes, one can, and in fact many of us are doing so. That is the reason we usually don’t know what to say whenever we are given an opportunity to thank God. We look at some of the things he has done for us and say, “O, I don’t think that is what talking about.”

But can you really think of something God does, which is not worth talking about? I am sure you know that is an impossible task; for there is nothing God does, which is not worth talking about. Our problem is that we are just too busy to sit down and do a careful consideration of the happenings of our lives. We need to able to sit down to carefully and sincerely consider the roles God has played in our getting to wherever we are right now. That way, we would be able to get a proper perspective of how much we owe him and also see where we would probably have been without him.

At some point in King David’s life, he had to do this. When he looked at his life, where he was coming from and where God brought him to, the bible says, “Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said: "Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?”” 1 Chron 17:16NIV

Now it is only that kind of thoughtful consideration of God’s dealings with us that stimulates thanksgiving. And I call on you, as you face this new day, to begin to thoughtfully consider how good the Lord has been to you. This is not a time to worry about what you don’t have; it is a time to give thanks for what you have already received from God. There is ‘grace for grace’ for the grateful one. So, don’t allow you insensitivity to prevent you from receiving it.

Have a very lovely day.

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Welcome to a new day. And my prayer for you is that the Spirit of God will help you to daily conduct all your affairs in sincerity before God, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

It is a painful fact that a lot of God’s people are not sincere with themselves in their dealings with God. All along, they lie to themselves about their devotion to God and don’t even seem to know it.

Now someone may say, “How is that possible? Can I really lie to myself about my commitment to God?” The truth is that we really can lie to ourselves about our devotion to God. See, a lot of times we express a great deal of devotion to God with our mouths. We talk, sing and write about how much we love him. We even try to commit ourselves to a number of religious activities in order to convince ourselves that we are committed to him. But all these things are just a cover up; our hearts are not really devoted to him.

Our Lord Jesus shows us that it is possible for a man to express a degree of devotion to God with his mouth, when, in the actual sense, his heart is far away from him. (Cf. Mark 7:6) But why will a Christian’s heart be far away from God? It is because he neither treasures God nor sees him as the source of all that a man may ever take delight in.

What do you treasure? In what is your delight? What you treasure is what you live or die for. And what you take delight in is what you spend your time, energy and resources upon. Jesus says, “It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.” (Matt 6:21MSG)

Therefore, it does not matter what you say about God; it does not matter who you say he is to you; if you are not daily spending your time, energy and resources in living to please him and to protect his interests, then, he is nothing to you. And if you do not relate to him as your treasure and the one from which everything you need in life flows, then, all your chants about loving him are mere talks—they are nothing to be taken seriously.

So I ask you, “Does God really mean to you what you say he means?” Or do you just say these things simply because other people are saying them? If that is the case, then, you have been flattering God. And God does not appreciate people who flatter him, just as we don’t appreciate those who flatter us. It is time you faced the reality, then: if you say that you love God, then, live up to it. But if he really does not mean anything to you, then, stop wasting your time among God’s people; go to where you belong—we will understand and even wait until you are ready.

As for me, I join the Psalmist to say, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Ps 73:25-26NIV)

Have a lovely day.

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“God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again.” (Phil 1:6NCV)

That is a very interesting thing to say about God. God is not a quitter. He never starts what he is unable to finish. Once he starts something, he carries it on to completion. 

Man, however, may abandon the very work of his own hands. Man may grow tired or become discouraged about a work when the goings get tough. But about God, the scripture says:

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary…” (Isa 40:28NIV)

That is a statement of fact! It is not in God to become tired or weary; for he is an everlasting God. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about how things will turn out for you. They will certainly turn out for your good. That is because God will never become tired of handling your case. He will never become tired of working things out for your good. And just as he said to Jacob, he is saying to you now:

“Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you." (Gen 28:15MSG)

Now will you take that for granted? I mean are you willing to take those words seriously? God says that he is going to stick with you and me until he makes us the persons we are supposed to be. This ought to make us rejoice. It ought to take away from our faces every strain of anxiety.

So as we go today, let us walk, not as a people without God, but as men and women who have God, working for us and with us, every step of the way.

Have a lovely day.

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“And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine." The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. So Pharaoh asked them, "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?"” (Gen 41:33-38NIV)

One of the things to learn from the bible story of Joseph is the need to get ready for elevation. Yes, God showed him all kinds of dreams of greatness as a young boy. But he would not have become great, if he had not been devoted to preparing himself for greatness.

As his account shows, as a young man, he encountered different situations that threatened to permanently take greatness away from him. First, he was sold into slavery by his own blood brothers. Why? They were determined to make nonsense of his dreams of becoming great. He had been sharing those dreams with them and giving them the impression that he was destined to be greater than them in life. So, in their jealousy and anger towards him, they decided to sell him off and then watch how he would rise to be greater than them in slavery. (Cf. Gen 37)

Second, while in slavery, he got into trouble with his master’s wife and found himself in the prison for a crime he did not commit. And that made it look like he was under some curse or spell. That is because everything happening to him seemed to be taking him farther away from the dreams of greatness God had given him. He, then, would need to have great faith in order to continue to believe and to expect his dreams of becoming great to be fulfilled, in spite of all that he was going through.

Well, what this is showing us is that the fact that God has shown you dreams or visions that indicate that you will be great in life does not mean that there won’t be situations that will want to take greatness away from you. You can be very sure that there will be such situations. And you have to be ready for them. Otherwise, you will not respond to them in ways that will prevent them from destroying you or taking away greatness from you.

Joseph showed himself prepared for greatness at every point in his walk. How? First, he took God seriously and kept on believing that He was able to fulfil for him his dreams of greatness, regardless of where he found himself or what he was faced with. Therefore, he was ready to utilise any righteous opportunity that would take him near greatness. That was why even though he came into Potiphar’s house as a slave, he handled his work diligently and faithfully and ended up becoming the administrator of the man’s household and wealth. (Cf. Gen 39)

Also, when he found himself in the prison, he still did not see that as an end to his dream of becoming great. Instead, he saw every task he was given as an opportunity to bring himself closer to greatness. So, he handled it so diligently and honestly that he rose to become the assistant of the prison warden, managing the prison for the man. 

Then we see that Joseph did all that he could possibly do as a human being to avoid anything that could withdraw God’s favour from him or ruin his reputation. He would not steal from his master Potiphar. Instead, he showed himself as reliable. That was why the man could entrust everything he had to him. Also, even though no man was watching and it was for free, he would not defile himself with his master’s wife. That, of course, got him imprisoned. But the situation could not chain or imprison the favour of God at work in his life.

Therefore, on the day that the opportunity for him to become the second-in-command to the king of Egypt came, he was spiritually and mentally ready. As we see in our opening bible text, he was not put in that position by Pharaoh just because he interpreted his dreams. There were magicians and wise men who used to interpret dreams and omens for the king in the land at that time. And none of them was made the king’s second-in-command for doing so. 

Why, then, was Joseph put in that position? He was put there because he not only showed Pharoah the problem that was coming but also showed him how to prevent it from happening. Interestingly, he made this king see that the solution to the problem at hand had nothing to do with making elaborate animal or human sacrifices but purely administrative. And when he was done talking, both the king and his officials could see that he was not just a spiritually gifted man but also one that was sound in handling administrative issues and problems, even though he was coming from the prison. So, when the king made him his second-in-command, no one protested.

Now the point of all this is that you too have to be ready spiritually, mentally and physically for your opportunities to attain that great height you have been dreaming of. And you can be ready by following Joseph’s example. How? First, take God seriously and keep on believing that He is able to make your greatness happen, regardless of the odds against you. Second, see every task or job you are given as an opportunity to bring yourself closer to that great height you want to attain in life. So, handle it well. That way, you will be developing in yourself those skills and attributes that will make you fit to handle any position of greatness. 

Third, see to it that you avoid anything that could shut the door of God’s favour against you. Among other things, immorality, greed, jealousy, unfaithfulness, laziness and pride can shut the door of God’s favour against you. So, take advantage of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life to avoid them. Then, when the time for your elevation to that height of greatness you have dreamt of comes, you will find that you are ready to utilise it to your advantage.

Cheers!

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“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” (1Peter 2:1NIV)

Why does Peter tell us to rid ourselves of all kinds of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander? First, it is because it is the will of God for us to do so. These things are contrary to what God wants for us. And anything that is contrary to what He wants for us must not be permitted in our lives.

Second, he tells us to rid ourselves of these things because we can do so. God is never going to tell man to do anything he cannot do. So, if He tells us to do something, it is because He has made available to us the ability to do so. That, of course, means we can rid ourselves of all forms of malice, which is the urge to harm others, and all forms of deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy and slander, that is, a defamation of the reputation of others.

Third, Peter tells us to rid ourselves of these things because they will ultimately destroy us, if we do not do so. And I am not talking about eternal destruction here, though it does not exclude it; rather, I am talking about different kinds of destruction or ruins that we can experience here on earth.

What I am saying is that malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, bitterness, anger, rage and other sins of the heart have very great tendencies to destroy our lives, bodies, homes, relationships and so forth, if we permit them long enough in our hearts. These things have the tendency to drive us to do foolish and reckless things that will take away our peace, health or even lives. Yes, they have the tendency to push us to make very serious mistakes that our entire lifetime may not be able to correct.

Look at the story of Haman and Mordecai, for instance. Haman, as the story goes, was at some point elevated by the great King Xerxes. Why? It was because God wanted it to be so. No one, as we see in the bible, can attain any position of authority or greatness, if God does not sanction it. Yes, people may do all kinds of dubious things or even get involved in the practice of witchcraft to get to some positions in life. But the reason they are able to get there is that God allows it. If He does not, all the witchcraft and manipulations of this world will not be able to get them there. (Cf. Esther 3:1; Rom 13:1-2)

So, the elevation of Haman was God-ordained. However, he allowed malice to fill his heart against a Jew called Mordecai. Why? Mordecai was not going to honour him adequately. Why did Mordecai refuse to honour this man as the king had commanded others to do? We are not told in the account. But the fact remains that he was not going to honour him, as others were doing, even though many people had talked to him about it. (Cf. Esther 3:1-4)

Now Haman could have summoned Mordecai to find out what was responsible for his insolence, so that if he would punish him, his punishment would be just. But he did not. Instead, he allowed himself to be filled with malice towards him. In other words, every time he thought about Mordecai, all he could think of was how he would hurt him and hurt him terribly. And the more he thought about it, the more Satan filled him with evil thoughts about Mordecai. (Cf. Esther 3:5)

Eventually, Haman concluded that punishing Mordecai alone would not give him enough gratification – he must punish all the Jews in the empire of Xerxes along with him. And since the king had become highly fond of him, he took advantage of that to get him to sign an evil edict that gave him the permission he needed to destroy all the Jews in the empire. (Cf. Esther 3:6-15)

Now was Mordecai right to show no regard for Haman the way he did? No! There is nowhere in Scriptures that we are taught to rebel against authority. So, we are not told this story in Scriptures to encourage rebellion against those in authority that we do not like. Rather, we are told the story to let us see how far certain people in authority can go to punish those who dishonour them or rebel against them.

But then, was Haman also right to allow his heart to be so filled with malice against Mordecai that he was willing to destroy an entire nation along with him? No! Punishing Mordecai, if there was a need for it, should have been enough. But because he allowed Satan to possess him to destroy an entire nation, God stepped into the situation. And what happened? He began to make mistakes. Soon enough his mistakes became too much for the king could to tolerate. So, he gave series of commands that made him lose his life, his position and his estate and that saved and elevated Mordecai and his people.

What is the point of all this? It is that regardless of what the people in our lives or around us are doing, regardless of how they treat us or relate to us, we must not allow Satan to drive us to become bitter, malicious, hypocritical, slanderous, unforgiving or envious in relating to them. Otherwise, like Haman, we too, at some point, may find ourselves taking steps or doing things that will become traps of destruction or disgrace for us. And that is how people become so depressed that they end up killing themselves or end up with paralysis or some other terminal illness.

Now my prayer is that you will not end up ruining your own life or the lives of your loved ones. But you must rid yourself all of forms of bitterness, malice, hypocrisy, jealousy, unwillingness to forgive and any other thing that is filling you with anger or rage towards the people in your life. And may you always find sufficient strength in you to do so, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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“Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem, and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim and turned them back to the LORD, the God of their fathers. He appointed judges in the land, in each of the fortified cities of Judah. He told them, "Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for man but for the LORD, who is with you whenever you give a verdict. Now let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Judge carefully, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery." (2Chron 19:4-7NIV)

Among the reasons God gives leaders to people everywhere is to establish, maintain and promote justice. In fact, in his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us that every leader, especially a government leader, is God’s messenger, sent to do good to those who do what is right and to punish those who are wicked (Rom 13:4). So, if you are a leader in any capacity, at home, in an organisation, society or school, in a government establishment or even in a church, God is counting on you to give and strengthen justice among those under your care.

See, ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, he has become prone to all kinds of evil desires and tendencies. And unless he is recreated and possessed by the Spirit of God, there is every tendency that he will destroy not only the people around him but also himself. So, there must be in every place people and systems that will judge evil and also reward good. In other words, people must always know that there is justice where they are. Otherwise, they will sell themselves totally to evil and move God to step in and destroy them.

Why did God seek to destroy man from the face of the earth in Noah’s day? Was it just because evil was prevalent all over the world? No! Of course, evil was prevalent everywhere in the world. In fact, God’s own testimony of the situation was that all the thoughts of men at that time were only evil. But was that simply the reason He wanted to destroy them? No! The reason He sought to destroy them was that evil was not being judged – there was no justice in the world. (Cf. Gen 6:1-7)

As Solomon tells us in his book, Ecclesiastes, when we are slow to use our position as leaders to deal with wickedness or evil or when we totally refuse to deal with it, people will become emboldened to commit more atrocities (Ecc 8:11). Even those who have been acting honourably and behaving themselves may become bitter and give themselves to doing evil, when they observe that there is no justice where they are. And where that is the case, God will have to step in at some point and judge everybody Himself, in accordance with His righteousness.

Now how God will judge in such situations is not what anyone can say. In the days of Noah, He judged with floodwaters that destroyed all men, animals, birds and vegetations. Only the family of Noah was spared. Also, in the days of Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah, only he and members of his immediate family were spared. Others, including his disobedient wife, were utterly destroyed, when God decided to judge them for the wickedness that they would not judge.

Therefore, just as King Jehoshaphat admonished the judges serving under him in our opening bible text, you too should consider carefully what you do in that position that you are and with the authority that is now yours. That is because God has permitted you to be there in order that you may represent Him in establishing, maintaining and promoting righteousness and justice. And with Him there is no favouritism or injustice or bribery. So, do not allow these things under your watch. Do not allow wickedness or evil to be strengthened or encouraged under your leadership. And do not allow good to be ignored or to go unrewarded when you are in a position to acknowledge and reward it. Otherwise, at some point, God, who is always watching you, will have to step in and do what you are refusing to do. Then, even you, will not be able to escape His justice.

Remember that Paul says if we will judge ourselves, we will not come under God’s judgment (1Cor 11:31). It is when we refuse to use our position to give justice here on earth that God will have to step in and do the needful. Will you, then, do the right thing now with your position? Or will you wait for God to step in and do what you are refusing to do? Well, the ball is in your court, and I counsel that you play it wisely.

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“"For," said Peter, "it is written in the book of Psalms, "'May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,' and, "'May another take his place of leadership.'” (Acts 1:20NIV) 

Peter, on the occasion mentioned here, drew the attention of the other disciples to what the Scriptures say about Judas and how another person must take his place in the kingdom of God. But why must another person take the place meant for this man? It was because he lost it. And what made him lose it? It was greed that made him lose it. 

In like manner, each child of God has a place in the kingdom of God, a place specially prepared for him by the Father. In fact, our Lord Jesus says people will come from every part of the world and take the respective places prepared by the Father for them in His kingdom (Matt 8:11). But taking one’s place in God’s kingdom while in this world is one thing; keeping their place till the very end of all things is another thing entirely.

Judas, like the rest of the disciples of the Lord Jesus, also came to take his place in God’s kingdom. But he eventually lost it. And God alone knows how many like him have lost their places in the kingdom and have had them occupied by some other people. So, it is not enough for us to know that we have a place in the kingdom with our Lord Jesus and the Father. It is also important that we don’t lose our place with them.

Peter, in his second epistle, says the following to us: 

“Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.” (2Peter 3:17NIV) 

Did you see that? If we are not on our guard, we may fall from our secure position in the kingdom of God. Greed made Judas fall. And it can make us fall too. But even if it does not make us fall, what about pride, lust, rebellion, jealousy or bitterness? Will any of those not make us fall?

If Judas Iscariot had been on his guard against greed, he would not have fallen the way he did. And remember that the Lord taught them to be on their guard against all forms of greed (Luke 12:15). Unfortunately, he did not pay attention to that. So, he fell and lost his place in the kingdom. And if we too won’t pay attention to what He is saying to us about the things we ought to be on our guard against, we may as well end up like Judas.

Yes, we may travel all around the world in the name of the Lord Jesus and do all kinds of things by His power, just it was the case with Judas Iscariot. But all of these things won’t matter after all, if we should lose our place in His kingdom. And my prayer is that our hearts will be kept steadfast in the truth all the time, so that we will not give in to anything that will make us lose our place in our Father’s eternal kingdom. Amen.

Have a great day.

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“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” (Ps 27:13-14NIV) 

What is David confident of, as we see in our opening bible text? He is confident that he will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of living. And why is he confident in this way? It is because he is waiting on the Lord who does not disappoint. 

As we see in the scriptures, as a young man, David was faced with severe persecutions from Saul, who was king over Israel at that time. So, he, his men and their family members had to constantly be on the run and could not live as normal people lived. There was even a time that their temporary camp was burnt down and all their wives and children were taken away by the Amalekites. And all his men became so distressed that they were even talking about stoning him, for they felt that their association with him had brought them nothing but trouble. (Cf. 1Sam 30)

Yet the bible says that David did not lose heart in the face of all these things. Instead, he kept on strengthening himself in the Lord, knowing that He would ultimately give him victory all the way and also end his days of wandering someday (1Sam 30:6). That was why he said I am still confident that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And did he see it or not? He did. He saw God’s goodness not after his death but during his lifetime. He not became king over the nation of Israel but also had the rare privilege of crowning one of his sons king over the land before his death.

But why was David able to eventually witness the goodness of the Lord in his lifetime, despite all the terrible experiences he had, even as a young man? As we see in the bible text above, it was because he did not lose heart but waited for the Lord. The Lord had ordained him king in place of Saul and given him many great and wonderful promises. But for him to witness the manifestation of all these things, he needed to demonstrate faith and patience in Him. Yes, he had to do this for a number of years. But his faith in God and patience ultimately paid off. Therefore, he is able to tell others in his psalm above to do just as he did, if they too want to witness the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Do you, then, also want to witness the goodness of the Lord in your lifetime? Do you want to be alive and well, when God burns the garment of reproach of our nation and wears her with a garment of glory and praise? I want to be alive and well then. I also want my family to be alive and well then. And, like David, I am confident that the good Lord, who saved us from our sins and brought us into His glorious kingdom, will make this happen. 

So, regardless of what I see or hear, I will not lose heart or throw away my confidence in Him. Instead, I will be strong in heart and wait for Him. Yes, I will wait for Him because He cares about me and is also trustworthy. But will you too do the same?

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“We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, "I will surely bless you and give you many descendants." And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.” (Heb 6:12-15NIV) 

What is the first instruction we are given here? It is that we must not be lazy in our walk of faith. In other words, we must take our relationship with God very seriously, doing whatever needs to be done to build it up. Then we are told to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what God promised them. So, faith and patience, not faith only, must work together in order for us to fully experience the goodness of God in our lives. 

Now Abraham’s case is used to illustrate this for us. Abraham, as we see in Scriptures, was truly a man of faith. However, in order for him to receive God’s promise of a son through his wife Sarah, he had to add patience to his faith. But Abraham was not always patient with God. He had to learn it in a hard way. When God first told him that he was going to give him a son and multiply his descendants through that son, he believed Him. And God knew that he truly believed Him. So, He counted his faith to him as righteousness. (Cf. Gen 15:1-6)

However, few years later, his wife, Sarah, grew impatient and advised him to try her maidservant, Hagar, to see whether God’s promise may be fulfilled through her. And he listened to her, without talking to God at all about it in prayer. Yet Hagar became pregnant for him indeed, making it look like they were in the will of God. But soon enough, they both realised that they had missed it. Why? Hagar began to cause trouble for them, doing things that would destroy their marriage of many years. And if he had not been willing to let his wife deal with the young lady, in spite of her pregnant condition, their home would have collapsed. (Cf. Gen 16)

But what led them into all that trouble? Was it unbelief in God? No! Rather, it was their impatience with Him. They had faith in God and were actually trusting Him for their own child. But instead of being patient with Him, they tried to help Him fulfil His promise to them. And that almost ruined them. 

Well, much later, God would appear to Abraham again and let him know that he should have been patient. He told him that the son he got through Hagar, Ishmael, was not the fulfilment of His promise to him. So, he would have to wait a little longer for that son that would be the fulfilment of His promise to come. And when he did, Isaac was given to him as the son of God’s promise. (Cf. Gen 18&21)

Now I am sure it must have been a hard thing for Abraham to accept the fact that Ishmael, the son whom he loved and whom he had spent years taking care of was not God’s choice in fulfilling the promise of blessing the whole world through his offspring. But there was nothing he could do about it. He just had to abandon the innocent boy. And that is showing us something of the nature of pains we could bring into our lives and other innocent people’s lives through our impatience with God. It could be something that would not heal for generations to come.

So, if you truly trust God to fulfil all His good word concerning your promotion, prosperity, peace of mind, health, safety and so on, then, learn to also be patient with Him, regardless of contrary circumstances. Don’t try to help Him by stealing, visiting diviners or getting involved in adultery. That will only put you in trouble sooner or later, if it seems to be working. The only way you can help Him is to stay in His will. And I pray that your heart will be strengthened to patiently walk in His will all the time, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a splendid day.

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“He will be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth. In his days the righteous will flourish; prosperity will abound till the moon is no more.” (Ps 72:6-7NIV) 

Who is offering this prayer? It is Solomon. Who is he offering the prayer for? He is offering it for himself, for, in the very first verse of this same Psalm, his words are, “Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness.” (Ps 72:1NIV) So, here we have a praying king, a praying leader. Yes, we have here a leader that is talking to God about endowing him with what he needs to be a just leader over his people. No wonder even a prostitute who went to him to judge a very difficult case got justice and was not put to shame (1Kings 2:16-28).

We too need many of such leaders in our country today. We need praying leaders. We need leaders that take God seriously. We need leaders that know that apart from God there is nothing they can accomplish for the country. Leaders who boast in their education, wealth, wisdom or experience cannot take us anywhere. We have had many of them. And where have they brought us? They have taken us backward instead of forward. So, what we need in every part of the country right now are leaders who have their reliance solely in God and who place no confidence in the flesh.

Also, we need leaders who love justice and who want to see it maintained. Solomon, as we see in that verse of his psalm that I gave you above, prayed to God to endow him with justice simply because he wanted to see justice reign in the land. And until we too have leaders who have hearts devoted to seeing justice prevail in our country and who will count on God to supply them with everything they need to make justice prevail among us, the various forms of injustice that are killing our land and keeping us in the mud of barrenness will not begin to disappear.

Furthermore, we need leaders that will continually labour for righteous and hardworking people to flourish in our country. And that is one of the things Solomon prays to God for in our opening bible text. First, he asks that God will make him a leader that will be like showers of rain on the thirsty hearts of his people. In other words, he is asking that God will make him a leader that will provide for his people the enabling environment they need to thrive.

Look at our country today. Many people are hardworking. But their hard work is not resulting in prosperity. Why? It is because the enabling environment for their hard and diligent labour to transform into prosperity is not there. But if these same people should go into some developed country and labour as they are now doing in this country, they would begin to shine like stars in the sky. 

So, even though our own leaders will not offer the kind of prayer that Solomon offers for himself for themselves, we can offer it to God. We can tell Him to give us in every part of our country leaders that will be like showers of rain to our hungry and thirsty hearts, leaders that will create for us, our children and generations to come after us an enabling environment for prosperity.

Then the next thing Solomon asks of God in that prayer is that righteous people will actually flourish in the land under his rule. That means it is his desire for honest and righteous people to thrive in the land. It is his desire that those who are doing what is right will not be pushed down or hindered by wicked and unreasonable people from prospering in the land. So, he prays that God will make this happen. He prays that God will supply him all that he needs to clear the way for the righteous in the land to rise and shine.

Unfortunately, we rarely see this kind of desire in the leaders of our country. That is why many of us don't believe in righteousness at all. We don't believe in diligence. We don't believe in honesty. We don't think these virtues can take us anywhere in life. And that is largely because there are not many righteous people around us that are doing well and flourishing in the country. 

But all that can change and will change, if we will begin to talk to God, asking Him to give us leaders that righteous, holy, honest and diligent people will prosper under their leadership. Will you pray, then, about this? Will you join me in asking God for an abundant supply of leaders that will give room for righteous people in this country to prosper and also be protected in their prosperity? I pray that God will give you a heart that is willing to continually intercede for the leadership of this nation, in Jesus' name. Amen.

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“…And Tamar lived in her brother Absalom's house, a desolate woman.” (2Sam 13:20NIV)

Why did Tamar give herself to living a desolate life? It was the rape experience she had with her half-brother, Amnon. As the account goes in the bible, because Amnon could not deal with his irrational love for Tamar, he resulted to using manipulation to get her into bed with him. Unfortunately for him, the young lady would not willingly participate in the incest that he suggested to her. So, he overpowered her, raped her and then drove her away like as one would drive a stray dog away. (Cf. 2Sam 13:1-19)

To make matters worse, when their father, King David, heard about the case, he was only furious -- he did not do anything about it. He did not give Amnon any serious punishment at all, one that would let him and other rapists like him know that there was no place for them and their nonsense in Israel. Why? He was probably looking at the political implications of punishing the crown prince for raping his own sister. He probably even did his best to hide from the public what happened, so that the image of his family would not be tarnished. (Cf. 2Sam 13:21)

In any case, Amnon got away unscathed after raping his sister. And since he could rape a princess like that and get away with it, then, nothing would have happened, if it had been a commoner that he had raped. The matter would also have been swept under the carpet, and more easily too.

So, we should understand that it is not only commoners that may be suffering injustice in our land. Some highly placed people too may be suffering injustice in silence. They too are angry. And they want to fight back and punish the injustice they have suffered with all the strength, authority and power they have. But some of the people in their lives will not just allow them to do so. Why? Image! They don’t want the public image of their family, company or political party to be ruined. So, though they are hurting and aching as a result of what has been done to them, they just have to let it go and bear their pains in silence for life or until an opportunity to judge those who hurt them without ruining the image they are trying to protect shows up.  

If you, then, have been a victim of any form of injustice, don’t think your case is peculiar. Don’t think it is because you are not as rich, influential or educated as some people that your matter has gone unjudged. That is because even if you are rich, influential or highly educated, you may still be unjustly treated and not be able to do anything to punish those who have cheated you.

However, even if you have suffered any form of injustice, what becomes of your life, going forward, is what is important. As we see in our opening bible text, beautiful Tamar refused to move forward with her life because of the injustice that she had suffered. So, as young and beautiful as she was, she retired to her elder brother’s house and began to live a desolate life, a joyless life. In other words, she allowed what happened to her to make a mess of her. Why? She, unlike her father, did not know how to draw strength, courage and wisdom from God to heal and rebuild her life (1Sam 30:1-6).

Now perhaps that is where you too are right now. You are living in desolation because of certain injuries or injustice you have suffered in the hands of some people. You need to wake up, give your life over to God and let Him heal and restore you. That way, you won’t have to make a waste of your life because of the wickedness done to you.

Remember Joseph. Remember that he too suffered all kinds of injustice, first from the hands of his own blood brothers and then from the hands of Potiphar’s wife. Yet he did not allow his life to stop or to become useless because of these things. Instead, he entrusted himself to God and gave himself to diligently doing everything that was committed to his care. So, he was healed and lifted up in due season. And to show that he was completely healed by God, when he eventually met his brothers again, he had no grudges against them. Instead, he forgave them and saved them and their families from the seven years of came upon their land. 

In like manner, you too can be totally healed of whatever injury you have suffered from the hands of men, if you will commit yourself to God to heal you. And you should do that without delay instead of giving yourself to a life of desolation and uselessness. That is because if you stop your life, ruin it or make it joyless because of anybody, you will have only yourself to blame. 

And guess what? God may eventually win over to His side those people that hurt you and whom you are using as your excuse for messing up your life. They, then, will go on and become useful and mighty instruments that will be highly rewarded in His kingdom, while you will have wasted your life and have nothing to receive from God for it. So, be wise, my friend, and begin to do the right thing right away.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Chr

ist be with you. Amen.

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 suffer. That is because God is never going to ask us to do anything that is not in agreement with His good purpose for us. If we, then, want to see that good purpose of His fulfilled in our lives, we should listen to Him and do as He says, regardless of what we think or how we feel about it

Have a pleasant day.

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“God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer.” (Gen 21:20NIV)

Who was God with as he grew up? It was Ishmael. And who was Ishmael? He was the son that Hagar, the slave of Sarah, bore for Abraham. As bible accounts go, Abraham had sent both Ishmael and his mother away from his household because they were slaves and had no right to his inheritance. Was he happy to do this? No, not at all! But because God had said that it was the right thing for him to do, in the light of the promises He had made to him, he did it. (Cf. Gen 21:8-14)

So, there may be times when God will require us to do things that we are not happy about, things that may hurt us or hurt our relationships with some people deeply. And it will be wise of us to do as He says, in spite of how we feel or what injury our reputations may suffer. That is because God is never going to ask us to do anything that is not in agreement with His good purpose for us. If we, then, want to see that good purpose of His fulfilled in our lives, we should listen to Him and do as He says, regardless of what we think or how we feel about it.

See, even if what God tells us to do may ruin our relationships with certain people or bring some form of pains into the lives of others, the wise thing for us is to still do it. That is because as long as what we are doing is the will of God for us, we can be sure that He will be there to heal anyone that may be hurt in the process, if such a person will allow Him to heal them. So, if there is a wrong relationship you are meant to severe or end, don't allow your concern for the pains the person involved will suffer to prevent you from doing the will of God. That is because God will be there to heal the person, if they will allow Him. And if they will not, the fault will not be yours.

Abraham's decision to send Hagar and young Ishmael away with nothing and to nowhere in particular was terrible enough to ruin their lives. But God had said this to him before he sent them away: “I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring." (Gen 21:13NIV) In other words, God had plans of greatness for Ishmael and his mother too. And He did not need them to be in Abraham's house for those plans to be fulfilled. So, Abraham had no need to worry about them. God was ready to take full care of them.

Now did God actually take care of them or not? He did. As we see in our opening bible text, God was with Ishmael as he grew up. And where did he grow up? He grew up in the desert. Think about that. The fact that Ishmael was in the desert did not stop God from being with him or making him great. On the contrary, right there in the desert, God forged him into a great archer. And here is what is later written about him and his sons in the bible:

“Here is a list, in the order of their births, of the descendants of Ishmael, who was the son of Abraham and Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's slave girl: Nebaioth, Kedar, Abdeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, Kedemah. These twelve sons of his became the founders of twelve tribes that bore their names.” (Gen 25:12-17TLB)

Did you see that? All the sons that came from Ishmael were great men and leaders, founders of twelve tribes that carried their names. So, the fact that Ishmael was sent away by his own father as a boy did not stop him from becoming great. Why? God was with him to guide him in life and make him great. And this agrees with what David says in one of his psalms, which reads, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.” (Ps 27:10NIV)

What is the point of all this? Well, it is that regardless of who accepts you or forsakes you, the most important thing is that you have God with you. As long as He accepts you and is with you, He will see to it that all His good plans for your life are fulfilled. Also, regardless of where circumstances of life lead you, even if it is a desert, God will still stand by you to make you all that He wants to make you. He will not choose where He will be with you. He will not choose to be with you in the palace and choose not to be with you in the desert or in the prison. His promise is to watch over your life both now and forevermore (Ps 121:7-8). And you can count on Him to fulfil it.

Therefore, there is no need for you to be bitter against anyone who rejects you or who does not want to associate with you, whether for right reasons or wrong reasons. Remember that God stayed with Ishmael and made him great, even though his rich father was not there for him. And He is with you too to make you what you ought to be. All you need is to take your relationship with Him very seriously and make the most of every situation you may find yourself, and we will soon meet at the top.

Have a pleasant day.

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 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (Eph 1:3NIV) 

We are to continually praise our God and Father because He has blessed us. When last did you praise Him for blessing you? Do you even know that He has blessed you? He is not going to bless you, if you are one of His children – He has already blessed you. So, right now and right where you are, you are blessed of God.

Then notice also that we are told something of the extent to which God has blessed us. We are told that He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Wow! In blessing us, God decided to pour out all of His blessings on our lives. What this really means is beyond what our minds can ever comprehend. But it is sufficient for us to know that we have enough of God's blessings in us to excel and thrive in this life. And how we respond to this information will go a long way in determining the degree to which the blessings we have received find expression in us. 

I said this because there are many of God's people today who are going from place to place seeking the blessings of God, even though they have more than enough blessings they could ever utilise in their lifetime. Why is this so? It is so because they cannot seem to see the expression of the blessings of God in their lives.

As you may already know, a blessing is not something we can see with our eyes. But when it is working in someone's life, those around can see its expressions. It is just like a curse too. You can't see it with your eyes. But when it is working in someone's life, people can tell that he is under a curse. It follows, then, that it is not enough for us to be blessed; there must also be expressions of blessings in our lives. And it is the visible expression of God's blessings, in terms of righteousness, good health, a life of contentment and so forth, in our lives that will make people call us blessed.

Now what will cause God's blessings to fully find expression in us? One of them is thanksgiving. Remember that Paul, in the Scripture I gave you above, begins by praising God for blessing us. Interestingly, this man was in the prison when he penned down these words in a letter. That means, even as a prisoner, he saw himself as a very blessed man. Therefore, being blessed is not about our natural circumstances; rather, it is about what God has made us and also deposited in us. This is why you must never ever again consider yourself disadvantaged because of the natural circumstances you have found yourself in. Instead, always walk in the consciousness of the blessings of God on your life and show it by being thankful to Him.

Another thing that will cause the blessings of God to find expression in us is our practice of His word. How did we receive the blessings of God? Through His word. So, if we want to see His blessings in full expression in our lives, we must devote ourselves to reading and studying His word and to meditating and practising it. 

Remember what God told the children of Israel, when He just brought them out of Egypt. He told them that if they would take His word seriously, then, all the blessings He had pronounced on them would find expression in their lives and affairs. But if they would not take His word seriously, all they would experience were His curses. So, they and their leaders were instructed to devote themselves to reading the word, studying it and meditating on it in order that they may practise it and experience the blessings of God. (Cf. Deut 6:4-9 &28; Jos 1:7-8)

We, however, have got something better from God. He has only made proclamations of blessings on us in Christ Jesus. No curses have been added at all. However, we too need to take His word seriously in order to practise it. That way, His blessings on us will be able to find unhindered expression in our lives.

Then we must equally give ourselves to prayers. Prayer is one major way to appropriate or receive what God has given. So, if we observe that the blessings of God are not manifesting in certain areas of our lives, it is on us to pray to Him about them. The children of Israel, for example, were taught by God to pray for an expression of God's blessings each time they give their tithes in obedience to His word (Deut 26:12-15). And the Lord also teaches us to pray without ceasing and to expect to receive from God each time we do so (Matt 7:7-8; Luke 18:1). So, if want to see an unhindered expression of God's blessings in our lives, we must learn to keep praying.   

Now, as you go through this new day and the remaining part of the year, may your heart be strengthened to be thankful, to be devoted to God's word and to also be prayerful, so that the presence of the blessings of God in your life will be obvious enough for men to see and to praise God for you. Amen.

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“John's disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"” (Luke 7:18-19NIV)

As clearly shown us in Scriptures, John the Baptist was the one that God used in leading the Jews to their Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. And how did he know that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world? It was by revelation. According to him, God had already told him that the man on whom he saw the Spirit come down and remain is the Messiah. So, when he saw these things fulfilled in Jesus, he began to announce to all those who came to him that He is their Messiah. (Cf. John 1:29-36)

However, at some point, John was arrested and jailed by Herod the tetrarch because the former rebuked him for taking his brother's wife and also for other evil things he had done (Luke 3:19-20). And everybody in the land, including Jesus, heard about this. But nobody really did anything about it. There was no riot in the country against Herod because of it. And it is not recorded in Scriptures that any group of activists rose up to fight for John's right or to plead his cause before Herod. Business just continued as usual in the land.

Now, from what we see in Scriptures, all this did not make John happy at all. He knew himself to be a true prophet of God. And he had been used by God to lead many to righteousness and faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Yet when this injustice befell him, none of the people made any serious effort to secure his release. That, for him, must have meant that his ministry was not really as successful in changing the people as he had thought.

Furthermore, John began to hear from his disciples all kinds of things, miracles, signs and wonders, that Jesus was performing among the people and how the people were praising God on account of Him. This, then, was the piece of straw that broke the camel's back. I mean that this was what troubled John the most. “So, Jesus has the power to do all these marvellous things,” he must have thought. “Yet, even though he knows that I am here in the prison, suffering, he has not visited me or made any effort to set me free. This is bad. This is unbelievable. And I must send him a word about this.”  

Therefore, John sent his disciples to our Lord Jesus with the words that we have in our opening bible text, saying, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" But that was a big blunder that he committed. Why would he ask this kind of question, a question of unbelief and doubt, a question that was not worthy of the praise of God? Was he really doubtful about the identity of our Lord Jesus Christ? No! He was the one that God specifically sent to reveal Jesus to the people. And he did this task well. But because he found himself in an unfavourable condition, and the Lord did not seem to show any interest in helping him out of it, he resorted to what one might call blackmail.

Now was it that the Lord was not at all concerned about John the Baptist or that He had no respect for him as a prophet of God? No! From what He later said to the people about him, it is clear that He saw him as one that was more than a prophet and in fact the greatest of all those born of women (Luke 7:24-28). Nevertheless, He did not make any move about his release. Why? We are not given any specific reason in Scriptures. But since He pleased God in all that He did, we can take it for granted that it was not the will of God for Him to interfere in that matter, for it was basically a political one and His ministry at that time was not to get involved in politics (John 18:36).

By the way, the fact that He had not done anything about John's case at that time did not mean that He was never going to do anything about it. What, then, should John have done? He should have made his own request to the Lord for deliverance from Herod's hand. At least, he was getting reports of how many others were being healed, delivered, set free and even raised from the dead. But instead of asking for the Lord's help, he began to indirectly say to Him, “Can you not see that I am in trouble? Or are you waiting for me to call for your help before you do something about my case? Or perhaps you are not even the Messiah we are expecting.” And that, I believe, was what closed whatever door of help John might have received from God against him.

Similarly, there are many today who, instead of making their plain and simple requests to God about the problems of their lives, often try to blackmail Him. If they are not talking about what they have done for Him (giving of tithes, preaching and so forth), which they believe should have qualified them to receive certain things from Him, they will be talking about what He has done for others, which He has failed to do for them. They may even go as far as threatening Him with words that undermine His power, believing that will spur Him to action. 

But what such people, like John the Baptist, don't know is that God cannot be blackmailed or threatened to act against His will or to even carry out His will. So, if we need anything from Him, let us just ask, instead of making foolish comments and references. And if we have asked according to His will, He will answer us. Otherwise we are still not going to receive anything.

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“This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.” (Eccl 7:29GNT)

One of the things we must learn is how not to make life hard, difficult or complicated for ourselves. It is true that things are not what they are meant to be in our nation. But many are also making life hard for themselves. They are continually going for things that they have no wisdom, ability or resources to handle or manage. So, they are always under one form of pressure or the other. And when you ask them why things are so tight and difficult for them, they are always ready to say, “It is the bad economic conditions of Nigeria.”

How long are we going to blame the country's poor economy for all the problems in our lives? You know that the economy is poor. Yet you will not control the way you use your resources or learn to use them wisely. You know the economy is poor. Yet you are willing to borrow unreasonable sums of money for luxury cars, weddings, burials and some other social functions that will ultimately add no value to your life or to your world. What are you doing to yourself? You are making life difficult for yourself and those connected to you.

As we see in our opening text, God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated. That means it is never God's desire for our lives to be hard and difficult. So, He created us to live simply (not foolishly) and not allow this world and the things in it, which are all going to pass away, to own us.

But what do we do? In our attempt to enjoy ourselves and the things of the world without God's wisdom, we do things and create systems that make everything difficult and complicated for us. Then we find something or someone or even God to blame for our ordeals.

You too can consider the challenges you are facing at the moment and ask yourself, “Who brought these upon me?” If you will be sincere, you will see that it is not every problem that you have that has been brought upon you by others, people or institutions. There are problems that you have brought upon yourself. And while it is true that God is able to solve even those problems for you, it is equally important that you stop making life difficult for yourself. That is what God wants me to tell you, as we begin this new day. And may His good Spirit open your eyes to see all those things you are doing to make life difficult for you and others and enable you to do the right thing about them. Amen.

Have a lovely day.

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“This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.” (Eccl 7:29GNT)

One of the things we must learn is how not to make life hard, difficult or complicated for ourselves. It is true that things are not what they are meant to be in our nation. But many are also making life hard for themselves. They are continually going for things that they have no wisdom, ability or resources to handle or manage. So, they are always under one form of pressure or the other. And when you ask them why things are so tight and difficult for them, they are always ready to say, “It is the bad economic conditions of Nigeria.”

How long are we going to blame the country's poor economy for all the problems in our lives? You know that the economy is poor. Yet you will not control the way you use your resources or learn to use them wisely. You know the economy is poor. Yet you are willing to borrow unreasonable sums of money for luxury cars, weddings, burials and some other social functions that will ultimately add no value to your life or to your world. What are you doing to yourself? You are making life difficult for yourself and those connected to you.

As we see in our opening text, God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated. That means it is never God's desire for our lives to be hard and difficult. So, He created us to live simply (not foolishly) and not allow this world and the things in it, which are all going to pass away, to own us.

But what do we do? In our attempt to enjoy ourselves and the things of the world without God's wisdom, we do things and create systems that make everything difficult and complicated for us. Then we find something or someone or even God to blame for our ordeals.

You too can consider the challenges you are facing at the moment and ask yourself, “Who brought these upon me?” If you will be sincere, you will see that it is not every problem that you have that has been brought upon you by others, people or institutions. There are problems that you have brought upon yourself. And while it is true that God is able to solve even those problems for you, it is equally important that you stop making life difficult for yourself. That is what God wants me to tell you, as we begin this new day. And may His good Spirit open your eyes to see all those things you are doing to make life difficult for you and others and enable you to do the right thing about them. Amen.

Have a lovely day.

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“You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:2-3NIV)

Here James speaks of two kinds of attitude people can have towards prayers. First, there are those who don't see praying to God as a sure way of solving life's problems. So, instead of praying to God about their challenges or needs, they covet, fight, steal or kill in order to have their problems solved. And people who live like that, even though they claim to be Christians, will never be free from pains and sorrows in their lives.

Then James also speaks of those who pray and do not receive. And he says the reason they don't receive is that their hearts are not right. So, it is not that these individuals are asking God for things that are bad in themselves, things that He does not expect us to ask Him to do for us. And there are indeed things that we all can tell are bad for us and for others, regardless of what excuse we may make for wanting to have them. But those are not the things these individuals that the apostle speaks of are asking of God. They are asking Him for things that are good in themselves. But they are asking for those things for the wrong reasons. So, God does not answer them.

What this is teaching us is that God is not only concerned about the things we ask for when we pray; He is also concerned about why we ask for them. First, He does not want us to ask for those things that are obviously bad for us and for others. Then, even when we are asking for those things that are good for us and perhaps for others too, He wants us to have upright and righteous reasons for wanting to have them.

See, there are times that things that are good and wonderful in themselves can end up becoming snakes or scorpions in our hands, poisoning us and others and destroying every other good thing that is in our lives. That is why one of the prayers we ought to continually pray to God is for Him to teach us to always ask Him for the right things and to ask for them at the right time. What I am saying is that we need discernment in praying. And we can only get it by allowing the Holy Spirit to renew our minds with the word of God. 

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“Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came to him, but he gave him trouble instead of help. Ahaz took some of the things from the temple of the LORD and from the royal palace and from the princes and presented them to the king of Assyria, but that did not help him.” (2Chron 28:20-21NIV)

One of the things made abundantly clear to us in Scriptures is that no one can help anyone that God does not help. So, if you want true help about any matter of life, the one you should turn to is God. Otherwise, anyone or anything you turn to for help apart from God may end up making an already bad situation worse for you.

As we see in our opening bible text, there was a time that King Ahaz of Judah turned to the king of the Assyrians, Tiglath-Pileser, for help. Why? He was being attacked by his neighbouring nations from different angles. So, he was losing his people and his territory at a very alarming rate. (Cf. 2Chro 28:5-15)

But why was he losing his people and land in that manner? That was the first question he ought to have asked himself. His father, Jotham, did not lose his people or land at all. Instead, he made them stronger and richer. Also, his grandfather, Uzziah, did not lose his people or land at all. Instead, he made them stronger and richer. (Cf. 2Chro 26-27)

What, then, was his own problem? Why could he not keep what was passed on to him? He could not because he did not take God seriously as did his grandfather and father. Instead of worshiping God, he gave himself to the worship of idols and the practice of divination. Therefore, God withdrew His protection from him and from the land. That, of course, was the reason for his trouble. (Cf. 2Chro 28:1-8)

So, even though Ahaz needed help in order to be saved from his enemies, there was something he needed more than help. And that was repentance. If he had repented and turned back to God, the God of the nation that he was king over, he would have had all the help he needed to defeat his enemies and win his land and people back.

Ahaz, however, was too arrogant to humble himself before God and seek His face. Therefore, he turned to the king of the Assyrians for help. Unfortunately, as we are told in our opening bible text, instead of getting help from this man, all he got from him was trouble. And even though he gave him some of the treasures laid up by his ancestors in the temple of God and in his palace, all he still got from him was trouble. Eventually, he gave himself to more idolatry and messed up the entire nation even more before his meaningless reign ended.

In like manner, there are many like Ahaz today who are going from place to place and people to people for all kinds of assistance or support. But what they need may not just be help but to take God seriously in their lives and stop living according to their own ways. And as long as they do not realise this and act accordingly, any help they find may soon enough prove to be no help at all but trouble. 

Then, like Ahaz, there are many all around the world who keep looking for help and solutions to the problems of their lives outside God. And will they get helped? No! Instead, like Ahaz, what they will keep finding are people like Tiglath-Pileser, who will keep taking from them but never giving them anything but trouble. 

Now perhaps you already have such people in your life. They keep asking you to give them all kinds of things and taking you to all kinds of places, all in the name of wanting to help you. Yet their help is not forthcoming. If you are not careful, such people will be the ones that will run you dry. Then you will wake up one day and realise that your home, possessions, savings, health and everything else you care for are gone. Yet you have not been helped. 

So, stop seeking help where it does not exist. Your help is with only one person. And that person is God. You just need to humble yourself, put your trust in Him and stop relying on your understanding. And He will see to it that you get the right kind of help you need without having to lose your head, sleep, relationships or resources.

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“So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” (Heb 3:19NIV)

Who is the writer of the book of Hebrews referring to in our opening text? It is the children of Israel that Moses brought up out of Egypt. And where were they not able to enter? It was the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey which God had promised to give to them. Why, then, were they not able to enter it? They were not able to enter it because of their unbelief.

Therefore, God was not the problem of these Israelites. They were their own problem. God made a promise to their forefathers that He was going to give them the land of Canaan. And why was it the land of Canaan that He wanted to give to them and not somewhere else? It was because it was a beautiful land. Moses describes it in this way:

“But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.” (Deut 11:11-12NIV)

Is it not interesting to know that God can take a special interest in a particular place, to preserve it, to watch over it and to make it a blessing to those who occupy it? It is! And that was how it was for the land of Canaan that God wanted the children of Israel to have. God cared about it. God was watching over it from the beginning of the year to its very end.

So, that land was meant to be a land of rest for those Israelites. It was meant to be a land of prosperity for them. And all they needed to have it was to simply go into it and possess it. But when God said that it was time for them to take it for themselves, they were unwilling to do so. Why? They could not trust Him to make it theirs. 

But why could these Israelites not trust God to make the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, theirs? It was because they were looking at the sizes of the giants in the land instead of looking at the greatness of the power of God. God had brought them out of Egypt by His powerful hand. And neither the stubbornness of Pharoah nor the sorcery of Egypt could keep them back when God was ready to set them free.  

Also, God had divided the Red Sea before them so that they crossed it on dry ground. And when the Egyptians tried to do the same, they perished in the waters of this sea. What about other miracles that He performed for them in the wilderness? He gave them food there every day. He gave them water to drink from the rock. He kept their bodies warm and healthy and preserved their clothes and sandals. Yet they could not trust Him to deliver the land of Canaan and the giants in it to them. Instead, they told themselves that they would appoint a leader over them who would take back to their former house of slavery, Egypt. What a shame! (Cf. Num 13-14)

Therefore, in His anger, God swore that all of them who were twenty years of age and above and who had witnessed all the miracles He had performed for them would not enter the land of rest that He was giving them. And it was so. All of them, twenty years of age or more, wandered and perished in the wilderness, not being able to enter God’s place of rest and prosperity for them. Yes, they saw their prosperity standing very close to them. But their unbelief prevented them from touching and enjoying it.

Now the bible says that these things are written down to teach us not to be like them (1Cor 10:6&11). In other words, they are written down as examples for us, so that we too will not throw away our confidence in God and lose the place of rest and prosperity He has already provided for us.

See, just as God prepared the land of Canaan for the children of Israel and was watching over it to hand it over to them, He has also prepared a place of rest, a place where we will have access to abundant milk and honey for each of us. And He is committed to doing what is necessary to lead us into it. All He expects of us is to trust Him to do so and be ready to take whatever steps He wants to take to be there. 

However, there may be giants in the land or on our way into it. Yes, there may be people or things that will want to frighten us away from where God wants us to be or discourage us from taking what He has already given to us. But we must not look at their faces or sizes. We also must not look at their words of threats. Otherwise, like those Israelites of old, we too may throw away our confidence in God and give up on what He wants us to have. And if we do that, just like those Israelites of old, we also may end up not experiencing the rest and prosperity that are meant to be ours.

So, beloved, don’t throw away your confidence in God because of the challenges you are now faced with in life. Don’t give up on the dreams or visions He has shown you about the place of rest and prosperity He wants you to occupy in life. Instead, strengthen yourself in Him and say, “I am taking what God has given to me by His divine power. And the challenges I see will not be able to stop or hinder me. Instead, I will swallow them up in victory.”

Now that was the kind of mentality Joshua and Caleb had, when all the other Israelites were crying and planning to turn away from the place of rest and prosperity meant for them. And guess what? They were the only ones among all the others that made it into Canaan and received their own share of the land. And if we too will function with the same mentality in dealing with the challenges trying to scare us away from our rest and prosperity, we will surely experience Christ’s victory over them and fully receive and enjoy the best God has in store for us.

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“Through Ahaziah's visit to Joram, God brought about Ahaziah's downfall. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. While Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's relatives, who had been attending Ahaziah, and he killed them. He then went in search of Ahaziah, and his men captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. He was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, "He was a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart." So there was no one in the house of Ahaziah powerful enough to retain the kingdom.” (2Chron 22:7-9NIV)

One of the things we are consistently shown in Scriptures is that association means a lot in life. In other words, those that we associate ourselves with can either promote our welfare or expose us to destruction. For instance, after David fled from King Saul, as pointed out in the bible, a number of people who were in distress, in debt or discontented gathered around him. So, he became their captain. (Cf. 1Sam 22:1-2) 

But years later, towards the end of his life, we see that all these people who came to him and who were still alive had become great, influential and wealthy (1Chro 29:6-9). What that means is that their association with him bettered their lives. Their association with him brought them out of the life of discontentment, debt and distress that they had been living before. 

Therefore, we need to watch what our association with others is doing to our lives. Is it promoting righteousness or ungodliness in us? Is it promoting our welfare or getting us into trouble? We should note these things and not ignore them. Otherwise, we may someday become partakers of problems or destruction that is not originally meant for us.

As we see in our opening bible passage, God brought about the downfall of King Ahaziah of Judah through his visit to King Joram of Israel. Why? As we see in the account, God was already unhappy with him because he was not walking in the ways of righteousness but in the ways of wickedness, in the ways of the house of Ahab, the father of Joram. And that was because of his association with members of that house. So, literally, God’s judgment was already hanging on his head, even though it was yet to manifest. (Cf. 2Chro 22:1-6)

Unfortunately for him, as we further see in our opening bible text, when God began to execute judgment on the house of Ahab through Jehu, he was with his son Joram. So, even though the judgment was not originally for him, he partook of it. He was slain and buried.

Well, what is the point of the story? It is that people can meet their fall in life through association with the wrong people. Think about it. When Ahaziah was going to visit Joram, who was recovering from battle injuries, it looked like the right thing to do, a very harmless thing to do. But death was hidden in that visit. And he met it.

In like manner, every day, people meet with destruction, failure or poverty by visiting the wrong people, travelling with the wrong people, working with the wrong people, celebrating with the wrong people, paying condolences to the wrong people or going to live with the wrong people. And if we too don’t want to experience a similar fate, we need to be spiritual in choosing the people we associate with in life. Yes, we need to be spiritual in choosing whom we visit, do business with, work with, live with or keep as close companions.

But we will not be spiritual in making these choices, if we do not take God seriously. Even those who take God seriously can sometimes err along these lines. They, sometimes, can allow greed, lust, undue sentiments or desire for popularity or position to drive them to make unspiritual choices of associating with the wrong people in wrong ways.

For instance, why did Jehoshaphat almost die untimely? It was because, even though he was a righteous king, he allowed his desire for popularity to make him associate with Ahab and even accompany him to war. And if he had not been shown mercy, he would have perished untimely. (Cf. 1Kings 22; 2Chro 18)

Also, why did Lot lose everything he had, including his wife, in Sodom? It was because, even though he was a righteous man, he allowed greed to make him go and live with the wicked and unreasonable Sodomites. So, on the day that Sodom and Gomorrah were judged, it was only by the mercy of God that he and his children escaped with their lives. (Cf. Gen 13 & 20)

So, as long as we keep making unspiritual decisions in our association with people, even God may not be able to guarantee our safety from destruction, poverty or death. We must be careful, then, to stick to His word in handling all our relationships. That it is the only way we will not be motivated by the wrong reasons in associating with the people in our world and expose ourselves to unnecessary danger.

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“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naïve people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent, about what is evil.” (Romans 16:17-19NIV)

What is Paul’s instruction to us in our opening text? It is that we are to keep away from certain individuals in the church. That, of course, is the major punishment to be given to unrepentant brethren. It is withdrawal of fellowship from them. In other words, you refuse to fellowship with them. You refuse to associate with them as you would associate with other believers. 

But what will people do to require that we treat them in this way? Paul says if people are causing divisions in the church, we are to deal with them like this. So, we are talking here about those who have a culture of causing divisions among the brethren and putting obstacles in their way. Whether it is through the things they say, do or teach that they are doing this, they are candidates in this matter. Maybe they are spreading rumours in the church or slandering other believers. Whatever it is that they are doing that is causing divisions in the church, causing brethren to bitter against one another, they must be treated in this manner.

Now Paul says we are to first watch out for them. That means we are to identify them before we can deal with them. So, if we observe that brethren are not relating well or are fighting among themselves or are bitter against themselves, we must locate the source. We must identify who is responsible and warn them. If they take correction and change their ways, the matter should end there. But if they are insisting that they are right and will not accept rebuke and correction, then, we must withdraw fellowship from them. We must let the brethren know them and know that they must not continue to fellowship with them or treat them as believers.

You can see now that this is a clear basis for punishing an unrepentant brother or sister. So, if you are causing divisions in the church, we have a clear basis for punishing you, if you will not repent. We have a clear basis to tell the brethren not to have anything to do with you again. 

This, however, does not mean they are not to greet you again or that they are not to work with you, if you work with the same organisation. Rather, it means they are no longer to treat you as a believer. They can no longer share their lives with you or be involved with you as they would be with a believer. You have shown yourself as someone that is unrepentant and put yourself in a position where we begin to question your salvation and ask ourselves whether you are saved or not.

So, you need to watch yourself. You may not be involved in sexual immorality, stealing, swindling or sorcery. But as long as you are causing division in the church and troubling the body of Christ, you must be treated in the manner we are talking about. 

In fact, writing to Titus, Paul says warn a divisive person twice and then have nothing to do with him again (Titus 3:10). So you must be careful of the things you do and say in the church. Don’t say things that will divide the brethren. Don’t say things that will set them against one another. You need to watch your choice of words in relating to God’s people. Otherwise, you may end up putting yourself in a position where you w

ill be punished.

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“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31NIV) 

Is God for us? Is He on our side? If He is for us, and He is for us if we are believers in Christ Jesus, then, who can be against us? Nobody! I mean that there is no one powerful enough to oppress or harm us in any matter of life since God is for us. We just need to let this soak in our heads and continually walk accordingly.

For example, because of His presence with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, no one could successfully harm, cheat or oppress them. The bible says:

“He allowed no one to oppress them; for their sake he rebuked kings: "Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm."” (Ps 105:14-15NIV) 

Just think about that. God allowed no one to oppress these people because they were His. And He was ready to afflict or kill anyone who tried to do so. It is no wonder, then, that when Moses was leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land, he did not ask God for wealth, food, water or protection for the people. Instead, he asked for His presence. In fact, he plainly told Him that if He would not be with them all the way into the Promised Land, He should not bother sending them up there. 

Why? It was because he knew that God’s presence was everything they needed. In other words, he knew that as long as God was with them, they would have all the food, water, wealth, good health and protection that they needed and even much more. (Cf. Ex 33:12-17)

Now we don’t need to ask for God’s presence in our lives. That is because we already have it through of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is already with us, in us and for us. In fact, the bible says, 

“…God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"” (Heb 13:5-6NIV) 

Did you see that? God Himself has said that He will never ever leave us or forsake us. That means we will always and ever have His presence with us.

And how should we respond to that? Well, as that bible text also shows us, we should respond by confidently saying, “I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Whose job is it to boldly say I will not be afraid? It is my job. It is your job. And whose job is it to boldly say there is nothing any man can do to me? It is my job to say so. It is your job to say so. 

But we are not to say these things because we just want to sound bold or courageous. We are to say them because we know that God is with us all the way to make sure we are adequately taken care of and also protected from all forms of satanic or human oppression. If you, then, know this, get rid of all your fears. Yes, get rid of all your fears of those situations or people that are threatening you, cheating you or oppressing you. That is because God is going to rebuke them and take for you what is rightly yours. 

Remember that He rebuked kings, even kings that were being controlled by demons of sorcery and witchcraft, for His saints of old. So, it won’t be anything serious for Him to also rebuke for you anything or anyone that is against your peace of mind, health or progress, regardless of what measure of demonic influence they are exercising. You just make sure you that you always remind yourself that He is with you. And you shall continually witness great manifestations of His power on your behalf.

Have a splendid day.

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“I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” (Luke 10:19NIV) 

Did you see that? Satan actually has power. And that is why he is able to cause all kinds of troubles in our world and even in our lives.

However, the Lord tells us that He has already given us authority to overcome his power and to destroy his works. Think about that. He is not going to give us authority over the devil and his works – He has already given it to us. And it is now up to us to acknowledge what we have received from Him. Yes, it is up to us to daily function as those that have been entrusted by God with the authority to destroy the works of the devil.

Remember that it is said about our Lord Jesus that He came to destroy the works of the devil (1John 3:8). It is also said about Him that He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38). And though He is no longer physically present in the world, He has given those of us who believe in Him the authority to carry on the works He was doing when He was here. He has given us the authority to resist the devil in our lives and all around us and get him running.

But we must show that we have actually received this authority from the Lord. How? First, it is by thanking Him for it. It is written in the bible that people were always praising God for giving to humanity the authority to destroy the works of the devil, whenever Jesus set someone free (Matthew 9:8 & 15:31). And if you too know that you have received the same authority from Him to destroy the works of the devil and make your life and this world better, you should continually thank Him for it.

The second way to show that we have received from God the authority to overcome the power of the devil is to use this authority. Authority that is not used to serve the purpose for which it has been given is useless. So, until we begin to intelligently use the authority God has given us over the devil to frustrate him and his angels, that authority will be as good as useless in our hands.

See, it is our use of the authority God has given us over the devil that will cause peace, joy, prosperity and healing to reign in our lives and in our land. It is our use of this authority that will bring salvation to the lives of many. For example, Luke, speaking about the ministry of Paul in Philippi, tells us of their encounter with a lady that had the spirit of divination in her. According to him, this lady troubled them for many days with her spirit of divination. That was because she was following them up and down, telling people that they were servants of God and giving them the impression that they were being used by the same spirit. (Cf. Acts 16:16-18)

Surprisingly, God did not do anything to that young lady. God did not drive her away or stop her from disturbing the works of these apostles. Why? He had already given them the authority to deal with the spirit in her. If they, then, chose not to deal with it, the problem was theirs and not His. But when Paul rebuked the spirit in her in the name of Jesus, it left her and she was set free. So, she stopped disturbing them and also stopped deceiving people. 

In like manner, there are times that if we do not use the authority given to us by God to deal with the devil, God may not do anything about his works in our lives and around us. Yes, we may be in pains and not happy at all because of Satan’s wicked works. Yet, if we will not use the authority we have in the name of Jesus to deal with him, God may just be looking at us. And perhaps that is why you are experiencing pains and sorrow in certain areas of your life right now. While you are waiting for God to do something about those pains you are having, He also is waiting for you to use your authority to make yourself free. 

My prayer, then, is that your heart will be strengthened to rise up and begin to use that authority that is yours in Christ Jesus to end every evil work of the devil in your life and around you, so that you may experience perfect peace. Amen.

Have a splendid day.

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Sometimes ago, I was reading a book of a respected man of God and came upon a part of it in which he was trying to use his experiences in business to establish that his interpretation of certain things said in Scriptures about tithing and the giving of firstfruits was correct. And while nothing is wrong with using our life’s experiences to illustrate bible truths, we must avoid making the mistake of interpreting the word of God with our experiences. The one that must interpret what Scriptures say to us is the Holy Spirit. And He will not interpret Scriptures using our experiences or feelings. Rather, He will interpret Scriptures using Scriptures.

Now, as we see in Scriptures, God once commanded Moses and Aaron to speak to the rock that was before the Israelites so that water would come out of it for the people to drink. But instead for them to speak to that rock, Moses smote it with the rod in his hands twice. And did water come out of it or not? Water came out of it for the people to drink. But is that to say that the experience the people had then was produced by a correct handling of the word of God? No! (Cf. Num 20:1-12)

Moses and Aaron handled the word of God incorrectly on that occasion. Yet their people experienced God’s supply of water. But to show everyone that Moses and Aaron missed it, God told them that they would not make it into the Promised Land. And it was so. So, it is possible for you to handle the word of God incorrectly and still experience what those who are handling His word correctly are experiencing. But then, unless you are shown mercy, you will have to face the repercussions of handling His word incorrectly, as Moses and Aaron did.

In like manner, we may be handling the word of God correctly and still have experiences that are contrary to what His word says. Is that to say that our experiences can invalidate the word of God? No! What, then, is the problem? There is no problem at all with us or with the word of God in such situations. All we need is just to be patient and remain steadfast in handling the truth of God that we know correctly. And at the right time, our experiences in life will be made to agree with what God has said.

As we see in the bible, when Moses first took the word of the Lord to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to set the Israelites free, things got worse for the people. But did their immediate experience at that time stop God’s word from eventually setting them free? No! His word still set them free. But Moses had to persist in confronting Pharaoh and his officials with everything God was saying to him until the Israelites were set free. 

So, we too must keep on holding fast to what God has said about our lives and confronting our situations with it, even if our experiences are contrary to what He says. That is because our experiences cannot invalidate the word of God or render it impotent. But His word, if we do not give up on it, will surely change our experiences to conform with His good purpose for our lives. How long, then, shall we need to hold fast the word of God in order to experience it? We have to hold on to it till we experience what it says. And my prayer is that you will always have in you sufficient strength and courage to keep acting on what God says about every situation of your life, so that you may experience every good thing He wants you to experience in life, regardless of how long it may take. Amen.

Have a pleasant day.

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“So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them. They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people. Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, "Naboth has cursed both God and the king." So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. Then they sent word to Jezebel: "Naboth has been stoned and is dead."” (1Kings 21:11-14NIV)

What did Naboth do wrong to merit this kind of cruel death? Nothing! The man did not do anything wrong or anything contrary to the will of God for him to be killed in the manner that he was killed. All that he did was to refuse to sell his inheritance to a wicked and ruthless king. Then some scoundrels were hired to lie against him and get him executed.

You can see, then, that it is not a new thing for innocent people to be framed and killed, molested or punished for crimes they have not committed. And the shocking part of it is that God may not do anything about it. He did not do anything, as we see, to stop Naboth from being unjustly murdered? Why? We are not told in Scriptures. Yes, we are told that He judged Naboth’s killers. But He did not stop them from killing him, just as he did not stop Cain from killing Abel.

What is this teaching us? It is that it is not every time God prevents evil from happening to good people, if they don’t ask Him to do so. Yes, He will judge every form of wickedness done by men against one another. But which will you prefer, to be protected by God from becoming a victim of the wickedness of men or to have God judge your killers or tormentors after they have already had their way with you?

Well, I already know your answer. You don’t want God to avenge you when He could have protected you. And that is why whenever you are dealing with cruel, unreasonable, bitter or jealous people, don’t hesitate to pray to God for His mercy and protection. Otherwise, you may end up being a victim of their lies, treachery, jealousy or wickedness. 

For example, after Peter and John had been quizzed and threatened by the religious leaders of the Jews not to preach any longer in the name of Jesus, they went back to the other apostles and disciples to pray about the matter. They asked God to take note of the threats of these leaders and to also enable them to continue to do what is right, even as He stretched forth His hand to display His power. (Cf. Acts 4:5-31)

Why did they pray like that? They prayed like that because they knew that the men they were dealing with were wicked and ruthless. Remember that these same men killed Jesus. And even after God had raised Him from the dead, they paid the soldiers guarding His tomb to spread a lie that His disciples stole His body while they were sleeping. And that was to nullify any sermon about His resurrection. (Cf. Matt 28:11-15)

So, these leaders were men that were wicked and ruthless enough to make good their threats. And since these disciples knew that they had no power against them, all they could do was commit their lives, ministry and safety into God’s hand. And He answered them that same day and even gave them a sign that He did.

In like manner, don’t ever ignore any threat or display of jealousy or bitterness of those in your world, simply because you think you have not done anything wrong. No, don’t ever assume that they are just bluffing and cannot follow through their threats, for they may be wicked enough to follow them through. Instead, pray to God about them and tell Him to take note of their words and threats. And He will surely answer you. 

Then wherever you can take any legitimate step to keep yourself safe from vicious or wicked ones, do so. Don’t foolishly walk into anyone’s traps. And may the Lord continue to keep you safe. Amen.

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“But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, "Do not answer him."” (2Kings 18:36NIV)

Who were the people that remained silent and would not reply who was talking to them? It was the Jews under the reign of King Hezekiah. Who would they not reply? It was the commander of the army of the king of Assyria. And why would they not reply this man? They would not reply him because their king, Hezekiah, had told them not to answer him.

Now why would Hezekiah instruct his people not to answer this man? It was because answering him would not solve the problem at hand but only escalate it. As the account goes, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria at that time, had sent his commander with a great army to the land of Judah for the sole purpose of possessing the land and its people. And this commander began his campaign by first threatening the people and ridiculing their king and their God. In fact, at some point, he began to address them in Hebrew, so that his threats and words of annoyance would sink into their hearts more readily. (Cf. 2Kings 18:17-35).

That being the case, Hezekiah suspected that some of his people might become provoked by this man’s words and decide to answer him. And that was exactly what the man wanted. He wanted to provoke the people to respond to his threats, so that he would have an easy reason to attack the land. Then all that Hezekiah had been doing to avoid going to war with the Assyrians would have amount to nothing.

As the account further shows us, the army of Judah at that time was actually no match for the Assyrians’. That, of course, was why Hezekiah was doing all that he could do to avoid any kind of direct confrontation with them. And in doing this, he went as far as giving the king of Assyria all the gold and silver that he could lay his hands on in his treasuries. He even took things from the temple of God in order to appease this ruthless king. (Cf. 2Kings 18:13-16)  

Nevertheless, Sennacherib would not stop haunting and harassing the nation of Judah. Why? He was bent on possessing it for himself. And he only needed a little insult or provocation from the people to attack them. This was why Hezekiah commanded his people not to answer the commander of his army whom he had sent to insult them. 

See, Hezekiah knew that responding to this man’s threats and insults would not solve their problem in any way. Instead, it would only make it worse by bringing quick destruction upon them. The only one that could solve their problem at the time was their God whom the man had been insulting. He, then, was the person they were supposed to be talking to and not the man. And when they talked to Him about the matter, He answered them and turned all the threats of the commander of the Assyrian army into empty and useless threats. (Cf. 2Kings 19)

What is the lesson for us here? Well, it is that we must know when to keep quiet and not respond to people’s arrogant words or threats. Look, there are times that we may come across human opponents or enemies that we clearly do not have enough education, power, influence or money to defend ourselves against. And these ones may deliberately be provoking us to say or do things that will give them a reason to attack and hurt or disgrace us. 

Our wisdom at such times, then, will be to be quiet and refuse to respond to whatever they say or do to us against us, however arrogant or annoying it may seem. That is because responding to them will simply make matters worse, something that we ourselves will know, if we are not foolish or reckless. 

Not replying such people in such situations, however, does not mean we are not to take any step towards defending or protecting ourselves against their nonsense. We must take steps towards doing that. But our most important step will be to talk to God about what they are doing and let Him rebuke them for us. How He will rebuke them, of course, is up to Him. But we can be sure that if, instead of trying to fight a battle we cannot win, we will entrust the situation to Him, He will handle it for us. And when He is done, we might find ourselves asking, “God, have you not gone too far in dealing with this?”

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“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:9NIV) 

Did you see that? If it is not possible for us to become weary in doing good, we will not be given this instruction. If situations that could make us become weary in doing good do not exist, we will not be told not to become weary in doing good.

But such situations exist. Look at the challenges we are facing in our country, for instance. Fuel price has terribly gone up. There is scarcity of cash to spend everywhere. We also have to daily deal with epileptic power supply. And these things are causing prices of goods and services to increase daily, even though the money many are making is not increasing.

Now because of these things, many who have been generous to God and men before are drawing back and using the situation as their excuse for not being generous again. And if those who have been generous can act like that, how do you expect those who have never been generous to act? Well, the word of God has anticipated that things that can make us relent in generosity can happen. That is why it tells us not to become weary in doing so. Why? It is because at the right time God will reward us for all our acts of generosity. He will not overlook or forget any one of them.

So, if you have been drawing back on giving to the people in your life, you need to renew your devotion to doing so. And if you have been drawing back on giving for the work of God and to the people feeding you with His word, you need to renew your devotion to doing so. Otherwise, you will be cheating yourself of all the benefits of doing so. Remember that you cannot reap what you have not sowed. So, if you refuse to plant because you think your seed is not much and you eat up everything, you will surely have nothing to reap at the time of harvest.

This, I believe, is what Paul has in mind when he says the following to the Corinthians about their giving: 

“And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.” (2Cor 8:10-12NIV)

From what Paul says here, it is clear that the Corinthian brethren had once been devoted to giving generously to support other churches of God in need. In fact, this apostle says that they were not only eager to give but also prompt in doing so. But at some point, for some reasons we would not know, they began to draw back in generosity and would not complete what they started.

Therefore, Paul had to address them in his letter about the matter and told them it is not enough for one to express willingness to give; you also have to match up that willingness by actually giving according to your means. And as he furthers points out, as long as the willingness is there, whatever we give will be accepted by God based on what we have and not what we do not have.

So, as long as you have something, be sure you are giving out of it instead of making excuses. That is because God will not reward your excuses but your obedience to His word. My prayer, then, is that you will never find yourself in a position in life in which you will be so empty that you will have nothing to give, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a peaceful day.

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“There is nothing better for people to do than to eat, drink, and find satisfaction in their work. I saw that even this comes from the hand of God. Who can eat or enjoy themselves without God?” (Eccl 2:24-25GW) 

Can you see that? Nobody can enjoy his life without God. And we do not by saying that mean that people need to know or acknowledge God before they can enjoy life. What we are saying is that whether people acknowledge God or not, He is still the reason they are living and enjoying whatever it is they are enjoying now about their lives. And the earlier they acknowledge this fact the better for them. (Cf. Ps 145:15-16; Matt 5:45; Acts 14:15-16 & 17:24-25)

Look at the world yourself, and you will agree that the things that happen in it are beyond what meets the eyes. There are so many things that are happening that are beyond what we can explain or control. Yet some people will have us believe that we can be victorious in the face of all these invisible forces that are working against us just by staying positive or by exercising our will-power. 

Let me ask you something, “Have you ever at any time failed when success seemed so sure, or have you ever lost something that you thought you already had?” If you have, what explanation do you have to give for that? Did you lose because you were not positive enough? Or did you fail because you would not exercise your will-power and put your potential to work?

Well, my point is that life is beyond what our natural or mental faculties can handle. Life is spiritual. So we need a spiritual being to enable us handle it. And that spiritual being is God, the author of life itself. Yes, there are many spiritual beings all around us that are volunteering to help us handle life. But all of them are created beings, created beings that have lost their ways. So, they don't have what it takes to help us in any way; all they have is what it takes to compound our problems.

You can see why those who get involved in the practice of witchcraft, sorcery, divination or enchantment can never be free from trouble in this life. Each time they attempt to solve one problem, they will create several other ones for themselves and for others as well. The only one who can solve all of our lives' problems and challenges and not create more problems for us is God (Prov 10:22). And when you truly daily acknowledge that and entrust yourself to Him, He also will daily lead you to a true enjoyment of

 your life.

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“Don't let anyone deceive you. Associating with bad people will ruin decent people.” (1Cor 15:33GW) 

That is self-explanatory, or what do you think? You cannot keep associating with the wrong people or exposing yourself to the wrong information and philosophies and not constantly fall into all kinds of temptations.

So, watch the kind of company you keep to see what sort of people it is made up of. You may have a good heart. But if you keep hanging out with drunkards, adulterers, swindlers, robbers and so forth, even if they are so-called church people, it won't be long before they ruin your decent life or home with their evil behaviours.

Also, watch the way you use the things of this world. The radio, the television and the internet are good and profitable, if they are used wisely. But if you don't watch your fellowship with them, if you don't watch the kind of things you feed your ears and eyes with through these mediums, you will be weakening yourself and destroying your chances of living a victorious life over every kind of sin.

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“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” (2Peter 3:10NIV) 

What is Peter telling us in our opening text? He is telling us that all the things that we now see, adore and relate to will be destroyed with fire when the day of the Lord comes. All the things of this world that men cherish, all the things they are struggling and labouring hard to possess and all the things for which they are lying, stealing and killing themselves will in that day be destroyed. Yes, the systems of the world, with all their decays and corruption, will be brought to a certain and final end. 

Not only that, Satan, his angels, all the people who are on his side and everything that is causing sin and death will be totally and finally removed from the presence of God and thrown into the lake of fire, which will be their eternal home (Matt 21:31-46; Rev 20). You can now see why the new heaven and the new earth, which God is going to bring, will be the home of righteousness, peace, love, order and immeasurable joy. (Cf. 2Pet 3:13) 

Now all these things depict the final phase of the Christian's salvation, a salvation that separates him totally and finally from everything that connects him with the flesh, the devil, the world, sin, death and hell. And as you can see, this has not yet happened. I am saying that we have not yet been separated from our mortal bodies, just as we have not yet been separated from the presence of the devil, the world, sin, death and hell. That is why, every day, we are still confronted with satanic activities and all kinds of temptations to sin and do what is wrong. 

Nevertheless, we have this hope that, someday, we are going to be finally saved and separated from the presence of all these things. And this hope, according to the Scriptures, is a blessed hope, a living hope, a hope that does not disappoint. (Cf. Rom 5:5, Titus 2:11-14, 1Pet 1:3)

What we are saying is that we, who have come to trust in God through Jesus Christ, are not hopeless like those of the world (Eph 2:12). Regardless of the economic, political, social, security and religious conditions of our world, we are not hopeless. And that is because we know that our lives go beyond here. We know that we will not continue to live in a messed up and utterly corrupt world. We know that we will not forever endure the injustices, the wickedness, the pollution and the confusion in the world. And that is because God will soon send our Saviour, Jesus Christ, to free us from all these things and bring us to that home of righteousness that He has destined for us.

Therefore, don’t get yourself tied up to anything of this world. That is because everything here in the world will someday be destroyed with fire. But the one who puts his hope in the Lord, looking forward to be a part of His eternal kingdom of righteousness, will live forever. And you should daily encourage yourse

lf with this.

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“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6NIV) 

Here we are given two things to believe about God. Number one, we are to believe in the existence of God. We are told that anyone who comes to Him must first of all believe that He exists. That is the starting point. That must be settled in our hearts—the reality of the existence of God. 

Is the existence of God, then, real to you as a person? Or is it only when you are in a church meeting that you feel that God is real? Is it possible that when you are out there you are never really sure of the existence of God?

I want you to know that there are actually people like that. Their opinion about God changes with their environmental situation or social situation. When they are in a church meeting, where everyone is feeling holy and righteous, they will remember that God is actually in existence. But when they are outside church settings, among their friends or colleagues or neighbours, everything changes. 

But we are told in our opening text that the first thing to believe about God is His existences. God exists, and until that is settled in your heart, He has nothing else to say to you. There is nothing else He is going to say to you that will make sense to you. 

Then, the second thing we are told in that text to believe is the justice of God. God is a rewarder. A rewarder is a judge. God is a judge. He is going to judge man. He is going judge our actions. We are not going to get away with our actions. 

See, man is not going to get away with His actions, for there is a judge that will reward him. God is that judge. That is why we need to be conscious of what we do. We need to always remember that there is someone watching what we are doing. There is someone that is monitoring what we are doing. And He is going to judge you and me someday. So, we are not going to get away from your actions.

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“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” (1Tim 6:17NIV)

What is the Spirit’s instruction to those who are rich in this present world, as we see in our opening text? It is for them not to be proud or to put their hope in earthly riches. Now, of course, this instruction is not applicable to those who are rich alone but to all men. That is because it is not only those who are rich who can be proud. Those who are poor can also be proud. And I have seen under the sun very poor and lowly people who are full of themselves, just as I have seen under it rich and influential people who are meek and easy to get along with.

So, to say the fact, it is not wealth that makes people become proud. People are proud because Satan has succeeded in making them have an opinion of themselves that does not exist. And wealth may just be the one thing that will underline that pride that has always been in them.

In any case, we all, not just the rich among us, are being warned by the Spirit not to be arrogant or to put our hope in wealth or earthly riches. And why are we warned not to put our hope in earthly riches? It is because they are uncertain. In other words, wealth is unreliable. Yes, wealth is undependable. So, it can disappoint you or put you to shame when you least expect it to do so.

Unfortunately, many do not know this. So, in a crazy fashion, they run around the world, getting involved in all kinds of foolish and harmful things in order to become rich. And will that definitely make them become rich? No! Eagerness for money or earthly riches will not necessarily make you rich or wealthy. And there are millions all around the world today whose lives are proving this to be the fact. They have been running around for money all their lives. Yet they are poor, very poor today. 

Then, even if you have become rich or wealthy, whether through diligent and honest labour or otherwise, it still does not mean that you are going to have the happy, peaceful and rich life your heart desires to have here on earth. And there are many wealthy people today that are not happy. Yes, they are rich in earthly goods. But their riches have not been able to give them peace of mind, a sound body, a great marriage or fantastic children. Why? It is because wealth has no power to give anybody anything God has not given.

Besides all that, wealth can be lost. It can fly away. It can disappear into thin air. As we are told in the bible, in one day, righteous Lot lost all the possessions he had used his entire life to labour for to the fires that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah. And in one day, blameless and upright Job, who was considered to be richest and greatest of all the men of the eastern part of the world of his time, lost everything he had laboured for all his life. Did these men lose their wealth because they were evil? No! Rather, they lost it because life’s circumstances went against them at some point in their lives. (Cf. Gen 19; Job 1; Prov 23:5)

So, the uncertainty of earthly riches can manifest to any man, whether they are righteous or wicked. And if that should happen, what will determine what happens to them afterwards is where their confidence lies all along. If their confidence lies in their wealth and they have been building their lives on it, then, they will most likely perish with it, if it perishes or disappoints them. But if their confidence lies in God, then, He will comfort them and restore them, even if their wealth fails or disappoints them. That was what happened in Job’s case. He did not lose his life and eternity along with his wealth because his confidence was never in it but in God. And though life circumstances really messed him up, God eventually showed up at the right time, comforted him and also restored him. (Cf. Job 42)

Now this same God is always ready to heal, comfort and restore you, regardless of what life throws at you. But you have to put your confidence in Him and not in money or anything else. That is because He is the only one that is certain in His devotion, love and care. But all other people and things can fail you and will fail you, if the circumstances are right.

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I pray for you today that your heart will continually be strengthened by the Spirit of God to remain true to the Lord and firmly established in His righteousness, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As the Lord has clearly made known to me, one major thing that is hindering the spread and reign of the word of God in our land is the inconsistency of the lives of many so-called children of God with His righteousness. In other words, more people are not coming to the Lord Jesus for salvation because they cannot see the fruit of salvation in the lives of many of us who claim to have been saved by Him. How can we tell people to come to the Lord for liberty from Satan and their sins, when we ourselves are still obviously living as their slaves? Who is going to take us seriously?

See, it is not that people do not want to be saved from their sins, bad habits, destructive influences, sicknesses, generational curses, poverty and so forth; it is just that they want people whose lives will prove to them that they can actually be saved from these things. And God has saved us, recreated us, filled us with His Holy Spirit and planted us where we are to be such proofs to them. Unfortunately, many of us are even ignorant of His intentions and purposes for us. So, we frustrate them by living lives that are totally contrary to what we are made to live.

This, of course, is not foreign to the church. Even in the days of the apostles of old, similar things were happening among God’s people. There were also so-called believers at that time who would not stop stealing, fornicating, swindling people, keeping malice, living in greed, cheating their workers or practising sorcery. There were even murderers, hypocrites and drunkards in the church in those days. Therefore, none of the evil practices we see in the church and among God’s people today is new or peculiar to our time. (Cf. Rom 2:21-22; 1Cor 5; James 4:1-2&5:1-6)

However, the apostles of the Lord of old have also made it very clear to us through their writings that every so-called child of God who is involved in these things is not only blaspheming the name of the Lord Jesus and despising His grace but also destroying the work of salvation that He is doing in the world. Therefore, such an individual can certainly expect a revelation of God’s wrath against him (Rom 2:1-11; Heb 10:26-31). And this not something that will be delayed to the day of judgment. Rather, it is something that he will begin to witness right from this world.

All this is why Peter says to us, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God…” (1Peter 4:17NIV) Did you see that? This apostle is not speaking here about the judgment that is coming on the day of the Lord. Instead, he is speaking of an on-going judgment of God that is taking place right here in the world. And he is saying those in the church also will not escape this judgment. In fact, it will start with them and among them. 

Therefore, if you are deliberately doing things that are contrary to the righteousness of God, know that you are a candidate for God’s judgment. And how exactly He will judge is not something anybody can say. But from what the Lord Jesus says to the church in Thyatira and what Paul says to the Corinthian brethren, we know that God may judge His people with sicknesses, weaknesses, labour loss or even death (1Cor 11:28-30; Rev 2:20-23). 

Now if you have not experienced any of these things, even though it is obvious that you are living in sin, you need to understand that God is just giving you time to repent. But if you fail to repent within the amount of time He has given you, then, you leave Him with no choice but to judge you in His righteousness. And how that will end for you is not what I can say. So, repent now and also tell your partners in sin to repent. Otherwise, you may end up being crushed under the wrath of God.

Do have a great day. 

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“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.” (Rom 13:8NIV)

One of the things every child of God must learn to avoid in life is borrowing. Why? It is because, as the bible rightly puts it, the borrower is servant to the lender (Prov 22:7). In other words, borrowing from people can put you at their mercy, especially if they are wicked and unreasonable. It can place you in impossible situations in life. It can make you beg where you shouldn’t be begging, hide where you should boldly stand out or remain quiet where your voice ought to be loud and clear. Borrowing can even lead you to a place of depression or to an early grave. So, if you can totally avoid borrowing from people, especially money, then, do so. It will spell rest of mind for you.

But we know that, as long as we are in this world, we may not be able to totally avoid borrowing from people. Even the richest among men sometimes borrow to do some things. However, one main difference between them and the poor is that they usually borrow to invest in things they are certain will make them more money and not in liabilities. The poor, on the contrary, often borrow to take care of liabilities like weddings, house rents, funerals, luxury cars and so forth, things that will not earn them more money or put them in positions where they can access more resources. So, they end up getting in trouble for nothing.

Then the rich hardly borrow money that they do not have assets or resources to take care of, just in case they are faced with disappointments. The poor, however, borrow only on the basis of hope, the hope that things will soon get better for them or that a miracle will happen that will enable them to pay back what they have borrowed. So, they end up eating their future before it comes.

In any case, the Spirit of God, speaking to us in our opening bible text, instructs to see to it that we owe nobody nothing. He says let there be no outstanding debt. In other words, we are to live our lives in such a way that if our Lord Jesus comes today to take us home with Him, we will have no debt on our necks. Yes, we are to live in such a way that if our time in the world is up today, we will leave no unsettled debt for our children, families or loved ones.

In 2Kings 4 is the story of a man of God that died without settling all his debts. So, his creditors came to take away his two boys as slaves. And when his widow ran to Prophet Elisha for help, he did not say, “No! No! Call those people for me. They cannot do that at all. Don’t they know that your husband was a man of God? Why would they not cancel his debt?” 

Elisha did not talk like that at all? Why? It was because he knew that it was not the will of God for His people, not to talk of His servants, to owe anybody anything. In fact, part of the word of the blessings that He gave to them through Moses was that they would be the ones lending to others instead of borrowing from them (Deut 28:12). So, by the leading of the Spirit of God, he told that woman what to do to pay their debt and begin to live lives free of debt.

Now my thought is that that woman’s husband could as well have taken the step his wife later took. He could have met the man of God for help while he was still alive. And the miracle that his wife and children received may have come to them sooner. Then maybe he would not have died as early as he did. Who knows?

What is my point, anyway? It is that you need to settle all your debts, whatever they are, now that you are alive and now that our Lord Jesus has not come. Pay up whatever you owe anybody, whether it is money or promises. Pay up whatever you owe the government, whether you are dealing with taxes, revenues or services. And pay up whatever you owe God, whether it is money, time or devotion.

But then, someone may say, “I really want to pay all my debts. But I just don’t have the money or means to do so at this time.” As honest as that may sound, it is still not an acceptable excuse before God for having outstanding debts. Do you know what He says about people who owe and do not pay back? He says they are wicked (Ps 37:21). 

So, if you owe and will not pay back, whatever your excuses may be, you are a wicked person, as far as God is concerned. That is because you are cheating the person that lent you what you owe. You are hindering them from enjoying the fruit of their labour and from advancing in their lives. Also, you are repaying their acts of kindness with evil. If they had not lent you what you owe or sold to you what you bought on credit, would you have taken it from them by force? Quite unlikely! So, not to pay back what you owe them when due or at all is wicked in the sight of God. And it can hinder your own progress and enjoyment of life too in ways beyond understanding. Stop making excuses, then, and make up your mind to pay up everything you owe without any further delay.

Second, you need to wholeheartedly reach out for God’s divine supply to clear all your debts, however huge them may be. That was what that widow that went to Elisha did. And to say the fact, SOME PEOPLE CANNOT COME OUT OF DEBT IN LIFE UNLESS A MIRACLE HAPPENS. So, you too should reach out for God concerning your debts. Pray to Him about them. Study His word to know His will for your finances. Then get spiritual counsel from trusted people of God and act on it. And you will be amazed at how soon God will lead you to begin to live a debt free life. 

Finally, you need to begin take legitimate steps that are within your ability in order to settle all your debts. One of such steps will be to stop borrowing, especially for irrelevances and things that won’t make you more money. Another will be to always find worthy alternatives that will cost you less for everything you want to do or acquire until you are financially independent. Then identify and ruthlessly cut off every form of waste of resources happening in your life. Otherwise, regardless of how much help God sends to get you out of debt, you may never be debt free.

Have a splendid day.

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“At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you; I will rescue the lame and gather those who have been scattered. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they were put to shame.” (Zeph 3:19NIV)

What do we see here in our opening text? First, we see that God promises to deal with the oppressors of His people. So, if there are people oppressing you at the moment, know that their time is up. That is because God will surely lay hands on them and deal with them as their actions deserve. 

Now what He will do to them is not your job to know but His job. But you can be sure that when He is through with them, they will never again think of oppressing anyone else, if they are still breathing. King Abimelech of Abraham’s day would tell you what if feels like to have God deal with oppressors, even when they have acted in ignorance, if you would ask him. (Cf. Gen 20)

Then God says that He will give praise and honour to His people in every place where they have suffered shame. And that is going to be your experience, if you will accept His word by faith. He will cause people to celebrate you in all the places where they have mocked and disgraced you in the past.

Remember He did something similar for Joseph. In the same place where he once served both as a slave and prisoner, he also later served there as their prime minister. You can then imagine how people like Potiphar and his wife must have afterwards related to him. That was just an example of how God can lift people up and honour them where they have been despised. (Cf. Gen 39-41)

So, don’t lose heart, regardless of what your current position in life may be. Instead, embrace the word of God to you concerning your elevation and honour. Yes, embrace His word by saying the same thing in agreement with Him, in spite of how things may now look for you. And if you do not faint, you will certainly witness a fulfilment of His good word concerning you at the appropriate time.

Do have a great day.

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“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” (1Peter 2:1NIV) 

What are the things Peter is asking us to rid ourselves of here? They are the works of the flesh. And he gives us examples of the works of the flesh that we need to rid ourselves of. He mentions malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. Of course, there are several other works of the flesh that this apostle could have used as examples. But he uses these ones, I believe, because they are major among those works of the flesh that often mess up Christian fellowship, ruin the church of God and hinder her growth and effectiveness. 

For example, as terrible as adultery and idolatry are, they hardly result in church split or disintegration. But malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander, if not addressed on time, can scatter any church in few weeks and fill the brethren involved with bitterness that may not go away for the rest of their earthly lives. And that is one of the reasons God is sometimes ruthless in judging these sins among His people.

Do you remember the case of Ananias and Sapphira? Why was God ruthless in judging them the way He did? Why did He kill these couples on the same day without even blinking an eye? It was because of deceit and hypocrisy. These people were trying to deceive the church of God about their offering, giving everyone the impression that they were giving more than they were actually giving. So, God judged them with death before they could get any chance to introduce other brethren to a life of deceit (Acts 5:1-11).

What this is showing us is that God cares about His church and will not fold His arms and watch anyone corrupt or destroy her, for the church is His temple. In fact, Paul tells us that God will destroy anyone that destroys His temple. All of this is why we need to take Peter’s admonition that we have in our opening text very seriously. We need to rid our lives of very kind of deceit, malice, envy, hypocrisy and slander, as we relate to one another in our various assemblies. Otherwise, we may bring down God’s judgment on ourselves. (Cf. 1Cor 3:16-17)

Unfortunately, many of God’s people are ignorant of these things. Therefore, they allow malice, hypocrisy, envy, deceit and slander to thrive and fester in their lives and among them. It is no big wonder, then, that we have many in our various Christian assemblies today that are battling with all kinds of sicknesses, poverty and distress that will not go away, regardless of how hard they pray or fast. What these ones need to do is to rid their lives of these terrible works of the flesh that they have permitted in them. And the healing of Jesus will begin to manifest in them.

Now perhaps the reason you too are facing certain problems that will not go away in your life is that you have given room for hatred, malice, envy, slander and hypocrisy in your life. You have allowed the devil to be using you to secretly or openly ruin the church of God. You need to repent now so that your life will be healed and made whole. Otherwise, things may go from bad to worse for you. My prayer is that your heart will be humbled to do the right thing without delay, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a splendid day.

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“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” (Matt 3:8-9NIV) 

Those were the words of John the Baptist to the Jews of his time. And why did he say these words to them? It was because even though the will of God had been made known to them through their Scriptures, they were not living accordingly. Yet they never stopped showing pride in the fact that they were Abraham’s descendants.

Sadly, there are still many like them today. They too are living off the names and reputations of their parents or grandparents. But they themselves have no good name or reputation that could make any serious-minded person want to associate with them. And what they do not know is that they if they will not live up to the good names and reputations of their ancestors, a time will come when no one will reckon with their relationships with these ancestors of theirs again. Instead, they will turn to those who are walking in the footsteps of these great people and begin to celebrate their names.

Now that is exactly what John the Baptist was communicating to his people, the Israelites, when he said the words in the above Scripture to them. He wanted them to know that they couldn’t inherit Abraham’s relationship with God. They would have to build their own relationship with Him by taking Him seriously the way he did. Why? It is because relationships are built and not inherited. 

See, that someone was a good friend of your late parents does not mean he is going to be a good friend of yours too. If you do not relate to the person the way your parents related to him, he may, at some point, change his mind about you and stop having anything to do with you. Does that mean he has changed his mind about your parents too? No! His relationship with your parents is a settled case. But there is no way he will continue that same relationship with you, if you will not treat him with the kind of respect and love your parents gave him.

In like manner, John wanted the Jews to know that if they would not take God seriously the way their forefather Abraham did, they would not enjoy God the way he did. On the contrary, God would find Himself other children that would relate to Him as Abraham did, even if He had to raise them from some stones. And what that is telling us is that if we will not do the will of God from our hearts, He may at some point find and replace us with other people that will do what He wants, even if we have come from a family of those who once served and cherished Him.

And we have examples in Scriptures of how certain people who would not do His will were replaced by Him with others who would do what He wanted. For instance, He replaced Eli’s sons with Samuel and made him the judge of the nation of Israel instead of them. He also replaced King Saul with David, even though David was not a prince. And my prayer is that He will not have to replace you with another person in His kingdom, in your family, in your neighbourhood or in your workplace or school. 

But you have to begin to take your relationship with Him seriously. You have to begin to take the doing of His will seriously. What are the things He wants you to do? Where are the places He wants you to go? Who are the people He wants you to support with your resources? You need to settle down to pray and study His word to know these things and to be devoted to them. Otherwise, He will surely and someday find someone else to do what you will not do, for His work cannot be left undone.

Have a great day.

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“Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.” (1Sam 15:10-11NIV) 

What do we see in our opening text for today’s devotion? We see that even though it was God Himself that chose and ordained Saul as king, He later regretted choosing him.

Now people often say that God never regrets doing anything. But that is their own thought, and it is contrary to Scriptures. From what we see in Scriptures, there were times God regretted doing certain things. And He did not lie to Himself at such times. Instead, He faced the reality and dealt with the things that brought Him regret. 

So, if you too are having a feeling of regret or disappointment about certain decisions you made in the past, decisions that appeared to be good at the time you were making them but which have now turned bad, don’t be too hard on yourself. Instead, face the reality and do the needful.

God had to face the reality in Saul’s case and do the needful. He had to anoint someone else in his stead, even while he was still on the throne. But was He happy about the fact that He had to do that? No! 

What about Prophet Samuel who represented God in handling Saul’s ordination? Was he happy with the fact that the man lost his way and could not be brought to repentance? No! On the contrary, we are told in the bible that he kept on mourning for him until God stopped him from doing so and told him to go and anoint someone else in his stead. (Cf. 1Sam 15:35 & 16:1) 

In like manner, even if the people we have as leaders over us in our country, cities, towns, villages, institutions and even churches are God’s anointed leaders, we cannot guarantee that they will not fail us. That is because they may fail both God and us. Now if God’s choice can fail us, can we confidently say that our own choices won’t fail us? We can’t. And if they should fail us, what are we going to do? Are we going to continue to mourn like Samuel until we have no strength anymore to mourn? No! We will just have to turn to God to show us how to resolve the problem.

In any case, my point is that we must be careful not to put our trust in any of human being but in God. That way, even if they fail us, we will be able to count on God to turn their failure around for our good. 

Have a splendid day.

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“When Haman entered, the king asked him, "What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?" Now Haman thought to himself, "Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?" So he answered the king, "For the man the king delights to honor, have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king's most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, 'This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!'" "Go at once," the king commanded Haman. "Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended."” (Est 6:6-10NIV)

The bible passage above is clearly a familiar one to many readers of the bible. And it speaks of how the great King Xerxes appreciated and honoured a Jew called Mordecai. As the story goes, Mordecai once exposed certain officers of this king that had plotted to assassinate him. Why did they plot to assassinate him? We are not told in the account. But we are told that Mordecai found out about them and was discreet enough to expose them before they were able to carry out their wicked plot or escape. (Cf. Esther 2:21-23)

However, as the account also further reveals, Xerxes did not appreciate Mordecai at all for this act of kindness done to him. Yes, what he did was recorded in the book of the annals of his kingdom right before him. Nonetheless, he did nothing to appreciate him. Why? We would not know. Maybe he did not consider what he did as anything special at the time. Or maybe he was just in a prolonged bad mood. We wouldn’t know.

But there came a time when Mordecai really needed this man to return the favour and spare his life and the lives of his people too. That, of course, was when God, who does not forget people and who knows how to turn people’s mistakes or omissions around for the good of His people, brought about circumstances that drove this king to revisit the matter. And when he did, he himself was surprised that he did nothing to appreciate Mordecai for his act of kindness and faithfulness to him and the realm. So, he immediately began to think of how best to reward him.

Well, as he thought hard about how best to reward Mordecai, that is, in accordance with his own status as an emperor, his most beloved official, Haman, came in. It was he, then, that helped this king in properly dealing with the matter. Of course, he came up with what he came up with because he had arrogantly thought that the reward was coming to him. But the fact that he put himself in the picture helped in coming up with a sort of appreciation that the king himself could not resist or reject. It was just perfect for him.

What, then, is the account teaching us? First, it is that we should learn not to overlook people’s acts of kindness to us. Instead, we should appreciate them on time, that is, when it will make the most sense. Otherwise, we may end up having God drive us to do what we have neglected to do, in a more expensive or grand way. 

Looking again at Xerxes’ case: if he had appreciated Mordecai immediately after he saved his life, he may not have needed to go through the trouble of treating him like an emperor. Delayed appreciation, then, will most likely cost you more. So, don’t delay or defer giving appreciation to whom it is due. And even if, for some reasons, you failed to appreciate certain people you should have appreciated, you should still appreciate them the moment your error is brought to your notice. Why? It is better late than never. 

Another important lesson from this bible story is the need for us to be thoughtful in appreciating others. Don’t be involved in giving useless or meaningless appreciation or gifts to people. Instead, always be thoughtful about what you want to do. Appreciating people is never mainly about money but about our thoughtfulness in doing it.

That great king, Xerxes, did not spend money in appreciating Mordecai. But the kind of appreciation he gave to him was more than what anyone in his kingdom could hope for in a lifetime. He made him wear his royal robe, ride his royal horse and wear his royal crest on his head. Then he had him led through the royal city by his most dignified official, with the herald ‘This is how the king treats the man he honours.’ That, of course, changed Mordecai’s status in the realm for the rest of his life.

So, it is not mainly about how much we are able to spend in appreciating those who have done us good in life. It is mainly about being thoughtful. It is mainly about carefully considering the best way to appreciate them, in the light of what they have done for us and also in the light of our own status. And if we know how to think well about ourselves, as Haman did, we should have no problem coming up with truly nice and pleasant ways of appreciating people. 

Will you try this, then, with someone today? And may God load you with sufficient wisdom, determination and resources to appreciate well all the people that deserve your appreciation, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a lovely day.

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“Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.” (Ps 126:5-6NIV)

Planting and reaping are a very important aspect of human living. And it is not only farmers that are involved in them; every living person is involved in them. Yes, everyone that is involved in a legitimate labour is involved in planting and reaping. When you start a business with some money, for instance, you have planted something. So, you can expect to reap a harvest of more money from what you have planted. 

Also, when you invest money to get yourself educated in a field of life, you have planted something. And sooner or later, you can expect to reap a harvest of more money and prestige in life. Then when you invest your time in teaching or training people, you are planting. And sooner or later, you too can expect to reap a harvest of more money and prestige and more competent people to make the world better. So, you can see that all of us, regardless of our field of work, are always planting to reap.

But then, as we see in our opening bible text, it is not every time that planting comes with joy. There are times that it is actually done in pains and tears. Yes, there are times that we may wish we didn’t have to plant at all. That may be because of our health or because of inadequate seed of money or helpers or because of hostile circumstances. But the truth is that it is better to plant in pains and in tears than not to plant at all. 

Why is it better to plant, even if doing so is coming with pains and tears, than not to plant at all? It is better because we cannot reap what we have not planted or sowed. Yes, it is true, as the bible says, that whatever a man plants or sows is what he is going to reap (Gal 6:7). But that is not the only truth about sowing and reaping. There is another truth about it, which people often don’t pay attention to. And it is that you cannot reap what you have not sowed.

Think about it yourself. Can you expect profit from a business you have not started? No! Or can you make use of a kind of knowledge that has not been deposited in you through training and learning? No! Or can you expect anyone to reproduce something that you have not taught him? No! So, it is only what we have planted in this life that we can expect to reap, not what we have not planted. And if we are after reaping an abundance of anything good in life, then, we should give ourselves to planting it, even if doing so is coming with pains and tears. 

All this, of course, is why Solomon says, “Do your planting in the morning and in the evening, too. You never know whether it will all grow well or whether one planting will do better than the other.” (Eccl 11:6GNT) Did you see that? Solomon says even if you are not sure how well your planting will do, you must still never be tired of planting. That is because it is only when you plant that you can expect to reap. 

Fortunately for all of us who are children of God, we have a prophetic word that we can count on in our opening bible verses. And it is telling us that even though we have planted in tears, we will harvest with shouts of joy. Yes, it is telling us that even though we were weeping, as we sowed into our businesses, academics, children, ministry or whatever it was that we sowed into, we will still harvest with singing. 

Mind you, that someone planted with rejoicing and singing does not mean that he will also reap with rejoicing and singing. There have been people who planted with much happiness and rejoicing but who found themselves weeping while harvesting. Why? Their harvest was a disaster. It did not measure up at all with the quantity of seed planted and the amount of effort put into planting.

But for us, the Spirit of the Lord is saying, “No, your labour in life will not be in vain. Instead, you will have a great harvest of singing and rejoicing for all your labour, even your hard, painful and teary labour.” Do you believe this? If you believe it, then, begin to say, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will harvest the fruit of all my hard, painful and teary labour this year with much rejoicing and singing.” And so shall it be. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

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I pray for you today that God will fill your heart with adequate wisdom to walk with all His children in your life with love and understanding, so that your dealings with them will continually result in encouragement and prosperity for them and not in bitterness. Amen.

As we see in the bible, there were no poor persons in the church in those early days. Why? Luke tells us that it was because, from time to time, brethren who had properties were selling them and bringing the money made from the sales to the Apostles of the Lord to distribute to those who had need. That means poverty was not eradicated from among those brethren through special prayer and fasting programmes or through seed-sowing meetings. Rather, it was through generosity that it was eradicated from among them. And what prompted those generous brethren to give the way they gave? It was the love of Christ in them. (Cf. Acts 4:34-35; 2Cor 5:14)

But then, is generosity enough to eradicate poverty from among God’s people or anywhere? No! Unless people complement whatever measure of generosity they are receiving with some honest and diligent labour, it will most likely amount to nothing in their lives. They will just be consuming the gifts they are receiving instead of multiplying them. And this is why the apostles of old not only taught the brethren to be generous but also to be hard and diligent workers. In fact, they insisted that anyone who would not work must not eat. And that was because they did not want those who were being helped in the church to waste the help they were receiving or to become unnecessary burdens for others to carry. (Cf. Acts 20:34-35; Eph 4:28; 1Thess 4:11-12; 2Thess 3:6-10)

Unfortunately, many who want to be helped in the church today are not ready to engage in any serious labour that will enable them to multiply the help they want to get. They just want the church to bear for them burdens that they themselves are not willing or ready to bear. But that will not work. And it is, in fact, one of the reasons most of our assemblies today do not have any serious programme to help needy brethren. They have learnt from experience that most of those who want help from the church are lazy or irresponsible people who are just looking for opportunities to abuse the grace of God. Some of them are even bound to vanish once they get the help them want. So, if you want the church to support you in any way, you have to prove that you will not dupe the church of God and that the support you will get will count for something. 

Another thing that made it possible for the generosity of those early saints to succeed in eradicating poverty from their midst was that it was not lopsided. In other words, it was not that those giving were giving to enrich others while they get impoverished. Also, it was not that those giving were the only ones continually giving and those receiving were also the only ones continually receiving. Instead, everyone was mutually involved in supporting one another based on what they had and according to their needs. (Cf. 2Cor 8:13-15)

Why, then, is this not the case today in most of our assemblies? It is not the case because our leaders are not teaching us not to be selfish in our dealings with one another the way those apostles of old taught their brethren. Paul, for instance, says this to the Philippians: "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Phil 2:4NIV) Did you see that? Those brethren were taught not to be self-centred, not to look only at what they can get from others but also at what they can give to them or do for them. But many in our assemblies today only look for what they can get from others and not what they can do for them. And as long as we are like this, there is no way those who are supporting us will not be irritated and, at some point, change their attitude towards us.

So, if we want to eradicate poverty in our churches, we must give heed to these three things, besides trusting God to supply all our needs. First, we must allow love to motivate us to be generous to one another. Second, we all that are able-bodied and of sound mind must be involved in some honest labour, so that we do not become unduly dependent on anyone. Third, we must not only be looking at what we can get from the church or others but also at what we can give to them. And may the Spirit of God enable us to act accordingly, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a great day.

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I pray for you today that God will cause His favour to overwhelm your life every remaining day of this year and drive all kinds of good and wonderful things that you will never be able to get through hard work to you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

However, it is not enough for us to be praying to God to cause His favour to overwhelm our lives and make amazing things happen to us. It is equally important that we too are doing things that will cause His favour to work for us. And one of such things is being generous to those anointed by Him to feed us with His word, pray for us and lead us to walk in the path of His righteousness. 

Look at what our Lord Jesus says about this: 

"He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." (Matt 10:40-42NIV)

Did you see that? Anyone who receives an anointed person of God because he believes that he is truly sent of God will certainly receive the reward of that anointed person. Even if it is just a cup of cold water that he gives him, he will not fail to receive his reward. What that reward will be, however, is not what anyone can say. It all depends on how God leads or moves that anointed person to bless the one involved.

For example, the reward that the Shunammite woman got from God through Elisha was a son that Satan couldn’t take away, having been barren for years (2Kings 4:8-37). Also, the reward that the widow of Zarephath got from God through Elijah was the preservation of her life and her son’s life during a terrible period of famine in their land (1Kings 17). And the reward that Mary, the sister of Martha, got from the Lord Jesus for her generosity to Him was a name that will always be mentioned and praised in God’s kingdom and wherever the gospel is preached (Matt 26:6-13).   

So, no one can actually predict how God will reward those who relate in generosity to His servants. But He will surely reward them with things that money, hard work or intelligence can never get. Unfortunately, many of us are missing these things not because we cannot have them but because we are stingy, selfish or insensitive. What will a cup of cold water cost any of us? Nothing much! Yet many of us have been missing the rewards that could be ours just by regularly giving our men and women of God some cups of cold water. Just think about it

Now am I saying that you are to start pursuing your pastor or leader in church with cups of water everywhere he goes, whether he is thirsty or not? No! Or am I saying that as long as you are giving your church leader cups of cold water, you have done all that God requires of you? No! Of course, if all you can indeed afford to give to support your church leader or the Lord’s anointed sent to you is a cup of water, it is fine. God will surely reward you for it, according to His standards. 

But the truth is that many of us can do far better than that. And the Lord will not expect us to do any less. Otherwise, we will be cheating ourselves. Look at what He says in the Law of Moses to His people about this: 

“Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations.” (Mal 1:14NIV) 

Did you see that? Well, thank God we are not under any kind of curse because Jesus has taken care of all curses for us. However, this is written down to teach us that it is a sign of utter disrespect to God to give Him or His servants among us less than He has blessed us to give. It was, in fact, that kind of thing that got Ananias and his wife Sapphira killed instead of being greatly rewarded by Him (Acts 5:1-11).

Now my prayer is that we will not get injured, killed or demoted where we ought to have been richly rewarded by God with all kinds of beautiful things. But we too need to cultivate the right attitude in our generosity to God and to those He is using to minister to us. And may His good Spirit make this so for us, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Do have a lovely day.

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“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” (James 5:16-18NIV)

James, in our opening text, says the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. And he goes on to give us an example using Elijah and how he prayed and his prayer affected a whole country for three and a half years. Then he tells us that this man, Elijah, was just a man like us. He was not an angel, as some have suggested. He was a man like us. And what is James' point? It is that we also can offer prayers like Elijah and expect similar results. We can offer prayers that will affect whole families, communities, cities, kingdoms and nations.

Have you ever contemplated that? Well, I am contemplating that right now. I am seeing my prayers to God changing lives and situations in my family, community, church and country. That is because I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and can offer prayers that are powerful and effective.

Now what about you? Do you see yourself as in a position to offer powerful and effective prayers that will change your life and world for the better and make it conform to the will of God? If you are a child of God, you are in that position and should begin to see yourself in it. Otherwise, you will be cheating yourself of certain experience of God's power that could be yours in this life.

It is really unfortunate that many children of God do not see themselves as being able to stand before Him and pray as Elijah did. That is because they are continually seeing themselves as unworthy. But if Elijah, who did not have the rare privilege of experiencing the new birth, had no issues of worthiness while praying to God about the nation of Israel, why should we, who have been born again and recreated to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, have issues of worthiness when praying to Him?

Sadly, many have issues along this line because of their ignorance of the will of God for them and of the place they hold in His heart and in His kingdom. So, instead of developing themselves to be devoted to praying to Him, they will keep looking for prayer collectors that will do their praying for them. And this is why we now have many so-called preachers and prayer warriors that have turned praying for others into a commercial enterprise. They will receive their due punishment in due season.  

Well, what I want you to know is that anyone, especially if the person is a child of God, who will pray to God wholeheartedly and in accordance with His desire will always experience His power in ways beyond their expectations. In fact, we are told in Scriptures that He always does immeasurably more than we can ever ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us. So, be encouraged to pray to Him without ceasing. (Cf. Eph 3:20).

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“They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them.” (Isa 65:23NIV)

As we see in our opening bible text, one of the manifestations of God's blessings in the lives of His people is success. In other words, as many of us that are blessed by God have been blessed by Him to be successful in all that we do. And if you are failing in anything you are doing, know that it is not the will of God for you.

Look at our opening text again. It says that we will not labour in vain or give birth to children that will perish or fail in life. So, it is contrary to the will of God for us to labour and not reap the fruit of our labour or to reap the fruit of our labour and not enjoy it. And if we are, then, having any experience of vain labour, we need to address it and not ignore it. In other words, we need to find out what is responsible for our experience to be contrary to the will of God for us and deal with it.

For instance, Solomon says, “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves.” (Ps 127:1-2NIV) So, even though you are blessed of God, if you will not acknowledge that apart from Him you cannot do anything, you will be blocking the flow of His blessings in your life. And that may just result in vain labour for you, even though you are putting in a lot of effort, devotion and bravery into what you are doing. (Cf. Luke 12:16-21)

Also, if we are labouring without paying attention to what the word of God teaches about the quality of our labour, we may end up labouring in vain, if we are not shown mercy. The word of God, for example, teaches us to do whatever we do without grumbling, with sincerity of heart and with all diligence, as one working for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and not man. But if we fail to take this seriously, we will be hindering the working of His blessings in our lives. And that may result in vain labour for us. (Cf. Col 3:22-27)

In addition, labouring with people that are under the wrath of God or some ungodly influence can result in vain labour for us. For instance, we are told that King Jehoshaphat, who was a godly and prosperous king, once teamed with the king of Israel, Ahaziah, to build a fleet of trading ships. But the wrath of God was on Ahaziah at that time for his wickedness. So, a prophecy came to Jehoshaphat that his labour over those ships was going to be in vain. And that was exactly what happened. The ships were wrecked and they were not able to sail. (Cf. 2Chro 20:35-37)

Therefore, who we team with to work is important. Yes, there are times that we have no power to choose whom we are going to work with. And at such times, we can count on God's power to destroy any negative influence that may want to render our labour in vain. But where we deliberately team up with wicked people or people under demonic influences to do business or anything else, our labour may end up being in vain because of them. 

Furthermore, wherever we go against clear instructions from God about how something is to be done, we may end up labouring in vain. When David was first taking the Ark of the Covenant to the place he had prepared for it, God killed someone on the way. And all the effort and resources he put into doing what he did simply amount to nothing, even though he had very good intentions. Why? It was because he and the people involved went against God's clear instructions about how His Ark was to be handled. (Cf. Num 4:15; 1Chro 13&15)

So, even if we are doing something good and beneficial, with all good intentions, if we ignore God's clear instructions or warning about what we are doing, we may end up labouring in vain. Yes, as I pointed out before, it is not the will of God for us to labour in vain. But if we don't pay attention to the things I just shared above, we may labour in vain. And if you are labouring in vain at the moment, why not examine what you are doing in the light of the things I just shared with you? Your salvation from vain labour may just be tied to doing so.

Have a blessed day.

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“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good…” (Gen 1:31NIV)

Why are we taught in Scriptures to imitate God? It is because we can do so. If we could not imitate God, we would not be told to do so. But because we have been created in His image and after His likeness, we have what it takes to imitate Him. And that is exactly why we are told to do so. (Cf. Gen 1:27; Eph 4:24; Eph 5:1)

Now in what ways are we to imitate God? We actually have several instructions in Scriptures pointing us to ways in which we are to imitate Him. But the one I want to draw your attention to has to do with the way we handle our work. How, then, are we to imitate God in the way we handle our work? Or what exactly are we to imitate in the way God handles His work?

As we see in the book of Genesis, everything God made in the beginning was good, perfect and flawless. In fact, in our opening bible text, we are told that when God was done with all His work in the beginning, He Himself testified that all that He had done was very good. And why was His work very good? It was very good because He Himself is a good God. So, He cannot do anything that will not fully communicate His goodness or carry the trademark of His excellency.

That being the case, we too, who are God’s children and creation, must learn to function with the same mentality. We must continually say to ourselves, “I am God’s child and creation. So, I cannot do anything that will not fully communicate the goodness and excellency of God my Father.” And until we begin to function with this mindset, we will not stop handling our jobs and anything else that we lay our hands on anyhow.

When God started the work of creation, His focus was not to create a universe that He would have to come around to repair every now and then. Rather, His focus was to create a universe that would have all that it would need to transform itself with ever-increasing glory. That is why He has never had to repair the sun, the moon or any of the stars. And none of them has ever failed to live up to expectations. 

Also, observed that God has never had to put any new thing here on earth since He created it in the beginning. Why? It is because He put in it right from the beginning everything that we would need to make it a wonder. So, we are the ones to do the investigating and searching. We are the ones to labour to find out the things He has placed here on earth to beautify it and make it most enjoyable for us. And ever since some of us have been doing that, we have been finding the earth to be more and more interesting to live in.

You can see, then, that when God judged all His works as very good, He was not overrating Himself. He did a very good creation job in the beginning. And whatever mess we are seeing in the world right now was not made by Him but by us through our sins and various scheming. (Cf. Ecc 7:29)

In any case, I said all of that to show you what we ought to imitate in God about our work. And that has to do with making the works of our hands very good too. In other words, just like God, whenever we are done with anything, we should be able to tell ourselves that what we have done is very good and will truly serve the purpose for which we have done it. But our works will not be very good, if our goal is not to make them very good. No, our works will not be very good, if our minds have not been renewed to embrace the fact that we were originally created by God to do good works and that everything we do must bear testimony to this fact, whether it is spiritual or natural. (Cf. Eph 2:10)

Look, doing things that are not good, things that are substandard, things that are of low quality and things that will not fully serve the purpose for which they are done is contrary to our nature and also to the will of God for us. In fact, we should consider it shameful and beneath us to do such things. So, if you are a child of God, you need to cleanse yourself of every culture of doing things anyhow, of doing things that will make those who are going to use them mad or upset with you. 

Yes, sometimes, it is people that will compel you to go below what you know to be good and acceptable because they want something cheap. Yet they are the ones that will go about ridiculing your work as substandard or worthless. So, don’t allow anybody to kill the goodness of your work because of money. That is because it is not a must that you serve everyone. If you have to serve anyone, then, be sure to take from them what will make you serve them well. That way, the goodness of your work or service will by itself continually speak for you. And you will be proved to be a true child of God, your Father, whose eternal goal is to always make everything very good.

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I am glad to welcome you to another day of this year. And my prayer is that God will clear the way for you to receive and enjoy all that He wants you to have in the year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now one of the ways to receive without delay what God has already given to you or experience His salvation from satanic afflictions is to take advantage of the presence of the leaders He has appointed over you in your assembly. As we see in Scriptures, among the reasons God gives us leaders in our various churches is that they may watch over us and also supply whatever is lacking in our faith by the power of the Spirit of God. So, they are authorized to say words that will change our lives forever, to pray to God on our behalf and receive answers and to also rebuke the devil and frustrate his works in our lives. (Cf. 2Cor 10:8; 1Thess 3:10; Heb 13:17)

However, we must learn to recognize the positions they are occupying in our lives and make adequate use of them in order for us to fully enjoy their ministries. For example, we are told in the Scriptures of how a widow ran to Prophet Elisha for assistance and got it. As the account goes, after her husband died, a man he owed began to threaten to take her two sons away as slaves. Now we are not told whether the woman first met their family members or friends to help out in the situation or not. If she met with them, then, they probably had no help to offer her. But she did remember that her family had a close relationship with Prophet Elisha. In fact, the prophet knew her husband well enough to be able to recommend him to anyone as a righteous man. So, she ran to him for help. (Cf. 2Kings 4:1)

Now did Elisha attend to this woman or not when she went to him for help? He did. How? Did he give her money? No! He probably did not have enough money to give her to offset her husband’s debt. But he did have sufficient spiritual authority to bless and multiply what she had, so that she would be able to pay her debt and also come out of poverty. And that was exactly what he did. He gave her a word of blessing that changed her situation forever. (Cf. 2Kings 4:2-7)

But do you know that this woman’s husband also could have taken advantage of his relationship with Elisha to receive a word of blessing that would pay his debt before he died? Perhaps if he had done that, he would not have died prematurely as he did. Who knows? In any case, his wife did what he would not do and saved the family from generational poverty.

In like manner, you too, by taking adequate advantage of the spiritual authority of the leaders of your assembly, may save your business, marriage or family from certain problems that have refused to go away. But will you do so? Will pride allow you to do so? Will timidity allow you to do so? Will your devotion to a life of secrecy allow you to do so?

See, there are many of God’s children that are suffering in their bodies, finances or marriages simply because they will not take advantage of the ministries of the leaders of their churches. And these ones may just die suffering, if they continue to refuse to do what is right. Look at what James says to us along these lines: 

“Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.” (James 5:14-15NIV)

Did you see that? Any child of God that is sick does not have to die on his sick bed, even if it is sin that is responsible for his sickness. All he needs is to let his church leaders pray for him in faith. And he will be healed and also forgiven, if he has sinned. Why? They are authorised to receive healing and forgiveness for him through faith in Christ Jesus. But what if he will not reach out for them for prayers? He may just die in his sickness.

Now I am aware, of course, that it is not every so-called church leader that is a person of faith and that can be trusted to do what is right for the good of the children of God under him. But inasmuch as you know that your own church leaders are people of faith and can be trusted to always work for your good, learn to make adequate use of their spiritual authority for your healing, promotion and salvation from every attack of the enemy. And may the Spirit of God continually fill your heart with adequate wisdom and understanding to do so, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a splendid day.

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Welcome to another day of this year. My prayers it that God will always see to it that you are settled in the right place for His purpose to be fully accomplished in your life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Once God appeared to Prophet Elijah at Mount Horeb and twice asked him this great question, “What are you doing here?” Now when do we ask people this kind of question? First, we ask them when we do not expect to find them where they are, that is, when we expect them to be somewhere else. Second, we ask them when we want to know their mission where they are and if it is worthy enough to bring or keep them there.

So, when God asked Elijah, “What are you doing here?” first, He wanted him to know that He was not expecting him to be there at the time. Second, He wanted to know his mission there. And did He not know his mission there? He knew it. Yet He wanted to hear it from his own mouth. (Cf. 1Kings 19)

In any case, Elijah’s reason for being at Horeb at that time did not really matter to God. That was because he was not supposed to be there in the first place. Yes, it was life’s pressure that drove him there to seek death. But he was not supposed to be there. That was because his job on earth was not yet finished. So, God told him to go back the very way he came and complete his mission. And he did.

In like manner, there are people today that are in the wrong place in life. And that is the reason they are not flourishing or seeing God’s purpose being accomplished in their lives. Yes, like Elijah or Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant, life’s pressure has driven them away from where God wants to be to where they are not supposed to be. But regardless of how comfortable they may be in those wrong places, the purpose of God cannot be fully realized in their lives. (Cf. Gen 16)

Therefore, they need to see these things and move away from where they are to where God wants them to be. And He is already asking them, “What are you doing here? Do you realise that you are not supposed to be here? Do you realise that my purpose and promises for you cannot be fulfilled here?” But can they even hear His voice? If they can, are they willing to move to where He wants them to be, so that they may have room to flourish and experience the fulfilment of His good purpose for them?

Now perhaps you are one of such people. My prayer for you is that God will open your ears to hear what He is saying to you and also strengthen you to act accordingly, in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Do have a splendid day.

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Welcome to another day. And my prayer for you is that God Himself will keep you pure and blameless, spirit, soul and body, at the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

As we see in the Scriptures, our Lord Jesus Christ is coming back for His church at the time set by God the Father. But He is not coming for a defiled or polluted church. Rather, He is coming for a church that is blameless, spotless and without wrinkle. All of this is why we are told by Peter to make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him when He returns. (Cf. Eph 5:26; 2Pet 3:14) 

But can we really be spotless, blameless and unashamed before Him when He returns? Yes, we can. We can because the Spirit of God is in us and is faithfully committed to making sure this is so. Yes, He is working all the time to ensure that the good work that He began in us when we became born again is carried on till the day of the Lord. So, our being blameless when our Lord returns is not going to be merely a product of our desire or effort but a product of the labour of the Spirit of God in us and over us. (Cf. Phil 1:6 & 2:12-13)

Nevertheless, we must still desire to be blameless when He returns. Not only that, we must also be taking advantage of His grace to live the kind of life He wants us to live. Otherwise, we may end up frustrating all that He is doing to keep us blameless. 

Furthermore, it is important that we keep an eye on one another, so that Satan will not succeed in luring any of us away to destroy his faith and life. The bible says the following to us on this note: 

“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” (Heb 3:12NIV) 

“See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.” (Heb 12:15-17NIV)

Did you see that? If we all will remain pure and blameless when our Lord Jesus returns, we must keep an eye on ourselves. That way, we can take bold steps to correct, rebuke and protect our brethren, if we sense that Satan is working to ensnare them through jealousy, greed, bitterness, rebellion, discontentment, fornication or any other sinful act.

For instance, when members of Chole’s family of the Corinthian church saw that carnality had taken over that church, they lost no time at all in informing Paul the Apostle, their spiritual leader, about it. They could see that division, jealousy, pride, sexual immorality, cheating and lack of consideration for the faith of young believers were tearing apart this church. So, they wrote to this apostle about it and asked for his timely intervention. That was why he wrote 1Corinthians. So, that letter was an answer to the cry and prayer of certain brethren who wanted to see the church of God remain pure and blameless at Jesus’ return. (Cf. 1Cor 1:11-12)

Unfortunately, when some brethren do similar things today, when they begin to make effort to keep their assembly sanctified unto the Lord, other brethren may start calling them names and quarrelling with them. Why? They are still in love with darkness. So, they don’t want its works to be exposed or dealt with. And if we permit such people to silence and supress the truth in our midst, we will only be helping them to destroy themselves and others and to also tarnish God’s reputation.

Therefore, if you care at all about our being blameless before Jesus when He returns, keep an eye not just on yourself but also on your brethren. And if you see them missing it in any way, don’t hesitate to confront them or those who can help them with the truth, whether they are happy about it or not. One day, they will either thank you for doing the needful in saving them or blame themselves for rejecting the will of God for their lives.

Have a great day.

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“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So, shall your offspring be,’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.” (Romans 4:18-19NIV) 

One of the things that made Abraham receive God’s promise of Isaac was that he did not allow the facts to make him unbelieving. Abraham, without weakening in his faith, faced the fact that his body was as good as dead. He did not deny that fact. Instead, he faced it. 

Do you understand that? Abraham did not say, “I am young. So, I will be able to father a child.” That was not what he was saying. Rather, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, for he was about a hundred years old. So, this man did not deny the reality of the condition of his body. He did not start confessing around, “I am a young man.” No, he did not do that. If he had been doing that, people would have asked him if he was alright. That, by the way, would have been a lie.

Also, he faced the fact that Sarah’s womb was dead, for Sarah herself was about ninety years old then. Those facts were there. And Abraham did not deny them. Nevertheless, that is, in spite of the facts that he was confronted with, he believed. He believed what God said to him. He took God seriously. He did not allow his faith in God to become weak.

Well, again, Paul says, “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.” Look at that. Sarah’s womb was also dead. And when you read Hebrews 11, you will see that God actually quickened Sarah’s womb in order for her to conceive. God made her womb alive, for it was already dead. So, those facts were there, and Abraham faced them.

Then, from verse 20 of Romans 4, Paul further says, “Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God…” (NIV) That is beautiful. The facts were there. But the man looked away from them unto God. He must have said to himself, “Yes, these facts are here. My body is as good as dead. And Sarah’s womb also is dead. But God has promised me a son, and I believe Him.” This is why he began to give glory to God. He began to thank Him for the son that was coming. 

Now that is what we also must learn to do about God’s promises. That is how to walk in faith – you thank God for the fulfilment of His word in your life, in spite of the contrary facts you may be faced with. And as you continue to do that, not being weakened in your faith, God will make His word good 

in your life.

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“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2Timothy 3:16-17NIV)

Paul, in our opening text, says all Scripture is God-breathed. In other words, they are all inspired of God. That, of course, does not mean that every statement in the Scriptures was made by God. No, every statement made in them was not made by God. But He orchestrated the writing of everything in them. And it is now up to us to use the things we have in them to teach, rebuke, correct and train ourselves in righteousness. That way, we will become perfect and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So, if you want to be thoroughly equipped for every good work, if you want to be well equipped to live the life God wants you to live, give yourself to Scriptures. That is because God is speaking to us through Scriptures. Many of us are not taking advantage of what is written for us in Scriptures. That is because we do not know that God wants to talk to us through them. 

People, many times, will pray and expect God to answer them through visions, dreams or prophetic revelations. And it is not bad to expect God to talk to us through these mediums. But it is not every time that He uses them. Scriptures, however, are always available for us to consult and learn the will of God from. 

Daniel, for instance, once learnt the will of God through Scriptures. Look at what he says from verse 1 of chapter 9 of his book:

“In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom – in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lod God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” (Daniel 9:1-3NIV)

How did Daniel learn the will of God about how long the desolation of Jerusalem would last? It was through the Scriptures. Also, when Paul came to the Bereans to share the word of God with them, the people went to check the Scriptures to see if what he was saying to them was correct and in line with the will of God for their lives. (Cf. Acts 17:10-12)

Well, the point I am making is that the Scriptures represent the entire body of God’s will for us. They present to us everything God wants us as humans to know about His will for us. And if you want to know His will for you, then, give yourself to the Scriptures. Yes, if you want God to be talking to you everyday, give yourself to Scriptures. 

Remember that God does not talk to people everyday through dreams, visions, prophets or angels. There are many who will never see a dream, a vision or an angel from God till they leave this world. But we all can hear Him talk to us everyday through the Scriptures. So, let us give ourselves wholeheartedly to Scriptures and we will always hear God talk to us.

Have a blessed day.

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“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?” (NIV)

The part I want you to pay attention to in our opening Scripture is where God says, “Who dares despise the day of small things?” And I want you to pay attention to it because it is showing us that we must not live our lives on the basis of the lowliness of our background. Yes, we may have come from a lowly and unimpressive background. But we are not to think we cannot amount to anything in life because of that. We are not to despise ourselves because of it.

Why should we not despise ourselves because of our lowly background? It is because it cannot limit us or stop us from attaining the height God wants us to attain, if we will not allow it. If you allow it to define who you are, you may end up living a low life for the rest of your life. But if you allow God to define who you are for you and function on that basis, then, the lowly circumstances of your life will not be able to limit you. 

Look at David, for example. Even though he started out in life as a shepherd boy, he ended up becoming one of the most powerful kings that ever lived here on earth. And why? It is was because even though he was raised as a lowborn, he did not allow the circumstances of his birth to limit him. Instead, he was looking at what God had deposited in him. He was drawing his inspiration from the fact that God anointed him with His Spirit. So, he had enough potential to become the greatest of kings here on earth.

You can see why he was not afraid to face Goliath. He was not considering the size or might of this giant when he was facing him, neither was he considering his own smallness in size or the lowliness of his family background. On the contrary, he was considering the fact that the Spirit of God was with him and had made him fit to handle such situations. He had before that time dealt with a lion and a bear. So, he did not see Goliath as any different from them. (Cf. 1Samuel 17)

Now, of course, his brothers tried to shame him and discourage him from facing Goliath. But he was not going to listen to them. Why? He knew who God has made him and what He has deposited in him. You too need to know who God has made you and what He has deposited in you. You need to know who you are, in the light of what God has done for you, not in the light of the education you have received or the skills you have or your natural background. 

Of course, it is right for you to appreciate the education you have received, the skills you have and any other advantage God has enabled you to have in life. And it is also right to make the most of these things in advancing yourself in life and in making life easier for you. But beyond doing that, it is more important that you know who God has made you on the inside and what He has deposited in you. That is because what He has done for you and what He has deposited in you are the basis for His expectations on your life. 

So, do not despise yourself because of your background or because of the lowliness of your life’s circumstances. Those things cannot determine how far you will go in life or how high you will rise, if you will not permit them.

Have a pleasant day.

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“One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine. He gathered some of its gourds and filled the fold of his cloak. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, "O man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it. Elisha said, "Get some flour." He put it into the pot and said, "Serve it to the people to eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot.” (2Kings 4:39-41NIV)

Who went out into the fields to gather herbs to cook? It was one of the sons of the prophets serving under Prophet Elisha. And what did he bring in to cook for his people? The gourds (fruits) of an unknown wild vine!

Interestingly, when he came back with those gourds and began to cook them, nobody queried him or asked him questions, even though they did not know what he cooking for them to eat. Why? As the account shows us, it was a time of famine. So, food was scarce. If someone, then, brought something into a house to cook, regardless of what it might be, those in that house may not ask him any questions, as long as there was something to fill their bellies with. (Cf. 2Kings 4:38)

That was the situation that those sons of the prophets found themselves in. Because they were all starving, they did not bother to query their colleague about what he was cooking for them, even though not even he could tell them what it was. But it was not long after they started eating it that they all realised that it was poison they were eating. And if Prophet Elisha had not been around that day to supernaturally heal them and the food they were eating, the story would definitely have ended differently.

Now what is the point of this bible story? It is that we must not allow any situation, however ugly it may be, to drive us into accepting to do something or consuming something that we have no adequate knowledge of what it is. Otherwise, we may end up consuming poison or getting involved in something that will ruin our lives before we know what has befallen us.

How did some people end up being ruined through prostitution or money rituals? It was because when they were about to be introduced into these terrible things, they did not ask enough relevant questions from those introducing them into them. And why did they not ask enough relevant questions from them? They were desperate to come out of poverty and suffering. So, when some people told them that there was a way out, they did not bother to find out what way it was and what taking that way may do to their lives. They just sat down to eat what was set before them. And by the time they found out what was happening, they had taken enough poison to totally destroy their lives. If such people are, then, not shown mercy, they will surely be utterly ruined.

In like manner, some have ended up in some deadly secret societies or in the practice of sorcery because they would not ask relevant questions from those offering them help to their problems. Maybe they wanted to have children, to become influential, to be healed of certain sicknesses or to be protected from some wicked enemies. Then, in their desperation, they agreed to do what certain individuals that volunteered to help them told them to do, without asking relevant questions. And before they knew it, what appeared altogether harmless when they got started became some kind of poison that was ruining their lives, homes and everything else that they held dear. If they also are not shown mercy, they can only be completely ruined.

So, again, before you settle down to eat that free food, know what it is you want to eat. And before you join that group or enlist for that business, know what you are getting involved in and what terms and conditions applied. Many all around this country are running from pillars to posts now because of some debts hanging around their necks. But how did they get into those debts? Almost unconsciously! 

Those who dragged them into debt did not make it look like a serious thing when they were offering them loans. They did not make it look like something capable of poisoning their world. So, they got involved without considering the reality about their abilities to handle the situations. And by the time the reality dawned on them, they had sunk so deep in some rivers of debt that it would probably take series of miracles from God for them to be saved.

What is my point? Have adequate knowledge of whatever you are getting yourself involved in or signing up for, regardless of who is introducing it to you. Then you won’t have to needlessly surrender your life and world to be poisoned by some unknown quantity.

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“They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village.”” (Mark 8:22-26NIV)

Of all the recorded miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one in our opening bible text was the only one in which He had to minister to someone twice before the person was totally whole. Why was this so? We are not told in any clear terms in the account. But we can see from it that there are times that we may need more than a touch or a miracle from God to solve certain problems of our lives.

As the account of this man goes, when the Lord first touched his eyes, he began to see but not clearly. According to him, he could see men looking like trees and walking around. That means his healing was not perfect yet. And he immediately acknowledged that. He did not give the Lord the impression that everything had become totally alright. Instead, he spoke out, so that the Lord would know that He would need to perfect his healing. 

Also, the man did not give the Lord the impression that his partial healing was okay for him or that he could manage with what he had just received. Instead, he showed the Lord that he would want to have his sight perfectly restored, since it was in His hands to perfectly restore it. 

Now did the Lord Jesus get angry with this man when he said that he still could not see everything clearly? No! Or did the Lord say, “Well, you should be thankful that you can, at least, see something now?” No! What did He do, instead? He once more touched his eyes, and he began to see everything clearly. Hallelujah!

Why did the Lord Jesus act like that towards that man? It was because He is a perfecter of whatever He starts. The bible says He is not just the author of our faith but also its finisher (Heb 12:2). So, if He starts something, He surely has it in mind to finish or perfect it. And we must keep this in mind. Otherwise, we may miss the best that He has in store for us.

Well, as I pointed out before, there are times that God may need to perform more than a miracle for us in order to perfect certain matters of our lives. So, if God has done something for you and you can see that it is not yet perfect, don’t hesitate to talk to Him about it or to present it to Him again. Remember that James says all God’s gifts are not just good but also perfect (James 1:17). So, don’t accept imperfection – don’t settle down for it. That is because if God has given you something good, He will also want to perfect it.

Now God’s perfection of what He has done for you or given to you may not come today or tomorrow. But as long as your heart remains committed to Him and is eagerly desiring that perfection, it will happen. The reason some people have not received a perfection of certain good things God has done for them is that they are not consistent in their devotion to Him. Once they received something good for Him, they go on vacation in their devotion to Him until they need something else or until they lose what they have received from Him. 

That is not a good way to relate to God, as we see clearly in Scriptures. And if that is the way you have been relating to Him, you need to change now and be fully devoted to Him. Otherwise, your experience of His goodness, favour, peace or mercy may never be perfect – there will often be something off about it.  

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“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isa 40:30-31NIV)

As we see in the bible text above, there are circumstances of life that can make young people, who are full of strength, grow tired and weary. Yes, there are circumstances that can make those who are in the best or most advantageous stages of their lives stumble and fall. For example, the current situation of our country has already worn many hardworking, upright and diligent people out. It has already killed many businesses, thrown many families into poverty, ended many lives and caused many to be getting ready to run away.

Then, to make matters worse, there are no visible signs at all that things are going to get better. Instead, every new day, we are confronted with renewed increase in the prices of goods and services and news of worsened cases of insecurity. It is not a wonder, then, that many can no longer hide their anger, tiredness and frustration and their complete loss of hope for a better nation. 

But is it the will of God for us to go through life, feeling tired, angry, frustrated and helpless every day? No! Or is it His will for us to go through life, stumbling and falling, and never being able to stand upright as a victor? No! Yet, regardless of how strong, healthy, influential, educated or wealthy we are, if we are confronted with certain circumstances of life, we are bound to get tired and collapse, if we are not equipped by God to handle them.

For example, as spiritually faithful, gifted and vibrant as Paul the apostle was, he once found himself confronted with certain trials of life that made him give up all hope of staying alive. Look at the way he describes the situation to the Corinthians:

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” (2Cor 1:8-11NIV)

Can you see that God was the reason Paul and his companions survived that situation that threatened to take everything away from them? He was the one that saved them. And He was the one that continued to save them from other perilous situations they encountered. Why, then, did He keep on saving them in that manner? It was because they had put their trust and hope in Him. And they demonstrated that their trust and hope were in Him by praying to Him.

Well, I shared that with you to let you understand that there is no one that cannot be faced with overwhelming challenges in this life, even if the person is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. No, there is none in this life that cannot be faced with situations that will daily make them feel sick, confused, tired and defeated. However, whether the overwhelming challenges of life that we are confronted with will destroy us or not depends on just one thing. And that is where we place our hope for victory and survival. 

In our opening bible text, we are told that as long as our hope is in God, we will surely find our strength renewed to soar above the same challenges that are destroying the strongest and bravest among men, to run and not grow weary and to walk and not faint. How will God do this? I wouldn't know. But He Himself has said that He would do it. He has said that He would give strength to the weary and increase the power of the weak (Is 40:29).

So, we don't have to be tired, discouraged or depressed because of the current situation of this country, however tough it may be at our different ends. We just, like Paul, need to continually express our faith and hope for victory and survival in God through prayers. And He will see to it that we are daily renewed in strength, wisdom, courage, determination and resources to survive and flourish through it all. That way, when He eventually visits our nation with deliverance from all our enemies and from every form of oppression, as He will surely do, you and I will be among those celebrating His praise with all power.

Have a pleasant day.

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“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (Matt 5:23-24NIV) 

What is the Lord driving at here? It is the fact that the unhappiness of someone in our lives can make our gifts to God unacceptable. That means we cannot use our generosity to God as a replacement for walking in love with the people in our lives. It will not work. So, if you are sinning against the people in your life, hurting them and making them unhappy, you can be sure that you have been wasting whatever measure of generosity you are showing to God or man.

Similar to that is what Peter says to husbands and wives in relating to one another. He says:

“Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” (1Peter 3:7NIV) 

Did you see that? It is not only our giving that can be hindered through a messed-up relationship; our prayers can also be hindered through it. 

So, if you are disobeying God's word in relating to your spouse, your children, your parents, your neighbours or your employees, your sacrifices of praise, giving, good works and prayers may not be well-received by God. In other words, all these things may just amount to nothing. And as you can see, that is not my idea. It is a revelation of God's will.

Will you, then, want your prayers, giving and other righteous acts to amount to nothing before God? I am sure you will not want that. So, don’t just pay attention to what you want to do for the Lord; also pay attention to how you are treating the people in your life. That is because one way to show that you truly love God is by loving people. And if you truly love people, as God has loved you, nothing you do for Him will go to waste.

Enjoy your day.

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“Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come." (Dan 10:12-14NIV)

From what we see in our opening text, God answered Daniel the very first day he prayed to him about a matter bothering his heart and sent an angel to give it to him. But an evil spirit turned himself into a door of hindrance that kept Daniel away from the answer to his prayer. So, Daniel had to keep on knocking in prayers for the next twenty-one days before another angel of the Lord came to support the angel bearing the answer to his prayer and make way for him to deliver it.

What does this tell us? It is that there are times we need to persist in prayer in order to receive God's answers to our prayers. And at such times, it is not that God has not answered us. Rather, it is that there are things keeping us from accessing His answers to our prayers. Persistence in prayers, therefore, is what we need in such situations. 

Now how long will that take us? I cannot tell. Daniel did not know that it would take him three weeks to receive an answer to his prayer on the occasion I just mentioned. But because he did not stop praying, he did receive his answer. If we too won't stop knocking whatever door or doors that are keeping us away from what God has already provided for us, if we won't stop asking Him to clear the way for us, He will surely do so and open those doors for us, even if there are a thousand of them. All we need is to remain steadfast in prayer and not faint or give up.

Have a splendid day.

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I pray for you today that you will be given all the energy you need by the Spirit of God to be the person God wants you to be and to live as He wants you to live every remaining day of your life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now I offered this prayer for you because I know that God is more than able to make us become the persons He wants us to be and live the life He wants us to live. Nevertheless, we also must desire to be what He wants us to be and to live as He wants us to live. We must understand that God cannot force to be what ought to be. He can show us what we ought to be, arouse us to desire to become what we ought to be and make available for us all that we need to be what we ought to be. But He cannot force us to desire to be what we ought to be or force us to take advantage of His provisions for us to be what we ought to be. Those are own responsibilities.

For example, God sent Moses to the children of Israel to bring them out of the house of bondage and take them into the land He had promised to give their forefathers. And Moses did just that. He took advantage of God’s presence and power to bring out the people and to lead them to the place of rest God had prepared for them. 

But just before they entered that land of rest, he, as God had instructed, sent some of the men (twelve of them, actually) to go and survey the land. Why? It was so that they would see the beauty and glory of the land and be inspired to take it for themselves. Unfortunately, even though those spies that had been sent to survey the land saw and tasted its beauty, most of them (ten of them, actually) were not at all inspired to go up and take the land. That was why they came back with an evil report that made all the people lose whatever appetite they once had for what God had chosen for them. And the result was that the congregation turned their back on God and came under a great condemnation. (Cf. Numbers 13&14)     

But look at the other two men that were in the company of those who went to spy the land, that is, Joshua and Caleb. When they saw what God had chosen for them, they were inspired to take and possess it. And even though they knew that, reckoning on their own abilities, they were not a match for the inhabitants of the land at that time, they believed that the God who chose the place for them was also able to deliver it into their hands. That, of course, was eventually what happened. 

Can you now see that becoming what God wants us to be is not all on God? We also have a great role to play in the whole thing. God, on His own side, will definitely continue to inspire and encourage us to embrace what He has chosen for us. But we also must fall in love with that image of His Son, Jesus Christ, which He is showing to us, and take advantage of His provisions for us to conform to it. Otherwise, instead of becoming what He wants us to be, we will end up becoming what He does not want us to be. (Cf. Rom 8:29, 2Tim 3:1-5) 

And we see an illustration of how to do this in Paul, the apostle. In his letter to the Philippian brethren, he says: 

“Now I have given up everything else-I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him. So whatever it takes, I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead. I don't mean to say I am perfect. I haven't learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us. I hope all of you who are mature Christians will see eye-to-eye with me on these things, and if you disagree on some point, I believe that God will make it plain to you- if you fully obey the truth you have.” (Phil 3:10-16TLB)

Now I pray that you and I too will be made to see things the way this apostle saw them and give everything in us to being the person God wants us to be and to living the life He wants us to live, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

Have a great day.

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“For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am I what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect [not wasted]. No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (1Corinthians 15:9-10NIV – emphasis added)

If there is someone that should have an excuse for not doing what God had called him to do or for not exercising the gift that God had deposited in him it was Paul. Remember that when Stephen was killed, Paul was there, approving his murder. He was the first martyr to die for his faith in the Lord. And Paul literally supervised the man’s killing. (Cf. Acts 7:54-8:1)

Now think about Paul, going around among God’s people with that kind of reputation. You may not understand fully his condition, if you do not try to put yourself in his shoes. But Paul went around with that reputation when he started his ministry. In Acts of the Apostles, chapter 9, we are told that when he, after his conversion, wanted to associate with the brethren in Jerusalem, nobody was going to have anything to do with him. And that was because of his reputation as a persecutor of the church.

But this apostle would not use that as an excuse for not living to please God or for not exercising his spiritual gifts. He said in our opening bible text, “His grace to me was not wasted—it was not without effect. In fact, I worked harder than all the other apostles, taking advantage of God’s grace that was with me.”

So, whatever your past reputation looks like, it should not stop you from living to please the Lord Jesus or from exercising whatever spiritual gift He has given to you. You may have been known as a prostitute or a thief or an insincere person in the past. Yet don’t allow that to hinder your walk with God. No, don’t let it prevent you from living for Him, from using your spiritual gifts or from doing whatever tasks He has given you. Whatever name people may have called you in the past is irrelevant now. You are now a new creation in Christ Jesus, and you should function like one. And may you be strengthened daily by the Spirit of God to do so. Amen.

Have a great day.

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“I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” (1Tim 2:9-10NIV)

The day we live in is one in which indecency and inappropriate dressing are now the order of the day. Yes, it is a day in which women, including some elderly ones, no longer see anything wrong with dressing like prostitutes or walking around almost naked.

Unfortunately, even our women in the church are not left out of this societal menace. Many of them are vitally contributing to it. And this is evident in the kinds of dresses they wear to our church meetings. No, they may not come for church meetings half-naked. But they will make sure they wear something that reveals enough of certain parts of their bodies, so that they could get someone’s attention. It is no wonder, then, that rape cases are daily multiplying at a very alarming rate in our country, just as cases of consensual sex among unmarried people are just too much to talk about. 

But from what we see in our opening bible text, God’s people, God’s women, old or young, ought to be different in the way they dress and comport themselves. Is it that God does not want them to look beautiful and elegant when they dress? No! He wants His daughters to look beautiful and elegant wherever they appear. Otherwise, He would not create them to be beautiful. 

Look, for example, at what the bible says about the daughters of Job that were later born to him: 

“The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.” (Job 42:14-15NIV) 

Who gave Job these extremely beautiful daughters? God! So, beauty, any degree of it, is a gift from God. And no should condemn or despise it.

Unfortunately, there are preachers who have mistaken what Paul says in this text to mean that God’s women are not to dress well or beautify themselves at all, especially with articles of gold or silver. So, they condemn any woman who appears beautiful, without making any effort to find out what quality of life the person is living. But these same people may not see anything wrong with their own women braiding their hair or using bags or shoes with gold or silver plates. And that shows that they are ignorant of what this Scripture means.

I remember, for instance, how a so-called prophet once told a brother of mine that the Spirit of God wanted him to be careful of light complexioned ladies. Why? He had earlier that day seen him with a light complexioned lady. But did he know who she was to him? No! If he had, he would not have said that the Spirit of God told him what He obviously did not tell him.

In any case, what the Scripture we have above is telling us, first, is that God’s daughters are never to take their dressing or physical outlook more seriously than their conduct. So, we should not say that you, as a lady, are beautiful simply because of your hair-do, use of jewelleries and cost of wears but because you are a woman that is also rich in good deeds and character. In other words, if you are not rich in character, your physical beauty may as well be as good as worthless.

Second, this Scripture is telling us that when you dress, demonstrate decency. Cover what is meant to be covered and protect what should be protected. Yes, God has made you beautiful. But He does not want you to get outrageous in handling it. Or else you might soon turn yourself into a tool of seduction in the hand of the devil or open the door of your life for ungodly people or criminals to begin to desire you.

Remember that when the first man and the first women fell and the glory of God that was covering them left, the first thing they did was to cover their nakedness with garments of leaves. And when God came and met them in that condition, what did He do? He made garments of skin for them. Why? He could see that they were not adequately covered, even though it was just the two of them. (Cf. Gen 3)

Now if God should physically appear to you too today, what do you think He would do or say about your dressing? Would He freely settle down to relate to you or would He want to make a garment of skin for you to cover your nakedness? I am sure you know the answer. Therefore, what is acceptable to God is what you should always wear, whether you are a woman or a man and not what many of these movie, music or sport stars are leading you to wear. Otherwise, one might begin to wonder whether you are a child of God at all.

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I want to admonish you today on the importance of taking your own personal relationship with God very seriously instead of relying on the relationship of others with Him in order to enjoy Him. I am drawing your attention to this because there are many so-called believers in Christ Jesus today who rely solely on the faith of their church leaders in God or on the faith of certain members of their families in God for their progress or protection in life. And that can be very dangerous for them. 

For instance, we are told this in the bible about a king of Judah called Joash: 

“Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years of Jehoiada the priest.” (2Chron 24:2NIV) .

Why did this man do what was right in the eyes of the Lord during the years of Jehoiada the priest? It was because this priest was guiding him in the path of righteousness. We are even told in the account of his life that it was this priest that chose the two wives he married for him (2Chro 24:3).

However, after the death of this priest, things changed for Joash. He forsook the Lord and began to do things as he pleased. Look at what is said in the bible about that: 

“After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them. They abandoned the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God's anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem. Although the LORD sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.” (2Chron 24:17-19NIV)

Did you see that? After the death of Jehoiada, Joash was enticed by the leaders of the land into idolatry. And he followed them. Why did he follow them? He followed them because he himself did not have any serious personal relationship with God. So, he did whatever he did for God before that time because of Jehoiada and not because he truly believed in God or loved Him. That means he was simply doing eye-service. He was trying to please Jehoiada because he was the one that did not allow him to be killed when he was but an infant and also because he was the one that raised him and made it possible for him to be king. (Cf. 2Chro 22- 23)

But when the man died, and he no longer had any reason to please him, he abandoned God and followed others into idolatry. So, his reign was cut short and he died an untimely death. And this, as I said before, is showing us that it is important that we have our own personal relationship with God. In other words, don’t serve God, go for church meetings or act like a holy person simply because you are trying to please your parents, friends, husband, wife or employer. Instead, serve God and live a holy life because you have come to know Him as one that is truly worthy of your worship. Otherwise, a time will surely come when it will become clear to everyone that you have been a fraud all along.

More so, if you do not have your own personal relationship with God and are just living off the goodness of God in the lives of others, a time may come when their faith in God will only work for them and will not be able to work for you. Look at what God Himself has to say about this: 

“The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, even if these three men — Noah, Daniel and Job — were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD.”” (Ezek 14:12-14NIV)

I am sure you can now see the explanation for the untimely death of all the children of Job in one day (Job 1). All along, they had been sustained by the faith of their father in God. But his faith could not protect them from the devil on the day that he came to strike the family; his faith could only protect him. What if they had taken God as seriously as he had taken God? Then the story would most likely have ended differently. So, have your faith in God instead of relying on the faith of others in Him. Then even if the faith of others in Him fail or become weak, your own faith in Him will take you over

.

Have a love week.

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“…always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.” (2 Tim 3:7NIV)

Those are Paul’s words to us. And they are telling us about the possibility of always learning the word of God and yet not coming to know anything about Him or His truth (2Tim 3:7). And why will someone be attending church meetings and hearing the word of God and yet be ignorant of God and of the basic truths of life? One of the things that are often responsible for that is a lack of concentration. 

When the word of God is coming to you and your mind is not following what you are being taught but is busy with something else or you are sleeping, there is no way you will be able to make anything out of what you are learning. Unfortunately, not paying attention to the word of God coming to them or sleeping when the word of God is coming to them has become a culture for many so-called Christians. That means it is what they do all the time. It is no wonder, then, that there has been no noticeable transformation in their lives ever since they have become Christians and have been attending church meetings.

Another reason people often learn the word of God and yet don’t get to know the truth of God through it is a lack of understanding of what they are learning. Our Lord Jesus clearly tells us that when someone hears the word of God and does not understand it, Satan will come to him and snatch what he has heard away from him. Therefore, there is no way what he has heard can translate to anything good in his life -- it can only go to waste. (Cf. Matt 13:19)

Now it is understandable if one who is not a child of God hears the word of God and does not understand it. That is because he does not have the Spirit of God who gives men understanding of spiritual truths in him (1Cor 2:12). But when a child of God, one who has His Spirit in him, keeps hearing His word and yet does not understand what he is hearing, something is either wrong with him or with his teacher. And what is wrong with him may be that he is not making any effort to understand what he is learning. So, he will not bother to think or meditate on what he has heard. And he will not bother to search the Scriptures to see whether what he has heard is the truth or not. Why? He is lazy. So, like the Hebrew brethren, he is uninterested in gaining the knowledge of the truth. And that kind of person will never mature in spiritual things. (Cf. Heb 5:11-14)

Then we have those who hear the word of God and understand it but who have no intention of acting on it. And why will someone hear the word of God, understand it and yet make no decision to act on it? It is largely because he does not believe what he has heard is for him. He may see it as something for someone else to act on, but not him. And this is why, week after week, people hear the word of God and other instructions in their church meetings and still go out and act as though they did not hear a thing or do exactly the opposite of what they have heard. 

The question now is, “Why are you doing this to yourself?” Why are you wasting your time learning the word of God, when you have no intention of acting on it or when you are not interested in seeing it work in your life? See, the word of God will not be of any value to you, if you will not embrace it and act on what it says. No, His word will not open your eyes to the truths you need to know to be free in life, if you will not adopt the right attitude in receiving and handling it. So, if you are among those that have been learning the word of God for years and yet are not sound in the things of God, you need to reconsider what you are doing to yourself and change your ways. Otherwise, you will never stop being a victim of the lies of the devil and the errors of lawless men. 

Have a great day.

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“During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, "It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death."” (2Sam 21:1NIV)

David, as we are shown in the bible, was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). Not only that, we are told that he led his people with integrity of heart and skilful hands (Ps 78:72). Yet, during his reign, for three successive years there was a famine. 

Therefore, the fact that we are living right before God does not mean that things cannot go wrong with our lives, homes, businesses or anything under our care. Things may go wrong. But what we do if they go wrong is what will determine whether the situations will be arrested or go worse.

As we see in our opening text, the famine the nation of Israel experienced during David’s time was on for three years before he decided to seek God’s face about it. But why did he wait for three years before he sought God’s face about it? It was most likely because he did not think the famine would linger as it did. Then if they had the surplus of the years before the famine to enjoy, they may not immediately pay attention to what was happening to them. But by the time their surplus was gone, everyone would definitely wake up to the fact that they had a very big problem at hand.

In like manner, there are times that we too ignore certain problems in our lives and allow them to fester. That may be because we think these problems will naturally go away or resolve themselves. Or it may be because the presence of certain things or people in our lives is keeping us from experiencing the full impact of the problems. Or it may even be because we are not the ones directly experiencing the pains and the sorrows that are associated with them. 

But problems don’t go away by themselves or on their own. And that is because they don’t happen by themselves or on their own. Something or someone is always responsible for any problem we encounter. And if we want it to go away, then, we too must take responsibility for doing so. Otherwise, even if, for some reasons, we are not feeling its real impact today, as long as it is left unaddressed and allowed to go worse, a time will surely come when it will surely get the attention it deserves from us. But who knows how bad things would have become then?  

Well, when David realised that the famine his land was experiencing was not going away, even after three years, he decided to seek God’s face about it. In other words, he decided to find out what was wrong instead of allow things to get even worse. And did God speak when He sought His face or not? As we see in our opening text, God spoke when He sought His face. That means if he had prayed to God the very first year the famine began, he would have received the answer he needed to prevent it from lingering for three years.

Interestingly, the famine did not come because of any evil thing he or any of his people had done. Instead, it came because of the sins of a dead man, the sins of their first king, Saul. Now this is not the only place in the bible in which we are shown that the sin or sins of one person can actually become the problem of a whole nation or of a whole family. So, if those who are close to us are doing wicked things, we will be doing well to discourage them. That is because we may not know when their sins will become our problem or the problem of our children after us.

When Saul was zealously killing the Gibeonites, he did not know that what he was doing would earn his country years of famine. On the contrary, as we are equally shown in the bible, he thought he was doing the will of God. And there are many like him today who, in their ignorance, are also doing things to others that may earn them, their families or their nations years of pains, poverty or retrogression. (Cf. 2Sam 2:2)

In any case, even though the sin of Saul against the Gibeonites eventually became a problem for the whole nation of Israel, by praying to God, David was able to learn about it and to take the right steps towards solving the problem. In the same vein, we too can get to know the reason for whatever problem we are faced with in our lives and that has refused to go away. All we need is to seek God’s face about it, as David did. And He will answer us and tell us what we need to know and do. 

Yes, we may be coming to God with this late. But it is better to come to Him with our problems late than not to come at all. That is because, as long as there is breath in us, God will always be there to receive us and to fix whatever problem we bring to Him, however late we may be in coming to Him and however hopeless the problem we are bringing to Him may seem.

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My prayer for you today is that God will keep your heart right and humble before Him all the time, so that you will not experience any kind of downfall but elevation this year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As the bible tells us, pride is one of the major reasons people experience downfall or are prevented from experiencing elevation in life. If we are walking in pride, then, we may just be brought down from whatever position of advantage we are or prevented from rising beyond where we are in life. So, watch out for every form of pride and see to it that it is not allowed to take root in your life. (Cf. Prov 16:18; James 4:6-7; 1Pet 5:5-6)

Now one form of pride that God’s people don’t easily recognise but that is very much present in many of us is that which has to do with disobedience to spiritual authority. And when I am talking about spiritual authority, I am talking about those leaders that God has placed over you in your Christian assembly. These ones have been ordained by Him to feed you with His word and to watch over your soul through prayer and fellowship. So, I am not saying that every pastor, prophet, evangelist or apostle you meet is your spiritual leader and that you must obey them. 

If someone is not your church leader, you are not under any obligation to follow any instruction he gives you, right or wrong, unless you have a relationship with the person and see him as trustworthy. But if someone is your church leader, you are under an obligation to obey his instructions, as long as those instructions are consistent with the will of God. It is a shame, however, that we often find God’s people showing much regard for church leaders that are not directly over them while despising the ones that are directly over them in their Christian assemblies. 

But this is wrong and contrary to the will of God for our lives. Paul, while addressing the Corinthians on this note, says that if they were supporting and respecting church leaders who were not directly over them, should they not support and respect him all the more, since he was their father in the faith and had never stopped ministering to them in the word of God and in prayer? They should. (Cf. 1Cor 9:11-12)

In like manner, if you too find it convenient to support and respect church leaders that are not directly watching over you in the faith or that you have never even met, why should you find it hard to respect and support the leaders of your local assembly that are continually ministering to you even more? Well, one of the reasons we disrespect our church leaders in this manner is pride. When we feel that a church leader does not know enough or is not old enough or is not smart enough or is not educated enough to instruct or lead us, we will not obey them or take them seriously.

Also, when we are ignorant of the consequences of disobeying or disrespecting our church leaders, and many in the church today are ignorant of these things, we may freely disobey or despise them. But as we see in Scriptures, there are very terrible consequences for despising our spiritual leaders or encouraging rebellion against them, regardless of how young or unimpressive they may appear. So, warn yourself concerning these things. Otherwise, you may soon enough get into problems that God won’t save you from. (Cf. Num 12&17)

Finally, Paul says this to us about how we should relate to those who don’t take our leaders in the church seriously: 

“If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.” (2Thess 3:14-15NIV) 

Did you see that? We are told to take special note of anyone in our Christian assembly that does not take our leaders seriously, talks anyhow about them or encourages rebellion against their instructions. Why? First, it is so that we may warn them. Second, it is so that if they do not take warning, we can separate ourselves from them. Otherwise, we may end up partaking in the consequences of their disobedience.

So, always watch how the people you move with in the church relate to spiritual authority, regardless of how much you like them. Then you will know whether they will contribute to your growth in the kingdom of God or to your downfall. And may God fill you with sufficient understanding, strength and boldness to do this, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a splendid day.

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My prayer for you today is that you will continually be taught to serve God wholeheartedly, so that you may receive all the good things associated with doing so, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now if any of us truly wants to serve God wholeheartedly, then, he must bear in mind these words of our Lord Jesus Christ: 

“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45NIV)

Can you see that the Lord is not against our greatness? He wants us to be great people, especially in His kingdom. However, He also wants to know that the only way to be seen by God as great people in His kingdom is for us to be devoted to serving others. This, of course, does not mean that we are to turn ourselves to everybody’s slaves and allow them to abuse or insult us. Rather, it means that we, in humility, are to make ourselves available for Him to use in carrying out His will in people’s lives.

As our Lord points out in that text, He Himself came into the world to serve men and not to be served by them. And how did He serve them? It was by doing things that would fulfil the will of God in their lives. For example, He taught them the word of God, healed their sick folks, raised their dead people and eventually died for their sins. Why? It was so that they would become the people God wanted them to be, spirit, soul and body.

In like manner, we also are to serve men as He did. And though we are not required to die for anybody’s sins, there are several other things we can do to serve men and bring about the fulfilment of the will of God in their lives. We can be praying for them, teaching them God’s word, sharing our resources with them, correcting them when they are wrong, looking out for their welfare and interests, making our meeting places comfortable for them to stay in, aiding their ministries and so forth. 

In short, when we are talking about service in God’s kingdom, it is all about what we can give to people and not about what we can take from them. Unfortunately, many do not understand this. So, often, they associate service in God’s kingdom with a possession of some measure of power to control God’s people as they like and to take from them whatever they want. In fact, some are so desperate to rule over God’s people that they can go to any extent to have power over them. That is why we have church leaders today that are involved in sorcery, witchcraft, divination, manipulation and so on.

Now people like such are like Simon the Sorcerer of bible days, who wanted to buy the gift of God with money. Why? He was desperate to maintain the control he once had over the people of his city. Such people are also like Diotrephes of bible days who, because he wanted to have control over God’s people, was ready to have a face-off with the apostles of the Lord. But the truth is that individuals like such cannot go far in their attempt to possess and rule over God’s people. That is because, at some point, God, the owner of all souls, will certainly deal with them as their actions deserve. (Cf. Acts 8:14-24; 3John 9-10)

So, do not imitate them or walk in their footsteps. Instead, imitate our Lord Jesus, who gave Himself in service for us all, so that our lives may be a fulfilment of the will of God. And God, who never cheats, will surely reward you adequately and appropriately for all that you do for His people, if you do not faint.

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“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (1Cor 15:10-11NIV) 

How was Paul able to work harder for the Lord than all His other apostle? It was through the grace of God. So, it was not because he was smarter, more knowledgeable or more righteous than them that he worked harder than them; rather, it was because he made the most of all that God provided for him to serve Him. 

Now did Paul really work harder than the rest of the apostles of the Lord? In his own estimation, he believed that he did. And whether he was right or wrong about this we all will know when the Lord comes to reward all His holy people. So, that is not something for us to debate. What is important for us to pay attention to, however, is the fact that the man did not waste the grace of God that was lavished on him. Instead, he used it to serve Him wholeheartedly, to serve Him more and more to the very end of his time here on earth.

But can we too say the same thing of ourselves? Can we say that we are making the most of the grace of God to abound in His work? Paul, in the same letter to the Corinthian brethren, says this to them:

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1Cor 15:58NIV) 

Did you see that? These brethren are admonished not to be lazy in handling God’s work but to give themselves fully to doing it all the time. Why? It is because their labour will not be in vain. In other words, God will reward them for whatever they do for Him. 

Think about it. Even though it is the Lord that provides us with everything we need to serve Him, He still promises to reward us for whatever we do for him. And even though the glory of whatever results we get through our service to Him belongs to Him alone, He still promises to reward us for our labour for Him.

All of this is why we need to wake up, if we are already sleeping, and get busy with His work. Yes, we need to stop hiding or running from His work or looking for excuses to make for doing less for Him instead of doing more for Him. And we need to stop seeing others who are busy doing His work as overdoing things or as working to get the praise of men. That is because it is not in our place to judge the quality of anyone’s work for the Lord. That is His own personal job. 

Our own job, then, is to act like Paul and see how we can make the most of God’s grace every new day to work harder for Him than we did before and than those around us. Why? Is it so that we may boast about our works? No! Rather, it is so that we may motivate other children of God around us to be more devoted in giving Him true and quality service. And I pray that your heart will always be on fire to do this, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a pleasant day.

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“Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.” (Ezek 28:17NIV)

My prayer for you today is that God will keep your heart humble before Him all the time, so that redundancy or stagnation will not take charge of your life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As we are told in the bible, the reason the angel of God that we now call Satan became Satan was pride. Originally, he was made by God to be perfect in beauty and wisdom and was given a very high place among the angels of God. But when he allowed his beauty to fill him with pride, he was thrown down by God from his position of prestige and power. (Cf. Ezekiel 28:11-19)

Why, then, are we told this in the bible? It is so that we may know that God hates pride. And why does He hate pride? It is because pride is a symptom of our refusal to give Him credit for whatever good thing we have or are able to do. As we see in the bible, we all are nothing apart from God and can have nothing apart from Him. He is our creator and the creator of everything else that exists. So, there is nothing we can take credit for in this life or in the age to come. He is before all things and all things are from Him and for Him. (Cf. Ps 24:1; Col 1:16-17; Rev 4:11)

But when we fail to acknowledge this fact and begin to act like we are something, whether towards Him or towards men, we are positioning ourselves to be thrown down by Him, just as Satan was thrown down by Him. The bible says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So, it does not matter who we are or what height we have attained in life, the moment we allow pride in our lives, the moment we start to think or act as if we were God, we would find Him resisting us. And if we fail to repent quickly, we will soon enough find ourselves trampled down on the floor of life or in the pit of hell. (Cf. James 4:6; 1Peter 5:5)

So, give no room for any form of pride in you, regardless of how smoothly life is going for you or what position of advantage you are or how useful you have become in the hands of God. Remember that Satan was once a great instrument of praise in the hand of God. But pride ruined him. And it can ruin us too. It can corrupt our beauty, wisdom, knowledge, position and usefulness, if we too allow it. It can turn us into beasts, beasts that God will not want to have anything to do with.

And is that what you want? Do you want to become someone that God will begin to seek to discard or get rid of? I am sure you don’t. But that is what may eventually happen, if you allow any form of pride in you. So, watch yourself. Watch the way you relate to God and the way you relate to men. And may the Spirit of God open your eyes to whatever form of pride you have in you, so that you can deal with it before it leads to your downfall, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a lovely day.

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“A wise servant will rule over a disgraceful son, and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.” (Prov 17:2NIV)

When the prodigal son lost it all and had to go and get a job, he confessed to himself that even the servants in his father’s house were better off than him. In other words, their living conditions as servants were far better than his own living conditions as a son. So, he concluded that he would go back to his father’s house and beg him to take him in, not as a son but as a servant. (Cf. Luke 15:11-20)

But why did he find himself in that situation? He found himself there because he did not manage the rights, opportunities and privileges that his position as a son in his father’s house gave to him with wisdom. And that is what Solomon is speaking about in our opening bible text. There he tells us that our position in life is not what is really important; what is really important is how we conduct ourselves in that position.

As he points out, even if we start out in life as a servant or an errand person, occupying a low place in life, if we will conduct ourselves and our affairs with wisdom, at some point, God is able to raise us up to sit, dine and rule with princes. And if we start out in life in a position of advantage, having access to riches, honour, affluence and so forth, if we will not learn to conduct ourselves and our affairs with wisdom, at some point, we will realise that we have lost it all and that some that should have been our servants are now the ones ruling over us.

Remember Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. Remember that it was lack of wisdom, prudence and character that made him lose the larger part of the kingdom that his father left for him to his father’s servant, Jeroboam. Yes, of course, it was the will of God for Jeroboam to become king and to have the larger part of that kingdom. But it was this man’s foolishness that made it very easy for what God wanted to come to pass. So, if you are given to handling your affairs with a foolish mind, regardless of how high or lofty your position in life may be, you will just be making it easy for people of lesser influences or of lower places in life to push you aside and take over what God has given to you. (Cf. 1Kings 11:26-12:24)

Then remember Joseph too. Remember that even though he started out in Potiphar’s house as a slave, he ended up being the administrator of that man’s house because he conducted his life and affairs with wisdom. Potiphar may have had sons and daughters at that time. But nothing is said in the bible about them or about any of them being the one in charge of his house. Joseph was the one in charge. And he was in charge because overtime he proved to Potiphar that he had what it takes to do so. (Cf. Gen 39)

In like manner, even if you are in a low place in life now, God is able to lift you up to a high place of leadership, power, influence and riches. But you will need to show those that He may want to use to lift you up that you have abilities that belong in the high place of life. Otherwise, it does not matter your level of faith in Him, you may never rise beyond where you are. So, don’t just desire to leave your low place in life for a high place; also, cultivate attributes that will make you fit to function in the high places of life. Then when God opens the door for your lifting, you will not waste the opportunity but be ready to make the most of it.

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“Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"” 

(Matt 4:5-7NIV)

The language of the Scriptures can sometimes be very funny and shocking at the same time. For example, as we see in our opening bible text, there was a time that Satan took Jesus, the Son of God, to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. That means it was not the Holy Spirit that led Him on this trip. Rather, it was the devil that led Him on it. And he led Him on the trip for the sole purpose of destroying Him – He wanted Him to commit suicide. Interestingly, the Lord went with Him.

So, don’t think that Satan cannot lead you to go to places you should not go or to meet with people you should not meet or to engage in ventures you have no business engaging in or to say things you are not permitted to say. He can lead you to do any of these things or even something worse, regardless of how spiritual you think you are. He led Jesus to go to a place where He could freely commit suicide without being stopped, as spiritual as He was. And he led Him to do this when He was just done fasting for forty days and forty nights.

That you are fasting and praying and feeling very spiritual, then, does not mean that Satan cannot lead you to do the unthinkable. It does not mean that he cannot in that moment lead you to commit adultery, murder, theft or suicide. If you do not have the word of God in you, as did Jesus, and be ready to act on it, Satan may end up destroying you, even when you feel most spiritual.

And this is something those who have all kinds of prophets and prophetesses in their lives and over their lives ought to be paying attention to. If Satan could lead Jesus to go and attempt suicide, he can lead your prophets too to do things contrary to the will of God for them or for you. So, you need to be loaded with the word of God in order to know when Satan is leading you or someone in your life and to take appropriate and adequate measures to frustrate him.

On the occasion mentioned in our opening bible text, though Satan succeeded in leading Jesus to the highest point of the temple in Jerusalem, he did not succeed in realising the purpose for which he had brought Him there. Yes, the urge to go to that place must have been strong in the Lord. However, because He had the word of God in Him, He resisted the temptation to commit suicide all in the name of proving that He was God’s Son. 

Now what particular word of God kept Jesus on that occasion? It was His word that says, “Don’t put the Lord your God to the test.” In other words, recognise the boundaries God has set for you and don’t go beyond them. As Satan pointed out to Jesus, God has clearly said that He would use His angels to protect Him, if he should find Himself in danger. But was the Lord in danger at that point? No! There was nobody pursuing Him or trying to push Him off that temple height. So, if He had thrown Himself down, as suggested by the devil, He would have been the one putting Himself in danger. That being the case, God’s plan of protection may not have worked for Him.

But the Lord knew better. So, He would not listen to the devil but simply walked away. Why? It was because He knew that He would be stepping out of His boundaries by deliberately putting Himself in danger, just to prove to the devil that God would protect Him as His Son. That, actually, would be like saying that God would keep His people safe and sound, regardless of what they did, good or bad. And is that so? Will God always keep His people safe and sound, regardless of what they do? No!

So, like Jesus, we too must learn to walk away from anything that takes us outside the boundaries of God’s love and provisions for us. In other words, once something is not within your boundaries, whether financial boundaries, professional boundaries, mental boundaries, physical boundaries or spiritual boundaries (gifts or knowledge), don’t go for it, if there is no legitimate need to do so. Don’t go for anything that is beyond you just because you want to prove a point. Otherwise, you are guaranteed to get wounded or injured in the process.

Yes, if there is a clear need to confront a situation that is beyond you, God will certainly step in and grant you the victory you need. But don’t deliberately throw away caution and put yourself in harm’s way or get yourself involved in things you have no abilities for and that are of no benefit to you or anyone, just because you think God is with you and that you can do all things in Christ. You will be putting God to the test by acting in that manner. And you can be sure that you will be wounded just as some have been wounded who acted similarly. 

See, the one always behind all such things that involve people going to the extremes or needlessly going for things they have no abilities for is the devil. And his aim always is to destroy them. If you, then, don’t want to get destroyed by him in this manner, learn to walk away from every thought, idea or suggestion that is leading you to do something dangerous or something beyond you for no reason other than to prove that you are something.

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“A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment.” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25NIV) 

Those are Solomon’s words to us. And some bible scholars have said that they could be more accurately rendered as:

“There is nothing a person can do to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment.” 

In any case, the part I want to draw your attention to is that which says, “This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment.” Now what this means is that without God we cannot find satisfaction in life. That is exactly what Solomon want us understand here. 

Without God there is no way you can enjoy your life. I am not saying that you cannot attempt to enjoy your life without God. You really can do that. You really can attempt to enjoy your life without God. But ultimately, you are going to find out that without Him you cannot enjoy your life.

In fact, Solomon breaks what he is communicating to us here down a little bit. He says even in simple matters like eating and drinking, you cannot have any kind of enjoyment without God. That means you cannot enjoy your food or drink without God. You know you can take a cup of water and drink it, almost effortlessly. I mean that looks really simple. 

But there are some people in some hospitals, who, as simple as that task is, cannot do it. There are people that cannot eat your plate of fried rice or salad, no matter how hungry they may be. These ones cannot eat the normal way each of us eats because they are terribly ill. But we take these things for granted every day. We walk in a street, buy some groundnuts and start eating them, without even thinking about the fact that what we are doing could never have been possible without God.

Now if, in simple matters like those, we need God, if, in simple matters like those, we cannot minimize the place or relevance of God, how about matters that have to do with our dreams, marriages or homes? Can we handle them without God? Can we actually enjoy our homes without God? Can you enjoy your marriage without God? 

You cannot enjoy your marriage or any other relationship without God. You cannot enjoy your life without Him. You cannot fulfil your dreams with Him. In short, there is nothing you can enjoy or do in life without God. And why can’t we enjoy these things without God? It is because God Himself is the author of life. If we, then, will not take Him seriously, there is no way any one of us can truly enjoy life or make sense out of living. 

Yes, we may attempt to enjoy our lives without Him. But as I said earlier, a day is coming when it will fully dawn on us that without Him we can’t make any sense out of living. So, take God seriously. That will be the best decision you can ever make in life.

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“Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: it is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do.” (1Corinthians 7:8NIV) 

What we have here in our opening text is Paul's own counsel to the unmarried and the widows. But he is not saying that people must compulsorily follow it. You can choose not to get married. And that is what Paul is saying here. 

In fact, according to him, it is a good thing not to get married. Do you know why? It is because there are problems you will never face in your life, if you do not get married. If you choose not to marry, there are challenges you will never face in life. For example, you will not have problems with your in-laws, for you are not going to have any in-law. So, you can choose to stay unmarried, as Paul tells us here.

However, according to our Lord Jesus Christ [and Paul], one man has this gift and another that gift. That means it is not everyone who has the ability to stay unmarried. There are people who can actually stay unmarried and not be troubled by it. It is a gift from God to them. (Cf. Matthew 19:11-12; 1Corinthians 7:7)

But there are those who cannot stay unmarried without getting involved in sexual problems. And it is because of them that Paul goes on to say:

“But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” (1Corinthians 7:9NIV)

Now look at the reason that the Scripture is giving us here for marriage. It says instead for you to burn with passion, then, you should go and marry. Instead of living an immoral life, then, go and marry. Some people will say, “It is just that I cannot control my body.” Then go and marry. You don't need to stay unmarried. If you know that you cannot control your body, if you know that sex is a problem for you, then, go and get married. 

See, we are not animals. We are not goats that just meet themselves in the streets and start mating. We are human beings, made after the likeness of God. And He wants purity for the human race. That is why He set the marriage institution to be for one man and one woman.

So, if your thought is, “Oh, my body is troubling me; it is a problem for me. And I cannot rest without having sex with someone”, then you should go and get married.

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“…Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’” (Mark 7:8-9NIV) 

God is talking here. And He says that His people are worshiping Him in vain. That means their worship is useless – it is a waste. Their praying is a waste. Their singing to God is a waste. They are just wasting their lives. They think they are worshiping God. But what they are really doing is wasting their lives.

Now such people may want to do this and that for God. But ultimately everything will result in a waste. You see people today who want to preach. Yet they don’t want to move out of carnality. They want to preach God’s word week after week. Yet they don’t want to stop fornication; they don’t want to stop their practice of adultery; they want to remain bitter and not forgive those who have offended them. What are they doing? They are wasting their lives. There will be no reward for whatever service they are rendering. 

Now I am not saying that when people preach in their carnal situation, others will not be blessed. People may be blessed through their preaching, for the One that will bless them is God. But they themselves will have nothing from God’s hands for what they are doing. Think of the number of preachers we have in our country today. How many of them are actually devoted to doing the desires of God?

Also, there are many who want to be in the choir or the ushering unit or the drama group and so forth. They want to be active, doing this and that for God. Yet they do not want to come out of their life of carnality. It is a fact that in many of our Christian assemblies today many of our choristers are involved in sexual immorality. Yet every Sunday they want to come around and sing. 

The same thing applies to many in the drama units or groups of many churches. They are always meeting for rehearsals. Yet they do not want to come out of a life of carnality. And they think they are pleasing God like that. 

But you are not pleasing God, if you are living like that. You are just wasting your life and your service. That is what the bible says. But if you will repent right away and begin to take what God is saying to you seriously, you will experience His forgiveness and cleansing in your life. Then your life and service will become a sweet-smelling sacrifice to Him, pleasing and acceptable in His sight. And may you be strengthened today to take these words seriously in your life. Amen.

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“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12NIV) 

From what we see in our opening text, it is clear that Paul was progressive in his walk with God. He was not stagnant at all. And he said the words we have here after he had preached and blessed lives for a number of years. He did not look at himself as having arrived already. He did not look at himself as already knowing everything that he needed to know. He wanted to know more of the Lord Jesus. 

So, he said, “I am pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” He is in other words saying, “There was a reason Jesus Christ took hold of me. There was a reason He saved me. There was a reason He delivered me. And I want to see that reason fully accomplished in my life. I don’t want what He has done for me to be a waste.” 

That is a spiritual man. He wants to see to it that what the Lord Jesus has done for him is not a waste. He wants to see to it that he becomes everything that God wants him to be. He is not settling for anything less.

Now can we say that about ourselves? Can you say that about yourself? Are you after becoming all that God wants you to be? Are you after living the very life that God wants you to live? Is that your focus? Do you have your mind fixed on that? Do you want to be the kind of man He wants you to be? Do you want to be the kind of woman He wants you to be? If you are into a business, are you after becoming the kind of businessman he wants you to be? 

I often ask myself, “Do I want to be the kind of husband God wants me to be? Do I want to be the kind of father he wants me to be?” And you also can ask yourself, if you are a wife, “Do I want to be the kind of wife God wants me to be?” Or as a son or a daughter in your parents’ house, do you want to be the kind of daughter God wants you to be? Even as a citizen of this country, do you desire to be the kind of citizen God wants you to be? 

Do you have your focus on these things? If you have your focus on them, then, you will want to know the Lord Jesus, as Paul says to the Philippians. In fact, you will press on to know Him better and better. That is because it is as we know Him that we know ourselves. And once we know ourselves as we really are in the sight of God, we will surely begin to live accordingly.

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My prayer for you today is that none of the beautiful things God has prepared for your enjoyment in life will be hindered from being yours, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now when we are talking about people experiencing hindrances in their lives, it is not every time that Satan is to be held responsible. Sometimes, God Himself is to be held responsible for it. But why will God, who loved humanity so much that He gave His only begotten Son for them, want to hinder any man or woman from advancing in life? Pride is the reason.

Both James and Peter in their epistles tell us that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1Peter 5:5). So, if you are proud, you can surely expect God’s resistance to progress in certain or all of the areas of your life. And one way we often unconsciously manifest pride is in our unwillingness to submit to authority. 

As we see in the bible, there are people God has already commanded us to submit ourselves to. For example, our parents, husbands, employers and bosses, community leaders and government leaders are among those He wants us to submit to. He does not want us to disrespect these people or to disobey them, where their instructions do not conflict with His word and principles for righteous living. And if we go against this and begin to disregard them, we are simply walking in pride and will certainly see Him in action against our progress. Only He knows, then, how many of us are being limited or hindered in life because of this. (Cf. Romans 13:1-5; Eph 5:22; Eph 6:1-3; 1Pet 2:13-14; 1Pet 3:1-2)

Furthermore, in the church, we are taught by the Lord to submit to our leaders out of reverence for Christ (Eph 2:21). That means the church of God is not a place where you flex your muscles and act as you like. There are people God has placed over you there to watch over your soul and care for you, so that you may become all that He wants you to become. It is important, therefore, that you yield yourself to these people and not make it difficult for them to lead you, as long as they are not leading you away from the truth of God’s word. Otherwise, as the bible points out, it will not be for your benefit at all. God will certainly deal with you according to your pride. (Cf. Heb 13:17)

Unfortunately, there are many in the church today that pride will not make them learn what will profit them or make them experience the fullness of the goodness of God that could have been theirs through their leaders. They are like the nobles among the men of Tekoa mentioned in the book of Nehemiah, who would not submit to their supervisors when the walls of Jerusalem were being rebuilt by all the people (Neh 3:5). Such people are unconsciously hindering the work of God among His people. So, He too will limit His works in their lives.

You can see, then, that rebellion to authority is not at all in your interest. So, deal with whatever form of pride you have in you that is causing you to act in rebellion towards those that God has appointed over you. And may be the Spirit of God lead and also strengthen you to do what is right about this matter, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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“Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert.” (Num 14:33NIV)

Why did God say that the children of the Israelites that rebelled against Him in the wilderness, when He was leading them into the Land of Promise, would be nothing but shepherds for forty years? Was it because that was the only vocation available for humans at that time? No! There were all sorts of vocations that people could learn and practise then. 

In fact, as we see in Scriptures, there were all kinds of skilled workers among these Israelites at that time. For example, we have people like Bezalel and Oholiab among them at the time. And these young men were experts in all kinds of crafts. There were also among them women who were skilled in spinning cloth materials. (Cf. Ex 31:1-11 & 35:25-26) 

So, at that time, there was no shortage of skills to engage in all kinds of vocations that could transform a land into a wonder among these Israelites. But how much could they accomplish for themselves and their nation with their various skills and vocations while wandering in the wilderness? Not much! 

The prevailing circumstances in that wilderness did not give much room for them to fully utilise whatever special skills or abilities they had and build great vocations or careers with them. They could not settle down there to farm. They could not settle down there to build houses. And they could not set up a market there for people from different nations to come and trade in. The best they could do there was take care of their animals and wait until God led them out of there into the land flowing with milk and honey, which He had promised them.

But why, then, didn’t they just get out of the wilderness and move into the land God had promised them? They could not. They could not because they had no power of their own to take that land. God had to give it to them. Then why was God not giving it to them, since He had promised to do so? It was because He did not want the unbelieving older generations among them to enter the land. So, He was waiting until the last one of them died before giving the land to their descendants, something that took forty years. And that, of course, also means that those qualified to enter that land of rest and prosperity were stuck in the wilderness because of their natural relationships, their relationships with their parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties and so forth.

What is the point of all this? It is that the circumstances of our birth or of where we are can put certain limitations on us, even lifetime limitations. Yes, the circumstances of our family or those of where we live, work, do business or study can keep us in poverty, illiteracy, danger or illness. And it does not matter how hardworking, diligent, educated or gifted we may be, those circumstances may never allow us to attain certain heights of usefulness, prominence, prosperity or comfort in life.  

Unfortunately, many don’t know this. They don’t know that regardless of what degree of hard work, diligence or carefulness they employ where they are, as long as certain circumstances are prevalent there or in their families, their efforts will not succeed in giving them the experience of prosperity or peace that they desire. So, they keep putting in more effort. And if they are not shown mercy by God, frustration and depression are bound to set in at some point and ruin them.

What, then, do such people need? They need divine intervention. In other words, they need God to step into their situation. And what will that accomplish? First, when God steps into their situation, He will open their eyes to see what their problem really is, which is that they are being limited or hindered by certain circumstances of their lives. Second, He will take steps to remove or change the circumstances limiting them or take them away from those circumstances to where they need to be to flourish and be all that He wants them to be. 

In the case of the Israelites that we are considering, God, at the right time, had to lead them out of the wilderness into the land He had prepared for them, so that they could flourish with their gifts, abilities and vocations. Otherwise, their names and memories would have disappeared along with them in the wilderness. But in the case of Isaac, when he was living in Gerar and there was a severe famine in the land, all God needed to do was give him favourable circumstances. So, though it was a time of severe famine, the man still rose above all odds and flourished in the land. (Cf. Gen 26)

So, if you feel or can see that certain prevailing circumstances where you are have been working against you and making nonsense of your diligent labour or carefulness and forcing poverty, illness, illiteracy or any other terrible thing on you, don’t waste time at all to take the case up with God. That is because He is the only person that can show you what to do and also fix the problem for you. And He will surely have it handled for you, if you will patiently allow Him. 

But if you choose to use your own wisdom to address things and move to where you should not move to or stay where you need to get away from, you will someday realise, like Naomi of bible days, that you have not solved your problem at all but have only made it worse (Ruth 1). My earnest prayer is that you will act wise in this matter and not make things worse for yourself while you are trying to handle them. Amen.

Have a blessed day.

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“Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.” (1Timothy 4:15NIV) 

Those are Paul’s words to Timothy, his son in the faith. And why does he say these things to him? He says them to him because he is a leader of God’s people. What, then, does he want him to take note of? Well, he wants him to take note of the fact that it is important that everyone see his progress in living for God. That means everyone needs to see how he is maturing in the things of God. Why? It will inspire them and let them know that the things he is teaching them are not just what God expects of them but also practicable. 

Now that is part of the basis for accomplishing discipline in the church. But where leaders lead anyhow, they cannot accomplish discipline in the church. Yes, they may be ruthless in punishing God’s people or have all kinds of laid-down rules for disciplining the brethren. But the discipline they will accomplish with such rules will merely be something outward. There will be nothing concrete about it. It will limit things to what happens in church meetings.

Sadly, a lot of times, when we are talking about church discipline, our focus is on what happens in church meetings and how people behave in them. We want people to come in early for meetings, not to make noise in them and to be orderly all the time. And that is fine. God expects us to be orderly in our meetings. 

But church discipline goes beyond what happens in church meetings. It also includes what happens in brethren’s lives out where they live and work. Are they orderly in their lives? Are they orderly in their homes? Are they orderly and living in the will of God in their neighbourhoods, schools, offices or wherever they find themselves? .

If they are not living in the will of God in all these places in their lives or in every aspect of their lives, whatever form of discipline or orderliness they show in church meetings is meaningless to God. They may just be trying to please their leaders or impress other people around them. And that is not what we are dealing with. We are dealing with what affects people at the core of their lives, when we are talking about church discipline. (Cf. Ezekiel 33:30-32; Mark 7:6-7) 

So, we who are instructing others in the will of God must also stand as examples to them of what God wants to see in their lives. But if we are living anyhow and are not disciplined in the way we handle our various relationships and responsibilities, we are not fit to accomplish the will of God in the lives of our brethren. We do not stand in a position to help them. We are not qualified to help them or discipline them. We will, therefore, need to get our lives right first. Or we may eventually become totally useless to God in carrying out His will in the lives of His children.

Have a pleasant day.

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“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” – which is the first commandment with a promise – “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:1-3NIV).

This is God’s word to children. And He is addressing believing children here, children that are raised in the church. They must be taught to obey their parents’ authority; they must be taught to yield to it. The instruction is ‘Obey your parents in the Lord’. Unfortunately, some have taken this to mean ‘spiritual parents’. But this is not addressing spiritual authority at all. There are, of course, places in Scriptures where we are told to obey our spiritual leaders. But this is not one of them. 

We have a very clear instruction here, which says, “Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” So, the instruction is to Christian children who have Christians parents. And it is saying since your parents are Christians, the right thing for you to do is to obey them. That is because you can trust them not to mislead you. 

But then, every form of authority has boundaries. So, even though you are a parent and have authority over your children, your authority over them has boundaries. Anything that takes you outside the will of God takes you outside the boundaries of your authority. Therefore, if you are asking your children to do anything that is contrary to the will of God, you are functioning outside the boundaries of your authority. If they will not obey you, then, they will be doing the right thing. That is because we are not talking about blind obedience here. Rather, we are talking about obedience that is in conformity with righteousness. 

Also, in Colossians, chapter 3, from verse 18, Paul says this to us along the same line: “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.” (Colossians 3:20NIV) Can you see that? Paul, here, is not saying, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord.” Rather, he is saying, “Children, obey your parents in everything.” Why? It pleases the Lord to do so. And in Ephesians 6 he says it is the right thing to do.

Well, this man of God goes on to remind us that the very first commandment of Moses that was given with a promise has to do with children obeying their parents. It says honour your parents, so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life here on earth. That means there are rewards that go along with acting on the word of God that tells us to be submissive to our parents and other elders in our lives.

At any rate, we are saying children are to submit to their parents. And we must keep in mind the fact that God is talking about children here and not adults. I am saying this because parents sometimes don’t know when to stop issuing out commands to their children. Yes, your children will always be children in your eyes. But they will not forever be children. At some point, they will become adults. And that is even your own desire. 

Therefore, it is important that you recognise this and act accordingly. In other words, know that there is a period of time for your children to be under you and for you to train them in the way they should go. But they will not always be under you and you won’t always be in the right position to make decisions for them. At that time, it is the training that you have given to them and the prayers you have prayed for them, entrusting them to God, that you will have to count on, as far as their decision making is concerned. It will not be right for you, then, to think you will always be able to order your children around to do whatever you wish, whether it is right or wrong. That is because when they become adults, they will have to be responsible for making their own decisions.

All the same, as a child, submitting to your parents is the right thing for you to do in the sight of God. And those who so can expect God to fulfil His promise of causing them to enjoy long life and prosperity here on earth.

Have a great day.

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“…what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1John 3:2-3NIV) 

I love what John says in our opening text. He says we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him. This is sure knowledge for those of us who believe in the Lord Jesus. We know this. We are not guessing about it. We know that when Christ eventually appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 

That means whatever our Lord Jesus looks like when He is made known is what we shall be transformed to. And don’t forget that we are not talking about our spirits; our spirits have been made like His now; our spirits have been recreated already. We are talking here about the totality of our person. So, when He shows up, whatever He looks like is what we are going to look like.

Now how should that affect us? Knowing that we will be like Him is good. But what impart should that knowledge have on us? How should that knowledge affect our conduct right now? Indeed, we don’t really know what we are going to look like, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him. And what should that imply to us? 

John answers this for us, saying, “All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1John 3:3NIV) That is what is important for us right now. All those who have this hope in the Lord purify themselves. That means if you have this hope in you that Jesus will appear again someday to change us, you are going to be purifying yourself. You are not going to be getting yourself contaminated. 

Is that, then, what you are doing at the moment? Are you keeping yourself pure for the coming of the Lord? Are you keeping yourself from being contaminated by the people and the things of this world? If you are not doing so, then, you are not making yourself ready for Him. In fact, you probably are not expecting Him at all. Therefore, His coming again will shock you – it will meet you unprepared. And how, then, are you going to handle that? I pray you don’t have to answer this question when He comes. 

Have a blessed day.

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“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Ephesians 4:29NIV) 

What is Paul saying here? He is saying put off corrupt communication and put on proper or edifying communication. He does not just say, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths;” he also says, “Say something edifying.” Don’t talk nonsense; don’t talk rubbish. Don’t say something because it is a popular thing to say. 

There are a lot of phrases and words out there that are popular but not consistent with the life we are called to live. These words are wrong, foul and bad. A Christian must be different in the way he talks. Have you indeed become a Christian? Have you indeed become a New Creation? Then let it show in the way you talk. 

So, don’t join others in talking trash. Some people are fond of reducing everything others say to something immoral. They just have ways of giving immoral interpretation to everything they hear. You, as a child of God, must not be involved in such. 

Then don’t keep quiet. Don’t say, “Well, they already said I should not say something that is not nice. So, let me keep quiet.” That is not enough. You must not keep mute; rather, you must learn to say something edifying to people. Instead of trying to keep the evil words that are boiling within you from coming out, you must learn to get rid of them and begin to say words that are edifying. 

And notice that Paul says our words must be helpful in building others up, according to their needs. Our words must benefit those who are listening to us. That means every time people get to talk or converse with us, they must be edified. Yes, they must hear something that will lift them up, encourage them, enlighten them, comfort them or strengthen them. That is what we have been called to do.

Have a lovely day.