Monday, 14 June 2021
Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Monday, 24 May 2021
Saturday, 29 February 2020
Prisoner of Hope
Rom 15:1313 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
You know, this scripture really encouraged me recently and the Holy
Spirit was telling me a lot. I sense that people are at different stages and
levels of expectations; results, promotion, a client, school, finances, a
project, a job.
And many people find it terrifying having to wait when it is
taking time, or are in situations that they are tired of hoping because they
have been hoping for so long. They have been disappointed so much that it’s hard
to hope again. Now they’re in a practical phase. This is real life yunno, get
your head out of the clouds.
Hope wasn’t a concept I was alien to. I’d listen to motivational
speeches, I’d even listen to teachings by the likes of Myles Munroe, of blessed
memory, TD Jakes, Joel Osteen, I’d hear their testimonies, it would pump me up for success. But then real-life situations are almost always different. I wanted to
fulfill my purpose and do all these great things, but there was a divide between
what was in my head and my reality.
Then I figured it out; I was trying to produce hope without the power of
the Holy Spirit. And it was wearing me out. Romans 15:13 tells us you overflow
with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. better talk.
Romans 15:13 King James Version (KJV)13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
It goes beyond, goody too shoes, feel-good motivational, sweet, it-will-get-better talk.
Because where most people have difficulty is in waiting or still hoping
when an expectation is not met at the time they want it.
Notice from the above text that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to keep you in peace and joy while you are believing. So you’re not just waiting in trepidation or in depression or just being a train-wreck till what you are believing works out. You are believing for
something in peace and joy up to the point it overflows. Not in panic or
depression till it works out.
God is the Prince of Peace, and He is the God of hope. Listen to
something radical; GOD WILL ALWAYS MAKE YOU HOPE FOR SOMETHING. No matter how
bad things are, GOD WILL ALWAYS GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO HOPE FOR!
And it’s not
this fearful expectation of will it happen or not? but a peaceful, joyful, blissful; patience in believing and waiting.
When you throw away your
expectation you are being ungodly. That is demonic. It shall be done unto you
according to your expectations.
You know Jesus said that I will send you another comforter, the Holy
Spirit. The truth is that in this world you will have trouble. And many
people have thrown away their faith because of a situation; grief, loss,
heartbreak, failures. And they question the whole point of serving God. They cannot go beyond a
particular situation where their expectations were not met to believe God again
in their finances, health, education, ministry, beyond the report from the
doctor, beyond the loss, beyond the breakup…
But people think believing God means you will never get a bad report.
Isaiah asks us, “whose report will you believe?”;
Can you go beyond the
negative response? believing in faith for your finances and not seeing results
yet; the test not coming back the way you want it…
King James uses the word; Abound in hope! God wants you to abound in
hope so much so that even in a negative situation, you can see the good, you
can see how it will possibly work out.
Now, this is not saying God allowed the
negative thing to happen or brought it because in him is light and there is no
darkness at all! But you know we are in a fallen world, and bad things happen,
but even when the situation is a result of your own foolishness and poor
decisions; God blessed and defended Abraham even when he was lying about his
wife and making poor decisions.
This was because He had righteousness accounted to him.
Now Jesus is our righteousness and God will even work out your failures for
good.
So it did not work out the way you wanted, you had to repeat a school
year; God can use it to teach you something new, meet someone helpful to your destiny, meet a
future prospect, business partner, life partner, open you to business
opportunities in that area, open you to life-changing information, make you
available to pour into lives that will be a blessing on a national scale. Countless possibilities and blessings can come up from a bad situation, the way you did not plan if you change your perspective.
You can find good in any and every situation! My mentor always used to
say, even if they were about to cut off your head, you can find something to be
joyful and hopeful about; the knife may be brand new; not rusted, and blunt.
That is something to shout about!
And this is not just positivity, but allowing the Holy Spirit to talk us
into hope. Many people feel it is an automatic process that they should just
feel good and hopeful.
Granted if you have exercised your senses it can come naturally but
sometimes it is not by feelings. See what the scripture says:
This
is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in
his presence 1 john 3:19
The scripture says we
assure our hearts. We are the ones that set our hearts at rest in his presence.
We have to make that conscious effort sometimes. We need to allow the Holy
Spirit comfort us.
1 Samuel 30 (Text
Case Study)
David once had his town burnt to the ground
and all the women and children were taken away. Worse he wasn’t around, and his two
wives were among the captives. He came back to ashes and loss. Scripture said he and his
men wept till they had no strength left. Do you know what it means for a grown
man, a king, as powerful as David, the man after God’s heart, to cry so much?
You know the problem had hit the ceiling.
So David and his
men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 1 Samuel 30:4
David was so
discouraged and distressed;
for the people spake of stoning him, because of the
soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his
daughters Samuel 30:6a
This was really bad. But
what did David do?
David encouraged himself
in the LORD his God.
David did not wait for
anyone or voice to encourage him.
So many times people expect something
automatic. People closest to me know that I’m a walking bag of hope.
The job of the Holy Spirit
to the New Testament believer is to comfort and encourage us even in
difficulties.
But do not talk yourself out of the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Instead, talk yourself into it. That is where you need the power of the Holy
Spirit;
"Be still,
and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted
in the earth Psalm 46:10
When you silence panicky,
fearful thoughts; praise God, worship him, study the word, listen to worship
music, listen to a sermon, fellowship with the brethren, pray in the spirit, speak in tongues.
In the stillness, you recognize the bigness of your God and He
is exalted in your situation.
You are using the power of the Holy Spirit to
produce and sustain hope in your life.
And hope does not mean you
just do nothing or do the wrong things and hope everything works out; in that
state of stillness, the Holy Spirit ministers hope, the next move, the next
the thing to say; per time.
Samuel 30:8 and
David inquired of the LORD, "Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I
overtake them?" "Pursue them," he answered. "You will
certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue."
God speaks when you are in
clarity of mind. Noticed that it was after David encouraged himself in the Lord that he inquired and God told him what to do.
Encouraged, God tells you the next step, gives you hope; He
doesn’t just comfort you but gives you the power to move on.
Most times the
power to move on is in the comfort.
Samuel 30:
|
David recovered
everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives.
|
18David recovered all that the Amalekites had
taken, and David rescued his two wives.
|
18So David recovered all that the Amalekites had
taken, and rescued his two wives.
|
18And David recovered all that the Amalekites had
carried away: and David rescued his two wives.
|
18David recovered everything the Amalekites had
taken; he also rescued his two wives.
|
|
19Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl,
plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back.
|
David recovered every
single thing and person! Nothing was missing!
The Lord can encourage you
if you let him and make you recover from everything life has thrown at you.
God dwells in the realm of
faith, not in the realm of emotions. David was crying and all that but it was not
until he encouraged himself in the Lord and asked God for what to do that God led
and helped him overcome his enemies.
Wipe your tears, Be
encouraged in God. Allow the power of the Holy Spirit to make you abound so much
in Hope.
Jesus loves you. Life is
gonna get better, brighter!
Romans
5:5 King James Version (KJV)
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
The Holy Spirit disperses
the love of God through our hearts. That’s his job. Allow him to do it today.
Be hopeful!
Sunday, 15 October 2017
All God wants is a Relationship.
Our personal relationships are not given to us by God solely for our own fulfillment, but to mirror God's love towards us.
Everytime in the Bible, it drew parallels between the love of God towards us and the love of a father- child, mother - child, bride - bridegroom, and God used these relationships as an imagery to help us fully understand His love for us!
If you have ever experienced a love that is unconditional, patient, ever giving, it's not just for you to want it and enjoy it, but to understand that, that is the way God is commending his love to you!
The love you see in the hard working single mother that would do anything to put her kids through life with a soft landing, a father, frustrated by his child's behavior but still is a provider anyway, a significant other that would support the other financially without asking for anything in return.
You See, what these love filled relationships God has blessed us with do is give us an insight; just a tip of the iceberg on how much God's love is for us! And it should make you appreciate His love for you more, it should make it more real, practical, relatable. Let me summarize God for you, God is love! That's the summary of the mystery of God, He can't exist outside himself, love!
And love keeps on loving, keeps on giving!
On the flip side, if you have experience a love that is unreciprocated, disrespectful, controlling, passive, holding back; that too gives you an insight on the heart of God and how he feels when we drag him through our mess.
when we say we love Him with our lips but our lives tell different stories. You know grace is available and love keeps on giving but understand the heart of love; where love exists, there is vulnerability and where vulnerability exists there's the chance of getting hurt.
And many people don't understand it this way, that they hurt God's feelings. Oh no you say? God does not have feelings? When you say I can do whatever I want with my life, you've just discounted God's plans for your life and the awesome purpose He has for you.
No God won't punish you for doing whatever you like, how you feel like, he won't punish you for your compromise or for not spending time with him, or the brethren or for persisting in that addiction and immoral lifestyle but He feels, the Holy Spirit can be grieved and maybe you should have expected him to scream from heaven to stop you, maybe you didn't feel anything when you did what he was convicting you not to. No he won't contend with you, he won't make you miserable, he'll encourage you and build you up to make better decisions and maybe that's why we keep passing up his convictions and keep hurting him with our lifestyle.
but what is love without choice?
And maybe the reason you are still struggling with sin is because you've not felt the disappointment of a parent that have given their all into a child that is turning out rebellious, you've not experienced the hurt of a passive lover that claims they love you but are emotionally closed out, you haven't experienced the hurt of a child who's daddy left and was never there. And maybe if you have been in these situations you can understand how we drag God through every rotten thing, after he's invested his whole love, given us his son, his spirit, and daily commending his love towards us.
We aren't concerned about what his word has to say on certain issues like morality, we trust in our own understanding, we don't want to spend time meditating, talking to him in prayer, we're basically not reciprocating his live.
But love keeps on giving, keeps on loving, maybe one day it would woo us completely to its side.
But the reason many Christians struggle with stuff is that they don't have a relationship with God! And I know you want to say, no, I'm born again! But relationship has to be built. You need to learn your partner's rhythm, understand their heart, understand what slights them, what gasses them up. If you truly had a good relationship with God, you'd be more concerned about glorifying Him in any situation than anything, you'll be constrained by pure love, not judgement, not fear of hell fire but the love for the one who has given his all for you and will never stop chasing you!! Until you deep his love for you, you'll never be free to serve him!
Because at the apex of God, is not miracles, healing, signs and wonders, mighty revivals raising the dead, speaking in tongues and frothing at the mouth. At the apex of revival is people having a thriving day to day, normal relationship with God, not necessarily anything special. That's what God has been always after from the beginning; in the garden and till now : he wants to be your friend, your lover, your father, your king!
Selah
Sunday, 30 July 2017
Finding Healing and a Miracle in the midst of Grief. The Jesus and Lazarus story.
Jesus had both spiritual and emotional ties to Lazarus. And
now Lazarus dies.
From
John 11:1 to 32 Jesus is talking smart with so much confidence, and spiritual
knowledge and gusto in the midst of the situation. He knew beyond a shadow of a
doubt that He was going to handle the situation, death? He got this!
But
v 33 it seems like Jesus ‘breaks’ down. Jesus is troubled in his spirit. He
groans and finally in 35, He weeps, freely. Jesus was troubled (v.33) Because no matter how spiritual you
are, or how much you know, nothing can prepare you for being in a situation,
than actually being in the situation. Then you actually feel, pain, grief, hurt
like every other person. And you cannot just understand or wish the feeling
away. Even Jesus with all the answers felt too. And sometimes you get to feel
life.
But
let us back off a little and view these verses more critically that alluded to
his grief;
v.33
He groaned in the spirit and was
troubled
v.35
Jesus wept
v.38
Jesus again groaning in himself,
cometh to the tomb…
If
you look at it carefully, Jesus was not just crying or mourning!
First,
he started by groaning in the spirit
Romans
8:26
In
the same way, the Spirit helps in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to
pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us through wordless groans.
So
Jesus was not just crying He was groaning in the spirit like Romans 8:26
explains. Jesus was emotionally distressed since He was still living in the flesh; the
flesh gets weak in some circumstances, you do not even know what to pray; He
was in an emotional state of being unable to enunciate words, so he began to groan in the
Spirit.
Then
v.35. Jesus wept. You can notice the chronology of events and for the fact that
these two events were separated, means that they are not the same. Groaning in
the spirit is not the same thing as crying or weeping and the simple difference
is that while one was a spiritual activity, the other corresponding activity
was physical. Very physical.
So
we can see that groaning/praying in the spirit has a direct and dual
relationship with our emotions. Because Jesus ended up expressing his physical
emotion; weeping after He had groaned in the spirit. And I believe this was not
weeping of regret or pain but the type that heals the soul.
- Praying and worshiping in the spirit directly affects our emotions.
Jude
20 …praying in the Holy Spirit,
Jude
21 keep yourself in the love of God
There
is a special manifested form of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts when
we pray, worship, and groan in the spirit.
So the consequence of what Jesus was doing was first, praying the perfect will of God for the situation, then he was
encouraging his heart and emotions, and allowing the spirit comfort him in the
present tragedy through groaning/praying in the spirit.
Then
again, praying in the spirit is a weapon part of the full armour of the spirit
to fight the enemy.
Ephesians
6:18: with all prayer and supplication
praying at all seasons in the Spirit…
So
you can see that Jesus was not just grieving and weeping without any reason, or
just being overly emotional, He was strengthening his emotions and praying the
perfect will of God for that situation! and setting up the atmosphere for a
miracle!
Then
v. 41 Jesus starts vocalizing his words audibly in prayer
v.43
after praying Jesus commands the outcome he wants from the situation; Lazarus
come forth!
So after you've groaned in the spirit, prayed in tongues, then probably poured out the hurt through crying and weeping; pray in English or in your understandable dialect what you want God to do.
Then decree and declare in faith exactly what you want as the outcome for that situation; if it is peace, speak peace to your heart,speak healing, speak miracles into being by faith!
God is faithful, you will see healing and a miracle in your situation!
So
I hope this is able to help you if you are dealing with grief, sadness, loss,
depression, suicidal thoughts. You are not alone. Jesus Christ the captain of
our faith was like us in every way. He felt like we felt and this is how he
dealt with the situation:
·
He groaned/prayed in the spirit
·
He prayed
·
He commanded the outcome he wanted from the situation; Lazarus come forth!
And
God is able to both bless your emotions and actually change the situation
giving you those negative emotions. Isn’t God good? You can activate the power
of God in your life and see miracles in your situation by emulating our Lord
and savior. I encourage you today, study John 11 preferably the King James version, allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you comfort through his word. I didn't even get to explain the preceding scriptures; so many helpful words, and God's word is spirit and life John 6:63. Studying of the word produces healing to our emotions. take time today and bask in God's love through worship, praying in the spirit, praying and speaking to your situation.
Philippians
4:7
And
the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts
and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Instead
of building walls around your heart, allow peace to guard your heart.
Saturday, 21 March 2015
Feeling You Not
He said I love you so much
But she ain't feeling it
She said I miss you so much
But he ain't feeling it
This is a story all about how
The difference between then and now
Can cause the same words spoken
That once made the heart jump, become weary.
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