Discovering, Enabling & Fulfulling Destiny

NEWSFLASH The Love of Father God

2012-01-10T08:31:00.000-08:00

The Love of Father God by Pastor Musa Bako will be released by 29th January. Endorsed by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, who says of the book " ... I urge you to please read The Love of Father God and glean the life- changing teachings contained within. You will experience the unconditional love of the Father, learn to maximize the power of choice, and gain a good understanding of the redemptive plan of God for your life ..." .

Email pastor.musa@victory-assembly.org to request an order form so you can pre-order copies for delivery during the first week of Feb, or for collection from FaithCentre on or after Sunday 26th Jan.

What better gift to give to you loved ones on valentines day?

2012 The year of His Glory

2012-01-01T07:47:00.001-08:00

God is saying:

1. I will take over and work out my perfect plans. I must take the glory for all things I do.

2. I will exalt myself over all forces and in your life. You must give me the glory due onto my name. For I am your God.

3. Harvest is here. You will walk in my power, will experience my goodness. Walk before me and incline your heart to my wisdom.

4. Do not be afraid of them. Do not let your heart be troubled. I am your firm foundation.

5. I will make the rivers to bust their banks but fear not. The waters will bring you to your rest. I will be glorified.

6. 2012 is the year for the family. Strengthen your family.

How committed are you

2011-06-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

Your commitment is attractive; it will make room for you

“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.”
(2 Chronicles 16:9, New King James Version)

A successful person is the person who is seeing good results and increase in what he does. He is steadily making progress towards the goals he has set for himself. He is not stagnant. He is moving forward and is making impact. A failure is not the person who has failed before. A failure is the individual who is not achieving anything at all and is resigned to it. He is that person who sees himself as low class and he feels inferior. He does not recognise opportunities and has no expectations in life. A failure is a person who has put his hands on several ventures and nothing is producing for him. He has accepted failure as his destiny. God does not want anybody to be a failure. You can be a very successful person too.

One of the fundamental keys to success in life, be it business, career, studies, marriage or any relationship is commitment. The scripture says that the Lord’s eyes run to and fro throughout the ends of the earth to show Himself strong on the behalf of those whose hearts are committed to Him. God will only reveal Himself in your situation when you are committed to Him. Similarly, anything that you are committed to will always produce results for you. Anything that God gives to you, whatever it is, has the potential to make you wealthy. God never gives anything, connects you with anybody or bring you into a place if it cannot add any value to you: for the Bible says in Proverbs 10:22 “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.” There is nothing that the Lord gives you to do that cannot bring increase to your life.

Whatever you have now can bring increase to your life. Whatever you are doing now can bring you great increase. The people you have in your life now that are God sent can contribute to your greatness in life. Everything and anything that God has put in your hand has the potential to make you great in life. Moreover, nothing will be released into your life until you give it your commitment. It is not the place you reside that determines your destiny. As a covenant person, you can make it anywhere. It is not the name or the kind of job you do that determines how high you will rise in life, I have seen professionals of high standing fail in life, and with the same token I have also seen uneducated people go into small scale businesses which have risen to be big capital ventures. The secret of success has nothing to do with the title of the job you do, or the description of the duties it entails. The secret is in the help of God and our commitment to whatever we are doing.

Anything God gives you has the potential to increase you but the thing will not release into your life what it contains until you give it your commitment. I see commitment as the resolution which an individual makes to give himself to something, to stay with the thing no matter what, and give to the thing whatever it places demands on, until it yields his expectation. Therefore, for you to have a successful marriage, for you to qualify with very good grades, for you to have a great relationship with your fiancé or fiancée, for you to achieve business breakthrough, or rise to your peak in your career, you will have to make a resolution to stay with it no matter what, and be willing to give what it places demands on until it yields for you.

This Kingdom is Superior

2011-03-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

Colossians 1:12-13
"Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: [13] who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son".

The church is a kingdom, the Kingdom of Jesus. We come into this kingdom as we give our lives to Jesus and make him the Lord of our lives. In the Kingdom of Jesus we are as citizens and heirs. The citizens of this kingdom are not under the power and domination of Satan. Satan no longer determines their destiny. The kingdom of God determines our wellbeing and welfare, not the kingdom of darkness and not the situation or circumstance that we find ourselves in.

The kingdom of Jesus is superior to all the world kingdoms and is superior to the organised kingdom of darkness in all its forms and shapes. The gates of hell can never prevail against this kingdom, the church will continue to grow and extend it's boundaries no matter the attack against it and the people of this kingdom will reach their ultimate destiny.

The citizens of this kingdom are to obey God more than man no matter the cost and are required to live and die for Him just like patriotic soldiers would do. Soldiers go to war and are willing to die in defence of their nation; a believer must also be willing to suffer and die for his Lord. Our kingdom, this kingdom is superior!

Making Decrees

2011-03-01T13:19:00.001-08:00

Kings don’t whisper and mumble decrees; they speak them out for all to hear.

Spiritual forces cannot hear decrees which are whispers and mumbles. Only God can hear your heart. When you are speaking to spiritual forces you need to make them hear you. When you doubt your words, spiritual forces know and don’t obey. You need to speak confidently and with authority to spiritual forces.

God is on your side. He says you shall say a thing and it shall come to pass. You shall say to this mountain to move and it shall come to pass. The Bible says signs and wonders shall follow those who believe, one of the signs is that they will command devils to leave and they will obey.

Believer, its time to start believing and speak out loud to those forces. It shall be done In Jesus Name!

A Living Sacrifice

2011-02-21T12:39:00.000-08:00

Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

God values sacrifice, He appreciates it when we are making sacrifices for Him and not doing stuff for Him only out of convenience. When we make saceifices to God, they comes to him as a sweet smelling savour. God enjoys it when we can go out of our way, out of our comfort zone to do something for Him. Sacrifice is precious to God; when David discovered that he said he would never give to God that which will cost him nothing. There are givings and then there is a sacrificial giving. A lot of people like to do things when it suits them, they only do things that make them happy at a time that they want to do it but Bible says “Greater love has no man than this that he lays down his life for a friend”. The laying down of life is the sort of worship that moves God most. The night Solomon overtook God’s measurements of the temple with his sacrificial giving, God appeared to him and said, “Tell me what I can do for you”. The night Abraham went out of his way and laid down Isaac his only son, his only heir, his all for God, God swore that he would multiply Abraham and bless him abundantly.

God enjoys sacrifice. Every believer needs to learn to make sacrifice. You cannot expect God to show up all the time and meet your need and increase you when you are not sacrificing anything. It took God sacrifice to make you who you are today, it took God sacrifice to make you born again, and it took God sacrifice to bring you into relationship with Him. It will take you making sacrifices for you to get to where God is seeking to take you to. In our passage above, we read about Paul pleading with the brethren and saying, “I beseech you to make your bodies into a living sacrifice”; the most reasonable sacrifice one can make is the sacrifice of self. If God can have you as a sacrifice then he can do anything with you and he can do anything with what he brings into your life. If God can have you as a sacrifice he can trust you with everything he brings into your life; every blessing, every increase, every promotion, everything. Paul says the sacrifice of yourself is your most reasonable service to God. It is the highest form of worship. It is the highest form of devotion. This is the deeper level of relationship that one can have with God. The believer must be totally sold out to God, totally abandoned to God; totally available to God.

My challenge to you is not the question of whether you are born again or not, its not about your frequency or activity in church but your level of sacrifice of yourself. You must look into the level which you have sacrificed yourself to God. God is calling on you to put yourself on the altar, all sold out to God? He is calling you to completely hand over all that you are to God. To what extend can God stretch you? It’s easy for people to get born again these days; we just lead them in a simple prayer, “Dear Jesus I believe you are Lord, I believe Jesus died and rose from the dead, forgive me my sins and come into my life. Write my name in the book of life, Amen”, and then we say that they are born again. However, a believer in Christ must go a step further. A believer must come to that place of complete abandonment to Christ, a place where he is totally, completely, all sold out for God. When you have given your all to God, it affects your commitment to God, you become so attached that you can go all the way for Him. You become so committed to God that you can lay down anything for Him. You become So committed to God that you are willing to suffer for him. You pass that place where you are dealing with God simply because of what you expect him to do for you. You come to that place of deep commitment, such that you love him more than your life, you love him more than your family, you love him more than your career, you love him more than your possessions, more than your relationships, and you love him more than anything this world can offer you. You become available and willing to go all the way with Him even if it will result in rejection, even if it will result in persecution or result in losses. There is this level of sacrifice that if you can come to, God enjoys relationship with you and He unfolds to you the deep mystries of the Kingdom; the believer must move to that height. Matthew 10:37 Says “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me"
Jesus says he that loveth father or mother more than him is not worthy of him. Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than him is not worthy of Him. And he that takes not his cross to follow after Jesus is not worthy of Him. He that losses his life for Christ’s sake will find it. When you have given yourself as a sacrifice to God in a way that is acceptable to Him it shows in your commitment and willingness to lay down anything. And suffer anything for him. When you are deeply committed you can go all the way for him even if you will suffer persecution and you come to that level where Christianity is no longer a “bless me - bless me quick relationship”. I believe in prosperity, healing and success but I don’t believe that it’s the first priority of our relationship with God. A believer should be willing ant time to lose hi job, his relationship, his investment, and all assets all for the sake of Christ. To him God comes first and not what this world can offer him. If God would just reveal to you that you would not prosper financially would you still love him? If God shows you that you are going remain single for the rest of your life and never get married, would you still dance and celebrate like you do? Would you come to church' would still give the tithes, the offerings and the seed of faith? Some people have tied their relstionship to what God can do for them and they leave church every time they think God is not doing for them the things they desire. They get angry with God, they keep changing church every month or every season if they are believing God for something and the pastor is not delivering it. It more easy these days to attract people to Christian conferences when the teachings are going to be about prosperity, deliverance from enemies, 7 steps to supernatural breakthrough and how to attract favour than when the teaching is about Holy living, sacrifice, missions and evangelism. The church has changed. Are we trully followers of Jesus? For he says if you will come after me and have dealings with me, you must be willing to take up your cross and follow me. In following Jesus you may sometimes be required to suffer pain, persecution, to suffer shame, to suffer loses. It is not always "Rosy Rosy" as it’s been taught. Sometimes in following Jesus, it can be rough and tough.

1 Peter 4:12. Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

A lot of us want to be part of the churches blessing , Christ’s healing, Christ’s breakthrough, Christ’s supernatural health, but we don’t want to be part of Christ’s sufferings. When people suffer some people conclude that they must have sinned, but you should think it not strange when you pass through the fiery trials. When his glory shall be revealed you shall be glad with exceeding joy. Your relationship with God must be more than what He can do for you.

Matthew 16:24, 25 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

Christianity is also about self denial, committing to God and following the way to Christ even at the expense of your comfort, at the expense of your career or expense of everything of this life. You have to be sold out as a living sacrifice, You have to be able to say “I am all yours God,” and that no matter your condition or circumstance. Whether God heals you or not you must declare "I am committed Lord". Whether God increases your finances or not you must declare “I am committed Lord”. No matter what happens to your relationship you must still be able to say “I am committed Lord”. Christianity is about loving God that deep, you must never forget that in your followship with Him. Jesus says “If any man comes after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever shall save his life shall lose it and whoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it”. A lot of us only want to follow God and prosper in this life; we do what we do so we can have bigger houses, expensive cars, and expensive holidays. However, a lot of us who have loads of money in this life may go to Heaven only to discover it is all vanity upon vanity. Prosperity, increase, greatness, the place of influence all make more meaning when the person is a living sacrifice, a vessel on the altar that God can do anything that he desires with the person. Someone once said this and it blessed me, “Wealth in this life is of no value if it will not affect your Heaven”.

God is looking for a living sacrifice, somebody who is sold out for God, so committed that he can do anything for God, go all the way for God, subject himself to any situation just for God, someone who is not just about what he can get. “Heal me, block that person, and twist that person’s neck, kill my enemy… “. You need to be willing to let God take you out of your comfort zone, interrupt your plan, change ypur path, touch your investment. God will love to make you wealthy, yes even a multi millionaire but Christianity is not all about being a multi millionaire. God is calling the believer to come to that place of sacrifice. Some of us are not in that place of sacrifice yet, until we get there, there are some things God can not show us as we are not completely sold out. If God just comes to you and says you are going to be a missionary in Iran and you will serve there for 10 years and in the 10th year they will behead you, can you take it or will you be praying, “no God, I will live long and not die, and you will bless me, promote me and kill my enemies”. But God is calling for us to come to that place of a living sacrifice where we are so committed to God that we can do anything for Him and we can go the way of persecution all for him. When our heart feels like that for God then our faith starts to make meaning and God can then trust us with anything. The church today has stopped teaching self denial and has replaced it with teaching self comfort and personal breakthrough. Are we truly followers of Jesus?

Welcome to 2011: The year of ABUNDANT GRACE AND INCREASE

2011-01-01T01:25:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2011 is THE YEAR OF ABUNDANT GRACE AND INCREASE

May the grace of God be so lavish in your life and cause you to increase.

2011 in going to be an interesting year and REALLY LOADED, it will be eventful; a lot of things will unfold within 2011:

1. In 2011 there will be peace for them that trust God, but for others it will be a year of confusion and fear.

2. If you are lukewarm and compromising 2011 is time to get back on fire for God. God will be rewarding faithfulness.

3. You will find help where you don’t deserve or expect it. People who naturally would kill you will fight for you in 2011.

4. I see “nobodies” being lifted and coming into the limelight. God will be promoting people whom men say are nobodies.

5. I hear “Comfort Ye My People”, it will be somebody’s best year ever. From as far back as you can remember this will be the best year yet.

6. Life may continue to be harder and tougher, but in the midst of the challenges God will give abundant grace and make room and some people will still be increasing.

7. There will be many loses but in the midst of them, many will gain new grounds. Many people will raise to a new height.

This is your year. 2011 is another year of new beginnings, a start of the journey to a new height. The devil can not keep you stagnant, the devil cannot keep you down; you will break through to a new height.

My prayer for you is that when the clock strikes 12 on the 31st December 2011 you will be alive and kicking and celebrating in a watchnight service. The devil can’t kill you, the devil can’t kill your loved ones.

May you in 2011 march through this land, recover lost time and regain ground. In this one season, may you overtake and become what you were meant to become over many seasons.

God Bless You.

The Love of Father God

2010-12-19T16:51:00.000-08:00

“Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” (1John 3: 1).

God is a God of love,
His nature is love.
He cannot but love and cannot operate outside love.
Everything God does is based on His love for us,

It was his love for us that made Jesus took on flesh and became one with humanity.
It was his love for us that made Jesus become sin and in our place died on the cross, went into the lowest part of the earth and paid in full the penalty for our transgression.
It was His love for us that drew us near to God and enabled us to believe and to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour and by His love He made us sons of God.

Having a good understanding of God’s love and the extent which He went to demonstrate that love will strengthen our relationship with Him;
it will empower us to engage life with boldness, and to look to the future with assurance.

God’s love is eternal: by His eternal love, it means that He cannot but love and He can never stop loving.
We know that there was never a point at which He stopped loving anybody. So even while we were living our lives without any regard for Him, He continued to love us.
He had never stopped loving.

Also by His eternal love, it means that His love for us is unchanging and unconditional, that is to say, there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more and there is nothing we can do to stop Him loving us.
We cannot merit God’s love, and we cannot make Him stop loving us.
We must never think that by living right, by giving to the poor or by being involved in some charitable work or the work of the ministry, God will love us more.

The nature of the love of God is that even without all these things, He loves us all the same.
When we do all the right things, they are for our own benefit and not for God’s benefit.
Nothing we do can change God in any way, whether good or bad.
What we do can only affect us, they make us experience more of God’s love or they keep us further away from it.

There are two forces in operation in the world; the force of good and the force of evil.
The force of evil which is satanic is behind curses which results are sickness and all diseases, barrenness and miscarriages, poverty, insanity, misfortunes and the lack of ability to achieve any meaningful thing in life.
The force of good is behind blessing which is the function of the work of redemption.
In redemption we have victory over curses and all the devises of Satan.

Never forget that what happens to any man is always determined by these two forces however, it is the man’s own behaviour or choices that determine which of these forces can have control over his life.
You must come to understand that every behaviour or action of man and every choice that he makes has its consequences.

God will never curse any man; curses already exist, they are the by-product of disobedience.
They come automatically through disobedience.
Everything in life operates under a law.
There are two laws that govern our wellbeing: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death.
The force of life flows naturally when we accept the love of God and obey God but death is let loose when we operate under the law of sin and death.

God does not have to curse anybody; our behaviour attracts either blessing or curses. Am I saying that God never does anything bad to anybody?
Yes, He never does anything bad to anybody because both good and evil or blessing and curses cannot come from God, (James 3: 10-12).

If you are a child of God, and you walk in disobedience, He will chastise you as a father would his children but he will not put a curse on you to teach you a lesson. As a father, would you put a heart attack on your child to teach him a lesson? Would you make him bankrupt to make him humble? Or would you cause your daughter to have miscarriage to teach her the need to learn to listen to you?
God will never put sickness on you, and will not kill your spouse or children to punish you.
He will not make you have a car crash, lose an eye or become paralyzed to discipline you.
These are all the works of evil and not of God, (James 1:16-17).

Through chastisement, God will convict you of sin, may take away your peace to bring you to repentance, and may expose your sin to bring you to godly sorrow, or even make your prayer to be hindered but will not put cancer on you.

Behold what manner of love the father has conferred on us, love so rich, love so selfless, love enduring, love undying, love never ever so displayed.

(excerp from my new book coming out soon - look out for it)

Musa

The More Excellent Way - Part 2

2010-09-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

1Cointhians 13: 1 - 3, 13

There are three Greek words that have been translated as love, but they actually mean three different kinds of love, they are Eros, Phileo and Agape.

EROS

Eros is the kind of love that exists between man and wife, it is sexual in nature. What happens in a marriage relationship is that the man’s first of all sees the woman, gets attracted and desires to share his life with her because she is beautiful, well built, and looks sexy. On the other hand, the woman wants him too may be because he is tall, masculine, handsome, and looking like the real man, and like he can protect her. Eros or sexual attraction is okay, it is also a gift from God and is very necessary in making a good marriage but it is not the excellent way, it is not the God kind of love. I suggest that nobody should want to marry somebody if he or she does not feel sexually attracted to the person.

PHILEO

Phileo is the kind of love that exists in a family. It is the kind of love that exists between parents and children, between brethren, between the children and their uncles or aunties, and so on. Family members care for each other, and are willing to provide, support and protect each other because they are related, they are a family. It is the family connection that is the motivation. With Phileo, an outsider cannot enjoy what an insider can get. Phileo is good, it is good to have a special place in your heart for members of your family but phileo is not the excellent way.

AGAPE

This is the kind of love that originates from God. It is actually the nature of God. That was the kind of love that God demonstrated when he gave Jesus. John 3:16; that was the kind of love Jesus demonstrated when he gave his life for humanity. It is eternal and unconditional in nature. Agape is the kind of love God commanded us to show to one another.

“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13: 34)

Agape does not love somebody because there is a relationship that connects them together either sexual or biological. Agape loves without a string attached. Agape is never mindful of nationality, colour, status, behavioural flaws or short comings, and it is never self centred. It is the unconditional love, the more excellent way, the God kind of love. Jn. 3: 16; Rom. 5: 8.

The characteristics of agape

Agape has no deception (without dissimulation). Rom. 12: 9. In other words, it is not facial or faked. It comes from the heart. It is not the kind that smiles at you when you are there but says something else about you when you are gone. There is no hypocrisy in Agape.

Agape is pure 1Peter 1: 22. It never wishes anybody evil, it does not think evil of anybody and it is not selfish. For instance, Agape does not go into a relationship just for fun, for sex, or for wealth. It is pure. There is Eros in every marriage, but as Christians, Eros should not be the only factor in our relationships. In marriage there must be a combination of both Agape and Eros. I have heard people say about their spouses, that ‘I am only obeying God marrying this person, I really don’t particularly like or feel attracted to him or her. Don’t know what they think about God, but He never gives to anybody what he will not appreciate. He says us too not to cast our pearls to swine because they are not going to value it.

Agape is fervent 1Peter 1: 22. In other words, Agape loves with intensity, passionately, and dedicatedly. Agape can be persistent; it never gives up on people. Agape loves no matter what happens. Heb.13: 1; Prov. 17:17.Sometimes the people you love the most are the ones that will hurt you more and some may never even respond to your love. Some of them may even be blunt enough to tell you how disgusting they think you are, and that they don’t need you, and how they hate you and wish you were dead. But agape never gives up. It keeps on loving despite all because it is fervent (ardent).

Agape is fearless 1John. 4: 18. If you love somebody with agape, you will not live with him in fear, I mean you will not nurse the idea that one day he is going to hurt you. In Agape, You will never live with the person in fear because there is no fear in agape. In agape, you will not have the fear of losing him to somebody else because there is security in the agape love. You will not be afraid of what people will think about your relationship with him, so your commitment to each other will not be a secret.

Agape is selfless. 1Cor. 13: 4 - 6; Jn. 15: 13. It places others first, it seeks to protect the interest of others; it seeks to make others happy even at the expense of self. Agape makes sacrifices for others.

Agape does no ill to its neighbour. Romans 13: 10. For instance, (a) agape will not say or do anything that will harm or hurt another person; it will not destroy another man’s image or reputation. (b) Agape will not think evil of anyone and will not wish any one evil. (c) Agape will not defraud or take advantage of any one. (d) Agape will not stand in the way of another man’s success and will not fail to contribute what is in its power towards the success of another, it does not withhold a blessing due unto somebody. Agape does no ill to its neighbour.

Agape forgives. Proverbs 10: 12; 1Corinthians 13: 5. If your love for somebody is the God kind of love, you will find nothing too great to forgive him; you won’t hold grudges, malice, or bitterness against him no matter what he has done against you. Agape has the power to let go anything that is hurting, it has the power to behold an enemy and treat him with kindness.

Agape is a giver. John. 3:16; 1John. 3: 16 - 19, and it gives lavishly. Agape is extravagant in giving and it gives even to an enemy. Romans 12: 9; 20, 21. Actually agape treats no one as an enemy. It deals with an enemy as it would to a friend. Matthew. 5: 43 - 48; Ephesians. 6: 12; 1Peteter 5: 8.

Agape serves. Galatians 5: 13. It does not compete to be better than its neighbour; instead, it paves way for its neighbour to rise to success. John 15: 13. The servant spirit is about living your life for others and working to make other people comfortable and happy in life. Agape seeks to make its neighbour a better person; it does not strive to be better than its neighbour. We are called to be servants to all people; we all can be our best. Matthew 20: 20 - 25. To be a true servant, you must deal with the following. Firstly, you must get rid of self centeredness. Secondly you must get rid of your competitive attitude; I mean the one that will not mind pulling down another in order to rise. And thirdly, you’ve got to consider yourself of no reputation Philippians 2: 6, 7. E.g., your educational qualification, social status, family name or back ground must be sacrificed to Christ. You must be able to reach out to people irrespective of their background and no matter what you have achieved.

Agape is an intercessor. If you’ve got agape in your heart, it will not make you feel comfortable if your neighbour is not what you believe God wants him to be and you will want to stand in the gap to see him become.

The bible says in 2Corinthians 13: 5. To examine ourselves and see whether we are still in the faith. The yard stick for that examination is love. If love is not established in your heart, your relationship with the Lord is destroyed, and your faith is dead 1John 4: 7 - 12, 20, and 21. Without love, your prayers will be hindered. The very nature of God is love, so when you allow the love of God to feel your heart, you will be walking in the nature of God. When God says to be like me, or be followers of God as dear children, all He is saying is that you walk in love. Ephesians 5: 1, 2; 1John 4: 7, 8; Matthew 5: 46 - 48. As you walk in love, you act like God. If you walk in his nature, you will not walk in defeat, you will walk in victory. When you are walking in love, you are walk in freedom 1John 3: 14, 15. In the way of love, you cannot be overcome by satan, no demon can afflict you and no demon can prevail against you. Rom. 12: 20, 21. In love, you are covered in God’s fullness, and his eternal life works in you. So you can’t be destroyed the enemy. Ephesians 3: 17 - 19. And you can’t be under the bondage of fear because perfect love cast out fear.

THE MORE EXCELLENT WAY (PART 1)

2010-08-28T04:31:00.000-07:00

Text: 1Cointhians 13: 1 - 3, 13

The more excellent way is the way of love. Love is superior to the manifestations of supernatural powers. As fantastic as all the gifts of the spirit are, and we know that God desires for us to walk in them so we can be a blessing to people, however love is superior and more important than they are. We know that the devil can and does imitate the gifts; there are so much of spectacular manifestations out there in the world. Satan can perform them but he can’t walk in love because love is the very essence and nature of God. The Bible says God is love. The pillars that hold the church together and that connect the church to the Lord are faith, hope and love. Faith, hope and love are the core pillars of Christianity, anything that is done outside these will not stand. Faith, hope and love are very important in our relationship with the Lord and in our existence as a Church. However, of the three, the Bible says that love is the more excellent way. In other words, love is superior to faith and hope. Our faith and our hope are anchored by love. God wants our gifts and services to come out of love, love for him first and love for the people he has called us to minister to. The believer is called to be a blessing to all.

The great news is the fact that every born again person can and has the ability to love, for the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He that cannot love knoweth not God for God is love. God desires that whatever we do should be motivated by love, love is to be the guide to the new creation. Whatever we do that is not born out of love will not receive God’s recognition or blessing. We must be people who love people irrespective of their background, colour, race, sexual orientation and religious affiliation. We are not called to only love the brethren but all human beings. We are not to treat any human being as enemy no matter what they do to us. Others may see us and even treat us as their enemies, but we are not to see them that way.

Ask yourself this questions: why do I do the things that I do, why am I involved with the people that I am involved with? People do things for various reasons, some of the reasons why people do certain things are:

1. So they can be seen to be involved also. (These seek recognition)
2. Some people do things To impress people, or make somebody happy. (These are men pleasers).
3. Some do what they do Because somebody else is doing the thing. (These are followers of people).
4. Some people are purely interested in the material or financial gain that they can get in the thing. (These people work for profit primarily, they are profit centred people).
5. Some people get involved in something because of the honour or prestige that is in the job. (These are position minded people).

Some people do the things they do because they love the Lord and For his love sake, some have left homes and families at his biding to a strange land, lived in tents, in caves and in huts, forsaking the pleasure of life. Some have sold their property, emptied their bank accounts and gave all they had to feed the poor, the widow, and the orphans. Others gave to the Lord to build for him a kingdom on the earth. Some in the face of death, rejected the offer of freedom in exchange for their lives and chose to die, and were beheaded, hanged or burnt alive because of their commitment to him. In their Love for the master they hold nothing back but gave all to make his kingdom great.

If you really love somebody, you find nothing too great to sacrifice for him. If you love God, nothing will be too great to give to him. The Bible says that whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord. (See Col. 3: 17, 23 – 25). If you want to do anything for God, and you want him to accept it, then love for him must be your motivation. Do not serve God because you want him to bless you, make your rich, have a husband or wife, make you get promoted at work, fight and kill your enemies and all that. He will definitely bless you when you serve him, but serve him primarily because of your love for him. Also, whatever you want to do for people, do it out of love and not for what you can gain out of it.

WATCH OUT FOR PART 2

Hope Thou In God

2010-05-13T07:44:00.001-07:00

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance”. (Psalms 42:5)

Hope is knowing that there is something out there for you and you are expecting it to happen. Hope is different from faith. Faith is holding firmly onto hope. Faith is the confidence that that which is hoped for will happen. Faith is the power that sustains hope when what is hoped for seems physically unlikely. Hope is the expectation for something in the future.

It is good to hope for something.
There is something more out there for you.
You are not finished yet.

Some people think that it is better not to be too hopeful about anything in life. They say that since there is no guarantee that what you are hoping for will come to pass, and that in order for you not to get hurt or disappointed in a thing in case it does not happen as you hoped for, that it is better to not hope for anything in life. They say, “Whatever will be, will be”. But you see, it costs more to live in hopelessness than in hope. Hopelessness will steal your self-worth; will steal your confidence, cause you not to dream and make you feel like a loser. Hopelessness will make your life a misery; a sad life.

Think about living without expectations in life. Think about living and not knowing your future will be bright. Think about getting into a relationship and not knowing what will become of it. Think about starting a course and thinking you might not finish well. Think about starting a business and thinking it will collapse. Think about setting out on a journey and not knowing whether you will get there. A life without hope is a life of misery.

Without hope, you do not have a future. Hope paints a picture of tomorrow. Hope makes you a fighter. Hope makes you look out for answers and solutions. It keeps you going. Hope keeps your spirit energetic. Hope makes you want to make all the sacrifices. the joy of living is in your hope for a great future.

HOPE THOU IN GOD

The Application of the Word

2010-04-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

Joshua 1: 8
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success”

We all know that God does not want us to be failures but successful people. He wants us to be people of excellence not mediocrity. He wants us to be above and not beneath, the head and not the tail. He desires that as we walk with him and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, that we will be moving forward steadily and fulfilling his very purpose for our lives. God is not glorified when we are walking in defeat, when we are in lack and are under oppression and are failing in our assignment.

God gave us the Word that by it we can make our way to success. There are loads of anointed teachings and the revelation of the Word out there and we see that every now and then God is unveiling his divine counsel to us the saints, He is seeking for the blessing of the covenant to be seen in us but we see little of manifestation of the power of the Word in the saints. We see a lot of lack, mediocrity, broken relationships, and we see people being afflicted here and there, and it ought not to be so, that is not what the covenant says, it is an abnormality. God did not plan that for the new creation.

There is every grace in the Word of God, the Word has the power to transform your entire life and bring you to a place of great success but it is only in the application of the Word that the grace is released. You can never rise above your knowledge and level of your obedience to the Word of God. The value you put on the word will determine how much impact it will make in your life.

Acts 20: 32
“And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”

You must note that because it is the will of God for you to be success in Life, God will from time to time speak to you on what to do or lead you in some way to bring you to a place of success. For the Bible says:

“Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. 18O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea”. (Isaiah 48:17-18)

What God says to do may not make any sense to you, remember that the ways of God are not the ways of man, He does not operate within common sense but divine sense, however when you follow his instruction even when it does not make any sense to you, you will never fail, may experience challenges but you will definitely succeed where he leads you.

So as a believer, you must learn to be open to the Word and walk in it. You must learn to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and the instruction of God in whatever ways he will speak to you and be assured of the fact that God will never lead you to do anything to harm you. He says:

Jeremiah 29: 11
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end”.

The Word of God never fails; you cannot be walking in the light of it and fail. Believers fail only when they ignore the Word. If you obey the voice of God, you will not invest in a thing and not have dividend, you will not go on a journey and have an accident and die, you will not sow a seed and not have harvest. You may encounter challenges but you will eventually break through.

The Power of Expectation

2010-03-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

Psalms 71: 14
“But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more”

Lamentations 3: 25-26
“The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD”.

Expectation is when you are in anticipation for something to happen. It is good to hope for something. The opposite of expectation is despondency.

Your expectation defines the quality of your life; it defines what you will have in the future. When you expect nothing, nothing happens. When you expect to fail, you fail and become an underachiever.

It is good to have expectations but is even better to have positive expectations. Without a positive expectation in life, you live a sad life, you become depressed, you worry over nothing and you may even become suicidal. Positive expectation is what makes you feel alive, passionate and productive.

Faith is about expectations – if you are walking in faith, you’ve got to expect for something to happen. If you are acting on the word of God spoken into your life, you’ve got to expect something is going to happen. If you are sowing seed, you’ve got to expect the harvest. Faith makes a believer do something, I mean faith in God; the assurance of his integrity and in his ability and power to make good his word but it is the expectation of the believer that sustains what he has done. It is his expectation that creates the factory that manufactures the future or the harvest. The believer’s expectation releases the anointing to make something happen.

Romans 15: 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”

Through expectation:

1. You develop joy for living and are excited about tomorrow
2. You overcome fear
3. You are empowered to be a fighter, you are able to endure all things, and obstacles won’t deter you
4. You are able to pay the price; you know it will birth something. You don’t go all out for something unless you are sure something good can come out of it. Some of you don’t see the need to sow seed because you don’t understand the power of harvest.
5. Your present circumstances don’t suppress you
6. Your eyes are on the future, you walk with the future in mind

Renewing your expectations

Expectations can be delayed and when your expectations are delayed, you can become sick and may want to give up.

Proverbs 13: 12
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life”.

But you’ve got to learn to keep your hope alive and you can keep your hope alive by:

1. meditating in the word
2. recalling what God did for you in the past
3. learning to just praise in the midst of all
4. confessing what you are hoping for
5. continuing to sow a seed Faith towards it

Understanding the Gates of Hell (Part 2)

2010-02-11T08:52:00.000-08:00

Matthew 16:15-19 (KJV)
15 “He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”.

From my last note on this topic, I tried to show you that:

1. You are that church Jesus commits Himself to building; he took responsibility for building you up.
2. If Jesus is responsible for your life, the gates of hell shall not prevail against you.
3. Also remember that the word is the rock on which Jesus is going to build you, so as long as you are ordering your life and affairs in the light of the word; on what He says, the devil can’t stop you. The devil cannot overcome the word of God.
4. It is important to note that as a believer, you have the keys of the kingdom; you have access into the will of God for your life. You can bring the government of heaven into your situation.
5. Anytime you hear from God and you understand it, it is a key. When you act on it, you allow heaven to open for you.
6. Also it is important to note that as a believer, you are surrounded by a wall called salvation, by a wall of fire and by a host of Angels. The devil cannot access you except he can plant the gate of hell into that wall.

Now let’s look at some of the things that can create the crack and allow room for Satan the enemy to erect the gates of hell. The essence for this is so that you will deal with them and not let the devil capitalise on them and take advantage of you.

1. Disobedience to divine leadership

Disobedience creates a crack - by divine leadership, I mean what God is instructing you to do. You need to know what the word of God says about everything that concerns you; you need to develop the attitude of listening and obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit that lives inside you. God speaks to us through:
1. His word – The Bible
2. Through word of prophecy
3. Through visions and dreams
4. Through the sermons and teachings we receive via His ministers

You give room to the devil when you ignore or set aside God’s instruction to you and walk in disobedience. By setting aside, I meaning knowing the will of God concerning something and ignoring it and doing what pleases you instead.

The devil steps in any time you are walking in disobedience because that is his territory, that is the atmosphere he operates in and nobody defeats him in his own territory.

You are only able to withstand the devil when you are walking in obedience with God.

2 Corinthians 10: 4-6
“(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled”.

Actually disobedience equals to rebellion. Rebellion is equal to witchcraft. Witchcraft is about control, intimidation and manipulation. You allow the devil to be able to control, intimidate and manipulate your life, your affairs, even your destiny when you rebel against divine instruction.

You want to keep the devil out? Live in obedience with God and he – the devil - will never be able to stop you. He may try, but will never prevail. And remember, God will never lead you to do anything that will harm you.

Isaiah 48: 17
“Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go”

It may not really make sense, what He is saying to do, but if you can simply obey, you will put the devil where he belongs – under your feet.

2. Unforgiveness and bitterness
This falls under the law of harvest. We all know that God is a just God, and that He operates within His laws and principles. He has said whatever man sows, that shall he reap also. When you refuse to forgive somebody the wrong he has committed against you, God will not forgive you also.

Matthew 18: 23-35

If God won’t forgive you, he will be having something against you. If God has something against you, He will not bless you; he will not protect you and like what happened to that wicked servant in Matthew I8, God will release the unforgiving person to the tormentors.

The tormentors are demon spirits responsible for calamities. The tormentors can attack your health, can attack you in your mind and make you mentally ill, can cause depression, can attack your finances, and can even attack your relationship if they have the permission to do so. You cannot maximize your potentials; you cannot find full and genuine satisfaction in life if you are under the oppression of the tormentors and it’s your unforgiveness and bitterness that opens you up to them.

James 3:16
“For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work”.

Actually, the devil has right of access into your affairs whenever there is sin hanging on you and God cannot do anything about it until He is able to forgive you and God won’t forgive you if you can’t forgive your brother.

3. Marital problems
This concerns married couples. The Bible says that when we disregard or fail to deal with our spouses according to the covenant of marriage, our prayers will be hindered.
1Pet. 3: 1-7

According to 1 Peter 3, the disregard for marital values can make room for the devil to put up a gate of hell and block the flow of blessing into the marriage.

If you want to see God’s favour especially upon your marriage, then you’ve got to deal with your spouse according to the word. The man must love his wife and must be a responsible husband and father and must provide for his immediate house. If he does not do that, he denies the faith.

The woman must be submit to her husband in all things, show the virtue of meek and quiet spirit like Sarah the wife of Abraham who called her husband my lord.

You open your marriage, your family, and your business to the devil whenever you ignore or set aside Gods word regarding marriage and treat your spouse with lack of care, love or respect.

Understanding the Gates of Hell (Part 1)

2010-02-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

Matthew 16:18-19 (KJV)
“18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”.

Have you ever wondered what Jesus meant when he made that declaration in the passage above? I’d like to share with you my take from the passage.

The church

The Church means the body of believers; you and I make up the Church. So by building the church, Jesus is meaning he will build you and me.

The very day somebody becomes a member of the body, the Church, Jesus takes over the responsibility of building him up. He has a plan for every one of us and in relationship with him, he works out something and he brings us to that place he intended for us from the very beginning. A believer should conquer the fear of the future and not worry about what the outcome of his life would be. And it does not matter the challenges you are going to encounter in life; Satan may attack you, and sometimes may seem to be interrupting your life and you may feel like you are not making any progress but Jesus says as he builds you up, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against you” irrespective of them all. So cheer up in the face of the odd and all, your destiny is a guarantee in Christ Jesus, hell cannot stop it.

The rock

The rock, I believe in this instance, means the word, the word we hear and receive from God.

Mathew 7: 24-25
“24Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock”.

The word of God is the rock on which Jesus builds the Church. As a believer, it is important you know that the word is what will build and establish you. You can never set aside the word, live contrary to it and be victorious over Satan. As you walk in the light of the word, you are not only established, you are empowered above all the wiles of Satan also. You may experience the rain, the flood and the winds but they cannot stop your destiny.

Acts 20: 32
“32And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”

As long as you are ordering your life, and your affairs in the light of the word, you are as it were being built upon the rock, and nothing Satan does can prosper against you.

The keys

The words keys mean the right of access. The keys of the kingdom means the right to access the Kingdom of Heaven, the authority to bring down the Kingdom of Heaven into a place, it also means Divine wisdom and insight to handle the affairs of this life, the ability to walk in the will of God.

So as a child of God and as a part of the Church, you can connect with the authority of the Kingdom of Heaven; you can bring heaven into your environment or situation.

The keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are given to the believer when he hears the Rhema word regarding any situation. You receive the key of the Kingdom of Heaven anytime you receive specific word or instruction from God. And anytime you act upon that word, you bring heaven or the will of God into the situation. And this is how the Church is meant to operate. Knowing exactly what God is saying regarding a thing and doing exactly what God says enforces his will there.

The gates

The word gate simply means an opening, a door, a gateway, or the entrance into a place. I suppose the gates of hell will therefore mean the opening or gateway that the forces of hell have created to enable them have access into people’s lives or affairs.

The gates also serve as barrier to keep unauthorised people out. Which means if the devil can raise a gate around your life, he can control who and what comes in and out of your life and will also be able to manipulate and interrupt your destiny.

To understand the mystery of the gates of hell, you will need to know that the believer has a wall around him; the wall of protection:
I. Wall of salvation around you for protection- Isaiah 60: 18.
II. Angels encamped around you- Ps. 34: 7 (Heb. 1: 14.).
III. Wall of fire-Zechariah 2: 5.

And the gate of praise is meant to be the access into your life. So anytime you praise, you open your life to God and the blessing.

Isaiah 60:18
“Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise”.
And Jesus is also meant to be the door or gate into your life.

John 10: 6-9
“Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures”. (NLT)

Now, before the devil can have access into the believer’s affairs and spoil what God is doing, he will have to first of all crack the defences around him and put up gates of hell. Except the wall around you is broken, except the devil has got a loophole, he cannot attack you and prevail.

For the Bible says: “….and whosoever breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him”. Ecclesiastes 10: 8b.

Satan cannot have access into your affairs until you let him by breaking the edge.

If you are praying and are not getting result, it is possible that there is a gate of hell standing in the way of your prayer.

If things in your life continue to go wrong, if you continue to suffer loss, you start something and it continues to fail, it could be that Satan has an access into your affairs. May be he has put a gate so he can control what comes in.

Please note that I am not meaning that just a failure in a thing means there is a gate of hell into your life, we sometimes all fail in something and when we put more effort, we breakthrough. I am meaning when you feel like you are under a closed heaven and when you continue to experience a circle of failure or lose. I mean when things are just not walking despite all the effort, the prayers, the fasting and the seed of faith.

I will share with you in part two of this series how the gates of hell operate.

Releasing God's power through forgiveness

2010-01-20T14:03:00.000-08:00

Text: Ephes. 3: 20; Rom. 5:5.

The bible says that God can do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that worketh within us.
Ephesians 3: 20.

That power is the Holy Spirit because the bible says: ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit in come upon you.
Acts 1: 8.

That power is inside you because the presence of the Holy Spirit dwells within you. For the Bible says: know ye not that ye are the temple of God for the Holy Spirit dwells within you.
1Corinthians 3: 16.

The Holy Spirit that dwells within you can make anything possible but he is not moved by our worries, pains or needs. He is only moved by our faith. So to get the Holy Spirit to move on your behalf, you will have to exercise your faith.
1John 5: 4.

It is equally important that you know that your faith is empowered and made active only when you walk in love.
Galatians 5: 6.

The Holy Spirit is at liberty to operate only where there is love. The love of God is the Holy Spirit’s atmosphere for miracle.

Every child of God can experience miracle daily and walk in the supernatural because we’ve got love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, you can not be born of God and don’t have the ability to love for the bible says that he who does not love is not born of God.
1John 4: 7-8

If you are truly saved, it means you have the Holy Spirit, and if you have the Holy Spirit, then you’ve got the ability to walk in love and if you can walk in love, you have the ability to release the power of God in every situation of your life.

Now, one fundamental thing about love is that it has the power to forgive.
Prov. 10: 12; 1Cor. 13:4-7.

What is forgiveness?
Forgiveness means to give mercy, kindness, compassion or pardon where there is need for judgement. It also means to exonerate somebody from blame or guilt for the wrong he actually committed.

The power to forgive is inherent in love. If you’ve got the love of God within you, you’ve got the power to forgive. In other words, you can provide mercy forehand and there is nothing you can not forgive. To a believer, forgiveness is a matter of choice. He can choose to forgive and can choose not to forgive. But that is not the case with an unbeliever because he has not got the Holy Spirit inside of him.

It is important that you realise that no body you are dealing with or are in a relationship with is perfect, which means, there is 99. 9% chances that they are going to do something wrong or offend you someday and you should expect it and make provision of mercy forefront. Does that mean you should be unsettled with your neighbour? No, the Bible says there is no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear. 1Jn. 4:18, which means, if you are walking in love with somebody, you will not be anxious or be too careful with him for fear that you might get offended. No, in love you will not be afraid of been offended because you know that you are dealing an imperfect person, who can make mistakes and as such, you have made provision forefront for mercy.

Unforgiveness on the other hand means to deny somebody mercy and to hold him guilty for his wrong. That is not the nature of God, and it is not of love.

5 reasons why you must walk in forgiveness

1. Forgiveness falls under the law of harvest.
There are three cardinal laws in the New Testament:
i. the royal law Jn. 13: 34, 35,
ii. the golden rule Matt. 7: 12
iii. And the law of harvest Gal. 6: 7.

Because forgiveness falls within the law of harvest, if you do not forgive any body his offence, God will not forgive you also. Matt. 6: 14, 15.

2. When you forgive, you forgive for your own sake.
God himself forgives us our sins as the bible has said, for his own sake. Isaiah 43: 25. Why?
i. So that he can maintain relationship with us, he has a father heart and wants us to be his sons and if he cant forgives us, he will have to cut us off but he does not want to do that.
ii. He forgives so that he can have and enjoy eternal fellowship with us. That is one of the reasons why he made us ,
iii. He forgives so that he can bless us because it is in his nature to bless. If God can’t forgive you, he won’t bless. That is why Jesus said when you stand praying; forgive, if you have ought against any. Mk. 11: 24, 25. Unforgiveness hinders your blessings.

3. When you don’t forgive, God says you are wicked.
And will deal with you as with the wicked. Matt. 18: 23-33 How?
i. He is angry with the wicked every day. Ps. 7: 11.
ii. He says no peace unto the wicked. Isaiah 48: 22.

4. When you don’t forgive, God will release you to the tormentors.
Matt. 18:32-35.The tormentors are the demons of sickness, the devourer, misfortune est. Jam. 3: 16. Many people have born testimony how they have been afflicted for many years with various illnesses, but the moment that they forgave and let go of their bitterness, the illness which afflicted them left them instantly.

5. When you don’t forgive, God will not fight your battles for you.
When you are walking in unforgiveness with some body, you are denying that person mercy, and his blessing especially the blessing that is meant to flow through you. You are not going to bless the person you hold grudges or malice with are you? That way, you are working against him and that is called vengeance and you don’t have the right of vengeance.

There are three cardinal things about God that he guards jealously, and will never share with another man:
i. His Godhood. I am the Lord thy God ….thou shall have no other gods before me….for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. Exodus. 20: 2- 5. I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. Isaiah 43: 10, 11.
ii. His glory. Thine O Lord is the glory. 1Chron.29: 11 ….and I will not give my glory unto another. Isaiah 48: 11.
iii. And his right of vengeance. Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Rom. 12: 18.

God can not tolerate you paying back evil for evil, that is exclusive his domain. You do not have the right to judge, and do not have the right in Christ to pay back evil for evil. That is why he says:

“Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”. Rom. 12: 17- 21.

The bible also says to “bless them which persecute you; bless and curse not”. Rom. 12: 14.

If you want the Lord to withdraw from your fight, all you need to do is to step in the way and make the battle yours and you will see him withdraw. There are many ways you can step in the Lord’s way:
i. By withholding back somebody’s blessing.
ii. By standing in the way of somebody’s progress.
iii. By contributing or doing something that will lead to somebody’s down fall.
iv. By refusing to pray for somebody so he can be saved.
v. By pronouncing a curse on somebody.
vi. By rejoicing or celebrating somebody’s down fall. God said we must never rejoice when our enemy falls. Prov. 24: 17- 18.

In forgiveness, the bible says we should forgive one another as God for Christ sake has forgiven us. Ephes. 4: 31- 32.

God kind of forgiveness.

The carnal man would say; I have forgiven him but I can not forget what he did. Or you would some man say; because he did this and that before, and though I have actually forgiven him, and I am not going to do anything about it, I am going to be wise next time, watch him closely and not allow him take advantage of me next time. I am no body’s fool. That is how the carnal man understands forgiveness, but that is not the God kind of forgiveness. How God did forgive us?
i. He forgave all. Col. 2: 13.
ii. He did not only forgive all, he also blotted out every record and ordinance which was contrary us. Col. 2: 14.
iii. He declared us free from the consequences of our sins. In other words, he says that we are no longer guilty of the sins we committed and are therefore not answerable for them. Col. 1: 21, 22.
iv. He renewed his thoughts towards us. How?
i. By taking out of his mind the record of our sin. Isaiah 43: 24; Jer. 31: 34; Heb. 10: 17.
ii. By feeling his thoughts with only good things concerning us. Jer. 29: 11; 3Jn. 2.

Finally, I just want to say that if only we will obey God and forgive those who have wronged us as he for Christ sake had forgiven us, we will not lack any good, we will not walk in affliction, and he will bless everything that we put our hands on. Obedience to God’s word commands the blessing.

Encounter With God

2010-01-11T02:40:00.000-08:00

It is in an encounter with God that we know Him deeper, that we encounter the supernatural and we experience transformation.

Jeremiah 29:12-14
“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 14And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive”.

The essence for this note is to encourage you to desire to encounter God and know him deeper.

When anybody encounters God, he will understand and experience the goodness and mercies of God, fear will vanish and sickness can’t have a place in his body. He will walk in favour; he will succeed where other people are failing.

It is God’s desire to reveal himself to us. He wants to demonstrate his greatness, his wonder, his majesty, his goodness and his power in you and through you. And that can happen when we truly encounter Him.

When a man truly encounters God, he becomes more aware of his presence like never before, the fear of God will come upon him and there will be genuine conversion. He will start to live a selfless life.

We can have an experience of God in many ways; through a miracle, through healing, through an atmosphere of worship e.t.c. But he wants us to encounter him and walk with him and not only experience his acts.

We can encounter God through our spirit. The believer must learn to walk in the spirit; it is in this kind of walk that we encounter God. The born again believer’s spirit is regenerated and brought into a level where he can encounter God. And it is through spiritual encounter that lives are changed.

We need to desire to encounter God more. If you look at Moses you will see that the experience of the acts of God did not satisfy him. The burning bush did not satisfy him, the demonstration of God’s might through plagues in Egypt and how God brought Israel out of captivity did not, Moses wanted more, he wanted to see God face to face and when God showed His glory to Moses and proclaimed the goodness of God, something about him changed. When we truly encounter God, believe me, something about us will change. One encounter changes lives, one encounter can take you to a higher level.

A lot of us have experienced the wonders of God, miracles, breakthroughs. In worship we may have experiences the warmth of God but there is more to experience.
My desire is that you will walk with God, encounter God and know him deeper and deeper. If you are born again, you are brought to that place where you can experience and know God. Through the born again experience, your spirit was regenerate, quickened and united with God. Through your spirit you connect with God. Flesh and blood cannot encounter God. We experience God through our Spirit.
The spirit

1. The spirit is the life giving part of man
James. 2: 26
“26For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also”.

2. The spirit is the connecting link between God and man.
Job 32: 8
“But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding”.

Romans 8: 16
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”

3. When the spirit is weak, it affects the other parts of man i.e., the soul and the body. And when the spirit leaves the body, the body dies.
James 2: 26
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also”.

God’s original purpose is that the spirit should lead man, and not the soul, nor the body. Without the function of the spirit everything is dead. When a believer is not walking in the Spirit, when his spirit is not empowered, when he is not guided by the spirit or motivated by the spirit, everything is dead. The material man must now subject to the spirit man.

When the spirit in man connects with God, it receives illumination and understanding. When your spirit is weak and not in tune with God, you do not connect with God. The spirit is what connects you with the divine. The spirit is what connects us to the Spirit of God. When you are not in tune with God, you walk in the flesh.

The flesh operates in two realms:
1. The realm of the soul - soul ministers through the voice of reason
2. The realm of the body - body ministers through the voice of feeling

The spirit ministers supernaturally, it takes from the realm of the divine and it shows it to us. The way of the spirit may go against the voice of reason and feeling. The body may not feel like it, the senses may not feel like it, but it does not matter because in the spirit, you are walking in the divine, the supernatural and the extra-ordinary. When we walk that way, we start to see us with the Spirit of God showing forth our sonship, and manifesting the power of God. God is seeking to demonstrate His power, his majesty and His wisdom through us. Even the creatures can’t wait for our manifestation.

When you are walking in the Spirit, you are able to bring the flesh and all its desires to subjection.

Galatians 5: 16
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh”
Galatians 5: 25
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”

Only the spirit of man can hear God but it is the soul via the mind that interprets what God is saying, and it communicates it to the body.

If the mind is not renewed, it cannot rightly interpret what God is saying.
Romans 12: 2
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”

The believer needs to pay more attention to his spirit and seek to nurture and develop it more than he does the other parts. Don’t just feed the body and develop your mind, seek to nurture the spirit also. Just as the physical man feeds on bread to survive, the spirit man needs to feed to be nurtured too. Many believers pay little attention to their spirit or do not even know that they need to something with it.

When we don’t develop our spirit, we understand little of spiritual things, we hardly can hear God or understand him when he speaks – little wonder, very few believers today really understand the voice of God. They are basically followers of men and can easily fall preys of lying spirits.

You hear a lot of my pastor said, my pastor said, and my pastor said among believers, and that is all they are holding unto and walking with. So what happens when the pastor gets it wrong and is misinterpreting the Bible? I understand, pastors are put in the church to feed the body and church folks should trust them to get it right, should believe in what they are teaching and submit to their authority. But we must understand that the pastor’s primary mandate is to help the believer to grow, mature and to understand God for himself and be able to receive from God for himself. Every believer owes to himself the need to cultivate and develop his spirit.

We must develop the spirit man to connect with the divine and to develop the spirit, we will need to feed it. When we do not feed the spirit, it becomes lean and weak. When the spirit is lean, an interruption occurs in its flow with God. In this state, the flesh gains more control and begin to lead man instead of the spirit as God intended. When the believer is in the flesh he cannot connect with God, because God is a spirit. The believer who is in the flesh cannot also walk by faith or in the supernatural.

The spirit is strengthened when it dwells in the place of prayer, when it feeds on the word, when it celebrates in praise and worship, and when in fellowship with the brethren.

The prayer that feeds the spirit is that one that communes with God and not the bless me, deliver me, help me type of prayer. And it is not the quick ten or fifteen minutes’ type. The minimum time will be an hour as we saw in the experience of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The believer needs to learn to wait in the presence of God.

Also the study of the word that feeds the spirit is not reading the bible to memorise it, it is good to memorise the bible, that way you store the word in your mental faculty and are able to retrieve it when needed. Memorising the scripture is also good as it also helps to renew your mind. However, to feed the spirit man, you will need to learn to meditate on the word. Meditation is the process through which you deliver the word into your spirit. And you know that your spirit is fed when the light of the word starts to shine, when you’ve broken through the letters and have received the rhema, revelation knowledge – when God breathe the word in your spirit.

Every word that you have received will sometimes get attacked. Situations will arise to attack your knowledge of the word and if all you did was feed the mind through memorisation, you are going to start to doubt and walk in unbelief but if you have fed your spirit through meditation in the word and have received revelation knowledge, you are going to hang in there no matter what.

Making Your Way Prosperous

2010-01-05T05:52:00.000-08:00

In Victory Assembly 2010 has been declared as our year of Supernatural Release. I preached this message on the first Sunday of the year and gives insight and practical teaching on making your way prosperous. I pray that as you read it you will step into a new dimension of prosperity.

Making Your Way Prosperous

Joshua 1: 8
“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

We must speak the word continually and meditate upon the word. As you speak and meditate on it, you will receive the ability to walk in the light of it and the power to do what the word says.

There is no doubt that God desires that we all experience prosperity.

Psalms 35: 27
“Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.”

Prosperity is not about having more money to pay the bills, get a bigger house and a bigger car; it is so that we can be a blessing to those around us, to help someone out of poverty, pay the hospital bills of someone, and to fund the kingdom work of God.

And prosperity is not only about money, it is also about our relationships, it is about our marriage, it is about our work, our studies, our business or investments, it is about our health too; for he desires for us to have a healthy life and live long so we can fulfil his purpose for our creation.

Prosperity is about achieving progress in the things you are involved in.

We cannot doubt the fact that God desires for us to prosper. We know he does; the bible is full of it and he has also made available for us the grace to achieve it. However, we have a role to play to achieve it. We are the ones to make our ways to prosperity. We determine the outcome of our lives and what results we get. Heaven is open to us.

I like to share with us four things that I believe can put us on the path to prosperity.

1. Having a covenant relationship with God

You must understand that God is a God of covenant. We come into covenant with him by accepting Jesus as our Lord and saviour. If you are born again, you are a covenant child of God.

Anybody who has not accepted Jesus as lord and is not born again has no covenant with God. Anybody who is not saved has no claim on God or the benefits of the kingdom. If you are not born again, you don’t have a right to the goodness of God.

True prosperity comes in covenant relationship with God.

Deuteronomy 8: 18
“But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.”

I understand that the grace of God has appeared to all.

Titus 2: 11
“11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men”

But what that means is that God is merciful to all.

Matthew 5: 45
“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust”.

So there are things that the good God does to both the unsaved and the saved like, like making sure you don’t sleep hungry, helping you take a journey and arrive safely, go to bed and wake up e.t.c. he does this in his capacity as the creator and merciful God.

But you must know that there are certain interventions of God that can happen to a man only as a result of his covenant relationship with him. Like God answering prayer, like God taking over and fighting your battles for you, like God supernaturally intervening for you in difficult times.

2. Give him the Honour and Glory due unto his name

We show that we honour God by our lifestyle. God is honoured when our lives show the fear of God. God feels despised when our lifestyle is not right with him and does not conform to His word.

Proverbs 14: 2
“He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him”.

If you are not living right and are not showing regard for him in your lifestyle, how you can expect him to have any regard for you.

Psalm 128: 1-4
1Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. 2For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. 3Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. 4Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.

Psalm 115:13-14
“He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great. 14The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children”.

Also we show our regard for God and give him glory by our attitude to what he has blessed us with especially in the light of our relationship with him. Good things happen because God commands them. In the midst of open doors, when we are advancing, we should look up and say he did it, every time we give honour back to God for what he did, he feels glorified.

I. We must remember to acknowledge that every achievement and every increase that we come into are God’s gifts.

Deuteronomy 8: 10-19
“10When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. 11Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: 12Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; 13And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; 14Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; 16Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; 17And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. 18But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day”.

II. We must learn to bring to him offerings from the blessing.

1Chronicles 16: 28-19
“28Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. 29Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness”.

There are four fundamental ways we give God the glory through our offering:
a. Our gift of first fruits
b. Our tithes
c. And offering of thanksgiving
d. And pledge redemption

3. Make yourself useful or of service to God
Being of service to God attracts reward. You need to make yourself available to God. Don’t just be at a distance on the periphery of what is happening in your church. Don’t just come to God when things are hard. Make yourself available and useful to God. Let him use you and you will not be ashamed.

Hebrew 6: 10-12
“10For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: 12That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises”.

Believe me, there is nothing that you will do for God’s sake that will be in vain. He will always reward you back. And a lot of times, answers to prayer come as a reward of service. As God the creator, there are things he does for everyone, but there are some desperate things which you are believing God for which won’t come if you are unfruitful.

John 15: 16
“16Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”

Also, it is good Remember that it is not only about this life that we are to do certain things or subject ourselves to a particular lifestyle - the quality of your life in the hereafter (I mean life after dead)is going to be dependent on how much you have committed to God here on earth.

So no matter how busy you get you must create time to serve and be faithful and selfless. Don’t make yourself unprofitable.

Colossians 3: 23-24
”And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; 24Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ”.

Exodus 23: 25-26
“And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. 26There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil”.
The Devil won’t kill your case if God has found you fruitful.

4. Sow your seed of faith
Genesis 8: 22
“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease”.

Seed time and harvest shall not cease, it is the principle of recreation and increase, an eternal order of life. Without the seed there can’t be harvest. The seed determines the future. When you give your seed the future is great.

The seed is so powerful that it can even affect your generation after you. What you sow today can impact on your entire generation tomorrow.

You sometimes walk into a blessing not because of what you have done yourself but because of what somebody who has gone ahead of you has done on your behalf.

John 4: 38
“38I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.”

so what you sow today can impact on your generation after you.

When he Holy Spirit, and not man, is stirring you up and challenging you to lay something down as a seed you better do it. I mean not man stirring you up, but the Holy Spirit. Look through the scriptures, every time God was going to lift a man to a higher level he challenged him to give a seed. Until something dies there is no increase.

John 12: 24
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

God is faithful, he will always put a seed in your hand but until your seed is planted and it dies, it abides alone.

If you want to come out of the ordinary, out of poverty or lack and out of debt, know that apart from all the financial wisdom and planning, you’ve got to be a giver.

Where to plant seed

a. To meet needs in the life of a brother

Galatians 6:9-10
“And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. 10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith”.

b. To meet needs in the kingdom. Whenever there is a need in church, sow into it. Don’t complain whenever there is a call to give into a kingdom project, if you can’t afford it, keep quite. But always sow into it.

c. Sowing into kingdom things when you are facing a challenge or believing God for the next level, sow into.

d. You can sow a seed to connect with an anointing in a man of God’s life. If you seat under a man of God, and his ministry is a blessing to you, you can sow into his life to make room for his grace to work for you. E.g the woman of shunem and Elisha in 2Kings 4:8-17

Growing In Favour with Man & God (2)

2009-12-29T17:52:00.001-08:00

HOW to attract God’s Favour

- From the example of Jesus

Jesus first increased in wisdom and stature and that opened him up to God’s favour and mans favour

Luke. 2: 52
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man”

What is wisdom?
The fear of God is wisdom. The Bible says:

Job 28: 28.
“And unto man he said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding”.

The fear of God means to have respect and reverence for God. We need to hold God in awe. He is the almighty God, the creator, the one that can make alive and can kill and the one who is a consuming fire. We express our fear of God through our love for righteousness and hate for evil.

Proverbs 8: 13
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate”.

So the wisdom that Jesus increased in was the hate for evil and love for righteousness which he had and that made God to anoint/favour him.

Hebrews 1: 8-9
“But unto the son he saith, Thy throne O God is for ever and for ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. 9Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with oil of gladness above thy fellows”.

When you walk in the fear of God, he will show you his favour, he will anoint you in a special way and enable you to achieve what you can’t by your strength.

What it means to grow in stature
Growth in stature deals with your physical built, height, or physique. And we see that Jesus did not only increase in wisdom, he also increased in stature.

God desires that we all move from being spiritual babies to spiritual adults, from carnal Christians to spiritual Christians.

1Peter 2: 2-3
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”.

God like every father is pleased when we are growing spiritually and are developing muscles and are being rooted in the kingdom. He needs us to grow because there are certain benefits of the kingdom that we cannot enter into as babies. The anointing to receive them can only come on us when we grow to certain spiritual level.

Galatians 4: 1-2
“Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father”.

At what point can we say that one has grown spiritually.

1. When he has overcome things like envy, strife, division est. when he no longer can keep bitterness in his heart.
1Corinthians 3: 1-3
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men”.

2. When he starts to feed on strong meat.
Hebrews 5: 12-14
“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil”.

By strong meat it means that:
a. The believer’s spiritual senses are now developed and he now has a good understanding of the things of God.
b. He now does not solely depend on what others teach, he is now able to feed from the word of God for himself.
c. Nothing from the word can choke him; he can now take in the rebukes, the corrections, the blessing and the call for holiness and sacrifices and not just the bless me, give me, deliver me e.t.c.
d. His behaviour is shaped by the word. And not by what somebody has said.

How to attract God’s favour

- from the example of Samuel

Samuel was another Old Testament guy that had great favour with God.

1Samuel 2: 26
“And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men”.

Samuel attracted favour because he grew before the Lord and served Him faithfully. Now let’s look at what they mean.

1. He grew before the Lord
1Samuel 2: 21
“And the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the LORD.”

By growing before the Lord, it means that Samuel had and developed a relationship with God. He spent time not only knowing about God, but knowing God.

God desires that we create quality time to be with him, very few people in church really know God. There is a lot about him he wants to show us. He wants us to be able to know his voice, his ways and his acts.

There is favour that comes with relationship; there are people in your life that you treat differently and with special consideration just because of who there are to you. Deeper relationship with God attracts his favour.

The more intimate you get with God, the more of him you will experience. To develop an intimate relationship with him, you will need to love him more, learn to create quality time just to be with him, love nothing more than you love him and be willing to lay down just anything for him.

2. He served God
1Samuel 3: 1
“And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision”.

The word minister simply means to serve - Samuel served God. To serve God involves our willingness to offer unto God our time, our worship, our possessions and even our lives.

Every believer I have known says I love God more than anything but it is one thing to say it and it is another to have the heart and to really do it. I have seen very few people who will do anything for God irrespective of the cost, very few. If we cannot hold anything from God, he will want to bless us with anything.

True service is seen in our willingness and ability to lay down something for somebody. Gifts have a way of opening people’s favour up for you. If you know how to give, you will attract favour. When you give to God you attract God’s favour and when you give to man you attract man’s favour.

Proverbs 18: 16
“A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men”.

Giving is a way of serving and if you are a giver, it will sure make room for you and bring you before great men.

Jesus thought this principle of gifts making room before great men in the parable of the rich man and his steward in Luke 16: 1-9. Your gifts will sure make room for you. When Abraham ministered to God (the sacrifice of Isaac) God made a promise under an oath to him saying in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply you. Genesis 22: 1-18. When Solomon made sacrifices of burnt offerings to the Lord, the Lord appeared to him in the night and asked for what he wanted God to do for him Genesis 3: 3-5.

There is a blessing that comes with our willingness to give our all to the Lord.

How to attract God’s favour

- Loyalty

Proverbs 18: 24
“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother”.

Loyalty is another virtue that attracts favour any where. But there are very few people who understand loyalty. You cannot count on many folks these days. When we are loyal to people we will sure attract their favour.

What it involves:
a. Loyalty involves sticking with people when it is going well with them and when its turns sour. You cannot be loyal when you keep changing your allegiance.
b. It is about sticking out for people and defending them even when you know they are in a mess and they caused it. The people you believe in will always make mistakes, but don’t join others to stab them. That is loyalty.
c. Loyalty is about being available for people when they need us most.
d. It is about making sacrifices for people even when it is costly to do so. You see, loyalty is not seen when things about the person you say you are loyal to are looking great and attractive. It is seen when things have turned sour and you are still sticking out with the person.

It is always costly to be loyal, but when you are loyal to people, they will want to do anything for you; that is favour.

If I may ask, how would you treat people who when you need somebody helping out with something, they are always there? How would you treat the people who when you need someone going the extra mile, they are the ones doing it? How would you treat people that you know have your interest at heart and will always be there for you? How would you treat people that you know are not going to jump out of the boat and leave you stranded when it’s rough? How would you treat people who will always create time for you when you need them and every now and then they make contribution to increase your worth? How would you treat such people in comparison to others? Surely preferentially isn’t it?

As a pastor, I know that there are people who can call me and have at 4am and it does not matter what time I went to bed that night, would jump up for them. Why, because one good turn deserves another. Loyalty attracts favour.

How to attract God’s favour

- Walking in mercy and truth with man

Proverbs 3: 3-4
“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 4So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man”.

When you are merciful towards people, you will always find favour. Don’t be hard on people, always show mercy, kindness and give a little help when you can and God in turn will surround you with his favour.

Be good to people and I mean everybody you come in contact with, and who knows, you might be doing good to the angel of your destiny; The person you are being good to today may be in a privileged place tomorrow and in a position to do you a little favour.

Proverbs 12: 2
“A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn.”

Also, don’t live a false life. Be honest with people; deal with them with truth and integrity. If people can trust you, they can recommend you, they can speak for you. And if they are in a privileged position, they can be of great assistance to you simply because the other day you dealt with them with integrity.

Don’t think because you are very coning and deceptive and are getting away with it you are being clever. No, the bible says you are being foolish. It will eventually work against you. If you want to attract favour to your life, you’ve got to be truthful to people.

Proverbs 19: 1
“Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool”.

I close with a story about the boiled seed:

Once there was an emperor in the Far East who was growing old and knew it was coming time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or one of his own children, he decided to do something different.

He called all the young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It has come time for me to step down and to choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you." The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today. One seed. It is a very special seed. I want you to go home, plant the seed, water it and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring to me, and the one I choose will be the next emperor of the kingdom!"

There was one boy named Ling who was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the whole story. She helped him get a pot and some planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept going home and checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by. Still nothing.

By now others were talking about their plants but Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months went by, still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she encouraged him to go, and to take his pot, and to be honest about what happened. Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace.

When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by all the other youths. They were beautiful, in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try."

When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!"

All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!" When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!"

Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor? Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grown, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"

Growing In Favour with Man & God (1)

2009-12-29T09:53:00.000-08:00

Esther 2: 15-17
“15Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her. 16So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti”.

We note from the above passage that king Ahasuerus did not choose Esther because it said she was most beautiful of all the women. Note that it did not also say that she was chosen because the king saw that she came from one of the most important families in his kingdom. Esther became queen in Vashti’s place because she obtained grace and favour more than all the other virgins.

One favour can transform your life and change your testimony. Favour is good deed or an act of kindness to somebody who does not deserve it. It involves treating somebody preferentially. This is what happened to Esther.

To walk in man or God’s favour means that both man and God will do good deeds to you or show you kindness beyond what you deserve. It means that amongst others, you will be preferred.

When you operate under favour, your achievement, your promotion, or your increase will not be based on your qualification or on what you can do or cannot do. Your qualification will be immaterial, your gender will be immaterial, your background will be immaterial and the things you’ve been through will not count.

That is not to say we should not work hard to have qualifications. It is good to have qualifications, but where God’s favour is concern, your qualifications wont matter, and wont determine the extend which you are going to rise in life.

With your qualifications without favour, you can get stocked. With your qualification without favour, you can have enemies who will try to make your life a misery. With your privileged background without favour, you can have depression and make a ship wreck of everything.

Yes it is good to be hard working. It is good to be connected to the right people in life. And it is good to have all the qualifications. But it is better to walk in favour with it. Favour will make all the difference and we all need it. There are things that hard work can’t give you but favour will. There are places that qualification can take but favour will bring you there. Through God’s favour, you can enter into that realm that you naturally don’t qualify for. For instance, Israel lived in cities they did not build.

Psalms 44: 1 – 3
“We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. 2 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. 3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them”.

Let me share with you some of the things that can happen to you when you have favour and are walking in it:
1. Doors will open for you where it is shut against others. In other words, when they said no to others, they will say yes to you. What was not possible for someone else will become your reality.
2. You will make little effort and reap in abundance even where others have laboured before and reaped nothing.
3. Things will just work out for you where others are finding it difficult.
4. You will walk in God’s provisions - Needs in your life will be met supernaturally.
5. Strangers will bless you. I mean STRANGERS, people you do not know, and do not deserve assistance from will be there for you.
6. You won’t have to worry about the favour of man. He will make even your enemies be at peace with you. Proverbs 16:7.

Naturally, Egypt should not be blessing Israel the night they left Egypt. They had just lost the first born of man and beast. And all because of Israel; they should be stoning them instead. But they blessed them. Why? Because God gave them favour.

Genesis 3: 21
“And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty”.
Genesis 12: 35-36
“And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: 36And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians”.

7. And when enemies set trap for you, their trap will only be a stepping stone to the next level.

A foretaste of glory

2009-12-22T15:21:00.000-08:00

Hebrews 12: 2
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”.

What empowered Jesus to endure the cross and to despise the shame that goes with it was the foreknowledge he had regarding what the outcome would be. A little glimpse into the future is empowering.

You need to pray for God to show you a little into his plans for your life. You need to know the plan; you need a little journey into the future before it happens for you to be able to endure now. I pray God will take you to that place where you can see and touch destiny before it happens.

I agree that you cannot know all nor have a full picture of your life as it will be in the future. If you do, you will stop walking by faith. But a little picture of your future now will make you confident about life, will make you aware that you are heading somewhere and not just beating about the bush. An insight into destiny gives a meaning and purpose to life. Don’t live a life not knowing what it is about and where God wants to take you to or what is there, made available for you to.

If you don’t know what is available for you, you are going to accept anything that life throws on you, Peoples comment can stop you, you will throw in the towel because of a little failure, and the challenge of life will break your spirit. And believe me, challenges will always come. You will be tested and tried. Sometimes trials come to test your conviction or persuasion. It comes to check what you know or stand for. And the decisions you make not in good times but in challenging times are the ones that show your true convictions.

A good number of people, who have attempted or committed suicide, did that because they could not see into the future, nothing motivated them anymore. What they went through put a veil on the future and broke their spirit. Some people have moved out of some cities, changed jobs, ended relationships, walked away from people that matter and some have left churches for lack of foresight.

The ability to see a little of what lies ahead is power. It makes you a fighter. You are able to fight for a thing if you are confident of the outcome. And God wants you to see a little of the future - That kept Jesus Going.

Hebrews 12: 2-3
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds”.

That was what God wanted to achieve when he described to Moses the type of land he was going to give to Israel - He wanted the picture of a city that has milk and honey flowing in it, and a land with vineyards and pomegranate painted on Moses' mind so he can stir in Moses a desire for it and to create a warrior inside him.

Exodus 3: 17
“And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey”.

Wonder why God did not tell mosses exactly what kind of battle he was going to have with Pharaoh, he did not tell him about the red sea experience either nor the Jordan experience, the wilderness challenges and the battles with the enemies. Wondered why? God did not want Moses and Israel to be bothered with them, he did not want them to be the issue, he wanted the destiny to be the focus and motivation.

When you know what the end looks like, then you know that is not over, you know God is not done with you yet, despite what you are experiencing and what people are saying about it until it happens.

God gives a glimpse of the future in many ways, and one of the ways he does it is through a foretaste experience. You see, sometimes, or at some points in a man’s life, God brings him into his dream place for just a season and he takes him out. He brings him there before he is prepared or ready for it only to give him a foretaste experience. That was what God had in the mind when he instructed Moses to send out spies to Canaan land and to bring back some fruits.

Numbers 13: 1-3, 17-20-27

That short encounter is only to give a taste of what is to come. God wants him feel it, develop a deep desire and passion for it, and so he can start to walk his way towards it.

A foretaste experience can be a short trip abroad – to help you develop desire to live there in the future, One time preaching breakthrough - so you can start to see a preacher in you, a ride in a car of your dream - so you may want to pay the price for it, a visit to a company, hospital est. - may develop desire to work there, an invitation to somebody’s graduation - to renew the zeal for further studies. If God brings you to a place of your dream and he takes you out, it’s not your season yet, it is for a foretaste experience.

If you've enjoyed something in the past, you can walk into it. He that started this good work in you is able to complete it. If it stirs passion in you, if it is now a dream, if there is a witness inside you, you can achieve it.

If you’ve tasted it once, you can achieve it.
If you can think it, you can achieve it.
If you can dream it, you can achieve it.
If it is now a passion, you can achieve it.
If you are willing to pay the price, you can achieve it.
Yes you can. Go for it.

For God is able to do exceeding abundantly, above what you can ask for or imagine.

Hay! Don’t let the wilderness experience blur what God has shown you that is ahead.

The Power and Mystery of the Seed (2)

2009-03-31T15:15:00.000-07:00

The Power and Mystery of the Seed

2009-03-31T15:06:00.000-07:00

Deliverance from Trouble part 2

2009-03-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

Psalm 32:7
"Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance."

How to receive deliverance from trouble

I. Build strength in the word. The bible says in:
Proverbs 24: 10
“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small”

You can not afford to faint in the day of trouble if you want to overcome it. To faint means to give up hope, treat it as your fate and to think that nothing can be done about it.

To overcome trouble, you need to be strong through and through. You cannot faint and win any battle. you must see light in the midst of the darkness.

Galatians 6: 9
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”.

To be strong in Adversity, you need to develop yourself spiritually so much that you can not to be easily tossed about it. Be strong and resolute that you can not be easily moved by situations and circumstances, your eyes fixed on God. You cannot be somebody who any little discomfort sends him running helter-skelter, shaking and confessing all sorts of negative stuffs about himself. You must develop your spiritual muscles so you can handle the storm when it comes. And remember, it happens to all.

That is why the Bible says in:

Ephesians 6:10-11
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”.

To be strong, mean you want to come to that level where you are Word loaded, where your faith and confidence in the faithfulness of God is unshakeable; Unshakeable no matter what you see. You want to be able to say like the psalmist:

Psalm 62:5-7
“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. 6He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. 7In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.

Your spiritual strength is determined by your personal knowledge of God and your understanding of his word. How much of God you know and how much of his word that you have deposited in your spirit determines what you can handle.

II. God must be the God of your trouble
If you want God to be God of your trouble, you must let Him be God in your heart.

You cannot forget God when things are working well for you and remember him when in trouble, and expect him to take over your trouble. He must be involved in your everyday life. You must develop and enjoy fellowship with him everyday.

Psalm 27:4-6
“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. 5For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. 6And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD”.

When your life brings honour to God, he will always fight for you to honour you back.

Proverbs 16: 7
When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

1Samuel 2: 30
“Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed”.

Learn to honour him with your tithes and offering, and praise him for every favour, for every increase and for every good thing. God honors those who honor Him.

He says in:

Psalm 50:14-16
“Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: 15And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 16But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth”?

Psalms 20: 1-4
“The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; 2Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; 3Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah. 4Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel”.

III. Don’t let the devil steal your joy
Philippians 4: 4
“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice”.

I like you to please know that whatever trouble you are facing is not the devil’s ultimate goal:

That you are having difficulty at work is not the thing.
That you are having marital crisis is not it.
That you can’t pay your mortgage, and the bank is seeking to take over your house is not it.
That you have become broke and your lenders are dragging you to court is not it.
That there is the threat of deportation against you is not it.
The experience of trouble by itself is not the devil’s ultimate goal.
That things are now tough for you is not all that he is after.

You see, the devil is causing you trouble because:

. He wants to defy your God; he wants to make him appear as if he has lost control over your life.
. He wants you to lose confidence in the Lord and forget your Christian values; he wants you to live like there is no God.
. He wants you to lose the joy of living, he wants you to lose focus and give up.
. He wants you to have depression.
. He wants you to be suicidal and even kill yourself.
. He wants you to have heart attack and die
. He comes not but to steal, kill and destroy.

If he cannot steal your joy, he can’t achieve his purpose. In the mist of your troubles, don’t let him steal your joy.

So no matter your challenges, don’t just sit there and have a pity party. Don’t go about feeling rejected, feeling down cast, and feeling like a loser. Don’t give the devil that Joy. Learn to have joy in the Lord no matter what.

Habakkuk 3:17-18
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: 18Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation”.

And don’t go about blaming people for your situation. Just thank God.
And don’t burry yourself in sorrow and defeat and feeling down cast like you don’t have a God. Do what David did when he found himself in trouble:

1Samuel 30: 6
“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God”.

I challenge you to be encouraged and shame that devil.

If the devil can not make you sad, and depressed, and worrying, he can’t do anything about your destiny. He may attack you, but that will be all to it. And I say again, that will be all to it.

Proverbs 17: 22
“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones”.

I challenge you to encourage yourself in the Lord, to rise up, and put a smile on your face like everything is alright. Like you know that your God is in absolute charge of your destiny.

You may be weeping now but joy cometh in the morning. Say it out loud – My Joy cometh in the morning.

IV. Cry out to the Lord for help
One of the things you want to do when things are not working right for you is pray.

Don’t go looking for scape goats, and don’t go blaming anybody. Learn to talk to God about it. Also, one of the things you don’t want to do is isolate yourself from people. You are only going to pave way for depression to set in. All you need to do is pray.

James 5: 13
“Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. (NIV)

Psalm 50:15
“And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me”.

Psalms 20: 1-4
“The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; 2Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; 3Remember all thy

If you don’t pray about it, you may not come through it.

You see, God associates pray with the giving of glory to him. He loves to do only the things that he will take glory for. When in trouble and you do not cry out to God for help, you are not acknowledging him as your deliver.

Know that God does not respond to tears, he is attracted to faith. It is okay to cry before God, but tears alone don't move him because tears can also be a sign of self pity or a feeling of rejection. Prayer is an act of faith in the God that answers prayer.

Also, know that the Bible did not say to look for people to pray for you when in affliction, it says, is any among you afflicted, let him pray. You must learn to not count on other people’s prayer, learn to tell God yourself. A lot of times people who say I am praying for you are not actually praying.

If you believe in the power of pray and can not pray about what you are going through, it means that what you are going through is not really a problem to you. And the fact is that, nobody can really feel the way you are feeling and nobody can understand as you do the level of your pain. That means nobody can pray with the burden, and passion that you will pray with. Your prayer should be more intense and more fervent that any body’s prayer for you because you understand better.

And if you cannot pray over your issue for thirty minutes why expect another person who does not really understand your level of pain or the depth of the mess that you are in, to exceed that you for.

If you want to be delivered from double, you must learn to personally set aside time to develop your personal relationship with God, learn to fast and pray and not only depend on anybody laying hands on you, anointing with oil, and praying for you. you must develop fellowship with the word, and don’t treat it lightly.

Deliverance from Trouble part 1

2009-03-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

Psalm 32:7
"Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance."

We all face trouble once in a while. It is part of life and trouble comes to both the just and the unjust, it happens to all. You don’t have to sin to experience trouble and the fact that you are experiencing trouble does not mean that you are not where God wants you to be.

Psalms 34: 19
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all”.

What the above scripture means is that the righteous may go through many afflictions, but the Lord will deliver him from all of them.

I prophesy that whatever affliction you are experiencing right now, that you will overcome in Jesus name.

The word afflictions also mean troubles. Troubles can come in the area of finances, health, relationship, job and career; it may involve the police, our employers or even with the home office, especially for immigrants.

Whatever the trouble you find yourselves in, you must understand that it is not from God; God will not stir up trouble for any man, he will not tempt any man will evil. He is not a causer of trouble but a helper in times of trouble.

Psalm 46: 1
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”.

Trouble comes as a result of:
. Sin
. Blunder
. As a harvest of what you have sown in your past
. and as an attack from the enemy

Whatever is its source, and whether it is big trouble or small trouble, it is solvable. There is no situation you can ever find yourself in that God can not bail you out, even if you caused that situation.

Isaiah 49:24-26
“Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? 25But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. 26And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob”.

Any trouble that is not solved is so not because God can’t handle it but because you’ve promoted it to that level where God can’t help you out; you made it look bigger than your God. What you consider too hard or too big for God to handle, are the things that God can’t do for you.

Dealing With Conflict in a Relationship (Part One)

2008-12-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

We all meet people in at different levels, and under different circumstances. And with some, we end up developing relationship. We all are in some sort of relationship with somebody; it could be with a spouse, a boy friend or girl friend, a colleague at work, a class mate, roommate or a neighbor.

Relationship is a beautiful thing and some are ordained by God. God says it is not good for man to be alone. All relationships ordained by God are designed to empower us and help us become the people God created us to be. There is a place we may never get to in life until somebody comes into our lives – destiny helper. relationship is relevant in a man's life and we need to cherish it and do all we can to maintain it.

Once in a while though we experience conflict in our relationships. Conflicts don’t happen because we've stopped loving somebody or because we are in a relationship with the wrong person, they happen because of the human factor; we all make mistakes. we all change, only God does not change.

Conflict means that there is a misunderstanding or difficulty in your relationship or that you are having a disagreement in opinion regarding a matter and it is causing a rift between you and somebody you relate with.

It is important that you value your relationship no matter what, and look for a way to deal with any conflict you’ve found yourselves in. Working out Peace in a challenging relationship is very important, don’t ever say I don’t care if he wants to leave, let him and I don’t really care what happens. No, we are to pursue peace and pursue it hard because destiny could be interrupted if there is a breaking away and what you could have achieved in a year might take you ten years to achieve them.

So the Bible says:

Romans 12: 18
“If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”

Note that God desires that we make peace even with our enemies.

Proverbs 16: 7“When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him”

your enemy may turn out to be a mighty ally. he may be the introducer you are waiting for that can help bring before the king. Remember every man has got worth, every man is gifted, every man has something that can benefit somebody. No one man created by God is useless. So do all you can to maintain peace and friendship with people God has brought into your life, especially with those in the brotherhood.

Ephesians 4: 2-3
“With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.

Why resolving conflict is important

I. We have the ministry of reconciliation
We are called to make peace with all men and to help them make peace with God.

2Corinthians 5: 17-19
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation”.

Matthew 5: 9
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

II. conflict can impact on your ability to be a witness
You can not be a witness to people you are not getting along with; they cant see the light of God in you if you are having a fight with them. You can not be a blessing to somebody who you cant look in the eye and I care. If the devil can cause a rift between you and him, he can will hinder your ability to reach out and make a difference in his life. Dont let that devil.

Philippians 2: 15
“That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world”.

Matthew 5: 44-45“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust”.

You know that you are walking in the light or are manifesting your light dependant on your fellowship life.

1John 1:6-7
“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin”.

Fellowship is not about your attendance to church but your relationship with people.

III. Conflict can impact on destiny
Psalm 133: 1-3
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 2It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; 3As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”.

Like I have said before, anybody that comes into your life can be a destiny helper. And you could be his destiny helper too. Conflict arises to separate you and to hinder destiny fulfilling. Do what you can to maintain the relationship, dont just walk away, and never think you dont need anybody to get there.

IV. Conflict can make you ill
It can cause mental illness, depression, and heart ache e.t.c.

James 3: 16
“For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.”

It is difficult to live a peaceful and a happy life when there is somebody in your life you can't forgive or you are having a fight with. I dont know how you are able to get on with all the bitterness, with all the sense of betrayal and unforgiveness. I dont know how you manage to get on with people in your life you dont want to see, and dont want to talk you. that itself is imprisonment.

Romans 12: 18-21
“If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 19Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”.

V. Conflict can hinder your prayer
Mark 11: 25-26
“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop (leave it, let it go), in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your [own] failings and shortcomings and let them drop. 26But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcoming".

VI. Conflict can stand on your way to heaven
Romans 12: 14-15
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 15Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled”.

Match Make from Heaven - Finding your soul mate

2008-11-22T05:18:00.000-08:00

Proverbs 18: 22
“Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD”.

Marriage is a good thing; guys don’t be scared of it. If you take time to pray about it, God will favour you and will lead you to the right person.

Here are some hints that can help you make the right decision.

1. Look out for the fear of God in the person
2Coringhians 6: 14-16
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”.

2. How much do you love the person
To make a good marriage, two kinds of love are required:

I. Agape: the love that is of God. The love that can make you be selfless for the person. The love that can lay down anything for the person.

II. Eros: this is sexual attraction. Don’t say I want to marry this person because God says so. No, you need to find the person sexually attractive. She must look beautiful in your eyes and he must look man enough and handsome in your eyes.

Something about the person’s physical feature must attract you. Otherwise tomorrow you are going to compare the person with someone else and wished you had married them.

3. Check the person’s sense of responsibility
Hebrews 11: 6
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

If you are faithful to God and you wait on him, he will not give you an irresponsible person i.e someone who will not have regard for you and treat like you have no value, Someone who has no regard for your parents, Someone who has no purpose in life, Someone selfish, lazy and unproductive, Someone who will end up being a pain and a burden.

If the person is a busybody, tell him to sort himself out before coming to you. You want to marry somebody who is willing and ready to be the bread winner, but don’t limit anybody to his now, People change and only God knows tomorrow. Michel Obama did not know she was marrying the future president of the United States of America when he first asked her for a date. My wife would not have married me if she had considered what I had then.

What to look out for are his attitude to learning, his attitude to work and his dealing with people. Also look at his vision, his drive and what he is doing to get there.

4. check your compatibility
No two people are the same so expect to be different.
Marriage is more exciting if you two don’t do things the same but you must agree on fundamental issues. It is a big problem if you are fundamentally different. If he or she is a match make from heaven, there will be chemistry for two cannot walk together except they be agreed.

Amos 3: 3
“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

Matthew 12: 25
“And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:”

5. Consider your spiritual calling
Your relationship with God is one and the same with his calling for your life. Don’t marry anybody who has no regard for your calling or is not open for the unexpected from God. You cannot forsake your calling for the sake of your family as you cannot follow Christ if you are not willing and able to forsake them for him.

Matthew 19: 29
“And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”

But you don’t have to put yourself in a position where you have to choose between God and man, so you need a spouse and a family that will stand by you and support you to fulfil your heavenly vision.

6. The place of family history
Family history and background is not necessary in destiny so dont rule out anybody because of the family he is coming from. But you need to know about the person's background so you are aware of what you are going into.

7. Parental consent
You need parental consent and blessing to go ahead with your marriage but don’t leave it to your parents to a make choice for you and don’t give them that power.

They love you and want the best for you but they are not to make your choice for you – you need to listen to their advice though and weigh it in the light of what you think is best for you. If parents resist your choice, patiently wait for them and pray until they come round.

8. The place of counselling in your decision making
Proverbs 11: 14
“Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety”

Proverbs 15: 22
“Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.”

You need the assurance that you’ve got it right and you can know that assurance though counselling. Remember at the mouth of two or three witnesses a thing is established. Most people who refused to be talked to in the area of marriage end up in trouble. Seek counselling from your parents especially if they are born again. Seek counsel from someone who has parental or mentorship role in your life. But most importantly, seek counselling from your pastor – never go into a serious relationship without first seeking advice from your pastor. And if you don’t have a pastor, go have one – we all need a pastor.
Jeremiah 3: 15
“And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

Whatever the case, you should make the ultimate decision.

9. Taking time to know each other
It is most interesting when love develops between two friends, so it is okay to fall in love with someone you’ve started with as friend. I encourage you have a period of courtship before marriage, don’t just meet somebody and arrange marriage straight away. It is not a clever thing to do, to marry someone that you know so little about. Someone you intend to live with for the rest of your life with.

The essence of courtship is not to find out God’s will – don’t go into courtship until you are sure you’ve found the right person. if you do, you are going to be breaking somebody hope and expectation when you decide to change your mind. Courtship is to help you work out your differences, help you develop friendship and intimacy, and help you to channel a pattern or the style your relationship will take. Marriage is meant to be enjoyed, if you don’t develop friendship before marriage, you may end up spending the best part of it trying to resolve differences that would have been sorted before marriage.

Making A Fresh Start

2008-11-21T07:09:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 43:18-20
"Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. 19Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. 20The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen”.

We are all people of destiny, created by God to fulfil a purpose here on earth. In pursuit of our destiny, we sometimes hit our target on one go and sometimes we fail and will need to try again and sometimes we need to try again and again and again. Don't feel bad or like a failure because you have to restart again; sometimes we all need to try more than once to achieve something meaningful in life. I call it making a fresh start.

We all need to make a fresh start sometimes to breakthrough, to recover what was lost, to repair what was damages or to make a head way. Winners are those that always want to start all over again and are not ashamed to. To make a fresh start simply means:

1. You are back to where you were before, with a new perspective, drive and intention to make something happen.

2. You are giving a new opportunity to do what we’ve done before in a different way.

3. It could also mean the start of something new, something you’ve never experienced before. sometimes God brings us back to where we started the journey so we can take a different route this time.

Making a fresh start is not a sign of failure but a sign of determination, and it shows a sense of purpose. Always remember that we all sometimes need to make a fresh start, and need to do something different to get to where God wants to take us to. Every new day gives us a new opportunity to take stoke, a chance to do something different. You are only going defeat your purpose and end as a loser if you are proud or ashamed to start all over again.

In making a fresh start, you will need to:

1. Have a desire for something better, bigger and higher. If you don’t see the need to make a change, if you are just happy and contented with where you are, nothing is going to change for you. Its not greed to have a desire for more; life is about growth.

2. Know that you’ve got the capacity to achieve more than you already have. And What people think of you don’t matter. If you've got God, you've got what it takes to make it. Philippians 4: 13

3. Put behind you the old. What is the old in your life that has blurred your vision of the future or hindered your progress? It could be:
• Sense of Failure
• disappointment
• feeling Betrayal
• Rejection
• Bitterness and unforgiveness
• Laziness - Proverbs 14:23
“Work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty”! (NLT)
• lack of focus
• unfaithfulness
• lack of fear for God

Whatever the thing is that in the past stood on your way must be sacrificed, let go so you can breakthrough. Let it go!

4. Make a bold step of faith forward. God might have been leading you to take a step of faith to do something you’ve never done before. Something that may appear crazy. God may be saying to go back to school, start your own business, go into the ministry full time etc. until you start to make a move into the unknown you might never make progress.

Isaiah 48:17
“Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go”.

5. Change your attitude toward God, people in your life, your work or studies:
Make commitment to approach your duties with dedication. Make commitment to treat people with respect, and with some kindness. To a friend, be a good friend. Make commitment to put God first in your life and never to allow anything come between you and Him.

Making a fresh start is about change, when you change your mentality and your lifestyle, everything about you will start to take a new turn for the best.

Somebody once said, if you want to have what you’ve not got, you’ve got to do what you’ve never done.

You need to ask yourself this question. What do I really want to achieve in life, who do I want to become, where do I want to get to in life. What I am in this life for.

You also need to ask; what do I need to do to achieve it.

Being Fruitful in Every Good Work

2008-11-21T06:10:00.000-08:00

Colossians 1: 9-10
“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God”.

there are four things I like to highlight from the above scripture:

I. We need to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

There is a difference between knowledge, wisdom and understanding:

A. Knowledge is the collection of correct information. There is worldly knowledge and there is godly knowledge. worldly knowledge is the value passed on us through conventional teachngs or the way the world sees things. Godly knowledge is the value that is passed to us by God via his word.

B. Understanding is the correct interpretation of acquired information. there are two ways to interprete things; from the world stand point and from spiritual stand point. we need to operate in both but to walk with God, and to live in the supernatural we need always see things also from a spiritual stand point. Spiritual interpretation is revelation knowledge, and insight from God. This is superior to natural understanding.

C. Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge correctly. There are also two kinds of wisdom; worldly wisdom and spiritual wisdom, we need them both to live our day to day live and to operate in the realm of God. Worldly wisdom is acting based on worldly knowledge; this is common sense like not crossing the road when the light is red, not driving while drunk, not putting your money into a business that is going downwards. On the other hand, wisdom that is spiritual is acting on the word of God or yielding to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual wisdom don't necessarily make any sense, and might conflict with conventional wisdom but it is superior to worldly wisdom. you act on a higher knowledge and on a higher realm when operating in spiritual wisdom.

Now, from our text, we can see that God desires that we know exactly what he has in his plan for us, he desires that we have a clear understanding of what the plan involves and how to realise them. we need to know exactly what he is saying to do at every stage in our lives, and we need to be bold to act as he says even when they don't make sense to us or the people around us. We are walking in divine wisdom anytime we act as we are being led by God. Nobody operating in divine wisdom fails. He may have some challenges, but will ultimately break through and reach that destiny.

To follow and fulfil God's plan for our lives, we need to operate in spiritual understanding, that is, learning to interpret things in the light of the Word of God, looking at things from a spiritual perspective and not in the light of how the world sees it.

II. Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing

To walk worthy of the Lord to my mind means to live by faith, to do our work not for what we can benefit out of it, but for the glory of God, for the increase of his kingdom here on earth and for the benefit of others.

We must live a God fearing life, ordering our affairs in the light of the Word.

We need to live like pilgrims here on earth, looking forward to the blessed and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We need to be witnesses wherever God has placed us, for we are ambassadors for Christ.

Our lives should not be about us, about what we can become in this life but about him and what we shall be like when we see him face to face.

III. Being fruitful in every good work.

Note that it says to be fruitful in every good work, meaning everything that we are part of.

We need to be fruitful in our walk with God – knowing God and being part of a church is not enough, being fruitful involves experiencing a quality and peaceful life as a result of our relationship with God.

Fruitful in our studies – as a student you are not to drop out, fail exams or study something that will not impact on your life. Look into your choice of career and only do a course that you sure will benefit you in the future. after school, your life must be seeing to have improved.

Fruitful in your marriage – not just having children but having a relationship that is beneficial to you both. your spouse should be able to say; look what I have become since becoming part of this person, see how I have increased. A fruitful relationship is that which brings increase to the people in it.

Fruitful in your investment – you are to make profit and not suffer loss.

Fruitful in relating with peoples – anybody you meet must be impacted. You are a blessing, an inspiration, a source of joy. The people you meet must remember you for good.

There must be results, good results, in all your endeavours. Your work place must see value in you. Your contribution to your work place must challenging and incomparable. You must make yourself a valued staff and when you leave, you should be missed.

IV. Increasing in the knowledge of God.

You need to keep acquiring Knowledge because knowledge increases your capacity. Your performance and your productivity can be determined by your level of knowledge. You become stale if you don’t continue to retrain and redevelop yourself. Develop yourself both in spiritual things and in the area of your career.

Try to understand how things around you work, don’t just walk in the dark; it will only make you a mediocre. Read books covering different fields of life and not just in the line of your discipline.

Before you embark on anything significant, try to find out as much as there is to know about the thing. Don’t go into anything major, anything that can impact on your entire life if you know so little about it.