Everything in creation is upheld by the word of God.
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds….Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” – ( Hebrews 1:1-2, 11:3)
Except God says it, it can never be. No demon, witch or wizard can afflict someone if God by His word did not allow them, either through breaking His word (sin) or by God’s sovereign design; this latter, leads to promotion, as in the case of Joseph in the hand of his brothers, Job and his ordeals, Abraham’s descendants in Egypt.
In all, God’s word is “aye and amen”, “upholding all things with the word of His power”.
Learning to trust His word and be anchored in it, is Faith.
In Romans 4:17-22, Abraham was fully persuaded; he was thoroughly convinced!
Being persuaded is to come to the point where one stops doubting, either by putting our education, tradition, connection or achievement, above the word of God. To be persuaded means to stop doubting and start believing; even if you do not understand it!
Like everyone else, Abraham was affected by the gravitational pull and influence of nature. With his ageing body and Sarah’s dead womb, he kept believing! Why? “Because God said!”
He faced the fact that he naturally may not have children. Ahead of him naturally there was no hope. But he “hoped against hope”!
Even if witches, wizards or demons were responsible for their situation, but “because God said”! A life of faith does not look at nature. Abraham did not stagger in unbelief. Why? “Because God said!” The One that created nature said! The One that can reverse the ageing process said! He knew that God would do what He said He would do, so he stayed rooted in the word of God!
It is not just the situations or the circumstances of life but the ONE who is able to do all things! God! What has He said to you? Stick to His word for this is Faith, and this is pleasing to Him.
“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.” – (Hebrews 11:6)
Believe!
We all aspire for greatness and higher heights, even goats do!
But only God can give promotion!
“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1)
Have you ever disagreed with somebody? You have judged! Simply put judging others is saying “you’re wrong and I’m right!”.
Considering then that we disagree with people everyday and in various matters, we judge!
There is a HUGE misinterpretation and misrepresentation of what the Lord said. He was not saying you should not judge people or discriminate between their character, beliefs, and doings as against yours, because we can never be the same! You and I can never agree on every point. Even in a home or marriage, the husband and wife do not always agree, nor do the children agree with all their parents believe. This misunderstanding is the main instrument of “asunder”, separation and divorce.
No, that was not what the Lord meant!
When the Lord said “judge not”, HE simply meant we not using our personal or individual standard to judge others! Note that He was quick to add:
“For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and the measure which ye give, shall be measured to you again.” (Matthew 7:2).
When you disagree with people on the basis of your personal standard, they will also disagree with you! Imagine a man standing on the ceiling of a house – upside down. While people tell him he is upside down, he argues that everyone, not him, is upside down! Such arguments do not end because everyone sees from their personal standard!
In other words, the Lord is saying ”do not use your personal, or individual standard to judge or measure others!” Why? We are imperfect beings and our judgment would be wrong! The verse three of that scripture reminds me of my imperfection:
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thy own eye?” (Matthew 7:3).
So does that mean we do not judge others? No. That would be deadly dangerous as we would accommodate and even emulate all kinds of evil. Because for me to be accepted by you even in my imperfection, I shut my eyes and applaud your evil deeds!?
And everyone would do what is right in their own eyes, giving birth to a lawless society as recorded in the book of Judges.
“In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25).
A lack or absence of a King made people do what they liked! I wouldn’t want you to judge me so I refrain from judging you!
That sounds so much as “don’t judge others”, which we hear of today!
But, thanks be to God, the King is on the throne! Haleluyah!! His Word, not mine, not yours, is our Standard of judgment! His Word, not mine, not yours, holds sway! His Standard, not mine, not yours, should be lifted and upheld! His standard is “righteousness”, which neither you nor I can produce. Husbands, wives, do not judge yourselves with your individual standard. Stick to yor individual standard and you create an “asunder”. Judge only by the Standard of the Lord. What has He said? Do not twist, bend, modify or modernize it! This is His Kingdom!
Yes, beloved, we are permitted to judge!
“And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and JUDGE RIGHTEOUSLY between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.” (Deuteronomy 1:16).
In Christ, we are Kings and the admonition to kings is to judge righteously!
“Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:9).
In Christ, we are spiritual. We have the mind of the King! We know His Word and by His Word we judge!
“But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged by no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But WE have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).
Our judgment, however is to be based on His Standard.
Love cover sins but does not accept them. My judgment of you is not based on my individual standard but on the standard of my King! I love you; but, I am forbidden to accept you! My King’s Standard will not permit me to accept you; I love you nonetheless. My King loves the everyone (John 3:16), but has not accepted them all. He has a condition:
“…..touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you;” (2 Corinthians 6:17).
The “unclean” thing is your standard that you have refused to drop! He loves you and wants to receive you. But you need to drop, deny your individual Will or standard, take up His standard and let His Will be done!
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“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
This is a very dangerous scripture! I call it dangerous because it makes you and I responsible for whatever fortune or misfortune we find ourselves in.
God has a set choice for us and would not because of the free-will He gave us, compel us to follow His way. However, He tells us the consequence of our following our thoughts and desires.
As Christians two kinds of life are open to us:
(i) The Fallow life, and
(ii) The Plowed life.
The Fallow Life.
This is the life that is lived from a heart left fallow, unrefined and uncultivated. This refinement is not about being civilized or of being educated. No! This is of not allowing the heart to be circumcised with the Word of God! As a farmland left fallow and overgrown with weeds, such hearts have been overgrown with thorns and thistles: the cares of this world, the words of philosophy and “what they know naturally”. They do not retain the Word of God and consequently devoid of Life; they reek or overflow with malice, envy, anger, deceit, jealousy, hatred and every vice of the Self-life.
No matter how many times mouths connected to such hearts confess the Word, it profits them nothing! Mouths should speak from the overflowing contents of hearts.
“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” (Matthew 12:34).
The Plowed Life.
A good farmer clears the land of weeds, of unwanted plants. He knows what crops he wants on the land and so removes every other, edible or not.
As spiritual farmers we sow into our hearts.
“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he shall come and reign righteousness upon you.” (Hosea 10:12).
There is a choice of what to sow.
The Plowed life is conscious and careful what he plants in his heart. He guards or keeps his heart so violently that he censors even what his ears hear.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23).
He knows his entire life depends on what he has in his heart and so like Abraham who was asked to leave nation, kindred and father’s house (Gen. 12:1), and like the Levites in the wilderness (Exodus 32:27), he is ready to cut off from friends, neighbours, relatives and colleagues that would want to influence his heart against the Word of God!
Such hearts over-flow with love, temperance, patience, meekness and all other segments of the fruit of the Spirit because of the richness of the in-dwelling Word.
He pulls down everything that may stir up self.
“Casting 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;” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Such a life becomes a candidate of the Life that God promised in Deuteronomy 30:19; and “He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Psalms 24:5).
Beloved, we have been set over kingdoms. Let’s root out, pull down, destroy, and to throw down, their belongings from our hearts, and build, plant (Jeremiah 1:10) therein, what is of God. Let’s not bring what is Caesar’s into the temple of God, so that the prince of this world would not find anything of his in us.
I have chosen the Plowed life. What about you?
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THE BOND
The word “bond” means a force that ties together; a uniting force, something that brings two things and makes them as one.
“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:3).
We are not permitted to operate alone (Gen. 2:18). We need others, in our homes, community and Church.
Despite our differences the Church family, the Holy Spirit has bonded us together.
We are not working to create the bond but like Adam to “keep” or “tend” it. It is already there.
Paul calls us to give every diligence; make every effort; do our best to maintain this “bond of peace”.
HOW DO WE MAINTAIN THIS BOND?
Whether in our homes, community or Church, we need to be:
(1) Humble.
Do not pride yourself over others or run them down, no matter who you are, what you have, where you have been or what you have attained in life.
“Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” (Philippians 2:3).
Yes, you may be better than others, don’t flaunt it!
(2) Gentle.
Do not judge people by outward reasons. There must be a reason why people do what they do! They certainly wouldn’t set out to hurt or offend you. Do not be harsh to them simply because they do not see things your way. Again you need to know we are all prone to making mistakes; even you! Give room for others to make mistakes. That way you’ll not be hard on them.
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
There is some light, something good in people, look for this light and shut your eyes to their mistakes (darkness). Jesus endured Judas this way. People may call your attention to the short-comings of others, remember, no one is perfect and no one is good!
(3) Patient.
An understanding of the above will help you endure with others, patiently as they work on themselves. In overlooking their faults, the capacity to forgive grows in you.
“Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith to him, I say not to thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22).
Your capacity to forgive grows when you learn to be patient with people.
(4) Encouraging.
Maintaining the bond of the Spirit will not be complete without speaking encouraging words to others. Rather than castigate, criticize and condemn, unity is maintained when we speak soft and positive words of encouragement.
“Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
“Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.” (Isaiah 3:10).
In maintaining the bond of the Spirit, do not allow any corrupt word proceed from your mouth but words that would build and edify.
Remember, your duty and mine is to maintain this bond. Let’s think less about ourselves and do all within our power to keep this bond.
You are blessed!
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“Book Me Down!” He told the woman. That had been his language for years. He had become a well known customer in that grocery store; so popular was he that a book was opened for him, to take eventry of everything he purchased and how much he owed.
The woman started to write even before he asked her to and this hurt him especially as people had thought him to be unable to meet his need without going into debt.
The astronomical height of his bill had always surprised him at the end of every month that he could have argued it out had it not been that it was written, and with dates. After settling the old bill, virtually nothing would be left from his salary other than money for paying house rent and the electricity bill. He found himself buying again on credit! A circle he tried to, but could not break. He had prayed and fasted to no avail.
Many are in that vicious circle. A circle of shame that once entered into is difficult to come out. My wife and I were once in that circle. We had taken groceries on credit. At the end of every month, after paying the old bill we went on another circle of credit buying as financially everything would have been used to settle the previous bill. We took up organizing evening lessons to meet up, but the circle continued. We were virtually working for her! Every money that came in ended in her hands!
It was then we learnt that staying out of credit buying does not depend on the size of your income! Rather the more you earn, the more you want! For months this continued to the point we became ashamed and stopped going by her shop.We would go by a longer route so long as the woman does not see us. It got to the extent that when I saw people looking at me or laughing, I felt they knew about my indebtedness and were laughing at me. My ego was greatly punctured as a man.
We developed a deep seated hatred for credit buying and after searching the scriptures one day, we took some far-reaching measures which, today, we thank God for. You can apply these measures too and I know that as you faithfully follow them that circle shall be broken.
(1) Until you hate a thing, you may not break free from it. There will be that tendency of romancing with it “just this last time”. Yet you keep going back to it. We paid half of the bill and pleaded with the woman to give us another month to bring the balance.
(2) Take the step of Faith! The Bible says that without Faith it is impossible to please God. (Heb. 11:6) You do not need ceremonies to stop! Logic will tell you to go gradual but if you hate the shame, you will not go gradual: you will stop suddenly! There will be a temptation to buy “a little” especially when the pangs of hunger threatens. But if you really want a thing, go all out and pay the price.
(3) Discipline your appetite. You will need to discipline your appetite and prayerfully believe God will supply your need. (Phil. 4:19) If it is a need, God knows and will supply it BUT NOT WANT! We ate no pleasant thing, lost some weight, people talked, but we never wavered from our goal, even when it was like God was not responding. We held on and before long we saw His faithfulness
(4) Cut off little spending. An occasional biscuit, sweets, chewing gum, etc. These loose change or coins you think are useless can go a long way to restructure your finance.
(5) Look for alternatives. Meat disappeared from our meal while our intake of beans and vegetables increased. My wife hated beans, but we were resolved on breaking the circle. We grew our own Vegetables. Rather than buy, we began to sell. If it wasn’t necessary, we didn’t buy. If we had to drink tea, we did so without milk.
(6) Cut down on your transportation! Transportation gulps a huge chunk of income.We cut down on visitation. If the place wasn’t important we never spent money going. In some cases we walked lomger distance just to save money.
(7) Buy bulk. Finally we began buying in bulk. It is a lot wiser and more economical buying wholesale.
Today, though we stopped the evening lessons and selling vegetables, we do not buy on credit anymore. And what more, meat, milk, eggs, e.t.c. It was only a matter of time and the circle was broken. And I am convinced it will be broken in your case too. Only, be steadfast. Do not waver, for a double minded man would never receive anything from the Lord. (James 1:6 -7) It may seem an impossible venture, but remember that “With God, all things are possible.” – Matt 19:26
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Agree with His Terms
I remember as kids, my father taking us the entire family on a journey. As kids we did not know the way, but he did. He also knew the reason why we needed to go on that journey, and of course, he knew by what means we would get there, faster, safer. He alone planned the journey; even our mother carried out his instruction.
In the same way God has planned every dispensation of the Church; how and where you fit into it and through Jesus, hands it to the Holy Spirit for execution. He is watching His word for us, individually and corporately, to perform.
“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.” – Jer 29:11 (KJV)
He alone knows the way to eternal life, how we would get there and safer. And to this way and plan, He is committed. He is not executing any other plan or thought, no matter how “holy” looking or beautiful.
Locating His plan and walking by it, is what propels “good success” (Joshua 1:8). Our success as Christians rests on this: discovering His plans for His Church. Not our “spiritual” or “religious” rites. This is the essence of Paul’s prayer in Eph. 1:18 – that our eyes be opened to know God’s plan.
“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” – Eph 1:18 (KJV)
Christianity is not your idea or mine, but His. Until we follow His plan we would fail to rapture.
And this is my fear, that many will fail the rapture because they have formed and fashioned their own way or pattern of Christianity, of worship.
“Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land , they defiled it by their way and by their doings : their way was before me as the uncleanness of a woman in her separation.” – Ezek 36:17 (Darby) Emphasis added
Nadab and Abihu fashioned their own way of worshipping God. (Lev. 10:1-3) They tried to improve on the work of God, to “modernize” His work. But with their families and followers, God killed them! You do not update God’s work; not with the methods of man!
Making the rapture is not dependant upon our preaching, prayer or praises, but upon standing on His plan. Remember, that many would come to Him on that day claiming to have done some “great job” in His name, yet He would deny them? Why? It is not the work you do for the Lord that takes you to heaven but how well you did it His way.
Agree with Him for two cannot walk together (do things together) except they agree.
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