Month: April 2021

[The Glory Unveiled]

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ( James 1:19 )

It is amazing to discover that if you really listen, so much is being spoken. Heaven is always sending out coded messages and keys that we need for life and godliness. But it is difficult or rather impossible to hear someone while you are talking. This crisis is the reason why we are unable to hear the voice of the Father on a daily basis. Apart from the destructive noise in the world, we are always speaking. The world is now driven by the culture of commentary rather than the culture of listening. It is very likely to be caught in the web of anger if one is not a good listener. Many people who got angry at some point later discovered that they could have saved themselves from anger if they had listened well enough. Listening well to people when they speak is a good attitude that help avoid so many dangers. We are admonished to be slow to speak and quick to listen. In listening we increase in knowledge and wisdom. Instead of rushing to talk, let us listen more to people. And most importantly, instead of always talking and asking God for things in prayer, let us go to the presence of God, only to listen and to know the mind of God.

Prayer_Bead: Good Lord, Precious King, thank you for the opportunity to reflect your glory and life. Help me to be slow to speak and swift to listen. In Jesus name, Amen.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. ( James 1:3 )

Everyday there are people who continue to pray and ask for things they will not receive. It seem rather common in our day how such prayers continue to be unanswered. The verse of scripture explains why. Most of us will only pray for certain things because we want God to “shame” some people for us. It is common to hear some people say that “I want God to do this for me so that some people will know that I have a great God.” The scripture says that is a bad motive. Having desires to discomfort other people and make us feel better than them. Motives are very important if our prayers will be answered. God knows our hearts and the secrets of our mind. Before we ask for anything from God, we must align our motives with the word of God and the desires of heaven. Why would you want to be blessed? Is it to impress someone or provoke them to jealousy? Everything exists and is sustained in Christ. Whatever we desire that is not having a bearing on Christ will be rejected by heaven. We are not here to serve our selfish needs but to satisfy the desires of God through our desires.

Prayer_Bead: Impartial Father, Gracious Lord, thank you for your grace. Help me to live selflessly to the benefit of others and your glory.

GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

Now I have heard that you are able to give interpretations and to solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.” ( Daniel 5:16 )

King Belshazzar had seen a writing on the wall of his palace but the writing was mysterious in to him; it was difficult to interpret. He called all the wise men and the magicians of his land to interpret what was written by the hand that appeared like a human hand but none could. At this point the king was very disturbed and terrified because he didn’t know what the mysterious writing was. Alas, his wife remembered Daniel and told the king to send for him. Now, Daniel had a track record of interpreting dreams and solving difficult problems ( verse 12). Daniel would never have been sent for if the magicians had interpreted the writings. It was the inability of the magicians and wisemen to interpret the writings that offered Daniel that golden opportunity to be the third highest in the kingdom. It is the gifts of a man that brings him before kings indeed. Whatever gifts we have must be maximized and until we maximize our gifts and the grace upon our lives, we will not be recognized. There are too many problems in the world seeking solutions but only few people have sharpened their gifts enough to be recognizably useful to others. The world, like king Belshazzar, is looking frantically for solutions, let us align ourselves with God and the world will have no option than to chase after us for solutions.

Prayer_Bead: Glorious King, Omniscient God, thank you for the opportunity to be a solution to my world. Help me not to disappoint you but rather sharpen the gift you gave me through adequate preparation and dependence on you.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.( Ephesians 3:10 )

God has hidden within Himself a mystery that our forefathers in the Lord sought diligently to see. The mystery being that even people that are not Israelites, to whom the promise was made, have become partakers of the inheritance and members of the body of Christ. And to prove this reality, there is the need to display something of God that man does not naturally have in himself. This attribute of God—when displayed, becomes a stamp that says, “these are one with God”—is the wisdom of God. In any case, it is only God who should be able to display His wisdom, but then now we have the mind of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:16) and so we share in the wisdom of God through the connecting tube of grace and truth by the Spirit of God. This grace is the love of God that is shared abroad in our hearts. God’s love, displayed through the conduit of grace and truth in Christ has opportune us to be vessels that will make known what God hid in Himself all these years. And now, we know that this wisdom is displayed by the church; by the unity of the Believers. Our oneness as a body is the power that makes known the glory and wisdom of God. The church is a reflection of God if indeed we remain one in Him. And then we will be able to announce to authorities and rulers what that mystery contains. Let us unite as believers for the expression of the wisdom of God.

Prayer_Bead: Heavenly Father, Gracious Spirit of God, thank you for the wisdom of God that is being made known through the church. Help me to remain aligned to you now and always.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. ( Ephesians 2:10 )

Before a manufacturer begins his/her design process, they are guided by a purpose that the product should serve. And it is this purpose in the mind of the manufacturer that guides the design process and all the individual little details and designs. So that by reason of the purpose of the product in the mind of the designer, before the product is finalized, it is already fully functional and existing in the mind of the designer. Likewise, in Christ Jesus, we were also created to fulfill a particular purpose. And even before we became conscious, God had a well crafted plan for the fulfillment of that purpose. And by reason of this foreknowledge, God knows our end before He created us to fit that purpose. God told Jeremiah, “before you were a clot of blood in your mother’s womb, I knew you.” God was not being idiomatic when He said these things because He is the creator and before He created Jeremiah or anyone of us, He had in mind through Christ, what we should do. This also supposes that we cannot fulfill our purposes independent of God. The surest and most genuine way into purpose is through the door of Christ Jesus. We are God’s handiwork (creation, craft) created with destiny (good works) to bring glory to God. Are you trying to find out what it is that you were created for? Find out from the manufacturer, God. You have a unique purpose, discover it in prayer and the study of the word.

Prayer_Bead: Father, Creator, Lord and sustainer of all things, thank you for the grace to come into the world. Unveil it to me, your purpose for my life, that I may live a life of destiny.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked.
“There is nothing there,” he said.
Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” ( 1 Kings 18:43 )

Elijah had told the people of his time that it will not rain for three and a half years and it didn’t rain for those years. Now the time had come for the rains to fall and the same Elijah who said it will not rain, now needs to pray for the rain to come back. He went up a mountain to pray for the rain to fall. For seven times after prayers, he sent Gehazi to check for the signs that his prayers had been answered but on all six occasions there was nothing. It seem that the heavens was silent. And it seem all his prayers were not been heard at all. For these three occasions, the man of God, Elijah could have given up and concluded that it is not the will of God to allow the rain even though he had prophesied it. Many of us give up close to our time of redemption. But usually, our answers come only when we continue to press even after we are worn out and discouraged. Just as Elijah’s answer came at the seventh check. When we get to that point where we ignore the discouragement of the flesh and the seeming silence of heaven but still press on, we receive answers. When there seems to be no answers, is not a sign that we should give up but rather a voice that says “you’re close!” Keep on pressing. Your answer is closer than when you first started praying about whatever you’ve been praying about. Hold on to the faithfulness of God. He will not give up on His word neither on you. Go back to the place of prayer even when the answers seem to be stalling.

Prayer_Bead: Gracious Father, Faithful God, thank you for the wonderful opportunity to pray to you earnestly. Help me to persist in prayer even as you will honour your words in my life.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. ( 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8 )

The Scripture enjoins us to be holy because God is Holy. The Holy God who is our Father, called us out of impurity to live His life of holiness which was originally resident in us. But the advantage of living in holiness is not only to please God and being like Him, it is also the opportunity to receive the Holy Spirit and to have Him continually in us without grieving Him. Rejecting the instruction to be holy is like rejecting God and everything He represents. All the attributes of God such as; God is holy, God is love, God is kind, God is faithful e.t.c can be experienced and through Christ, only on the basis of holiness. Today, we deceive ourselves that we are the righteousness of God and so we are holy even if we don’t live holy lives. That is a raw lie. Righteousness is a gift as a result of our being grafted into God through Christ but holiness is what we must do as a result of our consecration and separation unto God as a royal priesthood. Our expression of the life of God is on the grounds of holiness otherwise we deceive ourselves and all those we represent. God says He will reject some priests because they reject His law (Hosea 4:6). In our verse of scripture, God says rejecting this instruction of holiness is rejecting God, which is tantamount to God rejecting us as priests. Holiness is a life in us but we must choose to express it to the world for the glory of God.

Prayer_Bead: Holy Father, thank you for the opportunity to share in your life and glorious attitude. Help me to consciously and through the enabling of the Holy Spirit resident in me to live a life of holiness.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ( Genesis 3:4 )

The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life (John 6:63). Spiritual realities are activated by words just as instructions are also issued out in the physical realm by words [written or spoken]. The words of Spirits carry in them the potential to make what they are. When God instructed Adam not to eat of a particular tree, that instruction carry in it the capacity to make real whatever God said would be the consequences. God had said that when man eats of the tree he was not supposed to eat, he will certainly die [Genesis 2:17], but the devil through the serpent says that they will not certainly die [anchor verse]. This was a direct contradiction of the words that were spoken by God. And because God’s word is spirit, God didn’t have to be with man at every point in time to be sure he didn’t do what he was not supposed to do. Instead, in the very moment of disobedience the spirit of the word dealt with man. Whenever we obey spiritual principles or instructions, we submit to the power of that word and we can hence reap from the harvest of that instruction. Likewise, disobedience is also a way of breaking from the safe covering of spiritual realities. God’s word is spirit and so we must be careful who we choose to submit to through obedience.

Prayer_Bead: Glorious King, Lover of my soul, spirit and body, thank you for the grace to submit to the spirit of your word. Glory be to your Holy name for the realities of your blessings.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will. ( Romans 12:2 )

Conformers do not transform and transformers make others conform. Every institution or system has its own tradition and norms. These invisible yet vicious patterns that are woven into the fabric of every system and institution is the underlying factor for the culture of such places. In other words, we cannot really be different from the society that makes us. The world has; built in it, a robust system that when one conforms to, blinds them from knowing God’s will. Our sense of discernment is shut off in this system that the world has created for everything “self” but God. On the other hand, there is also this other realm, though invisible, it has its own culture and system. But for us to be truly influenced by this other realm, we must allow our minds to break from the world’s structures and alluring pleasures. And this can only be accomplished by the renewing of the mind; breaking free from the system that feeds our mind. The old mind must be renewed in the knowledge of God’s word. This Knowledge should be obtained consciously through the study of God’s word. We have the mind of Christ.

Prayer_Bead: Father in my heart, thank you for the grace through your word to renew my mind. Help me not to conform anymore to the world but in transformation of my mind, may I know your will and purposes.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ( Luke 1:35 )

The question that necessitated this response [our anchor verse of Scripture] was one that was asked to find out how something seemingly impossible could happen. In reality, there are certain terrestrial events and activities that only celestial bodies and entities can handle. What Mary needed to know was not necessary who will do what the Angel Gabriel had just said to her in the earlier verses. She wanted to know the approach and method of bringing about that beautiful solution. But instead of telling her “what”, the Angel mentioned a personality that makes the experiences of the invisible realm tangible and visible; the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit encases mortality, immortality is produced and challenges and difficulties become avenues for breeding solutions even through impossible means. But then, if it came from God, it must have the mark of God. God is particular about honour and identity. Anything that came from God carries the identity of God. This is why humans carry the identity of God (image and likeness) because we came from Him. Now we know that our problems are not great, it is the right avenue that is not yet contacted that is why it seem impossible and helpless. So, let us draw from the well of the Holy Spirit. Let us lean on Him for all our needs. And then we will turn around to see no contentions.

Prayer_Bead: Precious Holy Spirit, thank you for your indwelling presence and power. Teach me to depend on you utterly. May your identity remain on me as you continually source my needs.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.