Tag: #ChooseChrist

[The Glory Unveiled]

Holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. ( 1Timothy 1:19 )

Faith is the bedrock of our relationship with God in Christ Jesus. Without which it is impossible to please God (see Hebrews 11:6). But in the ocean of life, our human nature and frailties will need an anchor to attach the ship of our faith to. The apostle Paul teaches that there’s no better anchor than a good conscience. The thing about conscience is that all humans have it; regardless of race or gender, faith or tribe, we all have a conscience. But conscience alone is not enough. What will stand the storms and test of life’s ocean is a good conscience. That not withstanding, a good conscience is not automatic. A conscience becomes good only after it has fraternized with the word of God by the Spirit of regeneration. Without a good conscience our faith, though faith, will suffer shipwreck when the tides become strong and deadly. A good conscience has a voice foreign to the status quo and the current trends of the world. It’s voice is synchronous with the word of God and what the Spirit of God will permit. But the scary thing is that, a good conscience can be rejected just as the Spirit of God can be resisted (rejected). A good conscience can be resisted and rejected through the hardening of hearts and ceasing to hear the good word of God consistently. May we not be counted among them that reject a good conscience and whose faith is heading for an irretrievable loss.

Prayer_Bead: Author and Finisher of our faith, thank you for the wonderful opportunity of your word. May my faith stand the storms of life as you refine my conscience by your word.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded. ( James 4:8 )

The distance between us and God is proportional to the distance between God and us. This means that God is as close to us as we are to Him. The relationship between God and Moses [we would agree] was different from the one between God and the rest of the people of Israel. But why was that? Was God being partial? No, the apostle Peter says in the Acts of the apostles that there is no partiality with God. The only explanation to why God would be closer to one person more than He would be to another is because the earlier person has decided to be closer to God than the later. Just as in any relationship, our relationship with God requires work; consciously committing to the responsibilities that would make the relationship intimate. God is only obliged to draw near to us when we draw near to Him in desperate and exclusive need of Him. God will not share our hearts with another (between two). So it says to the double minded (anyone concentrating on two things or people) to purify their hearts. Once our hearts are properly aligned, our minds will pick up the effect and depend solely on God. God is not far from us, we are rather far from Him. So let us draw near to God and He will draw near to us!

Prayer_Bead: Gracious Lord, loving Father, thank you for your word. Strengthen me to draw near to you. Pitch my heart in your Holy presence and keep my gaze on you.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” ( Joshua 24:15 )

Everyday we are faced with a responsibility we cannot shirk; making choices. Choices are so compelling and mandatory that we cannot avoid them. So that deciding not to decide is a decision. This is why no matter how spiritual we become, wealthy or poor, we will still have that non transferable responsibility of making choices. The Israelites under the leadership of Joshua had to make a very important decision; one that was going to separate them into two distinct groups. The choice of who they were going to serve. Yes, even the Israelites who were (are) the chosen nation of God and the firstborn among nations had to choose to serve God. Serving God wasn’t automatic or imposed on them. They had the opportunity to choose if they wanted to be with God or a god. And then Joshua goes on to make his choice. No matter who we are or what level we are, we daily have to make choices. But to save ourselves a lot of heartaches and pains, it would be better to seek the mind of God in every issue, even the smallest of them all. The Holy Spirit is our guide, meaning He can show us the right way to go [but He will not choose it for us.] Knowing the right thing to do increases our chances of choosing the right thing. As we decide today and everyday who we shall serve through our actions and words, may the Spirit of God guide us.

Prayer_Bead: Jehovah is your name, Mighty Father, thank you for the opportunity to choose to serve you and to live for you. Supply me strength and grace to live for you alone.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. ( 2 Corinthians 2:11 )

Ignorance is a powerful tool in the hand of the devil. Throughout the Bible we see how the devil has been using ignorance to destroy God’s people. In Hosea 4:6, the Bible actually records that God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (ignorance). An athlete can be very good and experienced but a novice will outrun him if that novice is more advantaged. What the devil seeks to do sometimes is not to stop us from praying or the things of God but to add a weight that will disadvantage us in spite of our busyness with the things of God. This is why many believers are busy about the work of God, running up and down but not effective. Ignorance of the devices of the enemy gives the devil an undue advantage. Imagine having to fight with someone whose battle strategies and ammunitions you do not know. How are you going to fight that battle successfully? Yes, it is true that we are not exactly fighting with the devil but claiming the victory of Christ for ourselves through faith in His finished works. But it is also true that ignorance of the schemes of the enemy puts one in a very compromising situation because it delays our experience of these realities we claim by faith—we would shout or sing of the truth of Jesus’ works and yet not experientially partake in it. So how do we know the devices of the enemy? The word of God exposes the devil, his lies and his schemes. So we become aware of his schemes in the word of God. Let us study the word to show ourselves approved and placed in advantage.

Prayer_Bead: Alpha and Omega, Father of all spirits, thank you for exposing the devices of the devil through your word. And by your word, let your glory be seen through me.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. ( Acts 1:14 )

Many visions and goals could not see the light of day and the euphoria of fulfillment because of a lack of the word, “consistency”. Mastery and quality is achieved through consistently doing a particular thing. Consistency refines anything you define and are intentional about. The head of our government and our Lord Jesus, while on earth invented a pattern that His disciples at the time couldn’t imitate so well. It was written about Christ Jesus how he daily went out early before dawn to pray. He did it constantly; the prove was evident in His ministry through the constant miracles and healings. There was nothing to argue about the results Jesus’ consistency yielded. In our anchor verse of scripture, all the disciples had come together to pray, not occasionally but constantly. And we see the results of their consistency when the Holy Spirit decided to pay them a visit on the day set apart as Pentecost. Beloved, if there is anything and any area of our lives we need to maintain the word “consistency” in, it would be in the area of our prayer life. Prayer connects us to God and all that God is and has. Without prayer, we become unaware of the current affairs and events of the kingdom.

Prayer_Bead: Awesome God, Mighty Lord, thank you for the grace to be constant in prayer and relentless in the study of the word. Fan ablaze in me, a desire to know you more.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. ( Genesis 25:40 )

Everyday, many life altering decisions are made on the altar of circumstances. And usually as a result of these circumstances, most of the decisions are not objectively made. The wrong decisions made under the wrong circumstances could have been the best decisions for the moment under the right circumstances. Sometimes your breakthrough and best testimonies are only a breath away from enduring that circumstance. Saul should have waited for Samuel to come and perform the rites but he attended to what he shouldn’t attend to because of circumstances (see 1Samuel 13:8-13). Esau gave up his birthright at the beck and call of discomforting circumstance. He sold his destiny cheap, in the market of circumstances. Imagine what would have happened if we endured a little more  even though circumstances seem to be against us. Joseph’s life stories paint a beautiful picture of what happens when we refuse to make a theory or a doctrine from our experiences [that become blockade to our breakthroughs]. Instead of building walls around our lives because of our experiences, we should rather just learn from them. So that whatever the circumstances may be, we will not sell our destiny to Jacob!

Prayer_Bead: Jehovah Jireh, thank you for my life and the trail it’s making in the sand of time. Thank you for the grace not to sell my destiny cheap because of circumstances uncomfortable to me.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? ( 2 Corinthians 2:16 )

The wise win souls. Soul winning is a task that demands spiritual sensitivity and wisdom. Anyone who has dealt with humans would agree that, it is a very demanding venture. The apostle Paul says that the nature of the work of ministry demands duality of some sort. So that to one we are the smell of death, our words and messages would bring death to some people if they become aware of the truth and yet denounce or deny the Lord as their Saviour. While our message of the good news will bring salvation to others—-sweet fragrance of life. The kingdom mandate of every redeemed person is to set themselves as vehicles with which God could reach the unsaved. It is then become a responsibility of all believers to go out into the world to preach the gospel of the kingdom and to invite people into the kingdom of God. The labour is indeed plenteous but the laborers are few. No one can have faith except they have received the word. They cannot receive the word unless it is preached and it cannot be preached unless there is a preacher to preach to them. Are you equal to this task of love; labouring in love for others to also see and receive the light of salvation? Tell someone about the love of God today.

Prayer_Bead: Lord of the harvest, lover of all souls, thank you for this mandate and commission to do what you would do and to labour for as many people as your grace will permit.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[The Glory Unveiled]

I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ( Romans 6:19 )

Nothing “dilutes” the truth of God’s word like our human limitations. Could the apostle have been talking about something deeper and wider than slaves and slave masters? Certainly yes. But in order to get it to the people of Rome, he had to tone it down for them. The people could not have received what he was saying if he had said it as the revelation was given to him. Dwelling in the realm of the flesh limits the reception of our spirits and disrupts the flow of the spirit among us. The realm of the flesh is not our dwelling place. Anyone who dwells there does so to their own disadvantage because they would benefit less than they would if they switch to the realm of God. No one can receive from the Spirit of God, except by the Spirit of God. In the same vein when spiritual truth is communicated, one must be in that realm to have the ability to decode what is conveyed. The apostle Paul says we should offer ourselves to righteousness in such a way that we have no rights of our own but the rights of righteousness which leads to holiness. Becoming the slave of someone means ceasing to live for oneself. At the point anyone becomes a slave, that moment forward, they cease to have their own agenda and goals but the goals of their master and to please that master whoever they may be. Jesus would say His food is to do the will (righteousness) of His father and He did all His life because He had the spirit of God in Him. We can only become slaves of righteousness by the Spirit of God.

Prayer_Bead: Sovereign Lord, Owner and master of my life, thank you for the grace to open up to your ways and your will. I enroll in the school of righteousness by your Holy Spirit.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

[ The Glory Unveiled ]

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. [ Proverbs 1:10 ]

There are so many things in the world today that seek to entice us and to draw us far away from the plan of God for us. Many of us have been lured by the bait of the desires of the flesh or the pride of life. You see, if the devil does not entice you, he cannot enter you. The only access of the devil to anyone is enticement; toying with your desires for the things that are temporary. But the truth is that, anything the devil is able to attract you with, he is also able to distract your destiny with. If that is the case we need to re-examine the things that are attracted to us but are not the will of God for us. When the devil attracted Eve to the forbidden tree, he also distracted her from her true eternal destiny, unknown to her. But another noteworthy thing is the fact that, being enticed is not exactly equal to iniquity or sin. The problem arises from consenting to the enticement. So the Psalmist advices his son not to consent to the enticement of sinners. Because once they consent, they are in the devil’s web. The solution to the challenges of enticement to sin therefore is being resolute in the word of God and refusing to consent to whatever urge or desires that are contrary to God’s word.

Prayer_Bead: Awesome father, Omnipotent King, thank you for teaching me the secret to not falling prey to the devil and his schemes. I pray for more grace to stand firm in your word and your love.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.