A Pathway

The account of the woman with the “issue of blood” in the Scriptures is a story that has never ceased to intrigue me. No matter how many times I read this story I always come away with something fresh. That was a woman with spunk! In her time, a woman who was menstruating was regarded as unclean. According to Lev 15:19-30 anything or anyone she touched in this condition shall be ‘unclean until evening’! This was the reason Laban could not search the tent of his daughter Rachael thoroughly for the household gods he had accused Jacob of stealing. If he had he would have found them because she was the one who stole them. But Rachael sat on these stolen gods and lied that she was menstruating (Gen 31:33-35) No Jewish man in his right mind would go near a woman in her monthly cycle.

As serious as this law was in her time, the woman with the issue of blood was not deterred. She had to see Jesus and that meant stepping out in the midst of people. There was a high probability that she could be stoned to death, but hey, death was already in her body! You cannot threaten a dead man with death! The beckoning of life far out-weighed the threat of death by stoning.

She had bled non-stop for twelve years and she needed a miracle fast or die. All the available medical options had been explored and failed and she progressively got worse. It was at this point that she heard about Jesus Christ and purposed in her heart to see Him for her healing. Life was bleeding out of her body second by second, she was thin and weak but her heart was strong and valiant like a lioness. She stepped out of her sick bed and started on her journey to meet with the great Healer, Jesus.

One problem though, Jesus was always surrounded by large crowds. How would she push her way through? Even some who were strong and healthy were just thronging around Him. But something strange happened. She noticed that every step she took towards the crowd, people drew back because they did not want to be unclean. And that was her breakthrough! Unintentionally, they made a way for her where there seemed to be no way! And suddenly she had a clear path to Jesus, just enough to touch the hem of His garment and she was healed immediately! Whenever divinity comes in contact with faith, there will surely be a miracle!

What is the moral of my narration? That which caused her exclusion from society was what made a way for her to reach the Lord! Do not waste your pain, but ride on it to the Lord. When the people drew away from her they had no idea that their rejection created the pathway for her healing! Many times we are saddened by the mistreatment and snobbery of people, but we fail to see the bright side of the story. We need to understand that man’s rejection is not God’s rejection. Do not try to 'get in' with people who make it a point to exclude you from their circles. Rather invest your time in pleasing God and connecting with Him daily, because when God calls you clean, no man can call you unclean.

Shalom!

Neighbourliness Pt 1

The Watchers

Brother's Keeper

It seems to me that most times people are waiting in hope for our failure than for our success. How do we explain the glee and speed with which they spread our failure stories?

It is common to hear people say “From the beginning, I knew she would fail” or “I knew he was taking a wrong step.” My question is if you knew they were making a mistake, if you knew that the step they were taking would lead to pain and loss why did you not tell them, especially when you were in a position to do so?

Personally, I do not know which is worse to deal with, the failure or people (especially close friends, church members and family) telling me that they knew I was making a mistake or taking a wrong step in the middle of my pain. You knew I was going to fail? You knew I was taking a wrong step? Why didn’t you say something? Why wait until I have failed to share your great wisdom? If you feel so free to tell me now why did you not feel free before?

This needs to change. We have to learn to be our brother’s keeper. Any wisdom you did not share before a person makes a wrong choice should not be shared after the individual fails because the wisdom is useless at that point. You are only making matters worse.

Giving is not all about money. You can give your wisdom. You can share your knowledge. You can give counsel. One strong reason offered by the bible for the destruction of man is ignorance. “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6, NIV). Anyone who commits to sharing godly wisdom and counsel is stopping unwarranted and needless pain.

So this season, I implore us to open our spiritual and physical eyes to watch over those in our circle of influence. There are so many shaky emotions out there this end of the year largely due to unmet goals, desires and dreams. Many may want to medicate their pain with casual sex, drugs, alcohol, uncontrolled partying, speed, food etc. Watch out and give gentle counsel and encouragement. I tell you that you would be saving a soul from destruction and needless pain. I am not saying be a busy body. I am not saying we should poke our noses in other people’s private business, but if we feel free to share our great wisdom after the fact, we should actually try to do so before the fact. They may not take our counsel, but at least God would be privy to the fact that you tried. And you too would sleep peacefully knowing that you made an attempt to save.

Open your eyes. Look around you. Many are disturbed and troubled, but wearing Armani and Gucci labels. Do not be deceived by ‘packaging’. Be prepared to save a soul this season and let us stop watching silently on the sidelines waiting for people to fail.

Complements of the Season!

The Family Altar

Dealing with delays

Grateful Heart

Have you ever felt gratitude well up in your heart? Have you in the course of a seemingly ordinary day felt your heart strings pull with inexplicable gratitude to the living God? I had this experience this morning as I gathered with my family in worship to the Lord. I looked around my sitting room and saw nearly every member of my household in the early hours of the morning worshiping and praising the Lord and I was just so grateful to God.

Some of us take going to church for granted, but there are many locations in the world that this is no longer possible. Even in some regions in our country, Nigeria, Christians can no longer hold formal Church services. These locations are fear ridden because of the oppression and bias against Christians. But we can. Any day of the week, we can worship God, formally and informally. This for me is a reason to be grateful to God.

Our children are in private schools where they lift their hands and bless the Lord at their assembly times. Our toddlers come home from school humming songs of praise and worship to the Lord. Songs they learnt at their schools! This for me is true blessing. Too often we take for granted the very important issues of life and get depressed about minor matters. That we know the Lord is a priceless gift to be grateful for.

Have you seen a spiritually lost man lately? Have you noticed how oblivious and dead they are to the things of God? Have you noticed the fact that they have no conscience in the way they treat other people? Have you noticed how unscrupulous some business men are? That they can do just about anything for money? But you are not like that. Do you know that the fact that you have a working and vibrant conscience means that you will not miss God’s ways and His instructions? You, as a believer do not have a reprobate mind, but the mind of Christ. Is this not worthy of praise and worship? When you catch the revelation of what I am talking about you would bow your heart and knees in worship right where you are!

Anyone can buy a car and build a house. You do not need to be a born again Christian to do that. Look around the world, millionaires are one a dozen! Anyone can be a millionaire. But to be saved and heaven bound, to be a co-heir with Jesus Christ, to have a recreated spirit and be in union with God, this my dear friend, is true blessing and true riches. When you have the mind of Christ there is nothing that you cannot create or have in this world, if that is your desire. But those who truly have this blessing at the end of the day do not really want to inherit the earth for their pleasure alone but for the good of mankind. A great man of God once proclaimed, “I have vowed to be a blessing to mankind till I die” This is coming from one of the richest and leading servants of God in our generation. Some of the greatest faith feats in Africa today were done through him, yet his desire is to continue to be a blessing to mankind! The higher we climb in God, the less important material and financial blessings become because at that height we get to see what is truly important in life and to God. May we get there in Jesus name!

So, to see my family gathered together in worship each morning is a reason for me to be grateful to God. You know why, once upon a time we could not do so. It was a major struggle. We had just too many activities and it was not just practicable much as we desired to, but today God has supplied grace and all those so called activities have taken the back burner and we are able to gather daily to worship the only true God who has given us life and gathered us together as a family. It is a dream come true and an answer to prayers. And so joy and gratitude wells in my heart for this living God who reigns forever more! To some this may be trivial, but to me it is a big deal. As a matter of fact it is the deal of all deals!

To teach and establish my children in the fear of God cannot be compared with any car or house that I may acquire now or in the future. Dear friends, let us track our priorities and when we do we would realize that God has been faithful to us. Be grateful! Peace.

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REFERENCE: All graphics on my blog besides my personal photos are courtesy www.rgbstock.com (rgbstock free stock photos)

Joy is a Choice.

Joy is not a feeling. It is a spiritual force active in the heart of the believer. It is not predicated on the happenings around us. It is constant in all seasons. It is the strength of the believer. Sadness and sorrow is a focus on self. But Joy is a focus on God! Joy stems from a working knowledge that God can never fail.

To live in this realm you must be deliberate in stirring your emotions in the direction of God’s word. Do not let your emotions have a will of their own. Control them! Joy is a decision away from you.

When we think about what we are thinking about we would be able to arrest depressing thoughts and boot them out of our hearts before they take root and become strongholds.

Sadness, depression and discouragement tell the world that our God is small and incapable to deliver, but joy is a shout of testimony to the world that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only true God and that He never fails!

When you choose joy, you choose God. Joy is a choice!

“Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

A merry heart

I Will End Well

Conduct in Austere times

The Watchers

Sometime in February this year, I was at a Pediatric hospital with my daughters and met a commotion! All the medical officers were frantically running from one end to the other. We were kept waiting for an unusual length of time and when I inquired, I was informed that a 2 year old child fell off the first floor balcony of a building! The doctors did all they could to stabilize that child but eventually referred him to the teaching hospital in the city.

Again yesterday, we were at the hospital and met with another emergency that kept us waiting long hours. This time a one year old child was left unattended at home and fell off the second floor balcony of a building! The hospital was teeming with friends and relatives of the family as the doctors worked frantically to save the child’s life!

The question is who was supposed to be watching over these children? Children are a heritage of the Lord. They are a gift and blessing and when we have been entrusted with them we must keenly watch over them spiritually, emotionally and physically.

Watching is an integral part of life that is why we have eyes. Anything of value must be watched over otherwise we may lose it. We must be in full awareness of our physical and spiritual environment. No wonder Jesus instructed His sleepy disciples in Matthew 26:41 to “Watch and pray…” Life must be watched over carefully. But the sad reality is that many pray, but not many watch! This is the reason many of us miss the answers to our prayers. We are expected to watch with our physical and spiritual eyes after praying to discern the move of God in our direction. Someone once said that spiritual things are very slippery. And I agree. If you are not attentive spiritually and physically the blessings of God which are constantly coming towards us as believers may slip by us unnoticed. Also when we walk through life with our eyes closed we would soon enough fall into a pit of trouble! Jesus’ full instruction is, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Matthew 26:41)

Many do not watch in the spirit and so have embraced enemies as friends and antagonized true kingdom friendships. Apostle Paul understood the place of watching, especially with our spiritual eyes that was why he prayed in Ephesians 1:18 “that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened…” When we have these “enlightened” eyes we will see as God sees.

I have come to the realization that many Christians who pray do not actually expect to have answers or if they do they most often than not believe that the answers would take a long time to come! So they never factor in the watching element in prayers. It is common in communication to expect feedback from whoever we are in dialogue with. It is no different with God. That pause in prayers when you give Him room to revert to you is the ‘watching space’ in prayer. Pause and listen to the Lord because He is longing to have a conversation with you.

In Acts chapter 12:1-16, we see a clear illustration of my point. Herod the king had persecuted the early church and killed one of the Apostles. He further locked up the Apostle Peter who was a pillar in the church. Whilst in prison, the church offered fervent and ceaseless prayers to God for his deliverance. God answered that prayer in one of the most supernatural records in the New Testament. Eventually the supernaturally freed Peter got to the house the Church had gathered for prayers and knocked. A young girl named Rhoda heard the knocks and then Peter’s voice! In her excitement, she forgot to open the door for him, but ran into the room where everyone was praying and announced that Peter was at the door! Guess what? Nobody believed her! They practically told her that she was mad! When she insisted that she was not making up the story, they concluded that she may have seen his angel and not Peter! My point is why pray if you are not expecting God to answer? Many of us are like these brethren in Acts Chapter 12. We are full of prayers, but no expectations! Every day of the week, we gather to pray and some of us even hold all night prayer meetings, but our answers do not equal these prayer activities. Why? We are not watching for the answers!

The moral here is that we have to start to balance our prayer activities with the element of watching. The prophet Habakkuk understood this important fact. He said, ”I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what He will say to me” (Habakkuk 2:1) Those who watch are those who are expectant. I implore us today to be expectant and 'open' our eyes. If we do we would be pleasantly surprised how close God has been with us.

Please kindly join me in prayer for the blessed children I earlier mentioned in this article. Pray that the Lord will grant a perfect and supernatural healing without brain damage or physical deformation of any kind! Pray for peace in their homes and come against the spirit of guilt and condemnation that may alight on those who were responsible to watch over them. May the Lord answer us with a mighty deliverance in Jesus name. Amen.

Peace to you in Jesus name. Amen!

Conduct in Austere times

Episode five

The Old Balance Scale

I was recently reading Kenneth E. Hagin’s book, “How You Can Be Led By the Spirit of God” (Legacy Edition, 2006) and came upon a testimony that was recorded in the book. It was about a female missionary on a foreign field who had contracted chicken pox. There was no vaccine at the time and there was a great possibility that she could die if there was no divine intervention. She was then put in isolation so that she would not infect other people. In isolation, she began to pray with all her heart. As she prayed she had a vision and in this vision, she saw an old fashioned balance scale. One side of the scale was labeled “prayer’’ and the other side was labeled “praise”. In the vision she noticed that the side of the scale labeled “prayer” was really stacked high and it sank low because of the load, but the other side labeled “praise” had just a little stack and was raised high up because there was no load on it! Then the Lord said to her, “When your praises equals your prayers you would be healed.” And so this missionary praised God for the next two days with all her heart. It was recorded that she had little or no sleep for those two days. Guess what, she was miraculously healed with no trace of chicken pox, after two days of praise!

Many believers pray, but not many really praise God or thank Him. This may be the reason for some of our delays. God is good whether our prayers are answered or not. But even our ‘unanswered prayers’ do not necessarily mean that they will not be answered tomorrow. We need to develop a thankful and praiseful heart no matter our circumstances. This really pleases God.

However, it is difficult to praise God or be thankful without joy. When you have joy in your heart praising and thanking God becomes a lifestyle. Joy is a fruit of the recreated spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) That is why it is impossible for those who are not born again to have joy. This is the reason for the suicides in the world today. Joy is beyond happiness and mere positive thinking. It is constant in your spirit irrespective of what happens or does not happen. Joy is not a feeling. Joy is the strength the believer needs to draw from the well of salvation. When you allow the devil steal your joy, you have allowed him steal your strength and your praise! So resist him and keep your joy on!

I remember many years ago, I was going through a very fiery trial, the worst in my life to date and I just could not find any reason to be joyful or thankful. I was saved and I loved the Lord, but hanging around me was no fun. I carried around a heavy and depressed spirit. I was always praying but I was a sad believer. Then one day, on a queue in an anointing service in Church, the man of God got to me and laid his hands on me. Then he said, “Sis Ebiye, rejoice in the Lord, but remember that rejoicing is a choice” What he was saying to me was that I need to make the conscious choice to be joyful in spite of what I was going through and until I made that choice I would always carry around a rejected and sad spirit. Thankfully, I eventually made that choice to deliberately rejoice in every situation.

There are so many believers who are not activating the joy of the Lord in their spirit so their balance scale is stacked low on praise.

In Luke chapter 17: 11-19, we read of ten lepers who were healed by Jesus, but only one of them, a stranger returned to thank the Lord and for his trouble was made whole! Praise and thanksgiving are deliberate acts of our will and they have a way of clinching the deal for us. They put the icing on the cake in our kingdom walk and ensure that we are always in the thoughts of God.

Another reason some Christians are prayerful, but joyless is because they are constantly fighting demons. The only fight that the believer is instructed to fight in Scriptures is the fight of faith! (1Tim 6:12) We are not called to fight demons, but to cast them out in the name of Jesus! When we are too demon conscious we would be drained of joy and praise. Jesus has done all the fighting in our behalf, but our responsibility is to fight the fight of faith to enter our rest in Him! And to successfully do so we must read and meditate on the word of God daily because faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.

So let us arise and give the Lord the praise and thanksgiving that is due Him! Let us bless His holy name for we are nothing without Him. He is our God and there is none like Him. He is good and His mercies towards us are new every morning and they endure forever. Hallelujah!

The Good Heart

The Quest For Relevance

One of the quests of man is to be relevant. We all want to be recognized, to be wanted, desired or sought after by people. Sometimes, when we do not have this, we become envious and jealous of those we think are more relevant than us. In offices, people go through lengths to be favoured by their bosses. Some may even resort to lies and backstabbing of fellow colleagues just to be in the good books of their managers. It is no different in the church. The Church ‘fights’ have been the most painful to witness because naively we expect the Church to be a place of refuge, comfort, etc. And yes, ideally it should be. But if man is part of a system, church or otherwise, the ugly head of our imperfections and carnal nature will show up soon enough. When we remember that the Church is like a hospital with sick people at varied levels of healing, we would be more tolerant of some of the issues in Church.

Relevance cannot be attained through fights and carnal struggles because it is a by- product of contribution. When you add value to the lives of people, you will automatically be relevant to them. They will seek you out whenever they have a need or counsel or just a listening ear. They will follow you because they know you care.

Why do you think Jesus is so revered and evokes so much love and worship from humanity? Why is He needed so much, especially in continents like Africa where leadership has failed? It is because He is the only One adding value to our lives. People know that He cares. He saved us from eternal destruction and He is with us even now in our daily lives on earth. He is forever present with us, when we pray, when we are driving in our cars, when we lie down to sleep and when we wake up. He is nearer to our hearts than our best of friends and the most loving and doting of spouses. Jesus is relevant because He is beautiful for all situations. The widows and orphans testify of His love as well as the married and those with parents. Through thick and thin Jesus is forever present, loving and helping us.

We also become relevant when we do what God asks us to do. When you work on His assignment for your life, you will become relevant. All Jesus did was to obey His Father’s call to save mankind from eternal damnation. Was the call easy? No, but He obeyed nevertheless. The love and relevance He enjoys today is the fruit of His love labour. “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2, ESV)

However, relevance should not be the motive for our obedience or contribution to society. We obey and serve because it is what we are called to do and then we allow God to determine how we get paid. Actually, most people who enjoy influence and relevance today were actually surprised when they got it. And because it was not their goal or motivation they are unassuming about it all.

Jesus was so relevant that His followers wanted to make Him an earthly king! What an irony. They wanted to make the King of kings a ‘king’! Learn this truth, most things people offer you when you are relevant have already being provided for by God. This should prevent us from being carried away by gifts and praises. The key is to have a sound knowledge of your call. Jesus understood His call very well and so the deceptive offers that came His way were not a temptation in the least.

A note of caution. Do not seek to be relevant to man, but seek to be relevant to God. Seek to do His will. Seek to go wherever He sends you and do whatever He asks of you. Remain humble as God has no use for proud people. Glory will come. Praises will come, but be careful to return all back to God. Until Jesus finished His earthly ministry He remained relevant to God because He made God, His Father relevant to man in all situations. The moral here is this, if you can make people see God’s place and relevance in their lives, you will always be relevant to God and man.

Shalom!

The Thorny Heart

The Stony Heart

Alone With God

Quite a number of people are afraid to walk alone, but I have come to discover that Christianity is a walk alone with God. Yes, there are collaborations, but it is more of a lone walk with the Master. This fear of walking alone is what has caused many not to live their dreams or fulfill their divine purposes. Yet others have been driven to partner with the wrong sets of people to their pain. Truly, we cannot really be faulted for wanting to ‘click’ or 'belong' with people. It is the way we are wired. We are primarily relational beings. However, when destiny calls we need to learn to separate from the ‘clicks’ to walk alone with God. By walking alone I do not mean living an isolated life. No, that is impossible as no man is an island. We are a sum total of the people we’ve been with and the experiences from those relationships. What I mean is having the courage to identify and own your unique voice, dreams and purpose in God. I have also discovered that the best people to collaborate with are those who have found their uniqueness in God and are confidently walking in that position. These people are strong contributors and they bring much value to the table.

When destiny called on Abraham, he was specifically asked to leave his father’s house to the land that had being prepared for him by God. But Abraham being human had issues disconnecting completely from his extended family. He chose rather to take Lot, his nephew with him. On the surface what he did looked noble. It looked like he was a caring family man, but he was in disobedience. Jehovah God never spoke to him again until he summoned the courage to separate from Lot. His lack of courage in telling the likes of Abimelech that Sarah was his wife stemmed from his fear of walking alone through the shadowy valleys of life. I admire the "woman with the issue of blood" in the Scriptures. This woman bled non-stop for twelve years and was impoverished by this disease. She lost everything she owned trying to get cured, but to no avail. Eventually, she had enough and with her last feeble strength she took the bull by the horns and stepped out to get her healing in Christ. No one escorted her and no one wanted to be seen with her in public as she was ‘unclean’. She could have been stoned to death for daring to step out, but she damned the consequences and walked alone to meet Jesus for her healing.

We all have to come to that place in life where we learn to walk alone. This is a place where we take our destinies in our hands and trust God that it would be well with us. People have their own issues too. How long do we think that friends and family would be around to hold our hands? We have to arise and be strong to take those tough decisions that would propel us forward. When David's people threatened to stone him to death in 1 Samuel 30, it was not a problem for him. Naturally he must have felt hurt that he was blamed for everyone’s misfortune, but he could take it. He was used to being alone with God and so his first thought was to ask Him the way out of the trouble. When you learn to walk alone with God His presence becomes more of a reality than the physical presence of man. Singles, take advantage of your season and learn to walk alone with God. Those who walk well with Him walk well in marriage.

In our present times, a lot of people have resorted to asking friends and family for financial and material support. There is nothing wrong with this, but for how long? If your friend gives you $100 today, will you go back and ask for more tomorrow? If your uncle pays the tuition of your children today, what about next school term, would you go back and ask him to bear that same burden knowing he has his own responsibilities? Whatever hand life deals us we need to summon the courage to seek our individual solutions in God. Seeking help and comfort from man is only going to delay the flow of God’s grace into our lives. God is a jealous God. We cannot trust in Him and trust man at the same time, too. Here is my stand in Christ. If Isaac planted and harvested his way through famine, we can. If Jacob got a revolutionary idea for animal husbandry, we can do better now. Recessions or famines are not designed to impoverish God’s children but to unleash our best potentials. So let us stop running helter - skelter seeking whom to ask for favors. Rather let us make a resolve to quiet our spirit and seek the Lord in fervent prayers. May the Lord guarantee your permanent lifting in Jesus name.

Bible References: Genesis 13: 1-18 Genesis 20: 1-13 Mark 5:25–34; 1 Samuel 30:1-19 Genesis 26: 1-14 Genesis 30:25-43 Genesis 31:1-21