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