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

The Heart Without Understanding