tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2009-11-08:/Applying Gods perspective to every day living.MokoFeed2009-11-08T18:40:25+01:00tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-05-31:/2007/05/31/lessons_from_abraham~2368347/seyekeye2007-05-31T17:22:02+02:002007-05-31T17:22:02+02:00 <p>When the name Abraham is mentioned, the Abraham of the bible that is, one thing that comes to mind immediately is the word faith, he was the one God started a whole new generation with, all because he dared to believe, in fact he is called “The father of Faith”, I have often studied his story from the old testament and its one of the most remarkable stories ever written, for a man that old to completely trust in God even when everything around him contradicted what God said is awesome. The question I have often found myself asking is this, is it that this guy was just a special being and his kind of faith cant be found around here anymore or is it possible to take a critical look at his life and glean a few working principles that could work for anybody who is as determined to take Gods word literarily? I have come to realize that getting things done by faith isn’t the exclusive reserve of anybody, Abraham inclusive, but we as Christians can all make use of the principles he put into operation and get the exact same results he did, that for me was very comforting and it reminded me that its never about a human, its always about God, all He requires is believing Him to the letter and when He finds a man or a woman who satisfies this simple requirement, there’s no telling what He can do with such a person.</p> <p>I find the principles Abraham employed to great effect outlined so eloquently by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul in Rom 4:19 -22, this verses are filled with divine wisdom and we’ll outline them one after the other, it says, And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God: And being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform: And therefore it was imputed to Him for righteousness. </p> <p>What a scripture, only the Spirit of God could have compressed the lifetime of a man into these few verses and still not miss out on the significant details which anybody can utilize in order to walk with God and get the same results as Abraham did, vs. 19 gives us an insight into Abrahams lifestyle and how he deal with his thought life, it says, he considered not, these three words carry the key to whether we win or lose in the affairs of life, I often say that success isn’t just about knowing what to do, it also involves first and foremost knowing what not to do, it says here that he wasn’t mindful or to put it in modern terms, he didn’t even think about it, what was it that he didn’t consider, his dead body and the deadness of his wife's womb, the very things that were critical to him having the son God promised, these things stared at him in the face every single day and night and yet he didn’t think they were big deals, never in recorded history at this time had anybody his age who had been barren ever given birth, the odds were stacked against him and even at that, he didn’t give it much thought, is it any surprise the bible said he showed no weakness in faith No wonder Rom 8: 5,6 says, For they that are after the flesh do mind (consider) the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit: For to be carnally minded is death and to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Emphasis mine. And its so easy to determine the things of the flesh and the things of the spirit, Jesus said in Jn 6:63, It is the spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.</p> <p>My question is what had God told you about your life and destiny, and what are the things of the flesh that negate His spoken word? It doesn’t matter who has said it, do not give them a second thought, don’t let your mind be full of them, they will only lead you to doubt the fact that God is able to do it, so that’s the first thing we learn from his life, what you think about, or in this case don’t think about goes a long way in determining your strength or weakness as far as faith is concerned.</p> <p>In vs. 20 we find another attitude he showed in obtaining Gods promise for his life, he staggered not, once you focus on the promise unbelief has no place in your heart, the promise thus becomes the sure foundation upon which you build your very life, some people say they find it hard to get rid of unbelief, that’s because they have spent their entire lives focusing on something else but the promise, thereby building on a shaky foundation, no wonder they are being tossed here and there and have little or no stability, having talked about what he didn’t do in , in the latter part of this verse, we find something he did which characterizes the life of everybody that’s strong in faith, giving glory to God, someone asks, how is it possible to give glory and worship God when I haven’t seen any manifestation? If what you claim to possess is the real faith that’s birthed by Gods word, you will rejoice even when you haven’t seen anything in the physical, 1 Pet 1:8 says, Whom having not seen, ye love, in whom though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. That’s what real belief does, there’s a joy in you that cant be explained and doesn’t have any bearing with what's going on in the outside, it comes from the depths of your heart and a knowing that if He has said it, He will surely bring it to pass. </p> <p>Finally in vs. 21 he reaches appoint where he is fully persuaded, as far as he was concerned he had reached a place in God where it really didn’t matter anymore if all permutations in the physical realm didn’t gel, God will still do what He said He would, it’s the point of saying what Rom 3:4a says, God forbid, yea, let God be true but every man a liar. It’s the point Paul talked about in 2 Tim 1:12, For the which cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. The Holy Spirit told me that’s the point where most Christians don’t get to before they give up and say may be its not meant to be, that’s the proverbial point of no return when absolute trust in God isn’t in doubt.</p> <p>There is a progression here, it starts with the thought and now there’s an action to back the thought and an attitude to go with it, then comes vs. 22 where God imputed righteousness, here’s God saying these fellow has right standing with me and I have no choice but to confirm the spoken word with signs following, if it worked for Abraham it will work for any child of God in this new covenant, where we don even have to labor for righteousness, all we need do is believe and accept the price that Christ paid for us on the cross, that’s why it says in vs. 23,24, Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him: But also for us, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. God bless you</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/05/31/lessons_from_abraham~2368347/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-05-24:/2007/05/24/trust_and_obey~2324983/seyekeye2007-05-24T10:41:35+02:002007-05-24T10:41:35+02:00 <p>Gods word is filled with all kinds of promises and blessings for His people, its amazing how many times God spoke His will into the lives of the various personalities who had personal encounters and relationships with Him, and sometimes this blessings weren’t limited to just individuals, as was in the case of Abraham, through him, whole generations would be blessed. In both the old and new covenant, we find examples and warnings, both sides of the scenario, some hearkened to Gods directive and in doing so received His blessing, while others somehow failed to do what He told them to do, and thus missed the blessing of victorious living, the underlining difference in both cases is the word obedience, but the question is, what was responsible for some to obtain a good report while others lost out? Why were people’s attitudes to Gods instruction contrasting, even though sometimes they heard the same words and had the same opportunities, yet the results were as far apart as day and night? I have often said the things of God do not happen to people automatically, its not like a cold or a seizure, you have to believe for them for you to obtain, Heb 4:2 says, For unto us was the word preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. This says, it’s the same word but the way men apply it to their lives differ significantly, and its in the application that the spoken word finds expression in individual lives, faith or belief is essential to the working of the word, and there’s no other way to show faith than by taking the necessary action, that’s true obedience.</p> <p>People have written all various things on the subject of belief and obedience, and its not my objective in this article to focus on that, it’s the process we go through from hearing to acting that’s my main concern here, everyday experiences with humans has made me realize that, before we heed anybodies advice on whatever issue we are facing, there must first be an element of trust, if I don’t trust you as a person I don’t care how much experience you have on that particular issue, I wont take your advice, the person always comes before the principle, the man before the message, and it’s the same thing in our relationship with God, most people haven’t gotten to the level where they can totally trust God, hence they find it difficult to take hold of His word to the point of absolute obedience, Ps 20:7 says, Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. The psalmist here says, the name that comes first into your thoughts when you are engaged in warfare or battle is the one in whom your trust is, and he says, as for Him, it’s the name of the Lord, which means, in God he trusts. Ps 21:7 reveals this truth, it says, The king (David) trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the most high he shall not be moved. Emphasis Mine. No wonder Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived wrote in Prov 3:5, 6, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on thine own understanding: In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.</p> <p>We cant overemphasize the effect of trusting in Gods faithfulness to come through for us on our ability to obey Him, how then do we get to trust Him, again I take a cue from experiences with fellow humans, before you reach a point where you can say you trust someone, you must really get to know the person, I hear someone say, wait a minute, I know God, I mean, I am born again and Spirit filled, in fact I have been born again for 25 years, but I still cant come to grasp with fully obeying Him, guess what? If you really knew Him, obeying Him wont be an issue, a lot of people have met Jesus but haven’t taken time out to really know Him, when you take time out to know Him in the very sense of the word, I mean when you really have experiential knowledge of Him, His instructions will be the very life blood of your life and destiny, that was the difference between Moses and the children of Israel, Ps 103:7 says, He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. His ways are higher than His acts, once you know His ways, its inevitable you’ll have a handle on His acts, but unfortunately most Christians consider His ways an absolute waste of time, they’ll rather have someone lay hands on them to receive their healing than take time out to get to study His word, meditate on it, plant that seed in their hearts until they see a harvest of healing, how sad. Ps 10:9a drives this point straight home, it says, And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee; Absolute trust comes only from knowing Him personally not just depending on what the preacher or television evangelist says, because that person wont be with you all the time but Gods word and the Holy Spirit will, it make sense to find him out for yourself.</p> <p>How then do we know Him, is there something we have to do in order to really say we have a good knowledge of this great God we serve? Yes there is and its called seeking after Him, for you to get to know Him you must seek Him, Jesus said in Mt 7:7, seek and ye shall find; this is one of the most instructive statements in the new testament, you must go seeking, go searching, you must take time to study the word, meditate on it, read any material that comes your way that points to knowing God more, that way you can be rest assured that you cant lose, once you know the one who has everything in His hands, your life and destiny is guaranteed, Ps 9:10 says, And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee, for thou Lord has not forsaken them that seek thee. Because most people aren’t seeking Him, when God finds one person that’s sincere in His heart to really seek Him, He has no other option but to reveal and manifest Himself to that individual. Deut 4:29 says, Thou shall seek the Lord thy God, thou shall find Him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. No wonder David charged Solomon when He was about to die in 1Chr 28:9 saying, And thou Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all imaginations of the thoughts; if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee, but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off forever. Prov 8:17b says, And those that seek me early shall find me. Is 55:6 says, Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near. Make up your mind today to take this little steps I have outlined here; seek Him, Know Him, Trust Him, and then obeying Him will become second nature to you, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/05/24/trust_and_obey~2324983/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-05-24:/2007/05/24/god_s_perspective_see_like_he_does_for_a~2324964/seyekeye2007-05-24T10:38:26+02:002007-05-24T10:38:26+02:00 <p>In a previous article I had hinted a little bit about the benefit of getting to see things the way God sees them and the making use of the help of the Holy Spirit to see into the realm of the supernatural, thereby bringing into existence things that were hitherto not visible, Apostle Peter was quoting prophet Joel in Acts 2:16-18 it says, But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and in my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. One of the advantages of being filled with the Holy Spirit is the ability to see visions and by Gods help capture yet unseen realities before any body else does, when we see the way God sees then our perspectives to issues will undergo a rapid transformation, we will then be sons of our father indeed.</p> <p>One of my favorite examples in the bible concerning seeing the way God does in from the book of 2 Kings 3, it tells the story of the king of Israel and Judah along with the king of Edom going to battle against the king of Moab, they went out in the open field and for seven days couldn’t find water both for the entire army and their animals, Jehoshaphat king of Judah made a suggestion to go inquire from the Lord on the way out of this predicament, the three kings along with their entire armies came to Elisha the prophet of God, after Gods hand came on him, the words he uttered are found in verse 16-19, it says, And he said, thus saith the Lord, make this valley full of ditches: For thus saith the Lord, ye shall not see wind neither shall ye see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye and your cattle and your beasts: And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord, He will deliver the Moabites also into your hands: And ye shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city and shall fell every good tree and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones. What an amazing insight, victory was won just because someone could see the way God saw, its remarkable how often we think our problems are the greatest things in the world and we act as if there’s no way out when we are faced with certain challenges, yes its true, there’s really no way out when we try to do things with our physical abilities, we must realize we are more than physical beings, there’s a spirit part to us, and that’s the part with which we communicate with God, these three kings were doomed, but for the word of God on the lips of someone whose perspective was totally different from every body else, someone who could reach into the unseen world and proffer a life saving solution, when you see things differently you’ll speak differently, Elisha said, “this is a light thing in the sight of God”, fantastic, in the sight of men (3 kings), it was a crises situation, major big deal, in fact one of them, the king of Israel said in vs. 10, Alas, the Lord hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. That was all he could see; death, destruction and chaos, no wonder he couldn’t speak otherwise.</p> <p>I don’t care whatever your situation might be, no matter what the doctors, banker or lawyer might have said, as a child of God whenever you come across a trying situation, all you need do is get Gods perspective on that particular issue, you’ll be shocked that God has a thousand and one ways out of that difficult circumstance, what you thought was a major issue might just be a stepping stone unto something greater, in this passage, provision of water was just a stepping stone, the real issue was war with Moab, that’s why the prophet said, the deliverance of Moab into your hands is a done deal as well, he now proceeded to give them the strategy of victory over their enemies, I don’t know about you, I’d rather win my battles this way, with Gods divine insight and ability than struggle through life not being sure of victory. Christ purchased victory over every single power of the enemy on our behalf, but it’s our duty to believe and yield ourselves to the instructions of the Spirit.</p> <p>David said in Ps 34:5, They looked unto Him and they were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. There’s so much insight contained in this little verse, setting your eyes on Him is a critical factor in getting His perspective, as humans, what we see on a consistent basis eventually enters our hearts and lives, setting our eyes on Him just means always looking into the perfect law of liberty which is His word, if that’s what you look at, guess what? You cant see defeat but victory, you cant see sickness but health, you cant see poverty but wealth, you cant see weakness but strength, what happens to you is that it says you get lightened, you’ll get illuminated, you’ll begin to see things the way He sees it, and sooner than later you’ll begin to get the kinds of results that He gets, instead of shame what you’ll get his honor, Ps 119:105 says, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Gods word literarily shows us what to do in difficult situations, Ps 19:8 says, The statutes of the Lord is are right, rejoicing the heart, the command of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes. Once the eyes of our understanding are enlightened like Paul prayed for the church in Ephesians 1, then we will be able to access all that God has in store for us, it’s a process we need to stay with until we see the desired results, once we see it then we can become it, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/05/24/god_s_perspective_see_like_he_does_for_a~2324964/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-05-15:/2007/05/15/faith_hope_and_expectation~2274412/seyekeye2007-05-15T14:50:25+02:002007-05-15T14:50:25+02:00 <p>The importance of words to the overall well being of the total man (spirit, soul and body) cannot be overemphasized, we have an understanding from scriptures (Heb 11:3) that everything we can see on the earth right now was created out of something that cant be seen and that’s words, the word of God to be precise, Almighty God even made it abundantly clear that as far as He is concerned He givers more honor, respect, credit or privilege to His words more than He does to His name, well, if you have an understanding of how wonderful His name is and the outstanding things people have accomplished by calling on His name, you’ll know that its no mean statement the honor reserved for His words.</p> <p>To show how significant His word is, the scriptures in Jn 1:1,14a refers to the Son of God (Jesus) as the word of God, it says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God: And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. It was the spoken word that literarily entered in to the virgin girl called Mary that became the Lord Jesus Christ, the Greek word that’s translated as word often times in the new testament is the word “sperma” from which we get the English word sperm, which is the seed that fertilizes the egg in a woman before conception is possible, in other words, if you want any thing to become flesh, guess what? You’ve got to get the right seed and make sure you plant it in your heart and nourish it until you see a manifestation, no wonder He said in Jn 6:63, The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.</p> <p>This article isn’t essentially about how you can get the word of God working in your life, I have other articles that deal with that subject, but the main thought I want to pass across here is that Gods word always birth three things in our hearts, faith, hope and expectation, and if what you hear, I don’t care from where, even if its from the number one authority in that field of endeavor, doesn’t get you excited to the point where you feel you can move mountains, then its not the truth; real truth from God will always make you feel bring it on, no matter the situation His word will come to pass in my life.</p> <p>I have had a few troubling situations since I got turned on to God word a few months ago, and every single time its as if the facts were stacked against me, and there was no way out of that difficulty, but again every single time without exception I have always found succor in what Gods word says, its as if the evil one always comes a little too late, I have taken Gods word as my own reality, so whenever a depressing thought arises based on realities of the flesh I simply switch over into the realm of the spiritual, which is the realm where Gods word is final and declare the words that God has spoken over my life.</p> <p>For example I had a financial need that was very urgent come up a while back and it seemed that for once I was going to lose my believe in the God that called me to do what I am doing right now, I was about to be ashamed and embarrassed, people were making insinuations about me being able to make good on my word, but the Spirit of God reminded me of a passage He had me meditate on a few months back in Ps 37:18,19, it says The Lord knoweth the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever: They shall not be ashamed in the evil time and in the day of famine they shall be satisfied. I was excited after reading it, it opened a new door to greater believe and hope in Gods ability in my life, for me that’s the best way to tackle negative information, not just speaking mere words from our head in to the air, but putting Gods word on our lips and before long we will start getting the same kind of results that He gets.</p> <p>A few weeks ago I got a mail from someone close to me about a need that had to be met urgently, and this was when I had really gotten into the word thing, I suddenly found out that it was as if Gods word had made me immune to worry, anxiety and depression, I mean I was trying really hard to be concerned about this issue, but I just found out that, several months of meditating on the truths of Gods word has just hardened my heart towards any negative influence and had tuned me on to heavens frequency, I could stay calm even in the midst of trouble and all hell breaking loose, this was a revelation to me and I owe it all to the power of the Holy Spirit, He showed me 2 Kings 3:18 a few hours later and it really got me all excited, it says, And this is but a light thing (simple matter) in the sight of the Lord, He will deliver the Moabites also into your hand. Emphasis mine. Powerful stuff, I had to take this as God speaking to me directly, I see no other way of interpreting this, it was a word in due season, whatever the situation might be, its little in Gods sight, just see like He sees and get an instruction from Him and you’ll be fine, I don’t know about you, may be I am weird or something, this are the kinds of things that just gets my adrenaline pumping, it shows me in very clear terms that God loves me so much, He speaks into my situations, and that’s how I solve issues that arise in my life.</p> <p>Believe me brothers and sisters, it works, it really does, no matter the kind of news you’ve received that seemed to break you down and you feel you cant take it any more, God has a word for you that will birth faith, hope and expectation into your life, that’s why He gave us His word in the first place, He knows the enemy will bring certain circumstances to play in our lives, as long as we are on the earth we cant run away from this truth, wisdom simply tells us that instead of crying and uttering those statement we usually speak forth, why not put His words on your lips and see yourself rise and soar like an eagle even in the face of the most terrible storms, it will take you spending time with the word, meditating on it to the point where it births new thoughts in your spirit, it will also take time, but believe me its worth every single bit of it, the results will transform your life and that of those around you, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/05/15/faith_hope_and_expectation~2274412/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-05-15:/2007/05/15/what_if~2274392/seyekeye2007-05-15T14:48:32+02:002007-05-15T14:48:32+02:00 <p>I have often thought about what the real essence of being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is, and the more I think about it and look at the lives of various men who have walked with God in the scriptures, the more I am convinced that we modern day Pentecostals have taken our focus away from the real thing and concentrated on fleeting and ephemeral things and Paul’s charge to the Corinthian church in 2 Cor 4:18 thus becomes of utmost importance, it says, While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Paul isn’t saying the things that we can see are not important, no, what he’s saying is we cant live our lives the way the heathen do, for them if they cant see, taste, hear, smell and feel it then it doesn’t exist, and it makes no sense to them, but we as Christians live by a higher and better law, it’s the law of the kingdom, the same law that God used when He spoke this world in to being, its from this realm that the really important things take shape and find expression.</p> <p>This article is borne out of a strong feeling that most people who claim to serve or worship God these days are very vain in their estimation of God, as far as they are concerned, if its God it has to be good and desirable and always positive, but in my study of scriptures I have found out that its not every time that palatable things are synonymous with service to God, don’t get me wrong here, I believe with all my heart that we are expected to enjoy the good life here on earth even before we cross over into eternity with the Lord, but I look around and I see Christians who cant even endure the slightest hardship, the adversary only has to harass them only a little before God loses them to other pursuits and I marvel and wonder what the apostles and saints who have gone ahead of us think when they see what we have turned the cause of the Kingdom into, 2 Tim 1:12 says, For the which cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against the day. Apostle Paul is saying here that, if suffering a few things is part of the deal, if I must go through these things so as to fulfill the call, I am willing, I am not in these just for the good, I understand that there will be times of hardship but its all part of the territory, these is something most people aren’t willing to accept, even Jesus said, “in this world you will suffer persecution”, why?, because we are not of the world.</p> <p>In chapter 2 of the same book, and vs. 3, it says, Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ. Endurance, long suffering, patience and being able to take the pain is part of the attributes of a good Christian, and as we all know are fruits of the Spirit, vs. 10s says, Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sake, same concept he talked about earlier on, why would he keep repeating this same things by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? its because its important that we get it, Hebrews 11 is a popular chapter in the bible because it chronicles what mortal men achieved through faith in their God, but I see a sharp twist in the application of faith from vs. 35b, it says, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered in sheep skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented: Of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth; And these all having a good report through faith, received not the promise. It says they had a good report through faith, this isn’t the definition of faith I hear being preached these days, this sounds like something from a horror movie, you mean sometimes as far as God is concerned He looks at our afflictions and He sees the real meaning of faith, awesome.</p> <p>I see a perfect application of the things we are discussing here in a lot of scriptural real life situations, the example of Job for one, where he said, “Even if He slays me in Him will I trust”, Esther on the other hand made a profound statement when she said, “If I perish I perish”, but the example that really caught my attention was that of the three Hebrew children in exile in the land of Babylon, their story is found in Dan 3, the whole chapter gives the background to the event and is very instructional but my<br> emphasis is on vs. 16-18, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter: If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He is able to deliver us out of thine hand, O king: But if not (If it means paying with our very lives), be it know unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods not worship the golden image which thou has set up. Emphasis mine. What they were saying in essence was, we believe in the ability of our God to deliver us from your hand, He is the one who delivered our fathers from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, He led our fathers through the wilderness for forty years, and they didn’t hunger or thirst, He was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, He chased out nations greater and mightier than they and set them up in their lands, if He did all these great things, then we have full assurance that He will also deliver us from this fire, this was a great speech of faith and trust in the God of the heaven and earth, God obviously had enough credit with these guys, but they didn’t end here, they went further to say, peradventure there is no hope of deliverance from Him, perhaps this once, may be He decides to forsake and abandon us, may be He’s rejected us because we have trespassed against Him one way or another and He will not save us, it has no bearing on our response to you O king, because bowing down will mean going against the law of God which says you shall serve only the Lord your God and He alone should you bow down to, hence bowing for a graven image is not an option, we will rather burn than bow. So for them it wasn’t all about being delivered by God, it was more about obeying Him against all odds, that’s the level God wants all His children to get, where we serve and follow Him not just because of what He’s done or can do, but because we were created for just one thing, to bring glory to Him, in whatever situation we find ourselves.</p> <p>Where am I going with this line of thought, someone may ask, and why the title what if? My question is, what if God doesn’t come through for you in that situation will you still follow Him? What if you don’t get that job you have prayed and believed for and even given a testimony for as a proof of your faith, will you still serve Him? What if your wife doesn’t have a child after 5 years of marriage will He still be your God and will you still be His child? What if haven prayed for a loved one who is sick, the person gets worse and eventually dies, will you still believe that by His striped we are healed? What if you lose your job, your house, your spouse, your kids, your respect and even your reputation in the society will you still put your absolute trust in Him? What if you suffer for being a Christian and your very life is at stake will you still think He is the Almighty God? What if faith stops working and there is no hope of you ever getting an answered prayer and you have to get things done with your own effort and power, will living for Him still be an attraction to you? Finally, what if there was no assurance of whether or not there’s a heaven or hell and it doesn’t matter how you live your life here, once you are dead its over and done with, will there still be a desire in you to please Him? </p> <p>Tough questions, I believe our response to this line of thought will prove a lot in our sincerity with our walk with Him and will help us in re-ordering our priorities as believers, the next time you think you aren’t exactly getting what you think you desire or deserve from God, before you say or do anything rash, remember WHAT IF?, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/05/15/what_if~2274392/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-05-15:/2007/05/15/answered_prayer_vs_word_confirmation~2274382/seyekeye2007-05-15T14:46:37+02:002007-05-15T14:46:37+02:00 <p>One of the most audacious statements Jesus made, in my opinion, while He walked the earth is found in Mt 7:7,8, Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. What a bold statement, vs. 8 especially declares that everyone who asks, seeks or knocks will get their due, sorry, what does everyone mean? It means exactly that, everyone with the exception of no one, interesting, but wait a minute, I have heard a lot of followers of Christ complain of unanswered prayers, I have had times in my life as well when I felt I didn’t get answers to my asking, seeking and knocking, what's wrong here, we know God is not a man that he should lie, so what is the missing link here, this issue has gotten me a little puzzled down the years until the Holy Spirit spoke a word in to my hear and I have been meditating on it ever since, and this article is borne out of the discoveries I made in the place of praying in the Spirit and meditation.</p> <p>The Holy Spirit said to me very clearly, “what you humans call answered prayers is nothing more than just confirming of the word”, I hadn’t thought about that at all before this time, He said “God never does anything without speaking it forth first, and He never does anything outside of His written word”, He showed me a few passage of the scripture in John where Jesus was telling his disciples about the relationship between Him and His father, Jn 14: 10, Beleivest thou not that I am in the father and the father in me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the father that dwelleth in me He doeth the work. Wait a second, Christ started with the word and ended it with work, in other words, without the word of God there will be no work of God, what we call signs and wonders if basically Gods word at work in our world, He took me back to the creation account in Genesis, what appeared on the earth was what God spoke forth, its so amazing how much of familiarity we have with Gods word and yet miss the most important issues in life, God never and I repeat never brings anything to pass without first haven spoken it ahead of time, even before His son came into the world, He had spoken at various times through His prophets about a coming Messiah who would take away the sin of the whole world, if Christ couldn’t come unless there was first a speaking, why then do we expect and pray for a miracle without first getting a word to back it up, that’s more like a farmer expecting a harvest without planting a seed, wouldn’t say he was stupid? So I guess it makes sense then to say, why don’t I find out what God has spoken over my life and what I need to do to walk in this spoken word before I start praying, if we embrace this attitude so much of the time we spend binding and loosing, bombarding the gates of heaven and hell with all manner of prayers will not be necessary. </p> <p>John 15:7 also makes the same point, If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you, its not about whether or not God just chooses the prayers to answer like people making picks in a lottery dip, that’s the concept most Christians have and they just give up and say well, may be it wasn’t meant to be, why don’t you look at it this way, may be its time you let His word abide in you more and not what the newspapers or television have to say. He goes on in Jn 15:11 to says, These things have I spoken to you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy may be full. He’s saying nothing gives me more joy than for you to get answers to your prayers, and for your needs to be met, ten times out of ten, I rejoice when it happens and I want to see you rejoice as well, heavens joy knows no bounds when we receive the answers we desire.</p> <p>Finding out His counsel is nothing more than figuring out what He has said, and then using that as a foundation for whatever we want to ask, even He himself said, According to the word of my mouth challenge ye me, 1 Jn 14, 15 says, And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of Him. What an insight, it says we have enough spiritual sense to find out what His will for us is, so we don’t just mumble words that make no meaning in His ears, hence we are full of confidence to the point where we don’t think about it any more, no doubting feeling comes upon us, we know it’s a done deal, what this means in essence is that as far as we are concerned Mt 7:8 is the reality of our lives, whenever we ask we receive, whenever we seek we find, whenever we knock we get opened doors, tremendous. </p> <p>How then do we get to know His will for our lives, I wont go in depth into that because I already have an article that covers this topic in depth but one way to discover His specific will for you is to first find out what His general will is, and that’s what He gave us the bible for, to show us a picture of who we are in Him and the rights we have as citizens of His kingdom, if you are faithful to live your life the way the scriptures prescribe, you can be rest assured that He will show you His specific will for your life, I heard someone say once, “Don’t expect to get a rhema (specific spoken word) if you haven’t even obeyed the logos (written word)”, very true.</p> <p>Everything that’s ours by right has been provided by grace and we have to understand that we didn’t do anything to deserve this things, that’s why its called grace anyway, its independent of us and any form of performance on our part, so when we find out what His will is all we need do is to believe for it the same way we believed for our salvation, it’s the same principles that apply, Eph 2:8 says, For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. You can substitute the word saved with anything you want in the kingdom, blessings, healing, provision, whatever it is, you have it by grace and its only faith that’s needed from you to deliver it to you, if you walk with God with these truths in mind, you will be on your way to fulfilling the proclamation of Christ in Mt 7:8, God bless you</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/05/15/answered_prayer_vs_word_confirmation~2274382/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-05-15:/2007/05/15/do_you_know_him~2274369/seyekeye2007-05-15T14:43:33+02:002007-05-15T14:43:33+02:00 <p>In any endeavor in life, the success or failure depends to a large extent on a perfect understanding of the nature and personality of the various parties involved in the enterprise, as born again believers, we are in a relationship with the heavenly father, and its essential for us to know this God with whom we are dealing, He’s taken His time to give us His word which reveals Him unto us in ways in which we could otherwise not have known, but the sad thing is, most people just want to turn this God into someone they use for the fulfillment of their selfish gains, that is, they want his goodies without the added effort of getting to know Him personally, not knowing that His best is reserved for people who have taken time out to obey Christ’s charge that says, “Seek and ye shall find”.</p> <p>Its natural as human beings that we tend to trust only people we know, we live in a day and age where there are all sorts of phonies which emphasize the frailty of human relationships, its difficult for people to take the words of strangers with a pinch of salt, I think we as Christians have carried this into our experiences with God, people read Gods word and discover the things He’s spoken over their lives, the get excited but before they get carried away, something in them tells them, ‘wait a minute, how are you sure this isn’t just one of those feel good stuff, you better slow down and don’t take this too seriously before you get your finger burnt’, this is a natural feeling, and people tend to yield to it mainly because they haven’t taken time out to really get to know God for themselves, it’s a whole new world all together when you know Him, when you do, you wont have a problem with fully trusting Him, and until you trust Him, you might not get the best out of your walk with Him, God is revealed to us through His name and word, but He says He honors His word more than His name, so we must go after His word with all of the strength we can muster.</p> <p>One of my favorite verses in the bible is found in Dan 11:32b, it says, but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. What a piece of information, conversely, they that do not know their God shall be weak and they shall be exploited, whatever you are experiencing right now, can be directly linked to how much of God you know, if you are experiencing worry, depression and anxiety, you have a need to know God as Jehovah Shalom, the one who is our peace, if you are experiencing sickness in your body and ill health, guess what? You have a need to know the Jehovah Rapha and that Christ himself took all your infirmities and diseases, you might quote a few scriptures and say you know I believe it says somewhere in the bible that ‘by His stripes I am healed’, but you haven’t taken time out to see, I mean really see Him take those diseases on the cross, or else you will be healed instantly.</p> <p>I know a lot of people might be offended because it sounds like I am being some how critical and sounding a little hard, but its not my aim to make any body mad, the essence of this article and this whole ministry is to reveal truths in Gods word in ways that people can practically apply them to their lives and get desirable results, if you are not operating at the level of victory that’s promised all believers in the bible may be its time for you to take an inventory of your life and try to do things differently, it is possible to live a life where all your needs are met, its possible to be free of sickness and diseases, its possible to be filled with joy irrespective of what happens, it all depends on how much you decide to walk in the truth of Gods word that you have taken time out to know for yourself.</p> <p>Ps 9:10 says, and they that know they name will put their trust in thee, for thou Lord, has not forsaken them that seek thee. This is exactly in line with what we are talking about here, its not about what happens on the outside, its all about what's on your inside, the trials of life happen to just about every single one of us, but you’ve got to have your house built on a solid ground, if not, when the storms of life come your house will crumble and you’ll have to shelter at your neighbors place, the reality is nobody builds in a storm. </p> <p>Its amazing how many times the apostle Paul makes mention of the words ‘know’ or better still ‘know ye not’, its not just about knowing God, although that’s a good place to start, we have to know the things that are ours by virtue of our relationship with Him, the biggest weapon the evil one uses against Christians is their own ignorance, wrong knowledge will always produce wrong results, guaranteed, Gods word not only reveals God to us, it also shows us who we are in Him, 2Chor 3:18 says, But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. God word is like a mirror, it shows us a picture of the real us, and teaches us how to be the best God wants us to be, its up to us to get to know both the word of God and the God of the word, Job 19:25a says, I know that my redeemer liveth, it was the knowledge of who God was that sustained Job in his predicament, Ps 46:10a says, Be still and know that I am God, that’s a very useful advice, in this our age of the jet speed, and the faith is now movement, too many people get involved in too many things all in the name of activity, be still, be quiet, learn to be sober and seek for Gods way out of every situation, Ps 4:4 says, Stand in awe, and sin not, commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still, this generation definitely needs this advice.</p> <p>When Jesus was giving his farewell charge to His disciples one of the things He promised was that He was going to give eternal life to as many as accept Him, Jn 17:3 says, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent, radical statement sir, Christ is saying, you want the abundant life, the very life of God? Then you’ve got to know Him in a way that even when all hell is breaking loose, your trust in Him is still unshaken, in 2 Tim 1:12b Paul the apostle says, For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. Trust real trust and full persuasion only comes from right knowledge of God and His ability to come through no matter what, I pray and hope that the things we have shared in this article will fire up in you the desire to get to know God more, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/05/15/do_you_know_him~2274369/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-05-15:/2007/05/15/what_s_it_got_to_do_with_me~2274359/seyekeye2007-05-15T14:41:59+02:002007-05-15T14:41:59+02:00 <p>I’ve often heard Christians speak out in disappointment at situations in their lives that seem somewhat unpleasant, things happening to them that they know they shouldn’t be experiencing based on their standings as Christians, situations like sickness or death of a loved one, poverty or the loss of a business, whatever it may be, deep down in their innermost being they know that God wants them to have better experiences than this, they even go to the extent of saying, “I know God can do it”, they don’t just have enough assurance that He will do it for them, most Christians believe in Gods omnipotent ability to do whatever He says He can do, but what they are missing is the fact that, because God said it doesn’t mean it will happen to you automatically, you have to believe for the things of God before they can happen to you, they don’t come on you like a seizure or a common cold, you don’t get healed or have your debt paid just because you attended a meeting or sat beside a great minister of God, you have to seek them with all your heart. </p> <p>This is a concept that most Christians don’t even want to think about, they just think God will just come and get them out of the rut they are in with little or no effort on their part, but the truth is it just doesn’t happen like that, don’t get me wrong I am not saying God waits for us to perform before He moves in our situations, that’s not what I mean, what I am saying is that for you to access everything that’s already being purchased for you by Christ on the cross you have to respond positively by believing for those things, take the salvation experience as an example, Tit 2:11 says, For the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared unto all men. This says grace has been shown unto all men, believer and unbeliever, black, white and brown, but how come not all men are saved, its simple, not all men have responded in faith to the grace that was shown unto them when Christ died on the cross, this principle holds true in every sphere of the Christian experience, God has played His part, He’s done all He needs to do, its left to each individual to reach out to God and access everything that’s already been purchased for them, I don’t care what it is you want in life, Christ has finished it in the spirit realm, all you need do is to believe and take necessary steps according to scriptures, everything in the kingdom runs on principles and its up to us to work this principles before we can enjoy the benefits, 2Pet 1:3 says, According as His divine power hath (past tense) given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath (past tense) called us unto glory and virtue. Emphasis mine. Again we’ve already been given all things (all means all), but we can only access them based on our working knowledge of who God is, it’s a done deal, all paid for and waiting to be accessed by faith.</p> <p>Its not God who isn’t willing to show forth His mighty works in our lives, its we His people who haven’t believed His word enough to the point where we act on it even when it seems foolish in the sight of men, if we are bold enough to follow His lead, its only a matter of time before our profiting will appear to all men, a vivid example of this things we are talking about can be seen in the Israel experience in the wilderness and even in the land of promise, they had a word from God that he would take them in and bless them beyond their imaginations, this wasn’t just mere words, this was a promise He made to their fore fathers, and He had fulfilled every single word up until now, they had no reason to doubt His faithfulness, but what did they do? Ps 81:11-16 paraphrases their experience, But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would have none of me; So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust, and they walked in their own counsels; Oh that my people had harkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways; I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries; The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto Him, but their time should have endured forever; He should have fed them also with the finest of wheat, and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied them.<br> This says I really wanted to subdue their enemies, I wanted to give the them the finest of wheat and honey (endless provision), but they wouldn’t let me, they limited the holy one of Israel is the way Ps 78:41 puts it, most Christians don’t think like this, they just sit and hope that no matter what they do Gods will and purpose will come to pass automatically, and sadly it doesn’t happen.</p> <p>Col 2:6 says, As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. The same way you had to respond to the grace of salvation in faith before you received Him, that’s the same way you should relate or walk in Him concerning everything in your life, sow a seed of the word in your heart, confess with your mouth and believe that you have what you say, its that simple, keep believing and nothing will be impossible unto you, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/05/15/what_s_it_got_to_do_with_me~2274359/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-05-15:/2007/05/15/lord_why_me_handling_trials~2274346/seyekeye2007-05-15T14:40:24+02:002007-05-15T14:40:24+02:00 <p>From my little experience of walking with God for a few years now and the many examples both in scriptures and our own contemporary days it seems to me that one of the things most common to all who will genuinely follow Gods leading is trials and hard times, Christianity itself was birthed on the altar of sacrifice and difficulty, people have given a lot for the cause of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes including their lives, but I see a trend in modern Christianity today one which only paints a picture of wealth and prosperity, its like a proclamation of “come and all your needs will be met instantly”, in my study of the scriptures, I find out that’s not the most significant effect of the gospel, while I agree that part of our inheritance as born again believers is the promise of a better life not just in heaven but here on earth, we will also have our own share of tough times, but the good news is it’s a battle that’s already been won on our behalf so we need not worry or fret about it the way unbelievers do, we can rest in the promises of God and watch Him come through for us, in fact Christ himself said in Jn 16:33, This things have I spoken to you that in me you might have peace, in the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. That’s about as plain as anybody can be, because we are not of the world there will be pressure from the worldly system and it will sometimes look as if there is no hope of victory, but we must hang on and believe that whatever He says is what will come to pass.</p> <p>Paul the apostle was someone who experienced God in ways even the disciples that walked with Christ for 31/2 years didn’t, in his second letter to Timothy ch. 3 and verse 12, he says, yea all that will live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. He’s telling his protégé, don’t be deceived, once you make a decision to live a godly life, things will sometimes happen that you wont be able to explain and you will wish didn’t happen, but its part of the territory, the earlier you realize this the better, as far as this planet is concerned all good will be attacked, and it doesn’t mean that it should necessarily snuff life out of you, you can be a conqueror just the way the scriptures say you are, its your choice.</p> <p>So how then one deal with these trying times when they come does, is there any advice in Gods word as to handling trials and temptations? Yes there is, quite a few if I may add, the first thing is to make up your mind that it doesn’t matter what happens God is in control, the devil hasn’t wrestled the control wheels out of His hands, not yet, we’ve got to take the advice in 1chor 10:13, There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but GOD IS FAITHFUL, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able bear it. Emphasis mine. The most significant phrase in that verse is, God is Faithful, once that’s grounded in our hearts it builds so much belief in us that whichever way it goes, God has your back.</p> <p>I find a very good advice for handling difficult circumstances in one of Christ’s parable, which is highlighted in the first three gospels, it’s the parable of the sower which can be found in Mt 13, Mk 4 and Lk 8, the understanding of this parable is so key that He said “if you don’t understand this parable, how then will you understand every other parable”, in other words, if you don’t get this, you don’t have a chance in this kingdom, but our emphasis in this article is on the third kind of soil that Christ talked about, the stony ground, vs. 16 ,17 of Mk 4 says, And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground, who when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time, afterward when affliction or persecution ariseth for the words sake, immediately they are offended. Also the word offended can be found in Lk7:23, And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.<br> Christ also used this word in Jn 16:1, this things have I spoken to you that you should not be offended, finally Paul also used this word in 2Chor 11:29, who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and I burn not?</p> <p>The words offended in every single one of these passages literarily means, taken unawares and falter, caused to stumble, fall away, have his faith hurt, become displeased, indignant and resentful. And in each case its associated with affliction, trial or persecution, some form of painful experience which we all go through as Christians in our walk with God, these passages tells us that not being offended, not allowing our faith to be hurt is the single most important antidote against the onslaught of the enemy, I hear someone asking, How then can I do that?, how do I get to the point where no matter what happens to me I don’t get offended?, its easy, take Gods word for what it is exactly, the word of the Almighty, let His word be the anchor around which you tie your life and make up your mind that whatever it takes, you will stay through to His word, and then you’ll be on your way to going through tough times with a smile on your face because God is on your side, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/05/15/lord_why_me_handling_trials~2274346/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-16:/2007/04/16/the_good_fight_of_faith~2103278/seyekeye2007-04-16T18:25:59+02:002007-04-16T18:25:59+02:00 <p>Jesus taught in the parable of the sower (Mk 4:3-20) of four kinds of ground on which the seed fell, they are; the way side, rocky ground, thorny ground, good ground, and in explaining the second type ground He said in verse 16,17, And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground, who when they heard the word immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time, afterward when affliction and persecution arises for the words sake immediately they are offended. Notice here that it says affliction and persecution arises for the words sake, that’s a very important phrase to consider, most Christians don’t have a healthy perspective of their trials, they think the enemy has it in for them and you hear them say things like, ‘Why is this happening to me or why is my own like this’, they refuse to understand that its not essentially about them, its just a fact of life that anytime you receive a seed from God, the adversary comes to attack that seed, even in the natural realm, every good farmer knows that planting the seed isn’t the end of the story you have to look after it and make sure the intruders don’t destroy the seed, and its all basically about you trusting Gods word to the point where you make it your own personal reality, and not just some ordinary words either written or spoken, this I personally believe is what fighting the good fight of faith is all about and I’ll spend the rest of this article trying to explain this.</p> <p>Most people talk about them waiting on the Lord and what they really mean is that they have done their bit and met their part of the bargain and now the ball is in Gods court, He can decide whether or not He wants to fulfill His own part, if that’s the way you think things work, believe me you wont have a very good impression of God, because as far as you are concerned God isn’t consistent, He just picks prayers to answer like men pick tickets in a lottery, but in reality that’s not what the bible teaches, God has already blessed us with all earthly and heavenly blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, all he wants from us is to believe in His word and act in obedience to it, we aren’t doing things to make Him move, we are doing things in response to Him moving 2000 years ago when Christ died and delivered us from the grip of the enemy, all the realities of what Christ purchased for us are in the spirit realm, it takes faith in the word to bring them into physical manifestation, and its in this in between phase, where what you know is your reality hasn’t manifested in the physical that the fight of faith takes place and that’s where most Christians miss is, they get all excited about the truths of Gods word and they want it all to happen very fast, sometimes because of wrong doctrinal teachings and other times because of impatience, but either way when this things aren’t manifested as early as they expect, it says in Mark 4 that they get offended, in simple English that just means, they lose their belief, they throw their hands up and give up, they say ‘I have tried my best but this faith thing just doesn’t work’, simply put they have just lost the fight of faith, the enemy has succeeded in taking their eyes off the big picture, the word always works its us humans that fail to work it.</p> <p>Heb 10:23 says, Let us hold fast the profession of out faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised. You see that, its not about whether or not God or your pastor lied, God never spoke a lie to any human being and you wont be the first, but there’s someone who the bible calls the father of all lies and that’s the enemy, he’s the one who wants to deceive us with lies that Gods word isn’t effective, even when he knows he himself came to being through he word, how naïve can we get and still be breathing? God’s word is the source of everything, and if only we hang in there with our faith long enough we will get our blessings. Verse 35-39 of the same text says, Cast not away therefore your confidence which has great recompense of reward; For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise; For yet a little while, He that shall come will come, and will not tarry; Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him; But we are not of them that draw back into perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Personally I believe its better not to trust in this God at all than to trust in Him half heartedly, that’s the greatest in justice anybody can do to Himself, why call Him your God when you cant have faith enough to believe Him all the way, we need to come to the point where, like Job said, even if He slays me in Him will I trust, that’s the kind of decision that unlocks the supernatural power of God.</p> <p>The truth is most people that claim they put their trust in God actually have other options as back up plans, in case this faith thing fails, God is just one of the things they try out to see if it will work, they don’t really go deep into God like they should, so when there’s a little set back, they easily chicken out of battle, I believe anybody serious with God has to make a pledge to Himself that its either Gods way or no other way before they go into the battle, its what I call fixing your heart in my article titled set your heart, you must decide what to do before the rain storm comes beating on you, nobody builds his house during the storm, you had better be standing on solid ground or else you’ll be a casualty in this fight of faith, I pray and believe that Gods Spirit will reveal more to you than can be explained in this article, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/16/the_good_fight_of_faith~2103278/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-16:/2007/04/16/labor_to_cease_from_labor_rest~2103263/seyekeye2007-04-16T18:24:28+02:002007-04-16T18:24:28+02:00 <p>I once heard a very popular personal development coach say ‘The miracle of the seed and the soil, rain and sunshine, the seasons, God and everything that’s available isn’t available by affirmation, but only by labor’ his advice ,‘so labor well’. While I agree with this statement, there’s a sense to which people have taken this and labored themselves to the point of death and at the end of their lives have realized as Solomon did, that it was all vanity, but there’s also those who go to the other extreme and say God will provide without them applying themselves to doing anything worth while, this is complete heresy and very dangerous, Paul said in his epistles, “He that does not work must not eat”, I believe there is a balance to this in the scriptures, while God never meant for His people to be lazy and shirk their responsibilities, He also didn’t mean for us to spend all of our strengths, gifts, ability and time running after things, there is a right order and priority that we ought to choose so as to walk in all of the good things He has prepared for us.</p> <p>Like with everything else in Gods kingdom, finding the right order begins with knowing Gods counsel for our lives, what did He intend for us to do, finding this out and following it will save us from a lot of stress and worry, total and complete trust in God is the single most important factor in finding and entering our rest, Heb 3:18,19 says, And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not, so we see that they could not enter because of unbelief. This verse refers to the wilderness journey of the children of Israel, it says every single disobedience they exhibited, every time they grumbled and murmured against Moses and consequently against God, it was because of unbelief, it was because they didn’t think God could come good with His promises of taking them through the harsh wilderness and into the land of promise, unbelief literarily sucks out Gods power and ability to deliver every single time, no wonder Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to them that believe” (Mk 9:23). </p> <p>The only criteria that God looks at in bringing His word to pass in our lives is our faith, men have tried to replace faith in God with other things, ok may be not necessarily replace, but they are saying, ‘You cant just believe alone, you have to do so and so’, and they try to outline all this religious stuff that you need to do before God can move in your life, the truth is there’s nothing we as human beings can do to move God, we can only respond in faith to what God has already accomplished in the realm of the spirit through the death and resurrection of Christ on the cross, anything else is simply works, and it’s the reason Gods will isn’t being done.</p> <p>Heb 4:3a says, For we who do believe do enter into that rest, it says what qualifies us for this rest is our belief, nothing more, vs. 7 says, Today if you will hear His voice do not harden your hearts, it says when He speaks, He’s speaking life unto you, all you need do is make sure you are sensitive to His voice, everything you need for your well being is tied to your ability to stay connected to and believe in Him, vs. 9-11 says; There remains therefore a rest to the people of God, For He that is entered in to his rest has also ceased from his own works (labor), as God did from His; Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Emphasis mine.</p> <p>This I believe is what fighting the good fight of faith is all about, I wont go into that in this article because I have an article with that same title, but its the point we reach when we take Gods word as the truth of our lives no matter what’s going on around us, our mind is the battle ground, hence the need for daily renewal and meditation in the word, God has shown us what we have in the spirit realm, the realm where all things are created, but our body can only perceive the natural, so its that third part of us that breaks the tie, and whatever dominated the mind (either the word of God or what the world says) eventually gets the nod of approval, it says when you are totally rested in Gods word, when you’ve reached the point where you say, Let God be true and all men liars (Rom 3:4), when your own reality isn’t what you see, taste, hear, smell or feel, but what God says, then you can say you have entered into you rest and have ceased from trying to approach God based on performance, or what the bible calls works, when God finished creating the world, He said it was perfect, there was nothing else left to create, and He hasn’t added anything to it after all this years, it’s the same with us, when we reach this point of total trust in Him, we realize there’s nothing more to do, its all He wants from us.</p> <p>The dilemma therefore is to labor to cease from labor, it takes all of the spiritual effort we cam muster, to reach a point of absolute and unrelenting belief in Gods word, we wont get there in a day or a month or a year, it will take years or even decades to do it. Nobody, either in scriptures or even in our contemporary lightening fast jet age has ever achieved this over night, the process could sometimes be painful but yet rewarding in the end, it will take falling and rising, patience and perseverance, it will take you challenging everything you had believed before, it will take you making up your mind by the help of the Holy Spirit that whatever it takes you don’t have any other choice but to do it Gods way, then and only then can you truly say you have ceased from your labor and entered your rest, God bless you. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/16/labor_to_cease_from_labor_rest~2103263/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-16:/2007/04/16/the_sent_and_the_anointed~2103236/seyekeye2007-04-16T18:21:25+02:002007-04-16T18:21:25+02:00 <p>In a previous article I have dealt with the subject of Gods will and plan for each individual and how success in life and ministry rests totally on not relying on the physical realm but on what God says, if He really called us He knows the ultimate route to our destinations. Taking a look at the bible and people who were used mightily by God, they could be divided into various categories, but haven tried to study this subject of Gods call, I split them into two main groups, the sent and the anointed, what does this mean? That’s the question I’m going to try to answer in this article by taking a look at the lives of certain characters in the bible and trying to use their experiences to make the point clearer.</p> <p>Where else do we start but with Abraham the father of faith himself, in Gen 12:1-3 we see God speaking to him for the first time and giving Him an instruction that turned his entire life around, it says, Now the Lord had said to Abraham, get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you, I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So there’s no doubt about the fact that Abraham did not decide on his own to embark on this trip, he was sent by God, no wonder God showed up mightily in his affairs, God was just confirming His word after a man had believed Him and obeyed His voice. Don’t forget Abraham never went back to Ur of the Chaldeans, that’s a very significant point to note because we will soon come back to talk about its relevance.</p> <p>When Isaac came along and it was time to pick a wife for him, Abraham told his servant in Gen 24:6, But Abraham said to him, beware that you do not take my son back there. That’s a pretty strong charge, this guy was asking Abraham in the previous verse, what if she (the wife) doesn’t want to follow me because she hasn’t seen the man I want to marry her to, can I take Isaac back there, only just for a brief period so that his intending bride can see him, the answer was an emphatic no, why is that, what was so particular about that place, Abraham grew up there remember, why then didn’t he want his son to do so much as step a foot in there, I believe that when a man is sent by God out of a place with an instruction God doesn’t go back on His word and He never takes him back to that place again.</p> <p>When Jacob and Esau came around and their mother had gotten a word from God that the elder will serve the younger or plainly put, Jacob will be the recipient of the blessing that God had given unto his grandfather, she did all she could and made sure he got blessed by Isaac, but this wasn’t God best for him, this meant that he had to run away from Esau, and went back to the place where his farther was forbidden to go, God never sent him to Padan Aram, that was essentially his mothers idea, I believe he went through things he shouldn’t have, and if he had done things Gods way the calamities that he experienced would have been minimal, someone says ‘ well he got blessed with wives, children, cattle and property, what else could he have asked for’ , that’s true and I totally agree with that, but do you know that it wasn’t until he ran away from Laban and headed back to where God placed him initially that he found out who he really was and the blessing kicked in for him, if you have sent yourself some place that God hasn’t sent you, you will have to come back for you to experience the fullness of his blessings for your life and ministry, remember, places are as important as people.</p> <p>Another person in the bible who ran away and had to go back to where God initially put him was Moses, it wasn’t Gods idea that he should be in the wilderness while the children of Israel were in Egypt slaving and suffering, he knew Gods call was on his life to deliver His people, but again he made a mistake that most people make today, he wanted to fulfill Gods call with his own human ability, not knowing that God will never share His glory with any man, and in the process added thirty extra years to the enslaving in Gods people, if what you say God called you to do can be fulfilled without His supernatural in dwelling, then guess what? Its not God, it will take Him to fulfill your call, I haven’t got time in this article to explain in detail this issues concerning Moses, but he had to go back to Egypt because God never sent him out in the first place, that was his own doing altogether.</p> <p>Now lets consider the second group of people, those anointed by God, in the old testament, according to the law, priests were anointed and set apart to serve in Gods presence, but later on when Israel asked for a king they too were anointed, Saul was anointed as the first king in Israel and that’s what made the difference in his life, he never heard God for himself, but the anointing on his life was in full effect and ensured he experienced Gods help as long as he obeyed the voice of Gods prophet Samuel, but once he went into error and started becoming too big for God, he was refused and God sent Samuel to anoint David as king over Israel, it was this same anointing that made the difference in David’s life.</p> <p>Prophets were also anointed by God to carry out specific tasks in the old testament, when Elijah’s time was up God gave him an instruction in 1 Kings 19:16, Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat as prophet in your place. Clearly Elisha was anointed based on Gods instruction, no wonder when people saw him after Elijah’s exit, they said the spirit of Elijah does rest on Elisha and he was able to continue where his master stopped, as prophet and sometimes judge over Israel.</p> <p>When Jesus Christ came the bible tells us that He was anointed beyond measure, and as born again believers we carry the same power on our inside that He carried while he walked the earth, but in fulfilling Gods call, He might ask us to make certain decisions, which could entail leaving our comfort zones and risking all we have labored for, obeying him no matter what is the single most important decision anybody can make, and no matter what, we will always be better for it, and if He truly spoke to us to leave, we wont ever have to worry about going back, because he never goes back on His word, on the other hand if the decision is out of desperation or fear, we will never reach our full potential until we return to where He destined for us, blessings are always waiting in the place of obedience, God bless you. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/16/the_sent_and_the_anointed~2103236/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-16:/2007/04/16/the_significance_of_the_cross~2103220/seyekeye2007-04-16T18:18:44+02:002007-04-16T18:18:44+02:00 <p>The core and heart of the Christian faith is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fact that He went to Calvary carrying a cross on which He died and rose up on the third day just like He said He would is for me the single most significant event in the entire earthly ministry of the Son of God, 1Chor 15: 13,14 says But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen, and if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty. These are very radical statements, the spiritual implications of this particular occurrence is what our entire born again experience rests on, Christ taking our place and instead of us paying for our sins, He did it once and for all so that we might be set free from the guilt of sin and its numerous off shoots like sickness, poverty, death and so on, which came automatically upon us through the disobedience of the first man Adam, now we as Gods children are no longer under the bondage of the enemy, vs. 20-22 of the same text above says, But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep, for since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead, for as in Adam all die, for even so in Christ all shall be made alive. That’s the reality, but sadly though most Christians have missed this truth and the enemy is taking advantage of them, I believe ignorance is the number one reason for not walking in total victory and it’s the truth of the good news that delivers, Jesus said in Jn 8:32, You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Once the light of this truths are shined upon our hearts we are well on our way to the victorious life Christ obtained for us.</p> <p>Who we really are as Christians is readily expressed in the various letters of the apostles in the new testament, and its essential to make a careful study of this letters to get the import of our new nature, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is one of such epistles that conveys this truths, in ch 1 and vs.3 it says, Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath (past tense) blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Emphasis mine. This scripture by its own self speaks volumes, our blessing isn’t something we will obtain in the future, it’s a done deal, we are not struggling as the rest of the world are to obtain a blessing, we have been blessed with all blessings in the heavenly realm and all we need do is find out how to draw out this stuff that’s been given to us in Christ, that’s where it is, in Christ, the reality about Gods blessings is that He never takes them back, once He pronounce you blessed, nothing can reverse it but you, awesome.</p> <p>Vs. 6 says, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. We have been accepted, because we have responded to the grace that was bestowed on the entire world, we are not in the process of trying to do things to be accepted, we don’t go to church or pray or study the word so that God will accept us, we already are, responding by faith was all we needed to do and its enough, this truth will free us from the performance syndrome that the church is engrossed in today, they say you need to do so and so before God will accept you, that’s not true, you have already been accepted in the beloved, this word ‘beloved’ here actually means highly favored, yes you are highly favored by God, its so simple but yet loads have missed it and are trying to get Gods favor, that’s a misconception by religion.</p> <p>The latter part of vs. 13-14 says, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. I cant explain the full meaning of this verse in this article but it simply says once you have responded to Gods grace in faith, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit, the real you, your spirit man is sealed, free from contamination and pollution of the world, meaning you cant sin away your salvation, I know most will choke on this but that’s exactly what it means.<br> In vs. 17-23 Paul begins to pray for the Ephesian Christians and since this epistle was also written to the faithful in Christ Jesus, we need to pay close attention to the specifics of his prayers, vs. 17 says, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; The more revelation knowledge of God we have the easier this walk with Him becomes, faith in God is essentially based on how much of Him we know, as a matter of fact Peter said in his letter to the church in 2 Pet 1:3, According as his divine power hath (past tense) given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us unto glory and virtue. Emphasis mine. That’s where it is, wrong knowledge will always produce wrong results. In vs. 18-20 of our text in Ephesians 1, he says, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. </p> <p>This verses make astonishing and awesome statements, first he says you need to have the eyes of your hearts opened and flooded with light, the light of the reality and truth of what Christ obtained for you by going to the cross, there’s hope in our calling as believers, and we have an inheritance which is glorious and lastly he says, Gods raw power in dwells us, it is with this same power (that’s resident in us) that He raised Christ from the dead, so we have raising from the dead power on the inside of us, that’s amazing, vs.21-23 says, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come, and He has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to His church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Christ is seated far above all this spiritual entities and He has everything under His feet, everything means everything, no matter what their name is, He has it under His feet where He’s seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly places, so how about us what does this have to do with us someone may ask, vs. 4-6 of Ephesians 2 says, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of Hs great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us to sit together in the heavenly places with Christ. What? You mean the same spiritual position Christ has in the heavenly realm is what we as believers have, that’s exactly what this verse says, we are seated together with Him, far above all principalities and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named in this world and in the one to come, that’s what He bought for us when He went to the cross, but again most Christians have missed this and the enemy has literarily taken them to the cleaners, this is the truth of the word, and we had better realize that spiritual truth has more authority and power over physical manifestations.</p> <p>Christ went through everything not for Himself but for us, if we don’t take full advantage of what we have then guess what? His death and resurrection will all be in vain, its not just about salvation although that’s the starting point, He has obtained victory and dominion for us and we ought to respond in faith to this awesome show of grace by God the father, as we do, we will experience the power that raised Christ up from the dead which resides in us, show up in our daily encounters, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/16/the_significance_of_the_cross~2103220/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/its_all_about_god~2021310/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:57:17+02:002007-04-02T18:57:17+02:00 <p>The scriptures teach that God made man in His image and likeness, and man was given authority over everything else that was created, over the years man has exercised this dominion to the best of his abilities and has succeeded in subjecting all other forms of creation under himself, God also created man with an ability to think and process ideas, which means man isn’t expected to operate just based on instincts alone, he can ponder on various options and make choices, and sadly its this God given power of choice that has been mans greatest undoing, he has turned it around and made a big mistake that he can run his life on his own without the help or intervention of God, but reality is that God never intended us to run our lives the way we wanted, He wants to be a part of our everyday endeavors, its not just enough to say I am born again, that’s the beginning, God wants to be involved every step of the way as He reveals His hearts desire unto us, and we can live our lives in such a way that we take our directions for every single step we take from Him, this article isn’t essentially about finding out Gods will and plan for us, I have dealt with that in a previous article titled, ‘the will and plan of God’, this article is meant to show us our need for His divine guidance and how impossible it is to direct our own lives just by ourselves.</p> <p>In Jer 10:23, the prophet made a very important statement, now this was someone who was serving as a priest in Israel and God told him there was more to his life than just burning incense, in fact he was ordained and sanctified to be a prophet or a spokes man on Gods behalf, and this discovery literarily changed his life, he said in this verse, Oh Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. What a radical statement, he says no matter how much know how man has acquired (and he has made successful and admirable strides since creation), man cannot thrive without God, he says its not in him, so he shouldn’t even bother trying, he cannot and will not be able to touch all the bases God intended for him if he tries to short circuit God out of his life, this is so profound and simple but most people have missed it, don’t forget he talk about steps and ways, we’ll come back to the significance of this later on, in Ps 37:23, the psalmist says, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and He delights in his way. Here’s David, by far the greatest king ever to rule Israel, he was the one God initiated the covenant with, in fact God called him a man after His heart, this was someone who knew Gods will for his life from an early age, he was anointed to be king in Israel while still in his teens, but he still had to take his orders from God, even to fight the slightest battles, he was so determined to do it Gods way that he inquired for every single course of action to take, he says, if his steps are ordered then he will naturally delight God, no other option, fantastic.</p> <p>Solomon who became king after David, was regarded the wisest and richest man that ever lived, no surprises at all, his wisdom was from God, hence as a natural consequence wealth followed, in Pr 20:24, he says, A mans steps are of the Lord, how then can a man understand his own ways. He says, wait a minute guys, don’t even think that you can work out, figure out or think through a way for yourselves, when the very steps that you should take were designed before you came, how then could you think you could fashion out a path way, its absolutely impossible, the earlier you submit to the one who designed it the better for you, again quite simple but most have missed it.</p> <p>How then can we figure out this steps and ways, it all comes down to the foundation of our belief, the word of God, we must develop capacity for revelation from the source of life itself, He has written a book for us which we will do well to follow, and more importantly His Spirit dwells in us and if we allow Him (a BIG if), he will take us by the hand and lead us along, in Ps 119:105 it says, Your word is a lamp to my feet (steps) and a light to my path (way), His word can literarily direct our steps and ultimately our ways. Emphasis mine. The Lord in giving Joshua his first few instructions after the death of Moses, said in Jos1:8, This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do all that is written in it (take the required steps), for then you will make your way (that word again) prosperous and then you will have good success. Emphasis mine.</p> <p>The underlining words in all these scriptural references are steps and ways, God has destined us to reach our full potentials by following His preordained steps, and the more we stick to this, the more we gradually begin to watch our way evolve in front of us, its like a group of people going on an expenditure, they chart a course for themselves and then break it down into little steps, every single day should take them closer to their desired destination and they are so diligent not to get taken off course, until they get to their ultimate destination, we need to take a cue from this, following Gods lead is not negotiable in our walk towards the perfect way, He knows the pitfalls and hurdles that we could come across and He is keen on the process as much as He’s interested in the ultimate destination, as we follow Him whole heartedly and we trust absolutely in His judgment, we will walk the way with joy unspeakable and eventually hear the voice, ‘welcome good and faithful steward, enter into the joy of your father’, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/its_all_about_god~2021310/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/it_s_all_about_belief~2021303/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:55:08+02:002007-04-02T18:55:08+02:00 <p>Our experience as born again believers out of darkness and into the light of Christ has often times been likened to the journey of the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt through the wilderness and into the promise land, while I don’t exactly agree with direct comparisons and the replacement doctrine that we have replaced the children of Israel, I concur with the idea that we are spiritual Israel and there are similarities between us and them, for example Christ is our mediator of a new and better covenant just as Moses stood between God and His people and delivered the law unto them, you can also argue that the Christian experience is like a journey and you don’t start one day and arrive the next, the same way it took them a while to get into the promised land, the essence of this article isn’t to make comparisons so I wont spend time on this, my focus is on finding out why only two out of all men of fighting age (twenty and above) who left Egypt made it to Canaan, that’s a scary statistic if you ask me. There are various schools of thought as to the exact number of people that left Egypt, but lets just pick a number in the bible that Moses himself talked about in Num 11:21 But Moses said, the people among who I am are six hundred thousand footmen besides women and children…. Going by this figure only 2 out of 600,000 men made it alive into Canaan.</p> <p>The scriptures made references a lot of times to the conduct and attitude of the Israelites, it often times called them stiff necked people, people who yielded to intense cravings or gluttons, rebellious and stubborn, fornicators, murmuring children etc, all these phrases and adjectives typified things they did when certain difficult situations arose in the course of their journey, but this were just manifestations of a deeper and more subtle problem, and I think its essential in our own walk with God to understand this things, the main reason or should I say the number one cause of all their problems and the underlining factor that prevented them from Gods word becoming the realities of their lives was unbelief, plain and simple, it was their inability to take Gods word as the truth irrespective of the enemy or circumstance, was what cost them the land and ultimately their lives, lets examine a few scriptures, in Numbers 13 and 14 we see the instance where they were at the border of Canaan and Moses sent out twelve spies to spy out the land, among these spies were the two men (Caleb and Joshua) who made it into the land, vs. 27,28 of Num 13 says, Then they told him, and said, ‘we went to land where you sent us, it truly flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit. Nevertheless (which is a simple way of saying, before you get too excited I have some bad news for you) the people who dwell in the land are strong, the cities are fortified and very large, moreover (if the first bit of news isn’t bad enough, here’s one that will scare you to death) we saw the descendants of Anak there’. Emphasis mine.</p> <p>Caleb responds in vs. 30, Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it”, vs. 31, But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we’. Now this guys spied out the same land, saw exact same things but somehow brought two conflicting reports, how’s that?, it can be explained in very elaborate words, but the bottom line was, one party believed in Gods ability to perform what He said He would, and the others didn’t. The result, the congregation of the people raised their voices and cried, saying God brought them out here to kill them, they even thought of appointing a leader to lead them back to Egypt, how dumb can someone be and still be breathing? Unbelief makes people think and act irrationally, it just basically sucks the power and anointing of God away, no wonder Jesus responded to people who came for healing with the words, “Have what your faith expects”, He even told someone, “if you can believe, all things are possible to Him who believes”, again its so simple yet a lot of people miss it. Staying with the Israelites, God shows up in a cloud and talks to Moses, hear what He said, vs. 22, 23 of Num 14, because all this men who have seen my glory and these signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have put me to test these now these ten times, and have not heeded my voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected me see it. Now that’s pretty intense, people often think that once God makes a pronouncement it has nothing to do with them, if God said it, no matter my attitude, it will come to pass, they don’t even want to think that a human being can hinder Gods move, what they don’t realize is God put humans on this planet as an extension of Himself, and God is a spirit, He needs the cooperation of humans for His will to come to pass, spirits have no right to move on the earth without a human body, so the more we yield ourselves unto Him in obedience and belief the more of Gods ability that flows through us.</p> <p>Apostle Paul explains these same things in Hebrews 3 and 4, chapter 3 ends with a simple but profound statement in vs. 19, so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Vs. 6 of Ch 4 says, seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Vs. 11 says, Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. </p> <p>Three different times now he says, “hey guys pay very close attention to these things, unbelief will literarily stop you from entering into Gods best for your life”, and if anybody should know I think the Apostle Paul should, he even said somewhere that these things (referring specifically to Israel’s experience in the wilderness) were written for our learning and to serve as an example to us, that we shouldn’t follow in their foot steps, but the sad thing is most Christians are doing the exact same things they did, not trusting and resting solely on the integrity of God word and therefore missing out big time on what God has planned for them, I sincerely pray that God will give us understanding in these areas and we will learn to take His word as our realities, God bless you. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/it_s_all_about_belief~2021303/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/you_can_rejoice~2021300/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:54:43+02:002007-04-02T18:54:43+02:00 <p>Everybody goes through trying times, periods in our lives when it seems as if there’s no end in sight or when it feels like God is a million miles away and we cant sense His presence, if you haven’t experienced this, hang on a minute whether you like it or not, it will come, and I am not prophesying doom, Christ Himself said it in Jn 16:33, This things have I spoken to you that in me you might have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world. Apostle Paul gives us an insight into what our calling entails in 2 Tim 3:12, Yes and all those who desire to live godly in Jesus Christ will suffer persecution. The earlier you come to grips with this fact as a follower of Christ, the better for you, its not a choice it’s part of the calling, once you have a word from God, that word will attract tribulations and persecutions and our attitudes to this hindrances will determine what the outcome will be, in other words, being of good cheer isn’t just an advice which you can decide to take or ignore, it’s a charge, a command, if you will experience the supernatural manifestation of God, you must first make up you mind not to lose the joy of the Lord.</p> <p>I Thess 5:18 says, In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Most times when people come across difficulties they usually say things like, ‘I don’t seem to be able to know what Gods will is in this particular situation’, this verse says you do, His will for you is giving of thanks, this seems to be so simple and plain but its shocking how many Christians seem to have missed this, they come up with all sorts of excuses to justify their not being able to give thanks, and invariably their inability to obey a command from God, whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, the scriptures cannot be broken, if God says do it, you had better start channeling all your efforts towards the direction Gods word is telling you to go, it will be wicked of God to tell you to do something that’s not within your capability, even in the darkest times of our lives we can give thanks, Paul and Silas showed this in Acts 16:25-40, right in the middle of immense pain and anguish they were praying and singing hymns, brothers and sisters I have found out that its all about perspective, you can either sulk and play the victim or dig deep into your spirit and draw out the joy and the peace Christ promised us, its your choice, and its one that could eventually be the turning point in your difficulty.</p> <p>How is it possible to maintain an atmosphere of joy around you even in challenging situations? Won’t I be looked upon as not normal at times when everybody expects me to be sorrowful and here I am full of life and bubbly? Isn’t that being hypocritical or being in denial? Firstly God never called us to be normal or natural, He called us to be supernatural, and its not been hypocritical, the real you (your spirit man) is always rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory, so the point is do you want to be like your spirit man already is or you want to conform to what your senses (your body) are telling you, I’ll rather go with the spirit man, which after all, is the real me and is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph 4:24).</p> <p>So how do I get to the point where my spirit man is automatically dominant over the flesh? To the point where the fruits of the spirit in Gal 5:22’23 are the prevailing, domineering and assertive forces in my life, to the point where I can by default walk by faith (in the spirit) and not by sight (in the flesh). The starting point is Gods word, its Gods window into His spiritual word, Jesus said ‘the words that I speak to you are spirit and life’, the more you renew your mind with Gods word, instead of having the worlds views and ideas you have Gods word in there, you’re on your way to unparalleled success in your life and ministry, when His word becomes your reality instead of circumstances around you, that’s when the faith of God comes alive in you, its not denying the existence of the physical, its just accepting the fact that there’s a higher and more authoritative realm of the spiritual, Gods realm, which ultimately controls the physical and you can draw power from that realm to overcome your situations. </p> <p>We could talk about many other things, but this concept of renewing your mind by the word and accepting it as the real deal in your life is where it all begins, you cant get away from it, His word is the very foundation upon which everything is built and you cant move on until you get Gods exact perspective on issues, guess where that comes from, the word, I have an article on the reality of Gods word that will shed more light on this issues, the article on setting your heart will also be helpful here, that’s where the victory is, so let not your heart be troubled, you can be of good cheer, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/you_can_rejoice~2021300/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/set_your_heart~2021293/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:53:41+02:002007-04-02T18:53:41+02:00 <p>The Christian faith is essentially heart based, by this I mean God basically deals with us based on the condition of our hearts and not on the outward appearance, and we make reference to the scripture that says man looks on the outward but God looks inwards, the core of Christ’s message was that we should believe with our hearts before confession is made with the mouth, now and again we hear Him say, If u can believe or be it unto you according to your belief, He even rebuked His disciples for what He called the hardness of their hearts, Pr 23:7 also supports this assertion, it says, as he thinks in his heart, so is he, taking a look at the bible from Genesis to Revelation we discover a trend that’s common to both the old and new testament, not everybody got Gods approval, not everybody got Gods will and purpose come to pass in their lives, and it wasn’t about whether or not God was willing to do, it was they who just didn’t let Him, a lot started well and missed it along the line, few started with little or nothing but wont just let go of their faith in the Most High God and their lives took a dramatic turn, there a various reasons for this, but I think the major difference in both cases was the state of their hearts, since the condition of our hearts plays a significant role in the success or otherwise of our Christian experience, its therefore necessary we take a good look at the issues of the heart.</p> <p>There’s a story about David’s grandson in 2 Chr 12:13, 14, Thus King Rehobaom strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned, he was forty years old when he became king and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put His name there, his mothers name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And he did evil, because he did not prepare to seek the Lord. This is amazing, this was a seed of David on the throne God swore to his grandfather that they would never vacate, he didn’t start being an evil king, in fact he started well and did a few good things for God, but the passage says he did evil just because he did not prepare (fix, set up, prime, make ready, organize) his heart, when things go wrong in our world today with believers, people come along and say all sorts of things, they see the deed done and ask themselves, ‘how could he have done this”, while its fairly easy to point at the outward consequences, the bottom line is that people do not just fix their hearts on seeking God.</p> <p>That’s exactly where the children of Israel found themselves when they were in the wilderness, we all have a feeling oh they couldn’t enter the promise land because they murmured and complained and did all those kind of things but Ps 78:8b says they were , a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God, it says their hearts were not set, fixed on God, but rather on the situation, that’s a recipe for disaster, no wonder they couldn’t make it into the promise land, its so easy to think the real problems are on the outside but that’s not the case, the real draw back is in the state of the heart, so first and foremost you have to set your heart on obeying God, set your heart such that everything in you knows that following God isn’t just one of the options that you have, it’s the only option, nothing else will work, tell yourself that obeying and walking according to His counsel for your life isn’t negotiable, once that’s sorted out in your heart, then the ability and power to make it work is poured out to you from above.</p> <p>In Ps 112 vs. 7,8 the psalmist talking about a man that fears God and is in right standing with Him, says, He shall not be afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he sees his desire upon his enemies. Whatever adjective is used, fixed, established, set, it all means one thing, making up your mind that no matter how it goes, Gods instructions will be priority, most Christians do not have this concept of preparing their hearts, they just wait for the storm to come before they decide on what to do, no wonder we get the results we are getting and the evil one seems to be having fun at our expense, he knows that if he pushes people to a certain limit he can break them, so all he has to do is to come with a few problems, and phew they will lose their faith in God, this things can be prevented, you can get to a point where like Paul you can say , for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain, whichever way it goes, there’s only one line to thread and that’s the path of absolute trust in God</p> <p>Prophet Isaiah speaking about the Christ in Is 50:7 says, For the Lord God will help me, therefore I will not be disgraced, therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. What do you think this was talking about, the Son of God Himself says in fulfilling my calling on earth, even though I am guaranteed the help of God from above, even though He promised to be with me every step of the way, there’s a decision I have to make before Gods help can flow to me, I have to set my face like a flint, a stone or a rock, no wonder He was referred to as the rock out of which the children of Israel drank in the wilderness, and with you its no different, for you to get the best out of this walk with God, for you to even have a chance at being the person God intended you to be, you have to make such a decision and stay committed to it, no matter what happens.</p> <p>There’s so much God is willing to accomplish in our lives, there’s so much ground we can cover for God on this planet that He has put us, a lot of people have gone ahead of us, some have failed in their quest to be used by their creator, but there were others still who would not yield an inch until Gods purpose for their lives came to pass, its up to you to make up your mind which part of the divide you will fall into, God’s always ready as long as he finds a willing vessel, will you be that person today who will decide to set his heart on God irrespective of the odds, as you do this, He will give you the ability to tap into that power on the inside of you, and you will be able to do amazing things for His kingdom, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/set_your_heart~2021293/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/being_used_by_god~2021288/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:51:54+02:002007-04-02T18:51:54+02:00 <p>The bible calls new testament believers the members of the body of Christ, more precisely it says Christ is the head and overseer of the church while we all constitute different components of the body, as human beings we are very familiar with this picture because we have a body with various parts and each part functions differently but not entirely independently of the whole body, in the very same way we as the body of Christ must find our God given role in the body and do all we can to fulfill this call to the best of our ability as the Holy Spirit gives us strength, Eph 4:15,16 says, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.<br> If this is true, and the bible says it is, its therefore no surprise to hear people in the body of Christ praying, “Oh Lord use me for your glory, I want to do your will, wherever you send I will go, whatever you say I will do” and so on and so forth, this are popular prayers we pray regularly in our gatherings, along with the “Send down revival Oh Lord, souls are perishing, we need an awakening in our land, please Lord, the harvest is plentiful”, I am sure most of us have prayed these prayers at one time or the other, don’t get me wrong, it isn’t an offense to pray but my point is most Christians think God isn’t aware of the current situation in our world today, we think God isn’t interested in the fact that people are in a self destruct mode and are going to hell in their thousands daily, we think we are more passionate about souls than a God who watched His Son die on a tree for the sake of this same souls we are talking about, that’s not the case at all, </p> <p>God is concerned and it grieves Him that these ones are perishing but the truth of the matter is as much as God is willing to use people because He hasn’t got any other way to go about it (as far as this earth is concerned human beings are the only ones that can do the job), He just hasn’t got enough usable people, believe it or not, that’s the truth, and He will never, I repeat never compromise on that stand, He isn’t like us humans who just go about picking people for the sake of it, He’s very meticulous about the process through which He chooses people, and when He eventually finds the right person, He will not hold back on His power or anointing, I mean He will do anything to show case such a person to the world.<br> So what in the world is God looking for in the vessels He chooses, does He expect us to be perfect before He finds a use for us in His kingdom, the answer is no, I heard a minister say once that “God has never found anybody qualified enough working for Him yet and you wont be the first”, I agree absolutely with that, the only kind of vessels He has to use are flawed vessels, people who have enough sense to know that its not about how well they can do this or that, its just about His grace, if you imbibe that as a philosophy in your walk with Him, it will deliver you from the performance mentality that most people have held on to, they fell God will use them proportionate to their own ability to perform and that’s not what the bible teaches, before I sound like I am contradicting myself, does this then mean God just goes about picking anybody? </p> <p>Here’s the perfection doctrine and here’s the doctrine that says, it doesn’t matter what you do God will use you anyway, what I am saying is kind of a border line between these two assertions, I believe that what God essentially looks for in any body is total yielded ness and complete trust in Him, it doesn’t matter who the person is, once they can submit to the influence of Gods word (the written word) it shows that he/she has a obedient heart, and when God speaks to his heart, because he has submitted to the written word, obeying the Holy Spirit’s voice wont be such a problem at all, whatever is lacking in competence or ability to deliver or speak on Gods behalf, the Holy Spirit will through the word of God begin to provide for such lack with His supernatural ability, in 2 Tim 2:2 Paul is admonishing Timothy concerning ministry work and picking people to work in the Lord’s vineyard, he says, And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others. You see that, if they can be faithful in submitting to God and His word, if they take Gods instructions and counsels from His word as a commandment and they obey it no matter the circumstance they find themselves, if their attitude is that, once God says it, I don’t care what the world says or does, I will obey, then its only a matter of time before God will find them usable in His vineyard and the ability to communicate it to others will flow from Him to them, here’s why obedience is important, you can only teach effectively what you have practiced and mastered in your own life, in this kingdom you cant fake it for very long, people will eventually find out the real you.</p> <p>Do you desire so much to be a vessel of honor in Gods hands? Do you aspire to be used the same way the early apostles were used? Do you want to live a supernatural life such that signs and wonders will begin to find expression in your life? Then stay committed to His word by obeying and following His counsel all the way, you focus on totally trusting in what His word says and leave the rest to God, He sees not just the outward but the inwards, and in due season He will reward you accordingly, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/being_used_by_god~2021288/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/practical_christianity_more_than_just_ch~2021276/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:50:26+02:002007-04-02T18:50:26+02:00 <p>If I were to go out to any major city of the world which has quite a large population of Christians, of whatever denomination and with various doctrines and belief, and if I decided to ask the simple question of what they think Christianity or being a Christian is, I can guaranty you I would have as many answers as there are denominations, why do you think that is? How come there seems to be know absolute answer to such a simple inquiry, is this the type of inconsistency Christ intended his followers to exhibit? The answer is no, even though in our world today the relativity theory seems prevalent, the bible teaches us that there are absolutes, and one of these absolutes is that Christianity is simply being like Christ in life and ministry (career, work, vocation, profession, calling)</p> <p>Before I reflect on what Christianity is, I would like to express a few ideas on what it isn’t, Christianity isn’t going to church or the ability to quote scriptures from a bible, it isn’t being able to speak in a prayer tongue, it isn’t paying your tithe or giving an offering, it isn’t being part of a unit in church like the ushers or the choir, now don’t get me wrong those things are good and they sort of help us along the way, and its all right if you are doing them, but you must understand their place and know that these are just like the icing on a cake, without the real substance (in this case, a relationship with God through His Son) the icing is useless and just playing religion, and if all you think of is engaging in an activity so as to meet some requirement, then you have totally missed the essence of the new birth, it isn’t about doing, its about being. </p> <p>Who you are essentially determines what you do, who you are puts a cap on what you are able to do, that’s what Christ tried explaining to Nicodemus in the third chapter of John, vs. 2 says, The same (Nicodemus) came to Jesus by night and said, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles which thou does, except God be with him. Notice that his emphasis was on doing, something external, something that can be perceived by the senses, but hear the Lord’s response in vs. 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The word verily is just an old English way of saying truly, beyond doubt, or in all honesty, now that’s kind of strange isn’t it, when you consider that everything Jesus said was true, but now He’s saying this is double truth, if you focus on the externals, you will miss the true meaning of Christianity and the power of God, but you have to pay more attention to the internal workings of Gods spirit in your heart, that’s where the key to a successful Christian life is.</p> <p>No wonder so many people who profess to be Christian are living miserable and frustrating lives and some are even confused to the point where they actually start doubting the veracity of Gods word and His ability to manifest Himself in their situations, they have replaced the real essence of spirit and truth worship with activities and they wonder why they feel so empty on the inside, denominations have systematically adopted traditions and ways of men as a substitute to spirit filled living, and this has hindered the move of Gods spirit among us, and once this happens the very life of God that’s supposed to flow from His body (Christians) unto the world is hindered, and instead of us going to the root cause of the matter and figure out where we missed it, most people just say, you know what “God doesn’t move in these end times the way He used to move in the days of the apostles” which entirely puts the blame on God and not on us, and the very few who don’t say that instead say, “you know what we need to pray for a revival, and they engage in more activity and what they call spiritual warfare, bombarding the gates of heaven for an outpouring of the power of God.</p> <p>Neither of this options is a great solution in itself, God is not the one who isn’t moving in our days, its us who are not receiving, He is the same yesterday and today and forever. Heb13:8, he never changes and He’s interested in manifesting His power in these days just like He did in the days of the apostles, and no, praying for an outpouring of power isn’t the way out as well, God has already poured out all the power He needs to pour, He did that on the day of Pentecost, we need to yield ourselves to His Spirit and respond in Faith to what has been provided to us by grace, we must get rid of the notion that we have to deserve Gods blessing, whatever we get from God is based on His grace and not on our own righteousness, once we approach Him with a genuine heart of faith, He is bound by His word to respond, our faith is the victory that overcomes, and as we take action based on faith we will see God show up on our behalf and our Christian lives will be much more productive, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/practical_christianity_more_than_just_ch~2021276/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/dealing_with_opposition~2021268/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:48:17+02:002007-04-02T18:48:17+02:00 <p>I have tried to make a careful study of the way the kingdom of God works or better stated the way things function in Gods spiritual realm as it relates with human beings finding their roles and callings, and I made a fundamental observation in that Gods ways will almost always contradict the worldly system but God still expects His people to make a noticeable impact, its therefore our responsibility as called out ones to always follow Gods counsel, even though it sometimes goes against the norm of the society or what the society terms status quo, Is 55:8,9 clearly states , For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. And it’s the ability to go all the way with God and ruffle a few feathers just because God said so, that ultimately determines the impact or lack of it that individuals and ministries make on their societies.</p> <p>Our perfect example is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, His entire earthly ministry was of so much significance because it connoted the passing away of the old covenant and the introduction of a new one, it showed the passing away of attaining righteousness by the works of the law into an era when righteousness was strictly a gift of grace based on believe in the name of Jesus, it signified the passing away of the law written on tablets of stone and the entry of epistles written in the hearts of men, Jn 1:17 says, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So you would understand the enormous pressure that Jesus had to go through trying to explain to the people of His days that the old was passing away and the new was in effect, they just couldn’t handle it, more so the person that was telling them this was the son of a carpenter, unlearned and unskilled in the study of the law and the prophets, here He was trying to tell people who have followed a particular belief system for thousands of years, doctrines and traditions that have passed on from one generation to another that it was time to change the way they related to the father, the God of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob (their highly revered patriarchs), it was too much for them to take, they withstood Him with all the might they had, even to the point where they decided, it was better to take His life than for them to allow Him spread this new doctrine of His, that was the kind of opposition Jesus faced in His own bid to fulfill Gods call on His life.</p> <p>One incident that clearly portrayed this divergent doctrines was the case of the woman brought to Him in the temple caught right in the act of adultery in Jn 8:3-11, according to the law of Moses this woman was meant to be stoned to death along with anybody that wanted to stand in the way of what the law stated, but here was Christ who came along with a message of grace and mercy, saying God wasn’t imputing peoples sins on them anymore and rather that He was accepting anybody, no matter what sins they committed, so this was a perfect plan by the Jews to try to get Him into a position where He would either contradict the laws of Moses, or His own grace teaching, if He did then He would be stoned, and if He agreed with them then it would completely go against everything His ministry was based on and all the people that had been following Him because of His new doctrine would have forsaken Him and called Him a fraud. At other times it as issues concerning the Sabbath and whether or not it was lawful to heal someone on that day, He constantly had to confront these ideologies in His days and not once did He yield to the pressure of the society or the prevalent dogma of the Jews, there was no room for compromise as far as He was concerned even if it meant been put to death, we see this same attitude in His disciples and early apostles, some of them literarily had to endure hell but they stood up for what they believed in rather than give in to strain under which they found themselves.</p> <p>In trying to fulfill Gods call on our lives, sooner than later we will have to confront this kind of situations as well, its not a matter of if , but when, if you really make up your mind to do things Gods way, believe me, opposition will come and it will sometimes come big, and a times from the least unexpected sources, friends, family and relations, what do you do when what the society accepts comes in direct conflict with what God had put in our hearts to do, how then do we handle such situations, how does someone make a stand for God when it’s so much easier to go with the flow, when standing for what is right has lost it’s appeal in the eyes of the vast majority of people and those who you think should do things right have themselves gone with the crowd, what do you do when your voice is the only one among thousands in the opposing side, if you haven’t prepared for situations like this, it could be a water shed in your life and ministry, you’ve got to have a plan of action, you’ve got to decide what to do before the rain storm hits, remember, nobody successfully builds his house in a storm, you’ll lose everything if that’s your tactics, and its not a very good one at that.</p> <p>Make up your mind that no matter what happens you will make hearing from God and following through with His leading the number one priority of your life, there’s no compromising on this one, there’s no other way to go about it, you can’t decide to pass on it, once you make that decision and you are committed to standing by it, God will start getting committed to you, there are very few people who make up their minds this way, so God is always willing to go all the way once He sees someone whose heart is focused on trusting Him even if it means been labeled by the world, it tells Him as far as you are concerned you have no other choice, and with that attitude He’s bound by His word to show up on your behalf, the reason people fall away from their commitments at the least possible opposition is because they feel they have other choices, they get easily offended and I am sorry to say most Christian find themselves in this category of people, the devil knows that there’s so much they can take and if he pushes them hard enough they will do a complete 360 degrees and walk away from God.</p> <p>There’s more to this than I could possibly cover in this article, but this I believe is the most important thing, once this is in place everything else falls in line, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/dealing_with_opposition~2021268/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/dealing_with_opposition~2021259/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:46:27+02:002007-04-02T18:46:27+02:00 <p>I have tried to make a careful study of the way the kingdom of God works or better stated the way things function in Gods spiritual realm as it relates with human beings finding their roles and callings, and I made a fundamental observation in that Gods ways will almost always contradict the worldly system but God still expects His people to make a noticeable impact, its therefore our responsibility as called out ones to always follow Gods counsel, even though it sometimes goes against the norm of the society or what the society terms status quo, Is 55:8,9 clearly states , For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. And it’s the ability to go all the way with God and ruffle a few feathers just because God said so, that ultimately determines the impact or lack of it that individuals and ministries make on their societies.</p> <p>Our perfect example is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, His entire earthly ministry was of so much significance because it connoted the passing away of the old covenant and the introduction of a new one, it showed the passing away of attaining righteousness by the works of the law into an era when righteousness was strictly a gift of grace based on believe in the name of Jesus, it signified the passing away of the law written on tablets of stone and the entry of epistles written in the hearts of men, Jn 1:17 says, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So you would understand the enormous pressure that Jesus had to go through trying to explain to the people of His days that the old was passing away and the new was in effect, they just couldn’t handle it, more so the person that was telling them this was the son of a carpenter, unlearned and unskilled in the study of the law and the prophets, here He was trying to tell people who have followed a particular belief system for thousands of years, doctrines and traditions that have passed on from one generation to another that it was time to change the way they related to the father, the God of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob (their highly revered patriarchs), it was too much for them to take, they withstood Him with all the might they had, even to the point where they decided, it was better to take His life than for them to allow Him spread this new doctrine of His, that was the kind of opposition Jesus faced in His own bid to fulfill Gods call on His life.</p> <p>One incident that clearly portrayed this divergent doctrines was the case of the woman brought to Him in the temple caught right in the act of adultery in Jn 8:3-11, according to the law of Moses this woman was meant to be stoned to death along with anybody that wanted to stand in the way of what the law stated, but here was Christ who came along with a message of grace and mercy, saying God wasn’t imputing peoples sins on them anymore and rather that He was accepting anybody, no matter what sins they committed, so this was a perfect plan by the Jews to try to get Him into a position where He would either contradict the laws of Moses, or His own grace teaching, if He did then He would be stoned, and if He agreed with them then it would completely go against everything His ministry was based on and all the people that had been following Him because of His new doctrine would have forsaken Him and called Him a fraud. At other times it as issues concerning the Sabbath and whether or not it was lawful to heal someone on that day, He constantly had to confront these ideologies in His days and not once did He yield to the pressure of the society or the prevalent dogma of the Jews, there was no room for compromise as far as He was concerned even if it meant been put to death, we see this same attitude in His disciples and early apostles, some of them literarily had to endure hell but they stood up for what they believed in rather than give in to strain under which they found themselves.</p> <p>In trying to fulfill Gods call on our lives, sooner than later we will have to confront this kind of situations as well, its not a matter of if , but when, if you really make up your mind to do things Gods way, believe me, opposition will come and it will sometimes come big, and a times from the least unexpected sources, friends, family and relations, what do you do when what the society accepts comes in direct conflict with what God had put in our hearts to do, how then do we handle such situations, how does someone make a stand for God when it’s so much easier to go with the flow, when standing for what is right has lost it’s appeal in the eyes of the vast majority of people and those who you think should do things right have themselves gone with the crowd, what do you do when your voice is the only one among thousands in the opposing side, if you haven’t prepared for situations like this, it could be a water shed in your life and ministry, you’ve got to have a plan of action, you’ve got to decide what to do before the rain storm hits, remember, nobody successfully builds his house in a storm, you’ll lose everything if that’s your tactics, and its not a very good one at that.</p> <p>Make up your mind that no matter what happens you will make hearing from God and following through with His leading the number one priority of your life, there’s no compromising on this one, there’s no other way to go about it, you can’t decide to pass on it, once you make that decision and you are committed to standing by it, God will start getting committed to you, there are very few people who make up their minds this way, so God is always willing to go all the way once He sees someone whose heart is focused on trusting Him even if it means been labeled by the world, it tells Him as far as you are concerned you have no other choice, and with that attitude He’s bound by His word to show up on your behalf, the reason people fall away from their commitments at the least possible opposition is because they feel they have other choices, they get easily offended and I am sorry to say most Christian find themselves in this category of people, the devil knows that there’s so much they can take and if he pushes them hard enough they will do a complete 360 degrees and walk away from God.</p> <p>There’s more to this than I could possibly cover in this article, but this I believe is the most important thing, once this is in place everything else falls in line, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/dealing_with_opposition~2021259/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/the_will_and_plan_of_god~2021247/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:43:56+02:002007-04-02T18:43:56+02:00 <p>A very popular saying goes thus, “when purpose isn’t known, abuse is inevitable”, in other words the key to the proper functioning of any thing, be it a device or an institution, is to get into the makers mind to find out the proper use of such device or institution, I suppose that’s why they come with manuals these days, the makers want every body buying their product to get the full functionality of the product. Its exactly the same thing with our lives, since we didn’t just appear here as a freak of nature or as genetic mistakes, but a product of a clearly thought out process (whether we agree with that fact or not), there’s no doubt in my mind that if human beings have enough sense to do that with the inventions they produce, how much more our heavenly father, He had a particular purpose in mind for creating us and its our duty to find out from our maker what was on His mind concerning our lives and our time on this side of eternity, a good way to start is to look into the creators manual (the bible), and begin a relationship with him and daily get to know Him better.</p> <p>The bible shows us Gods general plan for humanity, the way God dealt with people that have gone ahead before us and how He’s dealing with us now under the new covenant, but every one of us has a specific will for our lives and the earlier we know what this will is and submit to it, the better for us and the easier it will be for us to reach the goals He set for us even before we came around, Jer 1: says, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I sanctified you and I ordained you to be a prophet to the nations. I believe this truth isn’t particular to Jeremiah alone, it applies to every single one of us, we need to get a revelation of why we are here from the one who put us here in the first place, Gal 1:15 also says, But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb, and called me by His grace; I consider this verse the new testament paraphrase of what God told the prophet Jeremiah, same truths, different dispensation, it means God hasn’t changed His mind concerning these things.<br> Now I believe there are various ways by which we can get to know Gods will for our lives, some have said we need to look inwards at our personalities traits, take a good inventory of the gifts and abilities with which we are endowed and adequately work on such abilities and we wont be far from Gods will for us, while that theory sounds logical I have personally found out that its not always correct to make such general categorizations, there are people who are naturally introverts and cant look people in the face, but when Gods power comes on them, they become bold and can minister the word to thousands of people, naturally speaking according to this theory, they aren’t meant to be leaders but followers, but God turns their lives around and makes something out of them they would never have been able to do on their own. The best and most effective way to find out what on earth we are here to do, I believe, is to ask the creator himself, if that’s the approach you choose you will never miss it I can guaranty that, His word confirms it.</p> <p>Well someone says, I can point to so and so who have it all going on and have done a lot of amazing things and who physically speaking are a huge success in every measure of the word, but haven’t got a clue where Gods address is, not to talk of having a relationship with him, how do you explain that, well I believe God created everybody with a deposit of Himself in us and man can build up his mind to the point where he is able to master certain areas of this life and become a huge success in the process, but ultimately every body is subject to Gods standard of success and Gods thoughts and ways are completely different from ours, the stories Jesus told concerning the rich man and Lazarus in Lk 16 and that of the rich fool in Lk 12:16-20 , clearly illustrate this fact.</p> <p>Finding out Gods will isn’t the end of the story, but most people in faith think it is, I believe people who have caused the most damage to Christianity aren’t people who don’t know Gods will for their lives, but the most damning errors have come from people who one way or the other have found out what they were meant to do on earth, but aren’t patient enough to get Gods plan to bring about the will they have found out, there are so many roads that lead to our destinations but God knows the best route He wants us to take to get His desired results, this is where preparation comes in, we see this example all over scriptures, Jesus knew what Gods will for His life was as early as when He was 12 years old, it says in Luke’s gospel after His parents looked for Him for three days and found Him in the temple, Lk 2:49, And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Know ye not that I must be about my fathers business? So what do you think He was doing between the ages of 12 and 30 when His earthly ministry began, He spent at least 18 years preparing for a ministry that lasted just three years and six months, that should tell us something about Gods mind towards process and preparation.</p> <p>A lot of people want to be used by God and they have an idea in what capacity but aren’t just patient enough to follow His leading, they have their own plans they have hatched and just tell God to introduce them and they’ll take it from there, guess what, it wont work out, its either you accept His way or nothing else, the scriptures is filled with example after example, Joseph, David, Moses Apostle Paul, consider the life of each of these characters, it took Joseph thirteen years before he saw any form of promotion and twenty two years to see the fulfillment of his dreams, David spent at least 10 years wandering from cave to cave, before he saw the manifestation of the anointing service Samuel carried out, he knew he was meant to be king, the whole of Israel knew it, even Saul the reigning king knew it, why didn’t he just go on and usurp the throne, it was all about the process of timing and waiting on God to bring fulfillment.</p> <p>Moses spent forty years preparing for a forty year ministry, oopsss, that’s not what we want these days is it? We want God to call us today, anoint us the next day and send us to save the lost souls the day after, it just doesn’t happen in the kingdom that way, there’s a process of preparation and sometimes pain and anguish, in explaining Joseph’s case the Psalmist in Ps 105:18, 19 says, Whose feet they hurt with fetters: and he was laid in iron. Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him. You see that, Gods word put him to test to see if he was worthy of the dream God gave him, and the same thing applies to you and me, do you have a word from God? Get ready for the word to try you, get ready for a process of preparation, and when God is done with you, you will find out that its was worth the wait, the ones that seem to be ahead of you who wouldn’t wait on Gods plan, who thought it was just a waste of time will eventually have to admit that it wasn’t time wasted it was actually time invested, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/the_will_and_plan_of_god~2021247/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/the_god_kind_of_love_unconditional~2021238/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:42:28+02:002007-04-02T18:42:28+02:00 <p>Love is a very strong emotion that humans are all too familiar with, in fact to say the words I love you is common place in our world today, all through scriptures we have examples of God showing affection to people, nations and eventually the whole human race, in fact one of the most popular verses in the bible is Jn 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. This verse is the theme upon which the New Covenant is built, as a matter of fact John the beloved apostle made a bold statement in 1 Jn 4:8, He that loves not knows not God, for God is love. Not only did God so love that He gave, God is Love personified, so its essential we understand the God kind of Love that’s known as agape love.</p> <p>Gods kind of love is unique and different from any other kind of love that mortal men express today, as a matter of fact there is no model in our world for Gods kind of love, its not based on our ability to do anything good (as most religious people would have us believe), its not based on whether or not our performance reaches a certain crescendo before we can be accepted, in actual fact there’s nothing we can do humanly speaking to make God love us more or less, His love is unconditional, not because we are lovely or lovable, but because, you guessed it, He is love.</p> <p>Now a lot of people find that difficult to comprehend, they have been schooled over a period of time that you can only show love to people who love you and if someone dislikes you, its only logical that you react to them likewise, religion hasn’t helped either, it has taught that God loves some people while He despises some others, and the reason why they are experiencing certain difficulties in their lives is because they have turned their backs on God so He is very angry at them and hence their situations, that’s not true at all, and its not what Gods word teaches, Titus 2:11 says, For the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared unto all men. Every body has a chance to be partakers of Gods awesome love by the grace which brings salvation so nobody is exempted, all we need do is to respond to this grace of God by our faith in Him and then we can all be partakers of His love.</p> <p>In fact truth is, you cant really understand God until you have a revelation of His love for you, most people get easily deceived by the events of their lives into believing that God responds to them based on their levels of performance, so when things go wrong with them the devil comes and tells them that its because they have sinned or haven’t been observing certain religious rites, hence they are not worthy of Gods love, then they in turn begin to doubt the permanence of Gods love and once this happens they begin to start looking for activities to engage in, thinking that the more they go to church or the more they study the word or give offering the more God will love them, now don’t get me wrong, its good to go to church, study the word and give offerings but those activities shouldn’t be done as an obligation to God, but they should come from our hearts as an expression of our love to Him, performance doesn’t affect Gods heart towards us, or get us into Gods good books but it affects our hearts and keeps it fixed on Him, that’s a very important statement to keep in mind because this will free you from any form of legalism in which a lot of people have found themselves in today in the name of religion, trying to get righteousness by works, Paul says in Gal 2:21, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. That’s about as plain as it can get, he says if I can attain based on my performance then Christ need not have died, also in verse 11 of Chapter 3 of the same book of Galatians, it says, But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident, The just shall live by faith. In fact the entire book of Galatians examines this same theme and annuls the claims of legalist by saying our relationship with the father is based entirely on His love for us and our response to Him in faith.</p> <p>Brothers and sisters, there’s nothing we can do to undo the price that Christ paid on the cross, it was borne out of nothing but Love for us, no one can ever remove that event from history, He loved us so much He decided to take our place, the just for the unjust, the sinless for the sinful, He became sin so that we might be the righteousness of God, its our response to this act of Love that matters, and even when we as flesh and blood fall short of his expectations of us, He still loves us, we need not give a place to the whims of the adversary, he is the one doomed forever and not us, no matter how far away we have gone, we can always return to the lover of our souls, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/the_god_kind_of_love_unconditional~2021238/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-04-02:/2007/04/02/the_reality_of_faith~2021225/seyekeye2007-04-02T18:40:38+02:002007-04-02T18:40:38+02:00 <p>One of the fundamental doctrines in Christianity is the fact that our relationship with God isn’t just based on our sense knowledge, but it’s essentially based on our Faith in Him, for instance we can’t see God with our physical eyes but we believe that He exists, we talk of heaven as the final destination of all truly born again believers but yet we don’t have a physical proof that heaven really does exist, in the same way we believe that we are redeemed by the precious blood of the lamb and His blood washed away our sins, but we cant physically see the blood removing sin out of us, but we believe it because His word tells us so and we have Faith that whatever He says is the truth and nothing can ever change it, in fact Faith is so important that it says in Heb11:6 that without faith its impossible to please God, in other words the only thing that pleases Him (makes Him happy, gladdens His heart) is the five letter word FAITH.<br> Since the subject of faith is very essential for a healthy walk with the heavenly father and we as His children are supposed to give Him pleasure not for His own sake but for ours, then it’s essential to make a careful study of the subject matter so that we can have direct access into the realm of the father. The passage of the scripture that readily comes to mind when the subject of faith is being discussed is Hebrews 11, in fact that chapter of the bible has been tagged the Faith heroes hall of fame, Heb 11:1 says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. </p> <p>Faith is substance, Faith is evidence, in other words faith is real, it says its not seen, but notice that it didn’t say it isn’t real, that’s a very important thing to understand about faith, because it isn’t seen doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Faith isn’t saying that something is so when it isn’t, hoping that if you say it long enough it will somehow become so, faith again isn’t denying physical facts, its just acknowledging that spiritual realities are truer than anything in the physical realm. We will come back to that in a few minutes, but lets take a look at how we get faith, Rom 10:17 says, so then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I love the translation that says, Faith comes by hearing the word of God, its Gods word that births the God kind of faith, so if someone says they have a problem believing God, its not essentially a faith problem it’s a word problem, the question is who have you been listening to? If you’ve allowed the trials of life to take your mind of God and His word, guess what? You will find it hard to believe Him for anything, the foundation of faith is Gods word, either the spoken or the written word. </p> <p>Now going back to our explanation on the Heb 11:1 definition of faith, faith is knowing that something is real even when you cant see it, there are some people that will find that description very infuriating because they have been conditioned in life not to believe any thing that cant be proved by science or cant be seen, tasted, heard, smelt or felt, if that’s the way you are, you will have a problem relating with God, because God calls those things which be not as though they were (Rom 4:17), there are various things even as human beings that we cant see with our physical eyes but do exist, one thing that readily comes to mind in this high tech age are signals that we know exist all over the place even when we cant see them with the physical eyes, wherever you are right now there are phone signals, television and radio signals, satellite signals and so on all around us which we cant see, and the good thing is we don’t have to see them, but we believe they do exist, that’s why we walk around with phones and can communicate with anybody anywhere in the world, that’s why we can switch on our TV sets and radio players and get broadcasts on them, that’s why we can get satellite images of outer space, now if someone were to say I don’t believe it because I cant see it, all you have to do is to get a phone, TV or a radio and you can prove to the person that it really does exist, its not when the phone, TV or radio it put on and in use that the signals appear, they have been there all the while. </p> <p>It’s the same way with faith (Gods word), when you see the manifestation of what was promised is not when you should be excited that you have received, faith (real faith) in God, is when the word you have received is so much evidence/substance to you that you don’t need to see anything with your physical eyes before you get excited and start sharing a testimony, in fact you will start talking and acting it like its real, because it is. In fact word reality is the only reality we have to walk in as Christians, Mk 11:24 says, whatever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive and you shall have them, it says you should believe that you have gotten it when you pray, not when you see a physical confirmation, if you live your life this way, the things that happen to people in the world that causes them to lose hope and fret wont be a bother to you, because you know that the realities of your life are the things that God has spoken over you, that will free you from any worry, anxiety and cares of this world.</p> <p>Once you can take His word and make it the reality of your life, whether or not you can see a physical manifestation, you are on the right track to obeying the scripture that says, for we walk by faith and not by sight. 2 Chor 5:7, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/04/02/the_reality_of_faith~2021225/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-03-17:/2007/03/17/the_true_nature_of_god~1919671/seyekeye2007-03-17T09:33:44+01:002007-03-17T09:33:44+01:00 <p>I have been around in the Pentecostal circles long for a while now and cant help but notice a major error being propagated mostly by believers in our world today, when asked about who God really is, the average Joe on the street responds with a shrug of the shoulders and says something like, “don’t know, I guess He’s the big guy in the sky that just does whatever He feels like doing”. that’s expected right, I mean if this guy says that no one is really bothered cos he obviously has no idea what he’s talking about, but its sad to know that even the so called evangelicals who claim to have the exclusive rights to God have so much misrepresented Him to the world that most people get differing messages from us when we talk about God.</p> <p>On one hand we talk about His love for the whole world and how He sent His only son to die for our sins Jn 3:16 and people get excited and say “you mean someone loves me to the point where He would allow His son to suffer for poor old me” and we say “yeah that’s true” and then in the same breath when we see an unbeliever exhibiting a sinful trait we go “Gods wrath and judgment will fall on you if you don’t repent, if you don’t stop smoking, drinking, fornicating etc, you will burn in a lake of fire that burns forever”, and people are asking “wait a minute didn’t you just say He was a loving God, how come He also wants me to burn forever, some love that is”, that’s a conflicting signal we are sending, its as if we are saying, God is fickle and we cant really tell what mood He’s in, that’s not a correct representation of the person and character of God.<br> So who is God and what exactly is He like? First lets take a look at the only earthly representation of the God head that ever was, Jesus Christ and lets see if we can get a glimpse of Gods nature from the only begotten of the father, after all He was bold enough to say “whoever has seen me has seen the father” (Jn 14:9) and Heb 1:3 says He’s the express image of His person, in other words if you want to know what the father looks like all you need do is take a very good look at His son and you wont be far from the true personality of the father. John the Baptist also bare the same witness concerning Him in Jn 1:18, it says No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the father hath declared (revealed unto us) him. Emphasis mine.</p> <p>Jesus stated in clear terms the essence of His mission on earth, in Mk 1:15, He said, “the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. What is the gospel? And why was it important that Gods son came and all He was proclaiming was the truths of the gospel, it basically means the good news or as someone put it, the too good to be true news. A lot of people today are always interested in seeing the news, especially the late night news because it gives a snapshot of the happenings of the day and if you’ve been out all day it’s a great opportunity to catch up on what’s going on around you, it’s the same way with the gospel it shows the picture of who God really is and how much He’s interested in the affairs of man, the gospel essentially highlights the heart of God and the plan He put in place to redeem his long lost love back to the position they were before the fall of Adam.<br> In other words, the message of the gospel is simple, GOD IS LOVE, He loved so much that He gave, He gave His best to bring humanity back to Himself, anything outside this is not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this message was the central theme of Christ’s 31/2 year ministry, in His interactions with ordinary people all He was showing them was that the issue wasn’t how much you try to impress God with your performance or how much of works you can do to get into Gods good books, all men have sinned, not just because of what they do or don’t do, but as Paul put it in Rom 5:12, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. The message of condemnation we hear all over today isn’t the gospel of Christ, in Jn 3:17, Jesus said, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.<br> I hear someone asking, if God’s love is the theme of the gospel and hence the real representation of the nature of God, how about the sin issue, isn’t that an hindrance, doesn’t God deal with us in different ways based on our actions, the answer is NO, our actions do not affect Gods heart towards us, there’s nothing we can do to make God love us more or less, our actions only affect our own hearts to wards God and that determines how we receive from Him, sin is a factor, I agree with that, but it says in 2 Chor 5:19, …that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Emphasis mine.<br> That’s the way God deals with us in the new covenant, the phrase not imputing implies that God is not charging our sins into our account, He’s put all that on His Son, so we can all go free, all He asks us is to believe in the atonement of Christ on the cross and we can walk away free for the rest of our lives, Romans 5:13 -21 explains this truth in a very simple manner, all we need do is to accept the one and for all sacrifice of the Son of God. That’s why Jesus in introducing the Holy Spirit to His disciples said, “And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they believed not on me. Jn 16:8, 9. The only sin anybody will suffer for is because they have not believed in the name of Jesus and accepted his offer of redemption, it’s that simple.</p> <p>The question now arises, do you mean I can accept Him and then go on and live a sinful life it doesn’t really matter? Well that will be really stupid wont it, living a sinful life is an action and when you choose to do something you also invariably choose the consequence, living in sin gives the devil full access into your life and there’s nothing God can do about that, He will come in to steal, kill and destroy, trust me you don’t want to do that, Paul addresses this same issue by saying, God forbid. How shall we, who are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. Rom 6:2, 16. Jesus also pointed out that whoever commits sin is a slave of sin, so its really simple, God treats us based on the righteousness we have received by Christ but we can hinder the flow of His power into our lives if we yield to the whims and caprices of the flesh or the devil, and that will open the door wide for him to take advantage of us.</p> <p>I sincerely pray that God will open our eyes to these truths and we will see God the way He really is, a loving father who has put in place a wonderful plan to deliver us from the condemnation and guilt of the devil, God bless you. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/03/17/the_true_nature_of_god~1919671/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-03-17:/2007/03/17/is_god_really_responsible_for_everything~1919652/seyekeye2007-03-17T09:28:41+01:002007-03-17T09:28:41+01:00 <p>Recent happenings in my country and around the world in general have raised certain issues concerning the sovereignty of God, and whether or not God is responsible for or allows certain negative events to occur in our world today, most people, sad to say including Christians generally react to these occurrences with an attitude that suggests that they believe God is judging our nation and therefore its His will that all these terrible things are happening, I believe this is totally against what the Bible teaches and this doctrine is the number one heresy propagated by religion today, its too simplistic and all it does is to shift the responsibility for our lives, families and societies off from us and its just convenient to say that since its Gods will there is nothing we can do about it and that’s not true at all.</p> <p>The bible teaches that God is the Lord Almighty and He is in charge of the heavens and the earth that He created, but when He created human beings He gave them dominion over everything else He made (Gen 1:28), man is directly responsible for the happenings wherever he is found and he’s supposed to have dominion and not be dominated by circumstances, but you don’t have to look very far to understand where today’s extension of Adam got their theory of blaming God for everything that happens in their lives from, look at what Adam said when God confronted him with the truth of his disobedience, Gen 3:12, Then the man said, “the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate”.<br> He not only said it was the woman he also said its Gods fault for giving him the woman, instead of him taking responsibility for his actions he basically said, God what do you expect, why did you give me someone like this, in fact why did you even place this tree in here in the first place. Here’s what I am hitting at, God gave each one of us a powerful gift called the gift of choice and when we exercise this gift we not only choose our actions we also choose the consequences, a perfect understanding of this will point to us exactly where or who the problem is, it’s the person in the mirror, you and I.</p> <p>Let me make a bold statement here and I am sure this will ruffle a few feathers, GODS WILL IS ONLY SELDOM DONE IN THE WORLD, someone says that’s blasphemy, how can you say that, God is the master of the Universe, creator of the heaven and earth and you are saying His will rarely gets done on the earth, yes that’s exactly what I am saying, and I’ll spend the rest of this article explaining what I mean, you just hear me out as I use scriptures to verify this statement, at least you got to give me a chance to explain myself before you stop reading this article and start saying I am teaching heresy.<br> We can take every character in the bible one by one and the things that happened to them, but since we are focusing primarily own whole societies and nations where else to start but Gods chosen nation Israel, Gods sole will and purpose for bringing them out of slavery in Egypt was to take them into the land which He promised to their fathers over 500 years before, it took them less than a year to get to the border of the promised land but not until 40 years after did the first set of people step into the land, why do you think that is? If we listen to our “nothing happens unless God wills it” theories then it was Gods will for them to wander and go about in circles for 40 years right? Wrong, as far as He was concerned He was ready to take them in, but THEIR UNBELEIF AND LACK OF TRUST in God hindered God from moving the way He wanted to, I could use a lot of scriptures to prove these, here’s a few Heb 3:17-19, Ps 81:11-16, Ps 96:10,11, Ps 106:24 and on and on it goes, I particularly like Ps 78:41 which says… they turned back and tempted God and limited the holy one of Israel. How else can you explain this verse, this is as straight to the point as it can be, they limited God, or better put they tied the hands of the Almighty, all knowing , all powerful God, yes that’s true, there are things we can do in our lives that can limit God and make His will for our lives not to come to pass, and remember this was a whole generation of people, someone says “hey but their kids got into the land of promise”, but as far as these ones were concerned Gods will didn’t get fulfilled in their lives, so whatever happened to them in the wilderness all the perils and hardships, that wasn’t God controlling those things, it was they that brought everything on themselves.</p> <p>Jesus made a profound statement concerning Jerusalem in the gospels, He said, “ O Jerusalem, how often I would have loved to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks but you would not”, He also had an experience in his own home town when He went there to minister in Mk 6:1-7, their unbelief prevented Him from fully manifesting His power and might, in 2 Pet 3:9 it says, The Lord isn’t slack concerning His promises as some men consider slackness but is longsuffering towards us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. This verse clearly states what Gods will is, but you and I know that millions are perishing today, why is that? Again if we listen to our religious doctrine on sovereignty which says nothing happens unless God wills it then this verse isn’t true, we have got to reach the point where we realize that Gods will for our lives don’t just happen automatically, we have to cooperate with Him to bring it to pass.<br> I could spend the whole day sharing scripture after scripture of characters in the bible and verses of the scripture which verify this exact same thing we are sharing here, God does not control our lives the way most people think and the earlier we start aligning ourselves to the truths of His word the better for us and our world, righteousness exalts is what it says in Pro 14:34, sin (unrighteousness, unbelief, lack of trust in God) is a reproach, emphasis mine we can literarily turn our lives around by making the right choices, God bless you.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/03/17/is_god_really_responsible_for_everything~1919652/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:godspill.blog.co.uk,2007-03-15:/2007/03/15/his_word_is_enough_for_you~1912663/seyekeye2007-03-15T23:40:23+01:002007-03-16T00:48:55+01:00 <p>Most Christians have the concept of the Bible being Gods word, and most times will not doubt its authenticity or infallibility, after all it says all scriptures is given by the inspiration of God (2 Tim 3:16), but taking a closer look at the way most people live their lives, there’s a sense to which they feel that the word isn’t enough for them to overcome the things they encounter in every day life, life just seems to be such a heavy burden that it just doesn’t make sense (in the natural) to think that believing and acting on words are the way out of the problems we encounter, they don’t necessarily state it like that but their actions concur with this philosophy.</p> <p>The creation account in Genesis 1 gives us a vivid picture of how powerful Gods word is, everything that can be accessed by the senses was created by the word of God, I mean God literarily spoke the entire world into being, isn’t that awesome? Almighty God had a messed up world that was without form and void (Gen 1:2) and instead of worrying or wondering where it all went wrong, He went ahead and framed the world with His words and everything He said was eventually what He saw come into manifestation, which teaches a fundamental principle in understanding a basic truth in life, Got a need? Get a word, God is only committed to confirming His words with signs following (Mk 16:20).</p> <p>Bible historians tell us the first five books of the bible was written by Moses, a prophet in ancient Israel who God called to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt into the promised land, Exodus 33 gives us an insight into how Moses got this awesome revelation of how the world was made, vs.13 says Now therefore,I pray if I have found grace in your sight show me your way that I may know you….here’s Moses asking God to show Him who He really is, now if I were to come by your house and I said I wanted to get to know you more, what will your response be? Remember this wasn’t just a nobody making this request, this was someone who had a history of hearing from God, someone who God had wrought great signs and wonders by his hands in the land of Egypt, if you asked me I would have thought he knew God pretty well at least better than anybody on the earth at this time, but his request makes us understand that he still needed something more,the answer is found in Gods response vs.19…I will make my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you and vs.23 says …I will take away my hand and you shall see my back (the beginning), but my face shall not be seen. Emphasis mine.</p> <p>God was literarily telling Moses I want to show you the way it was at the very start of everything, you want to know me? come on over lets take a journey into the very beginning of creation, all the things you can see came out of something you cant see, and that’s my word, I can see Moses scratching His head and thinking how many times will I have to pen the words, ..And God said, and God said, and God said, and God would tell him, that’s what I have been trying to explain to you, its all about my word, don’t get carried away with the works, as impressive as the works are, the word is the foundation of everything, no wonder Ps 103:7 says, He made his ways known to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel, the secret to life is to know his ways and its inevitable, the acts will follow.</p> <p>There’s obviously lots more to be said about the word than I can explain in an article, I have got a tape in titled “ The word is enough for you”, that will really expound more of the concept of Gods word.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://godspill.blog.co.uk/2007/03/15/his_word_is_enough_for_you~1912663/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>