Tag: spirit

How To Command God: Quick Steps

Motivational preacher’d be like:
“And I shouted, “God!” and INSTANTLY He replied me, “Yes, my son!”. Then I told Him, “Move this mountain, Lord!” and He said, “Yes, my son! Would that be all?””

And I’m like: Is that the picture of the Ancient of Days you have in your puny mind…sir ?!!
A talkative God?
A God you can wrap around your little finger?
A God that is waiting on you just to serve all your whims?
An inferior God?

(Before I go on, I must say that the title of this post is a LITTLE bit….er….misleading. You won’t be seeing any tips on how to command God. Sorry to disappoint you, but kindly spare me some minutes. I promise you won’t regret it)

Now, on commanding God, it seems to me that a lot of preachers have taken Isaiah 45 vs 11, a bit out of context. The verse says,

“Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and His Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hand, command ye me”

So, they see the phrase, “Command ye me” and then proceed to exercise their “authority” over the LORD Almighty.

Funny, isn’t it?

But to have a better understanding of the contextual meaning of a Biblical text, it pays to read the preceeding and suceeding verses.

Verse 10 says,
” Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? Or to his mother, What hast thou brought forth? ”

Now, this is getting interesting!

From Isaiah 45 vs 10, it is apparent that verse 11 is a QUESTION!!!
In essence, God is saying: Inasmuch as you can’t question your parents about why they gave birth to you or why you have certain features in your physique, you also can’t question His purpose regarding you!
He’s not asking you to command Him.
Instead, God is saying, “You shouldn’t dare to command Me!”

Well, that should settle this issue.

But if you still have doubts, let’s check verses 12 and 13:

“I have made the earth and created man upon it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city and shall ket go my captives, not for price or reward, saith the LORD of hosts”

Regardless of what we declare, decree or command, it is His Will and Purpose for our lives that would stand in the end.

Look, don’t waste your time commanding Jehovah to do your own selfish, lustful desires. We are not meant to command God. We are meant to do His own will and bidding.

Do yourself a favour: Whenever you pray, instead of commanding God, find His perfect will by His Spirit; and pray in that line.

Remember, swimming against the tide causes you to expend a lot of energy while you cover very little ground.
On the other hand, flowing with the tide is both easier and rewarding.

Be wise!!!

A Phone’s Kind Of Faith

I use a small java phone:

The Nokia C2-05.

It is a slide phone with ‘old-fashioned’ alphanumeric keys.

Over the past couple of years, the phone has been quite indispensible to me.

I make and receive calls on it.
With it, I send and receive text messages.
Since I don’t have a laptop, I surf the net with this same phone.
I check mails and maintain THIS blog with it.
I even upload and download files and ebooks on it.

Now, a couple of months back, I was going through some trying moments. I believe God ministered to me with this analogy:

We pick up our phones and effortlessly expect to send and receive messages, make and receive calls, browse, upload and download files. Instances when this doesn’t happen, we simply check the phone settings (or our airtime balances!) and rectify the issue.

No wires link our phones to the sites we download from.
No ropes join our phones to other phones when we make calls or send messages.

Instead, we believe and unconditionally trust in the unseen microwaves and radiowaves in the air, even though we don’t see them.

Yet, when asked to have faith in the power of God, we fidget and fret!
We ask to see physical manifestations, first!

You see, prior to the discovery of phones, telecommunication towers and satellite dishes, already there were invisible microwaves and radiowaves. Because man was unaware of them then didn’t mean they didn’t exist.

Thankfully, man learnt to harness these invisible waves for his use.

The same goes for faith and the power of the Spirit!

The power of God is available to and for all and sundry. Words can’t even begin to describe the potency and magnitude of the power of the Spirit!

But, until you can have that simple and unwavering belief similar to the one you have in your phone, when you expect it to work the way you want it to, without any doubts, only then, would you begin to be a partaker in the goodies God has in store for you!!!

Is ‘COOL’ Really Overated?

When I saw it again this morning, I just knew it was time to chip in my two cents’ worth.

Is it a good thing to be ‘COOL’?
Is ‘COOLNESS’ really overrated?

Well, let’s first identify what ‘COOL’ is.

For some, it could mean being reserved, shy and soft-spoken.
Others would disagree and say it means being smart and trendy.

As a Christian, I believe being ‘COOL’ entails much more.

Yes, I understand that we are different people with different characters, mindsets and ideas. And as a result, our interpretations of ‘COOLNESS’ is a subset of who we are…

But allow me to submit to you, this day, that the height of ‘COOLNESS’ is being totally wrapped up under the control of the Holy Spirit!

Really.

Don’t you know it is possible to be charged up with the FIRE of the Holy Ghost, yet at the same time you are overflowing with living WATERS?

Duh, THAT’s cool!

You can be as BOLD as a lion, and still be GENTLE as a dove? Logically, they just don’t go together. But again, nothing in the Spirit ever makes sense logically.
How much ‘COOLER’ can one get?!

Be sincere now:

If you were just a regular ‘Joe’ and you came across a highly anointed individual, who manifests spiritual gifts and fruits, what would be your response?
I, for one, would go into my closet of prayers and desperately cry out for the Presence of the Spirit in my life, more than ever before!

My point is this:

There is a dearth of genuinely ‘COOL’ individuals out there.

What we have mostly, are individuals who fit into our preconceived notions of what ‘COOL’ should be. And as always, our preconceived notions are usually wrong.

The right kind of ‘COOLNESS’ is like a beautiful masterpiece of the Spirit.
It can never, never be overrated.
And thankfully, it’s meant for all!