Asides

Wanna Receive From God? Here’s How. (Part 2)

In the last post, I wrote about how love was one of the key ways you can receive from God.

Before I go on to the next point, I need to emphasize on the fact that these keys I’m writing are not to be taken as a ‘3 steps to reach God fast’ or ‘7 ways to make God do as you say’!

Religion preaches laws and rules; God desires relationship. Yet, we are always eager to ‘do’ something to merit receiving from God.

The Father says,
“I want to enjoy you”

We respond,
“I know, so what must I do?”

The thing is, Are there 3 steps you have to take to talk to your earthly dad? Of course not!

What there is, however, is a mindset and disposition that you need to have before you meet him, right?

That’s simply my goal with this post.

The truth is that all 3 keys I’d be sharing are all intertwined within each other. For any one you decide to pick, the other two keys automatically join up by default.

So, without wasting time, let’s move to the second key to receiving from God:

See God’s Word as your utmost reality!

That sounds so simple. Yet, so many of miss it.

In John 11:4, look at what Jesus said regarding Lazarus’ sickness,

“This sickness is not unto death…”

Well, if you’re familiar with the story, you’d find out that Lazarus ACTUALLY died!

So, does that make Jesus a liar?

No!

The thing is that the Word of God is the REAL reality!

See, Jesus had said that Lazarus’ sickness would not lead to death. And that was an unchangeable truth.

Even after Lazarus had physically died, as far as Jesus was concerned, the man was not dead.

Even when Lazarus had been wrapped and placed in the tomb, as far as Jesus was concerned, the man was not dead.

Even when Lazarus was in the tomb for 4 days and 4 nights and had started decaying, as far as Jesus was concerned, Lazarus was not dead!

Here’s why:

Hebrews 1:3 says,

“…and upholding all things by the Word of His Power”

This implies that God holds up the whole created universe by His Word. Meaning that EVERYTHING – man, animals, planets, sun, moon, stars, galaxies – is sustained by the integrity and veracity of God’s Word.

Wow! That’s profound. I really hope you get this.

The whole creation was implemented by the veracity and truthfulness of God’s Word. The reason creation could successfully occur in the first place is because God’s Words are TRUE!

Get this:

The day God lies, all His Creation would self-destruct!

That’s why God cannot lie! (Titus 1:3)

That’s why God does not joke with His Word.

If He has spoken it, it is already a reality!

So, when Jesus said, ‘This sickness is not unto death….’, sincerely speaking, it was not unto death!

Despite the fact that the prevalent circumstances were looking contrary to what Jesus had said, it still was not the real Reality.

Jesus’ Words were!

The truth remains that until you get to the place where you can see God’s Word as your ultimate reality, you’d find it hard to receive from God!

Sincerely.

Unless you start seeing God’s Word as your ultimate reality, you’d remain stuck in your current predicament.

Unless you start seeing God’s Word as your reality, you’d be tossed and swayed to and fro by anything that the devil and your circumstances throw at you!

Now, am I saying that you should live in denial because you want to see God’s Word as reality?

No! Of course not!

Denial is a refusing to acknowledge that the devil or your current circumstances exist.

Denial is living a lie.

Denial is a carnal and philosophical fantasy. It’s not scriptural, because the devil does exist, and we live in a corrupted world, where circumstances and challenges would arise.

On the other hand, seeing God’s Word as your reality means that you choose to focus on the scheme of things FROM GOD’S VIEWPOINT.

That’s very important!

You’re not denying the fact that there are needs to be met, or problems and circumstances to tackle. However, because you are seeing the reality from God’s viewpoint, you can also see the superabundance of provisions available to cater for all your needs.

Consider Genesis 39:2,

“And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man…”

Now if you read the text, you’d find out that Joseph had just been sold to Potiphar by the Ishmaelites.

He had no mother.

No father to rescue him.

Jealous brothers who hated him.

He was probably without any clothes, because slaves were sold naked back then.

Yet, God’s word concerning Joseph was that he was a prosperous man.

Joseph saw himself from God’s viewpoint, regardless of his current challenges or the ones that lay ahead of him.

Joseph was secure in the reality of God’s Word for him…and he ended up becoming the Egyptian Prime Minister.

So, are you in a dire need for change, freedom, relief, provision?

Yes?

Then you really need to stop magnifying your current circumstances or the devil!

Instead, get into God’s Word to see reality from God’s viewpoint.

It’s that simple!

Receive From God: Here’s How (Part One)

It seems like many of us would be willing to do ANYTHING to be able to receive from God on a consistent basis. Whether it is guidance you need for that life-defining decision you’re planning to make or it’s provision you desire for that pressing need in your family, I’ve got good news for you….

God is ALWAYS more than eager to meet you at the point of your need. But the question remains this: Are you able to receive?

As time goes on, I’d be sharing some of the principles (or keys, if you like) that would place you in a position where you can easily receive from ANYTHING from God.

So, let’s start.

The very first key that would place you in a position where you can receive from God is this:

Be assured in your mind that God LOVES you!

That’s simple. Yet, it’s very, very profound.

The truth is that you will never be able to make any demands from your Heavenly Father if you are not secure and assured in His Love!

If you keep seeing the Father as One Who is always watching out for your shortcomings, flaws and faults, you’d never be able to approach His Throne of mercy to obtain grace and mercy.

Is that God’s fault?

Of course not!

It’s my belief that generations of exposure to dead, routine religion has totally blinded us to the fact that God delights in us and desires to have a Father-to-child relationship with us.

Listen, if you can just grasp this point now, you’re already receiving from God!

Consider the message that Lazarus’ sisters sent to Jesus in John 11:3,

“…Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick”

As innocent as that statement may sound, it contains the totality of all I’d be saying in this post.

Note that the message to Jesus was not…

“…Lord, behold, if You had loved him, he would not have been sick”

You know why?

Simple.

Lazarus’ sisters were fullly assured in the deepest core of their being that Jesus loved them!

Did you get the gist?

They were already secure in the Love of Jesus, and that was the reason they were in the perfect position to receive from Jesus.

Note again that Mary and Martha did not tell Jesus…

“…Lord, behold, he who loves you is sick”

They did not put any effort to try and impress Jesus about the warm heart that Lazarus had towards the gospel and the kingdom of God.

Sounds blunt, eh?

But it’s true.

Personally, I think all Christians could learn from this.

We now live in an age where the focus is on what we can ‘do’ for the Lord. We go about impressing people with our zeal and zest for the things of God. We put up such a good performance and pat ourselves on the back on how we are showing our love for God. We even try to hold God to ransom, telling Him things like,

“God, you know I’ve done many things for your Name and Kingdom, so, You have to move in my life NOW”

Please note that I’m not against a display of energy and passion for
the things of God! God forbid.

I just want you to pay attention to your motivation for doing these things. As far as some people are concerned, their public display is a mere selfish bid to earn points with God.

Mary and Martha’s message to Jesus did not contain any of that!

They were totally focused on the love they knew Jesus had for them!

That love did not have anything to do with Lazarus’ presence or absence of requited Love.

That love did not have anything to do with whether or not Mary had put a good religious performance or not.

That love had nothing to do with Mary’s, Martha’s or Lazarus’ input towards Christ’s ministry.

That love was God-initiated and God-inspired!

Little wonder Romans 5:8 says,

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”

What manner of human love can ever attempt to trump that?

My advice? Don’t even try to trump it. Just follow Mary and Martha’s example and secure yourself in God’s love for you.

Rest in God’s love for you! Don’t even attempt to deserve or earn it, because you can’t!

The thing is that until you get to the point in your heart that you are convinced that the Almighty Creator of the Heavens and the Earth is interested in you, you’d continually find it hard to receive from Him.

Rest and enjoy His Love and see yourself finding it extremely easier to receive all you need from the Father!

That’s not all. Watch out for Part Two of this series.

Grace and Peace.

Truths YOU HAVE TO START Keying Into

Wow!

It feels so good to be back here. Yeah, I know you must have missed me very much. Don’t worry folks, over the next couple of days (or maybe weeks) I’d more than make up for my enforced ‘sabbatical’ from blogging.

While I was ruminating on what to use for marking my return to blogging, I realized that there were numerous Children of the Light who had no idea of certain laws, perks or if you like, truths that should govern their everyday life. For this reason, I felt that I should share some of them with you:

1. The Holy Spirit makes intercession for you (Rom 8. 26)

2. Christ makes intercession for you (Rom 8. 34)

3. You are putting on Christ (Gal 3. 2, 5)

4. You have the Spirit of God’s Son resident in you (Gal 4. 6)

5. You have been blessED with all spiritual blessings in Christ by God (Eph 1. 3)

6. You WERE CHOSEN in Christ before the earth’s foundation to be holy and blameless (Eph 1. 4)

7. You’ve been acceptED as one of God’s beloved (Eph 1. 6)

8. You’ve BEEN MADE to sit together with Christ in heavenly places (Eph 2. 6)

9. Through Christ, you have access by the Holy Spirit to the Father’s presence (Eph 2. 18)

10. The power of God in you, is able to do for you more than what you ask or think (Eph 3. 20)

11. God is at work within you to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil 2. 13)

12. God has qualifiED you to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in the light (Col 1. 12)

13. God has deliverED you from the power of darkness and translatED into the kingdom of His dear Son (Col 1. 13)

14. All treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Christ. Interestingly, your life is also hid in Christ! (Col 2. 3; 3. 3)

15. You have been elected in God (1 Thess 1. 4)

16. The Word of God works effectively in you (1 Thess 2. 13)

17. You have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness (1 Pet 1. 3)

18. You have been called to be a partaker of the Divine Nature (1 Pet 1. 4)

19. In everything, you are enriched in Christ (1 Cor 1. 5)

20. You are God’s temple and the Holy Spirit resides in you (1 Cor 3. 16)

21. You have the Mind of Christ (1 Cor 2. 16)

22. All things are yours….and you belong to Christ (1 Cor 3. 21, 23)

23. You are joined to the Lord and you are one spirit with Him (1 Cor 6. 17)

24. You are the image and the glory of God (1 Cor 11. 7)

25. There’s a treasure in you (2 Cor 4. 7)

26. You are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor 5. 21)

It doesn’t stop here.

You can take up the Word of God and search for more verses that tell you who you are in Christ. Feel free to add more to the comments section below….

April’s Full…I’ll Be Right Back!!!

Happy April to you. I’m really expectant and I look forward to receiving all the ‘goodies’ that are embedded into this month.

I want to thank my readers for bearing with me during my little ‘sabbatical’. I’d be back, sooner than you expect.

Furthermore, I want to appreciate as many who took some time out to pray me into the perfect will of God. May the Book of God’s visitation be opened in your favour, sooner than you expect..

Finally readers and well-wishers, I commend you into the safe Hands of God. As arrows in the Hands of the Mighty One, you’d hit your target this month…

…By His Grace!

All Things Are Yours…

Let’s take a moment and ponder on what would happen if Someone walked up to you in the heat of the day. He’s immaculately dressed in a black tux, white shirt, black tie and matching shoes.

The Guy presents to you His Identification card. You blink your eyes in wonder. Why, you say, He’s from my bank! His face has a tender mix of compassion and concern. You look into His eyes and instantly know you can trust Him.

All is going according to the script, until He tells you that there’s £100 million lying fallow in your bank account.

The cautious part of you looks incredulously at the Man standing in front of you.

A hundred million pounds?!!

The Man from your bank then presents your statement of account to you. You stare at the sheet of paper, your mind trying to convince your heart that it’s all a hoax.

But, moments later, with your tear-stained eyes facing the Bank Manager seated opposite you, you find out that there was no scam in the first place.

It was all true!

In fact, the money had been lying dormant in your account right from the day you were born!

You hold back the well of tears threatening to flood your eyes, as you remember the days you forced yourself to fast, since there was no money to buy food.
You remember how you used to walk long distances to your destinations because you had no money for transport.
You remember how you wore one cloth for all your social functions.
You remember how you couldn’t pay your bills….

Just then, the Manager peers down a particular document on the table and tells you that there’s a clause attached to the money in your account.

When you ask what it is, The Manager tells you that after every withdrawal you make, not minding how frequent or how large it is, the account is replenished back to its original amount!

You’d probably have fainted at this point!

Nice story, you might say…

But to me, it’s more than just a ‘nice story’. It’s an analogy that clearly depicts how many pass through life, enduring it while we’ve been given ALL THINGS to enjoy.

You see, in real life, we are all given a BLANK CHEQUE to write out whatever we want. For some, they write exorbitantly; others write less impressive figures. Still, some others do not even know that such a cheque exists in the first place!

The key here is KNOWLEDGE. Because, unless one KNOWS that he/she has priviledges and perks, he/she would probably just get by with life.

But regardless of the presence/absence of the knowledge, the TRUTH remains that everything has been given to us to enjoy!!!

That’s what abundant life’s all about.

You don’t have to struggle with lack of money or the absence of good health. You don’t have to battle with anxiety or certainty over the future.

You don’t have to struggle anymore because you’ve been given ALL THINGS that pertain to life here on earth.

All you have to do is to go to your banker, withdraw from the ‘pool of unlimited resources’ that has been freely given to you and live your life to the FULLEST.

It’s the good life. No scam!

The Hedgehog And The Fox

Hello there!

I’ve been so busy over the past couple of weeks, and as such, I’ve not been able to post as frequently as I would have loved. Anyways, I was able to squeeze out some time today to churn out something for your reading pleasure. (N.B: I might sound a lil’ bit ‘rusty’. Please bear with me)

Okay, so I stumbled on an interesting story last year. It was about The Hedgehog and The Fox. A lot of you might even be familiar with the story. I hope you’d get a few deep insights from the short story I’m about to tell:

The fox is a very, very cunning creature. Very powerful. Sleek. And extremely fast-paced.

The hedgehog, on the other hand, is a very weak animal. It’s slow and sluggish. It seems to be content with foraging shrubs in search of sweet plants and maybe small insects.

Now, it must be noted that the fox is carnivorus (i.e, it feeds on other animals, e.g, hedgehogs!).

From the look of things, it seems that the fox has everything going for it.

So, the fox finds the gentle hedgehog searching for food. The hedgehog is totally oblivous to the danger posed by the fox. The fox carries out all its feasibility studies and raw data analysis and feels confident that THIS TIME, it would catch it’s prize.

The fox makes for the prey.

And again, as usual, the hedgehog senses the imminent danger. It shakes its head, wondering why the fox would never learn it’s lesson!

Nonchalantly, the hedgehog activates its defensive mechanism and curls itself into a ball of pins, just as the fox is about to pounce on it.

Needless to say, the fox is flabbergasted, to say the least. It shakes its head, licks its wounds and trots away to its den to restrategize!

THEN THE CYCLE REPEATS ITSELF….

The fox is good in so many things, yet it does not get its desired goal. The hedgehog on the other hand is only good in ONE THING. And that ‘one thing’ continually saves its life from the jaws of death.

You might be wondering how this applies to you.

The truth is that it concerns you, even more than you think.

It bores down to ONE word: PURPOSE!

How many foxes do you know? You don’t even have to look so far, because they are all around. They seem to have all the connections in the corridors of power. They might even have loads of money. But that extra ‘something’ is absent in their lives. They feel that they are nearly attaining what they want, but like the fox, they land on a ball of pins!

The hedgehog’s life is simple and uncomplicated. It is an expert in one thing: Forming balls of pins! People with a vision and a sense of purpose are like that too. They might not have connections or affluence, but they are fulfilled.

The question now is: Which would you rather be?

What He Did For You: A Physiologist’s Viewpoint

I felt the need to take some time out just to try and summarize the PHYSICAL implications of what Christ did for you and I over two millenia ago. This goal of this piece isn’t to undermine, but to make you all the more appreciate the spiritual significance of Christ’s death and resurrection.

At the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ’s sweats were as droplets of blood. This is medically referred to as HEMATIDROSIS. It occurs in instances of great emotional distresses, as a result of ruptures of the capillaries of the sweat glands. The condition usually makes the skin very tender, meaning that the physical assaults that Christ would later receive were going to be really painful for Him.

After Christ was arrested for a sham trial, He was smitten on behalf of the High Priest, by an officer. Though, we can’t determine the exact force of the blow, it’s easy to estimate that these early beatings were sufficient to induce MULTIPLE CONTUSION, especially because Christ had earlier gone through a phase of HEMATIDROSIS.

Between the Lord’s Supper and the end of the Roman trial, Christ endured great emotional stress compounded by His disciples absconding and a beating after the Jewish trial. He was forced to walk for almost 3 miles to the various trial sites. Besides, Christ must have slept little (if at all) and all these factors were going to make Him particularly vulnerable to the severe scourging He’d later receive.

The whips used by the Roman soldiers had thongs, to which small iron balls or sheep bones were tied at intervals. Though, Jewish law commanded that the highest strokes a man could receive was 39, the Romans had no limits. So, it’s save to say that Christ’s flogging could have been much worse.

Christ was whipped by two Roman soldiers referred to as LICTORS. He was whipped on His Chest, Back, Gluteus and Legs. The beatings tore His Skin and underlying subcutaneous tissues. Then the underlying muscles were tattered by the whippings. The ribs could have been fractured by repeated blows, leading to laceration of superficial blood vessels. At a point of the fierce whippings, blood would have spurted out of His deep wounds with each beat.

Blows to Christ’s back would have been excrutiatingly painful. Perforation of the back muscles by the whippings would send impulses that exceeded the pain threshold. The spinous processes of His vertebrae would have been cracked as a result of the beatings.

By the time the lictors were done, Christ had lost so much blood that He had a reduced blood pressure and blood flow. This would have led to a state of shock which would in turn lead to irreversible cell and organ damage.

A crown of thorns (which was most likely to be a helmet of thorns, rather than a carefully plaited crown) was placed on Christ’s head. With the crown on His head, He was also receiving blows to that same head. This would have driven the thorns deeper into the highly vascularized scalp and forehead. At this point, the pain could be best described as indescribable, because of the perforation of nerves, arteries and veins on His head.

Roman soldiers got Christ a royal robe which they consistently wore and took of Him. Each time this happened, the clotted blood on His wounds would reopen, bleed and cause more pain.

Weakened from His scourging, Christ was made to carry His Cross. He fell from the weight of the Cross. This could have led to a blunt chest trauma and a contused heart.

Christ was dehydrated and hypovolemic by the time He reached Golgotha. Nails of about 5 to 7 inches in length were driven into His hands and feet. The nails caused injuries to His median, peroneal and plantar nerves. Insects burrowed into open wounds and orifices in His battered body.

On the cross, Christ had difficulty in breathing. Maximum inhalation was only possible when His body weight was supported by His outstretched arms. But exhalation was impossible in this position, besides, the pain would be too much for His perforated arms to bear, so He had to shift His weight back to His lower extremeties. Christ had to alternate between the two positions just to keep breathing, yet He also had to be careful so as not to reopen clotted wounds. Eventually, fatigue would build up in His muscles and so, He was forced to support His weight on His lower extremeties. Not being able to breathe properly, Christ’s chest and respiratory muscles became paralyzed with increased strain and pain. The inevitable was only moments away…

To ascertain Christ’s clinical death, a random Roman soldier pierced Christ’s side at an angle that reached the base of His heart. The serous pericardial fluid, as well as blood from the heart, gushed out of Christ’s side.

Christ was buried and on the third day, He was resurrected and now is on the right side of power.

But what I continually see, is Christ, with His outstretched arms on the Cross, saying:

“I love you this much. I’d rather die, than live without you”

What would your response be ?!!

State Of The Mind: A Poem

Graves, white-washed graves; sickly beauty;
Full without…
Of loud mouthfuls of knowledge to passersby who care,
Full within…
Of decaying putrid flesh; skeletons no one wants to talk about

Hypochondria, an almost welcome relief, is let out of the backdoor,
While melancholia ‘reins’ with bits.

At the expense of real inspiration,
Self, condemned to daily denial,
Is motivated to maintain the perfect IMAGE…

IDOLATRY! Idolatry it is,
Poor substitute for Godly piety, unabashedly denying
The very Power that could have been its Backer.

The accolades and laurels pushing for significance,
Are rewards for the good performance given…
And all are taken,
Except the unfancied plaque labelled ‘HEED!’

“It’s under control!
it’s under control!!”, they say,
Till when the last grip on the truth
Quickly slips out of the brakeless vehicle
Speeding down the steep gradient

As Blindness sadly smites Realization across the face,
Whatever high shoulders left are shrunk
And locked up under custody of roaring rodents,
That only moments ago had no semblance of a chance