Ask and you will receive

 Most of us have the ‘I don’t wanna talk/think about it’ moments. These are those times when we are either going through bad times or are have issues in life that are really bothering us but talking or thinking about them causes us more pain. In most cases, they are things that we so much desire to have but never seem to receive or things that we go through that never seem to end. We may have prayed about them but the situations seem never to change so we result to either pushing them away from our minds or coming up with other things that keep us busy to try distract ourselves from the reality in our lives, yet deep inside we have great longing for them to be met.

Writing this, I am reminded of the Shunemite woman in 2 kings 4:8-37. The bible talks about her as being a well to do woman/a woman of a notable character. However, the bible says that this woman had no child of her own and she never seemed to need a child (verse 28). She had spent her life serving her husband and when the man of God came by, she extended a hand of service to him too. Her life had seemed complete although deep inside her, there was a great desire for her to have a child. I believe she must have given up on having children and thinking about it caused her so much pain. That is why when Elisha told her that she would have a son by the same time the following year; she thought that he was playing with her mind. Life must have seemed so disappointing and she must have given up on God.

The bible says that the following year, she gave birth to a son. However, the bible says that the son later died. At this point we see her great pain and frustration reaching its highest point after the death.  Like most of us, she put the ‘I don’t wanna talk about it attitude’ and could not even share what she was going through (the death of her son) with her husband; the father of her son.  It is this point we see her really pain and how she had tried to deal with her the pain of a desire, which was trying not to ask for it to be met. “Did I ask for a son from my Lord? Didn’t I tell you not to raise my hopes?” That was her question, full of bitterness and pain. It gives me joy however to see that although she did not want to share it with anyone, she finally realized that it was most appropriate to share it with the right person, the man of God. This was the person who had helped her achieve her desire. At this point, her son was brought to life and she took him with joy and I believe that she was finally happy to have her desire met. 

 I believe that maybe if this woman had decided not to kill her hopes and look to God to met her desire, she would not have thought that Elisha was playing with her mind when he gave her a promise/prophesy.  The same should be to us. We should not give up on God but should ask from Him all that we need. The bible in Psalms 2:7-8 says that we are His children and if we ask for anything, He will give us. I believe that the reason he puts desires (Godly desires) in us is so that He can test if we trust in His ability to meet them. It is therefore important that we don’t run away from them or try to push them away but to look to Him that He may meet them (Psalms 121). When we keep asking from Him and seeking Him, He will surely meet them.

God bless you and be encouraged to ask from Him. He is Jehovah Jireh.

The seed of sin, the power of grace

 Three days ago while doing my daily devotion from the book of Genesis 4, I read about the story of Cain and Abel. It wasn’t a new story because I have read it severally. However, while reading the story something caught my attention. The story here is about how two brothers, Cain and Abel, had gone to offer a burnt sacrifice to the Lord. The bible says that when the two brothers offered the sacrifice, only Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable to God. I have never quite understood why Cain’s sacrifice did not find favor with God (hoping to understand that one day), but my Christian Religious Education teacher used to tell us that Cain had offered low quality crops for sacrifice (not sure how true that is). The story continues that when God rejected Cain’s sacrifice, he become angry and this anger caused him to kill his brother. 

After reading this story, it hit me so hard that there had never occurred any other death or murder before Abel. This means therefore that Abel’s death was the first death. However, it had not been a natural death but had been the first murder. This left me wondering how Cain had learnt how to kill. This brought the realization that sin is and has always been in us. We were born sinners and have the seed of sin in us. It brought the thought of a few weeks old baby who in our own understanding, we believe that he/she is harmless. However, you may find this baby biting its mother’s breast while being breastfed and then smiles suspiciously while looking at its mother to see her reaction. This clearly indicates that the baby really understands what it has done and one may wonder therefore how the baby is able to know that what it has done is wrong.

From this illustration it is clear that we have sin in us and we also have the knowledge of right in us. The bible says that the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve ate was the fruit of knowledge of good and bad. Bad/ sin entered in us when they ate it. At the same time, the knowledge of good got in us. Furthermore, it is so clear that the power of wrong/sin is so strong in us and we cannot easily resist it. The only way we can resist it is through the power of Christ. The bible in the whole of Genesis shows us how after eating the fruit, man became so sinful that God regretted for  having created man that He resolved to destroy him but only spare Noah who had found favor with the Lord. However, even after the floods, man (by man I mean both male and female Gen 1:27) continued to sin. This resulted to emergence of the law which did not make things any better.

It was clear to God that nothing could help do away with the seed of sin in us than a greater power being planted in us and that would be the seed of righteousness through grace that came from the death of Christ. The bible says that this power is so great that even where sin increased, grace increased the more (Romans 5:20). This is so evident in our lives every day. Many times I have found myself about to sin ‘terribly’ but in these moments is when the Spirit’s voice is so loud warning me against it and in such moments, I experience the grace that helps me to say no to such sins (Titus 2:11-12). In other times however, when I fall and the Holy Spirit brings me down on my knees in repentance, through this grace I find forgiveness and renewal. This grace always makes me new when I sin and keeps me from sinning.

With the seed of sin in us, there is always the temptation to fall into all kinds of evil. However, we can always receive this power of grace and keep from sinning. This however can be received through accepting Jesus Christ in your life (Romans 10:9) and allowing Him to be your Lord and the master (Adonai) of your life. When you receive Christ in your life, it does not end there. You will need to practice holiness by relying on this same grace and saying no to sin. It will not be easier than before receiving Christ but there will be a greater power in you that will cause you to want to choose good over evil. You will need to trust in it and say no. Else, you will be just talking of holiness and not living it. I pray that God will help us all to utelise the power of grace in us.

God bless you and keep growing in Him.

Get rid of your ignorance

I did not get the chance to watch ‘The Inside Story’ on KTN on Sunday November the second, neither have I found a chance to watch it on YouTube. However, from all the comments I have seen on social media, I can clearly tell what it was all about. The whole thing is not something to be proud of neither is its consequences. It is a pity to see what we have become and how easily we get caught up in such issues that are not so great to imagine. From this whole issue however, I have learnt that we have been so ignorant about so many things and there is need for us to seek knowledge and wisdom so that we may not fall into such problems.

Although the issues of false prophets, false miracles and false gospel are common areas of ignorance, I have realized there are so many other areas that we are so ignorant about. We have failed to understand many other areas such as sex, marriage, divorce, worship, leadership and authority, submission and many other important issues. We have chosen to do thing our own way or believe what others tell us instead of seeking knowledge from the author of it all. I am not trying to say that everyone who talks about these issues is wrong. I know that there are great men and women who have received the right knowledge on such issues and speak about them as it should. However, what I am saying is that we ought to seek personal knowledge on them so as to have the right information and avoid being misled.

When I write this, I am reminded of the Bereans in Acts 17:11 who when they received the message from Paul, they did not just believe it despite having heard of the works of Paul. Instead, they decided to go further and examine if what Paul had been speaking about was true. For this reason, the bible calls them wiser and of a nobler character than the Thessalonians. We ought to follow this example. We should not just hear from others and be in a hurry to do it but should take time to examine if what we hear is the truth. The bible in 1 John 4:1-3 calls for us to test the spirit. This therefore shows that not everyone or everything that is said or done is right. We are therefore required to equip ourselves with knowledge on all aspects of life to avoid being deceived.

‘Ignorance is no defense’, lawyers say and ‘my people perish for lack of knowledge’, the bible says. Therefore, this means that no one has any excuse to fail to do what is right because of lack of knowledge. Although God overlooks our days of ignorance, He expects us to seek knowledge and even repent of our ignorance and act in wisdom and knowledge. We cannot act in knowledge unless we seek it from the right source.

It is so clear-although so many have chosen not to admit it- that everything originated from God- He is the author of all things. Therefore, knowledge on all things can only come from Him. Furthermore, God has made it so easy for us to gain that knowledge by putting it all in one book, The Bible (by saying this, I know some people will disagree with me). It is a book with not as many pages as those we do or have done in class, yet it has become so difficult to find time to read/study it. We have some much time to spend on novels, chats, social media and all other ways but we can’t spare time for the word. We only have time for it on Sunday or Saturday when in church and even then, we let the pastors and the reverends read it for us/ to us and do the explaining depending on how they understand it. Because of these, we fail to know the truth, we believe what they tell us and for the ‘pastors’ who decide to be vessels of the enemy, they take advantage of our ignorance.

What I mean to say through all this is this, PLEASE LET US READ OUR BIBLES. It is the only way that we can know the truth and be free. The good thing about God is that He doesn’t require us to read the whole book in a day or even take 5 hours a day to read it. However, I am not saying that taking 5 hours in the word is wrong. What I mean to say is that God requires just a few minutes from the time that He has allowed us every day to seek to know the truth by studying His word. 15 minutes every day is not too much to ask. We spend hours on phone conversations with friends but never get tired, what is 15 minutes every day? Take the challenge and read your bible. That will help you understand all these issues of this life that bother people every day.

God bless you and read you bibles please.

Encounters/ experiences II

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better (Ephesians 1:17)”

That was Paul’s prayer to God for the Ephesians. Paul desired for them to know Christ and he understood clearly that for them to know Christ, they really had to have a revelation. He knew this because he, himself only understood Christ through an encounter with Him. It was on his way to Damascus on a mission to destroy the work that the apostles had been doing that he had an encounter with Christ (See Acts 9). Paul was so determined to destroy the apostles because he did not understand what exactly they had been doing. He did not know this Christ that they had been preaching because he had been brought up in the law and was keen about protecting it and he could not stand anyone who was not living by it ( from biblehub.com).Same case applies to us. We can never understand God unless we experience Him. I know that a few weeks ago I wrote about this same issue but I find it good to emphasize.

This week while going about my usual bible research I came across some interesting writings. This led me to desire to know God in different ways, i.e; different names, like He is and was referred to especially in the Old Testament. I remember we had learnt about it in church but it did not make quiet some good sense then as it makes now (talk about learning through experiences). I had been through a season that had helped me learn about God being Nissi/banner/victor, but that’s like the only name I was really sure about what it meant because I had come across it while in that season. He had proved to be Jehovah Nissi.

So this morning I came across/ I learnt about Him being Jehovah Jireh through the following illustration: In Genesis 22, God had asked Abraham to go up the mountain to offer a sacrifice and the lamb was to be Isaac his only son. Abraham had loved Isaac so much because he was his only legitimate son from the wife that the Lord had given him. A son with the great promise, the son through whom Abraham was to become great, the father of a great nation and therefore; carrier of greatness. That, I am sure meant so much to Abraham and therefore sacrificing Isaac would mean so much to him. However, Abraham, the man of faith, chose to go up the mountain and do as the Lord had commanded him- to obey. As they went up the mountain, Isaac had at some point asked him what the lamb for the sacrifice would be and Abraham had said that God would provide. I am not very sure whether Abraham had really understood what he was talking about but the Bible calls it faith. And so up they went.

The bible says that Abraham got up the mountain, prepared the altar and laid Isaac on the altar and he took his knife and was about to slaughter Isaac his son (I have always wondered what was going through his mind). Just then, the angel of God called out his name and showed him a lamb of sacrifice (what a relief). And so Abraham experienced God as Jehovah Jireh, and on that mountain, the Lord provided. What other better way to experience Him than through such and many other such great encounters.

I therefore pray that God may help me and you to know Him through such experiences. May He give us the spirit of revelation and may we understand and know Him while we are in such encounters. I pray that we may learn to be patient and trust in Him while going through testing and hard times because that is the best way to know Him.

May God bless you and keep you growing in Him.