Your rightful place

The word of God really amazes me, it amazes me now even more when I have been praying and desiring for its fresh revelation and understanding. I was in church today and the Pastor was talking about obedience and all the benefits of obedience. It was awesome and I must say that I got it so clear that the key to any form of success and prosperity is obedience to the word of God, full obedience. It is very important that you understand that, so to have a taste of our today’s sermon, please read Deuteronomy 28 and Joshua 1:8-9. Well, I wasn’t writing to give our today’s sermon-the Pastor already did that. I am writing to share about something that crossed my mind when the sermon was going on. That is the story of Mordecai and Haman in the book of Esther.

The book of Esther talks about the story of the girl Esther, a young girl without parents but who rose up to become a queen in a foreign land and how she saved the Israelites from being destroyed by an enemy. At least that is how most of us see it. However, today God revealed to me how He can transform things and place us where we should be, by getting rid of our enemies and placing us in our rightful places where the enemy may be standing. Just like God, the enemy knows clearly where we belong. Many times, he can decide to take our place and let us keep a distance but at a close watch so that he may destroy us if he detects that we are getting wise and trying to get closer to our rightful position.

When I talk about this, I refer to the story of Mordecai and Haman. Mordecai was a gate keeper at the palace, who had at one time exposed a plot to assassinate the king. Haman however, was a man who had rose up to become greater than all the royals in the palace except the king and who had had all people bow before him in kinda like worship. I say worship because he was so angry when Mordecai didn’t bow before him, that he sought to destroy him and all is people. That is what someone drank of power wants to do when he notices someone who doesn’t submit to him, to destroy. Haman plotted to destroy the Israelites by persuading the king to sign a law that would have them killed and Mordecai by having him hanged on a gallows that he had prepared. However, things changed and everything became what it was supposed to be.

God came out strongly to put His people where they were supposed to be, to lead, not to be slaves nor be destroyed like the enemy (devil) had been plotting through Haman. On the night before the day Haman had plotted to kill Mordecai, the king could not sleep. Why? Because God was at work and there was no way the king would sleep unless the work was complete. God had begun restoring His people to their rightful places. The king remembered about a conspiracy that had been made to kill him and that the man who had exposed it had never been honored. The king could not sleep until that person had been honored. The books of the chronicles had to be searched until when the person was known. (That is what God does; He never lets our good deeds get forgotten.) The king then called for Haman to have Mordecai honored just when he was about to destroy him. Haman was destroyed instead and Mordecai replaced him and both Mordecai and the people of God went back to where God had desired for them to be, to rule.

Things change, the enemy may seem to be there, just hanging there, where you belong for a long time, but soon he will be gone. Don’t try to use evil means to get what is yours. Just pray and trust in God always. Mordecai would have maybe chosen to bow to a human and that would keep him and is people. However, he chose to do right, to do good by protecting the king which was his duty and to worship God alone. He understood that only God could help them and restore them to their place. So today I want you to realize that you can get to where you must be without bowing to evil but by trusting in God. The enemy won’t be in your place forever. He will soon leave through the power of God and you can have what is rightfully yours.

God bless you and keep growing in Him.

A fresh revelation

It was on a Wednesday, a day that my girlfriends and I had set apart as our prayer and fasting day to pray for each other. So as usual, I had just taken my lunch break and had rush to my house which is 5 minutes away from work and was on my knees praying. When I was done praying, I stretched my hand to reach for my bible so that I could read a few verses before time was over, but I felt some resistance in me to read the word. This was strange and I was shocked. Never in my life had I felt that way before, never had I ever resisted reading the word of God.

 Actually, since I was a child, long before I had understood salvation or given my life to Christ, I was reading the bible. It had and has always been a close friend to me. I could completely not read it so I just went back to the office because it was getting late. However, that afternoon, this discovery was a great bother to me. I could not come to terms with this feeling. It was then that I realized that this resistance had been due to a feeling of doubt that I had developed. 

For some time, I had begun to have a doubt about the word of God and what I had thought were the promises of God. It was so bad that for the past few days, my bible study during my quiet/devotion time had been a matter of routine but not a time to connect with God. It was like it really did not matter to me what the word was all about or was saying. This I realized was as a result of the many things that had been happening or not happening to me in line with my expectations, which made me wonder if the word was real. So that evening when I went for intercessory meeting in church, I had one thing in mind, to ask God to have mercy on me and help me believe in His word again.

When I was praying that evening, the Lord helped me realize that I had been using His word selfishly, just to satisfy the desires of the flesh. I had failed to see the word for what it is for but had tried to align it to suit my needs. He reminded me that the purposes of His word is to teach, rebuke, correct, train in matters of righteousness (2 Tim 3:16) and to encourage (2 Tim 4:2). I had to repent and beg God to forgive me and make His word new in me and to transform the way I had been looking at it. I asked Him to help His spirit in me to reveal to me the real truth of the word (John 16:13).

This prayer changed everything. God helped me to desire His word once more and I can read it and He has been helping me to see it for what it is. I won’t lie to you, truth is sometimes I want to submit to the temptation of just letting myself take it for my own desires. But when I get there, I cry to God to help me and He always comes to my rescue. I am learning to read it and let Him tell me what I should hear all for His glory and His will and I have realized that it is not about what I want but what He wills for me.

I know that there are many out there like me, many who have been forced to interpret the word just to suit their needs. Sometimes it is because of our desperate circumstances or because of how the world tries to use the word. You may have used it as you want and it may have failed because you did not take it as God intended for it in your life.  I want you to know that you can start understanding it just as God desires of us. All you need to do is to ask God to forgive you and give you a fresh revelation of His word and I can assure you that He is faithful and He will hear your desire and meet it.

God bless you and keep growing in Him