Month: July 2021

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Fire in my Bones

Be careful mighty man | Pst J.O Lawal.

Date: July 28, 2021 | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 4, No. 11

“This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: “Go, say to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace: What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?” Beware, the LORD is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, O you mighty man. He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country. There you will die and there your splendid chariots will remain — you disgrace to your master’s house! I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position.” (Isa 22:15-19NIV)

Daniel, once, having received a revelation from God about what the future holds for the kingdoms of men, said these words: “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever, wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others…” (Dan 2:20-21NIV) Did you see that? Wisdom and power belong to God. So, regardless of how wise you may think you are, the owner of wisdom is God. And if you will not acknowledge this, humble yourself before Him and use whatever measure of wisdom He has blessed you with to do His will, He will someday deal with you and frustrate your so-called wisdom. This is why we have had wise people that lived and died without leaving any significant mark on the world of their time or accomplishing their lofty dreams.

Also, regardless of how powerful you may be, regardless of what position of power you may be occupying in life, never forget that God is the owner of power. So, if He had not permitted you to be in that position you are now occupying, you could not have been there. And if you will not acknowledge this and use your position to make life better for others, He is able to remove you from your secure position and put someone else there.

Now Daniel witnessed this in his day. First, he saw how that mighty emperor, Nebuchadnezzar, was driven away from his throne by God because of his pride. This man ran mad and lived as an animal among animals for some years. And if God had not been merciful to him, forgiven him and restored him, he would have perished as an animal. (Cf. Dan 4)

In addition, Daniel saw how this man’s son that became king after him, Belshazzar, was judged by God as unfit for the position he was occupying and taken away in death the very night he was judged. But this man had been forewarned about the looming disaster. Why did he do nothing about it? Procrastination, most likely! Appararently, this man had no idea that the judgment God had announced was coming on him the very night of the day Daniel warned him. He probably thought he had more time to fix things. Unfortunately, he died that same night and lost his position to another, just the way God had said. (Cf. Dan 5)

Furthermore, as we see in our opening bible text, God told Shebna, the palace administrator during the reign of King Hezekiah, that He was going to judge him, break his power and send him far away to a strange land to die there. Exactly what this man did to merit this kind of judgment we are not told. But it is evident from the context of the text that he had been abusing his power and acting in arrogance, thinking he was some mighty man. In fact, he had even prepared an expensive tomb for himself in some choice place, as though he were in charge of his own future. But God, speaking through His prophet, Isaiah, said that He would uproot him from his position of power, throw him away like a ball and replace him with a better man. (Cf. Isaiah 22:15-24)

So, regardless of how mighty you think you are now, be careful. Yes, watch how you use that might or power that you have. That is because God, the owner of all might, power and dominion, is watching your every move. And if you are already failing Him, He may, at some point, have to show you that He has the power to uproot from your secure position and throw you away to a place where you may remain useless or irrelevant for the rest of your earthly life. How soon can He do this? It can be as soon as now. So, waste no time to repent of every abuse of your position or power. That may just be the difference between elevation and disgrace for you.

Copyright © 2021, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com  or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

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FROM PASTOR'S DESK 2021 Pastor's Desk

Why you may miss the supernatural | Pst. J.O. Lawal

from pastor's desk

Date: July 25, 2021 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk
| Number: Vol. 10, No. 12

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours forevermore from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Saviour. It is with great delight that I welcome you to the last week of the month of July 2021. And I pray that God will keep the eyes of your spirit illuminated to always distinguish what is spiritual from what is natural, so that you will never again miss His provisions for your peace and exaltation. Amen.

One of the reasons many of God’s people today often miss His provisions for their peace and prosperity is the erroneous belief that the spiritual always has to be spectacular or grand. But the spiritual isn’t always spectacular or impressive. I mean that it is not every time that God’s healing, deliverance, transformation or exaltation comes in an amazing way. And if we do not understand this, we are likely to miss or even reject what He has sent to us because it does not appear to us in a spectacular way.

For example, after Jacob had left his father’s house for Haran, he decided to pass the night in a certain place that offered him little or no comfort. All he could get in the place was a stone that he used in place of a pillow. But right in that same place, he dreamt of God, of His angels and of heaven. He even received a word of blessing from God’s mouth in that dream. And when he woke up, he was terrified and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it…How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” (Gen 28:16-17NIV)

So, God can be very much present in a place, and we may not know it, if our eyes are not opened to see Him. And you know that God is always actively present in all the meetings of His people, for Jesus has said to us, “Where two or three of you come together in my name, there am I in their midst.” But how many of us always take this very seriously, so that we may take advantage of it? How many of us always function with the consciousness that when we come together with other people of God, the Lord is there with us, watching everything we are doing and ready to reward our faith in Him or punish our misbehaviour? (Cf. Matt 18:20; Acts 5:1-11)

A lack of understanding of these things is the reason many attend church meetings week after week and do not experience the miraculous in any tangible way. It is also the reason many go from prayer mountains to prayer mountains and from prophets to prophets, seeking miracles that are not lost. To say the fact, the miracles many are running up and down to find could have easily taken place in their local Christian assembly, if they had taken the presence of God in their meetings very seriously.

See, you can be in a meeting that is so full of the power of God and not know it or experience it, simply because your mind is spiritually dull of understanding. Paul says this to us: “When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present…” (1Cor 5:4NIV) Did you see that? Anytime we are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, His power is present with us to save, heal, deliver, exalt and even judge evil. And all we need is to recognise this, even though we cannot see it or feel it, and take advantage of it to change our situations for the better.

But when our minds are dull of spiritual understanding, we will be looking for the wrong things in our meetings. We may be looking for some great music, thinking that is where the power lies. Or we may be looking for someone that will scream the word of God into our heads or someone that will spice us up with some sweet words to pray or someone that will do something that will make us shake or have goose pimples. And when we don’t see these things, we may conclude that God is not active in those meetings, if He is there at all.

Now that is a sure way to miss God’s power and provisions for us. While nothing is wrong with having great music, great preaching or loud praying in believers’ meetings, it is not these things that make God’s power or blessings available to people. Rather, it is God Himself. Yes, it is His presence in our lives or our meetings that makes His power available for our enjoyment. Therefore, if, instead of putting our faith to experience the miraculous in Him, we put it in some spectacular performance from people, we will not experience His power that we are seeking to experience. It is as simple as that.

All of this is why we must continually pray that God will keep our hearts right, so that they will not be led astray by the spectacular and miss the supernatural. And may He grant this request in your case, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a lovely week.

Copyright © 2021, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

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Fire in my Bones

Know who you take things from | Pst J.O. Lawal

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Date: July 21, 2021                | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 4, No. 10

“Do not eat the food of a stingy man, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost.  “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments.” (Prov 23:6-8NIV)

From what we see in the bible, love must be the motivation for anything we do in life (1Cor 16:14). Therefore, anything that is not based on love will be rejected by God as useless, regardless of how grand it may be in the sight of men. And since that is how it is with God, since He will not accept from our hands anything that is not based on love, we too must study not to accept from people anything that is not based on love.

The point I am making is that it is not every gift or act of kindness from people that we can accept or must accept. It is true that love does not just give but also receives. But it is not every gift that people give or everything that looks like an act of kindness or generosity from them that is borne out of love. And it will be wisdom for us to be able to tell when what someone is trying to give to us or do for us is not being motivated by love, so that we may reject it. Otherwise, someday, we may have to pay a very costly price for something that we thought was free.

For example, in our opening bible text, we are warned not to eat the food or delicacies of anyone that we know as stingy. Why? It is because stingy people always think more about the cost of what they want to give out than their relationships with those they want to give to. So, their giving is hardly motivated by love but by necessity. This being the case, you cannot trust them to give you anything of quality. And even if they should give you something of quality, it will certainly come with a price.

Now, of course, once you receive the gift or help of a stingy person, you will have to say ‘Thank you’ to them. But as Solomon further tells us in that bible text, soon enough, you will realise that you have wasted your compliments or thanksgiving. Why? It will either be because what they have given you or done for you is utterly worthless or that the price you have to pay in order to use or enjoy it is even greater than thing itself. Then you end up blaming yourself for receiving their gifts or allowing them to help you.

Therefore, if you don’t want to be wasting your compliments on anybody, if you don’t want some so-called gift or help done for you by some person to eventually become a terrible burden for you, know who you receive things from and what you receive from them. Some people are not stingy but arrogant. These ones like to boast, even to the point of exaggeration, about what they do for others. So, you can always expect them to take more credit for whatever they do for you or give to you than they deserve. And if care is not taken, at some point, they may start making everybody believe that they made you. So, regardless of how needy you may be, mark them and do your best to stay away from their help or gifts. Or someday you may regret ever receiving anything from them. (Cf. Gen 14:21-24)

Then some others only give to others and do things for them for the sole purpose of being able to use them at some point or trap them. That means their help or gift is either a bribe or a trap and not a love sacrifice (1Sam 18:20-21). You equally must do your best to stay away from their help or gifts, even if you are in serious need of what they are offering. Otherwise, whatever you receive from them may end up leading to your fall or enslavement. And may God fill your heart continually with wisdom to know what sort of help or gift is not good or appropriate for you to accept, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Copyright © 2021, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com  or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)