Month: May 2023

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Fire in my Bones Youth for Jesus

SUSTAIN THE FAVOUR |BY: J.O LAWAL|FIRE IN MY BONES

fire in my bones
fire in my bones
Date: May 31, 2023 | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 6, No. 3



“Now Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are setting out for the place about which the LORD said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us and we will treat you well, for the LORD has promised good things to Israel." He answered, "No, I will not go; I am going back to my own land and my own people." But Moses said, "Please do not leave us. You know where we should camp in the desert, and you can be our eyes. If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the LORD gives us."” (Num 10:29-32NIV)

As we see in the bible, God Himself was the one that personally led the children all through the time they spent in the wilderness, that is, on their way to the land of Canaan. He led them using the cloud that was over His tabernacle to let them know when to move to a new place and when to stop moving and stay wherever they found themselves. And they never argued with Him because they knew that He had their best at heart and was committed to leading them to the place of rest He had promised them. (Cf. Num 9:15-23)

In like manner, God always has our best at heart and knows how to lead us to experience what is best for us. But we have to trust Him to lead us, just as the Israelites did. And if we trust Him, we will not move when He does not want us to move, even if everyone around us seems to be moving, and we will not settle down anywhere, however comfortable the place may be for us, when He wants us to move on. These are some of the main lessons we learn from the way God led the Israelites from Egypt into the Promised land.

But then, as we see in our opening bible text, even though God was fully with Moses and the Israelites to lead them through that dreadful wilderness into the land of Canaan, they still needed a human guide to show them how to follow Him in that wilderness and be safe in whatever direction He was leading them. None of them had been in that wilderness before. And none of them knew what part of it was safe for them, their children and their animals and what part of it was unsafe for them. So, having a human guide who could show them how to follow God in whatever way He was leading them was not a bad idea at all. 

Now the only human guide with them that Moses recognised at that time was Hobab, his brother-in-law. We are not told in the bible how this man joined them in that desert. It may be that he came along with his father, Jethro, when he came to visit Moses, and decided to stay back a little longer. Or it may be that he came to visit Moses on his own. It is hard to say. (Cf. Ex 18)

In any case, as Moses points out in our opening text, it is clear that Hobab knew the desert they were in well. He knew the aroutes that were safe for them to pass and the ones that were unsafe for them to pass. He also knew the places that were safe for them to camp in that desert and those that were dangerous for them to camp in. So, though they would always know through God’s leading the direction they ought to go and the places they ought to stay, having someone like Hobab to tell them how to go in the direction they were being led and be safe and how to camp wherever God had led them and be safe would be a huge advantage.

Therefore, even though he was determined to go back to his father and his people, Moses did not want him to leave. Why? He must first of all have proved himself very useful to them during his short stay with them in that wilderness. I mean that he must have shown Moses and the people how invaluable his experience and understanding of how to handle the desert life was. So, allowing someone like him to leave them at that time would be a great mistake.

In the same vein, wherever you find yourself, prove yourself so useful that those you are with will not want you to leave. Hobab was with Moses simply on vacation. Yet Moses was not willing to let him go back home because he had proved himself highly useful to him and his people during his short stay. So, don’t ever again use the fact that you are only going to be in a place for a while as your excuse for being useless there. If you prove useless where you are, it is really because you are useless and not because your time of stay there is short. If you are a highly useful person, then, you will surely prove yourself useful wherever you go, even if you have only a few minutes or hours to be there.

Well, because Moses wanted Hobab to stay, he had to encourage him to do so. Hobab, during his short stay with them, had given them his services free of charge. But now that they wanted him to stay and continue to be of help to them, they needed to give him a good reason to do so. So, Moses offered to share with him whatever good things God gave to them. In other words, if he stayed with them, then, he too would have a share in the land that was flowing with milk and honey that God was giving them. And that, of course, was a too good offer for the man to refuse. So, he stayed.

Now what is the point of that? It is that we need to know how to sustain whatever favour we are enjoying from the people in our lives. People, out of love for God and for us, may be sacrificing their time and resources to do for us things that they are not under any obligation to do for us. And if, like Moses, we want to continue to enjoy their commitment to us, then we also, like Moses, should be willing to share the good things of our lives with them. 

In fact, we should not wait until such people want to stop doing whatever they are doing for us before we begin to encourage them by sharing the good things of our lives with them or considering how we too may wisely support them. Otherwise, if, out of necessity or tiredness, they should decide to stop bearing our burdens or ministering to us in whatever way they have been doing, nothing we do to encourage them may work at such times. So, while there is still time for us to appreciate and encourage anyone in our lives that is freely doing us good, let us do so and sustain the favour. That is because tomorrow may just be too late.
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FROM PASTOR'S DESK 2023 Pastor's Desk

Everything is not bread | By: J.O. Lawal | Date: May 28, 2023 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 12, No. 4

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I gladly welcome you to the transition week between the months of May and June 2023. And I pray that your eyes will be opened to recognise everything in your hands that you are supposed to plant as a seed of prosperity and that your heart will be strengthened and led to plant it where it will grow and bring forth a great harvest for you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Our Lord Jesus, once while preaching to the Jews, said this: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24NIV) And He said these words to make clear to the people how important it was for Him, the only begotten Son of God, to die in order for God to have many sons in His glory (Heb 2:10). So, what He said on this occasion was addressing something spiritual.

However, we must not forget that these words of our Lord are first of all pointing to something natural, something every farmer knows. Every farmer knows that in order to multiply any seed, you have to first plant it somewhere. In other words, you have to first give it up to death. Otherwise, it will remain nothing but a single seed and not multiply in your hands. But the moment you plant it in some good soil, you have given it an opportunity to grow and multiply itself back to you. And with the working of the blessing of God, that seed you have planted will, of course, multiply itself back to you.

But then, it is not only in farming that this principle is applicable. It is also applicable in almost every area of life. For example, if you want to increase in wealth, one of the things you must be given to is planting your money into one form of business or the other. Otherwise, what you have will not increase. It can only decrease.

The bible says this of a certain king of Tyre that was reigning during the days of Ezekiel: “By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth…” (Ezek 28:5NIV) How did this king increase his wealth? It was through trading. Yes, he traded with great skill. But if he was not trading the things he had, his trading skills would most likely have remained useless and dormant in him.

Unfortunately, many of God’s people don’t understand this. Yes, they want to increase in wealth and be able to do all the great things God wants them to do with money. So, they are praying, fasting and even giving to men of God. But they are not planting the money God is giving to them in any business or venture, so that it can be multiplied back to them. Instead, most of the time, they just eat everything that comes to them from God and wait for Him to send more.

Now that will not result in prosperity. It is, indeed, good to pray, for through prayers we are able to receive God’s provisions for us to enjoy our lives. And it is good to give to those feeding us with the word of God, for by doing so we can receive miracles that will save us from famine or that will grant us speed for accomplishment. But we must also understand that prayers will not make seeds that we have not planted grow. Then there are miracles of supply that God does not perform every day. Even the miracle of Manna did not last forever for the Israelites. It stopped at some point. It stopped when the Israelites came to where they could plant to harvest the milk and honey God had provided for them.

Therefore, even though God is ever ready to miraculously supply what we need and multiply it for us, He has also made it clear to us through His word that it is not everything He gives to us that is bread for us to eat. There are parts of His provisions for us that are seeds for us to plant, so that we can sustain His provisions in our lives. But if we continue to ignorantly eat what we are supposed to plant, we won’t be able to multiply and sustain God’s provisions for us. So, instead of continually receiving a bountiful harvest of what we have planted, which is a miracle on its own, we will often find ourselves waiting for another miracle of supply that we will consume as usual. (Cf. 2Cor 9:9-10)

You can now see why many of God’s people usually end up dying in poverty. It is not meant to be so. But it will continue to be so as long as we remain ignorant of the will of God for us about our prosperity. And what is His will for us about our prosperity? First, it is that we trust Him alone for our prosperity, for it is He that gives the ability to become wealthy. Second, it is that we separate our seeds from our bread. Third, it is that we plant our seeds in the right places, in the right ventures and in the right people. That way, His word of blessing that says, “As long as the earth remains, seed time and harvest will never cease,” will not fail to be operational in our lives for our prosperity (Gen 8:22).

Have a great week.

Copyright © 2023, 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@abcministry.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

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Fire in my Bones Youth for Jesus

Title: I will not be a judge of such things|By: J.O. Lawal|Fire in my bones

fire in my bones
fire in my bones
Date: May 24, 2023|Series: Youth for Jesus|Number: Vol. 6, No. 2
“While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him into court. "This man," they charged, "is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law." Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, "If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law — settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things." So he had them ejected from the court. Then they all turned on Sosthenes the synagogue ruler and beat him in front of the court. But Gallio showed no concern whatever.” (Acts 18:14-17NIV)

Why did Gallio refuse to judge the matter between Paul and the Jews that had brought him to his court? It was because he did not have enough light on it. It was a religious matter that they brought before him, a matter involving Christianity and Judaism. But this man was neither a Christian nor a Jew. So, there was no way he could judge the case without being bias or unjust. 

But you know that it is one thing to know that you are not fit to handle something; it is another thing to admit that you are not fit to handle it. Gallio admitted to himself that he was not knowledgeable enough to judge Paul’s case with the Jews, even though he was a proconsul, a governor, at the time. So, he told Paul’s accusers in plain terms, “I will not be a judge of such things – go and handle this matter yourselves.” And even though they protested and began to beat the ruler of their synagogue, Gallio didn’t give a damn. He simply had all of them ejected from his court. What a man!

Now compare Gallio to Pontus Pilate who judged the case of Jesus. First, Jesus was not under his jurisdiction but under Herod’s jurisdiction. So, it was Herod that was supposed to judge His case. But Herod lost interest in judging the matter, when Jesus was not answering any of his questions, questions that were evidently irrelevant to the matter at hand. So, he sent Him back to Pilate. (Cf. Luke 23:1-12)

In any case, even though the Lord was sent back to him in that manner, he still did not have enough light to judge His case. Why? Like Gallio of Paul’s time, he too was neither a Jew nor a believer in Christ Jesus. So, he should have told the people plainly that he would not be a judge of such things. But he did not do that. Instead, he sat in judgment over Jesus and committed the greatest act of injustice of all times. He sentenced the author of life, the only man that ever lived without any sin in His life, to death and became partakers of the crime of His accusers. 

Why? He wanted to please the crowd (Mark 15:15).What is the point of all this? It is that you should learn to excuse yourself from matters that are beyond your knowledge to judge or comment on. It is normal for people to want to drag us into matters that do not concern us. Sometimes, it may be out of respect for us or because they believe we are in a position to attend to such matters.

 But regardless of what position we are holding in life or how knowledgeable we may be, there are matters that we have no business attending to and matters that are just too high for us. For example, David, even though he was God’s anointed king, once wrote in a psalm of his, “I do not concern myself with matters too high for me or subjects that I do not understand.” Why? He knew it is only arrogant people that get involved in judging cases they do not understand. And such people can only end up becoming evil judges and partakers of the sins and punishments of others. (Cf. Ps 131:1-2)

What about our Lord Jesus Himself? He also once refused to judge a family case brought to Him by a man. The man had asked Him to command his brother to divide the inheritance with him. And how did the Lord respond to that? He simply said, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” In other words, the Lord was saying, “Look, it is not in my place to judge matters like this.” (Cf. Luke 12:13-14)

Now since there were cases the Lord Jesus did not see Himself as in a position to justly judge when He was here on earth, then, we also should know that it is not every case we are fit to judge. Unfortunately, even many that we call men and women of God today do not understand this. So, they want to judge, comment on and even pray about every matter people bring to them or every current issue in their society. Why? They want to become popular among men, just like Pilate.

 But because they do these things without asking themselves whether they have enough information or are in the right positions to handle them or not, they end up lying or becoming associated with the sins of certain wicked people. And that is how many of them have lost their respect, even among those who once cherished them. 

Well, the word of God is coming to you now and saying, “It is not every matter that you are fit to judge or comment on.” And to say the fact, it will take wisdom for us to recognise such matters and strength of character to refuse to judge them. My prayer, then, is that you will always have sufficient wisdom to know matters that are not your business and sufficient strength of character to steer clear of them. Amen.

Copyright © 2023, 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)