Month: December 2023

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WELCOME TO 2024 – BE DETERMINED


Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be immeasurably yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to this new year, year 2024. And I pray that God will keep your heart occupied with gladness all through the year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now, as we begin this new year, you need to be determined to live in the fullness of God’s will, regardless of the current circumstances of your life. Otherwise, the gift of the year to you may just end up being a waste. Look at Daniel, for example. Even though he found himself in the land of slavery, against his wish, he was still determined to live in the will of God.

The bible says, “But Daniel was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king…” (Dan 1:8NLT) Did you see that? Young Daniel was determined not to have his life messed up in any way, even though he was a slave in a strange land. And because he was determined to honour God with his life, He caused him to be highly favoured by all the kings he worked with. So, he went on to become a powerful force to be reckoned in the entire Babylonian realm for decades. (Cf. Dan 1-6)

So, I am not saying that it is enough to be determined to do the will of God. However determined we are about doing His will, if He does not furnish us with the strength and favour to do so, we will not be able to do so. That is because doing the will of God does not depend human desire or effort but on God’s mercy. And someone like Peter had to learn that the hard way. (Cf. Matt 26:69-75; Rom 9:16)

Nevertheless, it is important that we first show that we are determined to do His will. Then we can expect Him to furnish us with all that we need to do it. Those who have no determination to do His will are probably expecting Him to be pushing them to do what they do not want to do. But He rarely does that. And even if He has to push us to do what we do not want to do, we may end up being injured in the process. So, if we want God’s favour to freely flow in enabling us to do His will, our hearts must love and be determined to do what He wants.

Then we must also be determined to take God’s provisions for us and to make the most of them. Otherwise, Satan will see to it that we have no access to what is ours to possess and enjoy. Look at what is said about the people of Manasseh and the inheritance given to them by God in the land of Canaan: “But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land.” (Judg 1:27NIV)

Think about that. Even though God had already given the inheritance of the people of Manasseh to them, they still failed to completely drive out the people originally living there. So, they ended up cohabiting with them, making it possible for those people to corrupt them with their idols. Why was that so? It was so because the determination of those people to stay in the land was greater than the determination of the people of Manasseh to drive them out of it.

So, if our determination to take hold of God’s provisions for our fruitfulness and prosperity and utilise them is not greater than Satan’s determination to keep us from accessing and enjoying them, we may end up not being all that we can be and not enjoying all that we can enjoy in this life. All of this is why our Lord Jesus tells us that men ought to always pray and not give up. It is also why He tells us to pray until our joy is full. (Cf. Luke 18L1l John 16:24)

That means as long as we are not yet where God wants us to be and enjoying all that He wants us to enjoy, we must not resign. We must not stop praying. We must not stop declaring God’s word over our lives and affairs. And we must not stop practising righteousness. Yes, Satan and his agents may be doing all that they can to frustrate us or to keep us from accessing and enjoying God’s provisions for us. But as long as we remain resolute to have and enjoy all that God wants us to have and to become all that He wants us to become, nothing will be able to stop the flow of His grace in our lives and affairs.

I welcome you once again into this new year. And I pray that your heart will be renewed with sufficient determination, courage and strength to go for all that God wants you to have in the year and possess and enjoy it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Happy 2024!

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FROM PASTOR'S DESK 2023 Pastor's Desk

He has gone ahead of you | By: J.O. Lawal | Date: December 31, 2023 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 12, No. 35

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to the last Sunday of this year, which also happens to be the very last day of the year. And I pray that God will fill your heart with all joy and peace throughout day and as we cross over into a new year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As we are about to move into a new year, I want to admonish you with some of the words of Moses to the children of Israel, as they were about to cross over into the Promised Land, which say:

“The LORD your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you, as the LORD said.” (Deut 31:3NIV)

Who would cross over ahead of those Israelites into the land they wanted to possess? First, it was the Lord their God Himself that would cross over ahead of them. Why? It was to handle anyone or anything that may want to prevent them from entering the land and possessing it for their prosperity and enjoyment. Therefore, even though they did not know all the challenges and opportunities they would be confronted with in the land, they could confidently go into it, knowing that God was already there to take care of everything for their good. And that was exactly what happened. They confidently went into the land and took possession of it, to the glory of God and for their enjoyment.

In like manner, since we too have the same God that went ahead of these Israelites to take possession of that land flowing with milk and honey as our God, we should also calm our hearts, knowing that He has already crossed over into the new year we are about to enter for us. And why has He crossed over into it ahead of us? It is to make sure nothing prevents us from possessing and enjoying every good thing He has deposited in it for us.

Therefore, let us drop whatever fear we have of the new year we are moving into and confidently go into it. That is because it is going to be a more glorious year for us and our families. It will be a year in which God will cause all the good things He has deposited in our lives for our prosperity to manifest. And it will be a year in which He will lead us to possess and enjoy the best that He has deposited in our land for us. We just need to cooperate with Him, and we will surely enjoy all that He has in store for us.

Then, as Moses also pointed out to those Israelites, there was still another person that would cross over ahead of them into the Promised Land. That person was Joshua. And who was Joshua? Joshua was the man ordained and equipped by God to lead them to take possession of the land that He was giving them. That means he was God’s human representative or messenger assigned to help all of them until they were established in the land. And did he do his job well or not? He did it well. He led them and fought and won with them until each of them received his own inheritance and settled in it.

In the same vein, I want you to know that God has already assigned and sent helpers ahead of us into the new year we are moving into. Why? It is so that they will work with us and support us until His good purpose for our lives is fully accomplished. What we need is just to recognise every one of such helpers and humbly allow them to do in our lives and to our lives what God has sent them to do. Doing their job, of course, may shake us out of our comfort zone. But if we will cooperate with them, in accordance with the will of God, their presence in our lives can only result in the manifestation of the glory of God in the year.

So, look forward to an exciting new year, regardless of what your current situation may be at the moment. My prayer is that your heart will be strengthened to cooperate with God and all the people He may want to use for you in the year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Happy New Year in advance.

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

What it is your motivation? | By: J.O. Lawal | Date: December 27, 2023 | Series: Youth for Jesus | Number: Vol. 6, No. 33

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

“Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.” (Eccl 4:4NLT)

We have, by the grace of God, come to another year-end. And as it should be, this is a time in which people should settle down to see how their lives have fared in the year. But while it is important that we settle down to evaluate our lives and affairs to see how things have been with us in the year, the yardsticks we use in doing so are even more important. That is the because the yardsticks we use in evaluating ourselves are what will determine whether our evaluation will be true, objective and reliable as a point of reference or not.

Now among the yardsticks people use in evaluating themselves is the measure of success or failure of their neighbours. And when we are talking about ‘neighbours’ in this sense, we are referring to anyone close enough to us to get our attention. So, that person may be a friend, a sibling, a colleague at work or in school, a church member or a business competitor. Whoever the person is to us, what is happening in their life is important enough to get our attention and make us judge ourselves as progressive, stagnant or retrogressive.

But is it right for us to judge ourselves as a success or a failure on the basis of what is happening or has happened in other people’s lives, even if those people are our blood relatives? No! Why? It is because the word of God says so. Look at the way it puts it: “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.” (2Cor 10:12NIV)

Did you see that? It is a foolish thing to judge ourselves according to human standards. Yes, it is a foolish thing to compare our lives with the lives of others in order to determine whether our lives are doing well or not. Why? First, it is because God, who created all of us, has made each of us differently, with different potential and abilities. Second, it is because the circumstances of our lives are different, regardless of how closely related or bonded we may be. Therefore, God’s expectations on every life are different.

Since God’s expectations on every life are different, it follows, then, that He will be rating how each of us is doing in life according to those expectations. So, it is how well we meet up with His expectations on our lives that will say whether He will consider us to be a success or a failure, not how well we meet up with what is going in others’ lives or how better we do than them.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, most people evaluate their lives according to what is going on in the lives of others around them. Therefore, as Solomon tells us in our opening text, their motivation for success in life is envy, the envy of their neighbour. There is, of course, a good side to envy. That is when you envy certain attributes of success or devotion to doing what is right that you see in others, so that you can emulate them. But anything that goes beyond that is of the evil one.

What we are saying is that if the reason you want to be whatever you want to be or have whatever you want to have in life is that you are envious of someone, then, you are missing it. You are simply chasing the wind. In other words, you are going after the impossible. You cannot be another person, however hard you try. And you can never have what another person has unless you steal or buy it from them. Then, even if you possess for yourself what belongs to another person, you can never enjoy it the way they have enjoyed it or will enjoy it. That is because life is designed for each of us to enjoy differently, according to the measure of grace measured out to us by God.

So, stop drawing your motivation from what is happening in other people’s lives but from God’s expectations on your life. That way, you will not be evaluating your life according to their success or failure. This, then, means that you need to know God’s expectations on your life. And you can know them by giving yourself to His word, by praying to Him and also by fellowshipping with others who know Him. My prayer is that you will be guided and strengthened to evaluate your life in this light this year-end, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Cheers!

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)