Month: June 2025

Categories
General Post The fruit of the Spirit

Title: God wants us to bear fruit

Date: June 22, 2025

Series: Fruit bearing

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God, as we see in Scriptures, wants those of us who are His children to bear fruit; He wants us to bring forth fruit. Let’s turn to St. John’s Gospel, chapter 15, and look at what Jesus has to say about that. From verse 8, it says: “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (NIV)

So, bringing forth fruit or our bearing fruit is to God’s glory or it brings God glory. And Jesus here says that as we bring forth fruit, we are showing ourselves to be His disciples.

Now I’m just trying to lay a foundation here. So I may not be able to take much of this, this morning. But I want you to take note of the fact that God wants us to bring forth fruit because doing so brings Him glory.Then, skip to verse 16 of the same chapter: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” (John 15:16NIV)

Here again, Jesus says, you did not choose me; instead, I chose you. We did not choose Him; He chose us. So, the reason we are saved is that He chose us. The reason you are born again is that He chose you.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam did not choose God; he chose the devil. So, it’s not in the natural man to choose God. The natural man will always choose the devil, ever since he fell. But we have been saved because God chose us, because He chose us and called us to Himself.

Yes, He called us back to himself. That’s why we are now saved. And Jesus is placing His fingers on that here, saying that we did not choose Him; He chose us.Not only did He choose us, He also appointed us. Appointed us to do what? Appointed us to bear fruit! Of course, in dealing with this, we are going to be looking at:

– Why God wants us to bear fruit.- What sort of fruit He wants us to bear.

– How do we bear fruit as much as he wants us to?

– The consequences of not bringing forth fruit.

Those are the things we are going to be looking at as we are dealing with this together. And I want you to keep them in mind. Well, here, Jesus is already showing us one of the reasons He expects us to bear fruit. He expects us to bear fruit because He has appointed us to do so. So, it is consistent with God’s purpose for our lives that we bring forth fruit. He wants us to bring forth fruit. He chose us to bring forth fruit.

He appointed us to bring forth fruit. We can summarize all that by saying that we have been recreated by Him to bring forth fruit. So, we are not expected to do anything contrary because that’s what He has appointed us to do.I’ll take you back to the first few verses of the chapter. And what is said in them has to do with our relationship with Him. What I am saying is that apart from the fact that He has appointed us to bring forth fruits, we also have a relationship with Him that puts us in a position to bring forth fruit.

You know, you may be appointed to do something, but it does not mean that you have the ability to do that thing. That somebody has chosen you to do something or appointed you to do something does not mean that you have what it takes to do that thing. You may not have what it takes to do that thing. And if you do not have what it takes to do that thing, even though you have been appointed to do it, you are still going to be a failure at it.

So, though the Lord has appointed us to bring forth fruit, if we do not have what it takes to bring forth fruit, we are still going to fail. It doesn’t matter how hard we try. A lot of times people try hard to do things, yet they fail. And the question they are not asking themselves is if they have the ability to do what they are trying to do.

For instance, you hear of students who have written maybe WAEC examinations like three or four times and they are yet to make all their papers. And they are telling themselves to try harder. But see, this is not a question of how hard you try. It’s a question of ability. If you have the ability to do something, then it will be worth it to try and try to get that thing done. That is because you already have the ability to do it. Yes, maybe there are certain things that are limiting you. And you might want to deal with those things. So, in the process of trying, you are dealing with those things that are limiting you.

But if you don’t have the ability to do something, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you can only fail. Because the ability is not there. So, if we do not have the ability to bring forth fruit, it doesn’t matter how hard we try, we won’t be able to do so.Now we may be trying to live to please God. But pleasing God is not really something that we try to do. Of course, we may tell ourselves to make effort. And there are scriptures that point to the fact that we should make effort, that we should try to do what pleases God.

But essentially, we must have what it takes to please Him. Because if we do not have what it takes to please Him, then it doesn’t matter how hard we try to please Him. We won’t be able to please Him.If I find myself struggling to do something, I don’t want to struggle harder. I want to ask myself, “Do I have the strength to do this? Do I have what it takes to do this?” Struggling harder is not the solution. Gaining sufficient strength to do it is the solution.

If you are engaged in a fight with somebody, maybe a physical fight or a physical struggle, how do you win? Now, growing up, some of us would probably have been exposed to situations in which you have to physically fight somebody. But you may fight somebody 10 times and the person will beat you 10 times. Or let’s go to the field of boxing. You can meet an opponent in a boxing ring 5 times and he will beat you 5 times. He will beat you all the time.

Why? Now if somebody is telling you, “Let’s try harder,” the person is going to get you killed. Because trying harder is not the solution. The solution is, “Do you have the ability to contend with this person?” So, if you want to contend with the person and win, you will need to gain ability; you need to gain strength; you need to gain skills.

And until you are sure that you have gained sufficient strength, sufficient skills and sufficient stamina to deal with the person in the ring, don’t bother. Because one of these days, you may die in the ring. Some months ago, there was a Nigerian boxer that died. He died in the ring. And as I was reading the review, it was said that he had been told that he was not medically fit for that fight.

So, he was not supposed to be in the ring in the first place. If fact, he had already cancelled the fight. But they increased the money he would get, if he should fight. They told him, “Okay, what if we pay you additional money, will you still fight.”

Now I can’t remember the money that was added to what he was supposed to be paid. But he agreed to the fight. And I watched the clip, how he died. It wasn’t that he took any serious hits. He just staggered and fell down at some point. And the rest is now history.

So, I’m saying that living to please God is not a function of trying to please him. It’s a function of having the ability to do so. And I’m saying that in the light of what we are looking at. Jesus says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bring forth fruit.”

And I’m saying that must mean that we have what it takes to bring forth fruit. If we do not have what it takes to bring forth fruit, even though He’s appointed us to bring forth fruit, we won’t be able to bring forth fruit. But thankfully, we have what it takes to bring forth fruit because we have a relationship, a relationship with Him that puts us in the position to bring forth the kind of fruit that He’s asking us to bring forth.

We’re still going to look at the kind of fruit He wants us to bring forth, maybe not this morning, but we’re going to look at it. But let’s first of all look at what He says about our relationship with Him, that relationship that places us in the position to bring forth fruit, the kind of fruit that He wants us to bring forth.

So, let us go back to verse 5, the same gospel and the same chapter. And it says:“I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.” (John 15:5NIV)

Now the Lord is describing our relationship with him here. And how does he describe it? He refers to himself as the vine and to us as the branches.

That’s our relationship. The branches are a part of the vine, right? And what part of the vine brings forth fruit? What part of any tree brings forth fruit? The branch! So, the branch is a part of the tree, an inseparable part of the tree, to put it that way. And it is the part of the tree that brings forth fruit. If it is not in the tree, it doesn’t have a relationship with it. So, it cannot bring forth fruit. But as long as it’s in the tree, the tree supplies it with everything that it needs to bring forth fruit.

So, the reason branches bring forth fruit is that they are part of the tree. They don’t struggle to bring forth fruit. They are not supposed to try to bring forth fruit. They only need to be a part of the tree to bring forth fruit. Can you relate to what I’m talking about? And the Lord is saying that He is the vine and we are the branches.

So, we are a part of Him.We talk all the time about being in Christ. What does that even mean to you? When you tell yourself that you’re in Christ or when you say to others, “I am in Christ,” what does it mean to you? This is what it should mean to you: that you have a relationship with Him; that you are connected to Him; that He is your source and you are drawing from him.

Now because He is your source, there are things that you should naturally do. There are things that the doing of them should be natural for you. Bearing fruit should be natural for us. It should not be something that we’ll struggle to do. It should not be something that we’ll fight to do. It is something that should be natural for us. That is because we have a relationship. We have a relationship with the Lord that places us in that position where we can naturally bring forth fruit. But there are reasons He wants us to bring forth fruit. And He gives us two of them here [in John 15:5&16]:

– He has appointed us to do so.

– We have a relationship with Him that enables us to do so.

But then, before we begin to look at how to take advantage of that relationship to bring forth fruit, we need to know what sort of fruit He expects us to bear.

Because here He tells us that it brings God glory when we bring forth much fruit. But what sort of fruit? You know, I’ve heard this from several preachers: When Jesus says that He has chosen us and appointed us to bring forth fruit, He means that we are to be evangelizing. In other words, they are saying that the fruit He’s referring to has to do with soul winning, bringing people into the kingdom.

But before I really considered Scriptures carefully to see what they said about this matter, I always had issues with that reasoning. It just sounded somehow to me. It didn’t sound good in my ears. Well, the first thing we need to consider is that the only person that can save any soul is God Himself. None of us can save any soul God has not saved. So, it is not your preaching that will save people; it is God that will save them.

Yes, He may use your preaching to save them. But ultimately, He is the one that saves people. He is the one that makes people have faith to be saved. And if He does not make them have faith to be saved, it doesn’t matter how grand your sermon is, it won’t result in their salvation. So, we can’t save anybody. You cannot save anybody. I cannot save anybody. I do not have the power to save anybody. The word of God is very clear about that.

Now that’s one of the reasons Christians are warned not to marry unbelievers. Don’t have it in mind that you are going to change the person. Don’t have it in mind that, by the time the person is exposed to your faith, he’s going to have a changed mind. You do not have the power to change anybody’s mind. The only one with the power to change people’s minds is God. And He has not succeeded yet in changing people’s minds.

I mean, there are millions of people, billions of people in the world today. How many of them has God succeeded in changing their mind? God possesses all power, yet He’s not been able to employ that power to save everybody, to get everybody to be born again. So, what makes you think you can get anybody born again through your preaching? You can’t. That is God’s job.Well, I’m saying that when Jesus is talking about bringing forth fruit, He’s not referring to soul winning; He’s not referring to evangelizing.

Now that’s not to say that He doesn’t want us to evangelize. That’s not to say that He doesn’t want us to preach the gospel. He wants us to preach the gospel, based on the ability [and opportunities] that He has given to each of us. But the main thing, the main thing He’s asking us to do is to bear fruit. And the truth is that when we understand the nature of fruit He wants us to bear, and we are bearing it abundantly, we have no problems at all in saving souls. I’m telling you:

we’ll be making it easy for Him, very easy for Him to save souls, to bless lives, if we are bearing in abundance the fruit He wants us to bear.So, first, we need to know what sort of fruit He wants us to bear. Because if we do not know what sort of fruit He wants us to bear, then, we can’t tell whether we are bearing it or not.

Are you following my point? But let me just say this before I close, because my time is already up: He refers to Himself as the vine and we as the branches. So, if we are to bring forth fruit, think about it yourself, what sort of fruit do you think we should naturally bring forth? It makes sense to say we should naturally bring forth the fruit of His character, right?

So, when He’s asking us to bring forth fruit, He’s simply talking about bringing forth the fruit of His own character, the fruit of who He is. In other words, we are to manifest his character.Remember that it’s also Jesus that says a tree is known by its fruit (Matthew 12:33).

A tree is known by its fruit, not just by the leaves. A tree is not a mango tree just because it looks like a mango tree. If it is not bringing forth mangoes, at some point, you’re going to change your mind about it. Think about it. If you look at a tree that’s naturally supposed to bring forth mangoes and you start seeing oranges on the tree, are you not going to think that something is wrong somewhere?

So, when He’s saying that we are to bring forth fruit, having already shown us our relationship with Him, we should know that the kind of fruit He’s talking about has to do with His own character. He’s asking us to bring forth fruit that is consistent with His character.

Now I don’t want to press this further than that this morning. But I believe that, up to this point, you understand what I’m trying to share with you, right? Let’s bow our heads and thank God for His word.

Categories
From Pastor's Desk 2025 FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025 Pastor's Desk

Title: Only He has the power of perfection

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 9

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to the transition week between the months of June and July 2025.

My prayer is that God will perfect all that concerns your life, as we move into the other half of the year in the week. Amen.

David, in one of his psalms, says, “The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.” (Ps 138:8NKJV)

Who will perfect that which concerns David? The Lord! Why? The reason is that only He possesses the power of perfection. And if He does not perfect that which concerns our lives, there is nothing we do to perfect our lives that will work.

Do we, then, need perfection in any area of our lives? If we do not know or think that we need perfection in any area of our lives, we will not desire it or go for it. David, for instance, could see that he needed perfection in certain areas of his life when he wrote this psalm.

Truly, God had given him a position of honour, peace of mind, good health and wealth. Yet he could see that there were things in his life, home and kingdom that needed to be set right and perfected. And instead of worrying about these things or trying to fix them himself, he entrusted them to God, saying, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.”

In like manner, we too must first acknowledge the things that need perfection in our lives, regardless of how good things may be going for us at the moment. Otherwise, we will not see the need to entrust them to God, the only one with the power of perfection. Then, when we have identified those things that need perfection in our lives, we should not try to handle them with our wisdom or strength. Instead, we should hand them over to God.

Why should we do that? The reason, as I pointed out already, is that we do not have the power of perfection. Only God has it. And if we try to play God in perfecting those things concerning our lives, however simple those things may be, we will soon see that we have made bad situations worse for ourselves.

Remember King Jeroboam.Remember that it was God that ordained him as king over the nation of Israel. But when he saw certain things that could affect his rule, he did not turn to God to perfect what He had started in his life. Instead, he resorted to his own wisdom. Therefore, he brought destruction upon himself, his household and the nation as a whole. (Cf. 1Kings 11-14)

Now I pray that we will not bring destruction on ourselves or others around us in our attempt to perfect the things that concern our lives. But we must learn to commit our lives and affairs to God in prayer for their perfection. That is because He cares about us and also possesses the power to perfect all that concerns us.

Have a splendid week.

Categories
Fire in my Bones Youth for Jesus

Title: Change the content

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Series: Youth for Jesus

Number: Vol. 8, No. 7

“You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” (Matthew 12:34-35NIV)

Those are the words of our Lord Jesus to us on how to be good people or bad people. And how do I become either a good person or a bad one? It is all about what I deposit or invest in my life.As our Lord asks in our opening text, “How can someone who is full of poison say or do anything good?” It is not possible. That person will have to change the content of his life for that to happen.

Otherwise, regardless of how hard he tries, he can never say anything good, unless, of course, God borrows his mouth for a moment.So, do you want to be a good person, in word and in conduct, begin to store goodness in your life.

Yes, begin to deliberately load yourself with words, thoughts and images of goodness. And you can do that by exposing yourself continually to the word of God. That is because His word is the word of goodness. And if you feed on it long enough, it will fill you with sufficient power of goodness to recreate your heart and also your conduct. Then you will find yourself unconsciously and naturally exhibiting and promoting goodness.

In like manner, if you really want to be or remain a bad person, you just need to feed yourself long enough with bad words, thoughts and images. And before you know it, everyone around you will have no doubt whatsoever about the fact that you are Satan’s firstborn. That is because you will be utterly bad and corrupt.

But then, I also need to say that even if you do not want to be a bad person but a good one, as long as you keep feasting on bad and useless words, thoughts and images, you will not be able to stop yourself from being a bad, corrupt and useless person. It is just what it is.

Similarly, even if you do not want to be a good person but a bad one, as long as you continue to feed on the word of God’s goodness, filling yourself with good thoughts and images through it, you won’t be able to help yourself from manifesting goodness.

So, whether your life will manifest goodness or evil all depends on the content of your heart. What, then, do you want in manifestation in your life, goodness or evil? Well, all you need is to change the content of your heart accordingly. My counsel, nevertheless, is that you change the content to what is good.C

heers!

Categories
From Pastor's Desk 2025 FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025 Pastor's Desk

Title: Do not harden your heart

Series: From Pastor’s Desk|Number: Vol. 14, No. 8

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to the last week of the month of June 2025. My prayer is that your ears will never be deaf to whatever the Spirit of God is saying to you, so that you will always be safe in living the life God wants you to live. Amen.

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 3, we are given this admonition: “So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…”” (Heb 3:7-8NIV) Who is speaking to us here? The Holy Spirit! And what is He saying to us? He is telling us that as long as it is called today, we should not harden our hearts when God is talking to us. In other words, we should not insist on doing our own thing, when God has already told us what He wants us to do. 

Now why should we not harden our hearts, when God is speaking to us? The reason is that doing so will surely result in disgrace, pain or destruction for us. Remember what is said in the bible about the Pharoah that would not let the children of Israel go and worship God. It is said that this king hardened his heart and would not do what God commanded. He continually turned deaf ears to what God was saying to him. And how did that end for him and his people? It ended very badly. (Cf. Ex 8:15&32)

But then, someone may say, “But it was God Himself that hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Why, then, should anybody blame him?” It is true that God hardened the man’s heart. And why did He do that? First, it was because the man himself was never ready to listen to what God had to say. That is showing us that our unwillingness to listen to what God is saying to us can only result in the hardening of our hearts. That means each time we choose to turn a deaf ear to what God is saying to us, our hearts will become more hardened to His truth. Then it will become more and more difficult for us to repent and save ourselves from His judgment. (Cf. Ex 9:12; Ex 10:20&27)

Another reason God hardened Pharaoh’s heart was to teach us that only He has the power to make people repent. And if He does not use this power to make them repent, there is nothing that is said to them or done for them that will make them repent. Remember that each time God’s judgment came on Egypt because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness, he would ask Moses to plead with Him for him and his people. But the moment he experienced some relief, he would harden his heart again. 

So, experiencing God’s goodness or mercy in great ways is not enough to make anyone listen to Him. He Himself has to work on our hearts to make us listen to what He is saying to us. Otherwise, even if He puts us in Eden, as He did with Adam and Eve, we will still harden our hearts against Him and force Him to drive us out of there.

All of this is why, as you go this week, learn to make it your prayer everyday that God will keep you from hardening your heart against whatever He is saying to you. That way, you will always be safe to enjoy His goodness and mercy in life. 

Have a lovely week.

Copyright © 2025, 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: 08146472876)
Categories
Fire in my Bones Youth for Jesus

Title: Act your part

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Series: Youth for Jesus|Number: Vol. 8, No. 6

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” (Luke 15:31NIV)

Who said these words? It was the father of the prodigal son that said them. And who did he say them to? He said them to his elder son?Now why did he say these words to the young man? The reason was that he was complaining that he was not being fairly treated by him.

Look at what he actually said to him:”But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ (Luke 15:29-31NIV)

What do we see from this young man’s protest to his father? We see anger. We see frustration. We also see bitterness. But should he have been angry, frustrated and bitter in this sense? No! Why, then, were these things present in his life? They were present there because he would not live in the consciousness of who he was. They were present there because he would not act his part as the elder son of his father and heir to everything the man had.He, as he pointed out to his father, had been slaving himself for him for years.

In other words, he had been doing all kinds of jobs for the man, including those meant for servants or slaves. But who asked him to act like that? Was it his father? It could not have been his father.Truly, he was meant to obey his father in everything good and right. But he was not meant to do that as a slave but as a son. In other words, he was to do whatever his father asked him to do, not with the consciousness of someone being used but with the consciousness of one that would in the long run enjoy the fruit of all that he was doing.

Mind you, as his younger brother pointed out when he came back to his senses, even their father’s servants were living in some measure of luxury (Luke 15:17). Therefore, neither of them had any legitimate reason to be living like a slave.

Unfortunately, he did not fully appreciate this. So, he would not act his part and enjoy himself as a son and heir to all that their father had. Instead, he was waiting for his father to command him to enjoy what already belonged to him before he would do so.

But he, unlike his foolish younger brother, had the training, discipline and wisdom needed to enjoy his inheritance. All he needed was to appreciate the fact that all that his father had belonged to him, especially since his younger brother had already received his own share of the inheritance, and act accordingly. But he would not learn the need to act his part until his foolish and reckless brother came back home and was treated to a great celebration by their father with part of his own inheritance.

In like manner, until certain people begin to enjoy in very unusual ways the benefits of our relationship with God or our relationships with some people, we may not wake up to the need to cherish what God has done for us or given to us. And where that is the case, the best thing for us to do is not to get angry, bitter or frustrated. That will only make a bad situation worse. Instead, it is to begin to act our part in such relationships and stop denying ourselves the enjoyment of what is ours.

So, start acting your part as a child and heir of God in every situation you find yourself. Yes, lay claim on everything that God has already said is yours without hesitation or fear, in the name of His Son Jesus. And it will be yours to enjoy. Then start acting your part in all your relationships with people.

Yes, fully act your part as a father, mother, husband, wife, child, sister, brother, church member, employer, employee, neighbour or citizen, as the case may apply. And may God readily bring about circumstances that will wake you up to begin to act your part in all your relationships, so that you may fully enjoy all that God has provided for your enjoyment through them. Amen.

Cheers!

Categories
Fire in my Bones General Post Youth for Jesus

Title: Recognising your comforters

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 7

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to another week of the month of June 2025. My prayer is that you will receive full comfort of the Spirit of God wherever you are hurting or downcast in your life. Amen.

Now one of the ways God comforts us in our moments of trials or challenges is by sending people to do things for us that will comfort us. For instance, Paul says this to the Corinthians about how God comforted them when they were in Macedonia: “For when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn — conflicts on the outside, fears within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus.” (2Cor 7:5-6NIV)

Did you see that? Paul was very clear about the fact that things were not easy for him and his companions at all when they were preaching the gospel in Macedonia. They were harassed and troubled everywhere they turned. That means they were always on the edge of trouble. So, fear was not far from them at all.How, then, did God take care of them during that period, so that they did not lose their mind and give up? It was by sending Titus, another ministry companion of theirs, to them. And what did Titus do when he came to them? Paul does not say in the account. But he does tell us that God comforted them through the coming of the man.

So, though they had been downcast before he came, they were comforted and refreshed in their spirits by his coming.In like manner, God can send people into our lives to comfort and lift us up in our trials. But are we going to recognise them? If Paul had not recognised Titus as the comforter sent by God to comfort and lift them up in Macedonia, would he not have missed his comfort? He would have missed it.

Yes, he and the others may have been praying to God for comfort from all their trials at the time. But if they had not recognised the one sent by God to comfort them, if they had simply seen his coming as an unnecessary burden, they would have missed the answer to their prayer.So, it is one thing for God to send us comforters in answer to our prayers; it is another thing to recognise them and allow them to comfort us. One of the reasons many of God’s people don’t enjoy comfort in their lives as they should is that they don’t recognise the people He has sent to comfort them.

Why? One main reason is that these people have their own weaknesses as well. Therefore, they can have behaviour that will irritate or anger or mislead others. And if we focus only on those wrong things in their lives, we may end up ignoring, abusing or even corrupting them and miss the comfort God has sent them to give to us.All of this is why we should learn to pray that God will always enable us to recognise those He is sending to our lives to comfort and lift us up, so that we will relate to them appropriately and fully enjoy their comfort. And may you be strengthened to daily take this seriously, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a splendid week.

Copyright © 2025, 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: 08146472876)

Categories
Fire in my Bones Youth for Jesus

Title: Responding to threats

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Series: Youth for Jesus

Number: Vol. 8, No. 6

“But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.” (Nehemiah 4:7-9NIV)

Why were Sanballat and his associates angry that the Jews of their time were making progress in repairing the walls of Jerusalem? They were angry because they would no longer be able to profit from the miseries of those Jews as they used to. And there are still people like Sanballat and his associates today, people who never want others to be free from oppression or poverty because they are profiting from it. Now when such people begin to see you making progress or doing things that will hinder them from profiting from your misery or misfortune, they will not be happy.

Besides, they may even begin to take steps to keep you where you are, where they can continue to profit from your sorrow and pain. And that was the case with Sanballat and his associates. Not only were they not happy with Nehemiah and the Jews because they were making progress in building the walls of Jerusalem and ending all the forms of harassment they had been experiencing, they also began to take steps towards causing them trouble.

How, then, did Nehemiah and the other leaders of the Jews respond to the threat of these people? They responded to it in two ways. First, they prayed to God about it. In other words, they asked God to pay attention to what their enemies were saying and planning against them, so that He may frustrate them.

Why? It was because they knew that unless God kept them safe from the threats and wicked plots of these wicked people, they would not be able to keep themselves safe from them.In like manner, when we are being threatened or harassed, we must learn to pray to God and not ignore what Satan is using people to do against us. Nehemiah and his people did not ignore Sanballat and his men.

Otherwise, they would have been caught by surprise and frustrated or destroyed. And if we too don’t want those threatening us to catch us unguarded, we had better never ignore their threats, however feeble they may seem.

Instead, we should pray to God about them, so that we may always have His protection from their evil thoughts and schemes. Otherwise, we may end up feeling sorry for ourselves when these enemies are through with us.The second thing Nehemiah and his people did was to keep watch on the activities of their enemies, day and night.

Why? It was so that they would be regularly updated on what they were doing and be able to prepare themselves for it. And that was a manifestation of wisdom on their part.See, it is not everything needed for our safety that God will do for us.

There are things He will not do to keep us safe because He knows that He has given us the wisdom, strength and resources to do them. And if we fail to do these things for ourselves, we will not be able to blame Him for not keeping us safe.Keeping an eye on what Sanballat and his associates were doing was something that Nehemiah and his men could do. And they did not expect God to do it for them. Instead, they did it themselves. And it paid off, for it made their enemies see that they were not stupid people that they could easily attack and frustrate.

In like manner, keeping an eye on what anyone threatening or harassing you is up to will let them know that you are not stupid but sharp and attentive.

In fact, it will make them think twice before they take any step against you. And since keeping an eye on them is something you can do, do it, instead of waiting for God to do it for you.

Otherwise, you may ignorantly or foolishly take steps that will make you fall into their traps.Who, then, are you going to blame, if that should happen? Yourself!

So, learn and embrace the wisdom of God to keep yourself safe from all kinds of threats. And may God’s loving eye continually watch over your life. Amen.

Categories
From Pastor's Desk 2025 FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025 Pastor's Desk

Title: A ready faith

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 6.

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to the second week of the month of June 2025. And I pray that your heart will always be made ready to receive from God whatever good thing He wants you to have. Amen.

As we see in the bible, no one can receive anything good in this life, if God has not provided that thing. That means we can only receive what God has given or provided. If He, then, has not provided something, no one, regardless of how great his faith may be, can receive it. (Cf. John 3:27)

But then, even if God has provided something for us, we too must want to have it. Otherwise, that thing may never be ours, unless we are shown mercy. For example, as we see in the bible, the family of Zechariah and Elizabeth were childless for many years, even though they were righteous before God. That, of course, did not make them turn to some other gods for help. Instead, they kept on praying to God to show them mercy and take away their disgrace. (Cf. Luke 1:5-7)

Now how did I know that they were praying to God to take away the shame of barrenness from their home? I know because, as we also see in the bible, when God sent angel Gabriel to give the good news of His answer to their prayer to them, the first thing he told Zechariah was, “Your prayer has been heard.” So, if we will not faint in praying to God, we will surely receive an answer to our prayer, as long as it is in line with His will. Yes, the answer may take a while to get to us. But it will surely come. (Cf. Luke 1:13)

However, will God’s answers to our prayers always meet us ready? Are we going to be ready to receive from Him what He wants us to have, which we too may have been praying and longing for, when the thing is eventually brought to us? Zechariah was not ready to receive from God the child he had been praying for years for, when God eventually cleared the way for the child to come to his family. He could not believe that God was really going to give them a child in their old age. (Cf. Luke 1:11-20)

Why, then, was he praying to God all those years for a child? He was probably doing so to fulfil all righteousness. And if God had not been merciful to him, in spite of his unbelief, he would have been the reason his wife would remain childless for life.

So, it is not enough to be praying to God to give us something. Our hearts also must always be ready to receive from Him what we are praying for, regardless of how long it takes for the answer to come to us and regardless of how impossible it may seem for the answer to come to us. Otherwise, our prayer for that thing may end up being a waste.Not only that, we must continually give ourselves to the word of God, so that our faith will be strengthened to always be ready to receive from Him.

Mary the mother Jesus, for instance, never prayed to God to become the mother of the saviour of the world. She probably never considered nor took to seriously the Scripture that talks about a virgin that would conceive and give birth to the saviour. But when angel Gabriel came to tell her that she had been chosen by God to be the mother of the saviour, her faith was ready to accept what God had chosen her for. So, she said, “May your word to me be fulfilled.” And it was so. (Cf. Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:36)

In like manner, if our faith is always ready to receive from God, whatever He wants us to have will be ours, even if we have never prayed for it. So, let us learn to daily feed ourselves with His word, so that we may always have a ready faith to receive from Him. And may you and I be strengthened to do so, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a great week.

Copyright © 2025, 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: 08146472876)

Categories
MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTS Message Transcripts 2025

Title: Prayer

Series: See to it

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I want to continue sharing with you on ‘See to it’. We have been looking at the instructions given to us in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12 on seeing to it that none of us develops a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. That means it is our duty, individually and collectively, to watch over one another and see to it that we do not go astray. And that has led us to looking at various things we must pay attention to, while attempting to watch over one another.

Now the last thing I want to bring to us on this has to do with praying for one another. See, it does not matter how diligent we are in watching over one another, in counselling one another and in following up one another, so that we do not fall away from the grace of God, without supporting ourselves with prayer, we may still find some or even many among us falling away. This is why we have Scriptures in which we are given instructions about praying for one another in order to remaining in the faith.

For instance, Paul says this in Ephesians, chapter 6, from verse 18:“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” (Ephesians 6:18NIV)

First, our instruction here is to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Then we are told to be vigilant and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. So, we have an instruction here, which is to always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Observe that we are not told in this bible text to always keep on praying for ourselves. Of course, we are to keep on praying for ourselves. But our instruction here is to always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Now, as a person, I take that very seriously. I pray for all the Lord’s people. I do not need to know all the Lord’s people that are here on earth. But I can pray for them based on the regions of the world in which they are living, based on their sex, based on age, based on their professions and so for. And think about this: since are told to pray for all the Lord’s people, we will not be expected to do anything less in praying for those that we are together in our local assemblies. So, we must be praying for all those that we are together in our local assemblies.

Remember that this is God’s command to us. If you, then, have not been praying for members of your assembly and for all the Lord’s people, you are sinning against Him – you are disobeying a clear command from Him. This is not a suggestion to us. This is a command from Him to us. So, we must take obeying it very seriously.

What sort of prayers, then, are we to be offering for our brethren and all the people of the Lord? We are to be offering for them all kinds of prayers. Any kind of prayer that is good for you is good for all the Lord’s people. Any kind of prayer that is good for you is good for your brethren as well. So, do not tell me that you do not know what sort of prayers you are to be offering for your brethren. That is because you can offer for them whatever prayer you offer for yourself.

However, for the purpose of these teachings, we are being specific about the sort of prayer we are to be offering for our brethren. We are considering prayers that will enable them to remain true to God and not fall away from the faith, irrespective of the trials of life that they may be confronted.

For example, in Colossians, chapter 4, from verse 12, Paul says this about a ministry companion of his and his devotion to praying for the brethren in Colossae:“Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.” (Colossians 4:12-13NIV)

This is a very good example of what God expects us to be doing for our brethren, where it concerns prayer. Paul says, “Epaphras, who is one of you…” So, this man was a member of that church. In fact, in chapter 1 of this letter, Paul makes it clear to us that it was this man that God used in starting the church in Colossae. He was the one that preached to be people there and led them to the Lord Jesus Christ. That was how a church started there.

Now Paul, at the time that he wrote this letter, wanted the brethren to know that this man, Epaphras, was devoted to praying for them, even though he was not with them at the time. Paul refers to what he was doing for these brethren as hard work. So, prayer is hard work. If you have been devoted to prayer, you will know that it is hard work. I know that it is hard work.Well, Epaphras was devoted to praying for the brethren in Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis. And he was praying like these for all these brethren because he identified with them – he was one of them. If you too identify with your brethren, if you take them as your family, you will be devoted to praying for them. Yes, all of us have a duty to pray for all the Lord’s people around the world.

But more importantly, we have a duty to be praying for the brethren that we are directly fellowshipping together. Epaphras saw it as his duty to be praying for the Colossian-brethren. And he was very devoted to it. In fact, Paul refers to his approach in praying for them as a wrestle. He says he is wrestling in prayer for them. Why? The reason is that they may stand firm in the will of God, mature and fully assured. Think about that. This man wants these brethren to stand firm in all the will of God, regardless of what they are confronted with in life.People are confronted with all kind of trials and challenges in life.

All of us are confronted with all kinds of trials and challenges of life. And we may not be able to share everything that is coming our way. But if we have someone that is praying for us that we may stand firm in all the will of God, we may not be able to tell to what extent that will help us.There are Christians today that are fighting for their souls in their offices, schools, neighbourhoods and so forth. That is because they are probably living in Sodom and are being tormented everyday by the evil of those around them. And now their faith is shaking and they need our spiritual support.

Unfortunately, many of us are too self-occupied. Because we are self-occupied, we don’t even spend time praying for ourselves, not to talk of praying for others. But your brother may urgently need your prayer. That sister of yours may urgently need your prayer. And God is counting on you to pray for them. So, if a brother or a sister should fall because of your negligence in praying for them, God is going to hold you accountable.

This, of course, is one of the reasons our Lord Jesus says that many who are first will be last. See, many that we are looking up to in the church as pillars may not after all be what we think they are, when we stand before the Lord. And that may be because they have been negligent in handling their duties in various areas. We too may have been negligent in handling our duties in various ways. And one of those areas in which many of us are negligent in our spiritual duties is that of praying for our brethren. (Cf. Matthew 19:30; Mark 10:31)

Now we think it is the so-called prayer warriors that should be praying for all of us. But from what we see in Ephesians 6:18, the duty of prayer is not reserved for any group or class of people in the church; it is for all of us. Yes, our leaders must be at the fore in prayer matters, as the apostles of old said. The apostles of old said that the leaders must give themselves to the ministry of the word of God and prayer. That means they must always take the lead in prayer matters, especially praying for their brethren. (Cf. Acts 6:3)

Nonetheless, every one of us must give himself to prayer. Jesus says, “People ought to always pray and not give up.” He does not say, “Pastors or preachers ought to always pray and not give up.” And in Ephesians 6:18, as I pointed out already, Paul says, “Always pray for all the Lord’s people.” This instruction is given to all members of the body of Christ, not to our leaders alone. And all of us must take it seriously.

Well, my point is that all of us need one another’s prayer support. That is because none of us is exempted from life’s challenges. Even our Lord Jesus Christ was not exempted from life’s challenges. So, towards the end of His life here on earth He had to give Himself to earnest praying.

Why did He have to do that? It was because He was confronted with a situation in which He needed all the grace of God that He could get to walk in victory.Now the Lord, at that time, did take some of His disciples along with Him to pray. But they could not give Him any prayer support. He had told them to pray for themselves. But they would not do so. How, then, could they give Him any prayer support? He Himself knew that He could not expect any prayer support from them.

If they had supported Him with their prayers in that situation, who knows how that may have made His cross easier to carry? But He could not rely on them for any prayer support. And you too may not be able to rely on anyone around you for prayer support. But it is the duty of each of us to be praying for one another, so that we all will stand firm in all the will of God for our lives, mature and fully assured.

Do we really want to stand firm in all the will of God? Do we want to come to maturing in the things of God? Do we want full assurance of faith in our hearts? Then we must be praying for one another. I must be praying for you. You too must be praying for me. A lot of times, we are quick judge brethren who fall short of the grace of God. But did we take our prayer duty to them very seriously? How much time did we spend in praying for those who fell among us before they fell? If we had been praying for them, they probably would not have fallen the way they did. So, don’t be quick to judge anybody.

Yes, you may see Christians that have turned away from God and are living useless and irresponsible lives. But have you been praying for them, praying for all the Lord’s people, that they may stand firm in all the will of God, regardless of the temptations or challenges or even opportunities they may come in contact with? Have you been praying for them, regardless of the persecutions and hostility they are faced with, regardless of the torment of their souls?There are Christians that are living on the edge, where they are continually exposed to danger or death because of their faith.

And some of these people may become tired or weary because of the intensity of what they are going through. If care is not taken, they may fall away or slip back into their former way of life. There have been those who slipped back into their former religions because the hostility they faced, having become Christians, was too much for them to handle.Therefore, we must learn to pray for one another. And we see a clear example of this in the text I shared with us from Colossians 4 about Epaphras and his devotion to praying for the people of God.

We too must be given to praying for our brethren like that, so that they may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. Furthermore, the Lord gives us some other specific prayers we are to be offering for ourselves and for our brethren. Look at how Luke puts it:“Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36NIV)

First, we are told by the Lord here to always be on the watch. In other words, we must not allow ourselves to get carried away by the things happening around us. Then He goes on to command us to pray. About what? He tells us to pray that we may be able to escape all that is about to happen and that we may be able to stand before the Son of Man.

See, in these last days, wickedness will increase, as we are warned by the Lord Jesus Christ. And these will cause the love of many people to grow cold. So, because of the things we are going to be exposed to in our world, because of the intensity of wickedness that we are going to be exposed to wherever we turn, our faith will put to the utmost test. And the only way for us to escape is for God Himself to save us. Our salvation from the corruption and evils of these last days is beyond our desire or effort. We need all the mercy of God we can get to be saved. So, we are told to pray to Him that we may be able to escape all that will be happening in these last days and that we will be able to stand blameless when our Lord Jesus returns. (Cf. Matthew 24:12; Romans 9:16)

I personally take the offering of this prayer very seriously. I offer it for myself. I offer it for my family. I offer it for all of you here in this assembly. And I offer it for all God’s people. You too should be offering it for yourself and for all the people of God. Well, you can see that we have sufficient instructions in Scriptures on what sort of prayers to offer for ourselves so that we do not fall away but stand firm in all the will of God. So, you cannot claim to be ignorant in this matter.

Yes, we are to be involved in one another’s life, so that we will know how to properly guide, support and counsel ourselves. But all of that may go to waste, if we will not be devoted to praying for one another. You may have been in situations in which you counselled certain people of God and your counsel fell on deaf ears. Yes, you knew that they were going in a wrong direction. You knew that they would ultimately hurt themselves, if they continued in the path they were following.

Yet you could not get them to see the light through your counsel. Now what do we do in such situations? Do we put more and more pressure on such individuals to do what is right? No! We cannot help people beyond what they permit. But we can pray for them. We can take charge of their souls in the realm of the spirit by offering prayers for them.In Luke, chapter 22, from verse 31, he tells us this about the prayer of Jesus for His disciples:“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32NIV)

Jesus, here, is telling His disciples that Satan has already asked to sift all of them as wheat, that is, to mess them up. Think about that. Just as Satan got permission to mess Job up, he also got permission from God to mess up the Lord’s disciples. And what did Jesus do when He learnt of this? He prayed for them. Yes, He had been feeding them with the word of God. But He also knew that feeding them with the word of God would not be sufficient on that occasion – they would need the mercy of God to escape.

So, He prayed for them that their faith may not fail. We too can offer this prayer for ourselves, prayer that our faith will not fail, regardless of what Satan may throw at us. In fact, we should be offering it for ourselves and for all our brethren. We may not know what sort of permission Satan has obtained against our brethren, to pull them down in their neighbourhoods, workplaces, schools, marriages or even Christian assemblies. And there are times that God may reveal such things to us, as He did in the case of the Lord’s disciples.

But whether He reveals Satan’s schemes against our brethren to us or not, we must be praying for our brethren that their faith may not fail.What I mean is that we do not need to wait for any divine revelation before we begin to pray for our brethren. We have already been told in the Scriptures to be doing so. So, we are to take it upon ourselves to pray for our brethren that their faith will not fail, regardless of where they are and what Satan may be doing to pull them down.Now praying like this for our brethren does not mean that they may not stumble or fall at all. They may still stumble or fall, even though we are praying for them. Jesus prayed for His disciples that their faith may not fail. Yet they all ran away from Him when He was arrested and taken away to be crucified. But because He had prayed for them, God was able to restore them. So, there are times that our prayers may not keep our brethren from falling.

But our prayers may assure their restoration. Let us, then, learn to pray for one another, so that none of us will develop a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God or fall short of His grace. My prayer is that the Spirit of God will daily strengthen us to take these instructions very seriously. Amen.

Categories
Fire in my Bones General Post Youth for Jesus

Title: Should you help the wicked?

fire in my bones
fire in my bones

Series: Youth for Jesus

Number: Vol. 8, No. 5

“When Jehoshaphat king of Judah returned safely to his palace in Jerusalem, Jehu the seer, the son of Hanani, went out to meet him and said to the king, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, the wrath of the Lord is on you.” (2Chronicles 19:1-2)

Why was the wrath of God on King Jehoshaphat? It was because he helped a wicked man. And who was the wicked man that he helped? It was King Ahab.

According to the story, Ahab once invited Jehoshaphat to join him in fighting against the Arameans over a place called Ramoth Gilead. He did that because Jehoshaphat had visited him. And why did Jehoshaphat visit him? He visited him because he was his in-law. (Cf. 1Kings 22:1-4; 2Chro 18:1-3)

Now is anything wrong with visiting our in-laws? No! On the contrary, it is something that is expected of us, if we take our relationship with them seriously and want it to continue to blossom. So, it was not wrong of Jehoshaphat to visit Ahab as his in-law.But then, Ahab was a wicked man. And it happened that the time Jehoshaphat visited him was the time God had set to judge and kill him.

Yet, in His mercy, He revealed through one of His prophets, Micaiah, to these kings that he had decreed death for Ahab. So, all that Ahab needed to do at that time to escape God’s judgment on his life was to respect and obey the divine revelation he was given. But he would not do that because he was wicked and did not have much regard for the Lord. Instead, he would go on with his plan of going to war against the Arameans, especially since he had the support of his false prophets. (Cf. 1Kings 22:5-28; 2Chro 18:4-27)

Unfortunately, even though Jehoshaphat could see that his in-law was godless and also disobeying a divine revelation, he still joined him in going to war against the Arameans. And if God had not shown him mercy, he would have perished along with Ahab on the battle field. But God showed him mercy and saved him. (Cf. 1Kings 22:29-38; 2Chro 18:28-36)

However, when he came back to his own country, God sent a messenger to him to ask him if it was right to help the wicked or to team up with those who hate the Lord? And did he answer this question or not? We are not told in the account. But we are told that he did not learn much from what had happened to him. That was because he still later made an alliance with Ahaziah, the son of Ahab. He agreed with him to construct a fleet of trading ships. And God’s wrath manifested against him, as he had been told before, and those ships were destroyed. So, he lost his huge investment on them. What a shame! (Cf. 2Chro 20:35-37)

Now why was Jehoshaphat being continually dragged into such messy situations? Why was he continually being exposed to God’s wrath, even though he was a godly man? The reason was his marriage ties with the house of Ahab. If he had not been in marriage ties with that family, he would not have found himself helping them to promote their wickedness and so exposing himself to all kinds of danger.

So, if we don’t want to find ourselves helping the wrong people, we need to watch what sort of relationships we get ourselves into. Yes, we may love God and be truly devoted to Him. But as long as we are in certain work, family or neighbourhood relationships, we may find ourselves helping those with us to promote things contrary to the will of God. And that will surely expose us to God’s judgment or satanic afflictions.What, then, do we do, if we are already in legitimate relationships that keep exposing us to God’s wrath or satanic afflictions?

First, we need to continually pray that God, in His mercy, will do the needful about such relationships for us to have peace of mind over them. Second, we must make up our minds never again to help those with us in those relationships to do anything contrary to the will of God. And will that be easy? It may not be easy at all. But it will be easier and better than unduly exposing ourselves to God’s wrath or satanic afflictions.

So, mind yourself.