Category: Fire in my Bones

“So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”” (Gen 39:6-7NIV)

Who left everything he had in Joseph’s care? It was his master, Potiphar. And why did he leave everything he had in his care? As the account shows us, it was because he prospered in everything he did. And why did he prosper in all that he did? It was because he took advantage of God’s presence in his life. If we too will learn to take advantage of the presence of God in our lives, we will see ourselves prospering in everything we do.

See, God’s presence in our lives will not automatically produce success in every area of our lives. We will have to learn to take advantage of it by walking in its consciousness. In other words, we will have to teach ourselves to handle every business, every challenge and every opportunity of life with the consciousness that God is with us and is able to make us victorious. This is what will drive us to meditate on His word and His power and to pray to Him for whatever we need.

Well, because Joseph learnt to take God’s presence with him seriously, he prospered in all that he did. And because he prospered in all that he did, he was made the manager of Potiphar’s household. But remember that he started in that man’s house as nothing but a seventeen-year old slave. He started with nothing to his credit. Yet, in very few years, he rose to be the overseer of his master’s household. Yes, in very few years, he rose to a place where he could have whatever form of enjoyment that was possible in Potiphar’s house.

Now it is natural for someone to become comfortable in that kind of situation and begin to think that he has eventually arrived. But can we say that Joseph had actually arrived, having become the manager of Potiphar’s household? No! Yes, he was the manager of the man’s household. But he was not a free man. He was still the man’s slave. And unless something opened his eyes to that reality, he may totally forget that God’s purpose for him in life was beyond living as an exalted or glorified slave.

Well, something eventually opened Joseph’s eyes to this reality. But it was not something pleasant at all. What was it, anyway? As we see in our opening bible text, it was the infatuation of his master’s wife. The woman, at some point, just became obsessed with the thought of having something with him. And his stubborn refusal to have anything to do with her later landed him in the prison. (Cf. Gen 39)

Now the question is, “Would Joseph have been thrown into the prison the way he was, if he had been a free man?” Not likely! There would first of all have been a fair and proper trial. That means he would have the privilege of speaking for himself. Also, witnesses, if there were any, would have been called in to testify. And if everything well, the judges in the land would have gotten to the root of the matter and exonerated him.

But he was not a free man in Egypt. He was a slave. Yes, he was a glorified slave. He was a slave, nonetheless. And as a slave, whatever right he had was what his master gave him. So, if his master decided to take away his right to live or exist, there was nothing he could do about it.

Thankfully, the man spared his life and simply imprisoned him. And interestingly, he was exalted again in the prison. He was made the chief prisoner by the prison warden and put in charge of everything going on there. But this time around, he did not allow himself to get too comfortable at all with that position. Instead, when he had an opportunity to make friends with a man that could help him get out, he did not lose or waste it at all. And though the man initially forgot him, it was still through him that God set him free and lifted him up to the place He had always wanted him to occupy in life. (Cf. Gen 39-41)

What is the point of all this? It is that you must not get too comfortable wherever you are, as long as the place is not the highest height God wants you to attain in life. Also, don’t get too comfortable with what God has not given to you permanently, regardless of the privileges or benefits it may now be offering you. That is because just one incident may take away from you those privileges or benefits. What, then, will become of you, if that should happen?

For example, there have been people whose lives were terrible messed up or who lost their minds because they lost certain well-paying jobs or because they were demoted in their workplaces or because certain people who used to support them stopped doing so or because their kind-hearted landlords died and the children of those landlords changed their rent terms. And why did that happen to them? It was because they got too comfortable with something that was not meant to last forever or something that was not theirs to possess and enjoy for a lifetime.

So, while we should take every moment to enjoy everything God has put at our disposal, we should not get carried away by the moment’s enjoyment and lose sight of the reality of our position or the reality of what we truly possess and what we don’t possess. Instead, we should open eyes to see the better things around and ahead that God has prepared for us, so that we can go for them and possess them by His grace. That way, even if a Pharaoh that knows nothing about Joseph should appear on the scene of our lives, we will not be at their mercy or have our lives thrown into misery because of them (Ex 1:8-14).

God bless you.

Copyright © 2024, 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)

“Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, which he scooped out with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.” (Judg 14:8-9NIV)

Who is the bible referring to in our opening text? It is Samson. He was the one that scooped out some honey from a lion’s carcass and ate it. Of course, as the story goes, he was the one that had killed that lion sometimes before that particular day. But did that make it right for him to eat honey taken from its carcass? No!

According to what God says to the children of Israel in the law of Moses, it is wrong of them to eat any animal that He has referred to as unclean for them. And even if they have to touch the carcass of such an animal, they will be unclean till the evening of the day and will have to take a ceremonial bath to make themselves clean. Then if the carcass of such an animal touches anything with water in it that can be eaten, that food becomes unclean and must be thrown away. In fact, if its carcass touches a cooking pot or oven, it has to be broken and thrown away. It is as serious as that. (Cf. Lev 11)

The question now is, “Is a lion unclean for the Israelites to eat?” Yes, according to the Law of Moses, a lion is unclean for them to eat. That is because it walks on its paws (Lev 11:27). That being the case, it was wrong of Samson to touch the carcass of that lion, not to even talk of take honey from it to eat.

But he took honey from its carcass, ate it and did not bother at all about the fact that doing so made him ceremonially unclean before God. And did he eat that honey that day because he had no alternative and was fainting? No! The bible does not tell us that he was fainting or dying when he saw that honey. Also, the bible does not tell us that an emergency necessitated what he did. On the contrary, the bible shows us that he was on his way to marry a woman in the land of the Philistines that day. So, he did what he did that day because he did not have much regard for the law of the Lord. The only thing he had any regard for at all was the special anointing of might that the Spirit of God had given him.

Sadly, there are still many like Samson today. They have no serious regard for the word of God. Why? For the most part, it is because they think that certain gifts of the Spirit that they have, perhaps healing gifts, prophetic gifts, teaching gifts or miracle gifts, are a substitute for the word of God. But no spiritual gift, however useful it may be, is given to take the place of the word of God in our lives. On the contrary, if we are going to please God in using whatever gifts He gives to us, we must use them in line with what He has said to us in His word. Otherwise, as it was the case with Samson, we may end up messing up His work, our lives and even others’ lives in using those gifts.

Well, apart from the fact that Samson made himself unclean that day by eating honey from a lion’s carcass, he also made his parents unclean by sharing the honey with them to eat as well. As we see in our opening text, this young man did not tell his parents where he had gotten the sweet honey he was eating from. Why? He knew that they would not have joined him in eating it but would have reprimanded him. So, he kept quiet about its source and just gave them to eat. And they ate it and were made unclean, even though it was unknown to them at the time that they had been made unclean.

Now were Samson’s parents guiltless because they did not know the source of the honey their son had given them to eat? No, they were not. They would have been guiltless, if they had asked him where the honey had come from and he had told them a lie. That means they would have eaten the honey in good conscience.

But they too did not ask him a thing. They just collected the honey from him and started eating it. Why? Maybe they trusted him too much to think that he would give them something that would make them unclean to eat. Or maybe they felt it was totally irrelevant to do so. In short, there may have been several reasons they did not ask him for the source of the honey he gave them to eat.

One thing, however, is clear, which is that by not asking him for the source of the honey that their son gave them to eat, they exposed themselves to spiritual pollution. And if it was a matter that God was going to judge immediately and severely, they would have had only themselves to blame.

In like manner, we can expose ourselves to uncleanness, danger or the destruction of our reputation by not asking relevant questions about the source of what people are giving to us or sharing with us. Yes, we may trust someone with our lives because of our history or relationship with them. But if we are not clear about the source of certain good things they are enjoying or sharing, we should ask relevant questions. That is because even an anointed man or woman of God may deliberately ignore the word of God and allow greed or lust to take over her life for a moment. And if we partake of the reward of her lust, simply because we choose to be ignorant of what she is up to, even if it is a human that is judging the matter, he will most likely not fail to hold us guilty.

There are parents today that are enjoying with their children the riches that they got from robbery, kidnapping, money rituals or some other vices. And there are people enjoying with their spouses, friends or siblings their ill-gotten gains. Yes, these people will not tell them where their wealth is coming from. But they too will not ask. And they will not ask because they have chosen to be ignorant. But on the day that trouble will come upon these people, they too will surely have their own share of it. Then their claim of ignorance will not move anyone or make sense to them.

So, before you settle down with anyone, however close they may be to you, to enjoy riches or honour that you don’t know its source, you had better remember this story and let it be your wisdom. And may God keep you from foolishly or ignorantly making yourself a partaker of others’ sins or trouble, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Copyright © 2024, 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)

“And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.” So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel. In front of them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising. He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.'”” (Ezek 8:9-12NIV)

Those are some of Ezekiel’s words about certain things God once showed him about the leaders of the nation of Judah. As the account goes, this man of God, who was an exile in the land of the Babylonians, was meeting with a number of other elderly exiles from the land of Judah one day, when the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took him in the spirit to Jerusalem to see some of the things going on there. (Cf. Ezek 8:1-4)

Now what exactly was going on in Jerusalem at the time? Well, as we see in our opening text, all kinds of detestable practices were going on there. To make matters worse, it was not only in the city that these things were going on, they were also going on in the temple of the Lord. And to make matters even worse, there were a sizable number of the elders of the land that were involved in these wicked and idolatrous practices.

At least, as we also see in our opening text, Ezekiel was able to mention the name of one of the elders he had seen in his vision, Jaazaniah son of Shaphan. Then, in chapter 11 of the same book, speaking further about this same vision, he mentions the names of two more leaders that he saw practising wickedness in the house of the Lord. He speaks of Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah.

So, what God showed this man of God was not something figurative; rather, it was exactly what was happening in Jerusalem at the time. In fact, if you read the entire eighth, nineth, tenth and eleventh chapters of his book, you will see that he actually saw things. He saw things that were terrible enough to make him go crazy. And these things were going on in the land because the elders of the land themselves were involved.

What this is telling us is that if wickedness is widespread in a place, if wickedness is happening unchallenged in a place, check the leaders and elders there. There is every tendency that most of them are either directly involved in the evil being seen in the place or are benefiting indirectly from it.

In any case, why were those elders and religious leaders of the land confidently engaging in idolatrous practices, even in the temple of the Lord? What gave them the confidence to turn the house of the Lord into a shrine for demons and all kinds of idols? As God pointed out to Ezekiel in that vision, it was because they believed that He did not see them. They believed that since He had already abandoned the land because of their wickedness, He could no longer pay attention to what they were doing or see it. Therefore, they felt free to multiply their sins and wickedness.

But were they correct? Was it true that God could no longer see them because He had already left the land? No! The fact that God leaves someone or turns His back on them does not mean that He no longer notices or sees what they are doing. God is omniscient. So, it is impossible for Him to disappear from anybody’s life or place. That is because He is everywhere and fills everywhere.

Therefore, when He says that He has left someone, He is not saying that He has relocated to another land, country or house. Rather, He is simply saying that He is no longer going to get involved in the person’s affairs, to help, lift or protect them. So, the person will have to get by all by themselves, something that can only end in disgrace and destruction, if they are not shown mercy.

Unfortunately, those elders and leaders of the people of Judah were totally ignorant of this. So, they were doing whatever they pleased, believing that God was not looking and so would not judge them. But God was looking. He was seeing everything they were doing.

Not only that, God was ready to judge all of them for their wickedness. And because He was ready to judge them, He decided to make Ezekiel a witness of the whole thing. This was so that when certain things began to happen to them, they would not think it was an accident; instead, they would know that it was God’s judgment that had come upon them.

For example, as Ezekiel further tells us in the account, having shown him some of the detestable things those people were doing in the land and in His temple, God told him to prophesy judgment on them in that vision. And as he began to do so, one of them, Pelatiah son of Beniah, fell down and died. So, if anybody began to tell people that his death was an accident, all the people whom Ezekiel had told these things would immediately correct him that it was not an accident but God’s judgment. (Cf. Ezek 11:1-13)

What, in any case, is the point of all this? It is that the Lord sees us all the time. Yes, He sees all that we are doing and are up to, good or bad. Now He may choose to show some people what we are doing or choose not to. But we just need to know that if we are secretly doing evil, even if we are respectable leaders of His people or of our society, He sees us and will surely expose and judge us at the right time, if we fail to repent.

So, change your ways now and repent of all your hidden wicked and idolatrous practices. Otherwise, God’s judgment will come on you when you least expect. And He may make sure that people don’t see it as a accident but as His judgment. Then it is not only your life, soul, body, possession or position that you will lose; you will lose your fraudulent reputation as well. And who knows how many people in your life that will also affect?

Copyright © 2024, 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)

“The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.” “Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the LORD says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.'” And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.” (2Kings 2:19-22NIV)

What city is being referred to in this text? It is Jericho. Yes, it is the same city of Jericho that Joshua cursed when he was leading the children of Israel to possess their inheritance. (Cf. Joshua 6:26)

Now what was the testimony that the men of the city gave to Elisha, the man of God, who was just staying there for a while? It was that even though the city was well situated, the water was bad and the land was unproductive. Why was that so? Though we are not given any specific reason in the account, it is evident from what we have in the bible that it was the curse of Joshua that put that city in that terrible condition.

Yes, Joshua’ curse was meant to rest only on anyone who would attempt to rebuild Jericho. But is it possible for a man to be cursed and for the works of his hands and the people in his life not to partake in the curse on his life, to one degree or the other? It is impossible.

So, when Hiel decided to rebuild Jericho during the time of King Ahab, the curse of Joshua not only rested on his life and family but also on what he was rebuilding. So, he lost two of his sons, according to the statement of the curse, and also brought barrenness and bitterness on the city he had rebuilt. (Cf. 1Kings 16:34)

In any case, when Elisha the man of God came to Jericho, after he had just been endued with God’s anointing to be the lead prophet in Israel, the men of the city were smart enough to take advantage of his brief stay. How? They drew his attention to the true need of the city. And was that? A town hall? No! A museum? No! A gigantic synagogue for religious meetings? No!

What, then, was the true need of the city? Healing! The land needed spiritual healing above all else. And the men of the place were wise enough to know that if the city was spiritually healed, every other good thing that was supposed to be happening there would start happening. So, they would not allow Elisha’s stay in the land, though it was brief, to amount to nothing for them. That was why they unitedly approached him for help. And he helped them by ridding the land of the curse of barrenness and death that was at work in it.

Centuries later, another man in that same city would do something similar. He would take advantage of the passing of another anointed man of God through the city. The man’s name was Zachaeus. And the man of God that was passing through Jericho during his time was Jesus. (Cf. Luke 19)

Now, of course, it wasn’t the healing of Jericho that Zachaeus wanted at the time; rather, it was the healing of his own soul. Yes, he was wealthy. But he was also a man that was lost in sin and wickedness and seriously wanted salvation. So, when he learnt that Jesus, the Saviour, was passing through his city, Jericho, he was not going to miss the moment. No, he did not know how to approach Jesus. He was even too short and small to be able to push his way through the crowd to personally see or meet Jesus. But he knew that he could climb a tree and get a good view of this man of righteousness. And that was exactly what he did.

Interestingly, God, who sees every heart, took note of Zachaeus’ zeal and seriousness in receiving salvation. So, He made Jesus stop right under the Sycamore tree that the man had climbed in order to call him down and to have a feast of salvation at his home. Hallelujah!

What is the point of all this, then? It is that we must be smart and sensitive enough to know when and how to take advantage of the presence of any person of power or importance that God sends our way. See, the coming of certain people into our lives may only take a moment and never happen again. But if we recognise the roles God wants them to play in our lives during that moment and humbly request that they play them, the effect may be something that we and generations after us will enjoy forever.

So, among the prayers you should be offering is that God will always enable you to recognise those people that you need to take immediate advantage of their appearance in your life for your elevation, healing or salvation and also teach you how to wisely and humbly relate to them. Otherwise, when such people come your way, you may not give them the right kind of attention or you may not make the right demands on them. My prayer is that you will never again miss your opportunity for elevation, healing or deliverance, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2024, 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)

“Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.” (Mark 5:5NIV)

Who was crying out among the tombs and in the hills and cutting himself with stones? It was a mad man living in a region called Gadarenes in bible days. And why was he doing these things to himself? Why was he destroying himself and his body in this manner?

Well, as the account goes, this mad man was inflicting himself with pains in this manner because he was possessed by a number of demons. And no one in that place really knew what he was dealing with until Jesus came to the place and confronted the evil spirits in his life. But as Jesus began to deal with them, it became clear that he was possessed by several of them. Actually, their chief said that their name was ‘Legion’.

Now a legion in the Roman army was a division of about 3000 to 6000 soldiers. That means the demons that occupied this man’s life were nothing less than 3000, judging by human calculation. What made that happen? No one could really tell. But our Lord Jesus shows us through His teachings that demons have a culture of inviting more and more of themselves into people’s lives once there is room in there for them (Matt 12:43-45).

So, all you need is to give just one demon a place in your life. And before you know what is happening, you may end up having 3000 of them in your life, as in the case of this man. The demons in his life came in one after the other until they were numbering over 3000. And while they themselves were invisible to the human eyes, the things they were doing to him and through him were not invisible at all to the people around. Everyone could see how utterly lonely and miserable they made his life, as they tormented him day and night. He could not think well. He could not dress well. He could not eat or live well. He could not dream of any nice or great future. All that his mind could handle was to cry and hurt himself. And if hurting himself was nothing to him, would hurting other people mean anything to him? Not at all! No wonder he became a terror to everyone in that region.

But when Jesus met him, all that became history. He was delivered from his self-inflicted pains. The Lord drove out all the demons in his life, whatever their number was, with just one word ‘Go’. And he became so free and sane that those who knew him before could hardly recognise him again. Then to show how wicked those evil spirits hurting him were, when they entered a large herd of pigs that was feeding near the place, all of them, about two thousand in number, rushed into the Lake there and drowned. Frightening, right? (Cf. Mark 5:6-17)

Well, what is the point of this? First, it is that there are such things as demonic possession and oppression. And among the manifestations of these are self-inflicted pains. In other words, apart from the fact that those who are possessed and being oppressed of the devil will think of hurting others as nothing, they will also not see hurting themselves and ruining their own lives as nothing.

Think of the way people mess their own lives up in prostitution, money rituals, consumption of hard drugs, homosexuality, lesbianism and so forth and still act as though everything was fine. Also, think of how people freely destroy their homes through adultery, drunkenness and different forms of violent and abusive activities and still move on as though everything was fine. Yet, while everyone is looking at them as fine and on top of the world, you will hear that they have committed suicide or run mad.

Sadly, some people will say such things are merely psychological problems. But the word of God shows us that they are not. Instead, for the most part, they are results of demonic manifestations in people’s lives. And unless such people come in contact with God’s great and saving power, they will not be free until they have completely destroyed themselves.

That, of course, is the second thing we learn from the story of that mad man. If the Lord had not found him and saved him, he would have been completely destroyed by those merciless demons in his life. But thankfully, the Lord found him and saved him, even though he did not know Him and was not even in the right state of mind to look for Him.

Now if you are reading this and are being tormented in any way by demons, then, your case is better than that man’s. That is because your own mind is still sound enough to be able to read. So, your case is not hopeless at all. Jesus is able to set you too free so that your life can be meaningful again. All you need to do, then, is to say, “Lord Jesus, save me by your divine power from these demons that are oppressing and afflicting my life and making me to hurt myself and all the people that come close to me.” And you will experience His salvation right away, for His power will come upon you where you are.

Then perhaps you have someone close to you whose pains and sorrow are self-inflicted and you are concerned about their salvation and freedom. Just begin to rebuke the demons in the person’s life in the name of Jesus, asking them, however many they may be, to leave them alone and never return again. And they will surely leave, for they cannot say ‘No’ to Jesus. Then the person’s life will become normal and peaceful again.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2024, 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)

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Heb 11:6NIV)

What does our opening bible text say about those who come to God? First, it says that anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists. That is where to start from. If you are coming to God, you must agree that He exists, that He is a real person and not a myth. Otherwise, you may never receive anything special from Him or experience His power in any tangible way.

This, unfortunately, is what sceptics don’t understand. They think that when they come into a church meeting or any meeting of God’s people, God should prove Himself or His existence to them in some spectacular way, so that they may believe in Him. But there are already enough things in nature to prove the existence and power of God to mankind. And if anyone chooses to ignore what these things are saying about Him, He is not under any obligation to show His power to them in any special way. (Cf. Rom 1:20)

Now I do not mean that God cannot reveal Himself in some special way to a sceptic, to one who doubts His existence. He can. And there are times that He does just that. But when He chooses not to do so, there is nothing the unbelieving one can do about it. The person will just have to accept whatever knowledge of God that is available to them or continue to suffer and perish in their unbelief.

The second thing we are told about those who come to God in our opening text is that they must believe that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. So, it is not enough to believe in God’s existence; it is equally important to believe that He rewards those who are serious and intense in seeking Him.

This, then, shows me why many of us who claim to believe in God don’t receive much from Him. We do don’t show enough earnestness or seriousness in seeking His face for whatever we want. So, we don’t receive from Him as we should be receiving. As that bible text shows us, if we are earnest or serious in our desire to know God, He will not disappoint us but make Himself known to us. In like manner, if we are earnest, serious or intense in our desire to receive anything from God, He will not disappoint us but reward our seriousness.

For example, the bible shares with us the story of a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years and how she received her healing from Jesus. As the account goes, it was not Jesus that looked for this woman; rather, she was the one that looked for Him. She had heard about Him and how He was healing every manner of sickness and disease and of how the power of God used to be present with Him everywhere He went. And that made her believe that she too could be healed by Him. (Cf. Mark 5:25-29)

But this woman did not sit down where she was, hoping that Jesus would one day find her and heal her. If she had done that, she may never have been healed by the Lord. Instead, she told herself that she would look for Jesus and do all that she could to touch His clothes. Why would she want to touch His clothes? Well, she believed that if she could just touch His clothes, she would be healed. And that was exactly what happened. She was healed the moment she touched the clothes of Jesus.

Now was it easy for her to locate Jesus? No! Jesus was constantly on the move at the time – He had no permanent residence. And there were no local news agencies at the time that were announcing His itineraries. So, she had to first put her ears to the ground in order to know where the Lord would be. Then, even though she was in serious and constant pains, she also had to travel to wherever Jesus was going to be and look for Him.

Also, having located where Jesus was, she had to be ready to force her way to touch His clothes, seeing that there was no guarantee that He would be alone there. And that was probably the hardest part of what she had to do. Why? The reason was that her bleeding had made her ceremonially unclean. So she was not supposed to be appearing in public places, not to talk of shaking hands with people or touching them. Otherwise, she would make anyone she touched unclean and that could earn her a death penalty among a crowd. (Cf. Lev 15:19-27)

Nevertheless, this woman did all these things in order to touch Jesus’ clothes. Why? She was serious about receiving healing from Him. And because she was serious about her healing, even though there were all kinds of people touching Jesus that day, it was only her touch that drew the power for healing and deliverance out of Him. So, she was instantly healed of her malady and also received a word of wholeness from the Lord to seal her healing.

What is the point of all this? It is that God rewards seriousness. He rewards those who are serious in praying to Him. He rewards those who are serious in seeking to know His will. And He rewards those who are serious in receiving His provisions for them.

So, if you and I want to be constantly receiving from Him and witnessing His power and glory in our lives, we must not be cold, sluggish or uncertain about what we want in relating to Him. Instead, we must always be serious and intense in all our dealings with Him. That way, there is nothing that He has made available for us to receive and enjoy that our faith will not be able to claim.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2024, 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)

“Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.” (1Tim 4:15NIV)

Those are Paul’s words of admonition to Timothy. And he says them to him to show him how to make obvious progress in life. You know that it is possible for someone to think they are making progress in life, when they are actually not making any serious progress at all. It is also possible for someone to think they are making progress in life, when those around them cannot see them making any progress. And if that is the case with us, then, we may not expect those around us to give us the kind of attention or respect that we deserve.

In any case, if we want those around us to give us the kind of attention and respect that we deserve, our progress in whatever we are doing in life must be obvious to them. And that is what Paul is saying to Timothy in our opening bible text. He is telling him that if he wants to be taken seriously and also given the kind of respect that he deserves as a preacher and leader of God’s people, then, his progress must be obvious to all the people around him.

In other words, those who know Timothy and those around him must see that he is daily getting better in the way he lives, talks, behaves and handles his ministry. They must see that he is not stagnant in his walk with God and in handing the work that He has given to him. So, this is not about what he is saying to people concerning his progress; rather, it is about what everyone can see in his life.

How, then, will that happen? Well, as Paul points out, Timothy will need to diligently give himself to biblical instructions and their application. Once he is consistent and persistent in doing that, he will naturally begin to make obvious progress, a kind that everyone around him can testify to.

In like manner, if you want to make obvious progress in your spiritual walk as a child of God and in your ministry, you too must diligently give yourself to biblical instructions and their application. There is no other way. There are no shortcuts. So, if you won’t be diligent and earnest in giving yourself to these things, you won’t make any tangible or obvious spiritual progress. And even if you fake your progress, something that a lot of people are doing today, a day is coming when it will become clear to everyone around you that you have been nothing but stagnant all along.

Mind you, the principle Paul shares here with Timothy is not applicable to making obvious spiritual progress alone; it is also applicable to making obvious progress in every area of life. In other words, if we want to make obvious progress in our business or in our academics, what we need is to diligently and wholeheartedly give ourselves to doing the right things, things that will result in progress. We cannot afford to be slothful or lazy. We cannot afford to be taking half-measures. Otherwise, even if we make any progress, it won’t earn us the attention or respect of serious-minded people.

Remember that Solomon says, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.” (Prov 22:29KJV) And he says this because, as a very wise man, he has learnt from experience that anything we diligently, carefully and attentively give ourselves to handling can only produce results that will sooner or later get people’s attention and respect. So, if we want to get out of the rot of stagnation in our business, trade or academics, we must begin to apply diligence in handling it.

Now, of course, unless God makes us progress in our life, no measure of diligence will achieve obvious progress for us. So, don’t rely on your diligence for obvious progress in your spiritual walk or in other matters of life. Instead, rely solely on God. And He will honour your diligence and every other step of faith that you take towards accomplishing excellence in life.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2024, 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)

“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite.” (Deut 17:14-15NIV)

When the elders of Israel came to Samuel, who had been their judge for years, and requested that he give them a king, was he surprised? No, he was not surprised at all. Of course, he was not happy about it. Why was he not happy about it? First, it was because it showed that his sons, whom he had appointed as judges over the people, had terribly failed and disappointed them. (Cf. 1Sam 8:1-6)

Second, Samuel was not happy about their request because it showed that they were not after learning the will of God about the matter but had already come up with their own will. So, what they wanted was not for God to tell them anything about who would be their next judge but for Him to permit them to become like the nations around them and have their own king. That means they did not think that God’s philosophy of giving them judges was the best. They saw it as inferior to the philosophy of having kings, which the nations around them held.

But is man’s philosophy of having kings actually superior to God’s philosophy of giving him judges? No! As God told Samuel to tell the people, a king is not among his people as their equal; rather, he is among them as their ruler. So, he is going to exercise dominion over them, using whatever means he considers necessary. And they will just have to be subject to him, regardless of what they think about him and his ability to lead them. Otherwise, he will make sure their lives are utterly miserable. (Cf. 1Sam 8:6-18)

A judge, God’s chosen judge, however, is different from a king. He does not see himself as a ruler of his people but as their equal. So, he knows that for them to accept his leadership, he will have to earn it. And that was the case with all the judges that God had given the nation of Israel before they started having kings. All of them earned their right to lead the people and to be respected by them.

That, of course, also is how it ought to be in every place where democracy is practised today. Those who lead should be men and women who have earned their right to lead and to be respected through their persistence in doing good works and through their consistent display of wisdom and diligence in managing their own affairs. And is this the case where you are?

In any case, as I already pointed out, even though Samuel was not happy that the people were rejecting God’s plan and going for man’s plan, he was not surprised at all. Why? It was because, years before that happened, God had already said that a time would come when the people would do that. When did He say that? It was when the people were still with Moses in the wilderness and had not yet come into the Promised Land.

Now we see that in our opening bible verses. We see God announcing years ahead that the Israelites would one day demand to have a king over them, just like the nations around them. So, in addition to the points I already shared on Samuel’s unhappiness about their request for a king, another reason he was unhappy was that the word of God was eventually coming to pass in his own time. It was in his time that the people rejected God’s leadership plan for them and chose to adopt the plan of men.

In any event, since God had always known that the Israelites would someday ask for a king instead of a judge, their request for a king in Samuel’s time did not surprise Him. On the contrary, He was already prepared for them. In other words, before they made that request, He had been nurturing the man who would be their first king. So, when they made the request, He simply told Samuel to listen to them and give them what they wanted. And to make the job easy for the prophet, He lost no time at all in sending him Saul, the man who later became their first king. (Cf. 1Sam 9-10)

In like manner, when Saul began to misbehave, Samuel became unhappy again, not understanding why God’s choice would turn bad almost overnight. But again, as we see in the bible, Saul’s misbehaviour was not a surprise to God at all. Yes, He was very unhappy about it. But He was not surprised. Otherwise, He would not have prepared young David to replace him. (Cf. 1Sam 3-16)

What is the point of all this? It is that we cannot surprise God. Otherwise, He would not be God. But He is God. And as God, He knows everything, the end from the beginning. So, He is able to fix any situation for us, as long as we allow Him to fix it. Yes, we may have surprised ourselves and perhaps others around us with the mess we have made of our lives, homes or affairs. But God is not surprised at all. He has always known how things will turn out. He has always known where we will listen to Him and not fall and where we will not listen and fall. Also, He has always known where others will unduly interfere with our lives and mess things up for us.

So, He probably has a million and one solutions standing by for us for every problem. All He needs us to do is to just allow Him to fix things for us. And they will be fixed, however messed up they may seem. But as long as we keep thinking that He is always as surprised about the happenings of our lives as we are, we will continue to think of Him as a clueless God, as a God who has to settle down first to think of how to deal with our problems. And where that is the case, unless we are shown mercy by Him, we may never escape from the ruins of our lives.

Copyright © 2024, 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)

Date: March 20, 2024|Series: Youth for Jesus|Number: Vol. 6, No. 45

“Then the Israelites, all the people, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD. And the Israelites inquired of the LORD. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, “Shall we go up again to battle with Benjamin our brother, or not? The LORD responded, “Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.”” (Judg 20:26-28NIV)

Why did the Israelites go up to Bethel to weep before the Lord? It was because they had suffered defeat at the hands of the Benjamites two times in a space of two days. And why did they have to fight the Benjamites, who were Israelites like them?Well, according to the account, certain men of the tribe of Benjamin did something outrageous, something unheard of in the land. They raped a woman all night and left her for death. And they did that because they were unable to lay hands on the woman’s husband and rape him. So, there were sodomites in the land of Benjamin at the time. (Cf. Judges 19)

Now, because of that, the people of all the other tribes of Israel gathered together and demanded that the leaders of Benjamin should hand over those wicked people to be dealt with according to the Laws of Moses. But they refused. So, again, according to the Laws of Moses, the remaining people of Israel saw it as their obligation to punish the people of Benjamin for condoning wickedness among them. And they called their men to arms and moved out to fight them. (Cf. Deut 13:12-18)

But then, before they went to fight the Benjamites, they inquired of the Lord. Look at what is said in the bible about that: “The Israelites went up to Bethel and inquired of God. They said, “Who of us shall go first to fight against the Benjamites?” The LORD replied, “Judah shall go first.”” (Judg 20:18NIV) Did the Lord answer them when they called to Him or not? He did! Yet, as the account further shows us, they lost that first battle against the Benjamites.

That, of course, made them weep before the Lord. But they did not give up. Instead, they inquired of Him again to know whether they should go to fight the Benjamites. And His response again was, “Go up against them.” Yet they lost the second battle as well. (Cf. Judges 20:19-25)What, then, was the problem? Was God being deceitful in dealing with these people? Was He deliberately luring them to destruction? At least, what they wanted to do was a good thing. They wanted to maintain justice and righteousness in their land. And that was in accordance with His law.

Why, then, would He disgrace them like that?Well, the answers to these questions and other related ones about the matter are all in the passage. Yes, they first inquired of the Lord about who should first attack the Benjamites. But they did not ask Him when they should attack them and whether they would succeed in the attack or not. So, it was only the question that they asked Him, perhaps using the Urim and Thummim that were with their high priest, that He answered. (Cf. Ex 28:30; 1Sam 28:6)

Also, when they asked God the second time if they should attack the Benjamites again, they did not ask when to attack them or what would be the outcome of the attack. They only wanted to know if it was right for them to attack them. And He answered the question they had asked Him, telling them that it was right for them to do so. But He did not answer the question they did not ask, which was whether they would succeed or not. Well, having lost terribly twice, as we are shown in our opening text, they approached God the third time about the same matter, asking the same insufficient question.

But this time, God showed them mercy and answered the more important question that they were not asking, which was, “Are we going to succeed in this attack or not?” God told them that they would succeed. And they did succeed.What is the point of this for us? It is that it is not enough for us to pray about a matter; we also need to pray and study the word of God adequately about it before jumping into conclusions. Yes, we need to ask God sufficient questions in prayer and in His word about any matter we are presenting to Him before concluding on any course of action about it. Otherwise, we may find ourselves injured while sincerely following God’s word or revelation.

And that we will be because we are running with insufficient revelation.See, the fact that something is good, right and in line with the will of God for us does not mean that we will meet with success and satisfaction while doing it. There are good things that we do not at the moment have sufficient strength to handle. And there are good things that the time is not yet ripe for us to do. If we, then, rush ahead to handle such good things without a sure conviction that God Himself is ready for them, we may find ourselves being confronted with forces too much for us to handle. And like the Israelites of that time, we may find ourselves being defeated back-to-back, even though God is on our side.

Now perhaps this is the situation we are dealing with in certain areas of our lives. Perhaps we have been having series of defeat where we believe we are in the will of God. We too, like those Israelites, should not allow discouragement to set in. Instead, we should turn to God again in prayer and in His word, so that we can get sufficient revelation of what is wrong and what needs to be done. And He will surely show us compassion and answer us.Cheers!