Category: Pastor’s Desk

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

Title: Slow to learn

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 5

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great delight that I welcome you to the sixth month of this year, the month of June 2025. I pray that God will strengthen you every day of the month to make the most of His grace in growing to be all that He wants you to be. Amen.

In the book of Hebrews, the writer tells us that it is possible for our spiritual growth to be arrested. And one of the things that can make that happen is an unwillingness on our part to make effort towards learning the truth of God, understanding it and also applying it to our lives.

Look at how he puts this:“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” (Heb 5:11-12NIV)

Did you see that? This man of God had a lot of things to share with the brethren who first received this letter about the life of faith in Christ Jesus. But it was hard for him to do so. Why? The reason, according to him, was that they were slow to learn. That, of course, does not mean that they did not have the capacity to learn and understand what they were being taught. Rather, it means that they were lazy about learning. In other words, they were not making any serious effort to understand and begin to put to work the things they were learning.

Therefore, as the man of God goes on to say in the bible text, when these people ought to be teachers already, when they ought to be taking responsibility for other new believers, they themselves still needed someone to be teaching them all over again the basic truths of God’s word. When they ought to be spiritual adults that could be entrusted with spiritual babies, they still wanted themselves to be treated as babies. Now think of how frustrating that must have been for this man of God and other leaders of these brethren. Yes, think of the kind of discouragement it must have brought to their hearts.

Unfortunately, even today, we still have many of God’s people that are lazy to learn spiritual truths and apply them. These ones are making their leaders in the church to teach the same things again and again. They are making them to correct them again and again about the way they are living their lives in bitterness, in hatred, in selfishness, in lust, in pride, in greed, in jealousy and in lack of zeal for God. Therefore, they are slowing down the ministry of their leaders and of their Christian assemblies, making it difficult for them to reach and bless more people for the Lord.

What, then, are church leaders to do to such people? How do leaders deal with those who are frustrating their effort in raising them in the will of God? Well, as the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us, at some point, they will have to stop treating these spiritually lazy believers as babies. Yes, they will have to start teaching them the things they do not want to learn and also stop treating them as spiritual babies, making them to do for themselves those things that they are reluctant to do. (Cf. Heb 6:1-3)

Now will that make such believers happy? No! In fact, it may make some of them stop coming for church meetings altogether. But whether it makes them happy or not, what has to be done has to be done for them to stop hindering the growth of their assemblies. So, if you have been a child of God for two years or more and have still refused to grow in your faith and become someone that your church leader can trust with responsibilities, you are slow to learn and spiritually lazy. And if you continue to be like that, slowing down your church leaders, they may soon begin to withdraw the attention they are giving you, so that you can stop being a spiritual baby. That, of course, will not be something pleasant for you.

So, wake up before it is too late and begin to pray to God to supply you with adequate zeal and strength to start making the most of His grace to grow spiritually. Otherwise, it will not be long at all before those who become born again after you become your teachers in the Lord.

Have a lovely June 2025.

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

Title: Focus on what God is doing

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 4

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to the last week of the month of May 2025. My prayer is that all the good works of God concerning your life will be perfected, according to every day’s need, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, tells us this about God: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose.” (Phil 2:13NIV) Did you see that? God is working in the lives of all of us who are His children. Why? It is so that He can fulfil His good purpose for our lives.

That means God is not idle. He is not sleeping or folding His arms, while we are working hard and struggling with Satan and his demons in order to amount to something in life. Instead, He also is working in our lives to see to it that all His good intentions for us come to pass and that all our effort in life does not go to waste.

Now we may not see what God is doing in certain areas of our lives. It may not even appear that He is working in our lives at all. That, however, does not mean that He is not working. His word tells us that He is working in our lives. And His word is true all the time. So, whether we can see what He is doing to fulfil His good purpose in our lives or not, we should just believe what His word says and begin to act accordingly.

Then, if we do not give up, we will at the right time see manifestations of His good works in our lives.Unfortunately, many of us love to pay more attention to what Satan and his demons are doing to ruin our lives than to what God is doing to make us who we ought to be in life. In fact, all that some of us often focus on is what is Satan is doing. We don’t look out at all for what God is doing. And that is one of the reasons we are not witnessing His glory and a perfection of His good works in our lives as it ought to be.

Truly, Satan’s works are real. Sicknesses, diseases, poverty, accidents and death are real. Also, pains and sorrow are real. And these things can be so real to us that we will think there is no escape from them for us. That, of course, is what Satan wants. He wants us to think that there is no escape from the things he is using to afflict us. And the moment we begin to think like that, we will turn our eyes away from what God is doing to rescue and lift us up.

For example, when Moses came to rescue the children of Israel from Egypt, their afflictions were multiplied by the Egyptians. So, even though God was already at work on their behalf to set them free, they would not pay attention to what He was doing at all; all that they paid attention to were their afflictions. And if Moses too had been like them, paying attention only to their afflictions instead of focusing on what God was doing, their deliverance from Egypt would surely have been postponed to ‘only God knows when’. (Cf. Exodus 5)

But though Moses could see the afflictions of these Israelites and was not happy about them, he did not focus his attention on them. Instead, he focused his attention on God and on what He was doing to save them. So, he was able to secure their deliverance from Egypt when the time was ripe.In like manner, even though we can see all that Satan is doing to harm us and are not happy about it, our focus must not be on it at all.

Otherwise, that is what we are going to be wasting our time talking about. And that will bring discouragement to our hearts. But if our focus is on God and on what He is doing in our lives, regardless of what Satan may be doing to hurt us, our hearts will be daily strengthened to patiently wait until He fulfils His good purpose in every area of our lives at the right time. So, focus your attention on what God is doing in your life and all around you. And you will never again miss any manifestation of His glory.

Have a glorious week.

Categories
FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025 Pastor's Desk

Title: That grace may increase

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: vol 14, NO 3.

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be multiplied to you without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. I am delighted to welcome you to another week of the month of May 2025. My prayer is that God will rid your life of everything that is working against the full expression of His grace in your life, so that you can be all that He wants you to be and also enjoy all that He wants you to enjoy in life. Amen.

Now one of the things that hinder the manifestation of the grace of God in the lives of His people is sin. What kind of sin? Any kind of sin! That means just as sexual immorality can hinder the manifestation of the grace of God in the lives of His people, so also can greed, theft, bitterness, drunkenness, jealousy and slander hinder it.Unfortunately, many of us do not have this understanding.

We think it is only obvious sins like adultery, drunkenness and theft can hinder the manifestation of God’s grace in our lives. But any kind of sin can hinder the manifestation of His grace in our lives. That is why Paul asks this question of us all: “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” And his answer is, “No, we cannot go on living in sin and expect more of God’s grace in our lives.”Why is that so? The reason is that it takes the grace of God to walk in victory over sin. And He has already freely provided for us the grace to do so (Titus 2:11).

If we, then, are not walking in victory over every kind of sin, it means that we are not making adequate use of His grace. Therefore, we should not expect more manifestation of His grace in our lives. What we are saying is that for us to witness greater or more manifestation of God’s grace in our lives, we need to first begin to make adequate use of whatever measure of grace He has already given us. If we are not making adequate use of the grace He has already given us, He will not give us more.

Yes, people may pray for more grace for us. But that prayer will only work when we are using the grace that has already been provided by God for us, adequately and appropriately.Look at Samson, for example. When he began to indulge in sexual immorality, did God multiply His grace that was in his life? No! On the contrary, at some point, that grace stopped working.

So, he fell into the hands of his enemies and was seriously messed up. And that is showing us that we cannot be using the grace of God to live a life that is contrary to His will and expect it to always work well for us or to increase in our lives.

However, we can expect God’s grace in our lives to diminish in manifestation or to altogether stop working, if we are not using it at all or if we are abusing it. And that will put us at the mercy of the devil. If we, then, do not want that to happen to us, we must learn to make adequate use of His grace given to us in living in victory over sin and in doing the good works He wants us to do. And we can do this by giving ourselves to His word, prayer and Christian fellowship.

My prayer is that our hearts will be strengthened everyday to make the most of all the grace God has already given to us, so that He can continually multiply it for us to be all that He wants us to be in life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.Have a lovely week.

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

Title: What He thinks of us

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 2

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It gives me great delight welcome you to another week of the month of May 2025 and to also welcome you to our 13th year church anniversary. My prayer is that God will continue to build us up to be all that He wants us to be by the power of His Holy Spirit. Amen.

It is indeed a thing of joy to know that we have been meeting as an assembly in this town for thirteen full years. And we ought to be thankful to God for all that He has done in us, for us and through us in these thirteen years. We also ought to be thankful to Him for all that He is still going to do among us, for us and through us in the year we are just starting as a church. My prayer is that His good works will never cease in our midst, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

But then, as we are celebrating God’s goodness to us today as an assembly, there is something very important that we need to pay attention to. And that what He thinks of us as an assembly. If we ask around, people will have all kinds of things to say about our assembly. And what they say may be pleasant to the ear or not pleasant at all. But we cannot judge how well we are doing as a church on the basis of what people think or say about us.

We cannot even judge how well we are doing on the basis of what we think of ourselves. The only true judgment of how we are doing lies with God. And we all will do well to pray that He will reveal what He thinks about us to us, so that we can give ourselves to functioning accordingly.

As we see in the book of Revelation, the Lord says this about the church in Laodicea:“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.” (Rev 3:17-18NIV)

Did you see that? This church thought that it was rich spiritually and in need of nothing. But the Lord said that it was wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. So, the only one who knows the true condition of every church is the Lord Himself. And unless He tells us our condition, we may think we are doing well, when we are actually failing, or think that we are doing poorly, when we are actually doing well in God’s sight.

Therefore, as I said before, let us all give ourselves to praying wholeheartedly that God will reveal to us what He thinks about our assembly, so that we will not be acting on a reputation that we do not have before God and lose our place and our reward in His kingdom. I rejoice with all of us again, as we celebrate another year of God’s faithfulness to us as a church. My prayer is that God will cause us stand firm in all His will for us and also continually cause His favour and mercy to rest upon us. Amen.Happy celebration.

Categories
FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025 Pastor's Desk

He can rid your life of bitterness_J.O.Lawal

Recommended Citation

Lawal, J. O. (2025, May 04). He can rid your life of bitterness. (Vol. 14, No. 1). From Pastor’s Desk.

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 month of May 2025. My prayer is that God will rid your life of everything that has to do with bitterness by the power of His Spirit. Amen.

Now I offered that prayer for you because God is indeed able to rid your life of all forms of bitter experiences, regardless of what might be responsible for them. All you need is to call out to Him in prayer and also rid your own heart of any unwillingness to forgive yourself and others that might have hurt you. And He will end all your experience of bitterness and fill your heart with joy.

For instance, Joseph had all kinds of bitter experiences in life. And he had these experiences not because he was a bad person but because people, including his own blood brothers, were used by the devil to afflict him. Yet because he trusted in God and would not hold grudges against anybody, God showed him mercy, ended all his bitter experiences and lifted him up to greatness. (Cf. Gen 37-50)

Also, we have Naomi who, with Ruth, came back from the land of Moab empty. And she was so unhappy about her situation that she told people not to call her Naomi, which means ‘pleasant’, again but to call her ‘Mara’, which means ‘bitter’. Why? The reason was that she though it was God that afflicted her family. But God was not the one that afflicted her family. They were the ones that left the land of Judah in a time of famine without divine revelations. (Cf. Ruth 1)

Nevertheless, even though she and her husband were the reason their lives were made bitter, God had mercy on her and used Ruth, a foreigner, to comfort her in ways beyond her imaginations. In fact, people’s testimony was that God used Ruth to comfort her in ways that she could not have been comforted, even if she had seven sons. (Cf. Ruth 4:15)

What about Jabez? His own life too was filled with bitterness because his mother proclaimed bitterness on him at birth. Yet God freed him from every experience of bitterness and pain that he was having, when he cried out to Him. (Cf. 1Chro 4:9-10)

Now this same God can do the same things or even better things for you, if you too will cry out to Him. Yes, He can rid your life of bitterness, if you will cry out to Him for help. So, as we begin this new month, call out to God to end whatever experience of bitterness you are having in life. And He will answer you and fill your heart with overflowing joy.

Happy May 2025.

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
FROM PASTOR'S DESK 2016 From Pastor's Desk 2025 FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025

We can change God’s mind_J.O.Lawal

Recommended Citation

Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 27). We can change God’s mind (Vol. 12, No. 52). From Pastor’s Desk.

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the transition week between the months of April and May 2025. And I pray that God will set you right wherever you may be wrong in life, so that all His good purpose for you may be accomplished without delay. Amen.

One of the things we learn in the bible is that true repentance can change God’s mind. But we do have Scriptures that tell us that God does not change His mind. In other words, once He determines to do something, nothing will be able to stop Him from doing it. What, then, are we going to do about such Scriptures? Are we going to set them aside as useless? Never! We cannot set aside any Scripture as useless. That is because no Scripture is useless. On the contrary, every Scripture is of God and is useful for our edification. (Cf. Num 23:19; 1Sam 15:29; 2Tim 3:16-17)

However, even though we truly have Scriptures that tell us that God does not change His mind, we also have other Scriptures that show us things that can make God change His mind. And one of those things that can make Him change His mind, as I pointed out before, is genuine repentance. For instance, God once sent Prophet Elijah to Ahab to judge him and his household for murdering Naboth, an innocent man. God said that He was going to wipe out all this king’s descendants and give their flesh to dogs and birds to eat. (Cf. 2Kings 21:17-24)

Now, as we see in the bible, Ahab was a very wicked and proud king. Besides, the woman he married, Jezebel, was even more wicked than him. And together they both brought a rule of terror on the people of God. Yet when this man heard the word of God’s judgment, he did not arrest Elijah, abuse him or keep malice with him. He did not even argue with him over the matter. Instead, he humbled himself, tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. (Cf. 1Kings 21:17-27)

Why did Ahab act like that? it was because he knew that he was wrong. He knew that there was no excuse for the killing of an innocent man. So, God was right to judge him as his actions deserved. All he could hope for, then, was mercy. And the only way for him to receive God’s mercy was to humble himself and acknowledge his sins. Otherwise, the judgment passed on him and his household was bound to come to pass.

Now did God, on this occasion, show Ahab mercy and forgive him or not? He did. The bible says, “Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.”” (1Kings 21:28-29NIV)

Did you see that? Because of Ahab’s acknowledgement of his sins, God postponed the disaster He wanted to bring on him and his household to the days of his sons. In other words, God changed His mind for a moment. And if Ahab’s sons too had forsaken his sins and humbled themselves before the Lord, the judgment pronounced on them would not have happened in their days. In fact, God may even have totally cancelled His plans of judging their household. But they did not turn away from the sins of their father. So, they were all eventually wiped out as God had promised. (Cf. 2Kings 9)

Well, the point we are making is that we can change God’s mind through genuine repentance. So, if God is meant to punish you for something wrong you are doing, you can make Him change His mind by genuinely repenting of it. But if you continue to walk in pride towards Him and refuse to acknowledge your sins or errors, your punishment may come sooner than you expect. And who knows how bad that would be for you. So, humble yourself now and repent of your sins. And may you find in you the strength to do so. Amen.

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
From Pastor's Desk 2025 FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025 Pastor's Desk Single Message Series

Witnessing greater works of God_By Johnson Lawal

Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 20). Witnessing greater works of God

Download Here

Recommended Citation

Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 20). Witnessing greater works of God (Vol. 12, No. 51). From Pastor’s Desk.

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours abundantly from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to the Easter Sunday of this year, year 2025. My prayer is that all that Jesus accomplished for us through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension will not go to waste in our lives. Amen.

As we begin this new week, I want to encourage you with these words of our Lord Jesus: “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.” (John 1:50NIV) Who did Jesus say this to? He said it to Nathaniel, one of the men that later became His apostles. Why did He say it to him? Well, as the account goes, Philip had told Nathaniel that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah they had been waiting for and that he should come and see him. But Nathaniel did not think that anything good could come out of Nazareth. Nevertheless, he went with Philip to see Jesus. (Cf. John 1:44-46)

Now when this man met Jesus, and He told him by revelation where he had been that day, he immediately believed and said, “You are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” And because he appreciated the little revelation Jesus gave him, the Lord told him that he would see greater things. That means the way to witness greater things from the hand of God is to appreciate whatever He shows us or does for us, however little it may seem.

Truly, there is nothing God does for us or shows to us that is simple or little. But even if what He has done for us or shown to us appear to be little, our attitude towards it is what will determine whether He will show us greater things or not. When God first appeared to Moses, He only gave him two signs. And those two signs were actually profound. But he had to appreciate them and take God seriously on account of them for him to witness greater signs and miracles. And he did witness greater signs, miracles and wonders from God, signs, miracles and wonders too numerous to count.

The same thing was applicable to Nathaniel and all the apostles of the Lord Jesus. They all went on to see things greater than what they were first shown when they met Him. But that would not have happened, if they had not appreciated Him for the things He first did for them or showed to them.

So, if we want to see greater works of God, if we want to see miracles, signs and wonders that are greater than whatever God has done for us in the past or is doing for us now, we must show Him that we appreciate what He is doing for us, however small or little it may see. Otherwise, we will only keep hearing great testimonies of His goodness to others but never have any great testimony of our own to share.

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
FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025 Pastor's Desk

Put them to death_J.0_Lawal

Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 13). Put them to death. From Pastor’s Desk, Vol. 12, No. 50.

Beloved: Grace, mercy and peace be yours immeasurably from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to another week of the month of April 2025. My prayer is that God will daily teach you to take advantage of His grace to walk in victory over every kind of sin or weakness of the spirit, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Why did I offer this prayer for you? The reason is that it is the will of God for us to put to death any kind of sin that may be associated with our lives. Look at what Paul says about this to the Colossian brethren:

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Col 3:5-10NIV)

Can you see all the things that we must put to death and also rid our lives of? Then can you observe that we are the ones to put these things to death in our lives? That means even though we are now children of God and new creatures in Christ, the bad things we used to do will still want to find expression in our lives and make a mess of our faith. That is because it has become cultural for us to do them.

But as Paul tells us, it is because of all these evil things that the wrath of God is coming on the disobedient. Therefore, we must not give ourselves to them again. Instead, we must put them to death. And can we actually put them to death? Do we have the ability to put them to death?

Well, if we could not put them to death, God would not say that we should do so. The reason He tells us to do so is that we can do so. But how do we do so? We cannot do so by simply wishing or determining to do so. Peter, for instance, was determined not to deny Jesus. Yet he denied Him three times in a row in one night. So, being determined not to do what is wrong is not enough; we must also possess the ability not to do what is wrong. Otherwise, the pressure of sin may weaken our determination and drive us to do what is against the desires of our hearts. (Cf. Matt 26)

All of this is why the bible further says to us. “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” (Rom 8:13NIV) Did you see that? It is only by the supply of the Spirit of God that we can put any kind of sin or bad behaviour to death in our lives. Otherwise, we can only find ourselves failing again and again.

So, if you want to end any kind of sin in your life, you must turn to the Spirit of God for the enablement to do so. How? First, you do so through prayer. Second, you do so by meditating on the word of God and confessing it to yourself. Third, you do so by fellowshipping with the people of God that are walking in righteousness. And as you consistently give yourself to these things, you will soon enough see for yourself that those wrong things that you are struggling with in your life have been put to death by the Spirit of God.

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
From Pastor's Desk 2025 Pastor's Desk

Why Mary Magdalene?_J.0_Lawal

Recommended Citation

Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 6). Why Mary Magdalene? From Pastor’s Desk, 12(49).

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours abundantly from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the month of April 2025. My prayer is that God will make Himself known to you more adequately in the month, so that you can become more and more like the Lord Jesus in all ways. Amen.

One of the things that determine the extent to which God will make Himself known to us is our eagerness for Him. For example, the first person Jesus appeared to after His resurrection was Mary the Magdelene, not Peter, James, John or any of other apostles. Why? What made her so special that she was the first to see Jesus after His resurrection? At least, from what we see in the bible, this woman was not Jesus’s mother or sister. Also, she is not referred to as Jesus’ friend, as Lazarus and his sisters are referred to as His friends. On the contrary, she is described in the bible as the woman from whom Jesus drove out seven demons. (Cf. Luke 8:2; John 20:1-18)

So, Mary Magdalene was technically a witch before Jesus met her. Yes, she was a wicked woman before she met the Lord. Yet she was the first person that Jesus revealed Himself to after His resurrection. Why her?

Well, as we also see in the bible, it was because of her unusual eagerness for the Lord that He revealed Himself to her first. And how was that so? First, after her deliverance from her life of wickedness, she became one of the few people that supported Jesus most with their money and substance (Luke 8:1-3). Second, when Jesus was arrested and crucified, she was among the women that stood with Him to the very end, to the time He died and was laid in the tomb (Matt 27:55-61).

Third, this woman was among the women that went back to the tomb of Jesus on the day of His resurrection to take care of His dead body (Mark 16:1). Fourth, when they got to the tomb of Jesus and could not find His body there, it was only Mary Magdalene that would not leave the tomb. Others, including Peter and John, who had come to find out what had happened left. But she stayed there and continued to weep for the Lord because she thought some wicked people had come to steal His dead body. (Cf. John 20:1-18)

Now it was while she was weeping for the Lord in front of that tomb that He showed Himself to her. You can see, then, that it was because she was the most passionate about the Lord at that time that He revealed Himself to her first after His resurrection. That shows us that there is no favouritism with the Lord. If we are passionate about Him, He will make Himself known to us in ways He may not make Himself known to other people, irrespective of our age, sex, position, colour or history.

But then, let us not think that the Lord will automatically make Himself known to us because we bear bible names like Mary, Peter, James, John and so forth. If we are not passionate about Him as Mary Magdalene was, He will not reveal much about Himself to us. Let us be passionate about Him, then, if we want to know Him adequately. And we can show our passion for Him through our devotion to His word, prayer and Christian fellowship. My prayer is that our hearts will be daily strengthened to be seriously devoted to these things, so that we may get to know the Lord as we ought to know Him. Amen.

Have a lovely April 2025.

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
FROM PASTOR’S DESK 2025 Pastor's Desk

Just One Hour_J.0_Lawal

Lawal, J. O. (2025, March 30). Just one hour! From Pastor’s Desk, Vol. 12, No. 48.

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace to you without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to the transition week between the months of March and April 2025. My prayer is that God will daily strengthen your heart to do all that is right for you to do to remain pure and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

In order for our Lord Jesus, when His time came, not to shrink back from dying on the cross for the redemption of humanity, He needed to do one thing. What was it? He needed to pray. And how much time did He need to pray? He did not need a whole week or a whole day to pray. He needed just one hour to pray.

Now how did we know that all Jesus needed at that time was just one hour of prayer? We knew through Scriptures. As the account goes, as He saw that His time was at hand, He took three of His disciples, Peter, James and John, with Him to pray in a place called Gethsemane. But instead of praying with Him, they were simply sleeping. And that was because they were very tired. Just look at what the bible says about these things:

“Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”” (Mark 14:37-38NIV)

Did you see that? How much time did Jesus expect these disciples to spend in praying with Him? Just one hour! Of course, Jesus could pray to God for more than one hour. Before this time, He had prayed on several occasions for hours, sometimes all through the night. So, He did not choose to pray for one hour on this occasion because He could not pray for more hours. Rather, He chose to do so because He knew that a lot could be changed or done through even one hour of prayer.

Now, of course, because of that one hour of prayer that He offered to God for His soul in that hour of darkness, He received sufficient strength and courage to die on the cross and obtain eternal redemption for us. But what about His disciples who could not join Him in praying for themselves for just one hour? They all went on to deny and desert Him. And if He had not prayed for them before that their faith would not fail, that would have been the end of their relationship with Him.

What is this teaching us, then? It is simply that we cannot measure or quantify what our heartfelt prayer can accomplish for us or for all humanity, even if it is only for one hour. In fact, just one minute of prayer can be the difference between life and death, success and failure, victory and defeat. How long did it take David to pray that God would frustrate the counsel of Ahithophel? It probably took him less than a minute. Yet that prayer changed everything about the rebellion he wanted to end. That prayer led to his victory over Absalom. (Cf. 2Sam 15:31)

Am I now saying that you should only be praying for just one minute or just one hour? No! To say the fact, there are problems that will probably take us hours or days of prayer to handle. But if we will learn to recognise that our prayers can change history, then, we will begin to make the most of every moment we have to pray, even if it is just one hour. And my prayer is that our hearts will be filled with adequate strength from God to daily walk in the light of this truth, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a pleasant 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)