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FROM PASTOR'S DESK 2020 Pastor's Desk

Title: Where the word of a king is – February 09, 2020

from pastor's desk

“Where the word of a King is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?” (Ecc 8:4KJV) With these awesome quote from Solomon, often called the Preacher, I welcome you dear beloved into a new week. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has brought us this far will preserve us until the end of the year, if He tarries. Amen.

Beloved, I perceive it is necessary we take time out to remind ourselves of the salient facts contained in the opening scriptures above. We are conversant with earthly rule, and we know that earthly kings exercise their authorities over their subjects – people under their domain. They may earn the respect of others outside their domain or even gain their admiration. Nevertheless, the ability to enforce their authority lies within their domain. And I am glad we are not ignorant of our translation from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col 1:13).

Now a disobedience to the king’s order in an earthly kingdom carries dire consequences. Irrespective of the myriads of excuses presented, their moral grounds, or how illogical the king’s order appears, the king’s word is Power! Queen Vashti’s case is one of the pictures illustrated in the scriptures to emphasise this. It’s clear King Ahasuerus acted under the influence of strong wine and his order requesting Vashti the Queen to come was self-aggravating – to show off her beauty before drunk officials. Nevertheless, the morality of her excuses for disobeying the king did not exempt her from the consequences! It was at the cost of her throne! Think about that! (Cf. Esther 1)

The preacher, in our opening text, goes further to intimate us of one of the reasons the king’s word cannot be treated with a laisser-faire (do as you like) disposition. It is because no one can question Him! This I believe should give us reasons to examine the way we have handled the Lord’s instructions, revelations and divine commitments in times past and the way we are handling them at the moment. Rationalizing God’s direct instructions to us based on human thinking, immediate circumstances or past negative experiences is the main grounding box that has kept a lot of us at a spot.

A similar example is given to us in the Gospel of Saint John (John 2:7-8). We are not told that Jesus prayed over the water; neither are we told that He blessed the water pots. And come to think of it: how relevant is the instruction to the need on ground? Wine! Fill the water pots with Water! Yet, they could have missed their miracle, if they had logically analyzed the situation or treated the King’s Word with nonchalance. How often we grieve the Spirit of God in this area.

Some of us handle the King’s word at our convenience! Solomon tells us in the next two verses that a wise man’s heart discerns both ‘time’ and ‘judgment’ because to every purpose there is ‘time’ and ‘judgment’ (Ecc 8:5-6). What a profound warning that is to us. It warns us of the consequences of procrastination. It informs us that every instruction from the King has a ‘time-element’ and ‘possible consequences’, if we miss the ‘timing’. (Cf. Luke 19: 41-44)

“You Son of Man are the Watchman. I have made you a watchman for Israel. The MINUTE you hear a MESSAGE from ME, WARN THEM! If I say to the wicked, ‘Wicked Man, Wicked Woman, you are on a fast track to death!’ and you don’t speak up and warn the wicked to change their ways, the wicked will die unwarned in their sins AND I’LL HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR BLOODSHED.” (Eze 33: 7-8MSG – emphasis added) I do not know the implications of that, but I know it’s not going to be good. So, as we go this week, I want us to reflect on these time-dependent words of our King: “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost…” (Cf. Matt 28:19-20) What excuse will you give for disobeying the King’s Order?

Do have a fabulous week.

Copyright © 2020, 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 alaythiabiblechurch@gmail.com/alaythia4all@gmail.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

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FROM PASTOR'S DESK 2020

Title: Don’t think about it

from pastor's desk

By: J.O. Lawal

Date: January 26, 2020

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 8, No. 38

Beloved: Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I welcome you to the last week of the month of January 2020. And my prayer is that you will be kept safe in all your ways and also preserved in the purity of Christ all through it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As you go this week, I want to remind you that even though we are new creations in Christ Jesus, we are still living in a world of corruption. In addition to that, the body we still operate in is one that is mortal and responsive to all kinds of evil desires. So, the fact that we are now Christians does not mean that we are never again going to be confronted with desires to do evil. We will, as long as we are in this world. However, we are not powerless against them. We have the Spirit of God in us to teach and to strengthen us to walk in victory over them. All we need to do, then, is to take His ministry in our lives seriously and keep in step with Him. And we will never again be rubbished by any form of sin. 

Now one of the things the Spirit of God teaches us on how to walk in victory over sin is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans in which he says, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Rom 13:14NIV) Did you see that? Paul says put on the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. That means the flesh has desires. And these desires are constantly rising in us to take charge of our lives and determine the direction in which they go.

The problem, however, is that the desires of the flesh are mostly contrary to the will of God. In his letter to the Galatians Paul also speaks about this. He says, “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (Gal 5:16-17NIV) Look at that. What the flesh desires and wants are contrary to what the Spirit of God in us wants. In other words, our flesh is naturally against the will of God for us. It wants us to have untamed pleasure and to take the whole world for ourselves at the expense of others. Also, it wants us to think and live like our own gods, having no regard for any form of authority whatsoever. (Cf. Gal 5:19-20)

You can examine your own life to see whether these things are not true of your flesh. Are your desires and feelings not naturally selfish, immoral, rebellious and wicked? I am sure you will agree that they are. And if you give these desires and feelings enough room to take charge of you, you will soon enough find yourself doing things that you yourself know to be wrong. James, in his epistle, describes this process for us, when he says, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:13-15NIV)

Did you see that? Every kind of sin begins inside us. It starts with a seed-thought that is planted in us by the enemy. And our flesh loves such thoughts, thoughts that give it the feeling that it is going to enjoy itself one way or the other. But when we allow such thoughts to have their way in us, they will result in sin. Then sin, when it has fully taken hold of us, kills us and makes a waste of our lives. That is why Paul instructs us not to think at all about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. Those desires will definitely come to us. We cannot stop them from coming, for it is the enemy of our souls that is using them to war against us (1Pet 2:11). But we can refuse to think about them or to think about how to make them happen. 

See, if you want to sin, your mind will always come up with ingenious ways to do so and avoid the consequences. That is why you must deal with every thought coming to you, as we are told in the scriptures, and make it obey the Lord Jesus (2Cor 10:5). Yes, you must learn to say of wrong thoughts, “This thought is contrary to the will of God for me. So I refuse to think it or ponder on how to make it happen. And I receive strength from the Spirit of God to reject it, in the name of Jesus.” And as you devote yourself to treating all your thoughts like this, you will find yourself growing stronger and stronger in saying ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passion.

Do have a fabulous week.

Copyright © 2020, 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 alaythiabiblechurch@gmail.com/alaythia4all@gmail.com  or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

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FROM PASTOR'S DESK 2020

Title: Don’t be a mere talker JAN 19, 2020

from pastor's desk

By: J.O. Lawal

Date: January 19, 2020

Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 8, No. 37

Beloved: grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to another week of January 2020. And I pray that the Lord will fulfill every good purpose of your heart and all your steps of faith in it, in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

My admonition to you, as we continue our journey through this new year, is that you go beyond talking in your walk with God; be a performer. God Himself is a performer; He does not just talk. Balaam, that greedy seer, once said about Him, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Num 23:19NIV) Think about that. Even Balaam, of all people, knew God as a performer and not a mere talker.

In like manner, you too should not just be one who just talks about all sorts of wonderful things you intend to do for God and His kingdom this year. Rather, be one who is committed to acting too. That is because it is not the one who talks and makes all kinds of promises that has God’s approval but the one who acts in accordance with His will. 

There is actually a parable of the Lord that speaks to warn us along this line. It reads: “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.” (Matt 21:28-30NIV) Now the Lord asks, “What do you think about that? Who out of the two sons did the will of his father?” Obviously, it was the first son. Truly, he had said that he was not going to do what his father wanted. But he later thought about it, changed his mind and went and did what the father wanted. 

Unfortunately, the one that raised his father’s hope and said that he would go and do his will never went. Perhaps he just said what he said to impress his father and make him feel good. And maybe he really did want to carry out his father’s will. But the fact remains that he never did. He was a mere talker. Many too are like that today. They are smooth and impressive talkers. Always, they are talking about what they are doing for the Lord or what they intend to do for Him, causing people to think of them in ways they are not warranted to. But when you examine their walk very carefully, you will see that all they do is talk – they don’t act.

Now people like that don’t move the work of God forward. On the contrary, they unconsciously discourage others and terribly slow down the work. That is because when you expect them to act, they won’t act. So, God may end up getting others to do what they should have done. And that is not good for them at all. I mean that it is not good for any of us to be one who just says before God things he does not mean or things he is unwilling to fully commit himself to. That is because, as Solomon shows us in his book, Ecclesiastes, acting like that may expose us and the works of our hands to God’s judgment. (Cf. Ecc 5:1-6)

So, this new year, even though it is the will of God for each of us to abound in His work, don’t try to impress or compete with anybody by saying that you are going to do for God things you have no intention of doing for Him. We have no business impressing or competing with anybody in kingdom matters. The only one that we need to impress is God. And don’t be in a hurry to commit yourself to any kingdom service, without first thinking about the cost well (Luke 14:25-33). That is because once you make a commitment to do something, God and people start watching out. What, then, will they think of you, if, at some point, you should drop your commitment to that thing all because you realise that you did not initially do your homework well? I don’t think I need to tell you. 

My point, at any rate, is that let your words and actions agree, as far as matters relating to the kingdom of God are concerned this year. And may God’s favour continually overflow your life all through the year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.  

Do have a splendid week.

Copyright © 2020, 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 alaythiabiblechurch@gmail.com/alaythia4all@gmail.com  or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)