The Supernatural: The Miracle of Growth

In the Last article (please click here to read), it was established that the miraculous is an essential part of the Christian walk. As a matter of fact, to believe in Christ is to believe in the miraculous. Rom 10:10 says that to believe that ‘Jesus was raised from the dead’ and confess him as lord is what it means to be saved.

Furthermore, you hear of promises that the supernatural life in Christ brings overnight prosperity, you are promised success without work, appointment without qualification yet there is not a single portion of scripture that encourages mediocrity or instantaneous wealth. The supernatural is not mysticism; grace is not license for laziness. 

The Supernatural : Walking in the Miraculous

The fact that God does miracles is not news to Christians and non-christians alike, it is alluded to in the multiplicity of fake miracle centers around, after all a fake is only a testament to the efficacy of the original. It is confirmed during emergency situations where “Jesus” is spontaneously chorused by otherwise non-believers. Most importantly, the Bible is filled with testimonies of God stepping in to change situations and reverse the natural order for the sake of men. But why don’t we see it in our midst as often as we should? 

One reason perhaps, is that we have left the miraculous to Pastors and ministry gifts in general. We somehow disqualify ourselves from having the ability to do the miraculous. “It is not for every Christian you say” yet the Lord Jesus himself said “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” John 14:12. Please note that the qualification for doing the works and even greater works than Jesus did is to simply believe. In essence, a day-old believer can do the miraculous. On the same point, Jesus said in another scripture that “these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Mark 16:17-18. In case we are unsure of what the works were in the previous verse, Christ expatiated on them here but the qualification remains the same.   

The life we have received is not an ordinary life; we are not and should not be limited by the natural. We have received the eternal life of God (1 John5:13) and thus the supernatural is our daily experience. Expect the impossible to become possible for you because you serve a wonder-working God. In John6:16-21, we see Jesus walking on waters but in verses 22 -25, we realized that Jesus walked on the waters because there were no more boats and he would not be limited by the natural. When the treasurer was not available and he needed to pay tax, he simply ordered it from a fish (Matthew 17:24-27).

Leadership In the Workplace

And masters, treat your servants considerably, be fair with them, and don’t forget for a minute that you too serve a master in heaven Colossians 4:1 Msg

From the Scripture above, Christian leaders are to be mindful that they also are subject to God who is the Master of us all. Our leadership attitude should be modeled after Christ. Apostle Paul who shows an exemplary leadership in the bible said emphatically that we should follow him as he follows Christ 1 Cor 11:1 In Col 3:22 the bible advice followers, to obey their masters in all things, not with eye service but with singleness of heart. But leaders are not to Lord over their followers, but lead with Meekness and Love.

UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP

To become a good leader, we must have a perfect understanding of leadership from biblical perspective. You call me your teacher and Lord, and you should, because that is who I am. And if your Lord and teacher has washed your feet, you should do the same for each other. John 13-13-14.  From the above scripture, Jesus demonstrated the perfect leadership, as he lead by example. In teaching His disciples to serve one another, Jesus himself started by serving them and showing them how to do what he teaches them to do. Whether in the church or at our place of work, we should lead by example rather than commanding without taking actions. Jesus Christ explains the perfect leader as a one that is willing to serve. As professionals, entrepreneurs and leaders in the workplace, there is a need to show Godly influence at our workplace but we cannot do this by acting as lords over our followers, our Godly principles should be lived out in our daily relations with our followers. Through this, we will effectively assert Godly influence.

Who Do They Say You Are?

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.  Matthew 16: 13-17.

One day Jesus thought; ‘hey guys, who do your community people say that I am?’ And the disciples one after the other, I believe, started mentioning names; Elias, John the Baptist, Jeremias or one of the prophet. Sigh. Then Jesus asked: "who do you say I am?" And Mr Peter answered. He certainly was in the spirit when he did. It was not head knowledge, it was revealed unto him!

But why did the 'men’ who saw Jesus as a prophet think that?  Was there some particular way prophets dressed that Jesus followed? Was there a particular look they wore? Was their diet different? Was it a function of their complexion or height? I'm just wondering. 

The Prayer Life of a Christian

One of the advantages of being a Christian is the fellowship we have been called unto in Christ. When we come in union with Christ through our Faith in his blood, we come in fellowship with God our father. However, our confidence in this fellowship is seen in our praying life. Prayer is our way of engaging this fellowship and the results are numerous. I can only know how much you know about prayer when I actually see you pray, not when you talk about it often. Our knowledge about prayer does nothing compared to when we actually spend time praying.

Our constant prayers to God shows our dependence on Him. Sometimes we want to be perfectionist, doing things in our own way, but soon realize that there is a limit to what we have control over. Praying helps us build confidence in Him who controls the heart of the king. After praying, we also discover that while events might not play out the way we desire, Our father always has His way of doing things which will always bring better results than when we try with our limited abilities.  The bible tells us not to trust in our own understanding but to acknowledge God in all our ways. When all the business plan is written and all the money generating ideas are about to be worked on, we still need to pray about them. Sometimes not so much that the venture can work, but to involve God in whatever we do. We can achieve much more with God than on our own.

Don’t Take Offence

In our last article, we saw how the Syrophoenician woman got the healing of her daughter along with a commendation from Christ because she refused to be offended and persisted till the end. We will in this piece look more closely at offence and how to correctly relate with it.

Offence is simply a cause or occasion of stumbling or sin, any action or words spoken against your person that could cause you to be displeased or angry. Hardly will a day go by that you will not have a reason to be offended. As long as we are in this world, there will always be a cause for displeasure, a reason to be angry. But the choice to be angry or offended is yours and we will dwell more on this later, first what are the consequences of getting offended.

As can be seen in Matt 15:22-30 (The Syrophoenician woman’s story), taking offence can deny you of your progress or desired goal. It distracts you and whittles away the energy needed for success. You spend time and resources dwelling and reacting to an offence thereby draining the present of the same resources. One of the greatest tool the enemy is using in the church today is offences, you see brethren refusing to work with each other because of years-old grudges.

Taking offences could also have ramifications far beyond the immediate action. You will be surprised how many persons are in prison today because of actions done in a fit of anger, they just had to react to a slight. A momentary loss of control and years of consequences. There is no better example than those of Simeon and Levi, brothers-in-arm who got offended that their sister was raped and took revenge on a whole city (Gen 34). Hear their fathers’ blessing (verdict seems more apt) on them “Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel” (Gen 49:5-7). For that singular act, their generations were scattered abroad and the scepter of authority was given to their younger brother. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools (Eccl 7:9).

Stay Focused

                      

And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Matt 15:22-28

The above story could have gone thus “And behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”  The same setting, same challenge, same request and obviously same outcome. Yet it would have been an accurate but incomplete summary of what transpired. We would have been left wondering what made the woman’s faith great? A couple of persons had their faith commended by Christ but only one other person was ‘great faith’ ascribed to (Luke 7:1-10). So, the difference was in what transpired between verses 23 -27 and there were two things that she did that is worthy of emulation.

Righteousness Exalts a Nation

Being a wisher would not just do anything. I was only wishing my country could become a better place until this scripture jumped at me. I sat myself​ down and I began to meditate on Righteousness.

What is Righteousness? Righteousness is the very nature of God whose Sons and Daughters we have become​. Righteousness is a gift from God to any man who has come to know Him through Jesus Christ. Righteousness is having a right standing with God without any sense of shame, guilt, condemnation or inferiority complex. Righteousness is that which a believer has acquired from God free of charge just by believing in Jesus, our first born. It is a family thing. It's a family matter and everyone in the family is a partaker and should be a participant. It does not matter what the situation is, righteousness remains our nature and we are to give expression to it by standing for the truth, doing what is right and good.

We are the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made righteous, God's Righteousness in Christ Jesus. Now, doing what is right and standing for the truth is no longer an issue with us, it is a responsibility that God has called us into, to obey and to do, fulfilling His purpose for our lives on earth. When we say we are the righteous, it should be that we are indeed on God's side, doing His work, minding His business.

Purpose Not Position

Courtesy: Google Images

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour." 1 Cor 3:5-8.

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire" Matt 3:11.

One fascinating thing about working and generally living is that one cannot always be alone or by oneself. Even a petty sole proprietor still has to make contacts with the supplier and consumer. It would be detrimental to the business if a sole proprietor gets over their head and begin to contend superiority with either the supplier or the final consumers. Sadly however, we see unhealthy rivalry and power/superiority tussle ensuing in our places of work every now and then.

Let's look at the man John, sent of God with a clear message; proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God alongside the practical assignment of getting all that have repented of their sins baptized with water.  Great work if you ask me. The man took his ministry and didn't let the message off his lips even in the wilderness. But there was his little cousin (6 months is a lot), Jesus the messiah, who was probably still busy with his carpentry work while John had been losing his voice telling of the Kingdom of God and whose ministry didn't begin until John baptized him and bore witness that Jesus is in deed, the son of God.

A New Tongue

They will speak with new tongues. .....(Mark 16:17)

Those are the very words of Jesus. He had just delivered a mandate to his disciples to go everywhere preaching his resurrection. Among other things, He said a sign of those who believe in Him is that they will receive ability to speak in a new tongue. On the surface when one looks at this statement, we may want to assume that Jesus meant, instead of vulgar languages, we will begin to speak words of grace.

Remember he was raised from the dead before speaking those words and the holy spirit was not yet given. However, on the day the holy spirit was given, we discovered that the disciples of Jesus really spoke in a new tongue, but not a known tongue. This must be the new tongue Jesus had earlier told them about. When the 120 people who were in the upper room were filled with the holy spirit, they all yielded to the Spirit by speaking in new language they never learnt.

That must be the sign Jesus was speaking about. If it were just a change of language or words, then there was really nothing peculiar about it. However, the event on the day of Pentecost that drew the attention of thousands of people in Jerusalem, both Jews and non-Jews, that led to the salvation of 3000 souls after Peter's preaching must be the sign Jesus talked about.

Delegation

In the last article about excellence, we discussed becoming a person of excellence. The beauty and challenge of excellence is that the more you improve yourself, the more you are set apart from the crowd. After months and years of continuous improvement, the difference becomes clear. Your high standard makes mediocrity irritable to you. You easily notice shoddy work and you are labelled a perfectionist. Your subordinates become uncomfortable working with you because they are incapable of satisfying you.  You are afraid to delegate as you will most likely redo the work. You end up doing most things and barely have time for yourself and things that are really important to you.

Moses the man of God was once there. He received a mandate from God to lead his people the Israelites and he gave himself completely to the work. Exo 18:13 says “the next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening”. This became his constant practice and his major work.  Jethro, his father-in-law noticed this and told him what will be the outcome of his actions; total burn out for both him and the people Exo 18:18. While in the beginning, it will seem a great idea having your personal touch on everything your business or ministry does, in the end you will realize that you cannot do it alone and you were less effective than you could have been if you had delegated.

Excellence Makes The Difference

                                             Picture source: Google images

Excellence is defined by the English Dictionary as the ‘quality of excelling; possessing good qualities in high degree’. While this definition seems afar off, a destination to be reached sometimes in the future if possible. A more practical definition is giving your best at all times and constantly seeking to be better. It is more about being better than you were yesterday while giving your absolute best today. An excellent person does not excuse mediocrity in self. Your presentation might not be the best among your peers, but it is the best you know how to do at the moment and you are on the look out to learn from those who had better presentations. Really then, Excellence is not a destination but a journey.

It is then surprising to see Christians, who are adept at the word and have the conviction that they have been accepted in the beloved and are saved by grace and not works, settle for mediocrity. Of course, nobody will concede to being a mediocre, we just don’t have the time or patience to put that extra in, we have several fellowship meetings to attend than to be bothered with such aesthetics. We are comfortable with the barest minimum since God looks at the heart and not the packaging. We even go ahead to confront anyone that points to the obvious deficiency that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Come, let’s learn from a man whom God gave wisdom such that he became the wisest king of the ancient world.

Growing Up

Our article this week is a Facebook post by Pastor Poju Oyemade


Growing up as a Christian one of the things I learned early that helped me greatly was to stop seeing the Bible as a theoretical book where it's level of understanding is determined by who speaks more eloquently using high sounding phrases that make little meaning in the consciousness of people.

I came to understand this, the Bible was never meant to be a theoretical book neither are doctrines academic in nature.

What is the purpose of Scripture? Paul answers this in his letter to Timothy

2 Timothy 3:16-17
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works"

 All Scripture and not some are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in order that the man of God may be perfect i.e mature and furnished on to good works. So the end goal of God in giving us His word is producing good works in us. It is not to improve us intellectually even though it does, but to produce good works in our lives. The more we understand scriptures the more the works of God are demonstrated in our lives.

That You May Win

“But am a committed Christian and I take my relationship with God seriously, yet why am I bombarded with so many problems. Why are there disappointments all around?”

You might have asked these questions or its variants at some point in your Christian walk or maybe you didn’t so much as utter it, but you only thought about it in your heart. I know I have. While I did not expect a life without challenges, I did hope for an almost smooth road; after all, God had promised to clear the pathway for me such that I will not dash my foot against a stone nor have any big issues in life. But did he?

In the longest recorded teaching of Christ, which was also one of his earliest teachings, in Matthew chapters five to seven, Jesus gave us his manifesto, his mission statement and concluded with this allegory: ‘Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. And the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded on a rock. And everyone who hears these sayings of Mine and does not do them shall be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain came down, and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat on that house. And it fell, and great was its fall.’¹ We can agree that the wise man is the committed Christian who does the word of God and the foolish man a church goer who doesn’t do the word and is the equivalent of an unbeliever. It is instructive to note the common experiences of both groups. They both built houses, the rain fell on both houses, both houses experienced the flood and the wind blew against both houses. What was different was the outcome, while one house was able to withstand all the elements of weather, the other house crumbled under the same conditions.

Following the Inner Witness

I was in my sophomore in the university in an outreach program organized by the church I attended. This was the last day of the outreach program and it was a healing service. Several healings were already taking place and something happened that inspired me writing this article. 

 A lady had just come out to testify of the healing power of God on her eyes. She was used to wearing glasses to aid her eyes. She was filled with joy. Unknown to me the lady who stood just beside where I sat at the program was a friend to the person testifying. She exclaimed 'I know her', that was how I got to know. 

 I noticed that she too wore a pair of glasses. I not only saw her joy but her expectation too, her friend had just been healed in her eyes. I immediately felt like ministering to her myself. I felt she deserved her own healing too from God. All these happened just in my head. Although there was a willingness in me, I took no action. 

 I just narrated one out of several other experiences of mine. After that evening program, I felt that lady didn't go to her hostel healed because I did nothing. I was 100% sure if I simply took a leap of Faith by acting on my knowledge at that point in time, she would have been healed. 

Light up your world

Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand.  Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand--shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.               Matt 5:13-16 (Msg)

The salvation experience is the beginning of a very exciting journey and not an end in itself. It is the birth of a new you, the beginning of the rest of your life. We are saved to live the life of God that we have received. Your job description as a Christian is to get trained and built up in the church; As you grow, you then go and light up your world, your world being anywhere and everywhere you transact or/and interact. For effectiveness, God appointed some to be ministry gifts for the purpose of equipping the vast majority to do ‘ministry’.¹ Ministry here means serving others in the name of the Lord Jesus. You are no less a Christian being a ministry gift than you are not being one. So, it is okay if you are not a pastor or a teacher in your church, your purpose is to light up your world.

INTEGRITY II

Being a Christian is living like Christ and integrity is a key attribute. If you don’t believe your words then no one else will. To become a person of integrity starts with aligning yourself with the manual for living. A constant study of the word of God will reveal your true self to you and it will relieve you of your need to please men. You learn to say what you know you can do and if you are not sure, state it from the outset. Adding ‘probably’, ‘if possible’ etc to statements when you are not sure will help your listener to know you are not being definitive. But when pressed to give a categorical statement, always mentally factor in unforeseen circumstances. If you are sure that a particular work can be done in three weeks, then ask for a month; the extra week will help cover for events beyond your control while you continue to work within the three weeks deadline.

Thus, there is need to be familiar with details, time being the most crucial. How long does it take for you to get dressed in the morning? how long does it take to do your makeup? how long is the drive from point A to point B? what is the traffic pattern? etc  Most of the answers to the questions above and to several others are personal and it is for you to find them out with time. That it takes longer for you to get something done than others do not make you a good or bad person, it only means you have to start earlier or work on reducing the time.

INTEGRITY

And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.

Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.                             Jos 10:11-13

Hailstones from the sky, sun and moon standing still; surely, this is action-packed, Science fiction stuff. But it is not fiction, neither is it a movie. It is the record of a war that Israel was involved in just a little while after the fall of Jericho and its walls. The war was so remarkable that scriptures recorded that “there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.”¹ You imagine that the opponents must have really angered Israel and provoked God to attract such a severe treatment, but no, Israel was not even the target of the war.