Seeing The Other Side

"I know the LORD has given you this land," she told them. "We are all afraid of you. Everyone is living in terror. For we have heard how the LORD made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed. No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the LORD your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below. Joshua 2:9-11. NLT

The story of the twelve spies Moses sent to the Promised Land is quite popular and the reports they brought back even more so. Even though God’s word had gone ahead promising them the land, the majority came back with factual, evident-based report; the land was good and the people strong and big, for added effect, they even described how they must have seemed small in the eyes of the inhabitants. The minority report on the other hand did not dispute the facts but they chose to believe God and his abilities more than the evidences before them. Of course, the majority had their way and they died in the wilderness.

Then years later, we get a rare view of the other side, a peep into the mind and the thinking of the inhabitants of the land. ‘We are all afraid of you, everyone is living in terror’, what a huge shock, oh what missed opportunity. If only the ten spies had heard these themselves, they would have marched immediately; instead they died unsung. Joshua and Caleb (minority reporters) had always known the truth though; God was busy behind the scene preparing the way for them, moving mountains for them.

How so much like today, where physical evidence is taken over and above God’s word. Just because we cannot see the other side, we are tempted to walk by sight. Beloved, there is more to it than the facts, God is still at work in the situation and all He asks of you is to believe Him. They might indeed be giants but in their hearts, they are terrified. Hold on to God’s word, he will come through for you. That sickness is not unto death, don’t give up; the marriage will be restored, don’t despair; your breakthrough will come, just hang in there. He that has promised is able to accomplish it.

Even when you can‘t see him, he is working, even when you can’t feel him he is working; he never stops working for you. Shalom.

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.

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.

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.

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.