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.

Seeing Differently

Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. Numbers 14:9

Come to think of it, these young men had so much guts. In a world where when you don't follow the norm, you are called different names. I don't think this incidence was the first time Caleb and Joshua had a different opinion from the norm or general opinion. And they definitely had something working for them to be chosen as representatives of their individual tribes.

Ten men reported the people they saw as giants, which indeed is true in reality, but these two men brought a different report. What others called giants, was what they called 'bread'. This shows that whatever the people they went to spy out looked like physically meant nothing to them. They refused to be swayed by their looks.

Could it be that this two men had eye defects that made them underestimate the giants? I don't think so, instead I think they had an image of the invisible God in their minds who was bigger than any giant they saw with their physical eyes. The giants however tall and mighty they appeared meant nothing to them. Instead they reaffirmed that with God on their side, they could have the giants for lunch.

This two men nursed no fear whatsoever for the giants that was why they could face the multitude of people and tell them not to fear the giants. They didn't acknowledge the sight of the giants but were more conscious of the God they had. God on their side they were sure of possessing the land. God on their side they were sure of an imminent victory.

How many times do we shake at the sight of opposing situations and circumstances and forget about the God who not only is with us but dwells within us now? Victory over the giants of life doesn't come by merely having God, but a deep rooted consciousness of him. He was God to the whole nation of Israel, but two young men distinguished themselves by their thoughts and words that they had a God with them. And with God on their side, the giants came down before them. God will always come through for anyone who magnifies him above the physical 'giants' before them.

If you have not made Jesus Christ your Lord and saviour, you cannot take advantage of what God had prepared for you. We urge you, don’t wait another moment. Make up your mind and say this prayer:

“Dear God, I ask you to forgive me all my sins and make me anew. I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised him up on the third day, I confess that He is Lord now and forever. I accept your son, Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.”

Congratulations! Now that you are born again, look for a bible believing church to attend that you might know what he has provided for you. 

BREAKING FREE

2 Peter 2:2

As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

The starting point for every believer is to start out as a babe. No new convert assumes a matured status as soon as they receive the life of God. Although this is where we all start, we should go beyond it by growing up. This kind of growth is not physical and can't be seen with the natural eyes. However, it must be continous, no matter how small the progress we are making now.

The challenge with many Christians when it comes to spiritual growth is that growth is in inches and may not be noticeable until after a long while. We tend to give up after a period of consistency because we see no visible changes yet in our life. But in reality, inasmuch as we commit to spiritual activities like spending time daily in prayer and the word, and fellowship with other believers, we are definitely growing.

This is where we usually fall for the enemies' lies that nothing is happening after being consistent for 10days and yet no sign. Whereas we are actually growing and the only way to grow is to be consistent. Since we are already on the path of growth, we should not be deterred if the symptoms of those habits and addictions still persists. Its in fact an evidence of growth in certain cases.

Each time we take a break on our commitment, it stifles the process especially when we have an end in view. For someone trying to break of on some habits, total commitment to the process is essential. The more entrenched we are in habit requires more tenacious effort in spiritual activities till they wear of. Never be discouraged, keep at the daily prayers and meditations in the Word irrespective of how inconvenient it might be.

Always keep the end in view. A fierce and aggressive commitment to spiritual activities over a period of time will always produce victory over negative activities we desire to break of from.

If you have not made Jesus Christ your Lord and saviour, you cannot take advantage of what God had prepared for you. We urge you, don’t wait another moment. Make up your mind and say this prayer:

“Dear God, I ask you to forgive me all my sins and make me anew. I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised him up on the third day, I confess that He is Lord now and forever. I accept your son, Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.”

Congratulations! Now that you are born again, look for a bible believing church to attend that you might know what he has provided for you. 

Hour of Prayer

Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. Acts 3;1

The Apostles of old had what was called the hour of prayer. A time they knew and agreed among themselves will be used for prayers. This shows us their commitment towards prayers. Prayer was so important to them that it was on their daily to-do list. They prioritized it because they saw it as a big deal for their everyday living. They didn’t want any day to go by without them praying so, they dedicated a period of the day to pray.

Present day believers have a lot to learn from the apostles. We need to see prayer as a part of our everyday living. The same way we plan to eat, we must also plan to pray. We wake up every day to have our bath and brush our mouth. It has become something that nobody needs tell us to do before we do them. We should also see prayer that same way. We should not let a day go by without praying.

The easiest way to achieve this is actually by creating the time for it. We need to sit and look at our daily schedule and what time of the day we could carve out for this purpose. When we have this daily mind-set about prayers, we will be motivated to pray irrespective of what happens to us. We will begin to see praying more as a duty and not just another activity. We will begin to see praying as a high priority task in our daily activities. Christians who pray every day can easily be known by how much they are available for the things of God, how often they hear God and how they walk in God’s plan for their lives.

If you have not made Jesus Christ your Lord and saviour, you cannot take advantage of what God had prepared for you. We urge you, don’t wait another moment. Make up your mind and say this prayer:

“Dear God, I ask you to forgive me all my sins and make me anew. I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised him up on the third day, I confess that He is Lord now and forever. I accept your son, Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.”

Congratulations! Now that you are born again, look for a bible believing church to attend that you might know what he has provided for you. 

THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS

After the scholars were gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him.”

Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: “I called my son out of Egypt.” Matthew 2:13-15 (Message)

The excerpt above is taken from the account of Jesus’ birth and Herod’s reaction. A quick recap. Jesus was born and the Wise Men were going to greet the new arrival. For whatever reason, they stopped by Herod’s palace to inform him of the birth of the child of prophecy. The child that is to be the king of Israel.

Herod was like, “y’all mean one child is coming to dethrone me? What effrontery!” The man got angry and ordered that the child be found and brought to him. Of course, not so he could give him scholarship or royal shelter. He just wanted to get rid of what looked like a threat to him.

Innocent baby Jesus was in danger and so was his parents, presumably. Because Jesus is divine, the son of the living God, his heavenly father, who has all powers under His control could have pulled stunts. He could have dealt with Herod like He did Pharaoh, maybe. And all would probably have acknowledged sooner that Jesus is the messiah and the son of the living God.

That's probably what we all expect to happen at every point a challenge stares us in the face. We want God to show up in all his majesty and defend us like His children that we are. We want to be able to brag before our enemies and friends and say 'God's always got my back!' Hopefully so that they would see and know how awesome our God is.

But sorry to burst your bubble, God pulls no stunt. He is not in any competition or contest with any of His own creation.  So God simply sent a message to Joseph, telling him to protect the child and his mother in a way that he readily could; flee to Egypt! Guess what? Joseph didn’t argue with Him, he just immediately set out on his fleeing to Egypt with the child and his mother.

Were they safe in Egypt? Yes. Did Herod leave the scene? Yes, when his time was up. Did Jesus eventually become all that he was meant to be? Yes. Did fleeing at that time reduce him from divinity a bit? No. Does fleeing make Joseph less of a father? No.

What’s the point here? I’ll tell you. In life, we would never be lacking of battles. The word of God affirms it in John 16.33, that in this world, we will face tribulations but our victory is that Jesus has overcome the world. But do we fight all battles? Well, I’d say fight the ones you know you can win but if we are still in this faith business, where we should always seek the mind of God all the time, then we should hand over the wheel.

His ways are not usually our preferred ways and Bible tells us that we have great tendency to take the wisdom of God for foolishness. Why? Because our limited minds cannot comprehend his ways. So in the midst of the storm, the Lord appears to be taking a nap when we thought he should be all worked up trying to not allow us sink. Should we then take the sail? No! We are not the sailor, He is and all we need do is trust Him enough, not to get us to safety, but that with him is our safety.

So also when issues of life arise, we do not always have to fire back. Sometimes all we need do is back down or change position or just keep quiet. These may not sometimes make sense to do but because we know we cannot on our own win these battles that come our way, we need to listen when God says to stop, to keep quiet or to do nothing. Even if He says to run, better not look back because these daily or periodic battles that we fight, we cannot win with our human strength.

So let’s face it, this battle is not yours, the battle is the Lord’s.

If you have not made Jesus Christ your Lord and saviour, you cannot take advantage of what God had prepared for you. We urge you, don’t wait another moment. Make up your mind and say this prayer:

“Dear God, I ask you to forgive me all my sins and make me anew. I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised him up on the third day, I confess that He is Lord now and forever. I accept your son, Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.”

Congratulations! Now that you are born again, look for a bible believing church to attend that you might know what he has provided for you. 

Holding On To Our Confession

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised (Heb 10:23)

The profession of a believer comes from the mouth. The mouth is what the believer uses in holding on to his faith. The mouth of a believer is very vital in the life of faith. We must be watchful over our words, because we must not say something not in line with our faith. Our mouth has assumed a role more than just eating and it is not just a part of our body but an instrument for exerting our authority here on earth.

We are well familiar with holding things with our physical hands, but when we are in faith, we 'hold up' with our words. Our words show whether we are in faith or not. When we decide to take sides with God's word against any predicament, our confessions thereafter must not negate our confession of faith, else we are wavering. When you say the Lord God Almighty is my healer, don't go about saying, 'will I be healed'?

Whenever we speak in faith with God's word over our circumstances, we are putting God's word to work. The authority at the back of God's word begins to work in our favour. From our minds God's word starts working. We begin to see the situation not as it is, but in the light of God's word. You know how wearing a shade on a sunny day changes the colour of everything around you, that's the same effect we experience when we confess God's word long enough about us.

The more reason we are to hold on to our confession in spite of contradicting circumstances is the faithfulness of God. The promise we are holding on to was given by someone who has a character not to fail. In the face of death, three men still thought it best out of a solid conviction to bank on God. 'If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.' (Dan 3:17)

They knew the ability of God from what He had done in time past for them. They knew He brought them out of the land of bondage through the Red sea to the land of promise. They knew from the stories told them how He delivered them from several dangers and gave them victory over their enemies. They knew God was dependable because He has come to their rescue before.

This is why we don't waver in our confession because we are assured of Him whose words we believe and confess. His word is true and always true. We can go to bed, resting in the promise of God.

If you have not made Jesus Christ your Lord and saviour, you cannot take advantage of what God had prepared for you. We urge you, don’t wait another moment. Make up your mind and say this prayer:

“Dear God, I ask you to forgive me all my sins and make me anew. I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised him up on the third day, I confess that He is Lord now and forever. I accept your son, Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.”

Congratulations! Now that you are born again, look for a bible believing church to attend that you might know what he has provided for you.