This is the first post of the year and a happy new year to all our subscribers. I trust you have been enjoying the year so far. We have been busy marketing the magazine.

I am really excited to write this particular post as there is nothing better than when a piece of truth excites and changes you and more importantly conveys the heart of the Lord.

The year 2011 for many, either personally or nationally has been challenging financially. We all know Christians caught up in the economic crisis and political upheaval the world is going through. For us Christians, our confession, rightly has been that God will continue to protect and provide for us. Such is our confidence in the finished work of God. The question then is, are there any biblical principles that we need to follow during these periods. What I am about to share is just one of many biblical truths, as I believe that we know in part.

This post centres on the subject of worship. In the midst of a crisis around us, our reaction should be one of worship. Worship by definition is someone or something that we give our thoughts and attention to.  Even if we give all our attention to the problem and not to God, there is a danger that we begin to ‘worship’ the problem i.e. elevate the problem before the worship of God.

Worship here means an active response. At the beginning of the year, as I was praying, the Lord shared a word with me ‘Worship only Him’. Puzzled by what this could mean, I discovered that worship was the biblical response to a crisis. I discovered that almost without exception, from Genesis to Revelation, the people of God worshipped Him whenever there was a crisis.

Worship enables us to bring God into the situation and begin to see things from His perspective. Worship enables us to stay close to the Father’s heart and get His view on things.  When this happens, we begin to speak out of the revelation that we have received and victory will come. Space does not permit me to go into all the scriptural references to crisis and worship but consider Job in Job 1:8and David in 2 Kings 12:20and you will understand what I mean

However, if there is one area I am going to be focusing on this year, it’s my worship life. If biblical characters reacted with worship as a way of dealing with crisis, then we would be wise to do the same.

I trust that I have shared a valuable insight from the scriptures and so until I appear again in your inbox with more insight from the scriptures, keep on actively worshipping Him.

Stay blessed

Ola

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His means? Most times when I share something with you, it is based on some revelation that I have received and my interpretation of it. This post is however, different in that I am sharing from a book that has blessed me and I trust will bless and challenge you also. The book is titled ‘The supernatural ways of royalty’ by Kris Vallotin.

The challenge the author poses is self explanatory in the title for this post. It is a challenge that we should take a few minutes to consider. More importantly, we need to ask ourselves whether living within God’s means is a reality within our lives and not just about faith talk.

The text I am quoting is taken directly from the title ‘Kingdom finances’ in the second chapter of the book. I believe that he shares this more adequately than I can put in words.

“Unfortunately, most of us in the church are still thinking like the older brother We have lost sight of the fact that we don’t just work on the farm –we are sons and daughters of the Owner, and our Dad has plenty! I believe this revelation will totally change the way we think and plan for our futures. Most of us are still looking at our provisions (what our bank account says) to help us determine our visions, and therefore are living within our means instead of His blessings!

For example, if we are constructing a building, we argue that we must give up some other project to cover the cost. Yet we have been called to live beyond reason and far beyond the borders of our own abilities.

 “Paul said it best, “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” ( Phil 4:19). He said, God will supply all of our needs according to His riches). He is not supplying according to my needs but according to His glory”

He goes on to explain that we are called to live by faith, whether our bank accounts are full or not. I was very challenged by these words of wisdom and if I am really honest, I do live within my means (after all that was what I was brought up to do). I believe that whilst this is right, there is another realm that is possible to live in – the realm of God’s means.

 As we move into 2012, why not ask yourself the same question I asked myself, am I living within my means or within His means. If you are living within your means, why not ask God change your perspective and give you a new mindset.  Once we can ‘see it’, then we can ‘believe it’ and then we can ultimately ‘have it)

That’s exactly what I will be doing. I hope you have enjoyed this week’s short post. So until I appear again in your inbox with more insights from the scriptures, stay blessed.

Ola

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It was a Friday evening at house fellowship. I had had a tiring week so had decided that I wasn’t going to say much that evening. I was going to learn and listen. Things were progressing nicely according to my plan when somebody made a comment that broke my silence. I could not resist the temptation of saying something.

I had heard this comment made many times before and somehow I think it’s a statement that a lot of people make and even believe in.  It’s something that many of us might have said at one time or the other; something along the lines of “God always comes through at the last minute”.

I am not sure whether we have developed this idea out of our personal experience (and yes, there are times that God comes through at what ‘seems’ the last minute to us. It could also be the story of Paul and Silas, when God sent an angel at the midnight hour ( Acts 16) or even the story of Daniel (when God said that He had heard Daniel’s prayer from the first day he started praying, though he did not answer until 21 days later ( Daniel 10).

The scriptures do not read that God always comes through at the last minute and therefore, we should also delete it from our ‘sayings’.  There are a few dangers with this saying.

The danger is that subconsciously, we are diluting the sovereignty of God. I believe that God answers prayers when He chooses to, whether we consider it to be the first, tenth, fourteenth or last hour. Prayer is not a science.

The second danger of this is that we become a bit complacent. We stop being like the persistent widow ( Luke 18:1-7) whom the Judge had to get up ‘quickly’ so she could stop bothering him. We shouldn’t subject ourselves to ‘involuntary longsuffering’ and/or unnecessary warfare.

Thirdly, we begin to believe what we say and our expectation is based on our belief system. The bible says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks

The truth is God is God and whilst He has given us principles about prayer from the scriptures, He answers prayers in His timing, in His way and for His purpose. The scriptures do not contain God, they reveal Him. The same God that answered at the midnight hour also says in His word that before we speak, He will answer our prayers ( Isaiah 65:24). Another version of Isaiah 65:24says while we are praying God will answer.

So next time you might be tempted to say “God always comes through at the last minute” and even accept your belief systems to that effect, remember the sovereignty of God.

 I think a better statement would be “Sometimes, God appears to come through at the last minute”.

So until I appear again in your inbox with more insight from the scriptures or life, stay blessed.

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I started a project many years ago. Things went smoothly for a while and then things did not quite work out the way I expected and a lot of enthusiasm went down the drain. Over the years, people left the project.  Many years later, the project became alive again and though I am still in contact and friendly with many of the original people who had worked on the project with me, none of them are still involved today. That got me thinking about the title for today’s post, what happens when people leave?

Interestingly, in the last post we discussed the importance of knowing when a season has ended in one’s life. Here we discuss the importance of letting people go when their ‘season’ in your life is over.

Back to my example, initially I had relied on the people working alongside me because of their specialised knowledge. As people left, I was sacred, just in case I could not find people to replace them with similar skills.  One day, I woke up to the realisation that everyone had left, I was all alone and I had to get on with the job. I started to look out for others who could step into their shoes and guess what! I found, another group of people. Suddenly, I realised that I was not ‘helpless’ as I had initially thought. I also discovered that I was a lot more competent in areas I would not previously have been. This taught me a lesson, sometimes when people leave; it is not all bad news.  I should have remembered that the project was God’s idea and all I needed was the courage to move on.

I was encouraged to read of examples from the scriptures where people left others and it was actually better that they did. Let’s consider a few examples:

a)    The most obvious example of someone leaving is the story of Lot and Abraham. The story can be read in Genesis 13and the departure was caused in an effort to avoid conflict. When Lot left his uncle, the next thing that happened was  that God gave Abraham a wonderful promise ( Genesis 13:14)

b)    Another example is Elijah and Elisha, as recorded in 2 Kings 21:1-15. God was going to take Elijah home. Here the departure was caused by death, but the departure was necessary so that Elisha could receive a double portion of the Spirit of God upon Elijah

c)    Another interesting example perhaps,  is that of Paul and Barnabas as described in Acts 13:13. Having worked together on a missionary journey with two assistants, Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement over Mark John, whom Paul did not want to take along on any future journeys. The departure was caused by a difference of opinion. We don’t know how the reconciliation took place other than the fact that Mark John was valuable to Paul later on in his life ( 2 Timothy 4:11)

d)    The last example I want to highlight and is possibly the most familiar, is of our Lord Jesus Christ. He stated that it was better that He leaves so that the disciples (who were now very dependent upon Him) could have the Holy Spirit and do even greater works than He had done ( John 16:7). His departure was for our benefit.

In conclusion, there are times when people have to depart from our lives.

However, a word of caution here, I am not referring to situations where due to our own fault, negligence or what-not, our behaviour has caused people to leave. That situation calls for repentance before we move on; as we might have caused an offence to other people.

So until I appear again in your inbox with more insights from the scriptures and from life, stay blessed

Ola

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I was at a Christian conference recently and during the break session, two of the delegates were having a discussion about what God was doing in their lives. Whilst I appreciate that one shouldn’t eavesdrop, I could not help but listen in to the wisdom that was being shared. One of the delegates had gone through a particular season with God and now it was time to move on. The key point in their discussion was how to recognise the end of a season.

We live in a Christian culture where the word season implies an almost endless period, whether it is of blessings, finance etc and we are always being told that we are now in one season of God or the other. I agree with all that but the word season means a period of time, though the word could also mean a recurrent period, such as a holiday season. Seasons, by their definition have a start and end date, even if the end is transformed into something else

I started to think about my own live. I asked myself the question – do I know when one season is over and it’s time to move on. The honest answer is I don’t. I expect a season to last forever.

 The danger of this type of thinking is that it makes it difficult for us to move on, or worse still, God has moved on and we still think of where He was. Whilst it may not be difficult to embrace new challenges, these then clog our lives as it is yet another thing that we have taken on that has no end. This can lead to unnecessary stress.

I am aware that this is something personal to me but I really wonder how many of us think consciously of God’s season coming to an end. If we are need a biblical reference for this, let’s turn to Ecclesiastes 3.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace

Understanding God’s time is crucial to how we live our lives. So I guess the million dollar question is, do you recognise when a season has come to an end and I believe that unless there are physical signs, such as when winter leads to spring, we know the end of a season by revelation.

It took God to tell Joshua that they had stayed on the mountain long enough and it was now time to go in and possess the Promised Land. We know the end of a season by staying in the vine, the master planner of our lives.

I really pray that we will know how a season has ended so that we can make quick and accurate progress in life. Trust this has been a blessing to you, so until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed

Ola

We all have priorities in life and one person’s priority might not necessarily be important to another person. However, as believers, it is important that we know and walk in God’s priorities i.e. the things that are important to Him. In this article, we examine one of the things that’s important to Him: His house.

One of my favourite pieces of scripture is mentioned in Exodus 12:6-7.  The reason why this has been an intriguing piece of scripture is because the secret of Moses’ face-to-face encounter with God is found in this verse and I reckoned that if I could find the secret, then I would experience what Moses experienced.

“Hear now My words:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision;
I speak to him in a dream.

 Not so with My servant Moses;
He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face,
Even plainly, and not in dark sayings;
And he sees the form of the LORD.
Why then were you not afraid
To speak against My servant Moses?”

The secret to Moses’ face to face encounter was his faithfulness in the house of God. Let’s consider another example.

In the book of Haggai, God was annoyed with the Israelites because they were building their own houses and were relatively unconcerned about God’s house ( Haggai 1:4-9).

“Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” ⁵ Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways! (verse 4)………. “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house (verse 9)

Here God is telling the people off for building their own house, whilst neglecting His. From this scripture we understand that God is concerned about His house.

Also, in 2 Samuel 7, we note that David had built himself a beautiful house but he was not happy that God did not have a house to dwell in. David knew that a house was important to God.

Moreover, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, my own special treasure of gold and silver …… ( 1 Chronicles 29:3ff)

The concept of God’s house is one that is important to God. In whatever context the phrase ‘the house of God’ is used in scripture, it simply means the place where God has chosen to place His name, whether that is in a physical building, in believers or amongst believers. We need to set our heart and affection on the house of God.

God blessed David with covenant blessings after he sought the house of God ( 2 Samuel 7:5-16). With Moses, God gave him a face-to-face encounter ( Numbers 12:7). It appears that there is a blessing to those to whom the house of God is important.

My prayer today is that God would show us how to be faithful in His house and experience the blessings associated with pursuing His house. I trust that this post would help you on your journey to sharing what’s important to God

This is a concept I am very interested in and I would like to share in any further revelations you might have about the subject. So until I hear from you or appear again in your inbox, stay blessed

Ola

The holiday season is over and I took a well-deserved break, so unfortunately, I was not able to post as much as I would have liked to, they should become a bit more frequent now.

Oh! By the way, if you have never been to the wonderful Island of Crete, off the Greece mainland, it is thoroughly recommended.

For the past few weeks, there has been a thought at the back of my mind. It’s one of those thoughts that wouldn’t go away and has also informed the directions of my prayers. The thought centres on the anointing.

Many of us are very familiar with this word. Many times in church, we sing about the anointing and invariably end up asking the Holy Spirit to anoint us. However, the thought that I want to share with you in this post is quite simple. The anointing does not come in isolation. It is given for a purpose.

The anointing simply means a supernatural endowment from God to fulfil a particular task. It is God’s supernatural empowerment or enabling. From the Old Testament, we are familiar with the Priest, Prophets and Kings being anointed before they could function in their posts.

The same principle is illustrated in the New Testament. Perhaps the one that stands out the most is Acts 10:38where it is recorded that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and He went about doing good and healing people.

In fact in Luke 4:18-19, Jesus talks about the Spirit of the Lord being upon Him as He was anointed to….and He goes on to list why the anointing was necessary. The anointing was present to:

• Preach the gospel to the poor
• Heal and restore people
• Proclaim freedom to the captives
• Open blind eyes
• Set people free

So fast forward to our present world. There can be no doubt that we need the anointing. Remember, the key is – What do we need it for?  As Christians in the marketplace, we need the anointing to stand out. The anointing can be given to us to live Christ-led lives and function as kings in the marketplace, whether we are in business or working as an employee. To excel in these arenas, we need the anointing as it portrays our reliance on God. It is the anointing that will set us apart from other people.

To get the anointing, we simply need to ask for it. Prayer or in this case asking is a basic principle that ensures our lifeline with God. To succeed in whatever God has put in your hand, you need to have the anointing of God for it to be successful and stress-free.

So whether these truths are new to you or whether you have heard it before but have not asked for the anointing for a while, why not join me in going before God and asking for His supernatural empowerment to succeed in the marketplace.

I believe that He will give us what we request as long as our motives are right i.e.  to build His Kingdom.

Today’s post is short but I trust a blessing to you, so until I appear again in your inbox, stay anointed

Ola

I recently read the story of David in one setting and the one thing that struck me was David’s hard and difficult life. In particular, his relationship with Saul struck me as being particularly difficult. The problems between the two lasted for at least 15 years. David, unfortunately became Saul’s arch enemy as we find in the following scriptures

1 Samuel 18:25  ‘and Saul was still more afraid of David. So Saul became David’s enemy continually’

1 Samuel 23:8-9  ‘⁸ Then Saul called all the people together for war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. ⁹ When David knew that Saul plotted evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.”

1 Samuel 23:14  ‘¹⁴ And David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains in the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand’

1 Samuel 18:10  ‘The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand ¹¹ and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice’

These are just a sample of the many records in the scriptures of Saul trying to kill David. We can just visualise David watching out for Saul every day. In addition to the difficulties with Saul, David faced a lot of other difficulties in his life. So what kept him going?

Before we answer that, apart from David experiencing all these distressing situations, we see a true worshipper. He displayed an unwavering trust and confidence in God. How do we reconcile having a difficult lifestyle and having a thankful heart?

The connection between the two, I believe is explained in Philippians 4:6-7.

^‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’.

David certainly graduated with honours in the thanksgiving department. He wrote a lot of the thanksgiving psalms in the scriptures. There are also numerous references to David inquiring of the Lord, before he took certain steps

 We also come humbly asking or petitioning God in earnest expectation. When we experience difficulty, the scriptures encourage us to come humbly before God to ask and petition Him with earnest expectation and in return He promises that we would have peace in our hearts. Peace in the midst of a storm.

We will all face difficulties at some stage or another. We will do well to heed the words of the scripture. Christian Businesses are no exception.  The formula is simple: petition and thanksgiving. Let’s remember this when next we are faced with difficult situations.

Until I appear again in your inbox, with more insight from the scriptures, stay blessed

Ola

Sometimes I write to encourage you, share a revelation I have received from God, share experiences I am going through and sometimes I share a Thus-saith-the-Lord word’. In other words, please pay attention. Today’s post falls into the latter category.

So going straight into the message, most of I you have probably heard words and statements such as:

·        You can do anything you set your heart on doing

·        With hard work and determination, you can achieve whatever you set your mind to

·        Nothing is impossible when you work hard

·        The sky is the limit

·        When there’s a will, there’s a win

·        Work hard and you will be successful

·        Believe in your dreams and you will make it

I totally agree with the sentiment of these statements. I might even have used some of these phrases in my writings. Whilst these statements are true, they must be treated with caution. However, it has one major flaw with it – it is self-centred. At its core is a belief in self rather than a belief in God. Unfortunately, many believers have fallen into this trap or thought process. For believers, life is Christ centred and not self-centred. The scriptures are not against hard work. Paul, in referring to work uses words such as labour, toil, endurance etc. ( 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3).

This does not mean that we don’t aim to be the best and aim for the sky (or the moon, since footsteps are now known to be there) but it is to ACTIVELY ACKNOWLEDGE that all of this is only possible through Christ

Acts 17:28makes it clear that it is in Him that we live and move and have our being. Therefore any success in life should be attributed to Christ who is ‘the root – as all good things come from Him ’.

The book of Philippians is a good book that focus our minds back to Christ in us. It is one of those books that define the true source of success.

In Philippians 2:12, Paul mentions that it is God who began a good work in us whilst Philippians 2:13state that God is working in us both to will and for His good purpose. Then Philippians 4:13states that I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me’. Christ is the source of our success and not the belief in self that we will attain whatever we want.

The danger with this type of thinking is that Christ is no longer enthroned in our thoughts and thoughts give birth to action. Then if we are not careful, we begin to be self-reliant rather than God-reliant. Remember man’s first sin.

Hope you have enjoyed this week’s post, so until I appear again in your inbox with more insight from the scriptures, stay blessed.

Ola

This week’s post is a practical one. Yes, it has biblical application as its basis but it is one of those truths that we just need to be reminded about from time to time.

Many times, we are on the go. We keep going on and on and on without stopping to rest. Life is so much different than it was just ten years ago. The age of technology has changed things. Today we have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Groupon, web browsing, websites, mobile phones, text messages (yes I know we receive texts through the phone), social media sites and the list goes on. Even on holidays, the phone and text messages don’t stop. You get the point. All of this technology does have a way of creeping up on us. It is estimated that an average person spends 55 minutes on Facebook every day, not to talk of the other ‘things’ I have mentioned. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to spend 55 minutes of Facebook, it depends on what you are doing. Spending a lot of time and making a lot of money is different from just whiling away the time.

Now people have access to you whenever they can. When people can’t get hold of you, they send you a text and they expect an instant response. A company I work for has just introduced yet another communication technology tool. Difference from email – basically, it’s telling you someone requires your attention and they want it now. Instant messaging! At least, with email, you had the pleasure of opening the mail when you want to.

I could go on and on but you get the message and no doubt you have your own stories too. What perhaps we don’t realise is that (unless you discipline yourself otherwise), it takes out a lot of stress on the body. It is easy to get caught up in all the noise we have in life now, especially with all this technology. Have some quiet time alone to restore your energy. Those little moments during the day seem to be taken up. At one stage, I realised that I had let technology take the place of God. We are to use technology wisely and not let technology use us.

What does one do in the midst of all this? The answer is simple rest and make sure that our days are not overcrowded. Sometimes, it’s important to get away from it all for a period of time. Remember you are human and your body needs to rest. We need rest to give our bodies time to repair or to recuperate. God designed our bodies with a rhythm of rest. Make sure you are getting enough.

I believe we need personal strategies especially around the use of all this new technology e.g. unless you are a very close friend or a very close family., I do not respond to emails and texts after a certain time (unless I choose to). Unnecessary time on social media sites have also been cut off. I encourage you to also make adjustments - if you feel you need to.

Of course, I cannot finish without adding a scriptural reference. Nobody couldn’t have such a heavy demand and wok schedule like Jesus. People wanted His attention all the time. It seemed Jesus had so much to do and very little time to get it done. His work schedule was quite heavy. Yet even with the weight of so much expectation and the need to meet the constant needs of people, He recognised the importance of rest. We read in Mark 6:31that  He encouraged His disciples to get away from people and try and get some rest. A word they say is enough for the wise

Until I appear again in your inbox, stay rested

Ola

I wonder whether I could start with a quiz and ask you where the above verse is located within the scriptures. Well it’s taken  from Exodus 2:12.

The scripture states that Moses ‘looked this way and looked that way’, and assuming that nobody could see him, he killed an Israelite who was having problems with his neighbour. By looking this way and that way, one can only assume that Moses knew that what he was doing was wrong. Surely Moses must have been conscious that all was not right. He knew that he had been called to be the deliverer of the Israelites but his action was not worthy of God.  God does not do His work like this and neither does He ask His children to do anything that’s not befitting of our high and heavenly calling.

When Moses did bring the Israelites out of Egypt, it was by a stretched arm and glorious power, so that the Egyptians bowed themselves down and said, “Get thee out”.

Can you see the difference between ‘looking this way and looking that way’ and the display of God’s glorious power. I really believe that for those of us in the marketplace, there is always the temptation to compromise, even if it seems like it’s just a little bit. We rationalise that if it’s 99% right and 1% wrong, it’s okay. We should move away from a little ‘look this way and look that way’ and not get involved in things that cannot bear the weight of His scrutiny.

Like Moses, when we are not convinced that all is not right, then it is not right. Yes, things can turn out to be quite hard (a lesson I am learning from personal experience) but God cannot be mocked. Remember, whatever a man sows he will reap. If we sow dishonesty, guess what we will reap, but if we sow righteousness, then guess is what we will reap. God rewards faithfulness and truthfulness.

Let us get into line with God, so as to work with Him and not separately from Him. The bible encourages us to avoid the appearance of evil.

The story continues with Moses going out the next day only to discover that another Israelite knew about his secret. Moses thought that nobody except God knew, but he was wrong. The moral of the story: ‘Looking this way and that way’ has consequences’. For Moses, this led him to the desert where he was to spend the next 40 years.

For us, let’s pray that God gives us the grace not to compromise, even when we think we are helping God out.

So until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed

Ola

I could not take………………………………………

Communion. I believe people that in some cases, the words of the bible need to be taken literally and communion is one of those instances. I believe that when Jesus said we should take communion regularly in remembrance of him, that’s exactly what we should do. I believe that there is a lot more power in communion than a lot of us realise. Therefore, knowing the relevance of communion, it is something I do quite regularly that is, until recently. The reason is simply because of gossip.

For a few months now, I have an acquaintance (that I cannot escape from) who indulges in the habit of gossip. In fact, I had jokingly told a friend of mine how I needed to watch myself so I don’t fall into the habit. I remember my friend sharing some tactics with me at the time so I could escape this ‘sin’. Fast forward to a few months later, I was not just being the listener to gossip but also perpetrating it.

The incident: Someone had undermined me and in feeling unhappy with the person’s treatment, I started to gossip. I justified the gossip after all I was the offended party. However, I started to feel uneasy and decided to study what the bible had to say about gossip. There are a few things that I    learnt and perhaps shocked me and I hope that in sharing my story, you would be encouraged.

The most shocking thing I learnt was that whenever gossip is mentioned in the New Testament, it is mentioned alongside other ‘sins’ particularly murder and adultery. Now I don’t know whether God has various grades of sin but even from a human point of view, murder has to be one of the most hideous sins we have come across. From a scriptural point of view, gossip is as sinful as murder.

Another lesson I learnt is that gossip does not have anything to do with the factualness of the matter. The key consideration is whether it causes hurt to others and whether we are talking about people behind their backs. Gossip can injure someone’s character in the eyes of others even when what has been said is true.

So yes, this person had offended me. They had not treated me right, but as a Christian I had no right to gossip and slanderous. The scriptures state that we ‘should not let any unwholesome words come out of our mouths, only what is useful for building others up’ ( Ephesians 4:29).  We cannot use the same mouth to praise God and the same mouth to gossip. They are not compatible.

For me, I thank God for the revelation about gossip. I am reminded of one of my previous posts: Lord, keep me from sinning against you’.

Now you understand why I could not take communion for a while and I thank God for restoration. I hope that you would have learnt something from my experience. So until next time when I appear in your inbox with more insight from the scriptures, stay blessed

Ola

You would probably understand why by the time you read to the end of the article. Our revelation this week comes from the story of the Transfiguration, as described in the three synoptic gospels, and in particular, the role that Peter played in the encounter.

However, to fully understand the point that I would like to bring out, we need to go back to en event that occurred 6 days before the Transfiguration. Jesus had asked His disciples who they thought He was. Peter, by divine revelation had correctly stated that Jesus was the Son of God and in return Jesus commended him for this revelation ( Matthew 16:16).

Fast forward to the Transfiguration, the three disciples saw Jesus Transfigured (i.e. they saw Jesus in all His glory, often referred to as the Shekinah glory of God. This was not the way they knew Jesus, in human form, on a daily basis. Something supernatural was happening here and the disciples knew it. Jesus is seen here speaking to Elijah and Moses. Peter then asked Jesus if he could build three tabernacles.

By asking to build a tabernacle, Peter was speaking as a devout Jew who associated God’s glory with a temple or tabernacle. Peter was putting Jesus on equal footing with Moses and Elijah and no wonder that immediately a voice came from heaven publicly declaring that Jesus was the Son of God. The correction was immediate.

But let’s go back to Peter. How could he make such a suggestion? After all, he was the one with the revelation about Jesus being the son of God? Did Peter not fully understand the revelation?  Why was there no application of the revelation? How did he get it totally wrong?

I guess there are many principles we can derive from this story but the revelation that struck me  the most is that we must not only have a revelation of God’s word, but when the need arises, we need to be able to apply that revelation. Though Peter had received a revelation that Jesus was the Son of God, he had not received the full revelation and accurate application of that revelation.

The lesson therefore is to pray when we receive a revelation and ask for a complete understanding of that revelation. Additionally, we need to ask God to enable us to wisely apply it.

Always remember, we only know in part.

Until I hear again in your inbox, with more insight from the scriptures, stay blessed

Ola

Until I appear again in your inbox, with more insight from the scriptures, stay blessed

Ola

Ola

I trust that this week’s post has been helpful. So until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed

The past few weeks have been like living in a wilderness for me, as I have not received as many revelations as I normally do. The irony is that one of my favourite pieces of scripture is Isaiah 50:4,

One thing I enjoy doing is hearing the word of God (that divinely inspired word known as a rhema word) and sharing my revelation with you. I love the art of writing but recently I was challenged by a Godly thought that made me examine myself and re-ignite my prayer life I want to share my thoughts with you which actually came in the form of a question

The question is simply “do you experience what you read”? This might seem like a strange question but let me explain. Whether it’s through my writing, listening to your pastor preaching or in any other way that God gets His message across to you, the question is whether you actually experience what you hear or read.

As I stated earlier, I love writing, I love receiving revelations but it had never occurred to me to pray to experience the word. My focus has been more on getting the word out to you. Personally, experiencing the word was not something I was particularly concerned about until now.  I have come to realise that truth is to be experienced, otherwise it is just theory. Looking around, there is no shortage of God’s words but a large shortage of experience.

The experience of truth is what makes our Christianity both interesting and fun. Unless we experience God’s word that’s been revealed to us, then at best, we would have had our imagination ‘tickled’ and would have just acquired head knowledge. Experiencing God and not just hearing God’s word is what Jesus died on the cross for. Christianity is a relationship with the Father and the Bible is our inheritance book.

My experience has been that God sheds light on certain scriptures that then becomes revelation to me. Revelation in turn brings faith to believe that word. Many times that is the end of the matter and I had not realised that something was wrong until now. The next step, which I have not been doing, is to go further and ask God to enable me, through the power of the Holy Spirit to experience the word.

I am going to go back to our past articles and ask God to enable me to experience some of the truths revealed. All of our past articles are available at www.christianbusinessmagazine.com. 

I would like to end with a timely quote I read from a book from Bill Johnson entitled Secrets to Imitating God. This quote reflects accurately what I have attempted to convey in this article.

“His focus in revelation is our personal transformation. Revelation leads to a God encounter and that encounter forever changes us. Revelation gives us access to the realms of greater anointing available to us to make that truth a personal experience and lifestyle”.

Why not visit our site today and look for those posts, particularly the ones that have ‘leapt out of the page at you’ when you initially read them and were a revelation to you at the time.

Perhaps, it might not even be my articles but other words you have heard but which you are not currently experiencing. Why not ask God to give you the experience to accompany any revelation you receive.

My prayer for all of you my readers is that from this point forward, you will experience the truth of the word of God as I continue to share it with you. So until I appear again in your inbox with more insights from the scriptures, stay blessed

Ola

I am a great believer in hard work. Over the years, I have written on how I believe that God wants to bless the works of our hands and that His grace is available to us as we go about our daily business. I believe in biblical abundance, prosperity and riches.

I still hold on to these thoughts but a scripture ‘jumped’ out of the page at me recently and I realise that there is more to hard work.

The scripture that caught my attention is Deuteronomy 6:10-11

10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied.

Just to re-iterate, God was going to give the Israelites

• Beautiful cities which they did not build

• Houses full of good things which they did not fill

• Wells which they did not dig

• Vineyards and olive trees which they did not plant

God was in effect promising to prosper them without them doing anything. All He asked was that once they possessed these things, they were to remain obedient to Him and His commandments.

The question then arises: does this mean that we are to sit back and do nothing, just waiting for the blessing of God?

Well not exactly, for God did still expect them to work once they entered the land ( Deuteronomy 8:12).

Let’s go back to Genesis for a similar example.  God provided the Garden of Eden to man and then commanded Adam to work and till the land.

God was essentially saying that He will provide the basic raw materials and as long as they obeyed Him and worked hard, He will continue to bless them. God wants us to be blessed from an initial base of sufficiency. We continue to be blessed or maintain and increase the blessing through obedience and hard work.

The question is do you believe that God can give you what you have not worked for or like me, believe that it’s through hard work. I believe that God is still in the business of giving us things we have not worked for. This is what it means to experience God’s favour and I pray that we will all experience His favour in our lives. Remember God’s ways indeed are not our ways.

So until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed

Ola Aroyehun

www.christianbusinessmagazine.com

www.purposeforchrist.com

The penny dropped

The words had come out of my mouth before I had the chance to think about what I had just said. I was at a Christian meeting and had been asked to open in prayer. As I prayed, I found myself saying ‘Father I thank you because I have access to the mind of Christ and so we will be able to make the right decisions today’.

Did this come out of my mouth (of course it did) but more importantly did I believe it and if so, do I actually behave as if I did.

For days afterwards, the thought baffled me. The thought produced more questions than answers. The scriptures state clearly that we have access to the mind of Christ, but I had a myriad of questions:

-          What are the implications of having the mind of Christ?

-          Is it possible to know what to do in all situations?

-          What should my ‘conscious thought process be like?

-          How can I develop this type of mind?

-          Can I have God’s thoughts all the time?

As usual, the word of God is not silent on this issue and I would like to share with you some of the things I discovered.

I am being challenged by these words and therefore would like your assistance. I would like you to share your insights with me or recommend a good book you have read on this subject. It’s an area that I would like to study more about.

So until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed and hope to hear from you soon

Ola

www.christianbusinessmagazine.com

www.purposeforchrist.com

A couple of weeks ago, the kids had just gone to bed and my husband had gone out. I was thinking of tidying the house for the night when I started to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. The next thing I knew I went to each of the kids room and though they were asleep, I started to prophesy over them. When the presence of the Lord lifted, I knew that I had encountered a special moment with the Lord. Like Mary, the mother of Jesus, I knew that this was a moment I would always cherish in my heart.