It is a wise decision to want to know where you stand, whether you are on the path of success or not, but it is possible to do this in an unwise way. There are two common ways believers score themselves that always results to detrimental consequences.
Some believers feel they are experiencing success in life when they compare themselves with others they believe are in the same social stratification, age group or work class with them and it is as though they have an upper hand. That is why some pastors feel rosy when their church congregation is more than the one close to them and some men feel groovy when they buy luxuries their friends can’t afford.
Some other times, when believers realize that others they classify as their mate are getting results they are yet to get, they start feeling envious. That is why some ladies change the tone of their prayers when most of their friends are getting married and some men start having sleepless nights when their friends got a higher paying job, built a magnificent edifice or bought a new car.
Perhaps right now you have a keyboard and a mouse in front of you. Can you try to use the mouse to type the word “SUCCESS”? If you succeed in doing that, try using the keyboard to click on the word you typed. Yeah! Such things don’t make sense when we are dealing with objects, but don’t you wonder why they make a lot of sense with believers? How will it sound if the mouse suddenly begins to lament that ‘I cannot type’. No wonder II Corinthians 10:12 says “…When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise”.
In the story of the prodigal son, the Bible says in Luke 15:17 (NIV) that “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘how many of my father’s hired men have food to spare’. The prodigal son scored himself not with his fathers hired men but with the standard in his father’s house. The right way to know whether you are still on the path of success is to score yourself with the standard in God’s word and in view of His plan for your life, which is unique to you alone.
– tope aladenusi
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. (Luke 15:7, 10)
Come along with me today and let us rejoice with those that rejoice… Let us pay a visit to the home of my very good friends who just had a baby boy…
The proud father is busy making all the telephone companies richer… he’s calling all the numbers in his phone book, and many others that are not there. The happy mother is getting used to the novelty of nursing her son… now what more can her difficult-to-please mother-in-law ask for? The two grandfathers are deciding whose eyes, whose ears, whose nose and whose mouth the baby has, and are finding it difficult to agree on any points of the infant’s anatomy. Each grandmother is trying very hard not to rub the fact that she knows best about taking care of babies in the other’s face. Everybody is happy…
Everybody, that is, except for the boy in question. He is very ignorant of the joy he has just brought to that home. He does not know, nor care to know what all the fuss is about. He absolutely refuses to participate in any of the activities going on, and is content to spend his time alternatively between eating and sleeping…
Many times, spiritual birth occurs like this too. There is a new member in God’s family, but he does not appreciate the import of the step he has just taken. He does not understand that there is rejoicing in heaven over him. He does not understand that he is now the heir to the greatest and the richest blessings of God. He looks down on himself and underrates the ability of God within him…
Wise up, baby… wise up.
– jide lawal
“For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, EVEN AS THE LORD THE CHURCH”. Ephesians 5:29 (KJV)
I am the flesh of Jesus’ flesh and bone of his bones. When God created man in the garden, he made him alone. Then, we are told that God caused him to fall into a deep sleep, took a rib out and formed a woman out of it. He brought the woman to the man and the man said: ‘This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh’. When he said that, he meant that the bones and flesh of the woman came out of his own bones and flesh. But more than that, he also meant that he was obligated to nourish and cherish the bones and flesh of the woman as he would his own bones and flesh.
Now, Ephesians 5:30 tells us that just as through the deep sleep and awakening of Adam, Eve was made flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones, so also, through the death and resurrection of Christ, we have been made flesh of his flesh and bones of his bones.
Therefore, in the same way in which Adam was committed to nourish the flesh of Eve as his own flesh, Christ also is committed to nourish and cherish this mortal body of ours as his own glorified body.
Do you now see why sickness and disease can’t just come and drop it’s baggage on you? Your body is hooked up to the body of Christ. He is committed to nourish and cherish your body as his own.
A body nourished and cherished by Christ should not have cancer, skin disease, HIV or any such thing. Why? Because Jesus’ body simply doesn’t have any of these. Heed the call of victory today and walk into your dominion. You are bone of Jesus’ bones and flesh of his flesh!
– Dr. deji Oyebamiji
Jesus Christ lived a successful life on earth. One of the reasons for this is because he is a person of consistency. Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever”. At every opportunity he had, he introduced his disciples into some of the secrets that guarantee success. He told them in Mark 14: 38 (NLT) to “Keep alert and pray”. To keep alert means ‘always watching and ready to notice anything strange or unusual’.
Imagine you have a very tiny pin together with other objects in your left palm and you are to take them from one end of a 20km street to the other. There is a great tendency for you to misplace the pin. Assume you check your palm every 30 seconds to see if the pin is still there, you are assured you could still locate it if peradventure it gets missing, though it is very tiny. This is because you would easily be able to decipher the point it fell, because you must have covered a very short distance in 30 seconds.
II Cor. 13:5 reads “examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith”. Due to lack of regular examination, we discover areas that need adjustments in our lives when they are already strongholds. This is because a week old habit is like cobwebs while that of a year is like a cage. It is very easy to tear down cobwebs, unlike cages. A basketball coach will always look at three objects; his players, his game plan and the scoreboard. The scoreboard will always give him a hint on how to make changes in the team and also adjust his game plan. For us to experience success habitually, we have to regularly score ourselves with respect to God’s plan revealed specifically to us and his standard revealed in his word.
How should you do this? Ask questions and provide sincere answers. The prodigal son made a U-turn in his life when he asked himself the question “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!” (Luke 15:17). When you ask yourself questions that begin with what, when, where, who & how, the realities of your life will begin to unfold. For example: What am I living for? How have I added value to people in the last one month? Why did I experience a decline in profit margin this year? What percentage of my time do I spend with my family?’ By the time you do something similar, you may be amazed of how many good things you have allowed to slip away. But if you are consistent with it, you will be amused of how wonderful your life is becoming. Remember, you can easily locate every pin if you have just a short distance to search. You can effortlessly destroy any habit in the similitude of a cobweb. In the journey of success, regular evaluation of our ways is necessary.
– tope_aladenusi
Have you ever pondered on what your feelings may be like, if you stay hours, days, weeks and months at home without communicating with anybody? Most likely either the Parents or child will be perturbed.
I’m sure the father would be greatly concerned; likewise the child would be found in uneasiness. The Fatherly role of God to us cannot be overemphasized.
Communication is a vital tool in any family relationship. I mean the child bears his or her mind, while the father replies by responding through action or words.
This is exactly what prayer is expected to achieve in our relationship with God. Have you felt bad lately? Have you been feeling lonely, or helpless of recent?
Why not commune and relate with God in prayers. Pray some.
Did you just mutter in your heart that you’ve prayed? Maybe it was done hurriedly, hastily, briefly, brashly and rashly.
Remember that most of your heart rubbings with your Father had tremendous impact after you’ve spent quality time expressing and understanding one another’s opinion, interest, etc.
– adeyiga_awomuti
Gen 2:2, “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made”.
An automatic electric kettle is a simple gadget with an interesting functionality. When the water or the liquid being heated boils, the heater automatically goes off. That is what human bodies are like. After a day, week, month and year of work, the body needs a rest. We may ignore the calls of the body and go on working industriously without heeding. Some people are motivated by overtime payments; others are workaholics while others still, chase after promotions to bigger titles. None of these is sin. However turning on the knob after it has automatically gone off could be disastrous. It’s like putting the power on when it automatically goes off due to low voltage. This could result in high resistance in the circuit and hence a burst up. Daily working hours, weekends, off-days, leave days, sabbatical leave, school holidays and vacations were all set to help give fatigued bodies ample rest. These are human guidelines on periodic respite. But God rested after a week of saying ‘let there be’ and ‘soiling his hands’ with mud to bring forth creation. His rest was symbolic. Since we are created in his image, we need to rest as He did.
This said, there is much more to life than working. Besides, work is only a subset or a segment of life. The other side of the coin is rest, retreat, devotional bible study, prayer and many others. Balancing these requires a little bit of wisdom which will come when we have allowed God’s will in our lives. When we ignore the will of God, our life may be haphazard. Psalms 37:23 says ‘the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the LORD…’ Life is about steps. If these are not ordered of God, we will work more and relax less, pray more and work less, relax and work not, do devotional study and relax not and many more imbalanced matrices. Extremes of either side will affect our mechanical, spiritual, and mental output. So what do we conclude? If we work smarter we will have daily rest and weekend outs. If we have leave or off-days let the money not deceive us to rove on. If our young kids, brothers and sisters in schools have vacations, taking them for vacation tutoring may achieve little, if anything.
-johnstone katuku.
“For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” Ephesians 5:30 (KJV)
Who are we? What advantage do we have for being Christians? Where do we stand in life? Christianity is a life of all round victory – victory for the spirit, victory for the mind and victory for the body.
For the spirit, Christianity is ‘being one spirit with God’ (I Cor. 6:17). For the mind, Christianity is ‘having the mind of Christ’ (I Cor. 2:16). For the body, Christianity is “being flesh of Jesus’ flesh and bone of his bones”.
Don’t embrace a partial Christianity. Embrace a total Christianity – a Christianity that presents salvation for the spirit, for the soul and for the body.
What does it mean to be flesh of Jesus’ flesh and bone of his bones? It means whatever cannot affect his flesh and his bones should not affect yours. It means that you share in his divine immunity to sickness and disease. It means the life that flows in the flesh and bones of Jesus now flows in you. It means the health of Christ is in you.
Can you see it? Can you believe it? Walking in the divine health that God has given to us is not a matter of prayer and fasting. It is a matter of spiritual discovery. Discover today who you are. Embrace your new identity and enter into a whole new life of victory over sickness and disease.
To be continued …
Dr. deji_oyebamiji
An arm’s length transaction is a transaction which takes place between a willing buyer and a willing seller where no relationship exists between both parties prior to the transaction. The opposite of this, however, is a related party transaction and this exists where there is a form of relationship between both parties prior to the transaction. For example, a transaction involving members of the family, shareholders of the company etc. The existence of such relationships is expected to be ascertained, identified by the auditor of the company and reported according to IAS 24. What is IAS? What is this accounting jargon doing here you might ask?
Well, it brings to mind an important fact that at a time we had no relationship whatsoever with God, we were strangers from the covenants of promise (Eph 2:12). At the best, one could say God dealt with us at arm’s length [but even that will not be entirely accurate because what we see from scriptures is the fact that the Jews (Israelites) were the only tribe or country that had a relationship with God (Eph 2:11 -12, Rom 9:4-5, 11:1). Every other Nation or tribes were considered foreigners to God]. However, this was not the father’s desire.
He wanted everybody to be a part of His plan. He wanted men of all tribes, background, economic and political strata to be able to come before Him (Eph 1:4-5,9-10) and thanks be to God, this He accomplished by Christ dying on the cross for us and shedding His blood which has now brought us as close to God as we can ever be. We are no longer strangers to God, we are now sons adopted into the family of God by Christ Jesus (Gal 4:5-6, Eph 1:5) What we now have is even better than what the Israelites had with God. What they had was considered as a shadow of what God desired? (Heb 10:1) God wanted everybody to come to Him on the basis of the blood of His son that was shed thereby, breaking down the wall of separation and bringing us together under one umbrella, the blood (Gal 3:28, I Cor 12:13). Thanks be to God, He no longer deals with us at “arms length” but as “related parties”, as sons.
“Now because of Christ-dying that death, shedding that blood, you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.” (Eph 2:13 – MSG).
– seni_adewoye
Bible Reading: Ephesians 5: 11-17
Growing up as a Christian, I heard many believers say “God told me to do it” or “God said so and so thing would happen”. Most times, these all turned out to be lies because the events they prophesied never occurred. Can you imagine a Pastor once said “God instructed me to take a third wife”? I was almost discouraged to doubt the truth that God leads us. Perhaps you’ve had such experiences or right now you hate to hear the phrase “God told me”. Well, just before you give up on the authenticity of the truth that God leads us, I want you to consider a few things.
There are some fake currencies in circulation, but it never discouraged you from spending. Maybe you feel you will be able to know the genuine ones. Also, you know the importance of having some money in your pocket, so no matter the number of fakes in circulation, you are not discouraged from spending. Do you know that the reason why the ‘fake’ exists is because the ‘Real’ had been in existence? So the abuse of the “leading of God” does not erase its reality.
Do you know the importance of knowing God’s will with respect to every area of your life? The Bible explained one of them in Ephesians 5: 17 –
“Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants”(MSG)
“Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (ASV)
You may agree with me that if we are to read this verse another way, it could read “If we do not understand the will of God, we are foolish/careless”. Can you stand this?
Can you imagine if Jesus did not understand God’s will? Then he would have been made a king in his time and die like an average man. Maybe you won’t be saved today. That would have been ‘carelessness’ on Jesus’ part, right? The world system has been designed in such a way that so many things are clamoring for your attention. As a result, if you are nonchalant about knowing God’s will, you may join many Christians who are in a wrong location, growing in a wrong profession and settling for a wrong emotional association. This is just to mention a few examples.
Dearly beloved, I desire that you start craving to know the will of God for yourself and your loved ones. This desire will help you easily digest the steps to recognizing God’s will that we will pass across in our subsequent posts.
– tope_aladenusi
Once upon a time,
There was me in them; the first of my type
Placed by God Himself to have dominion over all things
I knew it was peaceful, my senses agreed it was wonderful out there. But then I just wasn’t a part of it. I wished I was there, I wished I could give names too but…
Suddenly I heard voices
At first they were angels, then arguments and finally …
I heard OK! Oh no She had yielded then He yielded too
And I saw particles of the sacred fruits drop on me; they were defiled and so was I. Things now look changed, God was angry, or wasn’t He?
I thought He would wipe him out of existence definitely,
I would be wiped out too but no … He just left them with the consequences.
HE CONDEMNED US; the He, the She & the Me in them.
Then I was born in what a time like this, if I was born earlier I would have had a say. I would have had my boast But alas…
Things went on, and on, and on and on…
And suddenly, something happened; someone was born, someone different from me, the exact opposite but in the same vessel of clay.
Who was he?
Three decades three years He walked on the same filthy land but did not do the things I do as a result of the action of the first of my kind
He was the first of His kind
They called Him JESUS CHRIST, the Messiah.
He performed miracles, did wonders but really He came for a purpose
To Die, To Save Me, To REDEEM ME INTO something better than what I once imagined and once admired
I was cleansed no longer was I defiled
I had become one of His Type
CONDEMNATIION WAS ERASED AND JUSTIFICATION CAME.
No wonder He didn’t wipe us out in the first instance
It was all part of a master plan
I thank God I wasn’t allowed to have a say because I know this is better
This is my story and I will praise Jesus Christ all the day long.
– funmi_aina