Some months ago, a colleague mentioned that she was going on her annual leave. I enquired and she told me her intended location was London. I asked if she had ever taken a “vacation” to visit some missionaries working in remote areas, to encourage and work with them. “No!” She replied. “That has never occurred to me.” I told her how I had done that once and it had marked a turning point in my life, and given me a new perspective about life and Christianity. I recommended that she do the same, probably during her next vacation. Her response (really indicative of the attitude of most believers today) was “Tope, You know it’s not easy to do such a thing, one has to be led by God.” Then I responded with a ‘check question’ – Were you led by God to spend your vacation in London? To which she responded “Hmm, you’ve got a point there”.
It is a point – a scriptural one and that is what I’d like to stress today. There is no leading from God that can be more powerful than what He has written in the scriptures. God always honours His Word. The Word of God says to us – “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all.” Mark 16:15 (MSG). We don’t need another leading from God before we make this move. The message is crystal clear – Go everywhere! But what do we do today? We merely sing that we are “standing on the promises of God” while in reality we sit on the premises of procrastination and gold. We claim to be waiting on God’s leading to do His work, but we obey our own ‘leading’ to do other things. There is nothing wrong with going to London; I have been there and I know that like many locations in the world, there are many ‘unreached’ people there. I am particularly interested in what we do when we go there? Do we obey God’s command found in the scriptures? Well, it is not difficult to tell. I’ve got an indication from Facebook.
Let’s use Facebook to illustrate. We share pictures from our trips abroad, our weddings, and different views of our faces, cars and houses. But do you wonder why we rarely share pictures of our exploits for God’s kingdom? Why are believers swift to “like” it when people share gossip, jokes, football gist, or other things that would interest mere men who have not met Jesus, but display nonchalance when people share the message of Jesus Christ or evidence of impact of God’s Word? If Paul, Peter and Luke had Facebook in their time, would they have handled it the way we do today? Has this generation of believers lost its real focus? Has God saved a soul through you this year?
The purpose of God for every believer is that we stay wholeheartedly committed to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to every creature. Everything a believer does must be directly or indirectly traceable to his/her purpose on earth. You eat good food so your body will have nourishment for the work. You go to church to get encouragement/ edification for the sake of the work. You work in that blue chip Company because it gives you access to some unbelievers that God wants to use for His work. You administer the public address system in your church so that every attendee can hear the Message and be fired up for His work. Every asset and access you have is for the work God has committed to your hands. Don’t be distracted. Don’t claim to wait for God’s leading. Go! Go everywhere you can! Announce the Message of God’s good news with your words and lifestyle and in every place you find yourself.
– Tope Aladenusi
The desire to speedily surmount a mountainous problem sometimes drives us to pray. As much as one would expect to see a miraculous breakthrough, we would also not mind to spend so long a time praying. When we feel satisfied within us that we have sought it out with God, we immediately stop the prayers and watch to see changes. Interestingly, we most times feel disappointed when days, weeks, and months rolls by without any significant change.
In Acts 27, Paul experienced the same thing, but his story seems to be a little different and I feel it is worthy of emulation. In verses 1-18, the first two days of their voyage, was a challenging one with serious sea turbulence and a tempestuous wind called Euroclydon. Following this, precisely on the third (3rd) day, all hope that they should be saved was dashed (Acts 27: 19-20). I have no doubt in my mind that both the soldiers and prisoners in the sea would have prayed earnestly for their safety because it was evident that death was knocking at the door. Paul who also must have being in the Spirit praying, spoke of the revelation the Lord showed him; “For an angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood by me this night, Saying: Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar; and behold, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall so be, as it hath been told me”. (Acts 27: 23-25)
Despite this heart consoling revelati0n, there was no evident ray of hope for surviving since everywhere was still dark and the storm was still strong. Again, this brings to mind one of the many numerous ways of man, which is preparing for an alternative when it seems as though the Lord is slow concerning His promise. The owners of the ship treacherously planned to run away and leave the soldiers and prisoners to die in the troubled ship and sea (Acts 27: 30-31). You may say one can’t really blame them because it was over ten days they were promised hope of surviving and nothing to show for it yet. Likewise, Paul himself should have been discouraged because his integrity and trust in God was at stake, but he refused to be. He did not waver in faith towards God (“…For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, which is moved and carried about by the wind. Therefore let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord”; James 1: 6-7); so he confidently told them that we are still on course, I know the God I serve, He is never late, I am used to Him (Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you; Acts 27: 34). I strongly desire that we all be like Paul in trusting God each time we wait on Him for a miracle; for with God nothing shall be impossible (Luke 1: 37).
– adeyiga awomuti