THINKING ABOUT PRAYERLESSNESS…

Prayerlessness is the worst sin.
Prayerlessness will lead to godlessness.
Prayerlessness will result in lost vision.
Prayerless men will replace praying with playing.
Prayerlessness is a disaster. It results in selfishness.

“Men ought always to pray and not to faint,” Jesus said. (See Luke 18:1)

“Pray without ceasing,” Paul admonished. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Pray when you feel like it.

Pray also, when you don’t feel like praying, for that is even when you need it the most.

Pray even if it’s only a shout for “help!” from God. Prayer is your breath. It is the believer’s staff enabling him to walk with God in the world.

Dear friend, PRAY, PRAY, and PRAY! I think it would be okay if I wish you this: “Have a prayerful weekend.” You will succeed!

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PERFECTION IS ATTAINABLE!

Perfection is attainable! To assert its impossibility is to deny the validity of the claims of Christ’s work on the cross.

When He hung on the cross, my old self was crucified and the body of sin done away with. I can now live without sin. Perfection is attainable!

When Christ hung upon the cross, He took all my sicknesses. He carried my sorrows and by His stripes I have been healed. I will no longer be sick. Perfection is attainable!

At the cross, Jesus being rich became poor that I through His poverty might become rich. I am no longer poor! I am rich! Perfection is attainable!

Perfection is attainable. It is not open to debate. To even doubt the possibility is to assert yet its impossibility! I am on my way to perfection. Sin shall no more have dominion over me. Sickness shall not exert over me any longer. I have riches, all through the One who loved me enough to die for me. PERFECTION IS ATTAINABLE!

I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!

Blessed is the man who having nothing to say abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

This thought came to my mind earlier this afternoon while on the way to picking my son from school. If you’ve been following my blog here you’ll notice I haven’t made any post in about a week now. It’s not for want of something to say but of saying something that will be a blessing to my readers. I’ve always believed that you should talk only when you have something to say, not just because you have to say something!

I think in these days and with various social media platforms – facebook, twitter, myspace etc – we have to re-learn how not to talk unless there is something important or beneficial to say. We have to learn afresh to resist the urge to talk for talking sake. We should speak to bless lives. The Scriptures put it this way: “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt…. (something) good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” [Colossians 4:6a; Ephesians 4:29b]

If you’re feeling me on this, you might also enjoy this post I wrote earlier in the year, TURN OFF THE TAP! YOU WILL SUCCEED!

CHANGE DOES NOT TAKE TIME!

Have you always wondered why it is that you want to do something and it does not happen right away? How is it that we wish or pray for something and it just does not manifest right away? If you do, you are not alone, we all do. I think I have an answer, follow me:

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. AND YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.” (John 8:31-32, emphasis mine)

This often quoted statement of Jesus led me to conclude that CHANGE DOES NOT TAKE TIME, IT TAKES THE TRUTH. That is, the change from poor to rich, from sick to healthy, from mediocre to excellent is not really a function of time but of truth. When you know the truth; (that is, once truth is sown into your mind in seed form – as a thought) your change has begun.

Nobody really changes with time (except for physical growth), we change only when we change the information streaming into our lives! This submission places the responsibility on you for regulating, qualifying and controlling the information that comes into your mind.

For this people’s HEART is waxed gross, and their EARS are dull of HEARING, and their EYES they have closed; lest at any time they should SEE with their eyes, and HEAR with their EARS, and should UNDERSTAND with their HEART and should be CONVERTED, and I should HEAL them. (Matthew 13:15, emphasis mine)

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:9; “But as it is written, EYE hath not SEEN, nor EAR HEARD, neither have ENTERED INTO THE HEART of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

The conclusion from these two scriptures is this:

1. Whatever you hear or see consistently over a long period of time will enter your heart. You’ll start to BELIEVE it and then begin to BEHAVE it until you BECOME it!

2. Whatever has entered your heart has entered your life. Conversely too, whatever has not entered your heart cannot enter your life.

3. What you cannot see happen, what you do not believe can happen to you will never become a reality in your life. But if you can dream it, you can do it. If it happens in your mind, it will happen in time, in your life! Whatever the mind of man can believe and conceive, his hands can achieve!

You shall know the truth and the truth, not time shall CHANGE your life! You will succeed!

I WAS WRONG!

The family is on my mind again. Since I read Jim Bakker’s book by the title above several years back, my priorities took shape. I don’t know about you but I do not want to do ministry at the expense of my family. My goal is still to be the best husband my wife could have ever had and to be the world’s best dad to my kids. I want to represent God well to my children. I don’t want them turning their backs on God and ministry because their dad committed adultery – loving God’s wife (the church) at the expense of loving his own wife and family!

Let’s prioritize family. Do not neglect your relationship with God and with your family. Love your spouse and children if you have them. Spend quality time with them. It pays you both in the short and long run.

Read here the submission of Jim Bakker. It’s been said that to know the road, you should ask someone coming back. Selah!

“In the midst of the swirl of activity, I lost touch with my family, and especially with Jamie. I was not there when he needed me. I confused the work of God for God Himself.

I was wrong.

I am now convinced that God must come first in our lives, then our family, and then the work that we are doing for God. If our family crumbles while we are trying to serve God, we have missed our primary ministry.” (Jim Bakker, I Was Wrong)

Think about this and make amends where you need to. I pray you will not make the same mistake. YOU WILL SUCCEED!

WORDS TO LIVE BY

Philippians 3:8, 10 (Amplified Bible)
Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege – the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with him, of perceiving and recognizing and understanding him more fully and clearly. For his sake I lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ, the Anointed One.

(For my determined purpose is) that I may know Him – that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding (the wonders of His person) more strongly and more clearly. And that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection (which it exerts over believers); and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed (in spirit into his likeness even) to his death…”

Picture Speak!

What better way is there to say it? You were blessed to be a blessing (Genesis 12:2)

THOUGHTS TO CHEW ON

Faith is holding as true, the reality of what I believe God for (knowing that He has done it for me); and holding in an atmosphere of expectancy the evidence that it is done even though I as yet cannot see it. – A personal paraphrase of Hebrews 11:1

LET GO OF WHATEVER MAKES YOU STOP!

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” (Hebrews 12:1 NKJV)

In life, it’s inevitable that you meet with hindrances, cogs in the wheels of your progress – inhibitions that makes you stop! And I am saying today: LET GO OF WHATEVER MAKES YOU STOP!

The J. B. Phillips translation of the New Testament puts the above scripture this way: “Surrounded then as we are by these serried ranks of witnesses, let us strip off everything that hinders us, as well as the sin which dogs our feet…”

Let go of whatever makes you stop! Strip it off. Now!

Inhibitions are weights, snares, hindrances to fulfilling our divine destiny, don’t give it room! Destroy your inhibitions!

Some relationships will ground you, get out of it!

Some habit(s) will frustrate your purpose, let go of it (them)!

Hatred, resentment, unforgiveness (call it by whatever name), is a sinker. Don’t let it sink you!

Sin sinks! I repeat: Sin is a sinker! Don’t allow it. Only fools make a mockery of sin! (Proverbs 14:9) Sin sunk Samson! It sunk Gehazi. It killed Achan. Run for your life!

Procrastination is a habit which easily besets us all. You please yourself temporarily at the expense of achieving your goals. The truth is, as Christopher Parker said, “Procrastination is like a credit card, it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.” Let go of it!

Attempting to do more all in a bid to please some other people at the expense of your core purpose in life will not get you far. Stop it! I may not know the formula for success but the simplest way to be a failure is to try to please everybody!

Or you try to please people at the expense of God? Trying to fulfill the expectations of men without recourse to God’s demands over your life? Let go of that too, now! I may not know the secret of failure but one sure way is to try not to offend anybody!

Let go of whatever makes you stop!

So, what other things do you know that can hinder us that we need to let go of? Please share. YOU WILL SUCCEED!

Pictures from our Purpose ‘n’ Life Seminars

pictures from our Purpose ‘n’ Life Seminars, a set on Flickr.

Recent addition to this album. Pictures from our flagship meeting, the Purpose ‘n’ Life Seminars. Thank you, friends and partners for your continued support. You will not miss your reward!