A successful person is one who takes the cold water dumped on his or her plans, heats it up with enthusiasm, and manufactures the steam that helps him/her push ahead.
– John C. Maxwell
Category Archives: Prayer
OF MEN OF GOD AND GODS OF MEN!
When men of God turn themselves into gods of men, then it’s time the sons of men realize that they too are sons of God. In essence, that no one has a monopoly on revelation. Jesus has made a way for us by his death to enter the Holy of Holies and approach God by and for ourselves (see Hebrews 10: 16 – 20). We are in the New Testament dispensation of the priesthood of all believers; if you allow anyone hoodwink you or pull the wool over your face; it won’t be God’s fault but yours. You can know God for yourself. And you should!
The challenge with the church has been that the people in the pews had for long lost the culture of the Berean Christians who double-checked and cross-checked the things they were taught in church (Acts 17:11). When you don’t know God’s word for yourself, anyone can spew baloney into your mind and you believe it hook, line and sinker; and still be thanking and celebrating him/her for it! It’s funny that when Muslims enter a mosque to worship, they leave their footwear by the door. Sad to say, methinks the average Nigerian churchgoer (born-again or not, Pentecostal, charismatic orthodox or by whatever label you choose to give them) unlike his Muslim counterpart leaves his brain by the door of the church! Else how do you explain the credulity with which we believe some stuffs spewed forth in the guise of the gospel by some men of the cloth from our numerous pulpits.
I know you will argue, faith does not agree with reasoning. Yes, and no! Faith agrees with reasoning; reasoning of a different kind – the Bible kind. Paul said; if anyone preaches a gospel different from the one we have preached to you, let him be accursed! I mean, that scripture makes me cringe with holy awe as a preacher and teacher of God’s word. Whatever anyone – and I mean whoever, by whatever name or title the person goes – says that does not agree with the whole counsel of God as set forth in the Bible, vomit it! Before anyone teach you and fill your mind and heart with anything short of the full orbed truth of God’s word, tell him or her, “Teacher, don’t teach me nonsense!” Read the Bible for yourself. Think. Meditate. Compare and research scriptures. Double-check and re-check what you heard in church or by a TV preacher. Refuse to be a twenty-first century slave. Use your spirit, and use your mind! If you refuse to think or you cannot think, you are a slave all the same. And I’m sorry to say, I see a new generation of slaves in the Nigerian church; enslaved by their wrong beliefs and to their overlords (pastors, prophets, teachers etc.) who taught them wrongly. You’re responsible for what and who you choose to believe.
“IMPOSSIBLE” IS JUST AN EXCUSE!
I welcome you dear friends to the second half of 2014. My prayer is that it would be for you a better and more fulfilling half. You will end the year 2014 well! You will finish strong, in Jesus name!
My encouragement to you today comes from a book I’ve been reading the past few days. It is written by a very good friend of mine, Gbenga Sesan and it is titled In My Own Words.
“1 minus 2 is impossible until you know the answer. In my elementary school, we were told that it was impossible to subtract a higher number from a lower one. The unanimous answer, in the rare moments the questions was asked, was a loud “impossible!” But a few years later, in secondary school, I was taught that if a higher number is subtracted from a lower number, I will have a negative number. It was no longer deemed impossible simply because we knew better than when we were in primary school. How many times in life are we almost tempted to call certain things impossible? If you could just learn more about the problem, you will soon come to terms with the fact that “impossible” is just an excuse we give when we do not have enough knowledge to tackle a problem. The answer may be strange, but every problem has a solution…. 1 minus 2 is not “impossible”; you only need to gain enough knowledge to know the answer.”
What do you call “impossible”? Go ahead, acquire enough knowledge and tackle the problem. Impossible is nothing! And with God on your side, nothing shall be impossible unto you! I do hope you find this encouraging and motivating as I have, as we enter the final half of the year. You will succeed!
From My Devotional Archives – 1
My next few posts here will be from my archives. Over the years I have been privileged to learn a lot of things, of which I have been able to document quite a few. It is impressed on my spirit to share a little from some of those writings. Be blessed, dear friends.
On Tuesday, April 14, 1998 I wrote:
God needs manpower
And man needs God’s power
But God works only when man works
The work of praying
For, when man works, man works
But when man prays, God works.
God is sovereign, but He needs our cooperation in the place of faith and prayer to work in our lives and in the world.
WHATEVER GOD HAS SAID ABOUT YOUR LIFE IS COMING TO PASS!
Permit me to step aside and let this piece speak to you. Be blessed!
“When God has spoken and what He has promised has not come to pass, that is the guarantee that you are not dying yet. A promise from God will keep you alive until it is fulfilled. Do not worry that it is taking time; He is giving you a longer time to be around. Do not allow what is going on in the environment to run the Word of God out of your heart. Deprivation is making some of us desperate. We think that if it does not happen now, it is not God.
God does not measure time the way we measure it. A wise one said several years ago; “God created man, man created the clock. Man is now using the clock to time God.” Can you hold on to a promise from God for forty-five straight years like Joshua and Caleb did? If Jesus tarries, forty-five years from now, some of us will still be around and the circumstances of our lives will be proof of the fulfillment of God’s Word….Everything that God has said about your life is coming to pass.”
This is from one of the books I read lately, Success Guaranteed by the Blood Covenant by Sam Adeyemi.
Hold on to your promise, dear friend. I believe in your destiny. Whatever God has said about your life is coming to pass!
Yomi Olufiade 