UNFORGIVENESS- DON'T STANCH THE SPIRIT OF GOD

Before I go on to studies on Rebellion, Virtue, Temperance and the Proverbs 31 Woman, I really have to get something out of the way. I received this as to be shared and so here I am.

Sometime last week, I had gone for a prayer meeting and the word had come on changing my mindset. The preacher had gone on and on and I had been pretty uncomfortable. The Spirit of God was speaking to my heart and it was not one of those nice, fluffy conversations. I was getting a rebuke. I got home and I got a confirmation. Still it was a hard one to swallow. I was straining at it. I didn't realize how much until Koinonia time.

The Spirit of God expressly spoke through me and said Forgiveness was non-negotiable. Apparently, I thought I had forgiven but He was laying it bare- I couldn't move far without forgiving.

The picture I saw was of a pipe being stuffed with clothe and water could not pass through as intended.

You were getting trickles and thinking that was about it but God wanted to show up in a BIG WAY and you were stifling Him- unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, malice, strife, these were all stanching the move of the Holy Spirit. The Word I got was STANCH!

So here I was thinking the Word was for only me -I knew exactly where He was talking about and who folks and then He said to release the Word. I did and praise God for Momc and myself. We both have been testifying for how long now. Writing it is also a reminder we are not supposed to forget but He also said to release the word further and since this has been coming to my mind, I am.

Who have you been begrudging, who are you holding in unforgiveness? Let them go! God is set to do so much more in your life than you could ever imagine. Let them go! Let them go NOW and let them go QUICK! Release them and let God.

He is so Mighty, so Infinite, His Ways are past finding out and if we say we know Him we need to let Him Reign.

Know this, He told me this much- many people would do things until they know to do it better. Many don't know what they are doing. Blood bought, Spirit filled Christians disobey sometimes but if they knew better, had more of God on the inside of them, more Word, more understanding, they would do better. 

I remember a brief friend of mine who said then- 'If you know better, you would do better'. I wondered what that meant. I got an understanding of it that night.

Get this, if a prostitute makes excuses for herself about how she has no choice and all, she's really walking in the light of the knowledge that she has.

Now supposing, she realizes she is better in Christ, deserves better and rues the days she allowed less, don't you think she would feel terrible? The same goes for many people who hurt us. Many would come to a realization much later and be so sorry! You on the other hand would have spent time stewing! God forbid! 

If they never came to the realization of their wrongs we really should feel sorry for them - it means they have never gotten to the point where they allowed the Spirit of God to lead them to health and wisdom in that area. What a waste!

On the other hand, in the mean time what would you be doing? Singing hallelujahs, praising God, thanking God you are free because you understand what grasp these people are under and you will be praying the devil does not win a victory in you by you wishing them evil and most definitely having it in the mix as well that you be miserable- wishing others evil just takes out of you, doesn't it? It's just not your original nature!

 So, you will be praying for these people, forgiving them, praying that they would come into the understanding that is needed for them to see the Love of God and breakthrough in that area and every other area of their lives. Same as you want for yourself.

After all (winks) if they knew better, they would do better.

So, Heavenly Father, I pray that You would take these Words as seed, spoken in obedience to Your Word. You would expound them both in the heart of the writer and in the heart of the reader and let your light so shine in and through us that men would glorify our Father who is in heaven. In Jesus Name. Amen.

ANGER, REBELLION AND GETTING THE SWORD TO THEIR ROOTS

So, there's this situation where I throw up a fit, strum a tantrum, whatever you call it. It's not my best side but when I'm told 'don't' it automatically becomes a struggle.

About two nights ago, Koinonia and we get the ' Don't get angry' Word.

Fast forward to last night and it's unsolicited attention. This morning it's a co-worker who invades my drawers and takes liberties. This evening it's a client who took liberties. I'm wondering 'Is it rain offenses day?'

Last night, Momc was there to remind me, almost in tandem with the check in my spirit, 'Don't get angry'.

I simmer down immediately.

This morning, I tell the co-worker in clear terms, 'Do not repeat it!' I might have said it calmer. 

Then tiny, little, niggling things in between - unsolicited attention still reminding me they are making assumptions, me adamantly ignoring, knowing addressing that now would not be wise on my part, someone I expect to be in authority raising questions of their integrity in my mind, the running theme seeming like 'taken advantage of'- repeatedly, 'liberties' and 'crash-ins'...

Then the client... All today!

Finally I had to go separate myself in the fire exit and search my spirit.

'If you are expecting anger threats to stem from reasons that are not offensive, then you are not ready to get over it' was the word that I got, paraphrased. Basically, I wasn't getting angry for no reason. I had LEGITIMATE reasons for getting angry BUT I was going to have to get over them and not get angry or at least, not sin in getting angry.

The word Pastor O gave one time at Where Women Pray rang through - When you see there are reasons for you to  get angry, know that the devil is setting you up. (Paraphrase)

And why wouldn't he. I just got a 'Dont!'

I find my peace and get back in from the exit but now it's my boss. He wants to keep me beyond closing hours for reasons I have long concluded to be disturbing, at best. 

I make my excuses - I have an appointment. I do - and get excused but not without searching my spirit with a twinge of guilt and wondering, 'When am I going to arrive? When am I going to be so patient, enduring and cooperative that nothing gets to me?'

Of course, the picture of a door mat flashes through my mind with each and everything going over it but that can't be the plan of God for me, can it? His plan must be somewhere between endurance and firmness, patience and taking a stand. Right?

Did I mention that while in the emergency exit Christ said to me, that I had never had to be perfect for Him to accept me and that He would never leave me nor forsake me- He would walk with me through every stage of my life as I grow? That everyone else could abandon me, I needed no one else's acceptance but He would never abandon me? 

As far as I walk in Him, let Him be formed in me, I'd be okay. He said He had already accepted me at my worst. People might not but He had. His acceptance was all I really needed. Is all I really need. He would lead me to where He had for me. In state as well as destination.

As I thought on all these amidst the turmoil I felt whilst in the emergency exit, it occurred to me, only I knew what I felt. Only I knew my struggles. I had to stop expecting people to understand or recruiting people to help me through. I didn't need these. The things I had to overcome were my victories-in-the-making. I had to stop recruiting wrong allies.

Finally, I decide I have to do a study on rebellion. With my experiences, if I didn't line up quickly and well ahead, that was a root I didn't need. 

Studying it would also have to do with the word I got in my spirit on the Proverbs 31 woman, on Virtue, Patience, etc., some days ago. It would set me apace. 

It'll help deal with the anger and get me better.

Who cares for a study?

MEDIOCRE CHRISTIANITY? NO, THANKS!

I'd believed God for prayer partners, Aarons and Hurs to hold up my Moses hands. I'd been disappointed, finding no help where I'd hoped so I'd set out to look for some. Using my physical eyes and my ever-ready-to-help brain, I'd marked out some 'help'. They weren't either.

Resting finally, I asked God and I got strength from the most unpredictable, surely most overlooked and might I add, always-been-there-quarters. Needless to say I found the practical meaning of Koinonia.

What this birthed though was an awareness- as my thirst was being assuaged, my countenance being sharpened and my spirit fed, it occurred to me how many were in Christendom and valiantly missing it.

How many were going to make hell for looking up to one Pastor or the other? I mean no disrespect whatsoever but a truth need be told and salient questions asked? How many people were not searching scriptures themselves but were gallantly following their Pastor's words, verdicts and assumptions to only God knows where?

I left Islam for Christianity a couple of years after I prayed that prayer that simple evening in the International School of Ibadan. I had asked God, 'Show me which way You want me to serve You.' I was tired of the exchange of 'points' that seemed to fly across both religions. I wanted the truth. Not a hand me down but the truth no matter what that was. So I neither prayed in an Islamic manner nor prayed in Jesus Name.

Three years later, a couple of days before leaving ISI, I gave my life to Christ. I wish I could say I had held on to Him fast since then but heaven knows I vied vigorously for the position of most recalcitrant born again of the year -each year!  

I wish I could say the journey was easy but knowing my stubborn resistance to God especially when it came to keeping ungodly relationships and staying pure, who am I to complain?

Nineteen years and I finally bit the bait. Three near death relationships among several other unedifying ones, the latter always worse than the former and I finally got it- let everyone that names the Name of Christ depart from iniquity (2nd Timothy 2:19). Many have gotten away with what has gotten me stumped so many times but for some reason, I am not, I did not and I will have it no other way.

What Christian Name will I flash and what beautitudes would I give while living a lie? I don't need to append the title, Christian to a self-entitled life. Am I perfect? Not in the natural sense of it. But some people seem to have a no-go area. I knew mine, defied it repeatedly and got burnt, badly, several times before I believed and then accepted it.

So, I got to the point where I told God, I can live a mediocre life all by myself. I don't need to come to Christianity to live below board. I don't need to be a Christian to live in sin or just coast through. If He called me truly (and I have unforgettable experiences that stand out in my memory to buttress the fact that I came face to face with Power, Beauty and Gentleness when I came to Christ.) out of Islam to Christianity, I needed something better than a Name card. I need the Real Deal. I needed to know exactly why He bothered.

Nineteen years of living how I liked (never really paying attention to God beyond the cursory, coming to Him only when I needed Him, chucking Him in the face of what I felt I needed more, even) after giving my life to Christ and I finally got to that point where I said, I couldn't continue the same way, it couldn't be business as usual. 

Maybe it was the fact that I KNOW He is REAL. How can you know He is Real and still do your own thing so many times? Don't ask me. I don't have an answer to that yet, except I had to come face to face with the reality that I was headstrong, had my plans and having God was fine as long as He didn't butt too much into my plans. Well, He wouldn't so I got into enough trouble.

Funny thing though is every area I learned my lesson quickly and gave to Him panned out nicely, quickly and beautifully. Every area I didn't... Well, you get the picture.

Long story short, I have been round this mountain a lot of times- commit, backslide, repeat. 

I can hear almost frequently in the last couple of days, 'What's different now?'

Well, for one, I'm tired. I want to do what I'm supposed to do, find that place where I was created for. I've seen over the last nineteen years I haven't done a good job of doing that, so I need to now.

And my number one thirst, is that people don't make the same mistakes I did- not find God for themselves, allow other people interprete the Bible for them, basically not have your nose to the grind about The One you claim to be passionate about - God. 

It's funny we're talking about something as profound as eternity and few people are checking out their 'equipment' for themselves. Many are giving them to the 'professionals' to check out for them. Sad thing is, in this instance, everyone is supposed to be their own 'professional' (Philippians 2:12).  Too lazy or ignorant themselves though, they just glide on this journey with equipment checked by others who probably aren't doing a good job of checking their own equipment either!

It struck me during Koinonia how close God is to His people, how ready He is to fellowship, speak and exchange (Romans 10:6-8). And it struck me how many years I had wasted running from Pillar to Post, seeking and searching, finding and playing, doing everything else but looking inside of me- where everything I needed was- is, always had been, always will be.

I am hoping no one else does this. I am hoping no one else ever will.

KNOW YOU AND HEAR IT RIGHT

Today I am reading Genesis 1:26-27 -

"Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

The Life Application Bible commentary says we have the ability to reflect God's character in our love, patience, forgiveness, kindness, and faithfulness. It means that anytime we exhibit these characteristics, we reflect God's characteristics. 

What strikes me also is the 'make man in our image part...' and the '...male and female He created them...' Whether male or FEMALE ( Yes, emphasis on female because some tend to think women do not have identities in themselves but there really is no gender in the spirit and women are just as accountable to God for their actions as men are. Yes, they have authority over their heads but men are also under authority. Balance is Key) 

Do you know what is it to be made in God's image, according to His likeness? Then given dominion? Actually, we could build a whole life on Gen. 1:26-27. 

The sense of value that comes from knowing that I am created in God's image alone is something else. I am created in God's image! Gbam! Cast in stone. That cannot be taken away.

God loves me so much that He created me in His Likeness.

And the Word comes to me- whose report would you believe?

If God tells you He created you in a His image and that He gave you dominion. Then He did. The verse goes on to say be fruitful and multiply and why should that be difficult? Why should that come under question? Why should the devil's lies of doubts and can -its be so easily accepted?

Stating it or not we are either admitting what God says or calling the devil the truth.

When you believe what God says you are simply saying you concur that He is the truth. When you doubt and say, 'This bible is just a figment of my imagination or the figment of the imagination of some overworked brain? What dominion? How can? Let's just believe it for the time being. When problems come, we bail out. Find the ones or the options we really believe in. Find our plan Bs'

In these mindsets we really are just saying, God is a liar (which of course, is not true) and the devil is the one saying the truth in all his evil thinking, words and plans (which is the real lie).

In this Christian walk, there is no middle ground. You are either believing God loves you, has your best interest at heart and is working for your good or you are believing that the devil with all His evil plans is true ( God forbid) and actually can make things happen. Why him? Why believe in him? Why have faith in the devil even if unconsciously?

Because he hates you? Because he's powerful (lie!)? 

And why not believe what God says, the Maker of Heaven and earth, the all Powerful King whose antecedents run into before the beginning of time?

Why Satan who never could do anything but usurp, steal and destroy from the beginning of time? Why the liar who is currently stripped of all his authority he stole from man? Why believe a registered and confirmed liar whose lies and attempts at usurping ran from the very third chapter of the first book of the Bible to the third to the last chapter of the last book of the Bible?

I choose to believe God. First of all He's my Creator. 2nd He's got the manual on everything He created me to be - the Bible, and finally, He's everything I need. And why Not? Who else has got a creature or knows it like the One Who Created it? If the Owner and Maker can't fix it, certainly his enemy cannot. 

But this Maker can fix His Creature and do infinitely so much more. Eyes have not seen... 1Cor. 2:9

IN THE BEGINNING...

Keeping it simple and keeping it real becomes vital in this my walk with Him.

Cutting the fuss and getting to the crux, the juice in this case,  of the matter is important to me. 

I am reading Genesis 1:1- In the beginning God created... and His awesomeness seems to be seeping through.

Hardened over years of disobedience, rising and falling, I need to cut out the noise and set my eyes on Him.

There have been too much repetitions, one could almost lose hope. But if I do, then who would uphold me. Yes, God and God needs me to hang in there. 

I also need to let the thirst to see what He's going to make of me overrule all else. 

So I said it was a new beginning today - this is about the date, nineteen years ago when I gave my life to Christ.

And then by night I was failing again, it seemed. Nothing like my worst nightmare but nonetheless... 

And now, here I am reading 'In the beginning...' on my new study bible. And I know there is hope for me again. I feel alive, fresh, sweet, loved.

He said to mind Him. He's all I want to mind.

What strikes me is His Presence so easily ignored, yet so resplendent in everything we see.

Job 33:4 says, 'The Spirit of God has made me, and the breathe of the Almighty gives me life.' 

How far from such a God can you be? Not far at all I think.

His Presence gets to me. 

I want to sleep on that thought.

GLORY IN TRIBULATION

Romans 5:3

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

The first verse of my Tecarta bible app verse for the day says we glory in tribulation. I know I don't like to be in tribulation. My skin crawls at the thought of it. On purpose, I find the spelling itself too long, t-r-i-b-u-l-a-t-i-o-n. I mean who wants to spell that? Certainly, not me.

But it's time I guess that I realise that God brings beautiful things out of awful things and that sometimes the way I want things to look or work are not necessarily God's best plans for me.

So tribulation? It's not my best word. But I think if we can get the concept out of Christianity where we think that we float on clouds, strum golden harps and smile with halos hanging over heads once we get to Christ, we would remember that many of God's most spectacular works didn’t have it like a stroll in the park. Three even strolled through a furnace, literally- ask the three Hebrew boys.

I mean how were we supposed to see the fourth person in the furnace if the three Hebrew boys didn't first take the plunge? I mean how would we have ever known or witnessed what God is capable of, if those boys hadn't kept Faith no matter what?

Now, this verse in Romans says to glory in tribulation. It's an admonition for me, honestly. Taking God at His Word is really just that- take Him at His word. Why should that be so difficult?

Paul says, "we glory in tribulation.." If my forebears glory in tribulation, then so should I. That God's way doesn't always follow our ways is a given.  1Cor. 1:25. So, I glory in tribulation!

I can just now imagine us of the Commonwealth of Zion with arms raised above our heads, hands clenched in strong fists as we give Victory Shouts, glorying right in the midst of Tribulation. I wonder why.

Why would we do that in such a time as a time of tribulation, of all things? 

Maybe it's because of the rest of the verse. You see all the aforementioned are true but this verse goes on to say "... knowing that tribulation worketh patience"

Patience? Yes, patience. The word of God says that tribulation works out patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope. 

In essence tribulation would eventually lead to hope. Can I say first of all that this does not make sense to me. My human mind cannot grasp it. How does tribulation lead to hope? 

But then again, it's God's Word. And I know from experience that when I dog His Word and do His Word, I have peace and rest, blessed beyond words. Yes, even when my human mind does not understand. 

So, I glory in tribulation. I know it would work out Patience in me. Patience would work out experience and experience would give me hope.  

Yes, as unsavoury as it sounds to the human mind, I glory in tribulation. And why not? Only God can beat the human mind. Only Christ can bring awe inspiring, mind numbing beauty out of the most dizzying depths of the worst of troubles. 

So, yes I glory in tribulation.