What truth do you accept and speak? Part 2

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. John 1: 1-5 KJV

I was talking about dichotomy between generations. The enemy tells the old ones that the young man doesn’t have experience while it tells the young man that the old man is too rigid and stuck in his ways.

In the book of Acts of the Apostles chapter 5 from verse 1 to 11 we read the truth of a couple Ananias and his wife Saphira and the lies the enemy told to them. In verse 6 it says, “And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him”. 

When the wife came in and lied, Peter says the people that bore your husband are by the door. What does that say, the young men where no longer seen as young by the second time, they were people ready and willing to take responsibility. Therefore, when truth abides there is synergy between generations. When truth abides there is empathy. The church is the ground and pillar of truth. Yes, truth has different expression and all those expressions has to be played by the leaders, one of those expression is love.

1 Timothy 5: 17, Apostle Paul says that men who labour in word and doctrine should be given double honour. We must honour our leaders in our very own little way. In our closet we must honour the people leading us. Do we speak with honour about our leaders, do we pray for them?

A lot of people find it easy to speak against and dishonour a leader who is above a lot of people but cannot lead their own family of 3 individuals. The man who is leading over a thousand people needs your love, honour and respect. Our leaders are not our enemies, we are all children of God. It doesn’t matter what we know about each other it is what God sees in us. We need to learn to love ourselves by seeing each other from the lenses of the truth. The enemy is the lie, the enemy who is a liar is a person who is the father of lies. The devil invented lies and sin. So, everyone who does a lie is a servant of the one who created lies and sin.

Can people point and say I know this lady is a Christian she will tell the truth no matter what. I like us to take the inventory of our own lives. Are we living the truth that we know? We may not have the full revelation of the truth. Do we spend our time to know the truth so we can communicate it?

 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23; Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; John 8:31. (KJV)

Truth is the very content that the word (Christ Jesus) communicates. Do we communicate the truth? Do we listen to the word that the truth is communicating to us? Do we practice the truth? It is the truth that we know and practice that we reciprocate. Truth will only come to the degree that we obey the last word.

We need to ask God to help us to subscribe to the truth of God and not the truth that the enemy wants us to believe.

What truth do you accept and speak?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. John 1: 1-5 KJV

In the old testament the enemy was shrouded in mystery because of the revelational situation that was in existence at the time, God was hidden from the people and showed Himself only to a select few. Man was easily deceived in the old testament because they didn’t have the full understanding of the deceiver. Eve and Adam (the first man) were easily deceived and so many others in the old testament because they didn’t know who the enemy was. The devil found it easy paint them a different truth because of the distance between man and God.

Then, God sent His only begotten son, Jesus the Christ. The bible declared Him in John 1: 1-5 telling us who the true word of God made flesh is, it also declared to us the goal of the word. Because the word came truth was manifested. This means the enemy who was shrouded in mystery can now be unveiled. One of the ways the enemy perpetuates his ministry successfully is through lies. People are kept in darkness (lies) so deep that it is hard for them to see the light.

Isaiah 5: 13 says, Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. What is knowledge that the word speaks of here? Knowledge is light and for us to be free of the enemy, we need to have light.

One of the things the enemy has done is to bring about a dichotomy between generations. The old man and the young man have a variance of understanding which divides them. In Genesis, God created a perfect earth, but the enemy came and caused man to fall. This gave the enemy authority, the power to train a system according to his own personality of lies and definition of truth.

The first time you see man fall, the bible yells us he was ashamed. In God there is no shame, for where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. Liberty means knowing the truth and being responsible, owning our actions and striving to live in the light of the truth. This is why the word says we shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free. Make, here talks of an action, this is a system of making. So, if we must overcome the lies of the enemy there must be the manifestation of truth and truth is not just a body of facts. What the devil has done is that he has built a system where he has taught men to define things by his own definition, so the truth in this world is relative.

A man is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law but when he goes to the court the truth does not hold water outside of a professional representation. The truth becomes what your lawyer can present before the court or jury, it is a representation of how versed or eloquent your lawyer is. So, your truth does not even count in the court of law. That is what the enemy has done, he has eroded the truth.

John says “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14: 5 (KJV). The truth is a personality and that is why we have come to church to learn of the truth. John 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. Sin is a property of a “person”, the angel who was sent away from heaven, the father of sin. It the nature of the devil just as truth is the nature of Christ.

1 Timothy 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory”. (KJV)

Outside the ambit and the circumference of the church the truth cannot be found. If the church refuses to seek the personality of truth (which is Christ) then the world shall remain in darkness. The bible says, “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: Isaiah 60: 2 (KJV)”. This is the nature of the darkness that man manifests. But in Ephesians 4:17-25, we are asked to not walk in darkness and the deceits of the enemy, but to walk in the light and truth that is Christ. We need to learn truth to enjoy true freedom, true liberty.

A life without regret pt.2

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 

Luke 16: 22-25 KJV

A lot of people might end up with one form of regret or another if we don’t know what we do at the end of life or where we would be when death comes calling.

People generally fall into 4 categories which are;

1. A group of people who never knew what life could be. They live in complete ignorance of what life is or what their life could be. (the lame man at the pool of Bethesda)
2. A group of people who see a bit of possibility but do not have the capability or think they do not have the ability, capacity or right spirit to make the best of it. A lot of people see them themselves as non-achievers
3. A group of people who have opportunity, see the opportunity and have the capacity to make the best of the opportunity but misuse the opportunity. What they use the opportunity for was not what it was designed to be used for. 
4. A group of people who through sacrifice, knowledge and understanding made the best of all opportunities in the best way possible. They can say I have finished the race

A lot of people would look back and say, “if I had known”. In the first part of this topic we spoke about people who were facing death but didn’t want to die as they do not know where they would go after death.

A lot of people don’t understand life and what life should be. We spend so much time building up a future that brings a burden and life of regret. Luke 16: 19- tells of a very rich man who had more than enough to eat; there was a poor beggar who looked to eat of the scrap left to the dogs. According to the rich man he lived a very good life. He sat very respectably over the city but at the end of that life he had regrets.

What kind of life are we living at this time of our life? Are you going to say at the end of your life that it was a great life, a well lived life or will you say it was a life filled with regrets? Will be on your bed and spend the end of your life thinking of all you could have done things differently? Do you care for the ordinary person you see on the street? Do you see a beggar on the road and help them? Do you consider other people and make their life a bit more brilliant? How many of you pick up a child and send them to school? How many of you see your friend going through hard times and help make his life better? How many of you know the name of your staff?

The rich man had wealth but his life was a failure. The other one was poor but the life he lived ended in success.

A life without regret

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; 7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12: 1&7 KJV

This morning we look at the subject “a life without regret”. We will start and continue it through a few more posts.

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 tells us a little story written by the man who was considered the wisest, most profound and richest man in the world at his time. A man was promised by God that there was none as wise as he was and there shall be known as wise as he is.

He says, ’remember your creator in the time of your youth’. Remember the lord in the days when you have the wisdom and capacity to serve Him. As in time, sooner than we think, the end of life as we know it on earth will come for each of us and our spirit will return to God who has given it. Solomon was saying that in spite of it all, he has a few regrets. We shall not have regrets at the end of our life in Jesus name, Amen
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One of my favourite people is a doctor. He said in his career he has witnessed 3 categories of people that pass through the hospital

1. People who are in a coma with no knowledge of what is going on in life. They are in a vegetative state with no strength or power over their own life. Someone else or a group of people have the say or control over whether they continue to live or the plug be pulled to end their life. A lot of people go through this category of life
2. There are a lot of people struggling with life. They have tears on their face and they are begging the doctor to save them. They are so afraid to die as they have no idea what comes after death. They are neither prepared nor are they ready for life to end. Alas, there is no one on earth who will not die; death will come for each of us at any time. I have seen death leave the poor and take the rich; take the rich and leave the poor, leave the weak and take the strong.
3. Then there are those who are peaceful, comfortable, calmly reassured and seem to know exactly where they are going when they die. They look death in the face and say, “death do your worst for I know where I am going”. 

You need to be prepared for that day so that you don’t look back and have regret. What are those things in your past that when you look back you begin to regret. Today is the time you must make amends because no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

Some of us have wasted time on things that have no value, spent our life in anger and a lot other things that when we look back we would regret and wish we had done things differently.

We don’t want to wait till the time when we have to say I didn’t know that it would end like this, I wish I could tell you I love you, I wish I had not said those words, I didn’t know it would lead to death. Our prayer is that we would not live a life of regret so that in our old age we would be at peace with our past. Billy Graham said there are 3 things that science cannot solve

1. The wickedness of man
2. The suffering of the world 
3. The certainty of death

I don’t know how your life is going now. I don’t know if you are busy with the things of life, planning parties and thinking of how to look better than your neighbor; know this “Life will go on without you when you are gone”.

Jesus was speaking to Mary and Martha and He said Mary has chosen the most important thing “the kingdom of God”. But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Luke 10: 42 KJV. What part have you chosen?

You must redirect, refocus and reprogram your life and leave all the struggles of life. If you are a living being visit the hospitals and see human beings like yourself who can’t help themselves. The second place you must visit is the mortuary so that you can see one day exactly how you must end. The third place is the grave, go there and see your final resting place.

Talk to Jesus today about your life; God has given us a special gift of life and we must make good of it. If someone like Solomon can look back and regret, then we need to check our life.

If there is something in our life that we have done that we regret or did that we find difficult to tell to anyone else; I implore us today to talk to Jesus about it. If you know you haven’t been close to Jesus as you should be, put your right hand on your heart and ask Jesus into your life so that He can help you and show you His mercy.

The disciplined worker

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 

2 Timothy 2: 1-3 KJV

If we want our works to outlive us into the next and many other generations, we must be disciplined. We must be mindful of the fact that our life is not our own but is given to us each day for a purpose.
We must empower ourselves with the tools to finish our race and win the war with life. The Word says we wrestle not against flesh and blood; that the weapon of our warfare is not carnal. Therefore, it is important for us to stay the course, maintain a disciplined mindset ensuring that our purpose is achieved.

As leaders either in our home, church, place of work, community gathering we must not fail to commit unto others that which we have heard from Christ, ensuring that they too are empowered to teach this to others.

We are not to wait for others to tell us to do the right thing, even when others are not there we must be always walk on the path of truth. Let’s try to make our life an example to those in our circle.
Give everybody the respect that they deserve. We should remember that as leaders we live in a glass house, people are looking at us and watching how we live and what we do. They would take their cue from what they see us do and how we do it.

In spite of whatever battle of life we face, we must not let this affect living a right and disciplined life. A life that is a good example and reflection of who God is.

Life is a privilege!

13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.4  14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11: 13-16 KJV

A young man a few weeks ago woke up in the morning, got dressed and went out. He came back had a shower, changed and was home to relax after a hard day. But he didn’t live to see the end of the day. It is a privilege to be alive but a lot of us take this privilege for granted. If things are not working well for us we blame the circumstances or the people around us for the things happening in our life. It is nobody’s fault, but yourself. It boils down to our attitude to life. It is all about you and how we chose to react to and accept the things that happen in our life.

The Bible says the fore runners of faith believed God to the end. The earth is not your home and so we are to live our lives to count for the home we would spend eternity in. It is important for us to make sure that the life we live counts and is relevant.

You know what? When a person dies, those alive forgets about him/her. Even from the preparation of the funeral the forgetting begins because life is nothing and there is nothing in this life.

Whatever life you have let us use it well. Avoid all those things that would make you miss your way. Remove from you the spirit of arrogance, pride, lying and all other vices.

What you need is to “MAKE LIFE COUNT”. Set your priorities right. Serve God well and serve Him properly. If you are not interested in serving God, don’t bother, Serve God because He deserved to be served. Serve Him in spite of your pain, in spite of your suffering, in spite of whatever challenges you are going through.

It is important that that we take God serious if we want to take him serious. Go into communion with Him, be one with God.

Training your child in this times Pt 3

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 KJV

The first problem is that we have misplaced values in the family. The candidate is a reflection of the majority in a nation. But the quality of the candidate is built from the foundation, which is the family. The goal of knowledge is transformation and not recall. We are supposed to be able to test how we apply for this is the essence of knowledge. Most parents want their children to be able to recall and so they groom them to excel in academics. They grow up not being able to question the life they live and the product of that life. Yet we complain that our children are not at par with their contemporaries all over the world.

Vision is the commitment of human being to alter the course of his life. Our children need authentic models, people who they can really trust, people that can help them get to where they are meant to be. Children need help and those to help them are called adults. A child that is 5 years today would be 35 in 30 years and what you build in his life today would determine who he would be at the age of 35 years. So many people are aging and not growing, and we do not want to train our children in this direction. We need to teach them how to grow so that at that time they look back would not be looking for aids or begging for money to pay bills.

There is no such thing as a stubborn child, there are only ignorant parents. Once a child is 18 he should be old enough and ready for responsibilities. We know that first in class is not first in life, children should not go to school to be the best in class, he goes to school for network which would help them for the future. As parents we need to change our standards, we need to change our goal. We need to change how we train our children and how we impact their life. Our children must be universal in their outlook and not local. They must be relevant on the global market.

This is the asset we must give to our children. Your children should not be like you; we need globally competitive children. A child is born with 4 natural quality, ignorance, fearlessness, spontaneity and curiosity. We as parents must nurture these 3 qualities in our children. Correct your child and not lose control by punishing them. Correction leaves the channel open that no matter what they do, they can come to you for love and understanding. That in spite of all that is happening anytime they come to you, they get solution. The most powerful word in the world is a word “NO”. Teach your child to say no. The second most powerful is “WHY”. They must be able to question the obvious, the status quo. If they dare to ask why they would be able to overcome a lot in life. You must also allow your children to say “NO” and “WHY” to you. From home they would be able to take it outside, because when they ask, you respect it and answer them, the confidence to ask outside would not be lacking.
don’t get so busy and delegate your responsibility to your children. Anything that doesn’t allow you to perform your duty to your child is a stronghold waiting to destroy the life of your child.

Train a child today so that when he is old he would yield great fruit. Your job as parent is to sow the seed, water the seed and continue sowing the seed. The job of God is the fruit and harvest. What really gets children off is the fear of the parents that they are doing something wrong and will go the wrong way. Do not let your fear control who your children would be.

Training your child in this times Pt 2

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 KJV

So many parents are training kids not in the wrong way but in the way that is not peculiar with the purpose of the child. At the end of the day we are surprised when the children don’t turn out right. We live in a very complex time, and the only way to respond to complexity is knowledge.
The African belief system is dram sensitive; it is impossible to exemplify a belief without infusing a form of drama into it. For over 50 years we still receive aid and beg, still we are still the poorest continent. Favour is not free and nothing is free in the world. We mistake the Favour we get in aid for good will, but what we lose with aid more than what we get. Helplessness is a thing of the mind and the colour of oppression is played in the mind. It is important for us to show strength in a new way when we relate with and train our children. The impact of principle is received and seen as oppression by most, if we are not careful we would be seen as an oppressor by our children and all. This is what we see in this world we live in now. Presently, the realities of many are upside down. This set would want to drag you into their own way of life.

God does not have love, He is love and in the presence of love He has not compromised His values. Therefore we need to begin to culture a new kind of discipline, one that shows the kind of people we are and will be. We need to exemplify this disciple and love with our children. These days parents out of love for their children will walk them to the edge of destruction. The fact that we love our children doesn’t mean we would watch them ruin their lives.

Our assets and material things we acquire is not the important part of life that gives the meaning of life. When we place the value of material things over life and people, children would see this. As they grow they would display or demonstrate these in their actions. Yet we wonder why children are turning our bad even though we have continually made installments of destruction in their lives.

When the curriculum in the home is faulty the effect on the community is devastating. Children are growing up to become handsome fools, beautiful fools. Who we are is intangible and invisible. The personality is not in the clothing or the makeup, but in the inner content of the person. We do not need formal training to be handsome, angry or foolish; it is just what makes a container. What we need for our children is the content, what makes up the man. What is needed in a man is the ability to sit in other people’s shoes, feel what they feel, take what he feels put that in his shoe before you begin to judge them. This is called empathy, if it is impossible to feel what others feel before we judge them them we are not fit to lead or train a child in the path he/she should follow.

Training your child in this times Pt 1

Every environment is not the right environment,in the same vein every time is not the right time. It is not that there is something wrong with the environment, or that there is something wrong with the time. This way we get to know that there are different environment and different times. Life recognizes this similarities and differences.

However, life does not recognize us for our similarity. We are rewarded for our differences. If we are going to succeed in life it would be because we have focused on our differences. Our differences are backed by the intangible and the potency of the intangibles in our life. When it comes to projects and the things we need to do in our life, we must focus on our differences. A child is complicated and must be dealt with focusing on the differences that makes the child a unique human being.

There are two things that we should allow control in relationships either as parent or part of any relationship. Emotion and quest for freedom. Emotion is not a factor of production. When emotion becomes the driving factor of the decision making a lot of errors would occur. At the same time, freedom is not an independent variable it is a dependent variable. We are in a time where freedom is receiving the best articulation support and push where ever. Too much of emotion is dealing with life and its challenges puts us on the road to nowhere; giving too much freedom to yourself and to the people around you is a recipe to things going upside down. What we need is education, not academics.
Education is superior to academics, it is the ability of the human spirit to experience his environment to question it deep enough to know the options that exist in it and to know the ones to embrace as a matter of supreme importance.

There is something higher than education and it is revelation. You don’t need to be born again for you to know how to lead a child and have a complete marriage. Give what belongs to Cesar what belongs to Cesar and to God what belongs to God. You don’t need God to do all things. When Jesus was at the tomb of Lazarus, he did what he could do and allowed people do what they could. He told them to roll away the stone and went close and called Lazarus out. But when it was time for him to rise from the dead he had to roll away the stone.

God has created us and created all those things just for us, however He would not do for us those things we are to do for ourselves. The economics of the home and the country is determined by man and the success of the economy is dependent on man. Even though God created it, he has handed it over to man. This is the same thing with our marriages and how we raise our children.

Let your life Preach Christ

"Let us make human beings in our image, make them

reflecting our nature

So they can be responsible" Genesis 1:26 MSG

As Christians we ought to pray, In fact we ought to not just pray but we need to have a prayer plan and list. We need a list so we can pray about everything that affects us and affects the life of the people that God has brought our way. As we pray we must also ensure that our person evangelizes and preach Christ daily. The things we wear, the things we say, how we relate with people and our every day way of life must preach Christ to people around us. 

A little act that we do will affect the life of the person we do it to. Find a way to help people so that your ways can preach the gospel of Christ. There is nobody that bends down to pick somebody up that does not rise up themselves. When you lift someone up, you are also lifted up.

The Power of Prayer

"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

Matthew 6: 6 KJV

For every child of God prayer is a way of life. It is as important to us as much as breathing is to life. However, our prayer must be with the simplicity of heart and mind.  Our Lord and best friend, Jesus Christ, enjoins us that when we pray we must do so in secret so that our Father who sees what is in secret may reward us openly. Praying in secret doesn't mean hiding somewhere that nobody sees you, going to the mountain top; praying in secret means having the right attitude to prayer. 

We are to pray with a concentration that connects us directly with God. Prayer is an action, something that needs to be done with ease and no pretense. 

Prayer is that way that man makes contact with God. It is expected that as children of God we make contact with God on a regular basis. Just like power flows through a lamp holder to bring the illumination that gives light through a bulb; the same way prayer is the sock through with our communication flows through to connect with God to result in miracles and breakthrough. 

1 Kings 18 tells us about the prophet Elijah and his prayer. He prayed that there be no rain and it was so, after 3 years he prayed that there be rain and the rain came. God gave us the power to rule, Jesus gave us authority over demons and said whatsoever we decree on earth shall be decreed in heaven. This power from God and authority from Jesus can only be manifest through prayer that brings a resultant effect. For to be successful in prayer we must pray using the word of God. When we pray, we must remind God of his word concerning us.

When we pray, we must pray with understanding; first standing on the word of God in faith believing that our prayer is answered. Prayer must come from a heart and soul that is humble and without guile. When we pray we must do so with authority not in fear or doubt begging and pleading but in faith with the belief that what we ask we shall receive. 

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