Making it through times of difficulties Pt. 2

And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. 2 Kings 6: 24-25 KJV

Genesis 22: 21-22 let us know that hard times can repeat itself. Isaac wanted to use the old solution to the problem since it had happened before but God gave him a different solution and he was blessed. We read that Isaac sowed in the same land where there was famine and he yielded a hundredfold so much so that the people of the land where he lived envied him.

In Samaria during the time of famine, the solution came through a man that was not popular or loved by the ruling class of the land. The Lord spoke into the situation and it happened just as the man-of-God, Elisha, said.

Peter was a fisher man and they were at sea the whole night without catching any fish. In the morning a solution came in the form of Jesus using the boat first and when He was done asking them to set out. The fish they caught was more than they could handle.

We need to develop a nothing to lose attitude as seen in Esther 4:16. She was willing to lose her life in other to save her people. We must take a stand for Jesus today and every other day. When we take a stand for Jesus, He will stand for us.

Overcoming opportunities requires that we have faith. Move without expecting everything to be properly aligned. In life nothing is equal unlike the popular saying “all things being equal”.
We should learn to give our way out of our problems. It is when we are faced with challenges that we should give more. We are not only giving our resources or time. However, the most important thing is to give our life to Jesus Christ.

Ask yourself this simple question today as you face those good and hard times; “is Jesus a part of my life, is He in the boat of life with me?” If the answer is no, then you need to invite Him into the boat to help calm the storm.

It is not your business to figure out how God will do it; the solution and how it will come is in God’s hands. It is not our responsibility to figure out how; ours it to take action when He commands or tells us to. In Isaiah God says His words will not return to Him.

Making it through times of difficulties

And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. 2 Kings 6: 24-25 KJV

Samaria was besieged by the army of the enemy, subdued and facing starvation. It was so bad that they ate dung of dogs and some women boiled their children to eat. Times were hard in Samaria but whether we like it or not, hard times are part of life.

Never say a man is great until you see his end. The bible is very sure; we live in a fallen world. Hard times can come in different ways; financial, social, marital, emotional. But whatever we are going through now, it is not new. For there is nothing new under the sun.

When written in Chinese the word crises comprise of 2 characters; crises and opportunities. Therefore, each hardship is made of the crises and the opportunity that it brings.

The man Job in the bible tells us that, Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. Job 14: 1-2 KJV
However right Job may be, Jesus encourages us with these words; I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage – I have conquered the world.” John 16:33 KJV

If you wake up tomorrow and situations of life change, the world will continue to go on.
What are the reasons for hard times?

1. Lack of adequate preparation
2. Past mistakes based on wrong investments, relationships, choices and friends
3. Lack of understanding of the times (sons of Issachar understood the times)
4. Compromises we have made, cutting corners, bribery
5. Lack of spiritual discipline; no prayers, no fasting, no meditation on God’s words Joshua 1:8
6. We forget that there are opportunities during the hard times

Any situation outside what God ordains as an answer to the hard times will lead to frustration because it is a solution that will not last. In a lot of times the solution to that very great problem may just be a very small solution.

We need God to make it through hard times for He alone can make a way out of difficult situations in life. Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43 : 16 -19 KJV. 

The Power of Praise 2018

 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Psalm 22:3 KJV

And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. 21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. 2 Chronicles 20: 20 - 22

The Lord inhabits the praise of His people.

When we gather together to praise God with a heart true and full of gratitude doors begin to open and chains holding us down are broken.

Just as Paul and Silas praised while they were bound in the prison and the chains, gates and all that held them captive broke open, we also gather today to praise God for 24 hours to open up the gates of success, and blessings.

Prayers climb up to God, however, the bible makes us understand that when we praise God comes down Himself to dwell and bask in the praise.

What does it mean to carry your cross daily?

We need to be concerned about the next person. We should exemplify care and comfort, people around us should never be lonely or left on their own. We should endeavour to be the friend that sticks closer than a brother.

People need help, so we should be ready, willing and available to help others. So many people are floundering in their journey through life. So many people are there waiting and all they need is for you to shine that light that would chase the darkness away for them.

God has put you in people’s lives to make a difference. Therefore, certain things are important in our role as the tool for shining the light on the life of the people around us.

1. Give hope to the people around you
2. Be a companion – ready to listen and help
3. Be the bridge that gets people from where they to where they are supposed to be

There are two questions for us today, questions that determine the level of understanding we all have.

1. Why do people look for Jesus?
2. What does it mean to carry your cross daily? 

To carry your cross daily is to take your destiny serious, to take responsibility on a daily basis. To wake up each day to fulfill that thing (purpose) your life is about. Your responsibility is to yourself, to the people in your care, to the nation and community you live in. 

To follow Jesus successfully, we need to be ready to be responsible for our choices and our purpose.
May the Lord give us the power to take up our cross and live up to the purpose for which we are born.

To live up to our purpose we need one key ingredient and that is knowledge. We must seek knowledge and the greatest source of knowledge is God Himself.  Therefore, we should seek the knowledge that God gives. We must ask God to help us and be with us. Every morning when we wake up we must commit our day and life into the hands of God.

We need to make sure we are in constant communication with God. We are to commit our ways into the hands of God always not choosing the day to communicate with Him or doing it alone in times when we are in a jam or in trouble.

Be ready to serve God irrespective of the level we are on the ladder of success. You need God more when you are at the top of the ladder because it is only by His grace that you will be able to stay at the top and use your position well.

What is life all about?

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 

Psalm 90: 10 KJV

Life is God’s idea. Life is short. The bible says the days of a man are 3 score and 10 years. The mountain of age is difficult to climb, in health, wealth and companionship.

The life we live is a loan that is given to us from God. We all will return the spirit to the owner to give account of it before our maker. So we need to treat life very carefully, warmly, considerably, respect, attention and care.

We agree that there will always be a storm in life just as we have it in nature. The storm will come but we will be able to rise above them.

What is life all about? What is the whole purpose of God bringing you to this life?

• The life we live is about serving God
• It is about the achievement and actualization of the purpose of creation

I think that life is just simply an exam and all that we come up with is just ways to pass the exam. It is simply how we work at passing the exam. The spirit is eternal, it doesn’t die and returns to God for our works and thoughts to be judged.

Our life is about how much time we spend with God and the amount of time we spend doing His will and reflecting His image.

Is your life on the wrong trajectory? Pt. 2

And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

Acts 7: 23-25 KJV

During my stay in England, I met this man who was a Nigerian. He spoke with a Nigerian Southwest accent and knew some affluent people in England. He lived in England and paid for his children’s education in one of the best schools in Lagos Nigeria. One day we found out he worked as a cleaner; we were surprised and asked him a question. Sir you dress well and speak well; and with all the people you say you know why is it that this is where you work? His response was very revealing; he told us that he had struggled in life and his life took a wrong trajectory and he found himself where he is.

What are those things that we can do to put our life on the right path again?

1. Moses realized that his life was in the wrong program. We need to know that there is only one way that is right before God. Jesus said that He is the way, truth and life. A lot of us don’t realize in good time that our life is on the wrong path. 
2. You must be determined and be desperate enough to say that your life must have a turn around. We should not be comfortable with the pain, violence, circumstances and challenges of our life. We should not be tolerant of bad things or things not working out for us.
3. You must come to the mountain of God. The bible says Moses kept the flock of his father-in-law but he went to the mountain where he saw the burning bush. What does that mean? He got born again and submitted himself to the will of God.
4. Believe in the one true God and accept the gift of life that He has given through Christ Jesus.
5. You must give your life to Jesus Christ. You must be born again; truly and wholly. 
6. Turn aside, follow a new path and seek a new direction for your life. You cannot do the same thing all the time and expect a new result. 
7. Be ready to hear God and obey Him. When God saw that Moses was ready to hear Him; that Moses was paying attention, that was when God spoke to him and showed him the things that he wants to do in Egypt.

Whatever we are going through today, I want to assure us that God will reprogram our life. Talk to the Almighty King; the only one that can re-program your life and ask him for help. What makes us look most like God is our ability to make the right choice.

God is going to move in your life this season in Jesus name. Whatsoever mistake you have made or your parents have made that has put you in the backside of life the Lord God shall cancel them today.
Ask God today to change the program of your life. That He who has created you should reprogram your life to the original purpose for which you were created and help you to fulfil that purpose in Jesus.

Whatever is wrong in your life ask the Lord to have mercy today and let my life have a turn around.
Remember that it is never too late for God to bring about a turnaround in your life. This Moses whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made thee a ruler and a judge?’ the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. Acts 7: 35 – 36 KJV. Moses was 80 years when his life had the turnaround to the original purpose for which he was born. You can also have that turnaround today.

Is your life on the wrong trajectory? Pt. 1

And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

Acts 7: 23-25 KJV

I was speaking at a wedding yesterday and I spoke on “your life is not your idea”. Basically, the life you live is an idea of the one who created you; the one who created the life you live. Your life is not a mistake; before you were born he already knew you. He created you and decided into which womb you would grow.

Number one is that our life is not our idea; number two, our life has a purpose. God has a program for our life. Moses never thought, neither did he imagine it, that he would still be keeping a small flock at the age of 80 years. At the age of 40 years Moses knew he was born to do great thing; he was born to be the one to deliver his people from slavery. However, the program of his life went wrong the day he decided that he would take law into his own hands and do things his own way. He thought that the Israelis would know that he was their deliverer but when he tried to intervene in a fight between his brothers he got the shock of his life. What he had done a couple of days prior was not hidden, but the Israelis made him realize that what he thought he had done was known.

Moses who was brought up as an Egyptian became the enemy of both the Egyptians and the Israelis. He had nowhere to stand and so he had to flee and run into the desert. Like Moses a lot of us make that one mistake that changes the course of our life. We are like Moses finding ourselves in the desert and not being able to find our way out of the downhill slide our life is moving towards.

At the age of 80 years it had not ended for Moses. Therefore, it has not ended for you. Acts 7:22-36. God’s promise to Abraham was that Israel will be in Egypt 400 years but just at the time that the promise was to be fulfilled Moses made a mistake and the time was delayed another 30 years.
Although Moses saw himself and understood the times, the children of Israel his brethren did not. Therefore, they who Moses was supposed to lead out of captivity turned against him.

David did the same when he committed adultery with Bathsheba the wife of Uriah the Hitite. That one small challenge brought a problem into his family that didn’t depart from it even after his death. Therefore, some of us grow us to inherit the result of the mistakes our parents made.

Nigeria at 58 – The yearning of nation Pt. 2

Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. 

Exodus 1: 8 – 10 KJV

Exodus 1: 1-15

The goal of the Nigerian elitist leaders is to keep the people in the bondage of poverty so that they can rule over them. We have to refuse the paradigm and open our eyes to see the beauty and wonder of the nation called Nigeria.

After hundreds of years of the children of Israel living in the land of Egypt, there was a Pharaoh (leader) who did not know Joseph. When he came into power he decided that they must enslave the Israelis who came into their land as a free people.

In Nigeria, our current crop of leaders who are like the proverbial pharaohs that know no Joseph and they are superintending and ruling over the affairs of Nigeria. They have put task masters and officers over us.

1. There are some kings that do not know Joseph over Nigeria. Whether we believe it or not our colonial masters did not design Nigeria to succeed. They made sure it was almost impossible for Nigeria to survive and its citizens to thrive. 
2. We have task masters and officers. The task masters were Egyptians and the officers are Israelis. The same is happening in Nigeria today. Our leaders are our task masters and the average man are the officers
3. The people who do not mind suffering and smiling. The people have become like the ostrich thinking that things will get better by themselves. Each individual must rise up to say that ‘thus far we go and no more’ and work at the change we want to see in our nation. 
4. We must get for ourselves a visionary leader. Those who are concerned and filled with love and patriotism for Nigeria. We need someone who is learned in all the ways of Nigeria with a vision for Nigeria that will take Nigeria to that promised land. The person must be knowledgeable, well behaved, available for the people of Nigeria, ready to die for this nation, intelligent, filled with wisdom, capable and responsible, must be a nationalist.
5. We must get into a place of knowledge. Without knowledge and education, it is going to be a tough fight to move forward in this nation. 

The trend of rule and leadership over Nigeria makes it difficult for Nigeria to reach its full potential. It is time for us to cry to out and take a stand and say enough is enough.

Nigeria at 58 – The yearning of nation Pt. 1

Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. 

Exodus 1: 8 – 10 KJV

Exodus 1: 1-15

Nigeria is a blessed country; it is an extremely blessed country. There is no part of Nigeria that is not blessed. The bible said that Joseph died and all his generation died, and a ruler came in Egypt who knew not Joseph. During this time the children of Israel grew and they were much and great.
Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa and has the highest number of black population in the world. It is the 4th largest population in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, we are blessed with about 36 mineral resources with much potential than the oil that the country has focused on as a means of revenue generation. Nigeria has extreme resource.
Some Nigerians are some of the most intelligent, most efficient, most knowledgeable and capable people in all parts of the world where they are found; whatever the field or profession.
There is extreme illiteracy even in this nation; about 70% of this great country are poor to the extreme.

Nigerians are known to serve with rigor and hardship under the burden of enslavement to poverty and the rule of bad leadership.

What are the problems of the nation Nigeria?

1. The people enjoy the suffering; they are suffering and smiling and have refused to set their pharaohs aside
2. We don’t know a leader when we see one and we don’t know the kind of leader we want. That is why when anybody shows we accept just anybody
3. We have an entitlement mentality; always thinking only of things that benefit ourselves
4. Nobody wants to give something; everybody wants to receive everything 
5. Not taking responsibility - The problem of Nigeria has to do with the individual citizen of Nigeria; no one wants to take responsibility but would rather put the blame at someone else’s doorstep. 

What can we do to make Nigeria great?

1. Be involved in the life of people at the grassroots level
2. We need to have a working template that is the fundamental things that must run irrespective of who is in position of leadership
3. There is need for individual change, every Nigerian must become a reflection of the kind of leader they need
4. We need to start believing in the nation and speak positively about the nation Nigeria. 
5. Refuse to vote in the leaders that are not competent to be in power. 

God called unto him out of the midst

And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. Exodus 3: 3-4 KJV

A lot of us find ourselves in a position or place that we are not meant to be. Where we are and the situation we are in are not what we expected or anticipated. What we have, where we are and what is happening in our life is nowhere near what we had dreamed about. Our marriage, job or career choice, relationships haven’t turned out like we had planned it. So we find ourselves in a position where we are stuck; not able to go forward or backward.

Why are we stuck? Most of us at one point or the other made a life changing mistake or make some choices that changed the course of our life. The choices we make growing up can change entirely the course of our life and God’s program for our life.

Know this day that God is ready to fight for you and to cause a change in your life. The solution is not to belabor the past and our mistakes but to look forward and seek to reprogram our life to the right path.

I tell you today that you are not going to take the wrong turn. This is why as parents we are to be attentive to our children and the changes in their life. We need to pay attention to our children, we need to be observant to the changes in their life.

He suddenly realized that his life is on the wrong program. The challenge in life is that some people do not know they are in the wrong program. They believe and accept the place where they find themselves. They accept the wrong program for their life and conclude that that is the best they can do and can be. 

A lack of knowledge. Illiteracy in high and low places. People are not able to stand on their own and hold people around them and in position of leadership accountable. They fail to know that where they are is not where they are supposed to be. Hosea 4: 6.

We must be determined and desperate to change where we are. We must not allow our life to go into mediocrity.  As long as we accept the situation of our life as it is we will remain there. God needs our co-operation; He needs our participation to change our life.

We must put our foot down and work towards a change in our life, in where we are. In Genesis 40: 12-15, we read of Joseph working to reprogram his life. As we look to God for a change in our life, God will put us in remembrance of the person who will be used to transform our life.

The good news is that God is able and willing to reprogram your life to be on the right track, on the right path. He will enter into your life (if you allow him and ask Him) and make a U-turn that will put you on the path that allows your life to be filled with goodness, joy and success.

Like Moses we need to turn aside and see why things are the way they are. It is after Moses decided to turn aside that He called him out of the program that his life was in and into the program his life was created to be.