Month: May 2019

What do you go out to The wilderness to behold?

This is a description of someone without character, who is pliable to any given doctrine or ideology.

So, Jesus was asking them if they went in search of a man that does not have a character or belief. No, they went to see a prophet who gave then information of a coming Messiah, the Christ, and the coming King.

 So, having gotten this understanding, let us returned to the significance of the question as it relates to our generation of Christianity.

What did you go into the wilderness (Church) to behold? More directly asked; why did you come to Church; here it does not matter what denomination you attends?

Did you come to church for healing of any ailment, to be free from satanic oppression, to be free from poverty, to gain admission to a higher institute, to travel abroad, to have a life partner, or to be free from bareness? The reasons of our coming to church are endless.

On the other hand, do we come to church to worship God, to have fellowship with Him, or to prepare our lives for the Kingdom of God?

If we will be truthful to ourselves, we will agree that very few people come to church for the second reason; to worship God and have fellowship with and prepare for eternity.

However, one certain truth is that for any reason giving above that brought us to the wilderness (church), we are here to meet the Prophet; we come seeking God to help us solve the myriad of problems that we cannot solve on our own.

As the disciples of John come to Jesus when they heard of the miracles he was performing, and the world was coming to Him to heal them of all their diseases; so are we running to churches today for Him to heal and deliver us of all our infirmities.

He is able and willing to do that, but on one condition; “seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and these things He will  added….” (Matt. 6:33).

Some of us find these conditions repulsive so we prefer to stand at the gate watching others going in, or persuading them not to go in, that the whole gospel is a scam.

They are like the rich young man who, though captivated with the working of Jesus and showed a willingness to follow Him, could not, when Jesus asked him to sell off his possession to follow Him. The Bible recorded that the man became very sorrowful. (Matt. 18:23)

Others thought they could act the seeking of the kingdom by coming to church and acting out as true believers; but because they would not retain Him in their heart, they are still going around living all the abominable lifestyles of the world, for they think they can mock God; they are playing the game of Ananias and Sapphira, his wife…. (Acts 5)

If not, how can one explain the present state in the world where millions of people are professing to be Christians and yet the crime rate and violence has increased astronomically?

It has gotten so bad to the extent where places marked as worship centers have become culpable in some evil practices as the killing of human beings to lay the foundation of the supposed church building; sure, you heard me right, ‘pastors’ are being arrested for laying the foundation of their church building with corpses: ABOMINABLE.

The good news however is, there are still millions and millions of people who are genuinely following after the Lord with the heart, their soul and their might; for such is the kingdom of God.

For those believers are one that heard the call of the Lord and the warning and admonition of Jesus Christ.

In John gospel 14: 1-4, Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye will may be also. And wither I go ye know and the way you know.”

So, the true believers heard this saying and abide in the Word. they are not sway them by the new refrain of the latter day religion and teachings that have become prevalence in our churches today.

A new crop ‘pastors’ have turned the church of God to mercantile shops, healing centers, solution centers. They have made the gathering of the believers, social clubs for all their worldly pursuits.

Jesus said to the congregation that if they need to see a man dressed in soft raiment, they would have to go to a king’s house.

In the same vein, if anyone wants to be millionaire let him go to the bank and establish a business; for healing, let him go to the hospital, for a business breakthrough, go to an investment expert.

But if must need these; and surely we need them, and in the house of God, we must, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness…” and God will add all unto us.

 In some instances, even when we have the blessings of God, we tend to lose focus in the kingdom goal; that we must not. We should remain focus and continually looking unto Jesus Christ; for He also passed through the situation we are now when he came to us in human form, suffered the same affliction, persecuted even on to death; and now sits at the right hand of God. (Heb. 10:12)

For if we lay our emphases on things we possess, then, we may rightly put our desire of the Kingdom of God into a secondary position.

His admonition to us is that “where your treasure is, there your heart is also …” (Matt.6:21) So “Put your treasure where moth and ant would not touch…” (Matt.6:19)  For all things in this world, gold, silver, the riches, wealth, our knowledge, houses will pass away, but only the word of God would remain. (Matt. 24:35). This doesn’ sound pleasant, is it?

 We are not just called believers, but we also have an inheritance that the Lord had promised us in his father’s house, on account of our believing in the name of Jesus Christ, wherefore, He has begotten us as His sons and Daughter. (John 1: 12). Now that sounds pleasant, isn’t it?

The icing on the cake is that Christ is returning to takes us to his father’s presence, and he enjoins us to remain spotless and without blemish until he comes.

But yet again, with a proviso, “If there is any of you having this hope in him, let him purifieth himself even as he is pure.” (1 John 3:3)

In closing, let us refresh our selves of the question Jesus asked, “What do you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind…But what you went out to see? A Prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet?”(Mat. 11:1-10

Hearing from God

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We have had a robust two months of a very educative study in our local Church with the theme; ‘Love, relationship, Christian Marriage, Sex and Parenting Style. On the heel of that study, this month we are looking at a related topic; ‘Hearing from God.’

I am going to reproduce here on Online Christian Fellowship one of the lessons I treated in the course of the studies.

What is to hear? One of the sense organs in a living organism of perceiving sound and having an understanding of what it means. When I speak to a friend and asked him, “do you hear me?” I am not asking him if he heard the sound of my voice; that I believe he did.

But what I am asking him is, “do you understand what I’m saying?”

So as believers, when we hear the phrase, “hearing from God,” we meant to say, ‘how do we hear when God speaks to us?’ ‘Do you understanding what God is talking to you about?’

 Why do we need to ask this question? We do that knowing that God is Spirit, and we can only relate with him in that context; Spiritual.

 A short story about an interview: This is not the first time I’m telling this story, as it was related to us in an online pastor’s platform some years past.

That, in the days of morse-code telecommunication service, a group of men went into a telecommunication office for the job of a morse-code operator. A young came to the office when almost everyone has come and were waiting at the reception hall.

They were there discussing and talking among themselves and all the other stuff job seekers always talk about in an interview board when this man came in.

All the time the sound of the morse-code was sending out a signal from the inner office and none paid attention to understand it was transmitting. The young man sat down for a while, then stood up and went into the inner office without speaking to any of the others.

He came out a moment later with the Director of the company who asked the others to leave that he had given the job to the young man. Expectedly, as the story goes, the others protested they have been long here waiting before this man came in and that none of them were invited into the office for the interview.

The Director informed them that the morse-code calling them to come in for the interview, and they were not hearing. How could they hope to be morse-code operators if they cannot hear the signal for the interview?

The bottom line of this story is; though they were all experienced morse-code operators, they were all distracted with their personal environment and could not understand when they were called in for what they were all waiting for.

How many of us are not hearing from God today? Isa. 59:1-7; Jer. 1: 4-10

God is still talking and calling believers today as he has been doing in time past, but rather, unfortunately, we are not hearing his voice or seemed not to care. Some of us have decided not to believe and started propagating that God is no more talking or do not even exist.

They look at certain calamities that have happened in society today and to their individual personality and have come to a conclusion that they do not believe that God is still alive. But I am telling you that God is still alive. (Isa. 59:1-7)

At other times we felt that the calling and lessons from the Bible are referring to somebody else. We do not personalize it to ourselves and answer the call that is sent to us.

Do we know, when God was talking to Jeremiah and we are reading that account, He may be talking to us and calling us out for His service?

 Hindrances to hearing from God:

So, if God is still alive and still hearing us and ready to meet our every prayer and request, why are we not hearing from him? Like we were thought in school, communication is a dual-way system of talking to ourselves. If we have made a petition to God by way of prayer, it is accepted the norm that he hears us and responds. Here are some reasons why we may not be hearing from him when he answers us.

  1. Sin. The major reason why believers are no more hearing from God is most likely, we are still having little sin we indulge in our lives.
  2. Ignorance. Some people may be ignorance of understanding the voice of God. 1st Samuel 2: In this case, Samuel, as a child does not know how it was to hear from God. Though he works in the temple and doing all the cleaning and stuff, he does not know God enough to hear from him. The same way so many of us are in the church every Sunday but does not relate with God intimately to hear from Him.
  3. Not having a relationship with God: For anyone to hear from God we must relate to him in Spirit. It is not possible for one living in carnal life to understand the spiritual voice of God. We must be in the same wavelength as Him to understand the voice of God.
  4. Distraction. From the above story of the morse-code operators, we could be so engrossed in our daily life pursuits and the seemingly unending struggle of life to listen to the voice of God.
  5. We are looking at the Problem and not to the solution. We are overwhelmed with our situation that we fail to listen and look unto God.
  6. Being in a wrong place when God speaks and his word got soaked in by the influence of the place. (2Sam.11:1-4.)
  7. Disobedient: Disobedient could result in our not hearing from God. When we turned down the instruction of God to do a certain thing, we are preoccupied in finding a way to cover our misdeed that we may not become conscious of the voice of God. 1st Sam.15: 1-; 16:14. At a time when Kings were supposed to go to battle, David sat back at home to look upon Uriah’s wife. He made concerted effort to hide his misdeed that he failed to understand the ways of God when Prophet Nathan came to tell him of his activities.
  8. When we are hasty in taking a decision: When we prayed and could not get the patience to wait for God to answer us but rushed away to execute our plans and actions.

Characters that heard the voice of God:

The Bible is full of stories of people that God spoke to about His plan and what He expects them to do; some obeyed Him while others would not. Let us considered some example of those God spoke with.

  1. Adam. God was having a very harmonious relationship with Adam until after he (Adam) disobeyed God and started running away from Him. Gen. 3.
  2. Noah. Noah heard from God and obeyed Him by building the Ark according to the detailed specification of God.Gen.6,7.
  3. Abraham. He heard from God to leave his family and his kindred to a land that God would show him. He obeyed God, and walked with him, and become the father of a multitude of nations. The trend was followed by his Children. Gen. 12.
  4. Moses. Moses was born in the time of the Israelites captivity in the land of Egypt. He was forced out of Egypt by a divine circumstance. God later appeared to Him in the burning bush. Thus he walked with God clearly hearing from Him throughout their wilderness journey. Ex.3
  5. Samuel. Samuel was handed over to God by his mother and God spoke with him, and after an initial misunderstanding of God’s voice, became an outstanding God’s mouthpiece. 1st Sam. 3.
  6. The Prophets. These were the spokespeople of God to his people. He communicated His instruction, and commandment to them through the prophets.
  7. Isaiah. His case is quite peculiar in that while he has not yet had personal contact with God, Isaiah was still effectively passing out the instruction of God through the inspiration that he has from Him. His outstanding breakthrough came in the year that King Uzziah died. (Isaiah 6:1-6)
  8. Mary and Joseph: The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ came in a most dramatic fashion. God spoke to Mary and Joseph of the coming of a son who will become the savior of the world. (Luke 1:26-35)
  9. Saul/Paul. God spoke to him while he was still threatening fire and brimstone against the believers and the early church. His obedience and following the word of God brought the instructions of the word to faraway lands that were not then of the family of God; that by extension become the source of our salvation. (Act.9:1-16)
  10. John. He heard from the Angel of God by which he wrote the book of Revelation. (Rev.1:1-2;
  11. Our salvation came to us by hearing from God. (John 17: 20)

So What Shall We Do So That We Will Continue To Hear From God?

Joshua 1:8; Psm. 1:13.

Joshua called the children of Israel together when Moses died and instructed them in the word and the need to continue working with God. This will lead you to be hearing from God. In Psalm 1; 1-3, David gave us a key to continuing hearing from God. Like a tree that grows by the waterside that gets its nourishment from the component of the water, the one that abides in the God will be getting the nourishment directly from Him and will grow in the Spirit and be closer to Him.