AS YOU PLAN

As the year 2017 gradually comes to an end and plans are in high gear to usher in the New Year 2018, one of the things I know that most people do in preparation for a New Year is make New Year resolutions and set goals for the New Year.

For me, this is usually a time to step back and retreat and seek the face of the Father on what is in His heart at this point in His season of life. God works in seasons and those seasons usually do not necessarily follow our calendar years so an understanding of the heart of the Father will aid a child of God walk right with Him.

The Lord drew my attention to a passage in the book of Romans 8:5;

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

So as you prepare and plan for the New Year, I have a question for you. If I look at your goals and plans for the New Year and gauge them, will I confirm that you live by the Spirit or according to the flesh?

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh…

Mind you, the flesh is in constant enmity with God. So anything that does not bring you closer to God but draws you away from Him is flesh.

I want you to think on these things and adjust your plans/life accordingly.

God bless you and Compliments of the Season.

OluwaObinna.

AS YOU GIVE

I love Christmas, I can’t say for sure exactly why I love it, but I do. My wife has even made it a more interesting season for me with all the drama around decorations and carols et al and like the good student I am, I am catching the bug quickly and every year has been better than the last. Even when I try to dull her, it is never a dull moment with Meemeesola.

Okay, this post is not about my wife and how much I love her though I am sure you know that already.

One of the things I love about Christmas is that it is a season when you don’t have to prompt people a lot to do good. People are more willing to give both to charity and to friends and even enemies as well. There is that giving grace during the Christmas season.

This year for some reason I decided to pray about what God will have us give this period. I had some plans in mind as giving back to my community is up there in my list of priorities. I am one of those people that believe that the body of Christ should be assisting ease the burden on society in the areas of quality education, health, accommodation and feeding. If we can’t make it free (which I don’t see why we can’t), we should at least make it as subsidized as possible. On a later day, maybe I will share my plans around this and you are free to chat me up privately and I can share my thoughts on this.

But as I prayed along those lines, God pointed me to a scripture and asked me to be guided by that. I know most of us have amazing plans for this period and some of us have even commenced executing those plans. But as you do and go ahead in life, I will like you to read this scripture, meditate on it and keep it at the fore front of your mind in all your  giving and doing good.

I pray that the Lord will expand this scripture in your hearts and open the eyes of your understanding to see what is in the heart of the Father, Amen!

Matthew 6:1-4(NKJV)

1“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2Therefore, when you do your charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly".

Selah!!!

AFTER YOUR SUFFERING

I love Jesus and have made following Him my life’s work. As fun and amazing as it has been, it has also been an interesting journey.

I know various things brought us to Jesus. For some it was a promise of a mansion in heaven, for some the solution to their problems, for some divine healing, provisions etc. bottom line, we all came to Jesus through various routes but by one Spirit. And per adventure you are reading this and you are yet to give your life to Jesus, I want to invite you to open up your heart to Him today, He stands at the door of your heart and is very willing to come in if only you will invite Him in and profess Him with your mouth as Lord and Saviour over your soul.

I thought to encourage someone today. Someone who is in Christ and has been steadfast in Him. You have prayed and studied the word and given your tithe (no matter what some may think #topicforanotherday) and given offerings. You may have also in addition to all of these sown seeds and blessed you man of God and done good to both the needy and the poor. Never missing hospital/prison visitations, always in church for all church meetings, always available to serve in one capacity or the other whenever/wherever required. But still things don’t seem to be what they should be. You find yourself struggling to have your basic needs met. Things that should come easy are constantly a prayer point. The only reason you haven’t lashed out at God yet is because you have the fear of God in you. For some, you have even lashed out at Him but yet it seems nothing has changed.

From time to time, you receive this warm assurance in your heart that things will be fine and you make the confessions that ‘all things are working out for my good’ even when a part of you doesn’t completely see how that is even possible. You are still here and barely just hanging on.

If you find yourself in any of the categories I mentioned above or maybe I didn’t mention your case but you can relate with what I am saying, I want to share a scripture with you and encourage you today;

1Peter 5:10

But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you.

I want you to know that our walk in Christ comes with a measure of suffering. But the good news is that after you have suffered but for a while, my God will Perfect (ie make completely free from faults or defect, having all required or desirable elements/qualities/characteristics; as good as you can possibly be), establish (ie set up on a firm or permanent basis, achieving permanent acceptance/recognition), strengthen (ie make or become stronger, reinforce, buttress, toughen, intensify, heighten, fortify, bolster, vitalize) and settle (ie reach an agreement, pay a debt, adopt a more steady/secure style of life, sit or come to rest in a comfortable position) you.

You are coming out of this just the way the Master wants you to be. So hold on and stand firm in faith. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

God Bless you!

DO YOU KNOW?

A couple of days ago, a scary event occurred in my life and though I could have written about it on the same day, I took a few days to write this piece because I knew there was way much more in the event than just the occurrence in its self.

I was at the bus stop on a rainy morning waiting to join the staff bus to work. I had called the driver to notify him that I was waiting and had just stood for what seemed like a few seconds and that was all I could remember. One minute I was standing at the bus stop, the next minute I was back in my house drenched in water and sand.

I have read stories of people dying and seeing white light at the end of a long tunnel and all that stuff, but that wasn’t the case here. I collapsed at the bus stop and I have no recollection whatsoever what transpired in that blank out period.

I thank God for my wife, for Tosin, my family everyone who made it easier for us on that day. My God will reward you for me.

As I lay in the MRI machine and was being examined, I couldn’t shake off the thought that if this had been my last day on earth and the Father was examining me to see if I completed the work that He sent me to do, what would be His conclusion?

Apostle Paul’s words to Timothy in 2 Tim 4:6-7 flashed on my mind and stayed there; “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”.

He knew! He knew that he had done his job and that he did it well. He knew that he had finished his race. He could see his crown of righteousness. He could hear the well done My son. He was handing over to the next generation of guys that will take the world because he knew his time was up. He knew!

But I didn’t know.

Though still in the race, I had strayed off the course. I was pursing business, career and acquisitions and things that actually don’t matter to my Father nor the Kingdom. I was pursuing status and prestige the things that make you stand out in this earth that is passing away. I was pursuing vain knowledge of the systems of the world with no proper grasp of how our Kingdom works. I look around me and I also see men, people even churches pursing the same things. How to master the systems of this world with no idea whatsoever how the Kingdom of our Father works. Forgetting that though we are in this world, we are not of this world.

Apostle Paul was saying that there are things that he knew that were not lawful for him to utter. If you read the things he wrote, you will know the guy knew what he was talking about. He had learnt the ways of the Kingdom.

God had to take my life briefly to shake me into this reality.

You don’t have to die to know that you are not fulfilling purpose. Right now sitting or standing or lying where you are reading this post, you know whether or not you are accomplishing heaven’s mandate for you. YOU KNOW!

Please don’t get me wrong, this is not a cry for evangelism or any of those activities (that may be a part of it if that’s what your purpose here on earth is), this is a call to personal evaluation especially for believers who profess Christ Jesus as their Lord and Master.

I have over the last couple of days experienced a weakness in my body but yet such strength and resolve in my spirit to get it right and get it right I will.

I also learnt that life will go on. People may mourn your passing for a little while, but life will go on. The office will not shut down, at best one minute silence to recognize the dead (during which some people will still be sending emails) but that’s it, life will still go on.

So spend time with the people you love who love you. Reach out to the people who hate you and surprise them. Help someone who has no capacity whatsoever to return the favour. Live life today with no worry about tomorrow because tomorrow is not a guarantee. Actually, sufficient for today are the evil thereof. Know this, your Father in heaven has an idea of ALL the things you will possibly need and has made provisions for them all. All you need do is to ensure that you are walking in the path of His purpose for your life and you will meet His provisions on that path. You only struggle when you are off course.

So I leave you with this question; DO YOU KNOW YOUR PURPOSE ON EARTH AND IF YOU DO, ARE YOU LIVING IT?

#GratefulForLife

Musings

I had an interesting conversation with my mum some nights ago and its plain disturbing the direction things are heading to.

They have a target to double their number (ie attendance per service meeting) within a specific time and the leader in their region was offering financial reward every month for the individual(s) that bring the most number of people to church every month. My mum who is also a regional leader spoke up against this and it almost turned into a war of words.

I share insights with her whenever we have the opportunity to have those our very long talks and its fun sharing Jesus with your mum (some ladies will now come and want to bring their daddy into this discussion now lol). And as the years go by, we are beginning to agree on most of those things I have been pointing out to her about religion and denomination and the rot it is causing in the body of Christ.

From what I gather, some of the pastors have begun to doctor their books in order to meet up with this target. Everyone that came for first service is counted as part of the headcount for second service and combined you have a huge number #ridiculous.

Attendance in house fellowship meetings, eatery hangouts, even people that read the sign posts are tagged as ‘members’ of the church to meet up with ‘target’.

I paused at this point and prayed for the pastors that were involved in this that God will save their souls as they need to repent and come to Christ. But beyond that, my question was; what has God asked them (the pastors) to do? I know that God sets up every commission for a purpose and if you are pastoring people, there has to be something that God has told you is the intention of His heart over that assembly and that’s what you should be complying to.

There is the place for respecting constituted authority, but it has to be in the Lord (if you get what I mean).

Then I remember the passage of scripture in the book of Acts 2:46-47;

 ‘So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the LORD added to the church daily those who were being saved’.

And I am wondering that something is then not right if it is no longer the Lord that adds to His church and people now have to be paid to add people to the numbers. People are heading in the wrong direction fast and they are being led there by people who should know better. The sooner Sons rise up and take their rightful place, the better for the Kingdom.

My conclusion is simple, “Thou shalt have no other god besides Me. Thou shalt worship the Lord Your God, and ONLY Him shalt you serve”. Know this God for yourself lest you be led astray.

Selah!

WHO ARE YOU FOLLOWING ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

Very recently, I shared that the world intends to keep you entertained so that you do not have time to focus on the thing that is really important. The funny thing is that majority of the people that folks sit down to watch on TV don’t even have the time to watch TV themselves. But that’s not what I am discussing today.

The advent of the internet has brought the private lives of so many people into our bedrooms. Such that by the flick of a page, you can go from knowing what Sikira had for breakfast to where Kalu is vacationing and all the weddings that will be coming up this weekend. Literarily everyone’s life is out there.

Now I don’t have a problem with this as I do not necessarily have a control over what you decide to put out there. But as I observe the content that most people put out, I am prompted to ask the question “Who are you following on social media?”
If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, you can stop reading this post at this point and move on to other things. But if you are, please get in here and let’s be frank with each other.

If we are to run a check on the people you are following on social media, what will we find? What godly value are the people on your timeline adding to your life? Apostle Paul said; ‘follow me as I follow Christ’, the people you are following on social media, are they following Christ?

I hope you know that you become what/who you follow. You are a sum total of all the people you are following because they deposit a part of themselves in you. Like it or not, these things matter.

I banned the watching of some TV shows in my house because they are not of any eternal value to either me or the children I am raising and it is not entertainment in any form. What value is KUWTK adding to the life of a son of God?

These things might seem trivial to some, but remember that scripture admonishes you to guard your salvation. See, it is possible for someone to lose their salvation. There are many people parading themselves as Christians, but in the reality of it, they have lost their salvation.

You have to be careful who and what you follow on social media. But while doing that, you also have to be sure that you are not part of the danger on social media.

“Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praise worthy – meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do and the God of peace will be with you.”

Amen!

A CHARGE TO SONS

Very recently, God began to instruct me to send people (new converts, friends, mentees et al) to some certain assemblies as He directs me while speaking with me. Now as a pastor over a growing assembly, this is a very hard thing to do. On the one hand, I am looking at the size of the congregation and asking that God grows us, but on the other hand, I am sure that He is asking me to send some of these new converts and friends to other ministries as instructed.

One of the guys kept asking me for the direction to our assembly and I knew where God needed him to be, so I gave him the directions to the assembly that God was leading him to and told him that it was a branch of our ministry. I’m sure he was shocked as the ministry doesn’t bear the same name as the one I pastor.

More than ever before, I know for a fact that the Father is seeking for a body that is unified in purpose not divided along the lines of denomination or religion, but a unified body of Christ.

There are things that we have received both individually and as an assembly as pertains to the heart of the Father in this season and it is amazing to know that all across the face of the earth, many are receiving the same instructions.

The Father has stepped out by Himself and the barriers of denominations are broken.

So I committed myself verbally to Him and agreed that for every time we go out and men are drawn to the Father, we will commit them unto worthy sons within that vicinity to disciple them and trust God the He will lead the men whom we are to disciple to us. So far, the results have blown my mind. Our numbers within my local assembly are not yet what the Lord showed me, but we have built a network of brethren all across the nation such that if we were to gather, it will be quite a big family gathering and the love shared amongst these men is just beyond words.

I believe that a new breed of people need to arise, sons whose main drive is to seek the Father and to do the will of our Master.

Selah!

MY JOURNEY

Recently the Lord began to deal with me on timidity. It didn’t make sense to me at first because I thought I always said my mind at every point in time however, you don’t argue with God when He is at work in your life so… I jejely kept learning my lessons.

First I got into someone’s office and was talking and the guy kept straining to hear me (now in my mind, my voice was high, apparently it was only in my mind). The guy had to ask me to speak up or leave his office (you can imagine the embarrassment).

I left that office that day wondering what just happened and the Lord pointed me back to the lessons He was trying to teach me. If you are going to be My voice to the Nations, times are going to arise when I will need you to confront issues/people/institutions bigger and greater than you and I will not have you get there timid.

Thus my journey to overcoming timidity started, I have been on that path for a while now, some progress has been made, but that is a journey I may or may not share in the future however I thought to share one aspect of that journey today.

Remember I said in one of my recent posts that I have been introspecting. Well, I thought to trace the history of the timidity and I was surprised by what I found.

Most people in my generation can relate with being beaten for any and every reason. Some of us could have been fantastic footballers earning big money if not for the rod of correction that kept us shielding our skills. I personally was flogged for everything, just think about it and it was reason enough for my dad to flog you. My second sister Oma and I had the better share of the beatings. I remember asking my mum who my dad was as I was convinced that for my dad to flog me as much as he did, then he wasn’t my real dad.

The cane from those days partly made me the reasonable man I am today, but it also left some scars. I realized that the timidity only shows up when there is an authority figure before me hence anyone that stands in a father figure or office of authority over me, I tend to stay away from them. This didn’t change the love I have for them, however an experience from the past had framed the way I viewed fathers/authority figures. For me, they were to be observed from a distance.

There are some people in my life, when people hear me talk about them, they wonder how that can be possible as they never see me around those people. Even I didn’t know the reason why until God revealed this to me recently.

So, I remembered a conversation I had with my dad before he went to be with the Lord and he said to me “Nna, I am so proud of the man you have become. I am convinced that you will lead many people to Christ and nurture them in the true knowledge of God. Religion and denomination will draw many away from Christ but if Christ remains your focus, you will journey farther in Him. Forgive me of my excesses, that was the only way I knew how to raise you but I know that you now know that I did all of that in love”.

I remember telling him that I had forgiven him of all the supposed wrongs he did me and that I loved him. He held my hands and prayed for me before I came back to Lagos.

God had to bring me back here to show me that the thing I was afraid of had a lot of respect for me. Wow!!!

So today, I raise a glass to the new bold me, not cowering away in the face of authority, challenging the things I think should be challenged within limits that I will set for myself. Saying those things that some are afraid to say, taking up the assignment that has been laid before me.

 

Today I present to you….

THE BOLD ME

HE IS WAITING

For a while now, my prayer has been that God will redeem and save His church. It has been and still is a burning desire in my heart that the state of the body of Christ becomes more like what the Master instituted it to be other than the charade it currently is in most aspects. I have met quite a number of people who are dissatisfied with the current state of things and have resorted to seeking out God for themselves and I must confess that fellowshipping with these people, I can tell that they are indeed finding God. I have also met quite a few people who are dissatisfied with the current state of things, but for one reason or the other, are unable to make a move towards discovering what the Truth really is. You see, scripture wasn’t kidding when it said that you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free. Freedom being the key word here.

I for one have been on a long journey of both self and God discovery, and I understand that it can be a precarious journey if you travel that path alone. God graciously sent me men at every turn to either pray with me or fast with me or study with me or just stay there in the place of worship and soak in His presence. We learnt together, journeyed together, taught one another and grew (still growing) together in Him.

I began to understand the love of God which passes all human understanding. The meaning of “fellowship of brethren” which must not be forsaken became clearer and more distinct. We would bump into one another by the roadside or after a meeting and would spend another 2 to 3 hours sharing and dissecting the word and after each meeting, there is a burning desire to go back and spend more time in the place of prayer, study and meditation.

I sense that there are a couple of people out there who are dissatisfied with what they are currently being fed in their local assemblies and there is a burning desire, a yearn in your heart to know more of God. Constantly you try to reach out to Him and sometimes, He does show up in your local assembly but He’s cut off cos’ the allotted time for worship is 15mins and the counter has buzzed red and you are thinking ‘but the Father was just about to step in…’

I know that feeling, and I would like to help you work through it. By the grace of God, I discovered platforms and created some platforms that has helped and is still helping dissatisfied, hungry believers discover God on a whole new level and I am willing to share information with you if you are willing to reach out.

Please note that this decision will pull you out of your comfort zone and challenge most things you have known at the core of your believe system, but it will draw you closer to the Father and you will discover Him for yourself.

My favourite scripture John 4:23 But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

There are depths in glory that are only open to those whom the Father seeks to worship Him. The burning desire for God in your heart was put there by Him because He is seeking for you to draw nearer to Him. Come out from the outer courts where the masses are and enter behind the veil.

The Master is waiting…

END OF THE ROAD

I took a few days off work to just lay back and evaluate things. You see, it is very easy to jump from task to task and end up not actually living life. I have had discussions with a few people who are done with their active work life and are completely clueless as to what next to do with themselves. Some of these people were high flyers during their time in active service but right now, in the real world, they are nobodies.

I sat back evaluating myself. I love to write, I love to teach and I love to speak. These three things light me up whenever I’m doing them. Someone once said to me; you can talk for Africa and I responded that so long as I am talking about Jesus and the things He has done, then yes, I can go for days doing that.

Sad thing is, as much as I love to write, I have not written as much as I would have loved to write. I realise now that I have written more over the last four days than I have all through this year put together and this drove me to a resolve.

I will write a minimum of one article every week going forward and speak at least once every week about Jesus Christ and or other matters as the Lord grants me unction. When I stick to this, it would mean that in a year, I would have written at least fifty two articles and spoken to people at least fifty two times. In doing this, I would also be horning my writing and public speaking skills and most importantly, I will be living life.

My life’s work is to help people be the version of themselves that God created them to be and so help me God, in keeping to my resolve, I will be fulfilling my own purpose.

Think about your life, where are you today and where can you possibly be?

What can you commit to today that will bring you closer to where you see yourself to be?

How willing are you to commit to your resolve?

What will success look like at the end of the road?

You can share with me either privately or on this post and I will help you get to the end of the road by the grace of God.

God bless you.

LIKE CHRIST

A few days ago, a woman my wife and I really have a lot of respect for came by our home to visit and see the latest member of the Onyekwere clan. You know there are those people that every time you see them, they are either churning out revelations or they are drawing out depths of God from you that are not the norm… bottom line is, she is an amazing woman after God’s heart and a dear friend of the family. She shies away from the lime light a lot though the Lord has a way of always setting her up lolz so I won’t mention her name.

We began to discuss along the lines of Jesus and His love and what He means and the things He did etc. and before we knew it, it was almost 2hrs and there was yet so much more that I knew had been left unsaid.

As she left, I went back into my closet and began to meditate on the love of Christ.

I know that we all have a concept of what Christ’s love means to us individually and collectively, but the more I think about it, the more I really come to the understanding of what John meant when he wrote “for God so loved the world…”

The love of Christ is unsearchable, the depths of it is unimaginable, it stretches from eternity to eternity. And as the reality of the expectations from me in Christ Jesus begins to dawn on me some more, I realize that I had missed it not walking in love.

You see, people will always be people, but I am the one who determines how I respond to people and truth is I have failed to consistently respond in love. I have responded in anger, fear, hatred, hurt, disappointment, sadness, happiness and sometimes love but I have failed to consistently respond in LOVE.

Christ is love and as He is, so also should I be. Imagine that all who profess the name of the Lord were to respond consistently in love every time, what a body of Christ we would have!

So today, I am just reaching out to as many as are like myself who have realized that they have not constantly responded in love to re-evaluate themselves and realign to the nature of Christ.

But it is only natural and human to respond to your emotions you may say. Well, I have news flash for you, if you are in Christ Jesus, you are not “human”, you are a life giving spirit for as He is so also are we in this world… Selah!

I went back to the Father and asked Him to help me Love unconditionally and He reminded me of something I heard a while back and I applied that portion of scripture as a confession over my life. It’s a confession from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8;

Obinnaya suffers long

Obinnaya is kind

Obinnaya does not envy

Obinnaya does not parade himself

Obinnaya is not puffed up

Obinnaya does not behave rudely

Obinnaya does not seek his own

Obinnaya is not provoked

Obinnaya thinks no evil

Obinnaya does not rejoice in iniquity

Obinnaya rejoices in the truth

Obinnaya bears all things

Obinnaya believes all things

Obinnaya hopes all things

Obinnaya endures all things

Obinnaya NEVER FAILS

I constantly declare these words over myself and I can assure you that I have become a better version of myself over time. There has been numerous tests to my resolve to be like Christ always and I can’t tell you that it has been very easy to stay true but this one thing I can say, it has completely been worth it. The look on people’s faces when I respond in love even when they have utterly hurt me is priceless.

The Master is seeking representatives here on earth, can you become one for Him?

Think about it….

WALKING WITH GOD?

A couple of days ago, the Lord demanded that I spend more time with Him. To me, He literally sounded like a jealous lover and this had me thinking. You see, I spend an average of 2hrs minimum in His presence daily and to me, that was an above average quality time (all things being equal) but I heard Him say to me that  for the depths I’ve begun to touch and enter, much more was required. My schedule has since changed and I cannot even begin to share with you how amazing it has been, it almost feels like floating on thin air #storyforanotherday.

This demand from my Father got me thinking; on an average, how well does the average professing Christian know their God?

There are some insights that the Father will give to me and my question to Him always is; “Lord, what have I then been doing all this while?” and He just chuckles and continues teaching me. I have been taught so much of the Lord, yet it still feels like I know so little. The depths in His glory are sooooo deep and vast, leaves you searching and thirsting for more.

I have a passion for believers so when I receive some insights, I most times look at it in comparison to the average professing believer. So a little question pops in my head; How much time are you investing in the knowledge of God and fellowship with Him?

Matt 6:21 Luke 12:34 tells us that where a man’s treasure is, that’s where his heart will be. I belong to this investment group and I observe with utter amazement (pardon my French) how driven and hyped up these guys are about making money and I always quietly wonder if their relationships with God receives half as much of that sort of attention and ginger.

A look at the things you are gingered about gives one an insight as to where your treasure really lies. Jesus in Matt 19 instructed the rich young ruler to go sell his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor and follow Him. The man walked away sad, scripture says because he had many possessions. He weighed the option of walking away from his possessions for Christ and considered it too much a price to pay so he decided that he rather have his possessions that have Christ. I am sure we often read that passage and think ‘what a foolish guy’ however, so many of us today by our actions are doing the exact same thing. When last did you take a vacation just to spend time with God? Can you cancel a business meeting just to spend time with God? Can you walk away from your well-paying job just because God asked you to? Can you shut down your business which you built from scratch just because God asked you to?

What does this walk with God even mean to you?

As you go into this new month and for the rest of your days, I want you to ask yourself; how well am I walking with God?

Selah!

MIND SHIFT

I spent two weekends in March with my siblings and it gave us some time to gist, catch up and bond again. One of us was getting married and there is nothing like a celebration to get us going. Like my wife will say, we too like play.

In all of that play, I noticed the week before that one of my siblings was sounding a bit deeper than her usual self. You see as the first of five amazing children and the “father” of the house as it were, I keep praying and asking God that He grounds us all in His perfect will for our lives and cause my siblings to develop the sort of relationship I have with Him or preferably something deeper. So hearing one of them sound deep drew my attention and caused something to leap on my inside, I could recognize that there was a change going on somewhere.

As the conversations kept going on, we eventually delved into church and allied matters and then I found out what had changed.

My sister said she currently never looks forward to Sunday service. That for me was a flag but her next comments affirmed something that had shifted in me a very long time ago. Now mind you, she worships with one of the very large assemblies in Nigeria that have been very instrumental in getting the body of Christ in Nigeria where it is today.

She said that however there is this smaller group of people who meet sometime during the week and she never would miss those meetings for anything in the world. She went ahead to describe a meeting she missed and how it pained her that she was only able to attend just one day of the three day meeting. She described with joy how God gave her a word for the lady beside her and that as she wrote the word down to pass to the lady, she was not even sure what she was doing as this was something strange to her.

My dad was a pastor and we grew up in a Christian home, so we were schooled in the “things” of the spirit as it were. However, she had prior to this time not really walked in the fullness of the workings of the gift of the spirit and here she was giving a word from God to a total stranger. She said that after the service, the lady came back to hug her and greet her and thank her. You can imagine her joy and elation.

I can tell you that my sister is not the same person I hung out with in December for my other sister’s wedding. The babe is deep now mehn! Something shifted.

As we talked some more, it became obvious that there was a thirst in her heart for more of God which wasn’t being met in her local assembly and God decided to fill that vacuum Himself.

I am aware that there are so many people out there like my sister who have a burning desire within them for more of God. People who know that there is more to God than what is currently obtainable in their local assembly and have been crying out to God for more of Him. I want to assure you that God sees your heart and will order your steps aright.

Like I shared with some folks who met me privately with these questions, some of you want to leave your local assembly to somewhere else because you feel you are not in the right place. Before you make that move, ensure that that you should even be moving in the first instance. Has God instructed you to leave? If He hasn’t, you MUST stay put until He instructs you (I know how you must feel, trust me I’ve… been there). David had to stay with Saul though attempts had been made at his life on several occasions because it wasn’t yet time for him to be crowned king over Israel, so like David, I advise you stay put.

But some of you like my sister need to run away from where you currently are. I mean like seriously run. And don’t give me that nonsense about it being your “family church”, run for your dear life. There is an assembly where God is looking to grow you, find them and grow or stay put and die.

I connected with an assembly of brethren and have made tremendous progress ever since. The church of God will continue to march on and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. You and I are the CHURCH, the assembly we decide to fellowship in should be aimed towards growing the CHURCH. If you are not growing, then scripture likens you to the heir who due to him still being a child is under the care of servants until he/she attains the level of development where they are able to handle what is rightfully theirs.

As leaders of assemblies, your major drive should be to grow the CHURCH. When I say grow I didn’t mean drive to increase number or attendance, NO. I meant growth as in the people themselves growing.

I am proud of the people my siblings are becoming and I pray that my God who has led them this far in Him will continue to grow them Himself.

I love you guys!

SISTER SLAY QUEEN

I pastor an assembly of predominantly young adults and both from observing people and my personal experiences, I understand the desire and pressure to fit in.

As a teenager, I received numerous lectures about peer pressure and its effect and I think one of the reasons I seriously looked forward to growing a beard was to join the league of men who were big enough to take their own decisions without the influence of others or being tagged as a small boy; little did I know that it’s a continuous cycle…

As I grow in God and become more aware of my environment, I begin to question things around me, judging them to affirm their alignment with the word of the God. This has become a favourite past time of mine and its quite interesting spending hours with God debating on things that I used to know as against how God really sees them.

That’s not what I’m writing about today though, but it was on one of such occasions that the Lord pointed me to the subject of my post today.

For some reason during one of my quiet times, I picked up my phone and on my timeline I saw the word “Slay Queen”. The word stayed with me for a while and since it was my quiet time, I needed to discard the carnal thought immediately to enable me focus on deep stuff.

I know that slay queen is a phrase that some ladies use to describe themselves these days and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t shake off the knowing that the Lord was trying to tell me something about it. So since my quiet time is for communing with the Father, I thought that if it was females that He wanted us to discuss today, then…. So be it.

He asked me to turn to a passage in scripture:

Proverbs 7:1-27

1 My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you. 2 Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your finger; write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your nearest kin, 5 That they may keep you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words. 6 For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, 7 And saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, a young man devoid of understanding, 8 Passing along the street near her corner; and he took the path to her house 9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black dark night. 10 And there a woman met him, with the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart. 11 She was loud and rebellious, her feet would not stay at home. 12 At times she was outside, at times in the open square, lurking at every corner. 13 So she caught him and kissed; with an impudent face she said to him: 14 “I have peace offereings with me; today I have paid my vows. 15 So I came out to meet you, diligently to seek your face, and I have found you. 16 I have spread my bed with tapestry, coloured coverings of Egyptian linen. 17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. 18 Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love. 19 For my husband is not at home; He has gone on a long journey; 20 He has taken a bag of money with him, and will come home on the appointed day.” 21 With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, with her flattering lips she seduced him. 22 Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to slaughter, or as a fool to the correction off the stocks, 23 Till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, he did not know it would cost his life. 24 Now therefore, listen to me, my children; pay attention to the words of my mouth: 25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths; 26 For as she cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men. 27 Her house is the way to hell, descending to the chambers of death.

Permit me to add SELAH!

I read this passage and I was weak. I immediately understood why the phrase stuck with me. The person that used the line probably was trying to say that she looked exceptionally beautiful that day, however, because she felt the need to use a slang that is currently in vogue, she had roped herself into something that had far much more reaching implications than she was aware of.

I paused and began to think of all the other things that have either recently or in time past come into vogue that people have no clue where these things emanated from and for a need to fit in, people just join the band wagon and blindly follow the trends. What is a dab? Where did it originate from? What’s a mannequin challenge? To what end was the usefulness of that challenge? (Let me not go into that one today).

My dear sister, the next time you consider to address yourself as a slay queen, quickly do check, Proverbs 7 describes in clear terms the SLAY QUEEN. You could either be a slay queen or a VIRTUOUS WOMAN (Proverbs 31), but it is impossible to be both at the same time, so choose!

A word they say is enough for the wise.

SELAH!