Don't Be Enslaved By Your Tools

There is a story of the rich man and Lazarus that Jesus gave in Luke 16:19-31. To summarise, the rich man loved wearing radiant clothes and partying every day. But there was also a beggar named Lazarus who stayed at the rich man’s gate and desired to be fed the crumbs or leftovers of what was eaten at the rich man’s place. Lazarus had sores that dogs came and licked, which showed how beggarly he was.

It then happened that Lazarus died and angels carried him to Abraham’s bosom. Not long after, the rich man also dies and is buried, but ends up being tormented in Hades.

One would wonder why the rich man ended up tormented in Hades. Several reasons would point to this; Lazarus was always at his gate, but he never invited Lazarus to any of his parties. Even if he felt Lazarus wasn’t party material, he could have at least sent food to him, which he didn’t do at all. He completely ignored Lazarus and lived as though the world revolved around him.

Another reason shows that his hands were not clean and he didn’t know God because he found himself in Hades immediately. It was there we found out that he knew who Lazarus was all this while.

The Bible says in Proverbs 19:17, “He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, and He will pay back what he has given.” Also, Jesus made us understand that the least we do in taking care of people in need, we do to Him, (ref.: Matthew 25:31-46). It showed that the rich man was very selfish and proud and didn’t consider the poor.

The essence of this is not to judge the rich man but to point out what Abraham said to the rich man after he begged that he should send Lazarus to his brothers to not come to the place of torment; in other words, they should change the way they are living by being godly. Abraham said in Luke 16:29, “Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’” Even when he pleaded further they won’t repent unless they see someone from the dead as Lazarus. Abraham answered him Luke 16:31, “But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded through on rise from the dead.’”

This goes to show that even though God has sent us as His Ambassadors here on earth, we should ask the Lord God for discernment of spirit to know when He is leading us. This is very important because Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees about the dangers of the love of money. After all, the rich man loved money so much that he never knew when God was speaking through his prophets. And this was what Abraham also said to him, that if they can’t listen to Moses and the prophets, then they won’t listen to anyone even if that person came from the dead.

True, money is used as a means of exchange here on earth, but to love money is not to love God because if you love God, He shows you how to use the money for His kingdom, and you see yourself as His steward, which is completely different from loving money.

Let’s be careful, and we should always be led by the Holy Spirit because mammon is very corny. After all, it uses money to enslave people. May our focus be on the Lord always IN JESUS’ NAME, AMEN.

 

 

Why not accept Jesus today if you haven’t? Pray out loud, “Jesus, I confess that You are my Lord and Saviour. I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. By faith in Your Word, I receive salvation now. Thank You for saving me!” Congratulations—you’re born again, and you are now brand new!

                                          

Log on next time.

 

For prayers and comments, send them to the comment section below.

 

GOD BLESS YOU.

 

PLEASE LIKE AND FOLLOW MY BLOG

 

                                                                                                                 

Unless otherwise stated, the following scriptures are obtained from the New King James Version (NKJV)

Don't Live Off The Wrong System

Every organisation has a system that guides it, and every member of staff needs to understand the system, which aids the productivity of the staff member. So, if a member of staff resigns from an organisation, and resumes at a new organisation, things may get frustrating if that staff member does things without first understanding how things run in the new organisation. In other words, knowing and understanding the system of the organisation anyone belongs to is very important.

Systems don’t only exist in organisations but in every setup, including the whole world. This means that there is a system of the world that should be understood to run things here on earth.

So, there was a certain rich man who had a steward or manager who managed the rich man’s business, but after a while, news got to the rich man that his manager was mismanaging his funds. After summoning the manager, he decides to sack him, but he has to bring the books to the rich man before he leaves.

The manager, knowing that he would be broke after leaving the rich man’s business and was too proud to beg, then decided to meet with all those who owed the rich man. As he asked each one what was owed, he decided to bring the prices down. For instance, one of the debtors owed the rich man two hundred thousand dollars, but the manager decided to write off fifty per cent of the money. And to another, he wrote off twenty per cent of what was owed, and on like that.

Stay with me. News soon got to the rich man about what his manager had done, and he commended the manager on how he decided to save his neck after leaving him. True, the rich man should have been angry, but he commended the manager for one reason, and that reason was because he understood the system of this world, and he used it well. It was like the rich man was so impressed that he said, “Well played.”

This story was given by our Lord Jesus found in Luke 16:1-13. So, what was Jesus’ reason for telling the story? His reason was that the people of the world are wiser than those who are Sons and Daughters of God in how they act using their system.

The children of the world know their system and are using it properly, just as the unjust manager. But those who are Sons and Daughters of God sadly do all they can to live the system of this world. Jesus’ point here was that the Sons and Daughters of God are in this world, but not of this world. Therefore, they are expected to know and understand the system of their own kingdom, which is the kingdom of Our Lord Jesus. Thus, understanding His kingdom, we then live it right here on earth, because part of our mission is to bring the will of God in heaven down here on earth.

There is no point in forcing ourselves to act as the people of this world, which is what we have been doing, thus making the people of this world act wiser than those of the kingdom of Jesus. Act from where you come from, and not from another place.

This was why Jesus said that use the resources here in this world the way resources are to be used in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus. Thus, being faithful even in little things, by doing that it shows that you will be faithful in bigger things, as our faithfulness is in line with our true system of the kingdom.

Stop trying to be like the people of the world even in their successes and wealth, because it was achieved using the fallen system of this world. But when you know and understand the system of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, allow the Holy Spirit to lead you on how to live the kingdom life here on earth.

Don't be who you're not, be who you are—the Son or Daughter of God.

 

Why not accept Jesus today if you haven’t? Pray out loud, “Jesus, I confess that You are my Lord and Saviour. I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. By faith in Your Word, I receive salvation now. Thank You for saving me!” Congratulations—you’re born again, and you are now brand new!

                                          

Log on next time.

 

For prayers and comments, send them to the comment section below.

 

GOD BLESS YOU.

 

PLEASE LIKE AND FOLLOW MY BLOG

 

                                                                                                                 

Unless otherwise stated, the following scriptures are obtained from the New King James Version (NKJV)

Why You Put Jesus First

Let’s paint a scenario of a five-year-old girl walking home with her Father from the hair salon. Any time the girl walks away from the path that leads home, her Father immediately guides her back on the path that leads home, no matter the plans she has on her mind, her path must be with her Father’s—home.

I once wrote about why we should not grow up. The reason is that when we were kids, our parents guided us throughout our lives even when it didn’t make any sense to us. Any plan we had must align with theirs, like not skipping school. But as we grew, we started seeing the sense as to why certain decisions were made, which was in our favour.

The whole reason for all this was for us to switch from depending on our parents to depending on God as our Father. We had learnt how to depend on our parents; they provided all our needs: food, clothing, shelter and more. All we had to do was just be a Son or Daughter carrying out our responsibilities as a child in the house. This wasn’t a condition to be fed or to get any of our needs met, it was just being part of a family. God expected us to get the whole idea, but we decided to move from having parents to becoming orphans, in the name of being independent as adults. This wasn’t God’s plan.

Proverbs 19:21 says, “There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the LORD’s counsel—that will stand.” What this means is that He is our new parent, and no matter what we plan, it is His purpose for us that will prevail because beyond what our earthly parents knew, God our Father made us and knows the exact reason why we were made.

Now, coming to Jesus, He spoke on the cost of being His disciple. He said in Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” This wasn’t Jesus being mean, what He meant was that to be His disciple was to hand over your life to Him to lead and direct. In other words, He decides the outcome of our lives; this sounds just like God because only God’s purpose prevails.

Jesus is God one hundred per cent, so He is teaching us how to trust in Him and to understand that whatever He asks of us will always be in line with the purpose of our creation. Therefore, He must always come first before anything else. It is not a matter of compulsion, because He gave us the condition to becoming His disciple, something we have the freedom to think things through before we give an answer.

This is in line with what He said earlier in Luke 9:62, which says, “No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” because He gave you the freedom to think things through. All He wants is our heart; that is our devotion, commitment, and life. Thus, we always put Him first before anything else, laying down our lives for Him to lead. Entrusting everything we go through into His hands; our needs, protection, health, everything. 

If we trusted our parents with our lives, why can’t we do the same with Jesus? We always put our family first before anything else when we were kids, why can’t we do the same with our Lord Jesus? So, trust Jesus, be His disciple, and manifest the true purpose of your creation here on earth.

 

Why not accept Jesus today if you haven’t? Pray out loud, “Jesus, I confess that You are my Lord and Saviour. I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. By faith in Your Word, I receive salvation now. Thank You for saving me!” Congratulations—you’re born again, and you are now brand new!

                                          

Log on next time.

 

For prayers and comments, send them to the comment section below.

 

GOD BLESS YOU.

 

PLEASE LIKE AND FOLLOW MY BLOG

 

                                                                                                                 

Unless otherwise stated, the following scriptures are obtained from the New King James Version (NKJV) 

Focus on a Thing at a Time

Have you heard of the saying that women multitask much more than men do? In other words, women can do a lot of things simultaneously. But the truth is that although women may do things at the same time, they cannot focus on them as simultaneously as we think because they switch from one thing to another within seconds it appears as though they focus on many things simultaneously because that’s how their brains are wired. They break things down in seconds more than men could, and it appears they are doing things simultaneously. Women are awesome, right?

But why did I elaborate on how women multitask so easily? My reason is that God created us in a way that we cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. And this is seen even in our spirit man.

The moment you gave your life to Christ Jesus, you received a brand new life of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, this new life needs to be focused on. In other words, this new life has to be fed. True, your nature is the exact nature of Christ Jesus. But you live in this body that Apostle Paul calls earthly tent (ref.: 2 Corinthians 5:1) that is being perfected through the renewal of our minds. Thus, Galatians 5:17 says the spirit (our new nature) and the flesh (our unrenewed self) oppose each other.

Apostle Paul spoke earlier in Galatians 5:16 that when we walk in the Spirit, then we won’t fulfil the desires of the flesh and its sinful craves. This can only happen when your focus is on the Spirit, and to grow your Spirit, you have to fix your eyes on Jesus. The Amplified Bible puts Hebrews 12: 2a thus, “[2]  Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection].” Jesus is our perfection, and the only way to live, amplify, and manifest the nature of Christ in us is to fix our eyes on our perfection, who is our Lord Jesus Christ.

As we keep meditating on the word of God day and night, knowing who Jesus is, the Holy Spirit in us brings the logos (the written word) to life (rhema), allowing us to activate the Christ Jesus life within us through His leading and direction.

Anyone who gives his or her life to Christ Jesus still has the cravings of the flesh as though nothing happened, but something has changed from within, and that is the new Spirit. The old life has died and Christ Jesus is the new life. But the new life must be fed to activate and manifest the Christ Jesus’ life within by fixing our eyes on Him. This is done through meditation on the word of God, praises, prayer (not unnecessary prayer, but that of spending time to know Him), speaking in tongues, and then the Holy Spirit who is the catalyst, interprets to us the revelation received for our Spiritual growth. And we see our focus on the Spirit increase, and that of the flesh decreases.

I tell you, the life of Christ Jesus is awesome. Mysteries coming to life, finally being understood. Praise Jesus!

 

Why not accept Jesus today if you haven’t? Pray out loud, “Jesus, I confess that You are my Lord and Saviour. I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. By faith in Your Word, I receive salvation now. Thank You for saving me!” Congratulations—you’re born again, and you are now brand new!

                                          

Log on next time.

 

For prayers and comments, send them to the comment section below.

 

GOD BLESS YOU.

 

PLEASE LIKE AND FOLLOW MY BLOG

 

                                                                                                                 

Unless otherwise stated, the following scriptures are obtained from the New King James Version (NKJV)  

 

The Scale of Preference

I remember when I was introduced to Economics in secondary school I learnt what was called the scale of preference. This meant making a list of things according to their importance. This is very important in doing anything, and even to those who are Sons and Daughters of God. Jesus told us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In fact, He never mentioned anything as second or third because the only important thing was to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, but sadly we seem to take these things for granted, not knowing how serious this command is.

In a parable Jesus gave, a certain man had a great feast and asked his servant to meet those he had invited. But they all turned him down, giving what we would call a “reasonable excuse” for not coming.

One said he had just bought a piece of land, so he had to go and see it. Another said he had just bought five yokes of oxen, so he had to test them. Another again said he just got married, so he won’t be able to come. All these excuses seem reasonable, right?

You may say they are not reasonable enough, but sadly we do this all the time by putting things like our jobs before the things of God. Now, what I mean by the things of God doesn’t mean church activities. Sadly, the world has forced Jesus into a box called the Christian religion. But Jesus did not start a religion. He brought about a brand new life, a brand new beginning, which we signed up for in the name of being born again. We claim to be under Jesus as our new and last Adam, but sadly we do things under the old or first and fallen Adam. This is why we keep giving excuses, placing things above the things of God.

As Sons and Daughters of God, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness is to know how to live in the kingdom of God using His righteousness as your life. This is where the Holy Spirit comes in as you meditate on the word of God. The Holy Spirit opens us up to our responsibilities here on earth to the glory of God the Father in the name of Jesus. Knowing this and living this becomes seeking first the kingdom of God in the righteousness we received by grace through faith. This becomes our priority.

When we give excuses, it implies that we are trying to merge the things of the flesh with the things of His kingdom. There is no way the things of the kingdom of God could clash because there is one spirit, one direction, which is in Christ Jesus.

The parable of the great feast also speaks of the children of Israel, who had Jesus at their very noses but rejected Him, so He sent His servants to call the Gentiles, those considered as not worthy of receiving the covenant of God. But remember, Jesus came for the whole world, so if you feel too big, God will raise stones to praise Him, and this applies to all of us.

We don’t know how serious it is to take the things of God for granted. Imagine telling your boss you have somewhere to go, so you can’t come to work today. This could get you suspended or fired on the spot. If we can’t treat humans that way, why should we treat the Lord God that way? This is why I always say the moment we become born again; we must know what our responsibilities are under the kingdom of God right here on earth and how to live so as not to mix the things of a man with the things of God.

Whatever we do must be the leading of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus. And don’t take the Lord for granted for He is our priority.

 

Why not accept Jesus today if you haven’t? Pray out loud, “Jesus, I confess that You are my Lord and Saviour. I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. By faith in Your Word, I receive salvation now. Thank You for saving me!” Congratulations—you’re born again, and you are now brand new!

                                          

Log on next time.

 

For prayers and comments, send them to the comment section below.

 

GOD BLESS YOU.

 

PLEASE LIKE AND FOLLOW MY BLOG

 

                                                                                                                 

Unless otherwise stated, the following scriptures are obtained from the New King James Version (NKJV)  

This is Why Humility Raises You

Humility is a key ingredient to growth in life and also towards God, although how God sees humility is quite different from how the world sees it. But all the same, humility is very important in that it places you in the spotlight, surprising, isn’t it?

Jesus said that when you are invited to an event, do not rush to sit at the important seats, because someone or people who are more distinguished than yourself could arrive, and you would be asked to leave your seat for the more distinguished guest to sit, which could be embarrassing because you would be asked to sit at a lower space. So, Jesus said, when you are invited, you should sit at a low sit, so that when your host sees you, he then takes you to your proper sit which is higher than where you are (ref.: Luke 14:7-14).

Jesus said you shouldn’t exalt yourself, but allow others to exalt or raise you. This is being humble. An example here is the life of Jesus Himself. He was in the very form of God, but He chose to come down to earth in the form of a lowly man and didn’t rub shoulders with God, for He chose to be humble to the point of death on the cross. It was then that God highly exalted Him and gave the name above every other name. At His name—Jesus, every knee bows and every tongue confess of those in heaven, earth, and under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (ref.: Philippians 2:5-11).

Even though you know that you should be humble, it shouldn’t be done out of hypocrisy. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you on the path of humility wherever you go, for the spirit of humility has been to everyone who is born again. Those who are raised are recognised and remembered.

Why not accept Jesus today if you haven’t? Pray out loud, “Jesus, I confess that You are my Lord and Saviour. I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. By faith in Your Word, I receive salvation now. Thank You for saving me!” Congratulations—you’re born again, and you are now brand new!

                                          

Log on next time.

 

For prayers and comments, send them to the comment section below.

 

GOD BLESS YOU.

 

PLEASE LIKE AND FOLLOW MY BLOG

 

                                                                                                                 

Unless otherwise stated, the following scriptures are obtained from the New King James Version (NKJV) 

God Never Gives Up On Us

Have you ever asked the question why God can’t make everyone repent? And then again, you remember God made us free moral agents; we choose what we want. But then you feel there should be a way God can just get everyone to receive Him. Well, He has and is doing that.

The kingdom of heaven is a kingdom that must grow. And God Himself is not silent about this matter because He wishes that everyone should come into repentance (ref.: 1 Timothy 2:3-4), but as I said, He made us free moral agents. But He goes about calling all to repentance.

The parable of the vineyard workers, explains that God calls us first before we become workers in His vineyard. The harvest is plenty, but the labourers are few (ref.: Matthew 9:37). God calls us, not only through those He has called. As you can see in the parable in Matthew 20:1-16, He went out to call us. A perfect example is Apostle Paul whom Jesus called Himself, and not through anyone. So, we shouldn’t think God only depends on us to propagate His message.

Now, God is so concerned about our lives that in the parable, He hired those who were idle, which shows a very loving Father who would not allow the devil to come and pollute our minds. His love for us is so much He is concerned about our repentance. But still, it is left to us to agree to follow Him.

Our Lord Jesus doesn’t show any form of partiality, for we all received the same form of inheritance because He would not deny anyone access into His kingdom no matter the time the person accepts Him. But then again, no one can use this as an excuse to relax by not receiving Jesus as Lord, the gateway into God’s kingdom, because no one knows the day or hour He will come. So, today is never too late to receive Him as Lord, but tomorrow may be too late; this is why we must go out to live and share the good news of our Lord Jesus. God loves us, and will never give up on us.

Why not accept Jesus today if you haven’t? Pray out loud, “Jesus, I confess that You are my Lord and Saviour. I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. By faith in Your Word, I receive salvation now. Thank You for saving me!” Congratulations—you’re born again, and you are now brand new!

                                          

Log on next time.

 

For prayers and comments, send them to the comment section below.

 

GOD BLESS YOU.

 

PLEASE LIKE AND FOLLOW MY BLOG

 

                                                                                                                 

Unless otherwise stated, the following scriptures are obtained from the New King James Version (NKJV)