Friday 22 July 2011

Heaven is still watching...

When I heard the man of God say 'Heaven is watching', it jolted me. He said Heaven is watching to see how much we really believe God's promises. He went on to illustrate that the demonstration of our faith will be shown by our actions... what do our actions say to heaven? 

Does my action say Father, I trust you completely with my future. Does my action say, it may not be the way I planned it but I have absolute peace and trust because my heart is stayed on you, so I am beyond fretting about timing now or how things will take shape, you have my absolute confidence. Does my action say, if there is one thing I know about you it is that you are faithful, the circumstances may not be lining up but God You will come through for me. Will I meet with You everyday for the rest of my life because I trust you and I am in fellowship, covenant and relationship with You. Will I tell You every time it bothers me that I judge You faithful, will I fall on my knees consistently and begin to thank You for what I already believe You are going to do, will I begin to ask You to prepare me in advance to be able to handle the blessing and fulfillment of Your word that is coming.

'Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised' Hebrews 11:11

My friend Mo the other day pointed this out to me - judging God faithful. What is the value that we place, that I place, that you place, on God's integrity. To judge someone faithful is to mean that based on the character and the strength of who that person is they will do what they've said.  A lot of young parents love to drop off their kids with the grandparents because they know they will be loved and cared for, they trust their parents... in that regard they have judged them faithful.

My understanding really started to open up that God watches to see if indeed I have judged Him faithful, do I really believe, what does my action say? my attitude? am I speaking with Him about the issue constantly - wheter it is to assure Him that I trust Him that He is still on the case, or to thank Him in advance, or to ask Him to prepare me so that when the opportunity comes I recognise it and when the blessing comes I am equipped to deal with it both mentally and physically. Consistency... do you judge Him faithful? How consistent am I... what does my consistency say about me? Have I set the Lord always before me. 'I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.' Psalm 16:8 To set God always before you means consistency... steadfastness... on an issue, in ur prayer life, in your decisions.

There are so many times that we say yes we believe for one thing or the other but deep down we know we don't, we just can't see how it can happen, we are disgruntled, we are put out, we are weary, we are downright discouraged. It is then that we need to come up higher in our walk with God, come up higher... come up higher in the Holy Spirit.

We need to come up higher to the place of judging Him faithful...

And here are some of the things I have been learning about that...

Jesus said I have many things to tell you but you can not bear them now, when the Holy Spirit comes, the Spirit of Truth, He will guide you into all truth. A lot of times we become discouraged, it is because we are not bearing the promises of God in the Holy Spirit... that is in the strength of the Holy Spirit.

That is why the baptism of the Holy Spirit is PARAMOUNT for every bible believing christian and the gift of an unknown tongue, praying in the Holy Spirit is important for our personal edification.

The bible says 'He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself...' 1 Cor 14:4a

Pastor Agu taught on this the other day and opened my eyes to so much understanding...

He explained the greek word described to mean 'to build a super structure', I went and looked it up on scripture4all Greek to English translation, the word used was translated as 'home building'. When we pray in the spirit we are being edified, we are being built up, being translated to becoming superlative, the Holy Spirit builds us up to receive what God has for us. Your faith or understanding of a situation might be shaky initially but as you open up to God and tell Him what you are dealing with, asking the Holy Spirit to pray for you and begin to pray in the Spirit, as you continue to be steadfast in prayer, you will begin to receive that superlative ability to come to the same understanding that Heaven has about your situation, your faith begins to stand, shakiness starts to fade. Jude said in verse 20 'But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost'

You YET beLOVED to-THE HOLIEST OF YOU BELIEF ON-HOME-BUILDING selves IN spirit HOLY praying

ye yet beloved to-the most holy of ye faith  building up yourselves in spirit holy praying

The above are the two literal Greek to English translations from scripture4all, the same translation of home building is used in both Jude and I Corinthians 14. The words translated to home building are 'epoikodomountes' & 'oikodomei'  respectively.
 
Paul said 'I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:' 1 Corinthians 14:18. Because of the controversy that has been around the understanding of some of 1 Corinthians 14, I feel people have often missed the point. Paul said he speaks in tongues more than all of them Corinthian people, he did not mean that he was speaking a much more celestial language than they were, we all speak according to the same spirit as He gives utterance, he meant that he spent more time praying in the spirit in tongues in his closet than them all. Paul, the man who gave us half of the New Testament Bible by the Holy Spirit, prayed in tongues so much that he could say he spoke in tongues more than the Corinthians. Simple as that big bro Paulo was a major "skabasha" in his bedroom, on his personal retreats, thats one of the reasons he was so effective, full of faith and courage.

Releasing faith, moving from a place of fear to faith can be done in prayer, in the bedroom, on your knees before God, praying in the Spirit, building yourself up on your most Holy faith... this is what I am learning.
 
"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you." John 16: 12-15

Thursday 21 July 2011

Heaven is watching...

"Heaven is watching" the preacher's words jarred through my thoughts and resonated with me, it reminded me of what my grandmother had said to me. "Demilade" she'd said, "your heart is too big and I worry about you, when choosing a spouse -  promise me that you will watch closely before letting your heart go, that you will be observant - to judge first who is worthy of you - with a heart equally as big as yours"; And I had tried to live by that motto especially in recent times, I think I know now what my responses to Dipo & Boye will be. Dipo and Boye, two men who happened to both be in my life at the same time asking the same thing, both wanted me to say yes to being more than friends and consider a relationship with marriage in view.

Boye... a cardiothoracic-surgeon, Oxbridge trained like I was, our fathers had been at school together, our parents had introduced us and needless to say for them it was a match made in heaven. Boye was good looking, tall, slender, an impeccable dresser, rather easy on the eyes, had that whole Boris Kodjoe thing going on and had the Oxford tlit to his voice, well spoken and well mannered. He'd taken me out to Claridges for my birthday and made sure we'd called mummy, he let her know he was looking out for me, that I wasn't alone on my birthday. He called regularly for a busy surgeon, almost every other day to say hello. He'd invited me as his date for the annual cardiothoracic-surgeons' ball at the Dorchester, Kemi had said that was a total sign of my 'wifey' status, I'd met some of his work colleagues, it was an absolutely grand affair... plus all the good they were doing in the world saving lives. He was an exteremly intelligent man, went to university at 15 plus, already a consultant and visiting surgeon at teaching hospitals in the UK, US & Australia, at 36 that was a considerable achievement and everyone said what a fine mind he had. We moved in the same circles, it was an easy transition hanging out together socially...

Dipo... Dipo... Dipo, we were both project managers on the same program running parallel projects, he was man's man in a no of ways, average height, slightly stocky, slightly rugged with the cutest dimples ever, he had more of the Taye Diggs look, a Cranfield man - engineer turned investment bank project manager. For my birthday he'd got me the Anya Hirschman glitter clutch I'd been eyeballing the last time we'd been at House of Fraser during lunch, I'd said I'd wait for it to go on sale in January but He'd slipped it into my desk drawer on my birthday. He'd been there when I had foot surgery, groceries and take out in hand, quite unannounced, rang me up 5 mins before and said he was in the area and if it was ok he stopped by to see how I was doing. He'd joked about how he'd worried I'd starve to death, cooking up a storm of a week's supply of jollof rice, spiced chicken and efo, he'd also taught me how to make microwave eba all in the same afternoon - to save me standing on my feet for too long... all the while joking that he just felt like showing off his culinary skills, I think I knew better than that or was starting to... The same way he'd turned up at my doorstep the day after my sister had gone off to the US for her masters program and taken me bowling to cheer me up, he knew how close we were. He teased me whenever he called and my voice was muffled because I had been crying from watching a movie but tried to pass it off as a regular cold. He admired me insistently and was always very attentive whenever we were together.

I had been watching these two men for some time now and my decision was made, good enough my project was rounding off and I had already accepted an offer at a different bank, that would sort out the issue of Dipo and I working together.

Dipo - the man who seemed to know me inside out, despite the tough exterior I put up at work, we worked in a cut throat investment banking environment, there were deadlines to be met and deliverables we had to enforce across our teams, with high maintenance investment bankers to please. He saw through all that, He knew when I was hurting even when I tried to hide it, he made a note of things I liked and his heart was huge; Raised by a single mom, he'd put his brother through university. He was kind and also driven, most importantly he feared God, Dipo couldn't hurt a fly. Boye hmmm you couldn't really fault Boye, he did all the right things but I noticed how he never really remembered anything special or important to me except those "official" good boyfriend type things you had to do to tick the boxes, how his eyes glazed over anytime I tried to discuss my work, how his phone calls only managed to last for not more than 2 mins, he didn't even remember I was going in for surgery and then pretended that he did, his work and his opinions always seemed more important than anything I had to say; I always got a sense that I never quite had his full attention, like the other day we went out to the Kemi's party, his eyes kept darting all over the place, scoping like a predator and I knew if I wasn't with him, it probably would have been a different story. He didn't know my story, all he knew was 'I fitted the bill' but Dipo, he knew my story, he knew the stuff that made me up. Boye had no real depth neither did I really matter enough to him, I was his audience whilst he wanted always to be my stage.

Yes the preacher had a point, if I can watch these two men and weigh in the balances their actions, surely the Lord must do the same.... after all didn't He say He looks at our hearts not the lip service that we may pay but the heart and the corresponding actions that demonstrate our hearts.... Paul said I will show you my faith by my works...Grandma was right, now I had found a man with a heart that matched and understood mine & I his...

The above story is fiction, my name is not Demilade and there are no two men called Dipo and Boye vying for my attention at the moment... but I wanted to get your attention. The only reality in it was that I did hear a preacher say 'Heaven is watching' and he challenged something in me and taught me a thing or two... which I hope to share in the next blog.

Saturday 9 July 2011

Some things I have learnt about prayer...

What do you do when things go horribly wrong or when there's a lot coming at you at d same time and you feel overwhelmed or you are just plain... dare I say it... scared?

Cover yourself in prayer... it seems pretty basic but you'd b amazed how many times the enemy talks us out of praying either by trying to make us feel guilty for getting scared or we just get plain lazy or are too busy worrying...

Friend get ye praying...
Get thee to a good old holy roller prayer meeting where there are brethren praying & you can be lifted up... A wonderful woman of God used to tell me 'Sister Lara as long as you can still sit, get yourself to a prayer meeting' and if there is something I learnt from this woman of God and her Pastor husband it was the power of prayer...

There seems to be a lot I'd like to share on prayer, so I'll post this message as a series...

There are several types of prayer and there are several ways you can feel when facing difficulty, my goal is to share scripture and truth on how we should address each situation...

I was reading 2 Chronicles 20 today, it's one chapter that I really like because it encourages me and because Jehoshaphat was so plain. "Brother Jeho" did not form, he was not a "former". Those not familiar with this Nigerian Urban English... to form means to pretend, to hide who you are, to give an impression other than what is. 

The bible says in verse 3 that 'And Jehoshaphat feared...'  However he did not just stop at being afraid, he went beyond himself, he went beyond fear (we can all get scared though we don't always have to but we can). The bible goes on to say that he 'set himself to seek the Lord'. Jehoshaphat ran to God, he humbled himself and prayed, he told God 'for we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You' verse 12b. Jehoshaphat knew he could not face the multitude on his own and he acknowledged that before God, he knew he was afraid and yep he ran to Daddy...

Neither did he let satan beat him down with the fear, he went to the only place where fear can be turned to faith...he went before God. The bible says in Proverbs 25 vs 26 that 'a righteous man who falters before the wicked, is like a murky spring and polluted well.'

Two things Jehoshaphat did: he did not retreat before the enemy and he sought the Lord where the fear was dealt with, God said 'do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you' 17b

There is a point where fear has to end and faith start, however you may not reach that point until you get on your knees before God in prayer like this... Father I am overwhelmed & afraid but O God is it not You Who created the heavens, the moon and all the stars, my eyes are on You, I am here before you waiting to see what You will do for me, I will wait on you, I will come here everyday and kneel before You and wait on You...

Next time lets talk about how to unlock that faith in the place of prayer.....