Strictly Word of Faith!: I Have Good News For You! - Creflo Dollar

Strictly Word of Faith!: I Have Good News For You! - Creflo Dollar

MINISTRY AND LIFE PART 5

MINISTRY AND LIFE Part 5
Matt 7:3-5; Luke 11:39-40; 6:39
(Pay attention to your life first!)

When Jesus appeared to His disciples after His ressurection, Thomas was not there. When Thomas arrived and those who had seen Jesus told him what they saw, he said 'Unless I shall see the print of the nails in His hands, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.' John 20:25. However after few days, Jesus showed up again when Thomas was there and after the general salutation, He called out to Thomas and responded to the desires of Thomas as if He was there when He spoke. I thought that Jesus would have rebuked him for his seemingly faithless action instead I saw Jesus taking His time to show evidence and proofs to Thomas.
This incident did not really make much sense to me until I got to Acts 1:8 and I saw that the empowerment of the HolySpirit in the life of the believer is for him to be an effective witness. How would Thomas have witnessed to what He did not see. I think Thomas was saying that 'I dare not lie, if I must be a correct witness, then I must be given the privilege to see what others saw. I cannot be in their class of witnessing if I am just witnessing what they told me and not what I saw.'
When Thomas saw those proofs, he worshipped in fear and trembling. He could have joined others to witness earlier however his witness would not have been with a reverence to the One he was witnessing about. The power of witnessing Christ is in our reverence for Him as we witness and this reverence is born out of Divine Revelation of Christ.
How pathetic is it nowadays that many of us ministers launch out in the Name of Christ without any encounter with or revelation of the Christ we claim to represent. Our lives have not been affected and influenced by the person and presence of Christ yet we want to go about ministering to others about Christ. Can the blind really lead the blind?
Little wonder, we see many christian gathering and organisation falling into the ditch of avoidable scandals and errors because the leader (minister) is blind yet releasing to the people who he does not have. He speaks to men in the abundant of what he has heard from others and read from others without any real encounter with Christ from those words. Such men have the word of God but do not have the revelation of the God of the Word. The revelation of the word and the God of the Word will transform the life of anyone who receives by reason of the light. Revelation exposes our own wretchedness and releases grace for transformation before we are empowered to proceed to be used of God to minister to others. Check out the life of Isaiah (Chap 6), Peter (Luke 5) and all those that God uses, we will realise that those men have a direct, personal and progressive encounter with God which first changed their lives before reflecting in their ministries.
How long would love to remove the mote in others' eyes while the beam in your own eyes is still intact? I wish you can respond to God positively this hour and ask Him for a personal encounter with Him and direct revelation of Him.

Prayers: Lord, please grant me a personal, private, progressive and precise revelation of Thee and you grant me grace of encounters with Thee. I'm tired of running only on others revelation, please grant me a right view of you personally

Strictly Word of Faith!: The Power of a Wise, Committed Life by Joyce Meyer

Strictly Word of Faith!: The Power of a Wise, Committed Life by Joyce Meyer

MINISTRY AND LIFE PART 4

MINISTRY AND LIFE Part 4
Prov 25:4; Mal 3:3-4; 2Tim 2:21

"Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer." As I look critically at the life and ministry of Prophet Isaiah, I saw a man who though has the calling of God upon his life wasn't yet fitted into the matrix of God's standard of ministry but has started the work of the ministry. He had been ministering to God's people before the day God opened His eyes to see the wretchedness of laboring without concise divine activation. He kept ministering to men seemingly in the name of God, unfortunately the God that he claimed to represent wasn't even pleased with him. How the minister needed to be ministered to.
However, God in His infinite mercy attended to Him by revealing to him the impurities within him. Friends, my fear is that many of us launch out to represent the God who we are not in allignment with. We represent the Holy God with impurities and stains in our hearts and life. We minister to others in the Name of God who is not pleased with our lives. I am scared that many of us do not have the understanding of the Holiness of God. The service of God is holy and it takes holy vessel to represent God in holy service. Before you go far in what you are doing, can you find time to ask for the light of heaven to illuminate your heart and reveal to you those hidden impurities of your life.
Glory to God who did not discard Isaiah, he responded positively to the revelations of God and His holiness and this prompted God to command his cleansing. Only purged and cleansed vessels are fit to be used in Holy service to the Lord. I do not know the state of your heart presently but I believe God knows and His Spirit within is already prompting your heart to the hidden sins lurking somewhere within you. Your response to His prompting would determine your deliverance. The finer has no vessel for use until the dross and impurities have been taken away from the silver. If He took time to cleanse Isaiah, then He can cleanse you too.
If you must be used for a higher purpose, then you must be ready to humble yourself before God for a serious purging process.

Prayer: God, please purify me from my sins and I will be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart and renew a loyal spirit within me that I may be fit to minister in your presence.

MINISTRY AND LIFE PART 3

MINISTRY AND LIFE Part 3

(What I do versus Who I am) John 14:6; 10:10; 6:35; Mal 3:3-4

Ministry is another word for service which involves what you do with God for the good or the advancement of His kingdom and for the betterment of mankind. It involves doing something. The life of man before God represent His total being i.e. Who you really are in God's view. While men, Christians and the church authorities celebrate and encourage more of ministry and service, I see God saying 'you look at the acts while I look at the heart'.
God is more concerned about your life, your being, about who you really are in His sight because He knows that what you do is either directly or indirectly a reflection of what you do. You do excellent works because you are an excellent person since excellence is a spirit and a nature.
Your ministry is the outflow, expression and release of your life. Your ministry cannot be better than your life. This is why God places more emphasis on our lives than on our ministry. Martha wasn't wrong for her acts of service but Jesus was just showing her that her life and being is of paramount importance to God than her acts and doings.
In God's due order, He does not do through you for others what He has not accomplished in you. Ministry to God is the expression of the Divine impressions in your heart. It is also an outward manifestation of your inward connection to God. If you are not so connected to God for Him to impress life and light on your heart and in your light, how do you think God would use to transmit light to His people.
 In ministrations, ministers release who they are to the people they minister to. Ministry is not just about words, songs, write ups etc but about the life of the minister. Little wonder Jesus said the words I speak to you are spirit and life. This is why when an adulterous preacher speak about holiness, the people may be listening to his words but their lives and spirits are receiving from the outflow of the spirit of adultery within him.
Jesus first became a shepherd before he started the acts of shepherding. The disciples were first made to become fishers of men before they were commissioned to the acts of fishing for men. Until you become holy, you can't do holy works let alone preach on holiness. Who you really are is of paramount interest to God than what you do.

Prayer: Search me, oh God and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts and see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

MINISTRY AND LIFE PART 2

 

 

MINISTRY AND LIFE
Matt 11:28-29; Phil 2:12-13

Yesterday, we started this issue as we began to look critically at God's view and perspective of Christian ministry. We saw that God's work can only be done by God but because of His love towards which made Him to create us in His likeness and image, He has decided that we should also become His major co-workers on the earth. However, He desires that we become co-walkers with Him before we think of working with Him. His desire is such that daily we yield our neck to His yoke and follow Him closely and wholeheartedly without the purpose of learning from Him as He does what He do.However, as we walk closely with Him, we see His ways and methods of working and this revelation always wants to spur us up to quickly do some things in like manner. The fact is that God is not eager for us to work for Him. His desire is that after learning His ways and methods, we should still come to wait on Him to fill us afresh so that He would be the one doing the work through us on the earth. However, God system is such that He works first in us before He works through us. The depth of His work in us determines the height and glory of His work through us. He uses us to minister to others from the abundance of what He has ministered to us.

God is always pleased with men who wait on Him in spite of the fact that they know what to do and how to do same, because they want to be sure that they are not the ones working but God working in and through them. God honors those who honor Him with fear and trembling. We work out who God is working in us as we with awe, fear and trembling seek His face and wait on Him for every little details of our lives. God's work must be done by God Himself because only what is done by Him is acceptable to Him.

 Prayers: Lord, help me not to be full of myself. Let not the revelation of Your person and Your word make me puff us and hurry not to allow You to do what You alone can do in and through me.

MINISTRY AND LIFE PART 1

MINISTRY AND LIFE 1                     JOHN 4:34; 9:4; Phil 2:12-13

While several Christians celebrate their calling, assignment in life, Divine calling and commissioning, they fall into error most time because they lack heaven’s perspective of ministry and ministerial assignment. When you lack God’s view of any event or circumstance, you are on the path to error.  Whereas God has created every man for a specific mandate to be accomplished on the earth for Him, yet God has His own standard for and of men who can and should work or Him.

God is a desperate or hungry CEO longing indiscriminately for workers without standards. He is not just looking for men to work for Him nay work with Him. He has His pre requisite for men who can work with Him and He alone has the right perspective to the dimension of spiritual purpose, assignment and destiny.

The first issue to note with God is that “No man can do work for God. No man can do the work of God. It is called the work of God (work that belong to God) because it is only God that can do His work.”  However, He longs for men who can WALK with Him with all their hearts and in the process learn His ways to be able to WORK with Him. God is longing for CO-WORKERS; however His first desire is to see men fit to be COWALKERS. Only walkers with God can become workers with God.

How close is your walk with God? How close are your ears to His heart? How closely knitted are you to Him? How much of your hours in the day do you give to Him? How much of your journey, projects, plans, jobs, discussion and deliberations is He leading or is he being carried along? How hungry are you for more of Him for if truly you are walking closely with Him, you would be hungry for more of Him?

If these questions are not clearly answered in your heart, then I believe you need to re-examine yourself. If your heart and desire so far has been how to do great things for God, I think your pursuit now should be how to become someone great for God. I am scared that God is not looking first for doers of His works; He is looking for men who can go great distance walking with Him consistently. How I wish you can check your spirit and your heart this day and act to re-align your heart, desires, focus and pursuits with God. It is not first about your work for Him but your walk with him.

Prayers: Lord, grant me the revelation of the right perspective of ministry and service in Your kingdom. Help me to leave all else to be able to enhance my walk with YOU.

When your SOURCE becomes your Destination

GOD IS HAPPY WHEN THE SOURCE BECOMES THE DESTINATION!!!

God has so ordained the scheme of creation to run in a way that if men follow His laid down processes and precepts, He who is their source would eventually end up becoming their destination. God created us for Himself and would always love that we find our comfort and relaxation in Him and Him alone and to end up being with Him forever. God has so much delight in man that He gave man access and connection to Him directly for communion before He gave him dominion on the earth (just because God cannot afford to lose us as the object of His love) so that as man proceeds in His dominion mandate, he would forever be conscious that he has a destination which is not just a place but who is God.

I was so shocked when recently I realised one of the pain in the heart of God. He said to me ‘Why is it that when most couples are looking for the fruit of the womb, they look up to Me but they refuse to take care of such seeds such that their source would end up being their ultimate destination?’

It is becoming increasingly of great concern to God that most of the seeds that He released to men on earth on trust ends up in hell with the devil. Those souls who took God great deal of time to create become of less value in the eyes and hearts of the men He gave them to that they do not do all within their capacity to train them so that they could end up in the hands of the ONE who own them. I keep hearing the Lord saying that He is not pleased with parents who neglect his gifts (the children He gave them) or train them His own way though it appears that you are doing your best.

Man on earth is a steward and would give account of all that was given to him on earth to God. We all would render our stewardship to the God the ultimate owner of all. Our life, time, resources, children and given to us on earth are released to us on trust and the demand on us is to manage them that we may bring honor and glory to God. As I hear the emphasis of the heavens at the point of time about the children on the earth, I am so sure that heaven is pointing its finger against the parents to whom these children were released.

Could all the blames be on the parents? If not all, then most (90%). This is because God give resources to men according to their capacity. God would not have given to you a resource you could not handle. The challenge most times is that parents assume ownership instead of stewardship over their wards. They believe they can handle, manage and train according to their standards without consulting their ultimate owner. Some of the challenges of these children started from the womb but thank God for mothers like Rebecca who went to God to get the prophetic word about the seeds even while they were in the womb, while for some other children, their problems started with their names. Identity has influence on destiny. Jabez became an object of sorrow because of his name, Jacob became an object known for deceit because of his name, and it took God to change Abram’s name to Abraham for him to be a father in his lifetime. All these are effects of not consulting the source of the resource for the way to manage the resources.

My concern is that many parents, despite their labors on the earth, could have their heavenly files dented because they have refused to train up their children in God’s way and by God’s power. God’s work must be done God’s way in God’s power with God’s resources to fulfil God’s purpose. Training up a child is one of God’s works and a major one for parents.

While this article isn’t intended to be comprehensive, I believe that someone would be stirred up by these words to check up his/her status with God as regards the human resources that God has placed in their hands.              Thank you.

GOD IS HAPPY WHEN THE SOURCE BECOMES THE DESTINATION!!!

God has so ordained the scheme of creation to run in a way that if men follow His laid down processes and precepts, He who is their source would eventually end up becoming their destination. God created us for Himself and would always love that we find our comfort and relaxation in Him and Him alone and to end up being with Him forever. God has so much delight in man that He gave man access and connection to Him directly for communion before He gave him dominion on the earth (just because God cannot afford to lose us as the object of His love) so that as man proceeds in His dominion mandate, he would forever be conscious that he has a destination which is not just a place but who is God.

I was so shocked when recently I realised one of the pain in the heart of God. He said to me ‘Why is it that when most couples are looking for the fruit of the womb, they look up to Me but they refuse to take care of such seeds such that their source would end up being their ultimate destination?’

It is becoming increasingly of great concern to God that most of the seeds that He released to men on earth on trust ends up in hell with the devil. Those souls who took God great deal of time to create become of less value in the eyes and hearts of the men He gave them to that they do not do all within their capacity to train them so that they could end up in the hands of the ONE who own them. I keep hearing the Lord saying that He is not pleased with parents who neglect his gifts (the children He gave them) or train them His own way though it appears that you are doing your best.

Man on earth is a steward and would give account of all that was given to him on earth to God. We all would render our stewardship to the God the ultimate owner of all. Our life, time, resources, children and given to us on earth are released to us on trust and the demand on us is to manage them that we may bring honor and glory to God. As I hear the emphasis of the heavens at the point of time about the children on the earth, I am so sure that heaven is pointing its finger against the parents to whom these children were released.

Could all the blames be on the parents? If not all, then most (90%). This is because God give resources to men according to their capacity. God would not have given to you a resource you could not handle. The challenge most times is that parents assume ownership instead of stewardship over their wards. They believe they can handle, manage and train according to their standards without consulting their ultimate owner. Some of the challenges of these children started from the womb but thank God for mothers like Rebecca who went to God to get the prophetic word about the seeds even while they were in the womb, while for some other children, their problems started with their names. Identity has influence on destiny. Jabez became an object of sorrow because of his name, Jacob became an object known for deceit because of his name, and it took God to change Abram’s name to Abraham for him to be a father in his lifetime. All these are effects of not consulting the source of the resource for the way to manage the resources.

My concern is that many parents, despite their labors on the earth, could have their heavenly files dented because they have refused to train up their children in God’s way and by God’s power. God’s work must be done God’s way in God’s power with God’s resources to fulfil God’s purpose. Training up a child is one of God’s works and a major one for parents.

While this article isn’t intended to be comprehensive, I believe that someone would be stirred up by these words to check up his/her status with God as regards the human resources that God has placed in their hands.             

 Thank you.

Why Are You Here?

How awkward would it be when you meet a friend in the market and you ask such a person his aim of being in the market and you get a response like "I don't even know. I just know that I am in the market and after my walking around I will return home". I am so sure you would begin to doubt the mental sanity of such a person.
In the same vein, it is pertinent for each and everyone of us to ask ourselves this question over and over again "why am I here?". The discovery of the answer to this question would determine how far you would be able to maximize the reason for which your creator has created you in this earth plane.
it is crucial for any man on this earth to be able to answer the question of What he is on earth to accomplish for his creator? How he is to go about same? when and where he should start same? and with which resources to accomplish same? This is because not all available resources are meant for the purpose for which god has sent you to earth to fulfill.
Next time, we'll be discussing in details on the issue DIVINE PURPOSE.
Have a nice day ahead.