Did You Hear The Trumpet?

A candlelight may be sufficient to read a novel, but not to navigate a car at night. 

A car's headlight may take you through many dark roads, but it can't light a stadium at night. 

Even the floodlights of the stadium may turn night to day during a match, but it's insignificant for a city.

There is a calling, there's a separation, there's a trumpet and those that know will know, those that understand will understand; those few with just a flicker of light in their hearts will be ignited; they will be empowered, they will congregate as an army and their light together will save the country.

You've wondered what that sound was, you've wondered what that light was for, you've wondered why the burden was placed - now you know! You must answer and only you know how.

Zeal Akaraiwe

There are some things you read that jumps at you, you know what it’s talking about, and same time, you ponder about it’s meaning in your heart, because as much as you know, you still don’t know, even when you’re certain it’s directed at you. 

I shared this message Zeal sent to me here, because I know there are people reading this right now who have wondered what that light within them was for, and there are people blowing up with this message… It’s a take over generation. It’s the referee’s call to get ready, the orange light preceding the green light that screams GO… and go we will, wherever He directs, because we have been equipped in various ways, all we have to do is answer!

"“You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil..." John 15:16(Msg)

One Night With The King...

I love to worship... It's one of my favorite times with God. It's awesome the way His presence rains down when our worship goes up.

Night Of Worship(NOW) is an initiative of Joshua Ville, the youth church of RCCG City Of David parish(my home church in Lagos). I remember the first edition a few years ago, and I'm so glad it's here to stay as it waxes stronger year by year.

It's all about spending the night with the King of kings, ministering to Him and enjoying the atmosphere of His glorious presence. This year has gospel acts like Tye Tribbet, Tasha Cobbs, Sonnie Badu, Enitan Adaba(she was on Nathaniel Bassey's 'Imela' song) and a host of others.

NOW 2014 is holding on Friday(tomorrow), the 21st day of November at the Fidelity bank open ground( along the palms/shorite road) Oba Idowu Oniru street, Lekki Lagos. Time is 9pm till dawn.
If you're in Lagos, give God this night and get lost in the cloud of His presence under an atmosphere of worship. Remember, when heaven comes down, your life never remains the same after that encounter.

Let It Go...

(I wrote the title down, and next thing I'm singing the frozen soundtrack 'Let it go'. tsk tsk tsk)
 
I love the picture below…

It reminds me of how God would never ask us to let go of something if He didn’t have a better plan. Sometimes, we wouldn’t see that plan in the immediate, sometimes, we would start to question and feel let down as we wait, but ultimately, He’s got a plan that’s much bigger than the pinch we wouldn’t let go of. A seed has to be let go of, sometimes it may feel it has been buried, but it is planted, for it to grow into a fruitful tree/plant.

Imagine if Jesus were alive today. Now that would be something. Crusades everyday in different countries with millions of attendees, (don’t tell me he wouldn’t need a private jet, I bet he would because of his packed schedule.) His twitter followers would hit the roof and his critics would have a field day on the social medias. They’re be instagram posts mocking some of His statements, i.e ”I am the bread of life”, we’d see memes mocking those words like yeah right, maybe your yeast got to your pride, its swollen and you’re spilling trash.

Oh, it would be such a sensation.

To have a living hope, a message, that moves the world, all the miracles and wisdom and boldness. Like what???? He would have feasts with the mafia bosses and the starlets of Hollywood and be ridiculed for it. I bet Kim Kardashian would be a guest at one of the homes He’d be invited to, and posting a controversial selfie on instagram. I sure would be putting up posts about Him on this blog, but the question is, would it be in support of or against Him? Thank God I would never know.

And then when He’s arrested? A social media campaign like no other would reign. His followers would use hashtags that would #breaktheinternet. Retweets that would crash twitter and Facebook posts and videos and songs with soaring number of views and shares

The pressure would be too much for the authority that they would have no choice but to release Him… the social media freedom fighters would celebrate the victory of setting an innocent man free. Even Buddhist, atheist and Muslims would probably fight for this great cause, he’s an innocent man, don’t trample on his rights, let him be in all his foolishness.

You see we wouldn’t see the bigger picture that His living is just a pinch in comparison to the greatness in His death and so we would hold Him tight even when God asks us to let Him go. Because He’s our hero and we cant let such a good man, one who gives us hope go so easily.

We wouldn’t see the bigger picture that His living is good, but His dying is better. Jesus as man was so limited even with all the possibilities of his abilities. Him living is Him in the world, but its us squashed amongst the millions at one of His crusades with no hope of ever getting close enough to touch Him. Him living would be us tuning into a radio program to hear one of His messages, or buying His books, no personal relationship… Him dying is us having him right here with us wherever we are. It’s us having our personal savior with enough time to listen to each and every one of us for the littlest thing. 

Him dying is me being able to talk to Him about a stubborn pimple and not worry about wasting the one second I managed to squeeze my way through to him. Him leaving the world from the cross is me having the fullness of Him, having His wisdom whispering to my heart things I would never know or understand on my own, its me not having to save money and wonder what country He would be next and flying there if I can afford it or get a visa, and getting there to sit way back because millions of people queued up and got in the hall before me. And even if I was in His presence, I’d leave not fully satisfied because I would want a more personal relationship with Him.

By letting Jesus go, we got Him living in us. We got the Holy Spirit when Jesus left. How awesome is that? He's with us all day, everyday... just being our best friend, our confidant, our counsel, our comfort and our God!

What are you holding on to? What has God gently asked you to let go of? A relationship? A job? What have you lost that makes you feel beat down and crushed? If He's speaking to you to let go, if He let you lose that thing, then it means, there's something bigger cooking up. It's just a pinch compared to the tablespoon He has in store for you. Cheer up, and keep your hope alive, be expectant!

Through The Doorway, To The Faithful Lover...

I received the first proof for my book last week. I was going through it today and I’m not sure how I felt when I saw Dr. Myles Monroe’s name on my acknowledgement list. I have been privileged to sit under his teachings a number of times, and I have always left his presence reeling from all the truth he taught, blessed and encouraged to be better. I woke up yesterday morning with a silent scream when the death of Dr. Myles, his wife Ruth was broken. (Thankfully, the report about his daughter has been clarified)

His testimony of where God brought him from, to where I’ve seen God place him at is a glimpse of the awesomeness of God, the one who takes nothing, and makes something spectacular out of it.

Myles Monroe affected the world he came across with, and the world that came across him. His books and sermons outlive him to the generations to come. His love for his wife Ruth, was so obvious from the way he always spoke about her, and as cruel as this may sound, I’m glad they were together to the end… I can’t imagine what his son Chairo and daughter Charisa would be feeling, losing both parents. I can’t imagine the pain of the families of those who lost their lives in that crash...

But I can imagine an inch of the joy of the afterlife, for to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21) for every believer…

He left the world poured out… a vessel used by God to water the lives of those who came across him.

I don’t want to leave this world without planting my purpose on the earth, and watering and nurturing it to a point where it outlives me, and remains as a blessing to my children, and their children and the generations to come like Dr. Myles Monroe.

And as he quoted… “Death is just a doorway to take me to my Faithful Lover…” I’m sure he’s having a glorious blast right now.

Unforced Rhythms...

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”mat11.28

The 'unforced rhythms of grace". Grace is so simple and uncomplicated, so easy and beautiful... that's why it's so hard to understand, because as humans, nothing makes sense if it isn't complicated. if it's easy, there's a catch and it can't be worth it, or effective. 

May our hearts be open to the beauty of God's grace, as simple as it comes, with no baggage, just love and more love and even more love.

Biggest Loser...

Being obese never really helped anyone. There comes a time when we have to be conscious about how healthy our diet is and quit the unhealthy ways just before it gets to the place where we can’t get off the chair without huffing and puffing. That’s one of the toughest things to do… lose weight. I watched the reality show ‘biggest loser’. It was quite emotional for me, watching this extremely overweight and unattractive looking people working so hard to shed off as much weight as they could. At the end of the show, I saw beautiful people emerge from the midst of all that excess flesh. All that beauty was hidden in all that weight. 

The weight destroyed a lot of things; it took a lot of things away from them, from their freedom of movement, to self-confidence, to beauty, to identity. The weight told them they were no good, and so they kept eating, even when the weight got outrageous.

It’s never easy losing weight. You have to go beyond wanting to lose it, you have to be determined, and for a pretty good chance of success, you need someone to help you go through the process… because without that help, encouragement, and extra push, you end up being right back at the place that you were at… two big mac meals away from your next workout.

Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. You can count on this.  1Timothy 4:8-9(msg)

Sin gives us weight. Sin makes us obese, and just like we tell ourselves that we’re already fat, thus we might as well keep eating, sin makes us crave for more sin, and we keep adding to it because we believe we can’t shed it off. We’re already bad, we might as well keep going at it, there’s no hope in sight. God is so disappointed in us; He wouldn’t even look at us if we ask for forgiveness one more time after the last one more time we said to Him... Thus we give ourselves away to it all. Till we’re so weighed down and obese in sin, we wonder how we got so far away from God… how we got to this despicable place outside receiving and basking the father’s love. The love that has always been there, but we let our guilt chauffeur us away from it.

That’s where being the biggest loser comes in. There are loads of people looking for shows like this to help them, to lend them a helping hand…. Shed off all the weight of sin. It’ll be a tough ride, getting rid of habits and ignoring the burger when you see it, but It’ll be worth it. That’s what the Holy Spirit comes to do for us, to help us be the biggest losers. Because without Him it’s just a continuous circle of falling off and heading right back to where we started. We can't transform ourselves, we need help.

“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your

lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.” Gal 5:16.

Get up from where you are, you can never wear God out with your cry for mercy and help to overcome sin(HIs mercies are new every morning). He is faithful, He’ll forgive you, He already forgave on that cross, and He’ll give you His Spirit to help you and take you off that addiction and overcome that weakness and overcome that temptation, and if you happen to fall again, His Spirit is there to give your spirit a conviction that God loves you all the same, and there is no condemnation for you in Christ, and you can still get up and keep walking towards the goal of your high calling.

Losing the weight and getting the ideal weight isn’t a one off thing, it is a continuous process. Say you lose all that extra weight that made people refer to you as obese, you still have to work out regularly and be on a healthy diet to maintain it, because if you relax, you’re bound to fall prey to all the greasy food that will get you gaining again… same way it is with sin. Work out your salvation regularly to keep fit by carrying a consciousness of who you are in Christ, how much He loves you and what the cross has done for you. If you loose consciousness that you are the righteousness of God in Christ, then a little lie here, a little lie there, a little cheating there is all it’ll take to get you beating yourself in self-condemnation and gaining again, with a high chance of your sin consciousness taking you right outside of the cover of this gracious grace.

“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God” (Philippians 3:14). Keep pressing towards the mark. If you fall off the wagon, get right back up.