Shame

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (Mark 8:38)

This virus has exposed some unpleasant aspects about our practice of faith.

Do you realize that it has extinguished the prophetic word that had become so rampant?

Where has the certainty about the future all of a sudden gone?

How has caution all of a sudden replaced release and breakthrough? Must we wait for corona to fade before receiving another word?

What happened to declare and decree proclamations being shouted from the rooftops to anyone who cared to listen?

It is not escapist to believe in Christ. But it is escapist to believe that our petty practices and beliefs can activate His power.

You see, Christ is the Lord of lords. This means that He is the ultimate Lord who answers to no one because everyone answers to Him. He is also the King of kings, meaning that He owns everyone and thus is under nobody’s leadership.

The implications of this are that if He does not hold supreme authority, He actually is not a lord to that subject. In short, Christ is either Lord of all or not Lord at all.

It means that for me to proclaim Christ as He is I must trash every other proclamation that is not subject to that. Every other proclamation must pass through the prism of Christ’s revelation.

Being fixated on the virus, or any other thing, is a clear indication that we are not listening to Christ the Lord. We could actually be acting against Him.

His Lordship over my life will determine whether I represent Him or not.

That is the context under which what Christ said lies. It does not just mean that He will confess those shouting His name. It means those whose proclamation is consistent to that name.

Thus saith the Lord is not the greeting a prophet gives, it is fundamentally exactly what God has commanded be said. Saying the same otherwise can be blasphemy.

Is Christ ashamed or proud of your proclamation and practice of faith?

Wrong Righted

I want us to look at a few times God used the wrong people to right things and when He used forbidden people to qualify His purpose.

In what theologians call the scarlet thread of redemption, we have a few such instances.

I want us to start with Judah.

He was the leader in Jacob’s family though he was the forth born. It could be because when he was born his mother had surrendered the battle to make herself loveable to her husband to God. That is the reason she called him praise.

He was therefore the firstborn of Leah’s new season, a season of praise.

Unlike Jacob, Judah and his brothers were not constrained to go far for wives. We therefore see Judah marrying a Canaanite wife who bears him three sons.

He gets a wife for his firstborn. But his mother must have ingrained in him some Canaanite vices because the Bible says that the Lord slew him for his wickedness.

As per the culture of those days, the widow was given to the second son who might also have had a lot of Canaanite influence because he decided he would enjoy sex without the corresponding responsibility and used a condom (my paraphrase).

This also displeased God and He slew him.

Now Judah is in a dilemma.

What does this girl have that kills his sons?

Now I know there are many tribes who have clans that cannot safely be married by young men.

In my talks with the ancient men of where I come from, I learnt that it was a mixture of broken covenants and curses that caused such. As such, they can never be taken as first wife or the husband dies.

Probably that is what Judah thought about Tamar.

He therefore told her to go back to her parents and wait for the youngest son to mature, hoping that she would move on with her life.

He therefore gets the shock of his life when he hears that she had become pregnant, meaning that she had moved out of her matrimonial house.

So she was not all curse and death? He must have thought.

He now wants to be a responsible father in law by ordering her judgment then realizes that she had tricked him because she had no plan B about marriage especially when she realized the young man she was promised had moved on without his father doing anything. That is why Judah said that she had proved herself more righteous than he. She produced the spiritual heir, the firstborn of Jacob’s spiritual firstborn.

The second person is Rahab. She did not play the harlot for a son. She plied it as a trade in Jericho.

She was the worst among the worst in this condemned city.

But as is usual to her kind, she kept hearing about Israel in the wilderness. She probably started hearing those stories as a child.

All of a sudden the Israelites are at their gates. In fact two of them are looking for lodging in her lodge (most professional harlots hide behind guest houses and lodges even today).

She finally has got her chance to connect to this God she had longed for and unsuccessfully sought.

What made it even sweeter was that the city authorities want to arrest, probably kill them, thus giving her a bargaining chip.

She hides them then asks them (her only link to the God of Israel) to spare her.

She also gets to join Israel.

How does such a character join Israel? It is simple. God looks for people with the right heart that desires Him.

Israel was able to ’rot’ in the wilderness for forty years because they did not believe. You read Rahab’s confession and you see the complete opposite. And to imagine that it came from stories and hearsay! Her faith simply overtook the faith of those who had gotten used to God’s presence and power as to despise it.

The third one is Ruth’s story.

A Jewish family flees famine to Moab. It is interesting that they desert a place called house of bread. Chances are that it was unspiritual to do so. But who hates greener pastures?

After moving, the man dies and the widow is left with two sons. Instead of going back home, she settles even more by getting them Moabite wives. (Remember Moabites were forbidden for ever from joining Israel). They are therefore in contravention of God’s law in doing so.

The sons also die, leaving three widows.

I suspect that Naomi thought the men were killed for disobeying God. She did not want to carry that judgment with her back to Israel. She therefore used her best arguments to ask them to remain in Moab.

One was convinced. But Ruth had made up her mind. The fractured witness they had given in their backslidden state had convinced her that she needed the God of Israel.

Like with Rahab, it was her confession that clearly demonstrates what she was after, a relationship with the God of Israel.

You therefore see her overtaking so many in Israel as she gets attached to the scarlet thread.

What am I aiming at?

I have been writing about revival for some time now. And I have been saying that it will originate outside our usual or normal circles. I mean it will not come from where we expect it to come from.

Like the three women I have mentioned, it will overtake those in the way of the breakthrough. Or do you think there were no women in Israel when these three came into the picture?

We should continue praying for revival. We should continue preparing for revival. We should even intensify our preparations to handle revival.

But we should not be surprised, shocked or amazed when God breaks out in places we never thought. We should not feel overlooked when God chooses other people and places as the hotspot of the upcoming revival.

Do not be surprised if it originates from the Muslim lands. Do not be shocked when it explodes from the persecuted church. Do not complain when it bursts from the underground church. And do not feel slighted when it bursts out of places we despised because their faith was shallow and hollow in our eyes.

You see, revival is a work of God and is not subject to human participation. We can only participate after His invitation when, where and how He wills.

But revival is coming, coming, coming.

How ready are you?

The Enemy

Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his anointed, saying, "Let's break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us." (Psalm 2: 1 – 3)

As I have been looking at corona’s development and narrative, I have come to a very simple observation. The world is united in its opposition to God and His agenda.

I do not know whether you have noticed that the target of the most ire is the believer in Christ, I mean the simple believer whose main goal is to live a life that is pleasing to God. The other person so targeted is the leader who wants God to take His rightful place in the affairs of men.

The world is hiding behind science and research to buffet and if possible extinguish the church of Christ.

Explain to me why the voice of logic in this whole issue is a computer person with absolutely no training in medical and research fields. Explain to me why a herbal remedy is discarded and despised when we are being told that the disease is not treatable. Tell me how a virus they say is untreatable turns negative after ‘treatment’.

We have been told that HIV is a virus. As such, even after treatment it never turns negative. Only the viral load is dealt with. That is how I expect this virus to behave.

If something defies logic, the meaning is that it is incomprehensible or that it makes no sense.

The corona narrative does not defy logic. It wants to make a fool of us.

For almost three weeks, there were demonstrations and riots in many places under lockdown all over the so called free world. It is interesting that the corona narrative was shelved to allow for them to proceed for impact. There was no social distancing, many did not wear masks and there was chaos everywhere. And most of those places were being called hotspots.

It was when the riots ended that the corona narrative was restarted.

Do not tell me that the virus also fears riots and chaos!

Yet mention a church and everybody starts shouting about exposing people to death.

Politicians in our country are meeting every time for selfish ends and do not for the most observe their own protocols and there is no problem. Nobody even seems to notice.

Yet believers hold a service in the open air, even following the said protocols, and it is treated as criminal.

It is true that corona virus is a war. But it is a war of faith. The world’s leaders have found a uniting object to hit God at His jugular, or so they think.

That is why it is fine go to a bar but criminal to go to church. A crowded market is safer than an empty church.

But that is not the end of the story.

He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision. (Psalm 2:4)

 Their schemes do not scare God, at all.

 You see, He is completely in charge of the world He created. It means that everything is happening according to His purpose. I love this verse.

 For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, and to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished. (Revelation 17:17)

 God already foretold this. That is why we find the verses on Psalm 2 long before what we can see happening today. Jesus said the same when He was speaking about the end times.

 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Mark 13:13)

 The world hates Christ and will do everything in its power to snuff out His work and impact. The world will do everything in its power to nullify His authority. The world will do everything in its power to kill His witness. And it has been doing this since creation.

 It is only that things will intensify as His day draws near.

 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. (Revelation 12:12)

 Do not be surprised therefore if you cannot make sense of what is happening as it was bound to happen anyway.

 The good thing is that this is not the end of the story. Look at the verse before 12:12

 They overcame him because of the Lamb's blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn't love their life, even to death.

 The believer’s victory precedes the rage. The believer overcomes and that is the reason the devil increases his rage against God’s agenda.

 But the devil knows the verdict even before the war begins. That is why he has always tried to preempt the breakthrough because he knows that once the breakthrough happens he will be finished.

 Remember he started to kill males to stop the exodus happening? Remember he also killed males to stop Christ from living.

 I believe this is what the devil and his hordes are using this virus to do. But it is only an attempt since God is fully in charge.

 Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath: (Psalm 2:5)

 God’s agenda for the world will come to fruition. In fact the devil’s part is to perfect that agenda through his resistance.

What is the end game? You may be wondering.

 I believe it is the preaching the Gospel to the ends of the earth and the resultant revival.

 Corona has opened the world to one language of sorts. At least we can all listen to narrative from one source.

 It means we will be able to hear a different narrative when it happens.

 That happens to be the Gospel of the living Christ.

 People are already fatigued by this narrative. It is boring and highly predictable. And it is depressing as it offers no hope, even for closure.

 Except for the leaders who are feeding off the virus, the rest of us are looking for an alternative narrative, a narrative devoid of this anxiety we have had to endure for months on end.

 And the Gospel is what people are crying out for.

 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8: 20 – 23)

 The only problem is that they do not know that.

 They are therefore groping in the dark until the true light shines on them. And the only true light is the Gospel of Christ’s salvation. And it is because it is the only one that has the power and answer to the world’s dilemma.

 But you can be sure that the world will not take it lying down. As was with Pharaoh and Herod they are doing all they can to ensure that we lose the moment.

 But that will not slow down or delay the revival, leave alone block it. I also need to state that it will start from the unlikeliest of places. God is at this time raising the army to strike the match of this revival, just like He did during Moses’ and Jesus’ times. I do not expect it to spring from the corrupted and compromised visible church that is playing by the rules the world sets.

 But the revival is coming.

 It is the reason that for a season even before the virus I have been challenging Christ’s church to prepare for revival. We must be ready to respond to the hordes that are pouring into the church from the world, some of them from the visible but dead church.

 Part of that revival is the judgment of the world and its leaders.

 You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. (Psalm 2:9)

 But I do not know what will come first between judgment and revival. My prayer is that revival precedes judgment.

 What I am saying in short is that corona has given the world’s leaders an opportunity to launch an all out war on Christ and His church. The good news is that out of it will spring out a revival that will dwarf all the other revivals we have had since Pentecost as it will be the one encompassing the whole world.

 On whose team are you?

Whose Script are We Reading?

I am saddened, very saddened, when I follow the narrative of many believers.

How do we call a pastor who dares to believe that God can heal corona careless? How dare we call those who decide to put their faith to practice reckless? And how come we are the first to shame a believer who decides to question the running narrative on this virus?

How does the worship of a few believers under the open heavens become criminal when the consistent and almost daily meeting of hordes of politicians for their own stupid political ends is alright? Why is it normal for politicians to hop all around the country to politic yet criminal for a pastor to hold a counseling session with someone drowning in spiritual morass?

Since when did we become accomplices to those who have demonstrated time and again that they have no interest at all in what we believe? When did we all of a sudden start doubting that what we have always believed is false?

Can God heal? Does God heal? Why then do we speak as if He doesn’t?

A few years ago I wrote a burden God gave me in a book I called ‘A Hart Athirst’.

In it I was asking where the miracles Jesus promised would be greater than those He performed went, among other things. It is a cry that has been in my heart for a long time as I have tried to internalize the Bible even as I read it.

God has not changed, and never will. We are the ones who have changed. We have lost contact with God, if truth be told.

Medicine has its roots in the people of faith, just like education. It was the people who believed in the healing power of God who were able to develop the medicine that we now use to prove the ineffectiveness of faith. The Red Cross is not a simple decoration. The founders believed that only in the cross of Christ can true healing happen. That is the reason Muslims rushed to include their sign on the same as it was clear it was a faith emblem.

Why have we all of a sudden started pouring scorn on what we have always proclaimed?

I will say something I have said elsewhere. The church is dead! And I am a member of that church and so am also speaking about me.

The saddest part is that we are not willing to admit that simple fact. A simple fact to note is that a living church has never been docile. A living church is a church that is actively at war with the world and its systems because it serves another kingdom.

The submission to authority that most church leaders speak of today makes one wonder why Paul and other apostles were in prison or prophets were killed. It makes one wonder why Jeremiah was thrown into a well.

Of course a living church has the world keenly listening to what it is saying because there is immense power behind whatever that church says. The church is God’s prophetic proclamation. That is the whole reason for persecution. You simply can’t persecute a dead church.

Church gatherings were not stopped as persecution. They were stopped to demonstrated to all that the church is dead. Online preaching, instead of being an alternative ministry outlet, was simply compliant submission. If it was as many want to paint it, it ought to have started long before the virus struck since the church does not react to situations but precedes them. Or isn’t the church prophetic?

The good thing is that in acknowledging that we are dead we can open ourselves to be revived. And God longs to revive us, only that He will not revive someone who is not already dead as He does not get glory in doing first aid especially to someone who wants to decide the kind of help they need.

The church is at the Ezekiel 37 valley. And yes, we can live. But only when we agree with God that we are dead to Him and His agenda for a lost world.

You see, inasmuch as God is the God of miracles, He does not perform them at our whim. He does them for His glory. He does not perform miracles as a demo. He does them to point to who He is.

I like the way John calls Jesus’ miracles, signs. Each of the miracles recorded in John pointed to one attribute of the risen Christ.

Yet we know the devil was on His case from the beginning. At the temptation He challenged Him to prove who He was and at the cross He did the same.

Yet that is what we have turned God’s miracles to, a show of who has more faith or prayer. It is the same with any other ministry.

Our prayer is not different. We pray for a miracle but already have plan B to K.

I am talking about trusting God for a good school for my child when I have a pool of favorable principals on the other side. I ask for prayer for a job when I already have enough connections in all the right places.

In short I simply want God to rubber stamp those deals. And you are offended when I say we are dead as a church!

God is everything to us or He is nothing. Like I always say Christ is Lord of all or He is not Lord at all. There are no two ways about it.

Revival is coming. Miracles are coming. And I believe it is very soon.

Are we ready?

Leadership Vacuum

I have stated elsewhere that leadership is foresight. By that I mean that leadership must itself be guided by foresight to qualify as such. And by foresight I mean the ability to plan ahead of eventualities, even accidents.

A leadership that is surprised by happenings is therefore completely deficient and by that disqualifies itself from their mandate.

Let us look at our leadership from the top to get what I mean.

When our president was the finance minister he was once challenged about some lost (eaten?) money and his response was that it was a typing error.

Another time he was speaking about corruption and he responded in resignation by asking the press what he should do.

We have a senate that applauds someone by sacking him and at the same time whitewashing another person whose parliament (or what is it called?) brings evidence about her corruption. And that before even looking at the evidence proffered.

But allow me to look at just two recent happenings to get what I mean.

Remember legislators defending a cabinet secretary from impeachment even before hearing the charges preferred against him?

But what was sadder was the fact that many of those speaking so eloquently in his defense had already signed the document (or whatever it is called) moving the motion. They were therefore asking the speaker to remove their signatures from what they had signed. Yet none of them mentioned coming across new information after signing.

Does it mean that they signed before reading the contents of the motion? Did they read the accusations after signing the documents? Did we need to know that they had even signed that document? Or is it that somebody somewhere spoke nicely to them like it happens so that their memories were reset to see otherwise?

They cannot complain that they are overworked since they freed themselves from even attending parliament in this crisis and so must have had more than adequate time for examining documents and issues with a toothcomb.

I write this other one with a heavy heart. And I do so because of the way I see the same leadership responding to it.

It is the issue of pregnant school girls.

I also have issues with the numbers. I even doubt that most of those who are pregnant know. Just as I also have issues with the numbers the government continues giving about the virus. In fact I have issues with their whole narrative on it. But that is not where I am looking.

I will ask one question. Did the government expect children to become holy in the lockdowns? Did they expect the youth to become adults just because of a virus?

If their kind is unable to keep their hands from campus girls and slay queens, how do they expect hot blooded youth to be constrained from experimenting? If they cannot keep any distance in their politicking, how do they expect the youth to distant from their peers?

And they should stop talking about parenting because even with the best parents young people will experiment.

We were raised when parents were available and strict. Even in towns most times only one parent worked. In fact where I grew up I was not only the child of my parents. Any adult could discipline me if I misbehaved even when they did not know my parents or where I came from.

But even then those teenage pregnancies happened, though not as rampantly.

Do not defend yourself using what is called the first world because it is even worse there. It is only that abortion is so widespread to cover those sins. Or don’t you hear of the millions who are aborted?

The pregnancies were bound to happen, corona or not. But we have a very blind leadership.

 The leadership ought to have taken the youth and their peculiarities into consideration when planning.

The pregnancies do not surprise us. They sadden us immensely.

What saddens us even more is that we have a leadership that is getting surprised by the same.

They ought to have made adequate plans for this eventuality as it was bound to happen.

Among the most effective interventions is the spiritual dimension since that is where someone gets their security.

But they closed the churches and are in no hurry to reopen them; even saying that churches exist for the offerings pastors can access and nothing else.

I know that you may counter that I am defending my job. But I do not pastor in a denomination and so do not fall under your categorization. The church gives the youth avenues for having healthy relationships. It is what kept us in check even in our times.

The youth also have so much energy. They therefore must have adequate avenues for burning it.

And it is the responsibility of the leadership to provide such avenues.

You do not expect a parent to provide a field for his children to play. We cannot therefore blame a parent who has to hassle all day to provide food for his family in these lean times you have imposed and look for avenues for the same children to burn all that energy.

Do not even mention online and TV learning as it will open an even stinkier can of worms.

That is why I say that we have a leadership vacuum from the top.

A leadership that reacts is severely wanting.

Let us pray that God will give us a leadership that is responsive to Him as it oversees the running of this country.

But even better is that He gives us a spiritual leadership that is so close to Him that the leadership MUST listen to what they are saying.

I believe that it is at the spiritual that things started going south especially when the same blind leadership started to offer favors to spiritual leaders thus emasculating them.

God must raise a prophetic voice for this season. Otherwise we are sunk.

Remember Jesus talking about the blind leading another blind? I think this is what describes our leadership. And like I have said it is at the spiritual level that it is so visible. Imagine all these bishops who are parroting what the government is saying instead of proclaiming edicts from on high?

God must raise a voice. Only then will the leadership stop being reactionary as they have divine direction to follow or reject. But it will be clear.

And like with John the Baptist that voice must be ready to die as God’s voice is rarely popular to a leadership as greedy and selfish as ours.

Will Christ’s church stand up?

Ripe for Revival

I have severally stated that you can only revive what is dead. That is the actual meaning of revival; bringing something back to life. In Kiswahili it leaves no doubt. 

It is different from resuscitation which is helping someone that is almost dying from death. 

I have said again and again that it is a contradiction of terms to be speaking about a revival season when it is the living being revived. It is even worse when the living are demonstrating how alive they are when they talk about being revived. 

But today I feel I can confidently state that we are at the doors of revival. 

The other day, the National Council of Churches of Kenya strongly advised the government against opening places of worship for the fear of the spread of the virus. 

Now I want you to imagine hospital administrators standing at the gates of their hospitals to prevent people from getting in to prevent sickness getting into the hospital! 

Yet this is even worse. 

These senior clergy are for all pretenses supposed to be speaking for God. 

How can they say that God is scared of the virus, since that is what their announcement amounts to? 

What God are they talking about? 

And we are talking about spokesmen, since that is what their titles imply. 

What I see is that these spokesmen are speaking from the mortuary since to them God is incapable of taking care of His people when they are doing what He has commanded (Hebrews 10: 24, 25). 

Their God cannot heal as is His name. He has no power over nature since He really has no control over a simple virus. 

I can therefore confidently say that the church they represent is dead for all intents and purposes as it is completely different from the church we find when we read the Bible. 

Jesus said that the gates of hell will be unable to stay the growth and spread of the church. These supposed representatives of His are locking the gates of the church so that the virus does not kill it. 

Isn’t this the clearest evidence that we must have revival or we will get buried? 

And it is not only in Kenya that this is happening. 

Trump says that churches are an essential service and many church leaders call him reckless and uncaring. 

Yet we have no qualms boasting of being children of faith, even showing off that heritage to whoever cares to see.

The visible church is dead, completely so. We are practicing a religion that is so contrary to what we proclaim. 

I have used NCCK because they were on the media. Yet I know that many other Christian leaders were ably represented in that statement, the only exception being those who are crying for churches to open because its closure has killed their livelihood, which is not much different as ministry for them is a job.

We must be revived. We really have no other option as the people of faith.

But it is important to state something here. The dead stumps must be removed for new shoots to sprout. Dead cells must be scraped off for new life to flourish. 

God is raising a new leadership for His church to replace this deadwood.  

Incidentally that is something He always does in revivals and renewals. 

Remember he had to take Moses from Israel to lead Israel? Remember He had to take Joseph from Jacob to rescue them?

And why did Jesus not take His disciples from the spiritual leadership of that day? 

The reason is similar to what we see now.

At His birth do you remember they were the ones who knew where He would be found yet it was Herod who actually went to look for Him? 

Weren’t they the ones who always fought Him using the scriptures they knew instead of using them to discover Him? 

Isn’t this the same thing these cemetarians are doing in our days?

Revivalists must wake up.

 And as has been in history they will be people bathed in prayer and consecration. They must be people swimming in the scriptures and not interpretations. They must be people totally and absolutely submitted to God and His revelation.

 And of course it will be a new generation, a generation devoid of the fixation with past failures and successes, a generation that has no qualms with being fired or excommunicated from churches and ministries and jobs because they have touched Jesus.

And they will be young men in their thirties, probably a few in their forties whose fire nothing in all creation can quench.

What did God do when He needed the Gospel to get to the gentiles? He raised a young Jew raised in gentile lands.

But He used an older man to walk with him to keep him in greater focus, Barnabas. The same man who disappeared from the picture once his protégé was ‘complete’. Then he picked another one to raise, Mark. I won’t be surprised to hear that Barnabas was the one who nurtured the writing ministry in Paul since even Mark wrote.

I won’t mind if God will use me as a Barnabas to the firebrands He is raising. It is not surprising that He has for years been speaking to me about raising ministers and especially missionaries and that the volume has been growing these past months. And I know I am not alone.

Are you feeling that you will burn to death if God does not use you? Are you tired of all this wrong hype pretending to be spiritual maturity? Are you yearning to experience God as you read the Bible?

Let us connect

 

When God Shows Off

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. (Psalm 23:5)

I am thinking of God showing off and what He needs to do it.

Do you realize that God can only show off when we give Him the chance to do so? Do you realize that He does not compete with us in getting glory? Do you know that there are some people who give God more glory than others?

God boasts with those who allow Him to show off. He releases those who compete with Him for that glory. In other words He leaves them to their devices when they are competing for space.

What am I talking about? You may be wondering.

In Matthew 6 we see Jesus instructing us to do things in secret so that God will show the results openly.

But today I want us to look at something else.

Why does the Bible instruct us to behave as if we do not have enemies? Why are we told to love our enemies and treat them as friends? Why are we instructed not to rejoice when our enemy is going down? Why are we ordered to restore an enemy’s ass when we find it lost?

God is looking for space to show off with us.

Human nature after the fall became vengeful and selfish. An enemy is therefore supposed to be vanquished, not helped. A normal person in his fallen nature will therefore seek to destroy the enemy at the first opportunity he got, or leave him to rot when he finds him down. We do not have second chances for enemies.

Then comes God.

He demands that we trash all those sentiments and values for His.

Give up everything, even your rights, and allow God to show off.

David has one bitter enemy who was his king. But then David, like God teaches, loved and was loyal to him. He can spare his life even when the same guy was looking for David to kill him.

He is loyal to his family even after he dies.

Remember his son overthrowing him? Yet even for that he still wants to offer him a second chance, even grieving when the said treasonous son is killed in battle.

No wonder that he was called a man after God’s heart!

As such God had no issues showing off in his life again and again. That is the reason he was always said to be fighting God’s battles.

The way we deal with enemies is one way we can give God a chance to show off.

Another key one is waiting for Him.

By waiting for Him I mean leaving our options out of the equation. We are telling God that we will be content with His prescription for our issues.

Read the Bible to see the wealth of promises for the one who waits for God.

But we are not talking about patience; just waiting. We are talking about waiting on the revelation God has released for us. Just waiting is not a virtue if there is nothing from God that you are waiting for. It is therefore not waiting for God if there is nothing God has promised you that you are waiting for.

Many have lost terribly when they waited without revelation.

How many have waited into their fifties for a spouse that refused to arrive? How many waited for a job that never materialized?

I call that waiting with an attitude.

Some girls I know followed the word of their pastor or bishop as opposed to God’s word and missed their season, or got burnt in the process. You see, you can only hold God to His word and not any other word. It is the same with waiting, even more so.

We are therefore talking about waiting on God, a waiting that is active as opposed to passive as most think. We are therefore serving Him even as we wait for Him.

You are therefore making a statement the God is everything you desire and so you will wait for Him until He ‘shows up’. Revelation is the key to that waiting.

Sometimes God will give a command that takes you to the desert with no escape route or even sensible explanation for the same. That is when our waiting is severely tested.

One of my most difficult seasons is when God called me from employment.

I was certain that God had wanted me to leave employment. I didn’t know what exactly He wanted me to do when I left that employment.

I therefore had a very hard five years of waiting.

Interesting enough is the fact that there were very many attempted diversions from that waiting period, including several offers of becoming a pastor of one church or the other.

But God would always demand that I turn those offers down.

But He eventually opened the door He had intended me to pass through though it is clear that He needed me to pass through that season of waiting.

And even that was a pathway to other orders that I had to obey to be able to get to where I am now.

Even now I continue waiting even as I follow His leading on His new phase with the ministry He has called me.

I still wait to see Varsity on the Hill functional. Yet at this point I am looking to see the seed starting to bud as I wait for a release to sow it soon. Please pray with me.

Yet waiting can be the most fruitful and rewarding of our lives of faith. This is because it is the process through which character is developed and gifts are nurtured.

That is where the roots of our Christian lives are developed long before the leaves and fruit is seen.

This explains why many ministers are unable to handle fame, money or success as their roots were not grown through waiting for God. Their gifts were exposed before their character had been grown through the waiting.

Joseph waited for a long time before becoming the man guy in Egypt. David waited for twenty years before becoming king yet their gifts were there even before the process started. The gifts activated that season.

The verse talks about enemies as they are the ones actively involved in sabotaging God’s promise or release. They are the ones whose resistance makes us dig deeper in our faith and seek more passionately for clarity as we pursue what God has released.

That is why they will be at the dinner table when God is showing off with us.

Incidentally some of those bitter enemies will after they see God showing with us become some of our most ardent supporters. And I say this from experience.

Remember Saul’s kinsmen (Benjamites) had a bigger army joining David than Judah before he was anointed undisputed king of Israel? Remember Joseph’s brothers must have instructed their children to make sure that Joseph is not buried in Egypt?

Yet some will not waver in their opposition though it will not mean much to one who has grown his waiting muscles. Remember Michal never fully submitted to David’s anointing?

I will repeat. Revelation is the key. If God uses someone to give the word, seek clarity from God concerning the same. Do not just accept a word that has been sent to millions to be your personal word. Do not even accept a word because it is apparently directed at only you. Do not accept a word because you dreamt it.

We are told to test the spirits. And God did not stop speaking when He gave that word. And God will never give a word that is contrary to His word, the Bible. And He never gives contrary word.

The young prophet from Judah is clear evidence. Even a prophetic word can be tested. In fact a true prophetic word should be tested. A true prophet opens himself to testing. That is what the Bible plainly teaches. And you can start by testing this message.

Whose word are you following? Are you giving God a chance to show off?

Understanding Grace

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

I want to give us an illustration to help us appreciate not only what grace does for us, but especially what it makes us.

Imagine you are an orphan who is destitute and with nothing to your name. You happen to live next to a vast farm that you hope will employ you when you grow up.

The owner of that farm knows of your existence and decides to educate you for no reason, at least according to you. He also allows you to run errands around the farm ‘to earn your keep’, or so you think.

When you complete your education, you realize that he has transferred this whole farm to you. Why he chose you is beyond your comprehension.

The farm is a great enterprise containing everything, from farm machinery to factories for its products. It also had very able managers that run the entire operation, giving the owner a tidy profit constantly.

You have all over a sudden changed from a penniless orphan to a wealthy one.

What will you do to run this new thing? Incidentally what you do will determine how you and the farm will come out.

Suppose you decide that since the managers know their jobs you will go on a permanent vacation and wait for money to be deposited in your now fat account? What do you expect will happen?

The farm will simply run down and eventually collapse.

You see, the managers may be feeling overlooked. Why were they bypassed when their boss was leaving? How did he choose someone who had done nothing for him and leave out the ones who had made that farm what it was.

But even if they decided not to harbor negative emotions, do you think they can work without supervision?

That is what grace can be equated to.

We have been given something we do not deserve. What we do with it demonstrates our appreciation of the same.

Though you know that the farm is now in your name, you will not leave the farm to run itself. You will at all times be thinking what you would like the former owner find it if he visited.

I am sure that even if you had no interest in farming or any prior knowledge about the same you will delve into farming with a zeal that is most consuming. You will want to make the farm better than it was when it became yours.

Will this mean that you are working to earn the farm?

It simply shows that you have accepted the farm. You are more committed because the farm is yours.

… but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected. (1Corinthians 9:27 WEB)

It has nothing to do with striving to impress the one who gave you though you would really be impressed if he visited and found it in good shape. And not that he could take it back if he found it otherwise.

Grace leads to effort, not entitlement or surrender. And grace gives wings to that effort.

Grace is what makes it possible for our righteousness to exceed that of the Pharisees and scribes. It means that it makes us to operate under extremely higher standards.

We are not only justified, but our justification leads us to pursue holiness, because we already can access it through grace.