ABOUT WAITING:PART 1

 Isaiah 40:31

³¹ But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

James 1:4-8

⁴ But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Waiting. It is an antithesis to this generation. In our world of fast food, fast internet, fast gratification with credit cards, orders with the click of a button, fast money, fast cars, fast planes and so on. Patience is not regarded as a virtue, instead speed is considered to be much more important. We also see it with lists like Forbes 40 under 40, the obsession with youth and lack of reverence for age, the obsession with the new etc.

But the Bible tells us opposite.

Waiting is the virtue. Patience is the virtue. Patience is how we achieve perfection.

We are in a world, where acting on our impulses, being men and women of action is considered the virtue, doing is the verb every one regards as the high value, no one asks, how do you wait for a living, instead the questions are what do you do for a living, what are you going to do; when you answer, I’m going to wait, you are looked at as if you were an alien. It is believed that waiting is some form of passiveness, but the wisdom of God is different.

The initial text at the beginning of this article says that waiting on God is the path to strength renewed, it is the way to fly like an eagle, it is the way to running and walking without being tired.

The question is why wait? Why wait when I can go out there and get all I want and need, why should I wait on the Lord?

Waiting has been, is and will always be the Plan.

The Bible makes it clear that God is always at work and has been at work since creation, even in the books of Esther and Ruth, where the activity of God is little mentioned, we have the benefit of hindsight and we see God working, weaving His fingers and His hand through time from eternity to accomplish His purpose and plans for all His creation. He has, He is and will always be in-control.

And we are His creation. Though we lost something at the Fall, we recover it when we find Jesus. We lost our purpose which was to rule over the earth, in Jesus, we have recovered that purpose, but we must be careful not to make the same mistake that Adam made; we must wait on God. At creation, God instructed Adam that He could eat everything except the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, the interesting thing is that He was not previously barred from the Tree of Life, but Adam impatiently ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil; he was seeking to be like God, to know good and evil. The temptation to be like God is so great, there are several men who overtime have fallen to this temptation; Adam had spoken to God, He had seen the splendour, the majesty, the glory, the greatness, and He could not wait to be like Him, this was His error. God always intended to make us like Him and not Him, Adam and Eve, only needed to be patient and they would have become like Him, they could not wait.

Waiting is the Plan, there is no other plan.

To be like Him, we must wait. We will never be God, He only is God, and we are His children, gods, sons of God, which is what we are and created to be but we must wait.

Jesus’s Example of Waiting

Jesus understood this when He came to earth.

When He was tempted in the desert, He waited before He ate to regain strength in His body, turning stone to bread would have been easy but that was against God’s word, hence He waited till He found bread to eat; He could have jumped and landed on His feet, but He knew that this was against God’s plan for the season, He could have bowed to the devil and received all the kingdoms of the world at that moment, but He knew, that was not the time and He had to wait more than 2000 years when the kingdoms of earth and heaven will become the Kingdom of our God. He knew that waiting was God’s way. God created time for us to wait. Time is his instrument to accomplish His purpose, so that we may become all that He has purposed. Time is an instrument of perfection.

Even God the Father waits, He waited before Jesus came down, He did not send Him immediately, He is waiting to vanquish the devil, He waited for the salvation of every man who is saved and continues to wait for everyone who will be saved, He waits to see His will on the earth. Waiting cannot be removed from the order or things. Jesus waits to rule the earth.

The Holy Spirits waits for us. He waited for us to receive Him and His Power, He waited for us to be convicted of our sin and turn to Him for grace. He waits for many today and continues to wait according to the will of God.

God is a God of Patience (Romans 15:5)

We must wait, learning to wait is hard but we do well if we wait.

The times of waiting are peculiar, they may seem like nothing is being accomplished but only if we could see with our spiritual eyes what waiting accomplishes. The spiritual controls the physical and we need our spiritual eyes to see what waiting does for us. Isaiah does an outstanding job of describing what waiting does for us. Paul comes second in describing it as what perfects us.

THE NEW MAN, TO BE LOVED AND BE REBORN

Therefore, if any man/woman be in Christ, He/She is a new creature, old things are passed away behold all things have become new (2 CORINTHIANS 5:17)

It’s the second quarter of the year already and for many of us we had resolutions at the beginning of the year. For most people, those resolutions will be dropped by now for some reason or the other, whether or genuine or not, for others, its not quite there yet, for others its work in progress.

I have pointed this out to lead us to a point made by a man named C.S. Lewis. He said that “No one knows how bad they are until they have tried very hard to be good”. This is very true, like our resolutions, we try very hard to do right only to end up in the wrong always. It’s almost as if we are tied or tethered to something that will not let us be good or let us do the resolutions that we have set. We see the good we are trying to do but somehow it is an impossible task to achieve. The best person to explain this concept is Paul in Romans 7:5-25. If you have the time, please go through it and you will see yourself in the same mirror Paul was looking at.

Now sometimes we are able to achieve some resolutions by shear will, or be good in some way but fail in some other ways, the case remains that we are unable to be all that we want to be. The reason is that we were never created to be all we want to be. We were created to be what our creator wanted us to be.

This brings me to the new creature.

When Paul completed Romans 7, He ended with a statement like this

I am a wretched man, who will deliver me from this “burden” (body of death)? –(Romans 7:24)

Then He declares, I thank God that in Jesus I have been delivered. (Romans 7:25)

The first step to being all that you ought to be is to realise that you do not know what you ought to be because you did not create yourself, but God created you. God is the Author of your story and your creator. Yes you might know some things but most times you will be wrong.

He wrote your story way before you were born. Jeremiah 1:5 says

Before I formed thee, I knew thee.

More like saying I knew what you are and will become before you became it, even before you became a person.

In another part Jeremiah 29:11 God said, I know the thoughts I have towards you, thoughts of peace(not of evil), to bring you to an expected end (a future and a hope).

Once we realise this, the next step is to pursue the One who created you.

Here’s the interesting part here. God has been pursuing you way before you start to pursue Him. And He has made your acceptance your choice.

The verse after the text(2 CORINTHIANS 5:19)  says that God has been working since His day of rest reconciling the world back to Himself. He works tirelessly to reconcile you back to Him. Why? You might ask. The answer is Love.

Yes Love. What kind of Lovesickness will make God go through (birth, death and crucifixion) just for you.

This Lovesickness is expressed in the message of the Season(Easter) that just passed.

John 3:16 says:

For God So loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Yes, that is right, God has been on your case way before you realised it. He’s been weaving and working through time so that you can be reconciled to Him.

But to experience God and His love for us, We must believe in Jesus. This is Salvation, the new birth, being born gain, being reborn, becoming the new man; Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life, No one finds the Creator or comes to Him but by me (John 14:16)

In Conclusion, to be all that your creator wants you to be (THE NEW MAN, BORN AGAIN, LOVED), start by believing in Jesus.

We started with saying that if any man is in Jesus, He is a new creature.

Believing in Jesus is becoming a new man. What Jesus does when we believe in Him is that we stop being the old person that we were, we are infused with new life (everlasting life, abundant life, I hope to write about this life in the future).

He becomes our Lord and Saviour, saving us from the wretchedness Paul talked about and giving our life the true meaning God intended.

I invite you to become a new man today. Your creator is waiting for you so He can “love on you”.

He is waiting to make you all He wanted you to be. THE NEW MAN.

Come and Discover this NEW MAN AND WOMAN.

Come and Discover what it is TO BE LOVED

Come and Discover what it is TO BE BORN AGAIN (REBORN)

 

 

LETTER TO THE NIGERIAN DIASPORAS: A CALL TO ACTION

This will be a long one, so forgive me. But please give me a few minutes of your time.

First of all, I must say that I am a Nigerian Diaspora and this letter is in many ways to myself as well.

I am a Nigerian, Born to Parents from Ekiti State, Nigeria and lived the first 26 years of my life in Gbagada, Lagos, Nigeria. My siblings and parents live in Nigeria as well as several extended family members and friends who I care about deeply.

I have always loved my home country, What Nigeria is and being Nigerian is both my blessing and my curse; for example, being resilient,driven; and being subject of searching at every international airport because of my green passport at the same time.

I am one of those who believed for a long time that I will live and die in Nigeria and conquer the world from Nigeria, much of that has changed now because I now live “down under” in Australia. It took a long time to make the decision to move because in many ways I believed and still do that I am one of those called to change Nigeria and solve its problems, I believe I belong to “a new generation of leaders” made to serve that great country called Nigeria and people called Nigerians.

I have said the above to give some context to the following words that I have written.

It’s election season and in some ways, many of us feel that we are spectators to the event which is choosing Nigeria’s leaders for the next 4 years. In 3 weeks, our Tribe (being Nigerian is a Tribe) at home will go the polls. In the following words I will speak of some of the ways in which we have a role to play in making Nigeria better, but that does not take away that Nigeria’s number one problem remains leadership. If we get leadership right, it will definitely give us an edge. I have often surmised that Nigeria’s problem can be summed up in the words in Ecclesiastes 10:7 “Servants riding on horses and Princes walking on the ground like servants”. Somewhere along the line, I don’t know where, we handed over the leadership of our great country to those who shouldn’t be near government in any way, charlatans, whose God is their bellies, those whose end is doomed.

However, solving Nigeria’s problem requires both a bottom-up approach and a top-down approach. Which brings me to what we should and need to be doing as diasporans.

Being Diaspora, gives us some form of advantage and at the same time a disadvantage. An advantage we have is that we have seen and can understand better, how a system can be made to work for its people, a disadvantage is that sometimes we can be out of touch with the core issues that Nigeria and Nigerians face. Another advantage is that we don’t have to deal with some of the third world problems we face such as lack of electricity, water and other social amenities (something the west fails to appreciate; as they say, you don’t know what you have till it’s gone); while another disadvantage is that we might loose the sense of urgency required to solve the issues that plague our nation.

When I spent a few months in Nigeria’s civil service before moving to Australia, it gave me perspective to the fact that solving Nigeria’s problems requires some external influence, in many ways, we cannot ask the system to reform itself; it is not designed to do that. A simple analogy is the civil service and its inefficiency, it is known that the best reformers in the civil service have always come from outside of it; it needs some external force to set it on the trajectory needed to reform it and make it work for the people it was created for. The current civil service is not designed to serve Nigerians but those in government and itself. I did not see that the diaspora was a part of the external influence it needed when I was in the civil service, but I understood clearly that Nigeria cannot by itself with the current kind of leadership cleanse itself.

This is where You and I come in. This letter goes to all diasporas, including students studying abroad, first, second or third generation diaspora and as many that know that they are connected to Nigeria in some way and are passionate about seeing it achieve its potential.

Nigeria needs all the help it can get in solving the myriads of problems.

Many diaspora do an “unthankable” job with remittances with family members and friends in Nigeria, imagine a Nigeria without those remittances. Keep remitting, the effect of the remittances is that it reduces the suffering of not just family members and friends that we send them to, but also helps the economy of the country through the many businesses that benefit from the money spent by family and friends; we must go a step further.

The student in diaspora and the academic in diaspora needs to turn their attention to solving the problems that Nigeria has through research. Some of the challenges we face are peculiar to us and solving them requires that we must ourselves pay attention to them and pour ourselves into solving them. We must take advantage of the systems that work around us to develop solutions to the challenges that our people face. There are examples of people who do this already but we need to scale up and be much more intentional. For example, when you do your research in academia, think about that applies o Nigeria, let your problem statements be also focused on Nigeria. We must do this while solving first world problems in our respective domains.

Every diaspora has a sphere of influence, in our sphere of influence we thrive and prosper, that spare of influence is connected to Nigeria in some way. As professionals, as blue collar or white-collar workers, as doctors, engineers, nurses, social workers etc. We must leverage the experience and knowledge we have, to tackle Nigeria’s problems. The fact that we thrive in every nation abroad is a pointer to the enormous potentials and possibilities within our reach.

We can only do this collectively and not in silos. We must engage each other; one shall chase 1000 but 2 shall chase 10,000. The scale required for us affect Nigeria is such that we must bind together. We are over 200,000,000 (although not all of them need our help, but you get the gist), to understand the scale of impact required that is more 3,300 Abuja National Stadiums; to impact that many people we must form the partnerships required. Our partnerships must include those who are like-minded at home who see the enormous potentials and are willing to put in the work/sacrifice not for selfish gain but for the common good of our people.

We must move past the survival mentality that our circumstances and situations have bequeathed on us to an abundance mentality. We must build ecosystems that ensures that every Nigerian wins and thrives. We must move past the divisiveness of nepotism and understand our Unity; despite being a construct of colonialism, we must understand that we are better together than we will ever be as individual nations.

I said I was once one of those who thought my whole life will be in Nigeria, but with my exposure that has changed. My stance on “Japa” has changed from “ki le n wa n ta” to “welcum to the habrod”, it is an advantage, take it as a privilege that you must make use of, to improve the quality of life of not just yourself but those of those around you.

In a sense, I feel that we have a privilege to live in nations not faced with the third world problems we have. This privilege given to us frees us to be able to tackle certain issues and problems with resources not available to some of our colleagues at home.

While we are at different stages in our journey, some of us are still finding our feet abroad, some of us are just adapting/adjusting to the new challenges that living abroad gives you, some of us are still working through our finances, some of us are still settling down, some of us are still trying to lay the foundation that we need to be able to thrive, we must do this this things with a wise saying in mind.

"Home is always Home. There is no place as Home”.

“Ile l’abo wa”

Now I understand that Nigeria might have taken from some of us, our loved ones and many other things like our dignity, justice etc., but we must forgive it. First, because God forgave us first; second for the sake of the people whom we love so much, and for our own peace as well. We cannot throw the baby away with the bath water.

The Bible talks about how God gave earth to man by blessing Him and saying to Him, Be fruitful and multiply, have dominion over the fish of the sea and every living thing.

In a similar way, we have a charge which goes to us all wherever we find ourselves, we must not only thrive and prosper in the diaspora but in some way be a part of the change that Nigeria will experience by God’s grace. We must strive to make Nigeria the great nation it should be.

God Bless You and God Bless The Federal Republic of Nigeria.

THE BLOOD OF JESUS

 

THE BLOOD OF JESUS

For this is My blood of the [new and better] covenant, which [ratifies the agreement and] is being poured out for many [as a substitutionary atonement] for the forgiveness of sins .

Matthew 26:28 AMP

 And they overcame and conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, for they did not love their life and renounce their faith even when faced with death.

Revelation 12:11 AMP

 

Precious, that is what the blood of Jesus is.

In a world that is filled with all sorts of problems, the blood of Jesus is our only plea.

The Bible tells the story of how Satan goes before God as an accuser (Revelation 12:10) and does the same even now, He is the accuser of the brethren. Sometimes, He will accuse us to our face, sometimes before others, through the mouth of others, in our absence or presence, sometimes before God; Sometimes, He will bring our past sins, our present failures, or the sins of our forefathers/ancestors, all as a ploy to prevent us from getting the blessings God has for us. As our only shield against these, I bring you the Blood of Jesus.

The Blood of Abel the first man whose blood was shed cried for revenge, the sin of Cain, needed to be paid for. But the Blood of Jesus? the Bible says it speaks better things than that of Abel(Hebrews 12:24). When we are accused by the Devil or any man, the blood of Jesus speaks on our behalf, saying there is no accusation against us. The Blood has paid every debt; every wage of sin, paid by the Blood.

The blood of Jesus, How Marvelous it is and Wonder Working it is. There is Wonder Working Power in the Blood.

When we are plagued by sin and its guilt or under the siege of a besetting sin, the blood of Jesus washes us, cleanses us, makes us white as snow even in the midst of that battle. The Blood says I have cleansed you, Be Clean, the Be free of your guilt and Shame, The Blood calls out to the Holiness within us put in there by God, It pulls us out of the darkness into Light. A miracle that cannot be explained. We just know that the Blood does Wonders in us.

The Blood is for our Healing, When we partake of the communion, The Blood reminds our bodies of the sacrifice made on our behalf several years ago and renews us through Faith in His Blood. When we are sick or weary, we plea the Blood over our bodies, and the Blood that has never lost its power shows up and gives us strength in ways we cannot explain.

The Blood invites us to the Table to partake of all that we seemed to have lost. It speaks the purpose(goodness) of God into every part of our being(Spirit, Soul and Body), it cries mercy over us, it defends us against evil, it is the signpost in our houses, in the car when we drive, on the road we walk, the blood covers us all.

Where would I be without the Blood of Jesus?

All that my Heart can say is Thank You Jesus for the Blood

Maybe the Blood is all you need today.

To call forth what you are waiting, the stream still flows and it still makes whole, It will never lose its power.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l01xJg3LiqI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avA6g_JjHis

THE CHILDREN'S BREAD: OUR DAILY BREAD.

I was listening to Pastor TD Jakes message on Faith crossing the line.

And He spoke about the faith of the Woman from Tyre and Sidon. So great a faith that it crossed the line of covenant and claimed what belonged to God's Children.

My Focus Here is not on Faith but on THE CHILDREN'S BREAD that Jesus spoke about.

As I listened to the message. It dawned on me that there is bread that God has reserved for His Children. And even more, the bread is reserved for them to receive every day.

Every day in the wilderness, God fed Isreal with Manna from heaven and they did eat it everyday untill they reached the promise land.

More amazing about this bread was the fact that they had to pick it everyday, if they picked more than is needed for the day by the next day it was sour except on the day before Sabbath (Friday).

Jesus said that when we pray, we ought to ask God for our daily bread. God has bread on display everyday for His Children and He asks us to come and pick just enough for the day.

As I thought about this, my spirit-man broke out in praise/gratitude to God for the Bread that I had enjoyed from my Father's throne everyday since I became his Child.

THE CHILDREN'S BREAD.

So what exactly is our daily bread. Often times when we pray the Lord's prayer, we say 'Give us this day our daily bread' in reference to the physical food.

But Our Daily Bread is the bread that the Father has poured out for us. The Bread we must eat from, the Bread of life.

The Bread of life is also God's Word Spoken to us. The Word that comes to us through the Bible, through His Servants, Through His Holy Spirit.

In Our Daily Bread, the Children's bread, there is all the nutrition that we need to inherit the promise and go through everyday, in the bread we find healing, deliverance, breakthroughs, provision, health, peace, joy, rest and so much more than we can see or ever know.

Let us go further. When Jesus broke bread at the last supper, He said, the bread is His body broken for us and said as often as we eat this bread and drink the cup, we show his death till He comes. In the Bread of life, we find all that we need not once in a while but everyday. It is a daily bread.

Finally, Paul says that there were those who were sick because they ate at the communion table unworthily. Their sickness was because they did not eat bread they ought to everyday. In their foolishness, they thought, I would eat of the communion and be well, they did not realise that there was a eating of the bread everyday that preceeded the eating at the communion table.

In Conclusion, God prepares a table of Children's Bread that He wants us to feed from everyday, He wants us to come everyday and ask for that bread everyday like kids asking for their breakfast, in the Bread that He gives us, we will find everything that we need to inherit all things He has for us.

Oh, What manner of Love the Father has for us.

Oh His Goodness

Oh His faithfulness

Oh His Bountifulness

That we should eat at His table everyday.

So let us come daily to eat the bread prepared daily for us.

THE CHILDREN'S BREAD. OUR DAILY BREAD.

Testifying of Him

John 5:39 KJV

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

John 15:26 KJV

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

Acts 10:42 KJV

And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.

Acts 20:21 KJV

Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 20:24 KJV

But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Testifying of Him. That is our mission statement.

We live in a world where God's name is increasingly unheard of in secular spaces. 

The ancient world knew there was a God but did not know Him or how to find Him.

The context in our generation is different, many do not even know there is God, the presence of God all around us has been drowned out by science (evolution, archaeology, climate change etc.) and secularism such that man has become tone deaf to the fact that He is all around us and all we need to do is seek Him and listen.

The media including social media speak of man and his existence in the universe as if there is no creator and we are to do to the universe whatever we want. They are right that the earth is ours because The One who created it gave it to us and said to us 

"Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth".

But to do whatever we want was not the intention of the Creator, We are stewards of His creation and being created ourselves we were made for His pleasure.

So then, what must we do. 

Now more than ever, We must be those who continue to testify of Him. We must shout it out for all to hear that we have a Creator and we are His masterpiece and He loves us so much.

In John 5:39, Jesus chastised the Pharisees for searching the scriptures and thinking that was were they would find eternal life, the Pharisees were wrong because eternal life was in Him and unfortunately they did not know that eternal life was in front of them even though the scriptures did point them to Him.

It's sort of a parallel for our world, God has created all that is in the world to testify of Him but Man has made him secondary to His creation, a misplaced emphasis.

In John 15:26, Jesus talks about how the Holy Spirit is given to His disciples to testify of Him. The Holy Spirit's work is to prevent us from having a misplaced emphasis. He reminds us that in the midst of science, secularism, climate issues, church, religion, work and all good things that there is only one important thing. Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because He is The One who holds all things together, without Him, All of creation is headed in one direction to destruction. But in Him, there is Everlasting life and a Sustaining of All things.

We, His people must rise above the noise of COVID, governments, sports, music, climate change, wars, poverty etc that seek to drown out the singular thing that solves every problem and let the world know that Jesus is the Cure for everything that ails this world of ours and an answer to every personal problems we have.

While the Holy Spirit testifies of Christ to the Church our work is to testify of Christ to the world. The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because He is Holy but they can receive the testimony given to us by the Holy Spirit to them. When we testify, He will do the work of convicting people of sin, righteousness and judgement. Reconciling men to God though is our work, we are priests of the Great High Priest.

We must continue to let the world know about God and His love for us and the great plans He has for all those that love Him and His Creation.

We must shout His Praise and make His name Glorious.

We must tell them of Amazing Grace, of Salvation full and free

We must tell them of the Kingdom that cannot be shaken and has no End.

We must tell them that God is not dead and that He is alive and is working in the lives of all who call to Him Everyday.

We must shout it from the rooftop, put it on every media space (Facebook, Netflix, Installation, Twitter, TV etc), in our streets, in Antarctica, in our homes, in every place man can be found and let it ring through every age/generation till He sets up His reign of peace in all the world.

We must Testify of Him.

Lastly, in testifying lies our victory, we are more than conquerors when we testify.

Revelation 12:11 KJV

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Testify.

IN TIMES LIKE THIS

We live in peculiar times,

A one in 100 years disease currently ravages the world

The current state of affairs is dire and it leaves one wondering, when does it get better, is there an end to this, where is the light in the darkness, where is hope, where do I turn?

Hope and Light can be found in the One.

There is an old hymn that goes like this

In Times Like this

We need an Anchor

In Times Like this 

We need a Saviour

My Anchor holds and grips the solid rock.

This Rock is Jesus, Yes He's the One

This Rock is Jesus, The Only One

Be Very Sure, I'm Very Sure

My Anchor Holds and grips The Solid Rock.

God has shown time and again that He is the Anchor to hold onto at all times.

He continues to work even in the midst of a pandemic.

He carries every fear and burden for all those who will lay it down on Him.

He remembers His Promises even in the midst of a pandemic and fulfils them

Oh Come and taste of the Goodness of God.

There are heights of Joy that God has prepared for you even now, Yes You and Yes now.

You don't have to wait for it. Go to Him Now.

As the wars and battle rages, Be still and Know that He is God

He is the Anchor for all Ages, Keep your eyes on Him and watch Him steady your boat and cause you to soar above the Storm.

So I pray for you that being strengthened with all might by His Grace you will know the Joy that having the Anchor and an Hope brings. And that you will know Him as a Refuge and Fortress from everything life throws at you (even the pandemic).

THE MAKING OF ALL THINGS NEW

”…….Behold I make all things new……” Revelation 21:5

Those are the words of the creator of Heaven and Earth.

The turn of a new year is usually a time for us to take stock of our lives, examine ourselves, evaluate and think of the way we would live our lives. Though the day itself is not different from any other day of life, the wisdom of doing this is found in the words of the psalmist which says “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom”. Therefore, it is not only wise that we celebrate the turn of a new year, we also ought to count our days, years and time and think of how we can apply our hearts to wisdom.

What is applying your heart to wisdom? It is finding wisdom; the Psalmist is recommending here that one of the ways to find wisdom is to number your days the way God teaches us. God’s example to Israel is one of the ways we know how to number our days, their days where numbered to remember God always and all that He has done for them, while also looking forward to what is to come. One of the things we are guaranteed will happen in the future is the MAKING OF ALL THINGS NEW.

In our world today, it is very often the case that we look at all that is going on around us point a finger at God, judging Him, second guessing Him, critiquing Him and sometimes cursing Him. Another effect of looking at all that happens around us horizontally without an upward look is that oftentimes we are disillusioned. We do not see the world for what it truly is.

The world is growing old, the universe is getting old. Everyday, there is a pointer to this fact, the evil that pervades our society, climate change and many more all point to one thing. That our world as we know it has an ending. It cannot go on like this forever, the only way it continues like this is if our creator was wicked or we had no creator at all. Our Creator is good and probably the best of them (Psalm 106:1, 1 Chronicles 16:34).

As you read these words, I do hope that you find comfort in my following words and that hope breathe in you and makes you alive (I John 3:3). Also, I pray that you find hope in the one who can bring hope in the old because he makes the old new and makes us new while the old lasts.

The Bible says in Revelation 21:1-8.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

² And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³ And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

⁴ And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

⁵ And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

⁶ And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

⁷ He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

⁸ But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

It’s always been God’s purpose to dwell with His creation. The book of Genesis shows this (Genesis 3:8) and it is repeated here in verse 3. Verse 4 proclaims something that is impossible to the human mind but somehow, we all still long for or strive for despite the present state of affairs, a world with no pain, no tears, no sorrow and no death. This will be, because the Creator has promised it and He is not a man that He should lie. More so, He affirms this by saying it should be written down because those words are true and faithful.

A word that is both true and faithful is a sure word. It is not a bounced cheque. To analyse a bit, a man could be said to be a faithful liar, this means that you could rest on the fact that whatever he says will be a lie, on the other hand the words of a man could be said to be  true but not faithful; this is to say that though he speaks the truth he does not have the capacity to follow through with it. Therefore, a true and faithful word is one which cannot be faulted because the one who speaks them will surely follow through on every word that He speaks.

So be rest assured that you will live in a world without everything that makes this world terrible. Moreover, the promise to make all things new has started already. God has been making humans new creatures through Christ. In Christ every man or woman, boy or girl is made a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). So, the question to you is, have you been made new? Everything in the new Heaven and Earth must be new.

Furthermore, He goes on to state that there is a need to overcome, those who have been made new must overcome. What are we to overcome? the answers are found all through the Bible.

We must overcome:

•          The World
•          Evil with Good
•      The Wicked One

The Overcomer lives everyday knowing that this world is not his and does not fall in love with it, the overcomer knows evil is what makes this world what it is now and knows that he must not be a partaker of it if he must enjoy the world to come, the overcomer knows there is a wicked one and he/she must not be deceived by him but resist him at all cost, till His redeemer puts all things under his/her feet.

And the Bible gives us the tools with which we must overcome. An Armor that has lasted for closer than 2000 years (Ephesians 6:10-18).

So, as we step further into the new year, keep your eyes on the NEW. Don’t be carried away by this old world. Be all that you want to see in the NEW WORLD. Be fruitful, have dominion and let the One who makes all things new be with you every step of the way.

Happy New year.

For any questions please send a message to larryryan2k3@yahoo.co.uk or leave your comments on twitter or facebook @olanrewajuomoya.

WHO IS OUR GOD?

WHO IS OUR GOD?

The question before us today is one that we won’t be able to answer even if we had all the day to search. More daunting is the fact that even when we have found out something there is more to God than we could find out. The Bible says of Him:

OUR GOD: THE ENIGMA

Romans 11:33

O the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out!

Even the psalmist repeats this

Psalm 145:3

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

Ecclesiates 8:17

Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

So if He is unsearchable, Is it pointless for us to ask this question? Is it pointless for us to search for God?

Our answer can be found in the scriptures:

Deuteronomy 4:29

But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

Proverbs 8:17

I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me.

Jeremiah 5:1

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

In another place, after man was created, we are told in Genesis that God will visit Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.

From all indications, we see a God who wants to be known to all men. if God wants to be known, how can we know Him who is unsearchable and past finding out? How can we know the one that cannot be completely known?

I Corinthians 2:9-11;

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor hear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. ¹⁰ But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God ¹¹ For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.

John 4:24

God is a Spirit and they that worship Him (know Him) must worship Him (know Him) in Spirit and in Truth.

John 17:17

Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy Word is Truth.

Two ways. Through His word and Through His Spirit. You cannot have one without the other.

All Word and no Spirit we dry up, All Spirit and no Word we blow up. Word and Spirit,we grow up.

....Donald Gee.

I must state that God’s word is very important to knowing Him, no one can claim to Know God who is not a student of His Word, even moreso no one who is without the Spirit of God can claim to know Him.

God’s word is important because He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Because of this we can trust that the same God we see in the Bible is the same person now. Moreso, His Word is truth and to worship Him or Know Him we must know the Truth which is His Word.

However, just like someone who has read the autobiography of a person cannot claim to know that person, the same applies to every person who is a student of God’s word without the Spirit of God. To know a person is much more than just knowing things about that person. To know a person is to experience that person, not something you can find in a book. Therefore, to know God requires having the Spirit of God, Knowing the Spirit of God who Himself is God. The Spirit’s witness in our Spirit is to make us know and experience God.

Man is a Spirit; he has a soul and lives in a body. For us to experience (know) God, God connects to us through His Spirit. This is the Miracle of the new birth. In the new birth, out spirit that was dead is made alive through the work of Christ and we can experience (know) God like we never did before.

So I go back to my question at the beginning.

Who is our God?, Do you Know God?, Who is God to You?

I’ll go through what is revealed in the God’s word, but my Prayer is that the Holy Spirit will do His work of making you experience Him. Holy Spirit I ask that in the Truths about to be shared, people will see Our Father and Our God.

OUR GOD:THE EMINENCE

Genesis 1:1 – He is Creator of all things. He created everything you see today. Name it.

Exodus – He is a Deliverer of the Oppressed.

However, Lets turn aside to Exodus for a bit, In Exodus 3:14 God introduces himself as I AM.

He was saying to Moses I AM THAT I AM, you cannot box me in and declare that this is what I am. He was essentially declaring to Israel that He is who He is and who He is, is not something we can add to or take from. Who He is who He chooses to reveal at every point because we cannot with our minds know every aspect of Him. He is I AM THAT I AM.

Leviticus – He is a Holy God and there is no Evil in Him.

Numbers – God of numbers and seasons.

Deuteronomy – God of Order. The Law Giver.

Joshua – Our Possessor

Judges – The waiting Rescuer

Ruth – The Redeemer

Samuel – The Kingmaker

Kings – King of Kings

Chronicles – The Chronicler, The Record Keeper.

Ezra & Nehemiah – The Rebuilder of Walls for our safety

Esther – The Silent Worker

Job – The Restorer of All Things

Psalm – The refuge, The fortress, The Defence, The Shield, The Lord God

Proverbs – He is the Voice Wisdom in the Corner of the Street

Ecclesiastes – The Meaning of All things

SOS – The Bridegroom

Isaiah – The God of Reason

Jeremiah – The Pleading

Lamentations – The listener to our Cries

Ezekiel – The God of the New Covenant

Daniel – The Revealer of Secrets Past, Present and Future.

Hosea – The Faithful Husband of Prostitutes.

Joel – The Promise

Amos – The Voice and Defence of the Oppressed

Obadiah – The Enemy of our Enemies

Jonah – The Merciful One.

Micah – The Forgiving One

Nahum – The Judge of the Wicked

Habakkuk – Harbinger of Divine Justice

Zephaniah – The Restorer of Grace and Blessing

Haggai – The Waiting Bridegroom

Zechariah – The Rebuilder of Jerusalem

Malachi – The God that can be robbed my man

Let’s turn aside to Exodus again.

And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt you say unto the Children of Isreal, The Lord God of your Fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob hath sent me to you. This is my name and my memorial unto all generations.

Exodus 3:14,15;

This scripture points out an important truth. The truth is that God is more interested in being known as a God of People. He wants to be known to us, not as a mystery, but He wants us to experience who He is. Jesus revealed this truth when He walked on earth. When He would speak of God, He often Spoke of Him as Our Father.

We see this in the scriptures below:

” Our Father who art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name”

Mathew 6:9

“Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is Perfect.”

Matthew 5:48

When Jesus was here on earth, He often referred to God as Father, saying in several places thy Father, Your Father, my Father. He repeated this so much for emphasis. He wanted us to learn that God was not just God but He was “Our Father”.

In Matthew, 42 times, 4 times in Mark, 22 times in Luke, 120 times in John.

What Kind of Father is our God.?

Is He the Father who is a terror to His Kids and abuses them?

Is He a Father who isn’t a terror but is absent in the lives of His Children?

Is He a Father who Loves, is present in their lives and takes care of them?

Is He the indulgent father, who says Yes to all His Children’s every whim?

What Kind of Father is God?

He is a Good Father. He is a Caring Father. He is a Powerful Father; He is a Great Father.

God is our Father and He calls himself our God and calls us Sons and Daughters.

John declared boldly saying “Behold what manner of Love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1)

Paul Declares in Galatians 4:5 that we have received the adoption of sons.

Ephesians 1:5 says We have been predestined to be Children of God by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His Will to the praise and glory of his grace wherein we have been accepted in the beloved.

So, we can say that from the beginning God’s intention was to make us sons of God and just like God has dominion over the universe, God intended that we should have dominion over the earth we see this in Genesis 1:26.

Has the fall of man changed this intention of God? No.

The Bible declares that those who are sons of God will receive the inheritance of Sons still. I Peter 1: 3,4 says we have been begotten to an incorruptible inheritance.

So, if God is our Father what should we expect of Him?

I’ll make an analogy of a Son who thought His Father was poor, He did not realise that His father was not only King of the Kingdom but was also the owner and creator of the Kingdom. That son will often come to His father and will ask for a loaf of bread, He will ask for a cup of water. He did not realise that His Father would give Him the entire Kingdom if He asked for it. That is the case with a lot of us Christians.

Another analogy is of a son who knew the King but failed to see that the King was also His Father, He would go to the King’s palace and stay for some hours and leave, He did not realise that He could actually live in that palace if he wanted to. A lot of Christians are like him. We fail to Have a balanced view of who God is.

We must learn that Our Father is not earthly, we must also learn that Our Heavenly Father is also our Friend and Comforter.

Jesus reminds us of this when He said “Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name He will give it to you”

He also says “If you, being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good gifts to them that ask Him”

However, we must be reminded that Our Father is not an indulgent Father, He only gives to us what is good for us. If He withholds anything from us, it is because it is not good for us, if He gives us anything we have not asked for, it is because He knows our needs more than we do.

He is a Good, Good Father and He Loves us all so much. And I implore you to trust that goodness.

God is Powerful, He is Great, He is Unchangeable, He is Holy, He is Exalted, He is Sovereign, but He is even much more a Good Father.

I invite you to ask God to become your Father today. It will be the best decision you ever made.

Like a Good Father, He Protects

Like a Good Father, He Cares

Like a Good Father, He Listens,

Like a Good Father, He carries us

Like a Good Father, He Provides

Like a Good Father, He loves

Like a Good Father, He makes Sacrifices for us

Unlike Fathers, He is a Friend and Brother

He is Elshaddai. The Father you’ve never had.

Unlike a Good Father, He is a Good, Good Father.

2019: HERE WE GO AGAIN

SERVANTS VS PRINCES

I have often said, the summary of our present conundrum in Nigeria is in Ecclesiastes 10:7 – Servants riding upon horses and princes walking as servants.

You only have to look at the present state of affairs in our politics and you see what I say. On any given day, I will pick a Peter Obi over an Atiku, An Osinbajo over Buhari but life seems not to work that way.

It’s been that way since ages ago. Very rarely do the best of us get to rule us or set the pace for the future. That is the reality of our world. Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, Pharaoh and Joseph, it’s been the story for ages. Our world is never an ideal place and Nigeria is not an exception.

This reality means that even when we’ve got possibly better candidates within other parties, reality speaks back to you that only the two major parties will win except the kind of work that was done by Emmanuel Macron in France is done by one of these candidates.

We need an unusual event to get the kind of leaders we want. A non-event, like the military taking over, a revolution or something. But reality is that those options don’t give us the best shot because we have tried that route before and today, we see where it led us to.

The only route which we have not tried is HARD WORK. It is hard work to build a nation and it will take time and patience to build the Nigeria, we all dream of. The other nations in the world we often refer to took decades to build what they have, and we can be no different. We must be willing to pay with both sweat and sacrifice.

Also, there are things Nigeria and Nigerians need to learn.

POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

Nigeria like many other nations faces the problem politics and governance. Politics and governance are separate issues though they are linked but very often the leader who is good at governance is not good at politics and the leader good at politics is not good at governance.

Nigeria needs both kinds of leaders and it’s hard to have to pick. Very rarely do we find men who are adept at both. Nigeria needs leaders who are good at both because of our diversity. Our diversity makes it compulsory that whoever must lead us must pay attention to the politics of governance while at the same time giving more attention to governance because, good governance is what we have lacked over the years.

THE LONG ROAD AHEAD

It’s election season again and we must choose those who will stir this ship called Nigeria for the next four years. If there’s anything I have learnt in the last 8 years, it is that ours is long road. The change we seek will not be swift. It will be painstaking and long. Democracy is not a system of government that lets you fly, it makes you move at walking pace.

The military rule of several years has done so much damage to our systems that whoever governs Nigeria for the next many years must be aware that He/she lays a foundation for many years to come and has a work to build systems that strengthen institutions and builds the character and competence of the individual.

COLLECTIVE PROGRESS VS PERSONAL PROGRESS

The progress we will make as a people (collectively) is no more tied to just a man sitting in Abuja anymore. While He wields the most power, He wields little compared to what He used to. Our collective progress is now in the hands of many, not in the hands of a few. In the hands of you and me, the local government chairman, the state governor, the state house representative, the national house representative, the senator, the senate president, the minister, the justices of the courts, the chief justice of the supreme court, the vice president, the president.

Although your personal progress is entirely in yours and God’s hand because the world is now one and only you can stop your own progress for even God will not.

But we must grow beyond the progress of the individual and begin to think of the progress of the collective. The progress of others is what makes our own progress worthwhile, hence why our progress as a nation is important to me.

We need to pay more attention to those elected into the lesser positions, the past few years have shown that while the president holds a lot of the cards, He does not hold all the cards, such is the nature of democracy. Devolving power to the judiciary and legislature has left the executive somewhat dependent on the other two. The exclusive list and concurrent lists mean that our eyes cannot only be in Abuja, it must be at all levels of government.

LONG TERM VS SHORT TERM GAINS

There are hard decisions that need to be made in the coming years that will leave us in pain for a while but eventually will pan out the best decision we have made. We must focus on building systems and long-term gains not the short-term gains. While there are quick wins, a long-sighted focus will be for the benefit of us all. Not just the few.

This government while having many short comings have taken the long route on a lot of issues and I commend them for that considering current resource constraints as well as other issues. But they have left too much to be desired in many areas. They need to begin to readjust their priorities to areas where there is multiplier effect on benefits. Optimising benefits from their various initiatives should be put in focus.

MY BUHARI SCORECARD

The Buhari government has made some progress but have made work of some of the areas we need for our collective progress.

Have we progressed from the Jonathan Era? I will say confidently Yes with a lot of buts.

If we had continued with the Jonathan Era, I’m not sure where we will be now because the issue with that era was that it lost its focus towards the end because of politics and forgot to focus on governance.

The nature of politics is scratch my back I scratch yours and we saw that begin to fester with the many stories that are now out in books and different publications.

What the Buhari Era has done is save us from going down that part and keep us in the direction we ought to go. We have not gotten to the promised land, but we are moving ahead. The problem I have with the progress we are making is that it is too slow for a nation with a population growth rate of 2.1%. We must progress faster, we must make decisions faster, we must act faster we must focus on areas where with the least effort we can get the most benefit while not forgetting what the goal is.

WHAT SHOULD BE NEXT?

We cannot be great if we do not focus on productivity. Our little social experiment in Federal system of government needs to end. States need to the coerced into focusing on productivity. Note the word coerced, not forced. We must leave this system of sharing based on population, Land size and resources and focus on productivity. We must create a system where the cow that makes the most milk eats the most grass.

Whether, we like it or not fuel subsidy needs to go. We all benefit from it and should not complain about it, but the truth is that it has held us back for years. It is like the man who has wood in his farm who goes to the market to buy firewood because he is too foolish to realise the wood in his farm and that in the market are the same or you could say it is like a man who spends all his money on fuelling the generator in his house for electricity when he could have spent the money on solar panels and batteries and be free from such spending. The opportunity cost of Fuel Subsidies has borne its brunt on our economy and it is beginning to show in how much we spend on debt.

Our educational system needs serious attention. While I understand that the educational system is largely in the hands of state governments and local governments, the federal government must work to set it right because if you build all the infrastructure you want, it is only as good as the people who use it and maintain it. A five-star hotel in a village is a waste of money.

Healthcare needs to be revamped and while like education it is largely in the hands of the lower levels of government, The Federal government must provide leadership because a lot of Nigeria still needs direction.

There’s a whole lot of things that needs to be done. But I will stop here cos we all know our problems but solving them has been the issue.

CONCLUSION: NIGERIA WILL BE GREAT ONLY IF.......

I will conclude by saying that Nigeria’s fate lies in the hands of its people. And if it’s people will let it be great, it will be all that and more. But if it’s people will make excuses in selling their tomorrows today, I’m afraid there’s not much that can be done.

Nigeria will be great by the hands of every Nigerian working in the streets both home and abroad. If we all will be willing to sacrifice and focus on the virtues of righteousness, justice, excellence and the good of the person next to us. Then we just might have a shot at being the Nigeria of our dreams, the giant of Africa, a nation flourishing built on foundations that cannot be easily swept away by the winds and floods of a stormy weather.

Your Vote is your power, your vote is your voice. Get out there and have your say. And when the results are out be an active citizen of Nigeria and give support to everything that will make us great to whoever it is that wins or loses and make a stand against everything that sets us back. Then We will be Great.

God Bless You, God Bless your Home, God Bless your State and May God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Thank you.