All posts by Tunde Soniregun

AUGUST ISSUE 2014

Monthly Newsletter

KEEP YOUR DESTINY IN SHAPE

To keep your destiny in shape and not miss God’s promise for your life, it is important that your thinking and spoken word are right before God.
What are you thinking?
The engagement of Jesus with a paralytic man teaches the need to pay attention to how we think.
A paralytic man was brought to Jesus for healing. The Bible documents that when Jesus saw the faith of those who brought the paralytic man, Jesus declared that his sins were forgiven. Just as Jesus made His declaration, some of the scribes said within them, “This man blasphemes!” (Matthew 9:3) It was not an outspoken statement but a statement in their inside; it was their thought. Jesus heard them despite the fact that it was in the in the heart. The Bible records Jesus’ response to their thinking. “But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘why do you think evil in your hearts?’” (Matthew 9:4) What are you thinking? As a creation that cannot hide from the Creator, are you shaping your destiny by thinking what is right and not evil? As a believer who trusts in God, in the face of challenges, are you thinking positive instead of negative? God sees and hears our thought clearly. In your thinking, let Him know that nothing is impossible and He shall be provoked to move on your behalf for a positive result. Our thoughts are not hidden from God and that’s why we should abstain from thinking anything evil but rather think good at all time. The Bible warned in Zechariah 8:17 “Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor…”
Before God, thinking negative is the same as thinking evil and God hates evil. Whatever we think is the evidence of how we keep our heart. This is the reason why the Bible warned us in Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. The Bible points out for us, know it that as a man thinks in his heart so he is (Proverbs 23:7) Think right and it becomes right for you.

KEEP YOUR HEART AND AVOID NEGATIVE THINKING
Among the ways to keep the heart is documented in Joshua 1:8, God spoke to Joshua after the death of Moses, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” The word of God that is power will not depart from your mouth only when it becomes what you think (meditate) on day and night. Meditate on His word day and night so that the word you meditate will flow out of your mouth. Occupy your thoughts with the word of God and your ways shall be prosperous with good success.

What are you saying?
What you say is your confession and it will find you out.
It is very important that you know and pay attention to what comes out of your mouth. When thinking right becomes of one, speaking right will become one’s portion. The Israelites could not think right enough to remember how God brought them out of the bondage of over four hundred years. They forget all the miracles before Pharaoh in Egypt. Pharaoh and his forces could not stop them; the Red Sea failed to trap them. However, the words of their mouth which they spoke to their life terminated them from getting to their Promised Land. They said, “’If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!  Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’  So they said to one another, ‘Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.’” (Numbers 14:2-3) Imagine those who had seen great miracles but yet could not fashion their thinking and their spoken word to be a positive one? Are you shaping your destiny right with right thinking and right communication? How you think and what you say determines how God will respond to you.
God responded to the Israelites negative confession (word). “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:  The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.” (Numbers 14:28-30)
God is a good God. Without faith we cannot please God. If without faith we displease Him, with faith we shall surely please Him. It is lack of faith for a believer to be thinking negative or to be speaking (confessing) negative in the face of impossible challenges. God promised that with Him, all things are possible. At all times and in all situations, we should know not to confess negative but rather positive. Indeed, we should constantly keep our heart with all diligence for out of our heart springs forth every issue we engage in living life.

FAITH CAPSULE:
How you think and what you say determines how God will respond to you.

GIVE REGARD TO GOD

Devotions

FAITH CAPSULE: Regard the works of His hand so as to maintain His fear.

Psalm 75

Isaiah stated, “The harp and the strings, the tambourine and flute, and wine are in their feasts; but they do not regard the work of the LORD, nor consider the operation of His hands. Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge…” (Isaiah 5:12-13). Just as Isaiah pointed it out, the Psalmist also stated, “Because they do not regard the works of the LORD, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them and not build them up.” (Psalm 28:5) Without any doubt, having a clear understanding of the word “regard” and being able to consciously operate it, will help to maintain the knowledge that it takes for one not to end up in captivity. Regard is defined as: to look closely or attentively, to hold in respect, to observe steadily, the works of the Lord in a specified way. When we begin to regard His works we engage a life that is free, life that is not in captivity (His work is His words). Constantly keeping His testimonies is regarding His work. Psalm 119:2 admonished, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies who seek Him diligently with the whole heart” (No one seek Him diligently and end up in captivity.)

The work of God is markedly and noticeably wonderful. It is also the wondrous works of His hand that declares that His name is near. (Psalm 75:1) Why not begin to regard the works of His hand so as to maintain the fear of God that keeps one from any form of captivity? A failure not to regard the work of God is an undeniable access to God’s wrath. Also, not to regard the works of God can be compared to turning back on God. There is no excuse not to regard the work of God. Knowing that the works are there and visible to everyone is same as knowing about God and making the choice of not turning to God. The book of Romans stated, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:20-21) Sodom and Gomorrah disregard works of God and received judgment of God. If Sodom and Gomorrah could not escape judgment, the present generation will not escape God’s judgment either.
Regard and retain God in your knowledge, abstain from ungodly and careless life. It is knowledge to constantly regard the works of God.

Prayer for today: Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O LORD; let Your loving kindness and Your truth continually preserve me. (Psalm 40:11)

COMFORT OVER COMMITMENT?

Devotions

Faithful Capsule: Disallow comfort from clouding your commitment to God’s command.

Numbers 32

Engaging the journey of life comfortably should never be a sin. However, when man comfortably place comfort ahead of commitment to God’s direction in the journey of life, one is set not to arrive at the center of God’s divine agenda. God, in His goodness and mercy brought the children of Israel out of the bondage of over four hundred years with plan to settle them in the Promised Land. It is written, “So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.” (Exodus 3:8) God wanted to place them from bondage to abundance when he promised them a land that flows with milk and honey. God promised to bring them up but for the children of Gad and of Reuben engaging comfort in the place of commitment took charge. The children of Gad and of Reuben decided to settle at the East of Jordan.

The Bible recorded that they had a very great multitude of livestock and that prompted a request for a settlement in the region which was a place for livestock; a place that was more comfortable by their own understanding instead of God’s promise. Despite their understanding of God’s plan, they attempted a choice to wander from the way of God’s understanding. Are you attempting to wander from the way of understanding gained from the word of God? Proverbs 21:16 admonished, “A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.”

The children of Gad and the children of Reuben approached Moses and stated their desire, “…the country which the LORD defeated before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.’ Therefore they said, ‘If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.’” (Numbers 32:4-5) It is clear that where there is livestock milk will flow, but not honey. God promised a land flowing with milk and honey, but they attempted to settle for their own comfort land. The land which flowed with milk was comfortably enough for them. It is good to be comfortable but not at the expense of God’s command or plan for us. Placing our comfort above God’s command is a direct avenue to becoming insensitive to the move of the Spirit of God. Spiritual insensitivity will reduce and not increase a believer. Are you operating the mind of the children of Gad and Reuben as you engage your journey to the Promised Land? Disallow comfort from clouding your commitment to God’s command.

Prayer for today: Ask God to restore unto you whatever you have lost to spiritual insensitivity.

KEEP HIS TESTIMONIES

Devotions

FAITH CAPSULE: Meditate on His testimonies to provoke your faith in Him.

How do we describe testimony?Testimony is evidence in support of the wonders God. Testimony is an open declaration or profession, as of faith.
The testimonies of God will transport a believer to a ground of transformation. All that the children of Israel needed for their transportation through their wilderness journey was the testimonies of God which was to keep them from complaining against God. The children of Israel were to travel through the wilderness to their Promised Land for eleven days, but the journey went on for forty years.

Are you experiencing a time of wandering where you are to be a wonder to your world?
The generation that came out of Egypt did not only journey in the wilderness, but they wandered around until the wilderness passed them unto death and they were unable to step on the Promised Land. The children of Israel did not just become wanders in the wilderness by accident, but by their acts of complaints against God trapped them in the wilderness. The act of complaining is the evidence of not keeping God’s testimony. Due to their never-ending complaining against what God was doing in their life, God responded in Numbers 14:22-23, “Because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.” God promised to take them to the Promised Land. He showed them great and mighty signs in Egypt, and they could not meditate to keep His testimony.

Are you constantly meditating on His testimonies? The Psalmist knew and confessed about testimonies of God in Psalm 119:2, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!” Keeping His testimonies is setting self-up to serve Him and not rebel by complaining. Psalm 119: 24, “Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.” Psalm 119:46, “I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.” The testimonies of God are all the things that He has done, the things that He is doing, and the evidence of what He can do. His testimonies are worthy of mediation.
Testimony of God is what we need to plead our case before God. Isaiah 45:26 stated, “Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted.” Do you have any testimony to remind God when presenting your case?  State your case by referring to what He has done and what He can do. He is faithful to honor His word.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to help in keeping His testimony constantly.

DO YOU DESIRE?

Devotions

Faith Capsule: The hand of God is not shortened that it cannot save those who desire His hand.

Psalm 31

Wisdom of God is all that it takes for us to excel living challenging days. However, when there is lack of understanding of God’s wisdom there will be no knowledge. Isaiah 5:13 is true when it states, “Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge.” It is knowledge to gain understanding in the word that there are two different kinds of hands that operate in the life of man: the hand of God and the hand of evil one. Which of the two hands do you strongly desire? The hand of God, of course, should be the one that is strongly desire. One that truly desire manifestation of God’s hand will back up desire with action. It is wisdom to know and back one’s desire with action.  Also, it is not enough reading and knowing about the hand of God until there is a consistent meditation about what His hand can do.

The hand of God delivered the children of Israel from the bondage of over four hundred years and it added favor. Exodus 3:19-21 stated, “So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians…” The hand of God was also in place for Ezra to complete his journey. It is written, “On the first day of the first month he began his journey from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. (Ezra 7:9) The hand of God is a source of encouragement for those who set their mind for His hand to answer on their behalf. Ezra 7:28 testified, “…So I was encouraged, as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me”

It is possible to rise and not able to build. However, to rise and able to complete is also in the hand of God. Nehemiah testified, “And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. So they said, ‘Let us rise up and build.’ Then they set their hands to this good work.” (Nehemiah 2:18). Do you consciously desire the hand of God upon your life? There is no deep place one cannot reach, neither is there any height one cannot climb because, “In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the hills are His also.” (Psalm 95:4) God is a complete God with outstretch hand. The hand of God is not shortened that it cannot save those who desire His hand to work on their behalf.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to constantly desire the hand upon your life in these challenging days.