All posts by Tunde Soniregun

His Love Is Banner

FAITH CAPSULE: With the fear of God, one takes a place under a banner that is impenetrable to the wicked.

Psalm 74
 
It is written, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17) Giving is love; love is giving. The love of God is available for all who desire it and accept it. Jesus, the love of God, came unconditionally and makes Himself available without any condition. His statement in John 10:10 buttress the testimony of God, “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” It is not possible for a true acclaimed believer to confess with their mouth and believe in the heart and not be one that conducts themselves according to the Word. However, not behaving what is confessed with the mouth and believed in the heart is the evidence of not being a believer. God gave His love and His love declared Himself. Have you received and believed the Love of God; the gift to have life abundantly? For anyone who receives and believes the Love of God is granted access to living life abundantly. God does not lie and His Word does not return back to Him without fulfilling its purpose. Romans 10:9 identifies what it takes to have the Word of God manifest in the life of an acclaimed receiver of the love of God,
Truly, believing (behaving) the Word of God is having the fear of God in one’s life. With the fear of God, one takes a place under a banner that is impenetrable to the wicked. The Bible testifies the banner of God, You have given a banner to those who fear You, that it may be displayed because of the truth.” (Psalm 60:4) Are you one who fears God in your walks of life?
Ones who receive and believe in the living Word of God have allowed Jesus to take a stand as a banner over every affair of their life. Isaiah 11:10 testifies about Jesus, the root of Jesse stating, “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.” The banner set by God is to protect, heal and deliver us from all of our afflictions.
Are you one who is denying Him from being a covering upon your life? Allow His banner to be your covering and His signs over your life shall be evidence and the adversary shall be denied.
 
Prayer for today: Ask that every banner that is not of God upon your life be terminated.

July 2012 Issue

 

                                                POUCH OF PRIDE
 
Those that cannot forgive have a pouch inside of them that is full of pride that generates lies, deception, anger, bitterness, and an unforgiving spirit. Anyone who is identified with any of the above does not necessarily carry any visible identification to point them out in their fellowship among believers. Most of the time, they have a vibrant life; they sing like every other believer; they could be very conversant with the word of God. Sometimes they go from fellowship to fellowship, yet nothing is visible enough that identifies them for who they are. People like this can be tagged as unbelieving-believers.
Unbelieving-believers grow just like believers grow. Jesus said in Matthew 13:30, “Let both grow together until the harvest and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” In deed and in truth, in today’s world, all are actually growing. In some cases, the tares have the tendency to grow and flourish better than the wheat. God is not asleep, neither is He being too busy, but there is time for every situation and all that transpire under heaven. It is written in Ecclesiastes 8:11, “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” The Word of God is true and all will come to pass. The Word of God will catch up with every man in every way and every path of life under heaven. Jesus said, “Let them grow together until the harvest time.” He did not ask for their separation at this time, neither has he proposed for them to be stopped from growing. Man can be deceived but God cannot be deceived. Where are you in the hand of God? Is there a pouch of empty pride inside of you?
It is always worthy for a time of self-evaluation that could honestly and sincerely point every man onto genuine repentance. Are you one of the believers that carry a diary of woes? That is, are you one that is having a well-documented list of all those have faulted you, or that are faulting you for the past several years? With a deep and sincere self-evaluation, what kind of diary are you keeping? Your diary could be at the back of your mind or in a written form. There is a genuine excuse for every reason not to forgive and hold onto grudge, bitterness and other forms of evil, but before God, there is no excuse for not forgive others. He sent His most beloved to the cross for every sinner. Peter, quoting from Psalm 34:12-16, stated in 1 Peter 3:10-12, “…He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” Just as humility is good, so pride is evil. What the word is saying here is, refrain and turn from evil by seeking and pursuing peace.
Claiming belief in Jesus is not true in anyone who harbors any form of wickedness like the ones that are mentioned above. 1 John 3:23states, “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us.” Do you love one another, or do you love one that you choose to love or the one that you have been able to forgive? So many good things are being said about you, but you are holding on to so many things, like anger and bitterness of heart. It is not what people around you are seeing or saying that matters, but it is what God is seeing about you. Carrying a pouch full of empty pride that is generating lies, deception, anger, bitterness and an unforgiving spirit from one fellowship to another is like walking in darkness. It is also a conscious or unconscious lifestyle that claims to have been fellowshipping with God. Such claim is contrary to the way of God and it is not in line with the message of God as emphasized in 1 John 1:5-7, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Will you consider a sincere and honest self-evaluation? Come out of self-deception give it all to God and He will bring you out of all that is wicked and evil.
God is waiting for all who are ready to renounce wickedness, confess and repent.
 
Faith capsule:
Just as humility is good, so pride is evil. 
Claiming belief in Jesus is not true in anyone who harbors any form of wickedness.

God Knows It All

FAITH CAPSULE: Nothing happens by accident but all is preparing you for where He is taking you.

Exodus 2:11-22
 
Every situation that happens to man on the face of earth are not hidden from God. God knew what He was going to do with Moses life when he was born at God’s appointed time. Moses was born when Pharaoh commanded that every Hebrew son should be casted in the river. As Go will have it, river that was supposed to be route of death for the new born Moses became his route to gaining life in the hand of Pharaoh’s daughter. Above all, he was also raised in the palace where the law to kill all male was enacted. What a mighty God we serve!
Moses escaped death as an infant, but later turned out to be a murderer that had to run from the palace where he was raised. He ran from Pharaoh’s reach after killing an Egyptian, and ended up in Midian. Nothing happens by accident. God spoke to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;before you were born I sanctified you;I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)The word of God to Jeremiah is true for all. In the life of Moses, all that happened prepared him for where he was going. In order for Moses to become a shepherd in the hand of God, he had to be trained as a shepherd. You do not know where you will wind up; you only know where you are now. While Moses was living in the palace, he could not have imagined becoming a shepherd. Nevertheless, he ended up becoming a shepherd in the hand of God. To be used by God is a great achievement that cannot be compared to or traded for anything. You know in whom you believe, and that enough is an encouragement for you to stand firm in whatever condition or situation you may encounter. If Moses had missed his training, he probably would have been out of place to be called by God, thus he would have missed his divine schedule for his life. When he was received by the priest of Midian, he did not let pride or anger get in the way of what God planned for Him. Character was in place in the life of Moses, Exodus 2:21, “Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses.” Contentment is what made the difference in the life of Moses. Living in a palace to living in a tent could never have been an easy transition, but Moses was content. The word is true as stated in 1Timothy 6:6, “Now godliness and contentment is great gain.” With contentment, Moses was in place and not out of place for fulfilling the calling for his life.
 
Prayer for today: Ask God to endue you with the spirit of contentment.

His Ways And His Acts

FAITH CAPSULE: The way of God is the word of God and it is also the presence of God.

Exodus 33:12-23, Numbers 20
 
It is written, “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation isYour people.”And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”” (Exodus 33:12-14) In the above communication between Moses and God, it is clear that the way of God is the word of God and it is also the presence of God.
In His ways, there is direction and there is also living grace to live to the fulfillment of divine schedule. In His acts, there is power confirmation; there is deliverance and there is total victory. Psalm 103:7, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.” It is absolutely impossible to follow the ways of the Lord and not arrive at a final destination. Likewise, one cannot see His acts and not tremble at the awesomeness of His power. Moses knew the way because he was riding on a plan laid-out and directed by the Lord. The children of Israel were privileged to see His actions; they saw the move of God’s power so many times during the days in the wilderness. They saw the Red Sea open up to them to provide dry land as a passage. They saw how the firstborn of all the Egyptian masters died while their firstborns were safe. Despite all that they witnessed, those Israelites who left Egypt and whose age was twenty and above never arrived at their expected end. Caleb and Joshua were the only ones that did not fail to keep their faith in His acts which gave them direction. Moses, a giant in the hand of the Lord, violated the Word of God when he struck the rock twice where He was commanded to speak to the rock. (Numbers 20: 10-12) Moses could not get to the expected end because walking in His ways requires total obedience in all areas of life. Moses saw the Land of Promise, but could not set foot on the land. Are you paying attention to the Word of God? It has never changed and it will remain the same. The Word of God is the “unchanging changer”. His ways and His acts are all that we need to get to where we are going in life. Will you commit your way to His ways and trust in Him? Psalm 37:5,” Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass.” He is faithful.
 
Prayer for today:Ask Him for the grace to keep you going in His ways. Ask Him to keep you meditating and focusing on the actions of His hand.

Gain Your Sight

FAITH CAPSULE:For the blind of this world, the word that heals might sound ridiculous but it will always cause ridiculing to cease.

John 9:1-23
 
A man who was blind from his mother’s womb was at a position of begging, stagnation, deprivation and mockery when the passing by of Jesus brought him out of his blindness. Many are experiencing Jesus’ passing by but cannot receive their deliverance because of situation that has kept them in bondage for so many years. Are you in the right location to receive deliverance but yet nothing is happening?Any inability to receive is not because Jesus has ceased to pass by, but because you have failed to enter into His commandment. Most times, His commandment sounds foolish but the word makes us to realize that, “…the foolishnessofGod is wiser than men, and the weakness ofGod is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:25) Behaving the word most times makes one to look stupid, but the bottom line is that, there are direction, deliverance and breakthrough in obeying the commands of God when we behave His word.When Jesus saw the man that was blind from birth, He approached him. He spat on the ground and mixing His saliva with the dirt, made clay and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay (John 9:6). After this, Jesus committed the blind man unto doing his own part when gave command that was to fully deliver the blind man from long time blindness. Jesus commanded the blind man, “…Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.”(John 9:7) This blind man was unlike the Syrian army commander, Naaman, whom Elisha sent to wash at the Jordan. Naaman was reluctant and furious for having to go to such a low standard river. He delayed his going and his miracle was delayed. The blind man, however, did not question Jesus. He went and washed and he gained sight. The blind man, because of his obedience to the word of God gained motion and stagnation ceased in his life. The blind saw where he had not seen since birth. Above all, his neighbors questioned his healing. The blind man responded stating, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.” (John 9:11)For the blind of this world, direction to healing might sound ridiculous but it will always cause ridiculing tocease and direction to become clear. The secret of the blind man’s miracle was submission to Jesus’ command by obeying His command. Regardless of how His command sounds in your direction remember that the foolishness of His God is wiser than men.
 
Prayer for today:Ask the Lord for the grace of obedience that is needed to receive sight for breakthrough.