All posts by Tunde Soniregun

The Fear Of God

Devotions

THE FEAR OF GOD
Job 1:6-20

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. (Ecclesiastes 12:13) In every increasing or decreasing matter that can rise against man, the fear of God is all that man needs to prevail and overcome. Job prevailed because he fear God and God testified when Satan came up. “Then the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Then the LORD said to Satan, have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”” The testimony points to the fact that the business of Satan is to come and witness against every believer. God testified on behalf of Job as a blameless and upright man. Job was blameless and upright because of the fear of God in his life. By being able to fear God, he was a man that shunned evil. The fear of God was the garment in the life of Job. When Satan comes to accuse you, will you be found standing for God? Job 1:9, “So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.” Satan’s headache concerning Job was the fact that Job feared God. The wisdom that is rooted in the fear of God has turned everything in the life of Job into blessing and Satan must have tried to destroy Job’s entire blessing before actually showing up in the gathering of the children of God. The fear of the God that elevated Job also built an impenetrable hedge around all the blessings in the life of Job. How are you living your life under heaven? Do you realize that all the blessings of God in your life need to be protected by a hedge that is impenetrable to any force of the wicked? Satan is real and he is all out to steal, kill and destroy. You do have a need to constantly protect all that the Lord has blessed you with by living a life that is embedded in the fear of God. Job proved that Satan was wrong and that the Lord was right in His testimony. How will you protect the hedge around your blessings? Fear God and evil will not overcome you.

Prayer for today: O Lord my God, I ask for a heart to fear You. Allow the fear of Your Holy name to reign and rule my life in Jesus’ name.

Terminate Your Giant

Devotions

TERMINATE YOUR GIANT
1 Samuel 17:25-49

Year by year, month after month, week by week and day to day, the journey of life continues. However, the journey of everyday life will always encounter every representative of giants from every direction. The purpose of giants is to stop you from getting to your divine location. Why not pray the prayer of David? David was in the direction of becoming what the Lord had anointed him to be while the giant was also in place to deny him from getting to where God had called him to be. David refused to take on any form of weapon from the world to use against Goliath. David considered the weapons before him as burdensome. They were too heavy and they could have aided in making him a victim. As a result, David took with him the heavenly weapons. “Then David said to the Philistines, ‘You have come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled’ ” (1 Samuel 17:45) As you have been privileged of God to face a new day, do not go out or continue from where you are now without lifting up your voice unto the Almighty God. Speak to the giant and let him know that you have come to deal with him in the name of the Lord of hosts: the God of the armies of Israel. Confronting any agent of the wicked and destruction such as Goliath, does not require you to go outside of the name of the living God. Call on His name in just the same manner as David did. In your calling, speak by declaring what you want to see become of the confronting giant. After David had called on the name of God, he went further and declared the kind of day he had wanted for the giant (Goliath) by saying, “This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” (1 Samuel 17:46) The same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is alive and active today. He is still in the business of answering prayer if you will believe and commit all unto Him in prayer. Jehovah God will be moved and fight your battle. Know that it is well for you because the battle is not yours; it is for the Lord to fight on your behalf.

Prayer for today: The Lord of hosts: the God of the armies of Israel let there be a permanent termination of  giant that have taken a place of hindrance in the journey of my life.

October 2009 Issue

Monthly Newsletter

“… those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.” (Psalm 37:9)

The way into God’s rest is in waiting on Him and not to wait on Him is the way to go astray. Going astray is rooted in the heart. Manifestly, any heart that goes astray will miss His way. God is a good God and to end in a bad way is not of God. This is to say what is not good is not God. God is a God of time and process. His time is not like man’s time; likewise His process is not any man’s process. God’s timing is perfect and His process is a preparation for where He has timed for every man to be. Waiting on God can be defined as: to remain unmoving, inactive or in a state of repose, as until something expected happens; to look onward to expectation eagerly. Waiting on God is also putting off further activity until later. Waiting on God usually entails staying for a short or long time and for a definite purpose, that is, for something expected. Without absolute trust in waiting on God there will be no absolute result emerging from waiting on God. The Psalmist testifies, “O my God, I trust in You; let me not be ashamed; let not my enemies triumph over me. Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed; let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.” (Psalm 25:2-3) Trusting in God is what energizes waiting on Him. Trusting in God does have blessings and not to trust in Him will also generate curses. God spoke in Jeremiah 17:5, “…Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.” As regard to blessing, the same word of God stated in Jeremiah 17:7, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord” How can you wait on whom you do not trust? Evidently, having trust in place will enable waiting on Him.
HOW DO YOU WAIT ON HIM?
Many scriptural passages state that, looking up to God is the way of waiting on Him. Psalm 25:1, “To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.” Psalm 123:1, “Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens.” In looking up to Him, we render prayer, fasting, spending time in His Word and watching for the manifestation of expectation. God is a God of order and in different waiting there are specified ways of waiting on the Lord.
Waiting in Prayer: Jesus taught about prayer in Matthew 6:5-8, “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” Who can instruct or teach waiting in prayer more ideally than Jesus? Praying like Jesus is what will make prayer worth its while. Without doubt, prayer is not in the multitude of our words, but prayer lies in our hearts because the Lord weighs in the heart and not in our outward demonstration.
Waiting in Fasting: Just as Jesus taught about waiting in prayer, He also taught about waiting in fasting. Matthew 6:16-18, “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” To wait on God fasting will not end in wasting. To fully follow Jesus’ instruction and teaching will absolutely produce an enviable result.
Wait by spending time watching: Micah testifies to spending time and watching, “Therefore, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me.” (Micah 2:7) In looking up to God and waiting to hear from Him you will see and receive. In your looking, spend time in His living word. He is a faithful God and He will speak His word that never fails.

There are so much to gain in waiting and nothing to lose from waiting on God’s timing.
God’s timing is perfect and His process is a preparation for where He has timed for every man to be.
Tunde

Grace Increase

Devotions

GRACE INCREASE
Mark 14: 43-52

Peter stated in 2 Peter 1:2, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord…” Evidently, there will be a need for increase of grace for a believer to know and live not to betray Him. It is recorded in the book of Job 1:6, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.” Can you imagine Satan having access to the gathering of the sons of God? Satan was asked about where he was coming from, he declared that he was going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it (Job 1:7). Do you wonder why he was going to and fro? Business as usual, looking for someone to devour will not be a strange reason for his going to and fro. Since the days of the Bible, Satan has been going to and fro looking for someone to devour, today he is still looking for whom to devour and tomorrow he will continue to look for someone to devour until his time is up. The devil is at work and he has not given up his hope of frustrating the business of the kingdom just as he has been doing since he was driven out of heaven. When Jesus was here, the devil also found its way to use Judas one of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Judas became an agent for the devil when he got paid to betray Jesus. It is written in the book of Mark 14:10, “Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them.  And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.” Indeed and in truth, when it was time for Satan to work through Judas, it was through a convenient way. Judas gave Jesus up with a kiss. What is the convenient way that you are taking or that you have taken in giving up Jesus? It does not matter where you are or what you do, if your walk in the Lord is short of fully obeying Jesus you have also taken a convenient way of betraying Him. You have been singing how you love Jesus long enough but your walk in the Lord is not consistent with your confession. Judas sold Him out conveniently by setting him up with a kiss. When you become committed with the whole heart, your convenient way of betraying Him will cease. Ask for the grace to be committed.

Prayer for today: Fill me O Lord with the knowledge and grace that it takes not to betray you in all walks of life.

Look Up

Devotions

LOOK UP
Psalm 121, Isaiah 45:14-25

Revelation produce expectation and when there is expectation there will be a manifestation. In the testimonies of the Psalmist there is always enough revelation for every believer. The Psalmist testifies in Psalm 121:1-2, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD Who made heaven and earth.”Where do you look up to in times of any need for help? Are you looking up because others look up? Do you consciously lift up your eyes to the hills or are you accidentally looking up? Deliberate and conscious act is a demonstration of understanding. Understanding that is activated is what produces result. Do you know what to get when you look up to the high place where God is enthroned? In looking up, there should be expectation to contact the face of God. The Psalmist also stated Psalm 34:5, “They looked up unto Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed.”An encounter with the face of God is what will bring all that you need to travel along the path of life without any agent of the wicked terminating your journey to the expected end. It is written John 3:31, “He who comes from above is above all…” Why look away from above? There is only one God and He is the One that is above all. The Word of God encourages, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22) Absolutely, looking up unto God is a meaningful and power packed approach that is not being consciously activated among most believers. Jacob, while on his way after moving from Laban, wrestled with an angel and he gave the testimony of his encounter in Genesis 32:30, “So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” What Jacob’s testimony is saying after this encounter is that a face-to-face encounter with God will bring forth preservation. He experienced it and he testifies about it. The face of God is what you need to encounter in this journey of life. An encounter with the face of God will carry you through and you will by pass every agent of enemy in your life. Paul the Apostle prayed in 2Timothy 4:18, “And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen! The journey is too dangerous for you to take off your eyes from looking up to Him that is above. 

Prayer for today: O Lord my God I ask for the grace that causes man not to look anywhere else but only to Your great and awesome name.