Planning

Jesus defined His own culture. He did not live in anybody’s culture. He integrated the public one into His own. Why? Because that is the way He could get their attention and then start to influence them. He strategically planned it that way. However, we His followers follow-up others culture and get confused due to improper planning.
Christianity is like belonging to a company. There is always a starting point. Again just like when one enters into a university. By Luke 14:25, the crowd following Jesus had grown but He knew that many of them were purposeless and useless enthusiasts. Many in those crowds did not know that the way to the cross is key to His worship and it was, and is still no pathway for light-hearted mediocre who were and are still in the majority (Luke 14:33).
The moment God created you He had a master plan for your life (Jeremiah 1:5). The talent God deposited inside of us must be there because God wanted that talent to grow to benefit us. However, there is lack of faith to nurture that talent through obedience to our mentors. Do you know your mentor? Can you walk their walk? Then when we fail, it is our faith that has failed us and that is the reason we give up. We do not count the cost of what we are about to do. We ought to always think about what we do and say. We are the architects of out own future. Do we have a plan B in our adventures in life?
In Luke 14:26-29 Jesus talked about three main things. In leaving our family members we ought to forsake many nice things dear and pleasurable to us, sacrifice those things and observe our environment and PLAN for the future by the assessment of yesterday’s experience with today’s tallying of knowledge (seeing what is happening to us today vis-a-vis what happened in the past) and project it onto the future.
Planning for our future involves knowing who we are.

Knowing who we are enables us to know what we can give and/or take even in marriage: Our greatest problem. That is next!
20min

This is a continuation from The will of God – Sanctification

It is The Will of God that we grow in knowledge

There are a lot of times when we cannot remain in sanctification (the will of God) due the what Paul described as those we are unequally yoked with us, in 2 Cor. 6:14, who end up defiling us. When we do the will of God and remain sanctified, the bible says in Prov. 16:7 that He will cause our enemies to be at peace with us. The purpose of sanctification is for us to have peace. Sanctification is not holiness but it is the process of being or becoming Holy.
The truth is very important in cleansing ourselves. It is very important to know ourselves for that is the only way we can know when things are going wrong. When we are sanctified we tell people the truth in all situations; when you truthfully advice a friend and advice is not taken, shame will not allow the friend to come and complain to you. So you remain at peace. Our ways please God by being obedient to Him. Christians are not smart but they are born intelligent. We are naturally endowed with the gift of knowledge that comes to us. The fact that you are a Christian does not mean one day a sort of calamity would not befall you. However, our hope as born again Christians is that in 1 Corinthians 10:13, He said I will make a way. Yes it is known that at times calamities befall us due to our own disobedience and therefore we create our own problems due to poor planning and management of our resources.
Christianity is your ability to understand that God has given us the knowledge, wisdom and the power to understand. God is the one who has after allowing our justification has sanctified us. Sanctification is not holiness; No! It is a continual and regular process to making us holy. This is the process by which we develop a christian experience and begin to acquire knowledge. This acquisition process is a gradual one. Among other things, it involves reading, studying, searching for useful information (education) that would lead you into gradually attaining your goals in life whether you want to be a church worker, plumber or a cleaner. Throughout these endeavours, one might be disappointed here and there by for example failures, etc. Nevertheless, in all these we are gaining valuable experience and in most cases that same thing that we failed in today, we would not fail in tomorrow and this is how temptation is to Christians. A Christian would fall into temptation here and there but the knowledge that we gain from our falling makes us not to fall on that same stumbling block again.
AMEN!

The Will of God

A spoken truth is bitter. Criticism and abuse is cast on the speaker. However, the person the truth is spoken of knows that what is said is the truth. How faithful are we to ourselves when we speak to others. It is difficult to accept the truth when it is spoken to you but it is easy to tell somebody else the truth about their lives especially when we think we are at par with them.
It is the Will of God that we accept the justification of Christ and the sanctification brought about unto us by the water of the Word [of God] and being empowered by the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). It is only the Holy Spirit of God that can enable a justified person continue in self-justification. God through the Holy Spirit continues to clean a believer in a process of making him Holy. It is the will of God that we walk the path of continual Christian development (sanctification). Our ability to quickly accept our faults, error and mistakes allows the Holy Spirit to lead us through the path of righteousness.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:3 we read that it His will that we speak and seek realistic truth no matter what. When we are being polluted, made dirty by earthly things we cannot be sanctified. In Paul’s letter (1 Thessalonians 5:23), he presented the three-fold sanctification.
Sanctified spirit connects us cleanly to God, a sanctified cleaner soul controls our thoughts which is the seat of our passion and desires. A cleansed soul resists the charms of the senses and then it affects the body. A cleansed and sanctified body is not abused and not be used as an instrument of shame by our attitude and behaviour.
Each time we lie to ourselves we are not on the path to sanctify ourselves. When we accept the truth we are then able to change things. The word of God is the truth and when we accept it, it brings change in us and so sanctifies us. It is the will of God that we progressively become holy, purify and sanctified before God and man. It is a daily process for Christians. The business of the Lord is our sanctification – A process where we are made and remain clean. Jesus came to justify us from the curse of this world but it is also the will of God that we be clean and remain so. (sanctification)

We will continue with The will of God – Knowledge

This is a continuation of the discussion on Emotions

Vessel of Honour

Before God can renew you, you must be ready to brace for change yourself. The reason why we have so much problems is because our emotions make us go for what we want but not what we need. That is why David with free will always asked God for a cleansed heart. From the day we are a born again Christians have the Holy Spirit. When we walk with God, His spirit rubs on us. What does the Spirit do? It is the Holy Spirit of God that convicts us that what we have done is wrong. This gives us the option to repent from our wrong. So you see, it is our decision to keep ourselves clean by stopping to do wrong. In Gen. 1:28, God asked us to dominate and be in power to be of service to society.

Almost all women like men who are in authority (have a say) so that their authority can be of help to them whilst only few men are prepared to have their woman be of a higher place than them.

We all want to be in position from where we can help others. David said in Psalms 23 emotionally that only He the Lord that can help him out of trouble to be of any service to his people. However, so that he does not go back to the filth, he wrote in Psalms 51 that God create in me a clean heart so I can continue to be of service.
Our bible studies show us that how much you serve determines how much you will be served. When you serve you are able to develop many skills and the more skill that we develop determines the more opportunity we may have. So all those times when David was sleeping in the bush, etc. was where he gained the experience to kill his Goliath. A diligent servant is always a danger or threat to the master! This is the best way to achieve your goal. However we need to understand that the expression of our emotion determine how people judge us. In Galatians 5:22 we see that our emotions work with either the flesh or the spirit. When with the Spirit, then we are liberated from sin. We shun defiling company and polluting principles and are set apart by God and fit for the service of Christ.

Thoughts, emotions and actions

Emotions are the expressions of our innermost content, feeling or belief due to our ideology and our concept of a particular thing, person, race or culture. Do we see our emotions? ….NO! It is only through our outward behaviour that we express our emotions (concepts). A bit like the engine of a vehicle. No one sees the engine but it is the engine that makes the vehicle move.

Scientifically speaking, our emotion is a force that is likely to transfer the energy of our thoughts into work which is our actions.

Our thoughts are based in our soul. It is the seat of passion and desires whiles it is the body that carries out the actions of what is felt. Many of us think that God does not listen to us. Nevertheless there are some things that God does not change: That is our choice. He can only show us that this and that is wrong. Our emotions are very difficult to hide because they have been brought about by what has been implanted into us now or in the past. It is our responsibility through proper management to put our emotions in check or else it can take us down.
Whatever choices or decisions we make in life, God honours them. You want to know why?? GOD DID NOT CREATE ACTIONS, HE ONLY CREATED REACTIONS. Most of us could have being successful long ago but the paths we stubbornly took have delayed our success. This success will come by his Grace but….long time before! God honours everything! ….so we learn some experience and sacrifice a few things here and there. However, Please stick to obedience because it is better that sacrifices.
Looking at Psalm 23, it is all about emotional expressions. All those six verses in there, show emotions of David. He was scared and so, in there God is his guide and guard. It is those same emotions that led him to sin. To always preserve our souls is to be in the house of the Lord.
In Psalms 51 also, David expressed emotions when he said it was in sin that his mother conceived him so he is a sinner. He recognised his guilt and prayed for God to create in him a new heart… David carried and comported himself well to ask for forgiveness. He had the right approach to ask God for a change.

We shall continue this in the next topic SERVICE

Sin and Progress continues from the Understanding Wisdom blog

Sin and Progress

In a deeper sense we ought to understand that in order for us to succeed and progress  in life, we need to break the power of sin, break the power of judgment and fear over our lives. Do we know that due to our fear of sin, many christians have refused to progress? We always get stuck thinking about so so and so, what people will say….. while we could actually spend our time working towards upgrading our skills and abilities. We let our culture and traditions hold us back from progressing.

You take a good look at your self now. Do you not see that there are some good opportunities that have come your way and you stupidly threw them away?

Blessing 2

It is just not enough to keep screaming “Amen … Amen…” to every thing the preachers voice out in the pulpit. We ought to understand what type of blessing that we say “Amen” to. Do you know that you can be blessed to be poor? Blessings need to be specific….and know what type blessing that is pronounced onto us before we start to scream “Amen” to everything.
Look at the specific blessing God blessed them with. Reading from that same Gen.1:28 downwards, God said be fruitful. It is left for you to understand what fruitfulness means to YOU and take it! Secondly He said multiply – meaning we have knowledge of the blessing that we have but before we enter into any investment, we ought to understand the nature of the business and its environment so it can be profitable. In short, that thing that we are fruitful in we should increase in it. He went on the say replenish the earth meaning it is a blessing God gave to man to sustainably develop the environment we take from during fruitfulness and multiplication.
Our knowledge of sin and the fear of sin even though as born again christians we are above sin does not allow as to tap deep into what we have to get what we need.

Truth

Many men of God know the truth but are reluctant to show their members to way. If you are born again and therefore have the word of God in you, then you should have knowledge and understanding that christianity is not about poverty and poverty mentality as most men of God tell us. It is about profitability too! If you have a hobby to do x y, as a service or product and people like it, tell me what is wrong with charging a b amount of money for that? If the demand for your hobby goes up what is wrong with strategically increasing price to be more profitable? You ought to understand that YOU need to wake up and live! That thing you think is just a small hobby that you give or do to people for free could actually be your bread winner. IT IS NOT A SIN TO THINK BUSINESS IN CHURCH!!!!

Understanding wisdom is one of the problems with christianity today. We take what we want to take and leave what we do not want or what does not satisfy us from the holy scriptures. We need revelation knowledge always because when we lack revelation, we have no Christ. There is a difference between being a christian by religion and being a christian with christ living inside of you. Religion without Christ is just a cultural thing and leads to crisis.

Understanding of Wisdom

We are dividing it into 3 sides.

• Knowledge
• Understanding
• Wisdom

If someone has knowledge and does not understand the knowledge behind that knowledge they have, then how can they apply it? It is the understanding of how this and that fit in, that is how we know things. Knowledge without understanding does not make any impact. That is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:6, letter killeth…. He went further on to explain that the spirit giveth life.
Many of us have knowledge but due to lack of proper understanding we are not able to make anything out of it. For example one can have knowledge that there is a route between points A and C through a particular town. However, understanding of that route would make that person make a decision that there might be traffic on that route at a particular time so an alternative path is needed.
Knowledge tells us what has happened before: An experience. Understanding makes use of that knowledge and becomes (re)creative. It is creativity that gives us promotion in our endeavour in life.

Blessing

In Gen.1:28, …and God blessed them… The question here is that, most of us have knowledge of blessing but do we actually understand what this blessing talked about here is? We mostly see only the good things in life as blessings and at times quite myopic about it. Nevertheless do we also know that a bad time can also be a blessing? Our ability to understand the knowledge of the word blessing makes us see the environment as an opportunity for advancement. If you believe that you need to go to work to get your daily bread and then that job fails you somehow, then you should also be able to have the faith in yourself to move on to get something else to do (which is creativity). This process when properly executed can make you get a better job or be self-employed and then when you look back at the failing of that former job, you see it as a blessing.

We shall continue next time to elucidate on the 2 Corinthians 3:6 verse above: That is NEXT.

…continuing from the why of life, we shall take a look at how being creative would make us stop asking that question why?

Creativity

Faith in operation is all about developing or working to bring to pass that thing that you believe in. In James 2:18-20, we need to develop skill to perfect our God-given abilities. God did not tell Gideon He would deliver his people but He said you shall deliver your people with your might. Developing the appropriate skills to move us into perfection is creativity. Creativity is the point of perfection where things work for us and in our favour.

One of the signs of a justified christian is that the anointing of God or the holy spirit that lives in us shall bring into remembrance (John14:26) ‘yet to come things’ and make us manage resources excellently (creative). A justified and a sanctified christian who is creative does not go chasing after people but rather people looking for solutions to their problems come chasing.

A creative person does not beg people to be his friends but people manoeuvre to be his friends and to identify with him or her. At this point that person has come to a point where he/she no longer ask why?, instead the polished abilities market him/her. What makes people admire you or makes you sell is not because you have got a big mouth and can talk but rather because your God-given ability has been perfected and can be of a solution to them and their environment. In Psalms 110:1-3, in the days of your power means in the days your skills or ability are marketing you and putting bread on your table.
If you obey God and walk diligently with Him, one thing He imputes into you is knowledge; knowledge to bring out the personality inside us. Remember the three points we learnt about Gideon in the why of life. In creativity and in perfecting our abilities, we would at times fail here and there. We would at times fall. However, God at times allows these things for us to be quicker and learn for a future problem. When we get up from a fall, we learn to begin or to continue more intelligently and cautiously. Most of us when we fall remain on the ground due to pride and arrogance (sin).
The key to sustainable development as a christian is to skillfully develop our unique abilities. This is our responsibility. It is only in the extreme circumstance when and where there is no help that God would manifest Himself miraculously to move you to position you for your miracle.

In this blog we are looking at four keys to a successful christian living. Now lets us look at what a key is. A key is anything that can be used to lock or unlock something and it is believed that these keys all exist in society. Now so what is success? Success is attaining to the heights or pinnacle of a matter or issue that brings us joy.

The Keys To Success

1. Goal
2. Planning
3. Learning
4. Creativity

Introduction

A goal is what we want to achieve. Planning is after we set a goal, we put in place structures to get to our goal. Learning takes place to train us to lay down strategies to enable the structures we put in place into getting us to achieve our goal. Now after we finish all the above, we enter into making our goal visible for people to see: One becomes accomplished. This is creativity.
For example a painter might have an idea to paint (goal) something but no one sees the idea. When the painting is finished we see the painting (creativity). There might be interest in the painting so the thought of marketing (another goal) comes in and if eventually financial break through is attained, that is another creativity.
This is bit cyclic when observed from the top however, it is spiral with steps from the sides. The attainment of every goal which is creativity, should inspire us to the setting up of new goals. The success of every goal basically rely on the learning and the planning processes.

Goal

In Gen. 1:1, God had already set His goal to create. What we all see is His creativity. He had a learning and planning process with the Trinity. Likewise, it is our responsibility to know what we intend to achieve (goal) and go through the learning and planning processes to actualise the set goal.

Planning

Esther 4:16 teaches us another of the steps of success. Esther believed in a good plan. She had a goal to go see the King on a life threatening matter. She planned and study the chamberlains. The planning process involved something even she herself had to do. What was the end result? (Creativity).

Learning

In 1 Kings 3:7-10, we learning about how Solomon who had the whole kingdom to lead asked God for an understanding heart (learning). He had a goal to please God. He planned to sacrifice and pray to God. Was he a success? (Creativity).

Creativity

2 Chronicles 18:7 shows us the end result which is creativity after a goal, planning and learning process. The King Jehoshaphat was looking for perfection (creativity) so he had to call the only prophet in the land that will tell the truth.

Conclusion

These whole ideas of successful success are all biblical. Most of us only read the bible canally without the expert help of the Holy spirit and so we miss it. When the anointing of God opens our minds to understand the holy scriptures, the knowledge we gain gives us wisdom for our successful christian living. What do I mean? If all laws on earth basically took a cue from the bible, then all successful business persons on earth obey biblical principles towards success in business. The goal of a company is its mission statement or….? Do churches too not have mission statements?

The Why Of Life

In this discussion, we are going to talk about the why of life. The last letter of why is “y“. This is like the funnel: the funnel of life. In Judges 6:10-15, we read about Gideon and his walk with God. There are three things that stand up in this verses.

• Disobedience
• Go in this thy might
• The presence of the Lord

We shall put these three things one for each of the letters of the word “why”.
Most of us always keep saying that life is unfair especially when something goes wrong in our life. Whether successful or not, the question why is always prominent. Why must this happen….?

One of the first answers is because we fail God through our disobedience. It was David who said Lord my mother conceived me in sin. Meaning Adam’s sin reflected on all mankind. Even though we are all sinners, yet God provided us all with something unique and this is where the church gets it wrong. We mix prosperity with spirituality, hard work with spirituality, skill with spirituality. GET THIS: Because you are a million times more spiritual does not mean you have a skill for example business. When God created us, He created us with one important thing: Ability and Strength(Might) and take this; it is not God that develops our ability and might, get it straight NOW! It is your decision to develop it or let it go! It is our responsibility to discover and develop our ability. In these confusion, we miss the original idea. There are two semi-circles in this circle (which is always true).

• The principles of Jesus
• The personality of Jesus

NO MATTER who you are, if and when you are guided by or obey Jesus’ principles you will see profitability in your life and you might not EVEN be a christian.
Procrastination has stolen our time and is a problem in our lives. Remember that from James 2:20, it is not just enough to believe you can make it and fold your hands and sleep. We need to act on what we believe in and develop skills to uplift the ability that we have. The Lord told Gideon, with this your might you shall deliver your people. Ok, it is fair to accept this that we ALL sin, we sin and sin. However, God is looking at how we focus on developing the abilities that He put into us so He can bless us. Instead of discovering our own abilities and finding ways to develop it with skill with our might so that we can save our people and most importantly ourselves, we christians spend all our time investigating other people’s prosperity (or lack of it). We are not prepared to take any calculated risk(s) or make right decisions which in itself are all skills on their own.

We shall continue with creativity next …