Knowing the God You Serve Monday, 20th - Friday, 24th July, 2020.
Friday, 24thJuly, 2020
Topic: Let Go
Anchor Scripture: Daniel 11: 32b ". . . but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits."
Focus Scripture: ". . . I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: . . . ," - Philippians 3:: 8
Admonition Greetings from the Throne of Grace.
One of the first things I learnt as an undergraduate studying education is that no mind is a tabula rasa. That is, no mind is a clean slate with nothing written on it; not even babies. The implication of this is that each and every person we see is a carrier of one knowledge or the other.
However, I was privileged to have started my primary school when slates, a piece of flat wood, and chalk, were being used to start learning the numbers and the alphabets. I remember vividly that we often had to clean our slates, albeit several times daily, with a piece of cloth or paper in order to write new things. At times, when we have used some stubborn chalks to write, and especially on weekends, we will use water to wash off what we hitherto wrote on our slates, so as to have space to write new things.
Hmmm . . . what a long-forgotten memory the Holy Spirit brought back to teach us this morning!
Just like slates of those days, we all had things we had learnt before coming to God for salvation. But even though we may have been saved, so to say, if we don't wipe off those things we had hitherto learnt, like our customs and traditions and things we learnt in schools or read in books, understanding God, having His knowledge and retaining same may become difficult if not totally impossible. Or at the worst, we begin to mix them with the knowledge of God which we are being newly taught. That is the reason many churches' doctrines are full of things the Bible calls "the widom and philosophies of men." I have many examples that I saw in churches that I attended in the past, but for time and space, I will bring an example right from inside the Bible. In Luke 2: 41 - 51, Jesus got lost from His parents for good three (3) days when they went to Jesrusalem for a feast, the Passover. You know why? The Bible says at the beginning of that story that they went after the custom of the feast (verse 42). That is to corroborate Jesus' admonition in Matthew 6: 24.
In our Focus Scripture this morning, Apostle Paul, a guru in Jewish law, says because he needed to gain the knowledge of Christ, he decided to forgo all that he foreknew, that is the Jewish laws, for the defence of which he killed many Christians, to show his fervour and zeal. However, because he found the knowledge of Christ to be more excellent, he had to let go of all the Jewish laws he foreknew and defended so ferociously.
In same manner, and following in the footsteps of people like this, some of us too had had to let go of some worthless things we once held dear and in esteem in our hearts. And that is the calling this morning: that for us to be able to come into the full knowledge of God and His Christ, we MUST forgo the many heresies of the past. As A. W. Tozer puts it in his book, The Pursuit of God, those things we knew and know are but veils that cover the minds of men against the full knowledge of God. But when Jesus Christ yielded His Spirit on the cross, the Bible says that veil was torn in two for us to be able to come into the full knowledge and full realization of the amazing glory of God. But for this to happen, like Apoatle Paul, we have to "let go" all that we used to know.
Beloved brethren, as we close this morning, you will remember I talked above, by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, of the water we used in cleaning our slates back then so that it will become clean to allow us write new things, so also, the Bible talks of the washing of water by the blood (Ephesians 5: 26). Today, the blood of Jesus Christ it is that can wash our hearts of those damaging customs and traditions as well as the unChrist doctrines of our different denominations. I say that doctrines are impediments to fully knowing God. Except we come to Jesus Christ for the washing of our hearts by His precious blood, we will never come to the full realization of the knowledge of God. Let me warn that being old in Christianity does not mean that you have the full knowledge of God and free from these impediments. Apostle Peter, the leading Apostle himself was once, a victim.
Finally this morning, there is no doctrine, custom, traditions or what have you that is as excellent as having the knowledge of God. If there is anything we must desire therefore, it is knowledge of God. Knowing God is as important as living itself. God is our life because in Him we live and have our being (Acts 17: 25).. Therefore, not knowing who He is is as good as being dead while still living (Revelation 3: 1). None is that state will ever FINISH STRONG. May that not be our testimonies in Jesus Christ's mighty name. Amen.
* * * Please, pray that God purges your heart of every knowledge impeding His knowledge and fill your heart with His knowledge in Jesus' name. Amen. * * * Till Monday when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him.
Jesus loves you!
Thursday, 23rd July, 2020
Topic: Fear Him
Anchor Scripture: Daniel 11: 32b ". . . but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits."
Focus Scripture: "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant." - Psalms 25: 14
Admonition Greetings from the Throne of Grace.
Sometimes ago, my first son was one of the four members of a group in a quiz competition in a church we attended. His group came third, and my son started crying. People asked him why, and he told them "my daddy will beat me when I got home." Some members of the church who saw that came to plead with me not to beat him that afterall, he was not the only person in the group. Now, my son knew that I don't beat them often and for an unjust cause, but he knew that having come up with a performance thaf was below par, I wouldn't pat his back, and he is somebody that always want my approval of his actions. So, his cry was not really about the fact that I would beat him, but principally about the fact that I wouldn't really approve of his and his group's performance. Let me add that the group that came last had a teen of my boy's age, who never gave a damn about what his parents would do or say when he got home, even though we happened to be me.bers of the same church.
The scenario above is a perfect picture of what it means to fear God. Fearing God is not to be fearful of Him because of the punishment He would mete out to us for doing wrong alone, but to be afraid of His disapproval of our wrong sinful actions by which we might lose His love and grace. That shows that we live in full awareness of His love and we never want to trade His love for anything. That exactly is how to fear God.
This characterics, fearing God, was one of the major reasons David was adjudged "the man after my heart" by God, and it was a major defining factor between King Saul and King David. You will read many of these instances in the book I told you about in the course of the week, "The Seven Keys of David"when it is out.
A major reason Christians, professing children of God lack the knowledge of their supposed Father was because they do not fear Him. Our Focus Scripture this morning says that only those who fear God will know His Secrets. Like it was said on Monday, God is not far from us at all that we may not be able to reach or know Him; He is very near to us, and in fact, He lives in our hearts because our body is His temple (1 Corinthians 6: 19) and in Him we all live and have our beings (Acts 17: 25).
Any man that desires to FINISH STRONG in God MUST, like David fear God both in their thoughts and actions. In 1 Samuel 24, David had one of the best opportunities to personally end all his miseries by killing his pursuer and the one sitting on the throne which God had anointed him to sit. David had the opportunity to "help his destiny" as many of your pastors do lead you to pray; to pray for the death of your enemy and that your enemy should develop mental problem or that one evil thing or the other should happen to them. But the man, David, feared His God and will not lay a finger on "the enemy of his glory. Rather, he said: "The LORD forbid that I should do this thing . . . ." But if it were you, what would you have done? Or if you left him there and quickly run to tell your pastor, what would he have advised you to do? Would your mind and your pastor not have advised that you end his life right there in his sleep? After all, that's the prayer he has always led you to pray in your church. I said this so that you may know that not all those you call pastors truly know and fear God because the teaching of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ is that we should pray for and also feed our enemies when they are hungry. That is the mind of God! (Matthew 5: 42 - 48) God willing, you will soon read from another book, "Praying the Right Prayers" which the Holy Spirit has finished writing in order to teach us how to pray. In it, you will see that a prayer like the one above is nothing, but a cheer waste of your time and enegy because God doesn't answer such hopeless prayers that many of your pastors do lead you to pray.
As we close this morning beloved brethren, let me tell us that having God in our thoughts always will help us to fear Him. I remember that in one of our past series, "Living in His Presence" it was taught us by the Holy Spirit that we are carriers of His presence and that wherever we are, His Presence is there with us. Therefore, being conscious of the fact that He is aware, not only of actions, but also of our thoughts, albeit at all times, will keep us from doing things He wouldn't approve. If we really desire to know God as truly as He is, we must avoid becoming like the people Apostle Paul spoke about in Romans 1: 28 - 32 that they refused to retain God in their thinking. So, God promptly gave them up to a reprobate mind to be doing abominable things. Let it be know that none found in this category will ever FINISH STRONG. I pray that will not be our testimony in Jesus' Christ mighty name. Amen.
* * * Please, pray that God gives you a new heart to fear Him at all times in Jesus' name. Amen. * * * Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him.
Jesus loves you!
Wednesday, 22nd July, 2020
Topic: Trust, Trust and Trust
Anchor Scripture: Daniel 11: 32b ". . . but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits."
Focus Scripture: "And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: . . ." - Psalms 9:10
Admonition Greetings from the Throne of Grace
The reason we all went to school was to know some things we didn't know and would not know if we didn't go to school, but which would be of tremendous importance to us and add some values to our existence if we dared to know them. On getting to school, we knew not one person amongst everyone we came across, teachers and pupils alike. However, because of what we desired to know, we got acquainted with them all and became friends with them to the extent of sharing things, even things as sensitive as foods. In the same vein, we had not the least idea of what we went to school to learn. When the teacher started teaching us, we didn't know whether they were teaching the right thing or not, yet we cooperated with them and learnt. The name of the cooperation we gave them that enabled us to learn from them and become what we are today is TRUST. We trusted them, even though we neither know them nor what they taught us.
One inalienable characteristic of inquisitive minds is the hunger to know. It is the drive, the hunger that makes them trust every material and persons they come across along their way to knowing.
Like we did in schools before we knew what we now know and become who we now are, if we really desire to know God, then we must learn to trust Him. But what are we to trust in or about God? Two things, really!
One, trust Him for Who He is; the God Almighty! Trust Him that He says He made everything both in heaven and on the earth. Trust Him that all powers in heaven and on earth belong to Him and that they all yield themselves at His command and bow before Him. Trust Him that before Him there was nothing, neither in heaven nor on earth, existed before Him. Whatever He says about Himself, just believe and trust that they were true about Him. In Exodus 3: 14 when Moses sought to know Him, Moses asked Who He was and He responded saying "I AM, THAT I AM." I understand that not many of us know the meaning of that name, I AM, THAT I AM. What that means is that I AM WHOM I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN. I AM AND CAN BE WHATEVER I CHOOSE TO BE. Oh,that is the reason that He has no limitations. So, in our quest to know God, we must learn NEVER to doubt the authenticity of whatever He chooses to be at any particular point in time. For example, to lead the Israelites out of their bondage in Egypt, He was a pillar of cloud during the day. But in the night, He would become a pillar of fire (Exodus 13: 21 - 22).
Two, we MUST trust His Word. I understand that the severity of what we may be passing through may overcloud our faith and could force us to want to, as it is said, think twice. But as I have always said, when God is involved, suspend your brain. God is a Spirit. Therefore, everything concerning Him is spiritual. Your brain belongs to the physical. We have been made to understand that it is the spiritual realm that controls the physical realm. So, whenever you tried to think God's Word twice before acting on it, you are trying to change the order of things; controling the spiritual with the physical. That will not work! Brethren, if we must know God, we must take Him for His Word and accept the infallibility of whatever He says, no matter how "foolish" it appears to be.
As we close this morning, our Focus Scripture posited that only those that know His name will trust in Him. This simply means that inability to trust in Him simply means that we don't know Him. However, we need to understand that our ability to FINISH STRONG in Him and make heaven solely rests on our knowledge of Him. As said yesterday, "how much you know about God will determine how far you can go with Him."It is just like the school scenario painted above; no one gets promoted into a new class without an appreciable knowledge of what had been taught in the previous class. So, one of the determinants of whether we would FINISH STRONG or not is our ability to trust in His Word, by not trying to prove Him through logic. God is never logical! When you read through His Word and see the things He did, you will see that HE IS NOT A LOGICAL GOD at all. So trying to reason Him or His Word out will land us in total ignorance of Him, and non without the knowledge of Him will FINISH STRONG and see Him on the Last Day. I pray that will not be our testimony in Jesus' name. Amen. * * * Please, pray that the blood of Jesus Christ will flush your heart of every seed of doubt about God and God gives you a new heart to trust Him wholeheartedly in Jesus' name. Amen. * * * Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him.
Jesus loves you!
Tuesday, 21st July, 2020
Topic: Maintain a Relationship With God
Anchor Scripture: Daniel 11: 32b ". . . but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits."
Focus Scripture: ". . . I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." - Genesis 17: 1
Admonition Greetings from the Throne of Grace.
Early in my Christian race and even up till now, the Bible story I found most impactful was that of the "father of faith", Abraham, himself. This was because he taught me many lessons, a major one which is "what I need to do to know God" before I could actually serve Him.
It has been said before that many are in the church today, even on the pulpit, not because they personally know God, but what they know about God is based on what they have seen Him do with other people around them and what they have either read and or heard about Him in the Bible and from other people. Let me say all those would suffice as a foundation to start a relationship with God, but we would need more to maintain a relationship with Him.
Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, made it clear that starting may be important, but to FINISH STRONG, we need a standing to the end. This is how He puts it in Matthew 24:13"But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." The question now is how do we endure to the end?
One of the ways God had prepared for us to be able to endure to the end is in having and maintaining a (good) relationship with Him. He desired that with Abraham. That is why He ordered Abraham to "walk before me . . . ." That command is more spiritually loaded than we often read into it whenever we read it. But for the purpose of our devotional today, we shall take the relationship aspect of it.
The book of Amos 3: 3 asked a pertinent question in this direction, and it is obvious that no two people, especially of different classes, so to say, if they don't have an ungoing relationship can walk together. So, one major thing God told Abraham in that verse of the Bible is: maintain a relationship with me!
This is what is painfully lacking between most of us, Christians, and God, Whom we call our Father, today, both individually and mostly, as a church. Most of us are like Saul, the son of Kish, who rode on the benevolence and magnanimity of God to become the King over Israel without any relationship with God. I wouldn't know how many of us Christians today who know that that was King Saul's undoing. He became King on a platter of gold. What the French will call "a la carte." And you know what, he also lost the throne and died like a common man a la carte. Whatever you don't work for, you don't treasure. You will read more about that in a book God used my hand to write, The Seven Keys of David. David was magnanimous enough to tell King Saul what gave him the boldness to want to face Goliath and the undoubting assurance that he would win and kill the giant (1 Samuel 17: 31 - 37), but the king, like most of us today, was not spirituall alive to understand what was being told him.
As we close this morning, let me tell you that my journey into Christianity did not start easily. I had a running battle believing in God and Jesus' existence. But along the way, they both proved to me as they did to Saul on his murderous mission to Damascus. Then, I stopped doubting their existence, and maybe, started carrying the Bible, once in a while, before I was finally arrested. And knowing that I have been arrested and that I have nowhere to go again, I personally, amidst tears, day and night, for several years, begged God for a personal relationship with Him. I cried and begged Him for a deeper relational experience of and with Him. I would lock myself up in a room for hours, not asking for job, even though I was jobless with my Master' degree. I wasn't asking for anything for myself, but just to go with God deeper, deeper and deeper, everyday. I was practically not concerned about my welfare. I knew that with a good relationship with Him, He would provide for all my needs according to His riches in glory in Jesus Christ (Philippians 4: 19).
I must let you know however that the road where I ended was a very tortuous and fiery one, like Abraham, like David and many others who dared built a relationship with God. But the end of my story endeared my heart to Him and I can tell you that I have no regrets asking for a deeper knowledge of Him. You see, when we read some people's storiea in the Bible, we love the stories and we turn their testimonies into prayers. But do we often take a stop to ask and reflect on how those people got to that point? The truth, beloved brethren, is that having the trimmings of life is not a prove of having a good and ongoing relationship with God at all. What proves your good relationship with God is if you could answer an emphatic "YES" to the question of whether you will still remain a Christian, a Pastor, a deacon, a choir master, a chorister and or whatever you are in your church if everything you are enjoying now is taking from you and you are put through Job's experience (Job 1: 1 - 10). Without that NO ONE SHOULD HOPE TO FINISH STRONG! * * * Please, pray that God will make you have a deeper experience of Him in Jesus' name. Amen. * * * Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him.
Jesus loves you!
Monday, 20th July, 2020
Topic: Understanding God
Anchor Scripture: Daniel 11: 32b ". . . but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits."
Focus Scripture: "That I may know him, . . . being made conformable unto his death;" - Philippians 3: 10
Admonition Greetings from the Throne of Grace.
A friend related a pathetic story of how a friend of his lost his wife to the cold hands of death, a few years back, to me. The deceased was seriously sick and taken to hospital. But one day, the woman's situation became critical, my friend's friend decided to take her to see their Senior Pastor whom he believed that if he could just lay his hand on his wife, she would recover. Meanwhile, the protocols to fulfill before anyone could see the Senior Pastor was hectic becauase he is a man, and not easily accessible. To cut a long story short, the woman didn't get to see the Pastor before she packed.
This particular story tells how we Christians of today relate with the God, Whom we call our Father.. I have always said that "how much you know about God will determine how far you can go with Him." Often times, the Holy Spirit have hammered on the importance of us knowing God ourselves. The covenant that requires an intermediary between God and man has been broken and abandoned by God (Hebrews 9: 7 - 8). We no longer require any man, whatever we may call them, to speak to or reach out to God again (Matthew 7: 8). There is the need for us to KNOW GOD, OUR FATHER, else, we are bastards.
According to the book of Hosea 4: 1, God desires that His children know Him. But knowing God, part of which we learnt under the series, Developing the Knowledge of God, cannot be done through a fellow man, by whatever nomenclature they are known and called. This is because it involves understanding Who God is, His nature, what He can do and how He works. These are the inalienable knowledge the people at Athen lacked that made them to be serving THE UNKNOWN GOD (Acts 17), just like many in the church today.
Now, understanding the nature of God will bring us to knowledge of His divinity. The book of 1 Corinthians 15: 34 - 58, explains what divinity is all about. While I encourage us to go through that Scripture, but for the sake of quick understanding, divinity means heavenly. That is, the incorruptible nature of God which other heavenly creatures also possess. According to that Scripture, divinity is a clear departure from our own earthly and fleshly nature which is prone to many things: lust, temptation and many other spiritual vices. This is the reason, according to Romans 8: 5, no one that is in flesh can ever please God because we do not have His nature yet for it is written, "deep calleth to deep".
Knowing the God we serve also requires a distinguishing knowledge of the fact that God is not a man and He doesn't behave or react to issues like man. Although, many preachers these days, especially when selling their lies about prosperity and blessings are equating the way God prospers and blesses us to how man does, but I tell you that "God is not a man (Number 23: 19, Acts 17:: 22 - 25)." Untill we come to the realization of the proper knowledge of God, we may continue to have a wrong perception of Him, and thus, serving Him strongly.
The third aspect of Understanding God that we need to touch this morning as we seek to know Him Whom we serve is that we must have a deep knowledge of what He can do and what He cannot do. Lack of this has led many people today to seek God is wrong places. It has also made some neophyte Christians backslide because they felt disappointed by God at some points. Yes, the book of Jeremiah 32: 27 says there is nothing God cannot do, But that is where the first two parts of Understanding God become important because God cannot and WILL NOT do anything that is contrary to His divine nature.
As we close this morning, beloved brethren, I say that underatanding our God is of immense benefits to us in service because in it we would be able to do exploits and FINISH STRONG in Him. Meanwhile, as rightly put be Acts 17: 27, God is not far from every one of us and His knowledge is ever near us.
Our FINISHING STRONG in Him, brethren is dependent on having the proper knowldge pf Him as His children. * * * Please pray that God, via His Holy Spirit, will help you to come to the right knowledge of Him in Jesus' name. Amen. * * * Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please, keep keeping on in Him.