House On The Rock

One of the songs I love says “behold He is alive, Christ is risen, from the dead, He broke the chains of death, Christ is risen, risen from the dead!

“And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and our faith is also empty. Yes and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ who He did not raise up – if in fact He did not rise. For if the dead do not rise, the Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” 1 Corinthians 15:14-19.

One of the joy of Easter time is not the eggs we buy for our children (as important this might be to children) but to me it is the fact that on the 17th of April 1987, I encountered our resurrected Christ at an Easter retreat.

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“But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” Hebrew 11:6.

Ladies and gentlemen, one of the most costly adventures in life is our walk of faith and as much as we confess we are people of faith, when it comes to the price to pay we shy away especially in the Western part of the world where I am privileged to live in.  When we talk of faith we all know that it is acting on the word of God that we hear and believe. Faith has root in the divine word of God.  Faith is not faith until the promise from God is given!  Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Romans 4:3b.  “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going” Hebrew 11:8.

Faith is trusting God for the unknown and the price is real!

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There’s an unseen factor in the growth of some churches that most people overlook – church unity. God blesses a unified church. Many churches have tremendous potential, but they never achieve what God desires because the members spend all their time fighting with one another. All of the energy is focused inward.

The Bible talks more about unity of the church than it does about either heaven or hell. It’s that important. Churches are made up of people, and there are no perfect people. So people get into conflict with each other. As pastors, we need to learn how to deal with those situations. Specifically, we’re called to do these six things when disunity threatens our church.

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Happy New and Fruitful Year!

I really want to thank God for your life as you read this article knowing that you are one of those who made it across the line into 2012.  2011 is gone! It is gone with its successes and failures, divine appointments and disappointments, stress and distresses, hope and hopelessness.  You and I are privileged to step into a new life, new beginning and purpose.

I wish (if I am permitted to use the word “”wish”) I could tell you that 2012 is full of roses but what is a rose without thorns?  I wish I could tell you 2012 is your year of Peace and what is peace without war? Peace is not peace until it is established in the midst of crisis and I wish I could tell you that you bank account will be full of money this year as if that is the essence of life and living.  We are in the final moment of the Body of Christ on Earth and in this moment, we can see that the political governments of the world, economic structure and even spiritual climate are all coming in alignment for the end time prophetic fulfilment. Read the rest of this entry »

This is that time of the year again when local stores, high street stores, street markets (where many home made toys are sold) are jam packed with shoppers who are celebrating Christmas.

The other thing that marks this time is the level of alcohol abuse which we shall soon see on our streets across the Land. All because men are “celebrating Christmas”. Each time I see this or read of this celebration saga, I am reminded of the way we celebrated ours in the country of my birth. Growing up in Lagos Nigeria, our parents (bless them) during Christmas bought us what was called “Christmas” dress, cooked variety of food (rice and chicken stew, pounded yam and egusi stew, depending in your tribe by the way) and on the Day itself, every Christian family went to church! As a child, you had no choice. We were not given the choice of whether we would go or not, or in many homes which toys you wanted or write down your lists of gifts! I am not against any of this by the way as long as you can afford it and still pay your bills afterwards.
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The other day I was meditating on God’s blessings and how quick this year had gone and I came to a point (in my thoughts of course) where I became grieved. Now please forgive me at this point.

When you read the book of Isaiah chapter 63:7-14, which teaches us about the goodness of God on Israel as a nation, how in their affliction He was afflicted and yet they rebelled against Him to the level that God turned against them. I was so grieved.
The word of God even declared that God said “Surely they are My people, children who will not lie so He became their saviour” Isaiah 63:8 but instead they lied and committed idolatry.

Israel was to be a nation with the dominion power to rule on earth when they are in submission to God and follow His command. They were to experience angelic ministration in battle which was normal (Check out the following – Joshua 5:13-15, Isaiah 37:36)

How do you my Christian readers see the state of affairs in the Church now?

As if that is not enough, I have received repeated emails from saints who notified me of the conference of world witches in our nation in a borough which suffered greatly during the last riot and the email stated that we should pray seriously against the conference
(at least mine came in two days before the conference. I do not know about yours)

Now with the state of affairs, I wondered why again do we go defensive and react when we should have been so offensive in our actions before now knowing that this group has been meeting for the past ten years! Some of us did not even know they have been meeting in Croydon before now. The council of world witches cannot stop God’s purpose when those of us that are Blood bought come together in unity (not to promote our personal agenda or for any political gain) or because we hear they are in town, we then suddenly start to pray. Sometimes that strategy works but remember, as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God! Spiritual Warfare is an act to be engaged and led by the Holy Spirit and this kind of warfare is for pure and holy people who dedicate their lives to the service of our Master! Many of us are so sick today because we engaged in battles we were not spiritually equipped to engage in and we are now faced with the repercussions of our actions outside of Christ.

In a city where there are so many churches but the key elements for victory on daily living are missing, when are we going to wake up to learn that it is not by planting churches on every street that this city will yield, BUT until each church RAISES UP spiritual governmental saints in every corner of our city and each church is engaged in Social outreaches in those communities!

Also until we raise HOLY people who fear God enough to run from sin. Folks who will not justify their sinful practice by calling it weakness or saying “that is how I was born” or “it runs in my family”. (NOT my heavenly family)

I was grieved but all of a sudden, in my thoughtful moment, I rejoiced again, knowing that God will not let the Blood of His Son be in vain. Hurrah! The remnants shall be delivered and His purpose for the Church on earth fulfilled!!!

Now I can continue to count my blessings again!

This year, to mention few things, I am grateful that my sin of allowing human opinion to cause me to sin is forgiven because I asked for forgiveness. You see the word of God says “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1John 1:8-9.

I rejoice I am living according to His purpose on earth. O I will not trade my life for a trillion dollars! To be made father to Pharaoh is a privilege.

I am glad that I am not alone! I am surrounded by angels of God, redeemed of the Lord, family and friends who loved me for who I am not what they can get from me.

In your meditation, count your blessings and hold your thought captive so that your spirit will not be grieved. Yes the picture of events may not be rosy.  Yes the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labour of the olive may fail, and the field yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.

Have you ever noticed how children after a while begin to look like both parents? I am amazed at the resemblance of even children who never have the priviledge of seeing their father how much more to meet him, will suddenly become his spitting image.

Can I ask you this personal question, who do you look like between your parents?

Some might say dad or mum and some might even say none but their grandparent. Even if grandparent, the reason is probably one of your parents look like the grandparent.
I noticed that when a person disagrees about who he or she looks like, it often on the basis of bad relationship they have with such person in their life that warranted such response.  Physical resemblance is one thing, behaviour and character is another area of resemblance. We know that there are certain characteristics that are peculiar to one family which is not in another. What is allowed in behaviour in one is not permitted in another.  Not to look like your parents in shape or behaviour makes you a bastard to that family.  This message is to help us address the same issue spiritually.

Who do you look like?

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” 1 John 3:1

“He who sins is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” 1John 3:8
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” John 8:44

From the passage of scriptures above, it is clear that there are two fathers.  God and the devil.

In the beginning, God said “let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion, over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” Genesis 1:26-27.

God is our Father and through Redemptive work of the Cross of Calvary we are restored to the relationship lost through disobedient.

Therefore by one man’s disobedience, humanity fell but through another Man’s obedience we were saved to become children of God and the key to this salvation is accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.  The word of God declares “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” John 1:12-13.

We also know that sin did not enter the world through God but through the devil and we know the reason why Jesus the Son of God came was to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21) which He did on the Cross at Calvary.  Through His Blood, our sins were atoned for and we now have deliverance from the grip and power of sin!
As a result of this truth, those of us who have made Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord have right to call God our Father and are also expected to be like Him in behaviour and develop His Character.

As Jesus is, so are we in this world. “Love has been perfected among us in this; that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world” 1 John 4: 17.

In Him is no lies. In Him is no sin either. 1 John 4:5

Since you are of your Father in Heaven, what attributes of Him can be seen in you?

As a mother of four children, I see my children looking like my husband and I all the time both physically and in behaviour. (Sometime scary too) I am not surprised that anyone of them behaves the way they do because they are from us. I am only concerned when they behave in a way that is outside our Redemptive family upbringing. I am concerned when they behave out of the way they were raised with respect. At this point it means my husband and I have to address the issue to see that they are not taken advantage of by the devil.

Beloved at this point, when the angels see you, who do they say you look like?  When your unbelieving family and friends sees you, can they tell that your confession hold water and that you are of your Father in Heaven or you have been with Jesus you are of His House?  At least if you say that God is your Father, lying, cheating, sexual immorality, unforgiveness, hatred, envy, murmuring, grumbling, politicking the Church, seducing to sin, all the work of the flesh according to Galatians 5:19-21 should not be enjoyable or even be easily found around your neck like a gold chain.

Yes I know that your excuse is that you are a weak human being but beloved, our Father knows we cannot look like Him on earth in our flesh that is why He gave us the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. The more of the Holy Spirit at work in us, the less of the flesh ruling.

The more of His word in you also the more of Him you become!

“Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God” 1 John 3:9.

But if you have not made Jesus your Saviour and Lord, God is not your Father! No matter how you try, His seed is not in you. You will eat sin like meat, drink sin like wine.  Lying is normal to you because the devil is a liar and a father of lies. Murder is normal because that is what the devil is known for.  You will steal, kill and destroy families, separate husband from wife, turn the heart of members against their Pastor because rebellion is the trait of the devil. You will call evil good and call good evil.

You will rob “Paul to pay Peter” as the devil never give anything that does not add pain to it. So when you rob Paul, you will leave pain in Peter. The world calls it backstabbing or scheming.

These are not the characters of someone born of God but the devil, hence Jesus Himself said “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” John 8:44

Beloved ask yourself again genuinely.  Who do I really look like?  You can change now before it is too late. If your Father is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is time to look like Him!

That is my personal goal.

There is something about this word that keeps my spirit up every time I hear it. It is the word we all expect to hear from our Lord and King Jesus when we meet Him.

But as for me, this word is not only what I want to hear when I meet my Risen Lord and King.

It is a word I hear now in my spirit which helps me to appraise my God given task on earth to be sure I am on track before I meet my Christ in Heaven eventually.

As a pioneering Pastor, I remember before the work began that I was given a pattern for the church and randomly reminded never to forget to build according to the pattern given to me. Also our good Lord told me at the beginning of my calling that faithful is He who called me and He will do what He calls me to do. So my challenge has always been to know what He wants me to do and stay connected to Him for grace of accomplishing the task.

Do you know that over the years since the work began, if these two words did not ring in my ears and they still do, (as a clue to watchfulness) I would have side tracked to copy the pattern of other people’s work and run other people’s race based on the teachings and input of some ministers and members alike over the past decade. This is not to negate godly counsel (thank God for those who have given me God fearing counsel also over the years) after all Proverb 11:14 teaches that “where there is no counsel, the people fall, but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety”. The counsel of Jethro did not affect the building of the Tabernacle. Selah!

Beloved, what worked for me based on the grace given me for my assignment will not work for you and as a result of copying each other we have cloned our churches after the ideas of others. Some of us have even missed it long time ago (and these ones know it) but pride has held them bound from repenting and to keep the church or ministry going they have chosen to borrow ideas from America and other places while forgetting that some of the influences of such ideas have been negative and destructive in the Kingdom of God. I have nothing against Americans.  One of my sons in faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is a pioneering Pastor in North Bruswick NJ – thank God for his life and that of his wife too. My entire family has been greatly blessed by the good of America and we still are, however we all must see that even the American Church, through carnality, has missed it a long time ago and they too must repent like all of us!

Thank God that the Church of Jesus Christ is neither American nor African! It is bigger than these two continents! We are from all nations and all the continents under the sun. Halleluyah!

Some Pastors have never even been to America but their church services are as if they are in America all because of affiliation to an American organisation. I have never seen nor heard of any American, even black led church, sing like Africans (if they do it is because they travelled to Africa).

What is the pattern for your assignment on earth?

What will you be commended for when you stand before the Lord on the Day?

You will not be commended because you do ministry or attend church services. It is more than that. It is about your act of worship and service born out of sheer dedication, commitment, loyalty and complete obedience to Him.

When Noah was to build the Ark of safety, Moses the Tabernacle in the wilderness and Solomon the Temple of worship, they were each given a pattern to build with. Can you imagine while building the door in Noah’s ark if someone told him to add another door in case of emergency. It sounded good but that was not the pattern. Bezalel was telling Moses that the pattern of the Tabernacle should be modernised, after all he was a master artisan. What type of Tabernacle would they have had?

My brethren, let the word of Apostle Paul from in 1 Corinthians 3:9-10 ring in our ears and hearts “for we are God’s fellow workers, you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it”

What structure are you building on the foundation you laid when you began the ministry?

Remember those days when you were not popular and your name was obscure in the desert of life! Pastor you were the first to arrive for service and to start on time. But now “it is not necessary”. You are not even there to start worship with your congregation because that is how you saw a Pastor/Bishop do it when you were a guest speaker. So you change your discipline. You are busy on the phone while praises to our King of kings is on and when you finish your conversation, the protocol officers comes to usher you into service and your reason is “you were praying”.

Even the Queen of England and her Priests are never late for service as much as her name is on the lips of people over the world. What has Christ done to deserve this from us! Pastors, let us repent and build according to pattern that will cause the word “well done” be spoken over our lives before it is too late.

Also you who are congregational members, what life are you living since you have now “arrived”. Remember the time you could not do without the Bible in your hand while going to the House of God but now, you have been taught by modern preachers that it is not necessary. It will be on the screen for you on Sunday!

iPod and other electronic media have replaced carrying the Bible in your hand and may I ask you what else do you use the iPod for during and after service?

O parents do you remember too when you used to run with your children to catch the train or the bus to church because you did not want to be late, but now, the Lord has blessed you with a car or cars it does not matter.  You will “catch the service” or you and your wife do not need to go together brother, she can go you will join her later. By the way why run to church when your pastor will not be there on time anyway?

God have mercy on us.

The word “well done” is a word used when you have satisfied Jesus Christ who sent you and you did the job according to His satisfaction not according to self-satisfaction. Remember, that word is not coming from Angels or the 24 Elders in Heaven but from our King Himself! Stop and think now my fellow brethren, since we are still breathing, let us all remember where we have missed it (if you have not done so) and make it right.

The word “well done” is not only for those in the Office of Christ but for everyone who has made Jesus Christ their Lord and Saviour.

May I remind you at this point that Silas was not an Apostle but he was a faithful minister of Christ in the early church to both Apostles Paul and Peter, Demetrius had a good testimony among the faithful members and from servants of Christ also (3John1:9-12). Is your testimony good to those who are in the church and outside the church? When Apostle Paul came to Troas to preach Christ gospel, and a door was opened to him by the Lord, he said he had no rest in his spirit because he did not find Titus his brother in Troas so he left for Macedonia. The faithfulness of Titus was evidence in Paul’s ministry. Even though Paul was an Apostle and the door of the city of Troas was opened for him but he followed the pattern given him when he could not see his protégée. Read Romans 16. These ones are not all Apostles but saints who were in Rome and the Gentile Churches.

There was a wicked protégée who changed the prayer ministry of his church because he was the one who help gave jobs to some of the members and money to his church. He used the closeness to his Pastor negatively. He began by advising his Pastor that women (who were always in church to pray and God was working wonders in the church until he arrived) should be allowed to rest at home with their children while men pray. The idea sounded good to the Pastor at the time not knowing that the “rich man” was an agent from underworld to destroy the ministry of the Pastor in the area. It was not too long before the fire in the church began to die down and then the enemy’s assignment gained the upper hand over the church that built according to the rich man’s counsel.

Please remember that good and faithful stewards produce good and faithful stewards! You beget your kind.

Watch the advice you listen to that will persuade you to compromise and build according to a satanic agenda or worldly principle. (Wisdom from the Holy Spirit will strengthen and empower the Church and not destroy it)

To avoid the type of catastrophe above, watch closely the lives of those in your inner circle. Watch their walk with Christ. Are they still fervent in the Lord, committed to His cause or they are like Demas. It is a matter of time before they too walk away because they love the pleasure of this world.

Pastors, please be watchful of the rich young rulers. Be watchful of the famous ones too. Members that have money and charisma without godly character have derailed many!

Let us learn to flee from the appearance of evil.

Watch those who are giving to individuals more than the corporate body. Watch those who give you personally to buy your conscience so that you can do their bidding when it is commanded.

Guard jealously the vision God gave you in order to establish His Kingdom in your allotted territory and the pattern of fulfilling the vision. Fight a good fight of Faith over it for the sake of the elect under your pastorate.

Also to you my brethren who are redeemed with the Blood of Jesus Christ, it is time you do the same for very soon we shall fold the Tents! The signs are all around us that “It will be all over soon”.

Finally, let the word “well done good and faithful steward” ring in your ears and heart NOW as a key to faithful living.

“Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” 1 Corinthians 4:2.