Grace For Success

Grace is God’s unmerited favor. Grace Is God’s ability working on our behalf. Grace means to get what we don’t deserve. Success is what we achieve by what we receive from heaven. It is better to be God made than to be self made. Thos who are self made can become self destroyed. But when God lifts us to higher levels, nothing can pull us down. David the young shepherd once had oil, a symbol of the spirit of God, poured on his head. By the time he was thirty, he had become a king. That was the grace of God in operation.

A woman that had been barren for over five decades suddenly became pregnant long after she had menopause. She gave birth to a son at the age of ninety years. Her name was Sarah. That was the grace of God. It turns impossibilities to possibilities. There was once a man. His name was Jabez. Jabez means “son of sorrow” His mother named him Jabez because she experienced excruciating pain when he was born. That name marked him for life. Whatever, he touched, he failed. Until one day, he decided he had had enough. He was sick and tired of being sick and tired. He prayed.

1Ch 4:10  And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested

Have you come to the end of your ability? Do you feel like Jabez? Do you feel there is more to life than what you have now? Do you want to break the limitations around your life? Prayer will do it, effective, sincere and fervent prayers from your heart.

Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

God’s word make can make His grace available to you. The word of God created this natural world. Till today, everything responds to the word of God. Those things that will not cooperate with you must cooperate with the word of God in your life. That will be your testimony.

Act 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

The word of God has the power to deliver to your destiny into your hands. You must decide to draw grace from the word of God every day. Start your day by meditating on the word of God.

When you receive unusual grace from God, it will require unusual work to get unusual results. You must identify the area of work in which you can see the proof of God’s grace. Focus on your area of specialty. Become an expert. Set goals. Make big plans. Then do everything legitimate and possible to achieve your goals. Go the extra mile. Connect with mentors that had succeeded in that field. Strike while the iron is hot. Or strike until the iron is hot. Don’t wait for things to happen. Make things happen. Don’t wait for the perfect conditions. Make the conditions perfect.

How Do I Stop Worrying?

How do I stop worrying? A distraught looking woman closed to tears said. There are lots of problems in my life. I woke one morning discovering lumps in my breast, the next day, and my husband of many years started behaving funny as if he wants to quit the marriage. All I had worked for over the years seems to be crumbling like a pack of cards before my very eyes, my hope in the Lord seems to have taken flight. There is no one to help, no one to talk to and God seems to be quiet. Where is He and how do I stop worrying?

Sometimes, we find ourselves in situations that seem to defy solutions. It looks like the whole world is crumbling before us and we are right in the middle of it. In such situations, where the problems seems so severe and there is no solution in sight. The best one can do is to hand it all over to God. At you are able to do yourself.

There is no human being with solutions to any problem, except our Savior and God, Jesus Christ. Remember what He says, that we will have trials and tribulations…”be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world for you.” Matt 6:25-27 says “Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink or about your body, what you will put on. Is life not more than food and body not more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather unto barn, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”

In every situation and circumstance, you go through, God knows about it, even before it happens. He has called you even before the foundations of the world and in Romans 8:37 He says:

“Yet in all things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” Always remember that Christ has gone through worse situations but at the end, He came out more than a conqueror. Moreover worrying makes you forget the promises of God for your life. In effect, you are taking your eyes off Jesus and focusing on the troubles like peter. As long as peter looked at the Lord, he was able to walk on the water, do the impossible. The moment he paid attention to the wind and the waves, he began to sink.

Focus more on Jesus than the problem and the storm. His promises are “yes and amen.” They fail not, neither do they diminish or tarnish, that which has spoken. He is able to perform. He is able to perform according to Ephesians 3:20-22. “ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Also in Matthew 28:20b “And lo. I am with you always even to the end of the age, amen.

Check out the scriptures above and I believe you will come out stronger and victorious in Jesus name. Remember, God is still in the business of performing miracles. A miracle is supernatural intervention, causing great and inexplicable change. God is able to do these for you, change the situation for your good. He asked us to say to the righteous, it is well with you.

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The power Of The Mind

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The greatest power comes from the mind and the only way great men can enforce their leadership upon their followers is to have great ideas which are superior to that of their followers. When a man’s mind is imprisoned, the whole man i.e everything about him is imprisoned as well. When you want to frustrate a man, twist the reasoning of such man.

However, God will not confine your reasoning to a box such that you become stereotype that was why God gave room for dynamism. Stereotype life was not part of Christ’s ministry.

One of the things you can process from reasoning is ideas. It is through ideas; God gives to his children the ability to prosper. Idea is the seed of vision and vision is the maturity of idea. The beauty of an idea is simplicity. They are not born but discovered.

To have ideas, you must

• ·        Have a critical mind
• ·        You must be analytical
• ·        You must be inquisitive
• ·        You must be adventurous
• ·        You must be risk oriented

If you do not have idea you will never be able to take charge or recognize opportunities when they come because idea is an imaginative thought capable of becoming reality. It comes by the power of subjection. But the problem with the church is thinking, unlike Jesus Christ who was a fast thinker such that nobody was an able to entrap him.

How did Jesus have all the ideas? He got them from everyday life. Unlike many of us, we are docile to what is going on around us, we seem to be blinded and oblivious of things around us and consequently fail to take those charge of those opportunities when they come.

Qualities of ideas

• ·        They must enhance an existing people
• ·        They must be progressive
• ·        They must be creative
• ·        They must be innovative
• ·        They must be competitive
• · They must be able to change the status quo to achieve a more excellent result.

However, ideas are born by consequence and circumstances, they are borne out of need, they are born when there is a vacuum and ideas could be born when there is a desire to be excellent.

When you have some ideas, you must water it; you must meditate on it, develop your character and synergize the ideas.

Caring In Times Like These

In Deut 15:11, the scripture plainly declared “for the poor shall never cease out of thy land; therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shall open thy hand wide unto thy brother…” God’s original desire and plan for His church is to have a community where none of the members would lack. That was the case in the New Testament church (acts). If we are going to be correct Christians, we cannot live below the standard God has set in His word. The poor among us did not become poor by choice; some due to natural disasters and recently as a result of the global melt down. It would be necessary for us to search the scriptures together to know what God expects each of us to do in times like these. May God open our eyes and hearts to understand in Jesus name? Amen.

Effects of the current meltdown – Ruth 1:1-23

Whenever, there is any disaster (current meltdown as an example), the attendant effects or consequences could be enormous. Unfortunately, the church is always at the receiving end because a Christian would not cut corners just like others would do. Some of these effects are:

·         Job losses

·         Divorce

·         Financial difficulties

·         Hunger

·         Nakedness

·         Homelessness

·         Children dropping out of school

·         Sickness and diseases

·         Untimely death.

The list is endless. The story of Elimelech and Naomi his wife in Ruth chapter one is quite instructive and seems to paint a beautiful picture of the situation on hand. Nothing could have made him to relocate to a gentile country (Moab) where he eventually lost his life and all that he had ever labored for, including his only two sons if his kinsmen had risen to help him.

What should the response of the church be?

Gen 45:1-8, Ruth 2:1-20, Acts 4:32, 34, 36, 37.

·         Lets briefly look at some examples in the scriptures of how the people of God responded to situations like these in the bible days:

·         Joseph did not see the famine that ravaged the land as an opportunity to avenge himself on his brothers. He rather rose to the occasion to deliver them from death. “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance” Gen 45:7

·         Boaz saw the homecoming of Naomi and her daughter in law, Ruth as an opportunity for to be a blessing his kinsmen and not treat them as beggars-Ruth 2:1-16. He deliberately set aside part of his income just to care for Naomi and Ruth. He went beyond giving them just leftovers, he actually bore their burdens. Ruth 2:15-16.

It is important for us to know that whatever resources God had put in our hands are meant to cushion the effect for those who have been affected by the current trend. Failure to do this only shows that we do not know God that we claim to be serving. It could be on individual basis just like what Boaz did or as a church as recorded in Acts 4:32, 34, 36, 37.

Economic Meltdown and its challenges

Economic meltdown has become a household phrase in recent times. Many say it without knowing what it means and how it occurred but everyone is feeling the effects.

What exactly is economic meltdown?

In the past 40 Years, the world has experienced a huge surge in knowledge, information, technology and financial prosperity. What suffers this period is the concept of Godliness with contentment. 2 Timothy 6 Vs 6-11. The financial prosperity resulted in human greed and disdain for the poor. The truth of the poor being close to God’s heart as evidenced in pro 19:17 “he who lends to the poor lends to God and he will repay” was lost to the world and even the church. There was a general craze to be wealthy and to “belong” and everyone became intoxicated by material wealth. Greed and covetousness took over. Credit without real money became extremely easy to facilitate the extravagant lifestyles of everyone. The financial system was propelled by speculations, promises and good works ethics and principles were no longer observed. The latter was replaced by quick profit and fraudulent practices in the name of risk taking. When somebody finally demands real money, the whole financial system collapsed like a pack of cards hence the melt down (frozen credit to promote businesses). What then are the challenges of this melt down when everyone became poorer in a short period of time? How does God expect us to behave as Christians in the time of economic crises?

Luke 6:20-49

Blessed are the poor. Where is the dignity in material poverty and waiting on God for provision? Romans 14:17 says “the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, not eating drinking and making merry.

Blessed are those who weep. Why do we avoid the blessedness? We all want to be happy all the time. Nobody wants to work hard and wait patiently for the reward of hard work. This delayed gratification is regarded today as failure yet we were admonished in lamentations 3:26 that “it is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord”

Luke 6:29-36 “Love your enemies and do good to those who spitefully use you.” Pray for your enemies not against them as we are apt to do in church in recent times. It takes real hatred to pray against a perceived human enemy. What happened to forgiving seventy times seven and God forgiving us as we forgive those who wrong us? Only our enemy as Christians is the devil and we should spend more time resisting him and fighting him instead of one another.

What type of fruits are you bearing?

The fruit of the Holy spirit in Gal 5:16 is for every Christian is to bear. We cannot cherry pick parts of the fruit and reject other parts. The whole fruit of joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance is what we should strive to exhibit in our character. Living out all these parts of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is the antidote to another economic meltdown in our life time.

The question is “are we willing to take up this challenge?” We need to take the step of confessing our sins and surrendering our lives to Christ. Even if we are already born again, we need to confess the sins we are still struggling with. Acknowledge our proneness to sins like lying, cheating, demanding and receiving bribes, corruption, stealing from employers, ignoring the plight of the poor, manipulating bible facts, financial books and minds of people, covetousness, lack of contentment, ingratitude etc.

If you are not convinced, let us look at the actions of a bible character in the bible during times of economic hardship and see what we can learn from his example.Isaac (Genesis 26)

Note that for most human history, cultures have been primarily agricultural. Therefore, the closest thing to our current economic meltdown was a famine – a time of agricultural disaster when food became extremely scarce despite all of man’s efforts. What can we learn from Isaac?

Do not go down to Egypt – trust in the Lord of the covenant, You will see that spiritually, Egypt symbolizes great material wealth and knowledge; In other words, the ways of the world i.e willingness to get wealthy by any means and worldly wisdom. This is a time when we are greatly tempted to abandon righteousness and do whatever we think is necessary to survive – a great mistake made by many Christians. If we are willing to listen to God who is acutely aware of our conditions, he will direct us just as He directed Isaac to “dwell where I tell you to dwell”, in fulfillment of His covenant with Isaac’s father, Abraham (and today we have a better covenant). This is a theme that God would echo through the ages to His chosen people Israel

Do not underestimate God’s ability and grace over you. Isaac, out of fear, resorted to deception because he was afraid that his wife’s beauty would make him a target of the envious. Trust God and work hard, and do not be fearful of success making you a target. As a child of God, you should never base your actions on the fear of men but on faith in God.

Do not strive with men, even if your success makes you a target. This perhaps is one of the most difficult things to learn. If you truly trust God, you will know that your prosperity is determined by Him. Look at Isaac! Isaac was forced to move because of his prosperity. He would dig wells and others would show up to claim the fruit of his hard work. Amazingly, instead of fighting them, he simply moved on and started up elsewhere. Eventually, because his ways placed God, even his enemies came to make peace with him (proverbs 16:7), because God’s favor on His life was evident to all. Instead of obsessing about those (real or imagined) who are out to stop your progress, concentrate on serving God and obeying his voice.

Do not use your position or success to settle score. Isaac could have repaid the people of Gerar in kind for their bad behavior towards him. Instead he accepted their peace offer and even hosted them to a feast. Alas, during times of hardship, some people you trusted may wrong you or disappoint you. Do not respond in kind when you are now successful and thriving, even, if they do not see or acknowledge their fault. Paul said “do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good’ and render to no man evil.

Let us look dispassionately at our lives and make amends where necessary to enjoy the fullness of the blessing of God at this point in History.

Prayers...