As a believer, prayer is the saintliest duty you can ever perform. No believer is above prayer; from the newest convert to the aged fathers, no saint is ever above prayer.
Prayer is not only a medium of fellowship with God, it is also a medium by which we can receive the manifestation of God’s working power in our lives. Prayer is the secret place in which we dwell under the shadow of the Almighty, free from the enemy’s threat.
In a world like this, where plagues can be contacted despite the adherence to strict health protocols; in which death has become a trend, in a world like this, you must train yourself on how to seek and receive God’s protection for you and your loved ones.
God has laid out principles that the believer should adhere to in order to pray effectively in cases like this. The Father does not want us to pray out of panic or fear or anxiety, rather, He wants us to pray confidently, with faith as sons who know their identity.
The Psalm of David is one which you can use to pray for GOD’S protection. Study it closely, meditate on it, and pray with it.
PSALM 17
1 Hear me, Lord, my plea is just; listen to my cry. Hear my prayer- it does not rise from deceitful lips.
2 Let my vindication come from you; may your eyes see what is right.
3 Though you probe my heart, though you examine me at night and test me, you will find that I have planned no evil; my mouth has not transgressed.
4 Though people tried to bribe me, I have kept myself from the ways of the violent through what your lips have commanded.
5 My steps have held to your paths; my feet have not stumbled.
6 I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.
7 Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.
I laid down in a glommy silence, inside a dark room, that moonless night with tears streaming down my cheeks.
I was speechless and really in a state of melancholy.
My pillow was soaked with tears that dropped from my eyes.
“Am I sure that am really born again? Am I really sure that I was forgiven by God of all my Sins?” These and many other questions flooded my mind that glommy moonless night as I had some flashbacks of my past lifestyle.
I remembered the marriages I destroyed, the numbers of men, married and single that I had slept with, as well as the number of abortions I committed.
An intimidating voice which seemed to be around me said, “Do you think you could eat your cake and have it back? Do you think that after ruining people’s homes; there would be mercy for you? Do you think that after all the abortions you committed; there will be mercy for you? No! Never! For the soul that sinneth shall die!”
I cried bitterly. The tears poured out like a mighty rushing river, unstoppable.
Then, I remembered that on the 18th September, 2018, I laid down everything at the foot of the cross.
I remembered the Joy I felt on the night that I gave my life to Christ, and how transformed my life had been since then.
“Why then am I feeling this way” I said within myself.
“But, I gave my life to Christ and he forgave me of all my Sins…” I said in a bid to silence the domineering questioning and accusing voice.
But the accuser shot back relentlessly “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots?”
I gasped at the question, as it came with so much audacity and condemning power.
But it only stirred up the faith in my spirit. With boldness, I rebuked the voice, and responded,
‘I know that I can’t change my skin, neither can I change my spot, but I know He who can make everything new. That was why I laid everything down including my past habits, at the cros, for He who brings light out of darkness to do the cleansing,’
‘The Lord didn’t say that he would not receive women [Ladies] who have had abortions and have made terrible mistakes. He didn’t make a list of the kind of people who and not deserving of his mercy,’
‘I refuse to be intimidated by your accusing and condemning voice, for I know your mission here is to cripple my Faith and trust in the finished works of Christ.
In the name of Jesus, I silence you! Get behind me, Satan!”
Then, there was a surge of divine tranquility into my spirit. There was a reassurance in my spirit, of my righteousness and holiness in Christ
•
When the devil confronts you with the memory of your past, confront him with the reality of God’s word,
Romans 8:1: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
Shall we continue to watch as our flesh shuts the mouths of our spirits, and lead our souls to Hell?
Because we are his son, He sent the Spirit of His Son into our Hearts; the Spirit that cries out “Abba Father”
How long will we allow our ears to be filled with lies; lies clocked with the guise of sensible questions produced by human nature?
Our nature itself has been corrupted. It has been corrupted with the trait of ever trying to analyze divine realities using sense knowledge.
Shut the voice of the accusing spirit, all it is after is to get us confused.
It is a questioning spirit. It is the spirit that stirs up doubts in your heart about the existence of God, a life after death and Heaven and Hell.
That Spirit is from the devil.
.
We inherited sin, we inherited death, That should have been our end, but Mercy said ‘No’.
From Adam came death, and through Jesus came life. He died our death to shut condemning voices up! So call on him when weighed down with the burdens of the world.
He wants you to stand still and know just one thing; that He is your God.
“But whoever is united with the Lord is One with him in Spirit” 1 Corinthians 6:17.
This means the Holy Spirit has merged and bonded with your spirit.
Every man born of a woman, has in his mortal body, the foremost enemy of God, the nature of the Flesh.
Lust dwells in every man, both Christian and Unbelievers. It is called the fleshly nature. Being Born Again does not automatically remove the flesh from you.
However, regeneration, subdues the power of the flesh in you. It subdues it and renders it powerless, such that it is unable to take control of you without your permission.
Romans 6:14: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (KJV)
You can only willfully yield to it, but it can no longer exert control over you.
If this is true, then why are several believers still enslaved to lustful desires?
Colossians 3:5: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry”(KJV)
Colossians 3:5: “So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God).” (AMP)
Apostle Paul first tells us in Romans 6, that our flesh was crucified with Christ. But now, in Colossians 3, we discover that he is admonishing the Church to mortify and put to death, the flesh and its desires in us. This is to tell us that mortification is a continuous and repeated process.
The flesh is not supposed to be subdued and left unattended to. The carnal desires are not supposed to be defeated initially, and then left unattended to. These desires are like weeds that sprout up whenever they want, in the most unwanted areas. A lot of believers are still enslaved to lust and its desires because they failed to understand how to mortify such desires whenever they sprang up.
James 1:15 ‘Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is full-grown’, bringeth forth death.’
The word ‘conceived’ in James 1:15 also means for something to be tolerated or allowed to expand and grow.
I have had quite a lot of experience dealing with teenagers and youths struggling with problems related to lust; and from my experience with them, I have observed that their enslavement to sin, began with their tolerance of the inner fleshly desire.
A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION OF THIS FACT
Let’s assume you discover that you’re beginning to have ‘funny’ dreams, and that whenever you see beautiful girls presently, all you think of is handling the sensitive parts of their body.
At first, you shake it off. But the thoughts and imaginations keep coming. After a while, you begin to tolerate it, you call it a ‘weakness’, and you say it’s just a mere thought.
What you just permitted is the first stage to Enslavement. It’s called Conception. Now that you’ve allowed the fleshly nature within you to inspire carnal thoughts into your mind, you will find those thoughts increasing.
That single tolerance you gave to the flesh was like an open door, that allowed the torrents of carnality, flow unhinged, into your mind.
They grow from strength to strength and even begin to choke up the word of God within you.
One day, you had a flood of carnal thoughts rushing into you. Your body was on fire with lust, you felt like an animal on heat. This is the Birthing stage. Lust has been conceived and it’s about to birth sin.
Satan comes and whispers to your ears that once you watch porn once, the desires will calm down and won’t torment you again.
‘Just meet its demands so that it’ll let you rest’, he says to you. But you’ll never discern that it’s his voice because his voice is aligned with what you’re experiencing.
You open your phone and begin to open the porn website. As you’re opening it, you ask God to speak to you if what you’re doing is wrong.
Lol.
You won’t hear any voice because the thorns of the flesh have choked up your pure conscience which was supposed to be the Voice of truth within you.
The website opens and once you watch pornography, boom… Lust has given birth to sin.
You love what you see, you even masturbate while watching. But afterwards, you feel downcast and guilty, this is because the fleshly desires have been temporarily satisfied, so they’ve become calm again.
Despite your feeling of guilt, that little sin will cost you severely. Sin from the outside looks as tiny and fragile as a little spider’s web, but when you fall into it, its cords are as thick as a cart rope.
It holds you tightly and influences your mind to believe that a spirit of lust has possessed you and that you are in need of deliverance from it.
That single act you called a little sin, will lead to several recurrences. This is what it means to allow sin to grow into its fullness. It is the GROWTH stage.
From watching porn weekly, it becomes a daily thing, it becomes an hourly thing.
By satisfying your fleshly desires, you are feeding the power of sin and you’re strengthening its grips over you.
If you don’t find solution fast, it can lead to the last destination, spiritual DEATH!
But God never left us hopeless and helpless. No matter how deep you’ve fallen into this kind of enslavement, there is always a way out.
OBTAINING FREEDOM FROM LUST AND ITS DESIRES
Genuinely Repent: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9 (NIV)
If you want to be truly free from enslavement to lustful desire, then you must open up to God. Do not try to hide from God; do not try to conceal your sin, neither should you excuse it. When you open up to God, He will purge you and cleanse you totally. Repentance is the first key to freedom.
Get in touch with a Mentor: Proverbs 15:22: “Without counsel plans fail…”
In every stage and sphere of our lives, we need mentors. We need people who we can be accountable to. Mentors are symbols of authority, discipline and instruction in our lives. Don’t be so proud that you feel you can break out on your own, without anybody’s help. You need the prayer of a higher spiritual figure; you need the experience of an elder to learn from. Get in touch with your pastor, or Christian leader who you can relate with in person. Narrate your ordeal, and submit to their instruction.
Get rid of the Flesh-feed:
Stay clear of the company of friends whose conversation only incite your flesh. Get rid of those videos, pictures and literature that feed your flesh and make it gain influence over your mind. The more you starve your flesh of these things, the more it dies.
Create an Atmosphere of Spirituality:
2 Cor. 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
Create an atmosphere around you filled with God’s presence. Pray in tongues, in your spirit, and out loud as much as you can. Declare God’s word daily. Let your heart be full of singing to God daily. Get in fellowship with believers around you. Love God, and watch how your life will transform for the better.
One of our fans had sent a message to our email, asking how he could be free from homosexual feelings. This comic was inspired by that question. You can be free! Look beyond the animations, and see the message God has passed through this comic. God bless you.
You can ask your questions at our comment section at your convenience, and if we cannot send a reply immediately, we’ll definitely make a detailed expository post on it.
James 4:4 “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
We live in a world where darkness is being celebrated over light in the name of civilisation.
Immorality is seen as the norm and standard of living, while morality is seen as extremism. In a world like this, the believer is tempted to conform to the culture of darkness.
He is tempted to conform, because, if he doesn’t, he’ll be persecuted. He wants to imbibe the world’s culture, because if he doesn’t, he’ll be ridiculed and denied certain offices.
Hence you see believers, who once began as Gospel musicians, filled with the Spirit and addicted to God, but as they journey to fame, they start sliding into secularism as well as making close companionships with worldly musicians.
The temptation to conform to the standard of the worldbis what will make a young, beautiful saintly lady, put on a dress tht exposes the sensitive part of her body, and still show it off proudly.
Dear Reader, we are in the Season where many shall fall away. The love of God shall wax cold in the heart of many.
But God’s word remains the same and God’s standard remains the same.
God has called us out of darkness into Light. We are different from those who live in the world. We have a different culture from them, we belong to an entirely different kingdom.
We cannot make the culture of the world our culture!
The word, Church, means called out. God called us out of sin unto righteousness, out of living in rebellion, onto living in Holiness unto the Lord.
God called the Israelites out of Egypt. But He didn’t take them to the Promised Land at once. He led them through the wilderness.
For years, all God did with the Israelites was to give them commands and instructions through Moses. But God’s intention was to imbibe His own culture into the Israelites.
The Israelites had left Egypt, but they still had the Egyptian mentality. In order to get them into the Promised Land, God needed to reshape their mentality and refine their culture.
Take a good look at this:
Leviticus 20:26: “You must be holy to me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from all other peoples to be my own.”
This is God speaking to the Israelites. God separated them; He severed them from the other nations. He placed a line that separated them from other nations (metaphorically).
This is a type of God’s dealings with the New Testament Church. We were delivered from slavery to sin (Rom. 6:7) and we’re Pilgrims (1 Pet 2:11) on our way to the Heavenly Canaan.
God is saying to us today, in the thick of the rise of Satanic civilization in the world, be Holy and separate from them.
WHATGOD’S WORD SAYS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY
The World believes in Homosexuality. The world believes there is nothing wrong in gay and lesbian marriage.
The world believes there is nothing wrong in gay and lesbian lifestyles. They believe in sexual perversion, all in the name of Human Rights.
It is wrong for a Christian to accept such. We are not governed by the opinions of the world, but by the Instructions of God. This is the truth that every genuine Christian must stand for.
Leviticus 18:22 “Do not practice homosexuality; it is a detestable sin.”
Leviticus 20:13 “If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman, they have both committed a detestable thing”
God detests Homosexuality. He was against it and He is still against it.
The opinions of the world, will not change this!
What about those Saints who are struggling with living contrary to worldly culture?
If you find yourself in such situation, where you find it difficult to live as a Christian and very easy to live as an unbeliever.
Do the following consistently,
1. Study God’s Word and Declare your Identity daily. Let a consciousness of who you are be formed in you. When this Consciousness is ever active in you, it will restrain you from following the path of the world.
2. Filter your association. In your professional work, relate well with as much people as possible, whether gay, lesbian, good or bad, but be careful those who you allow into your private space. Thy have a way of greatly Influencing your lifestyle.
3. Hate sin. See it as what it is. A pollution of the mind and defilements of the spirit.
4. Filter what you watch, Read and Hear. In every human, Christian or non-christian are lustful propensities and desires.
But the Christian has his own mortified by the power of the Holy Spirit, while the unbeliever has his own, fully developed by the working of the spirit of disobedience.
Yet, a Christian can also get himself enslaved by lust if he keeps feeding those desires by consistently exposing his mind and eyes to pornography.
Expose your mind and your eyes instead to godly content such as this, and in time, you’ll be free from being ruled by lustful desires
As Women we are called, “men with wombs”. We are not meant for the the kitchen alone. We are loaded.
We carry destinies in us. Dear woman, You are not empty. You carry greatness within you. Do not degrade yourself?
I am proud to be called a woman!
With my womb I birth forth realities.
Did you know?
Every great and lasting move of God that has ever happened in this world had women as Partners in prayer!
You are not ordinary! You carry a heavy ordination! Do not abort it! Let the lioness in you arise!
For sin to find entry into this world, Satan understood that he needed the woman (Gen 3:1).
For the savour to be born God partnered with a woman called Mary (Matt 1:20-25).
Women like Kathryn khulman, Amiee MacPherson, Maria Woodworth Etter shook the world, because they aligned with God totally.
Do not waste your existence! Let the lioness in you arise! Be a virtuous woman (Prov. 31:10-31). You carry potentials, Unleash them! We are the latter days women, we must make exploit!
What do you do when you find yourself amidst a storm? Do you run away from the storm? Do you let the storm engulf you or eat you up?
Or do you calm the storm, look for ways to calm the storm or call on someone to help you calm the storm?
Running away from a storm is not a good idea. Running away from the storm can save you, but not for too long.
Running away from the storm would only bring disparage in our hearts, because we will eventually keep running from it all the days of our lives.
There comes a time in our lives as humans when we face storms; a variety of unfortunate events and troubles. A storm is anything that comes to threaten your peace, make you restless, and give you instability by making you get stuck in sadness, displeasure or a deep kind of pain.
A storm can be anything; a pandemic, a disappointment, insurgency, insecurity, fear, lack of hope, poverty, injustice or whatever stands to disturb your peace.
During a storm, we’re likely to lose hope, especially when the situation is really intense or critical. We are likely to sink in to depression, lose faith and feel that we have lost it all; in the time of illness, pandemic, insecurity, the loss of our loved ones, poverty, rejection and pain.
But in the midst of these, I want you to know that there’s only one person, who can calm all the storms of life. His name is Jesus.
It was He who died for us all and He will always calm the storms in our lives if we call on to him!
In Matthew 8:23-27, His disciples were faced with a great sea storm while with Jesus. They were afraid, they were scared, they lost their faith and were already sinking in to total pain of the body and mind.
That illustrates that anyone can be scared in tough times and that it is not a crime to be scared.
Jesus was asleep, yet, they woke him up because they knew very well only him could calm the storm. When Jesus woke up, He rebuked the storm and it became still, and the disciples were at peace again.
Sometimes, even as disciples of Jesus, the storms of life can make us panic and anxious; you might be in such situation right now.
The storms of the virus, inflation and bad economic situation, might be so fierce that it seems like you’ll sink.
I have good news for you. Jesus is with you even in the boat! In the midst of the turmoil, the casting down and the streaks of lightning, Jesus is with you.
But Jesus will not calm the storm if you don’t wake him up! Our God never sleeps nor slumbers, but the sleeping of Jesus in the boat is an analogy from which we learn that God will be silent if you do not take a step of faith.
Jesus is willing to calm the storm in your life! Wake him up with your faith, with a cry of faith!
Give God a sign that you’re in for it, and don’t be discouraged while waiting.
He’ll never leave you nor forsake you. God says “I will be with you till the end of time” – Matthew 28:20. Believe it!
I know it’s tough. Maybe, you have gotten tired of hoping already, you don’t see any escape route but listen Jesus has not forgotten about you.
God still has your name in the middle of his palm and He is saying, “I am in your boat! Do not be afraid! Wake me up! Call upon me and I will calm the storm in your life! I love you and I will always be with you!”
Don’t forget that you’re loved beyond measure.
May the peace of the lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen!
Eph 4:30 (KJV) ‘And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.’
Of recent, I’ve been studying the works of great Puritan authors such as AW Tozer, AW Pink, Charles Spurgeon and Thomas Watson, and it’s actually given me a kind of rethink and perspective about how we preach about Sin and Grace in the Church.
You see, while trying to avoid the snares of legalism, one can end up falling into the pit of Abused-Grace doctrines.
I see believers, who in the name of preaching Grace say, “Your sin doesn’t matter to God anymore. He doesn’t care about it” “When you sin, instead of confessing your sin, confess your righteousness”.
These things are false! Sin might not separate you from the love of God but sin will definitely separate you from fellowship with God.
And I’m not just talking about unintentionally making a mistake, I’m talking about intentionally living your life as you please, without the restraints of the Gospel and the Scriptures.
Sin is a pollutant of the spirit. A believer living in sin is like mud being poured into clean water, such Believer will have a polluted and darkened spirit, and he’ll lose the fragrance of God’s Presence in his spirit.
Paul wasn’t exaggerating when he said we FLEE FROM ALL APPEARANCES OF SIN
Don’t try to negotiate your way out of it. Don’t try to pervert scriptures to justify it.
FLEE FROM IT!
A believer who comfortably lives in sin is just like an angel who prefers the Darkness of hell to the pleasures of Heaven.
I’ve never seen a place in the Bible in which masturbation was outrightly condemned, neither have I seen a true believer who masturbated and was happy.
It has a way of bringing your spirit under condemnation and accusation or the enemy, and nothing weakens ones spiritual senses like condemnation especially when it arises from a sin you committed.
It is even more wrong to assume that God understands why you’re sinning.
What is there to understand in why one who professes love for God will do the things God hates?
What is there to understand in why one who professes Christ as His Savior, still refuses to accept Christ as His Lord?
What should be understood to excuse a child going to mess Himself up with mud, just after his father gave him a whole bath?
Stop tolerating sin!
It Grieves the Holy Spirit!
Many of us have grieved the Spirit, but because we’re so used to sin and we barely commune with our hearts, we do not even know that He has been grieved.
Such a person will become like Samson, who quenched the Spirit at the laps of Delilah.
When the Philistines arose against him, he woke up, and shook his body and probably said, ‘I will arise and fight against them’, but he didn’t know that the Spirit had left Him.
Many Christians are slowly losing the Influences of the Holy Spirit.
They still feel goosebumps during worship. They still smile in church, but they’ve lost fellowship with God
The flow is no longer there, because they’ve grieved the Holy Spirit.
Grieving the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean He’s a weak, petty, emotional being as many people present Him these days.
No!
Grieving the Spirit is much deeper than that!
It’s like looking at your Father and spitting at his face.
It’s like rebelling against your mother, (we’re told in Proverbs that a rebellious son is the grief of his mother).
My dear reader, I beseech you to chose the path of Consecration and Holiness.
True Holiness isn’t Legalistic. True Holiness is divine.
The believer who lives in Holiness has a soul that glitters like the stars and radiates like the sun.
Holiness is the glory and beauty of our souls.
Finally, I beseech you once again, that you flee ALL APPEARANCES OF EVIL.
Do a heart check today and ask God to reveal to you, those bessetting sins that have been weighing your spirit down.
For some, it is Malice.
Malice..
Unforgiveness…..
A believer living in malice is like a bag, full of stones and hard rocks that keeps it one place and prevents it from being moved and directed by the influences of the east wind.
Let go….
Learning how to forgive was a difficult task for me, but I spoke to my soul, and I told myself I would let go, I would forgive.
If I still keep in mind the number of times I’ve been mocked and betrayed and insulted by even those I called my own, then I wouldn’t be here today.
For the sake of your fellowship with God, let go of the hurt and the malice.
Lay aside all bessetting and entangling sin that ye may run and finish this race with a prize with a prize.
KOINONIA ART 