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Faith

The Returning Bride {Hosea 2:7}

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Hosea 2:7: “Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, For then it was better for me than now”

God used the metaphor of a husband and wife relationship to speak to Israel in the preceding passage. They had abandoned God in favor of idols and carnal desires, and they were on the verge of facing severe punishment for their sins.

When a believer abandons God’s work to do the work of the flesh and the enemy, that believer is like a bride who has abandoned her husband for another. Jesus referred to Himself as “Our Love,” (Revelation 2:4) and we are referred to as “His Bride” in the book of Ephesians.

Since we are His Bride and in a mystical union with Him we must ask ourselves if we are faithful to this marriage with Jesus. It is critical that the believer performs a constant heart check to determine whether he is conscious and faithful of his union with Christ.

Just as when a lady gets married, her groom places a ring in her middle finger as a reminder that she is married no matter where she goes, when Christ married us in faith, He gave us His Holy Spirit as a sign in our hearts to remind us that we are married to Jesus and that our lives must be lived for Him alone.

Some believers, however, have grieved the Holy Spirit and have lost this consciousness. Instead of living in devotion to Christ, they have joined forces with sin and demons. They have abandoned their first love because they were deceived by another, who poses as a true lover.

However, the Bible teaches that Christ is the only true Love. He not only loves us, but He is Love Himself. Jesus embodies all of love. Love is the essence of His Being and the driving force behind His nature and actions. Only Jesus can truly love us, bless us, and give us the kind of future we desire.

If you have not been faithful to Jesus, in your fellowship with Him, in your obedience to His commands; if you have not been faithful with Jesus, now is the time to return to Him, repent of your unfaithfulness, and renounce any ungodly union you have had with the world or with the voice of the flesh.

Every unfaithful Christian, like the prodigal son and this unfaithful bride, will eventually realize that Christ is the better husband. Some, like the prodigal son, will realize this here on Earth. Some, however, may not have the opportunity to repent here and will only come to that realization in hell.

Nonetheless, it is not God’s will for anyone to perish. He desires that we repent and serve Him in true love and faithfulness. So let us return to the Lord. Let us repent of our disobedient actions and recognize that only Christ can truly love and bless us.

The next verse is also of utmost priority;

Hosea 2:8
She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold– which they used for Baal. (NIV)

The starting point of spiritual complacency is in the failure to acknowledge God for the blessings He has bestowed on us. Archbishop Trench says,

‘How prone are we all to ascribe to chance or fortune those gifts and blessings which indeed come directly from God–to build altars to Fortune rather than to Him who is the author of every good thing which we have gotten. And this faith of men, that their blessings, even their highest, come to them by a blind chance, they have incorporated in a word; for “happy” and “happiness” are connected with “hap,” which is chance; how unworthy, then, to express any true felicity, whose very essence is that it excludes hap or chance, that the world neither gave nor can take it away.’

The unfaithful bride used the gifts given to her by God to serve idols. We must not be like the bride, who failed to recognize God as the source of all her talents and gifts.

Let us make it a habit to acknowledge God as the source of all blessings in our lives, both rare and common, even the breath in our nostrils.

This is what God expects of us: fidelity to our relationship with Him. Keeping His commands in the face of pressure and temptation to disobey. Let us walk this path of faithfulness so that, in the end, we will be known as the Lord’s faithful bride.

Spirituality

Spirituality: How can I pray for long hours? 😔😔

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The issue of praying for long hours has always been a trending topic among Christians. Prayer is often likened unto exercise.


There are times all one needs is light warmups, pushups and a few jogs; but there are times a standard athlete must spend quality time training himself and exercising his muscles in the gym.


This is also applicable for prayer.

There are times when all one needs is a light thirty minutes prayer; whereas there are situations that a quality Christian must spend time praying and declaring the Word of The Lord.


Thus, the importance that believers are taught not only how to pray, but also how to persevere in the place of prayer.

The athlete is trained on how to jog round a standard football pitch for more than thirty minutes nonstop; the Saint must also be trained on how to exercise his spirit for hours nonstop!


THE POWER IS IN QUALITY NOT QUANTITY


The essence of this lesson is not to spur you to begin to long duration the purpose and target of your prayer.

That’s the greatest mistake many-a-praying saint makes;it’s also the first step towards losing prayer stamina.



For effective prayer, you must have faith, knowledge of God’s Word as well as a heart aligned with the will of God.



Yet, this post is to train you on how you can engage God with both quality of heart and quantity of time.



1. THE WORSHIPPER


Prayer is a form of worship, thus, in order to pray well and pray long, one must be in the posture of worship before God’s presence.

The essence of spending time singing songs of worship to God cannot be argued.


Many a times, when a Saint desires to pray and goes on his knees, the burdens, pressures and concerns of the day will seem to be laid on his head.

Sometimes, it is like the consequence of the vigorous body exertions surface in the body all of a sudden; other times it could be sleepiness. When this happens, do not try to coerce yourself to pray.


Instead, lift your hands to God and sing songs of worship from your heart.

The Psalmist referred to worship as ‘Magnifying the Lord’, when the Lord is magnified and revealed in the room where your worship is being released, prayer becomes easy.


The more you worship God, the more you become aware of his presence. I once heard someone say, ‘I don’t worship much before praying, because I came to pray not to worship’.


This is the mindset of some saints, and its very wrong. Sometimes, all we actually need to do in God’s presence is not even to pray in loud tongues, but to worship and adore His majesty.


Worship awakens even our spirit and enable it to be able to receive from God. Before you present your requests to God, make sure you attend to His own request – that you worship Him in spirit and in truth.


2. YOU AIN’T GOING ANYWHERE


You must be aware that you’re praying for long. Cast away all thoughts that will make you be in a haste, and be conscious of the fact that you’re going to spend time in God’s presence.



3. PRAY WITH DIRECTION



Do not pray randomly for the sake of covering time. Let your mind be focused on a particular goal.



1 Corinthians 9:26 “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:”


The Saint must be careful not to be like a boxer that only punches the air – exerting energy but making no impact.


His mind and spirit must be on the wall which he intends to crush, the barrier to break and the mountain to move.


4. GO BEYOND YOUR STRENGTH!

When the sprinters in a marathon become tired, they do not stop running entirely – because they know they have a destination that they must reach. Instead, they reduce their speed.


Having set a time target for yourself, you should keep praying until you’re able to reach it. If you do not have a time target, you should keep praying until you’re internally satisfied that you’ve done enough.



When you do this, you’re stretching yourself like the elastic runner, to go beyond your normal size. When you seem to be physically tired, you can rest, and if it’s not convenient for your health, stop the prayers and continue next time; otherwise, keep going.


Reduce the loudness of your voice; reduce your physical exertion, but ensure you’re praying.


5. PRAY-READ THE SCRIPTURES


There’s no greater source of strength than God’s Word.


Daniel 9:2 “During the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, was studying the writings of the prophets. I learned from the word of the Lord, as recorded by Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years.”


Daniel 9:3 “So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting.”


Daniel’s discovery of God’s prophecy about the nation of Israel spurred him to pray. A Saint who gains ground in long term prayer is a Saint who prays with his Bible open.

He constantly checks here and there, to see what God’s Word says about his business, family, kids etc, and the more he discovers it, the more he prays with it.

If you do not know what to pray, pray with God’s Word. Turn Bible verses into prayer points.

Finally;

CONSISTENCY IS KEY! An understanding of this will prevent you from setting unrealistic goals for yourself in prayer. Don’t expect to pray for five straight hours on your first attempt. Begin from an hour and keep advancing at weekly intervals.

GENERAL, Spirituality

How to profit from The Bible

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The Bible is God’s tool for building His Saints. It must not be approached as an ordinary book.


The Bible is a spiritual book that can only be understood by spiritual men.


THE REVEALER OF TRUTH


“But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth [complete truth]. For He will not speak on His initiative, but He will speak whatever He hears [from the Father—the message regarding the Son], and He will disclose to you what is to come [in the future].” John 16:13 (AMP).


The mysteries in the scriptures are subtly hidden from the knowledge of a carnal man. It takes the revelation of the Holy Spirit to unveil that which is hidden in God’s Word.


Anyone can read the Bible and to an extent, understand its message. But to be able to relate with the scripture and profit from its richness, we need the help of the Holy Spirit.



APPROACH TO STUDYING THE BIBLE

1. Meekness:

“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which can save your souls.” James 1:21.




In order to be properly taught by The Word, the Saint must be ready to let go of his/her preconceptions and previous mind-set. He must come to God’s Word with an open heart, willing to accept its reproof and obey its instruction.


The Saint must approach the word as a student approaches his teacher. He must acknowledge that he knows nothing and he is capable of knowing nothing outside what The Spirit of Truth teaches him.



2. Consistency:

Spiritual Growth happens not in the quantity of time we spend in God’s Word alone, but also in how consistent we are in studying God’s word.



The Saint must not be lazy and sluggish in his approach to the Bible. It must be a daily habit and necessity. It must be cherished like the material food and must be mused on morning, noon and night.



Psalms 1:2: “….. on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.”

If the hardest of mathematical equations and formulas written by men cannot be fully understood in inconsistent and unserious studying, how much more a book written from the inspiration of God?

The Saint who will profit from the Word must be habitual student of it. He must be willing to devote at least an hour of the day and night to studying the scriptures.



MEDITATE ON IT

Source: Crosswalk

In order to apprehend the knowledge of The Divine, our minds must be conditioned into silent meditation.

It is in meditation that illumination is received. This great principle remains the secret of the wisest of men who have received the revelation of Christ.

In meditation, we ponder upon what we see in God’s word; we make it ours – we personalise it and apply it to our lives. Knowledge is processed from mental knowledge into conviction through meditation.

Meditation gives us insight into a knowledge. It opens us to a practical and real experience of Truth.

Meditate on God’s promises towards you. Ponder on His instructions;. Meditate on His wondrous works recorded in scriptures. The more you do this, the more God’s word becomes real to you.

PRAY-READ THE SCRIPTURES

Accompany your study of God’s word with prayers. Prayer deepens our understanding of the word and solidifies our faith to expect what the Word has promised us.

There are promises we come across in scriptures that we are to pray about and declare over our lives. When you come across such while studying God’s word, do not hesitate to instantly begin to declare it over your life and your family.

Conclusively, ensure you study your Bible with a pen and jotter, and desire to practice everything you’re learning from the scripture.

GENERAL

The Greatest Love

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Love was one of the most powerful weapons God used in redeeming Mankind back to himself; and that weapon is still very much active today. 


The Bible says in John 3 vs 16;

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his ONLY begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.



Jesus was the only Son God ever had, yet, God was willing to sacrifice Him for the salvation of the world. 


God gave Jesus out into the cold hands of death just because of you and I and in doing this, put both Heaven and Earth in Great danger. 


Great danger? 


Yes! Because the fate of both Heaven and earth depended on whether Jesus would fulfil or fail in His mission. 


Jesus faced several temptations, yet, He overcame them all. He refused to be distracted in His mission to save mankind. Scriptures tell us that He prayed with so much fervency – not for Himself, but for you and I. (Hebrews 5 vs 7) 


He had the power to disappear before even when the soldiers came to arrest Him at Gethsemane.


But He said, “Not my will Lord, but thy will be done”. 


His great love for us made Him willing to sacrifice His freedom and dignity.





He even bore our curse;

Galatians 3:13 – “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”



Folks, God’s display of love on calvary remains the highest display of love for eternity.

St. John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”





Even when we fall, He picks us up and wipe the stains of sin and guilt away with His Blood.


This is the incomprehensible love of Christ – the love that passes understanding.




If you ever feel like anyone hates you, remember that two thousand years ago, a Divine Being named ‘Jesus’ made the greatest love sacrifice on the cross.

Are you feeling hopeless or in despair? Look unto the cross and be strengthened.


If you ever feel like an outcast, Remember you have been adopted by God through Christ and you are now a part of God’s Household {Ephesians 2:12-13}

Rejoice and bask in the love of Christ! 😊😊




Written by Tolu-Taiwo Victor

Spirituality

The Enemy’s Wiles

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What analogy can be best suited to describe a Christian warrior who is in constant opposition to Satan?


Here is one:


A boxer has a higher chance of winning when he understands every move of his opponent. He is calculative enough to know beforehand the next action of his foe and the best way to counter it.

Once he understands his opponent’s inclinations, he can take defensive techniques to avoid getting hit with the blows and then launch his attack.


Swiftness is what it is, an athlete needs to be quicker than his opponent.



The opposition with the devil has been from time immemorial. It is a war and only a witty Christian can outmanoeuvre the attacks of Satan.


If we are innocent of the enemy’s schemes, then we will not recognize his handiwork and he will use us for his ends. If we are cognizant of his tactics, then we will know when he is at work and deal with him.


1 Cor 12:1
“Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I don’t want you to be ignorant.”



Below are the commonest schemes and means by which the enemy attacks:



å Thoughts:

The mind is a powerful channel to send opinions to a man. Satan works subtly. It takes wittiness to discern him when he comes through the channel of the mind.



Take for instance, a Christian who got offended by a cab driver, he tries to ignore the offense and stay cool. While at it the devil gives him reasons why he must retaliate to the provocation.


Wisdom is the application of knowledge. A wise Christian will not be taken advantage of because he quickly takes notice when strange thoughts creep into his mind and he can identify them as Satan’s ploy.


2Cor 2:11
“…that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.”


å Incitement:

This could come from anyone, most often from peers. Here is another common instance of how it works:

_A Christian girl who is clear-minded and has zero interest in romantic dates, however, gets her clear-mindedness all infused with inordinate fantasies. This is after her peers incessantly share loved-up and sensual stories about their lovers, more so encouraging her to get into romantic relationships._


Incitement comes in a form of advice, encouragement, or a call to action, often to do wrong things.


While these and more are the likely schemes by Satan, it is 100% possible to outwit him.



Wisdom and discernment are the virtues needed to understand the tactics of the devil. Not only understanding his tactics but also knowing when he is at work.


These virtues are not utopian, they are given to us by God through prayers.



James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.


James 1:6
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.



Finally, brethren, discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit (1Cor 12:10) which should be desired by every Christian, just as St. Paul admonished.


God who gives freely is able to give us all that we ask for; every good thing comes from Him.