Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Wonders of Belief or Faith

By Sunday Joseph Adenuga

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever BELIEVES in HIM should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3: 16.

What is in ‘believing’ Jesus that makes it very important? Why is God’s only demand that simple? In another place the Bible says that, “whosoever believeth in Him shall not be put to shame.” In fact Christians are called believers because, in all the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this word seem to be the strongest. When Jesus was commissioning the disciples, in the book of Mark 16:15-17, we read,

“ Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that BELIEVETH and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be. And these signs shall follow them that BELIEVE: In my name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak in tongues…”

The emphasis in the above passage as in all scripture is believe, the signs shall follow those who believe. These signs are the manifestation of the power of GOD; the power will come upon, and follow only those who believe. Many times, if not in all cases, the only requirement of Jesus from those seeking healing was this, “only believe”. He was always quoted as saying, “be not afraid, only believe”, or “weep no more”; this was said to the widow whose only son just died. And in another situation He said, “If thou canst believe thou shall see the glory of God”.

What is in believing that makes it so thick?

When everybody was pressing hard on Jesus, nothing happened to any of them, but a woman came with faith or believe, that if she could only touch the tip or helm of His cloth, she would be healed. This simple act of believe brought her healing from the Master Healer, the Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ the Anointed One. The force of this faith or believe drew out this virtue or power from the Lord. Many people fast and pray but could not get the job done, but when there is a heartfelt believe or faith, the miracle is always on the scene. Why is ‘believing’ so important? We read in Mark 11: 23,

Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he said shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he says.

The Holy Spirit opened my understanding to know that the art of believing is the major difference between a successful man and a failure. Faith is the only difference between somebody who receives answer to his prayers and the one who do not. This same faith in God is the only difference between a saint and a sinner. Do you know that nobody will go to hell because of sins like adultery, stealing, killing, etc? People will go to hell because they have refused to believe the son of God, they refuse to believe the testimony of God that have enough power to liberate them from the power of such sins like adultery, stealing, killing, etc.
Please understand this today, it will help you, faith is a very deep and important concept of life. Believing touches the very heart of man, which is the core or center of man; faith is very spiritual, and we are spirit beings. Friend, the only avenue by which we can browse the spiritual realm is through our faith.
Faith in something has a far-reaching effect on man that last beyond this material time and realm. Have you ever seen or heard of a notorious man, maybe an armed robber, or a hard drug addict who gave his life to Jesus Christ? You see the change; it’s so obvious; that change came about because of simple faith in Jesus; that faith has changed his life and destiny. The reason is very simple to understand, you see, the faith touches his heart; your heart is your spirit, your spirit is the real you. Anything that has the power to change the real you can change everything around you: and that thing is faith. Faith flows out from your heart, your spirit and it is capable of changing everything around you called your circumstances.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Enjoying The Grace Of God

By Sunday Joseph Adenuga

God is not partial, except you believe this with all your heart; the devil will succeed in deceiving you and make you to settle for what is less than the best for you. When you know that God is not partial, you will have nothing restraining you, you will know that if God did it for him, then He can also do it for me. When you know this, you will never envy anybody henceforth, this knowledge will make you to celebrate other people’s success because the same God who did it for them can do yours also.

God’s Promises for All

Jesus said in Mathew 28:20, ‘… 10, I am with you always …’. That is to every one of us. He is with you now, even in that problem. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” Psalm 46:1. I remember when we were in the primary school; early in the morning the teacher must register all those who were present. From the list, he calls the names of the pupils one by one and we all say present sir, anyone who is absent would not be there to say present sir, rather we would answer on his behalf by saying absent. When the bible says that God is the very present help in trouble, it means that when trouble comes calling, God will answer for you, saying ‘present’. Why? This is so because He is the VERY PRESENT HELP. You have problem(s)? HELP is present.

Please, get this, whenever you have problems or struggles or challenges, know surely that the help you need to solve the problem is present with you. Of course, it may not be conspicuously or glaringly clear, but if you switch inward, it will come out, I mean the help will come out, I mean the help will come out of you clean and clear. So therefore, instead of weeping and seeking for sympathizers, think and meditate on the word of God, he said ‘I AM with you’; He said, ‘I AM the very present help in trouble”. So what’s your problem?

Many are looking for those who will pity them, no, do not look for pity party, they will put you into the pit. Here the word of God, ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not burned: neither shall the flame kindle upon thee”. Isaiah 43:2. If God is with you and He is, why then are you still looking for sympathizers? Stop weeping; start rejoicing. Stop complaining; start thanking God. He has promised to help you Isaiah 41:10

Your Response to the Troubles

Be bigger than your problem. This is a decision you have to make NOW, do not wait till tomorrow. See yourself as someone who is bigger than that large dept, you are bigger than that sickness, you are bigger than that marriage problems, you are bigger than those needs. I John 4:4 says
“You are of God … and have overcome them because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world”
There are problems in the world; God is in you. That makes you bigger than any problem, I see them as challenges and I am bigger than them.

You are a spirit, you can never cease to exist, if you die, you will still continue to exist. All those problems, whether physical or spiritual are temporary, they will soon pass away, but you will not pass away, you will not cease to exist, you will live forever (either with God or the devil, the choice is yours). If you will not vanish away form existence and this is the TRUTH; but no matter how long it stays, your problem will vanish one day, then it means you are bigger, better, stronger and more important than your problems. Friend, believe this, you are stronger than that problem: it is too weak to weaken you, wake up the sleeping giant in you. Thomas Edison failed ten thousand times, but he continued and so he succeeded in making incandescent lamp. You are of more value than any amount of money; you are priceless. The best houses that were built two hundred years ago are now out of fashion. Things come and go but your value cannot depreciate.

Nothing Shall Hurt You

Somebody said, “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going” and Robert Schuler said “Tough times never last but tough people do”. If you are tough, as I have recommended for you from the beginning of this book, nothing can stop you.
Jesus Christ our Lord said in Luke 10:19
“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you”.
Do you believe this? You have power; Jesus gave you the power the day you got born-again. When got filled with the Holy Spirit, you received a greater dimension of God’s power. You are supper loaded with power. The bible says in Micah 3:8
“But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment and of might …”
The power to tread on serpent and scorpion is the power to ride victoriously and triumphantly over difficulties and problems of life.
Problems cannot hurt you, they are not that powerful except you give them the power and allow them to hurt you.

There is power within you

1John 4:4 that we quoted earlier gives testimony to the fact that there is something IN YOU that is special. You have to know it and accept it, there is something in you, and it is called power. That thing can solve any problem, that thing can over come every temptation, that thing can make you to achieve all your dreams, that thing is the POWER of God inside you.
You have it, it is there, a giant, which is sleeping, you need to wake it up and let it work for you. If you feed it well, it will cause every people and things to gravitate towards helping you. If you encourage the power within you, it will cause the whole world to stand at attention and pay homage to you. Joshua discovered this power and when he was in battle against Adonizedec, Hoham, Piram, Japhia and Debir, he commanded the sun and the moon to stand still, till he defeated the enemies, the sun and moon stood still for 24 hours. Read the story in Joshua 10:1-14.

Joshua knew that he had that power within him; it doesn’t work for those who do not know it. You have to know it for it to work for you – understand?
If you know this power and you activate it, it will make you to always win in any battle of life. It will make life to say yes instead of no, that was what rescued me in the office of the great man of God that I shared with you in chapter one. That power is in you. Let’s see the scripture in Rom. 8:9-11
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God swell in you. Now if any man has not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of Him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you.

Friend, this is the crux of the matter, the spirit of God dwells in you. You are not ordinary; you carry grace and unction.
If the spirit of God is in you, how dare you say that you are "a nobody"? Come off it friend, you are somebody real and special.
Never should you debase yourself because of problem, you are bigger than that problem. Never consider prostitution as a way out of your present financial crisis, this will mean belittling your big and valuable self.
This is the truth and the Lord knows it, in the face of financial crisis in my life, it is one of my policies to take the problem to God in prayers and after that I rest my case. It is not my custom to go a begging (or go borrow), I don’t beg, I don’t go for loans because my God is more than enough. I think it has to do with what the bible calls contentment. When there is much, I give thanks to God, and when things look dry, you see, I believe God and He has never failed me. Never go down so low as to lower your standard because of things, especially money.

Esau was the firstborn son of Isaac, but because of food, he was ready to sell the right of first born to Jacob. He had that thing called the power of first-born and all the privileges and opportunities attached, but he willingly let go of it only because of food. Never go begging, never consider prostitution; to lie because of money is to under-estimate the power of God. For God’s sake, you are the king’s kid, stop worrying yourself to death.
For me, any condition that refuses to go away will no longer get my attention. I drive out such trials by my negligence of it, why? This is because I see it as nothing to me.

You know, some situations come so strong that if care is not taken, you begin to doubt the WORD. Never in your life doubt the word of God, the word works, yes it works, no matter what you are going through, only the word of God can lead you out of it.

Please note this very carefully, you should never allow the situation to bow you down to the level of weeping or crying. Your tears and sorrow is the joy of devil the enemy.

You want to know why I am so bold? It is because after all, the worst any problem can do for me is to kill me. In that case I will go to a better place, enjoy a better life with God, but you see I am very strong on the WORD of God that says “I shall not die, but live …” from the outset, I tell the problem, I shall not die but live so pack your load. The truth is that, the problem has no option but to leave me alone, you will find out that some problems may want to stubbornly persist, so I also persist in speaking to the problem. At the end, I always win; I’ve never lost at any time.