Only You

It took only one man to put Israel at peace. He was given pride (1 Samuel 17: 38) but he did not accept it because he was not used it (see verse 39). He came out to be himself and not someone else. He understood that being like the king would mean less of his faith and more of the heavy amour of war to protect him.

David was just a boy and he knew nothing about fighting or whatsoever. He just had his faith in God stable. That was David's amour. It was David's greatest weapon to defeat the giant and freeing his people from the giant's daily threats.

Wow! This 'boy’, who later became a king, had what we call the Supernatural faith. The kind of faith that goes beyond possibilities and expectations. What happened in the slaying of Goliath was supernatural.

“Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy and he has been a fighting man from his youth.” ” 1 Samuel 17:33. Not only did his brother Eliab lacked trust in him but King Saul did not believe in him also.

No one might believe in you right now because you are a junior. But hey, who cares if they do?

Unleash that supernatural faith that's inside of you and remove the pride given to you. Just be you because there's no better warrior that you.

Stay Blessed!

His Love

“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.” Psalm 13:5

This is a very simple bible passage but I found something very profound from it. Let’s look at the first part – “I trust in your unfailing love”.  David trusted in God’s unfailing love because He understood what it is capable of.

Trusting God is being sure that His love will compel Him to take care of you; His love will provide for you. It is trusting that even in the current situation that gives you sleepless nights; God’s love has allowed you to pass THROUGH it and not for you to LIVE in it.

As a result, those who doubt His love, they never pass through situations but they remain in situations.

Try understanding what God’s love is and see what His love has compelled Him to do for you. God allowed Jesus to be crucified so he can be glorified in resurrection; that is why Jesus did not remain with the dead. That’s how great His love is.

Let’s seek God’s understanding of His love so like David, we can be able to TRUST in His unfailing love.

Stay blessed!

Not that one

When we feel loved, we become happy, we spread the love we received to everyone who is around us. We always smile and always have beautiful stories to tell because love does exactly that- it has beautiful stories to give.

Now I want to talk about the love of the Father. I never had the father’s love but trust me, I have experienced His love and it is whole. When He loves you, He guides you to the right paths of life. You will never go wrong as long as you allow Him to take the lead.

The Father is also the protector. He never leaves His loved ones to endure any kind of pain- never. He knows you more than you know yourself. This is what I actually love the most about Him. He knows what you need and when do you need it. Isn’t it lovely?

In His love, he rebukes sharply. “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent” Revelation 3:19

Unfortunately, not everyone accepts rebuke. This rebellion is so blind to even see Who is rebuking you. It cares less about the love He has for you. It is selfish and choosy. It says to Him: yes to Your love but no to Your rebuke. Mostly, it expects Him to accept everything about us- the good and the bad.

God uses people, His servants to show us the way. We must understand that rejecting God’s rebuke, is actually rejecting His love also. One can never expect God’s love while they are rejecting his rebuke- impossible.

Have you been accepting both the love of God and His rebuke?

Stay Blessed!

Why did they say...

This is especially for those who are doing the work of God in the church. Be it in the courtyard or on the altar. We know that we usually have meetings for these groups with our overseers and it is a blessing for us.  These meetings are meant to encourage us and strengthen our faith.

The question is does it really do what it’s supposed to?

How can we possibly expect it to bear forth fruits if we talk to our fellow friends about the comments we have concerning what was spoken about? How can we be blessed if we discuss what was spoken in the meeting with those who have nothing to do with it?

Surely, there will be no blessing because of lack of discretion. A servant of God is discreet and he is open for discussions with the elders not with other people who have nothing to do with what was spoken of in the meeting. He has self control over his emotions.

“If someone does not speak in the meeting of the overseers, yet goes out and speaks to others, he is a person with a double tongue. Such a person cannot be in our midst. You must rebuke him sharply...” quoted from Watchman Nee.

Dear friends, if maybe by any chance you find yourself rebuked because of your loose tongue, you should give glory to God and repent to never do it again.  For God rebukes those he loves, Revelation 3:19.

Stay Blessed!!!

A warning to those who serve God

My name is Rita and I am in my 20’s. My family first came to the UCKG when I was six years old; we were set free and gave our lives to God. My mother was raised up to be an assistant, and eventually so was I.
As a teenager I met an assistant pastor and discovered we had a mutual attraction for each other. After a year and three months, we got engaged. I was sure that he was from God. I did not pay attention to the details, and the thought of “testing” him seemed like nonsense. I ignored the fact that he was irritable, proud and frequently disagreed with the church leadership.

One day he was reprimanded and disciplined because of his pride. He felt he had been treated “unfairly”, was filled with hurt feelings and left the Work of God. People tried to warn me. A pastor told me that his attitude was not that of a man of God. I listened quietly, but within there was a growing anger. I declared that I would stay with him, and not abandon him. I remember a pastor’s wife telling me, “Rita, the devil wants to grab a hold of you”. I did not listen; instead I became even angrier.

He moved in with his parents since we had no money to get married. We grew cold in faith, I quit being an assistant, rarely went to church and our relationship got more and more physical. My family ended up leaving the church… we were all lost. He said we needed to get married as soon as possible, that it was now or never. Against my will and my family’s, we got married. That was supposed to be the most beautiful day of my life, but instead it was horrible. No church, no wedding dress and lots of sadness, because shortly before that day I had slept with him.

There was no honeymoon. We went to live in a rented house. Within the first few months we were already in debt, our names were blacklisted and there was no money, since he was so unorganized with our finances. We fought a lot; I was always sad; I wanted a divorce. In an attempt at happiness, we started going to nightclubs, and I know that if I had died then, I would now be in hell. To use Bishop’s term, I accepted “Judas’s kiss”, and went through hell all because of emotion. Then I remembered the words: “Rita, the devil wants to grab a hold of you.” He had grabbed me, my family and my salvation.

That’s when I started to follow your blog again. I was angry at the church, but felt peace when I read your blog posts. I read them every day, listened to the podcasts and it broke my heart. At first I started attending church simply to bring my tithe. I remember the pastor saying, “Young lady, faith comes by hearing the Word.” My husband was getting worse, my life had no meaning, and so I decided to come back.
One night I got on my knees and cried out to God asking Him to bless everyone I had a grudge against. I mentioned them name-by-name, my heart ached and felt like it was about to burst, but I forgave them. Then I had my second encounter with the precious Holy Spirit and a heavy weight was lifted from me. From that moment on, God gave me the peace and wisdom to deal with every one of my problems. My husband started coming with me to church. A few months later he started praying again, turned his back on his bad friends and became serious in his faith.

Today I am an assistant again. My family is going to the church and I already see a big change in my mother. I work two shifts to help with the expenses. My marriage has changed a lot, but my fight to see changes in my husband has not been easy. I want him to be more responsible, to be calm and to give me a sense of security. He is at his third job in five months and I still cannot trust him with money, but I believe that God will transform him.

The moral of my story for assistants is this: DO NOT FOLLOW THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART, for the sake of your own salvation. I am saved today only by God’s mercy. Please, assistants, do not be deceived by well-mannered, handsome, sweet talking assistant pastors. And you who are dating or engaged, examine absolutely everything, test him, and do not be fooled by an appearance of holiness.
I could have avoided all this suffering if I had only been more rational, if I had listened to the voice of God and ignored my heart. I put my salvation, and that of my family, at risk, because they got hurt.
I ask God to have mercy on me, because I do not want my hands to be stained with blood. This is so serious. What I went through was unnecessary. Please do not do what I did, I am saved again, but I know many others who did not make it back, that are  still out in the world, and still others who actually died.

Stay Blessed!

Are you jealous??

Jealousy is a destructive emotion -- especially in relationships. It is the leading cause of fights in relationships and also the leading cause of break ups. A lot of people mistake the symptoms of jealousy for the causes of jealousy, when in reality they are not the same.

For example, a girl may say that when her boyfriend talks to other girls, it causes her to feel jealous. Or when a guy's wife dresses immodestly in public and he sees other guys checking her out, it causes him to feel jealous. The problem with mistaking the symptoms of jealousy for the causes of jealousy is that dissolving and getting rid of the jealous feelings then becomes the job of your partner who has to give up freedom to save your relationship with them.

In the above example, if the girl truly saw her boyfriend talking to other girls as the cause of jealousy, she'd believe that the only way she'd get over the jealous feelings is if he was to stop talking to other girls. In reality, that would fix nothing. She'd soon find a whole new set of behaviours of his that would make her feel jealous. To cure jealousy permanently and effectively, one need not involve their partner in the process. The cure of jealousy happens within.

So what is the cause of jealousy? The true root cause of jealousy, at its deepest level, is the fear of loss. In this case, the fear of losing your partner. Jealousy is sparked by the fear that, if your partner spends enough time getting to know other people, he or she will eventually realize they'd rather be with someone else than you and leave you. In its true nature, jealousy is nothing but the combination of utter fear and selfishness.

• Develop your self confidence and obliterate your jealousy. Techniques to Overcome Jealousy Now that we know the entire cause of jealousy is fear, how do we overcome this fear so we no longer feel jealous? Below I have listed the necessary steps to take in overcoming this fear of losing your partner to someone else that leads to jealousy. Become more independent. After being in relationships long enough, we often begin to lose our own identity. Instead, the relationship becomes your identity and whenever you feel at threat of losing your partner, you feel a sense that your whole personal identity is in jeopardy. The first step to overcoming jealousy is by re-establishing your individual identity. Remember all the fun things you used to do BEFORE you were in a relationship? Be sure to make personal time for yourself each day to enjoy those things. More importantly, pick up an old hobby. The more time you invest in treating yourself to things you enjoy, the more you'll realize you can be happy all on your own and you won't feel so dependent on your partner. The less dependent you feel on your partner, the easier it will be to let them go if they decide to leave you for someone else and the less fear you'll have over it as well. This means much less jealousy.
• Boost Your Self Confidence A large chunk of the fear of losing your partner to someone else (the root of jealousy) is based on not feeling like you could ever find a partner as attractive as your current one again. The way to remedy this is to boost your self confidence by doing whatever you need to in order to KNOW you could find someone just as attractive as your current partner, if not more attractive, if they ever were to leave you. How do you do this? Hit the gym regularly. Start eating healthier. Get plenty of rest, plenty of water, plenty of sunshine and just start taking better care of yourself. If you have to sacrifice time you would have spent with your partner to do this, then GREAT! That's what the first step, Become More Independent was all about. This will work wonders to help overcome jealousy.
• Learn to Respect Yourself Just like with anyone else, you have to earn your own respect. Ask yourself what kind of qualities do you respect in other people? Honesty, integrity, loyalty, commitment, hard work, self control and self discipline? These are the same qualities you must learn to possess, if you do not already, in order to respect yourself more. The more you respect yourself, the more you will see you deserve someone who respects you as well. When and if your partner ever chooses to leave you for another person, you will have enough respect for yourself to realize you deserve someone better than that who will stay more loyal and committed to you.

Conclusion

By taking full responsibility for your jealousy, and not shifting the blame for it to the actions of your partner, and by implementing the above three steps, you can overcome jealousy almost instantly. Remember, you can not control your partner. You can only control yourself. You do NOT own your partner in any sense and they are free to do whatever they want. You have to accept this in order to overcome jealousy and begin to work on developing your independence, self esteem and self respect. Take the time to re develop your own individual identity and you won't feel as threatened when you feel someone or something may threaten the integrity of your relationship.

Stay Blessed!

10 Signs that you have lost the ‘anointing’

You take no pleasure in evangelizing: How is it possible that a person of God does not take pleasure in speaking about Him?  It could happen that the person is afraid or feels ashamed because he or she is not totally fluent in certain languages and thinks that others will not understand him/her properly. But if that person does not overcome these feelings, it proves that he or she has lost the anointing.





You do not feel like attending to or counselling people:  You were called to serve the people of God, but do not feel like listening to them or perhaps you think you are incapable of providing the counselling the people of God need.





You do not have the vision to be used greatly:  Everyone who received the anointing from God has the desire to be “used greatly”.  There is no title or position for this, but simply to be ready at any time to serve according to what the work of God demands. If you lose the anointing, you also lose the vision, as was the case with Samson. Despite being physically strong, he was limited because he his sight was gone after losing his anointing, when he surrendered to his emotions.





There is no revolt against the devil and his work: This kind of person shows indifference to and lack of compassion for the suffering of others, perhaps even feeling that the devil is no longer the enemy. For this person, it looks like the devil has been converted or hell’s doors have been closed forever.





You fear challenges:   The simple becomes difficult and you always find excuses because you do not see challenges as opportunities.  You don’t feel secure when engaging in battle, changing from one church to another, taking on more responsibilities, having to learn a new language, being far from your family and fearing to leave your comfort zone.





You do not submit to authority: Whether it is the authority of the church or not, if an order is given and it does not compromise your faith in Christ, you  have to obey and that is all.





Pride:  God is humble. The essence of God is humility and all His servants are humble. The proud only want to teach, but the humble want to practise.





You start having personal projects: This starts when a person worries about his future, his family and wants to feel secure by having assets like a house. It is a conflict because God has to be evident. We do not have anything but at the same time, we have everything. Everything that belongs to us belongs to God and vice versa.





You feel irreplaceable: No one is irreplaceable.  Even if you have many talents, capabilities and merits, there will always be someone who can replace you. Moses was replaced by Joshua, Eli by Elijah, Elijah by Elisha. Only our anointing is irreplaceable. 





You think you deserve to be recognised and well paid: You think the church has to recognise your work. You are never satisfied and are always waiting for acknowledgement. The one who waits for recognition from men will never receive rewards from God.  Anointing is not imposed but revealed. 


Stay Blessed!

Only You

It took only one man to put Israel at peace. He was given pride (1 Samuel 17: 38) but he did not accept it because he was not used it ( see verse 39). He came out to be himself and not someone else. He understood that being like the king would mean less of his faith and more of the heavy amour of war to protect him.

David was just a boy and he knew nothing about fighting or whatsoever. He just had his faith in God stable. That was David's amour. It was David's greatest weapon to defeat the giant and freeing his people from the giant's daily threats.

Wow! This 'boy' who later became a king, had what we call the Supernatural faith. The kind of faith that goes beyond possibilities and expectations. What happened in the slaying of Goliath was supernatural.

“Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy and he has been a fighting man from his youth.” ” 1 Samuel 17:33. Not only did his brother Eliab lacked trust in him but king Saul did not believe in him also.

No one might be believing in you right now because you are a junior. But hey, who cares if the do?

Unleash that supernatural faith that's inside of you and remove the pride given to you. Just be you because there's no better warrior that you.

Stay Blessed!

He Started It

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Begining and the End.” Revelations 22:13

This passages is familliar. We know it by heart. But today God spoke to me in a different way.

You have lost your husband, your daughter, mother, sister or a loved one. You might have lost your job or whatever you cared for. Life seems like a tradegy, and there's just no way out of it. The word seems too small to provide space of recovery. All it's just a mess!

I get it and most of all, God gets its it.

How far have you trusted God? How much have you believed in Him? Enough, you say! But in truth it's not enough yet. God made it clear to that He is the Alfa and the Omega. If he allowed you to go through your hard moments, He will sure take you out of it. Do not even try to get out on your own because you will not succeed. Commit yourself in trusting Him fully and believing that He will take you out.

If God started it, He will SURELY finish it.

He is the Begining and the End. Never forget that!

Stay blessed!

Strong Women

A strong woman works out every day to keep her body in shape …
but a woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape…

A strong woman isn’t afraid of anything …
but a woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear…

A strong woman won’t let anyone get the best of her …
but a woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone…

A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same in the future…
a woman of strength realizes life’s mistakes can also be God’s blessings and capitalizes on them…

A strong woman walks sure footedly …
but a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls…

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face …
but a woman of strength wears grace…

A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey …
but a woman of strength has faith that it is in the journey that she will become strong…

a strong woman is one who gets her heart broken time and time again and still has the strength to gather the pieces to create a new life for herself. Remember that no matter what pain you’ve been through, tears will dry, broken hearts will heal

You’re a woman and you are strong!

Stay Blessed!!

Punishment of Growing up

I am still young. I am confused. I want to grow and become and adult but I don't have a parent to help me grow. Who is going to hold my hand? Who is going to show me how it's done? Who is going to tell not to go there and not to be with them? I need that person. I need that voice that's maturer than I to lead the way.

I know, this is an emotion of every growing person. Whether we grow wit age of with maturity or even in spirit. We all have this frustrated emotion haunting us everyday because it seeks someone who will help us grow and become better.

There's a mentor, a father, a teacher, a friend a guardian who can do all this. Its not many people but only One. He is a one in a million. But still, we must be submissive to His teachings because He wounds, but He also binds up; he injures, but His hands also heal. Job 5: 18

He is a tough but worthy to have Master. That is why it's also written that blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. Job 5:17

He might seem hard and not reliable because of his punishments but remember, He wounds, but He also binds up; he injures, but His hands also heal!

Stay Blessed!