Do not let go

After the excitement of knowing God and being baptized with the Holy Spirit, came that time to face reality. Time for me to wake up and exercise my faith to the spiritual truths of this world. Many battles began opposing my faith and leading me to the path of doubting my spirituality.

I received blows of hunger, desperation, mockery, shame and being lonely. At that time, I had very few reasons why I should not let go of the gift I have been given by God. I had many, but beyond count reasons why I  should drop the towel. I was attacked by this painful reality almost every minute of the day.

There was a time where I felt like my decision of giving my life to God was a mistake because now my life has gone from bad to worse. It troubled me but I kept searching for more reasons why I shouldn't give up.

I'll be honest, I never found more reasons than the few I already had. All I could hear from my faith was, "Thato, if you need more reason why you should stay with God, keep going with Him and you will know".

It was true. You will never know something if you have never experienced it, right? That was my faith.

And I know because I have counselled many people lately who are attacked by the same problem that I faced and I always tell them I don't regret my decision to stay with God. It has been amazing because I have learnt to "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that my labor is not in vain in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 15:58

Keeping this in mind, regardless of who you are, your position or your status, God has got your back.

Do not give away what you have received because "it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame." Hebrews 6:4-6

Not only will it be impossible because you have left the faith, NO. But because you have put Him in to open shame - doubting His power for eternity.

If you let go of your faith, of the Holy Spirit entrusted in you to give you eternal life, you are OPENLY saying that God is a failure. You are saying He is not eternal but He will eventually come to an end. Then it will be impossible to save you again because you would have no part in His kingdom.

Let those who have an ear hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Stay blessed.

Paying Tithes

When I first came to the church, I was 10 years old and I did not know anything about God but only to pray. I saw my mother tithing and I thought to myself, "she is one of the most committed people of the church". I wanted to be like her. I didn't want to understand what tithe was but I wanted to give because I want to be like my mom- committed to the church.

I took envelopes of tithe in the church and gave anything I had just for me to receive the consecration of the tithers on the alter.

Oh how vulnerable I was.

I began to be very interested in knowing about what I was doing after a few months. I asked my mother and she taught me how to tithe. The pastor used to teach how to tithe in every service he held and I would be so excited about hearing the good news of being a tither. I remember when I finally got it right, how excited I was in my faith. That was the only right thing I was confident about. It gave me a push to want to more things right for God.

That was when my spirituality changed and I was only 12 years old.

Today I am grown and it is with pleasure that I am given an opportunity to teach others about the importance of Tithe.

After a year since I have invited my tenant who lives with her son at the back of my yard to the church, I was honored to sit down with them and teach them about tithe in their cottage. The excitement look I saw on their faces was priceless when they finally decided to be faithful tithers after I have taught them through the help of the Holy Spirit.

Amazingly, while teaching them my faith was revived also. God revived me not to tithe as a tradition or because I know how to tithe but to always do it in Spirit because tithes are holy.

"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24 Giving tithes is to serve God, thus it must be done with trembling and great respect.

Stay Blessed

A Converted Christian

Some people think that the baptism in water is enough to make them true Christians. They boastfully go around telling people that they are born again because they have been baptized. They are not aware that there is more they still need to work on in their lives in order for them to be qualified for the Kingdom of God.

We have an obligation to fight our salvation daily. Either in the church or not, either in public or not. We have to rid ourselves from certain things and begin applying other methods to be better Christians.

"Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them." Colossians 3:5-7

The above passage mentions things we are to PUT TO DEATH. Meaning, they can never be found in us. We have to consider them non-existing. Totally out of the surface of the earth for good. If one is still in the practice of the above, they need to deal with them immediately because God's wrath will come upon those who will choose to look away from God's instructions. Remember that we will also reap what we sow. Galatians 6:7-8

Then we have another things we have to work on. Things that are natural to every human being but they have to be dealt with. These are things also dangerous to our faith and we are being advised to put them off.

"But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him..." Colossians 3:8-10

God never asks for what we cannot do. All these He knows they are in our power to deal with. What we cannot rid ourselves from, He will do it for us. 

After obeying His teachings from the above passages, we are now to "...put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed,do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Colossians 3:12-17

Again, if you can meditate on the above verse you will notice that it is possible for you to practice these. 

Words will not be enough to unleash God's revelation from the passages shared in this blog. On your own, ask God to speak to you. He will be fair and just in His revelation to you. 

Stay blessed.

A Purpose Worth It

A Purpose Worth It

God will only become your God when you want Him to be. He will be your Friend when you want Him to be. He will be your father when you want Him to Be. In short, He will be everything you want Him to be. So, you do not wanna have Him as an enemy.

I have started a new prayer every morning to bless my day. In this prayer, I am not praying for physical blessings but I am praying for God to give me strength and ability to guard my salvation throughout the day. It is an interesting purpose because ever since I began doing this, I have been tested daily to see if I was really asking for my spiritual life.

This might sound boring to some of you but for me it is everything. I can assure you this, satan has proven to be how much he hates this prayer. Since I have started this purpose, he ensures to give me beatings just for me “to curse God and die”. Job 2:9

I am not worried at all about this because I know it is written: “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” Exodus 14:14

Try this prayer. You will be at peace while holding your sword because God will be fighting for you.

Maybe you used to make this prayer but for other things. How about you focus on your relationship with God in this Morning Prayer.

May you stay blessed.

Disposition 2 - Weakness

From our last post we read that all of us are born with certain dispositions that needs to be dealt with. In this post I would like us to look at a disposition of weakness.

Some people are too weak so much that they are afraid of any responsibilities. They always believe that they should be in the shadow and not come out and take care of a certain duty placed in their hands.

Not because they are incompetent but simply because they mistake being humble with their weakness of always accepting the rest and not the best. I remember I used to be like that and this I carried with me even when I started doing the work of God and it was a big problem because I was never confident enough to take care of certain responsibilities in the church.

I would have certain people that I would give counseling to and those that I would pray for. I would really be in trouble when someone who is older and more mature approaches me for counseling. It was really bad because I did not only fail help the people but I failed to help myself too.

As mentioned earlier, it is not because a person is incompetent or unable to fulfill certain tasks but it is merely because a person's weakness has overpowered him so much that he can't even see his own authority given by The Lord Jesus to him.

Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained. Judges 7:3

We see that God did not use the weak/ cowards. He is A God of the brave hearted ones - those who are ready for war at all times. 

Let us deal with this disposition of weakness so that The Lord can use us without any interruptions. 

Stay Blessed!

Dispositions 1 - Stubborn and Legalistic

DISPOSITION: is a habit, a preparation, a state of readiness, or a tendency to act in a specified way.

Everyone is born with a certain disposition in them. Some are good and some are bad. Some are cute and some are nasty. Some can be changed and some cannot be changed but they all can be controlled. 

Now, I would like us to look at the dispositions that do not please God. Sins in dispositions. Some people were born stubborn and some are born very legalistic.Those are the ones who if they believe something to right, that is how it should be and there's no one who will convince them otherwise. In short, these people are "always right". 

Mostly these people are very rigid, they are unbending creatures and they are not willing to be molded.They are often "perfect" and in their perfection, there is no room for correction. They are not gentle towards others. 

The pride of such people hides under their disposition so that they will convince themselves that they were born that way. This is not Godly but for a born of God Christian, this should be a concern and it needs to be dealt with. 

Ask God for help if you are one of the stubborn and legalistic people. Nothing is impossible for Him. 

Watch out for our second discussion on Dispositions. 

Stay Blessed. 

Never Doubt God

I have learnt this and I still am.

When tough situations strikes, your head spins and your nature wants to complain and find something to blame. When this happens, most times it's because we didn't do anything wrong but all our eyes can see is injustice.

"Why is my marriage falling apart?"
 "Why is my job a mess?"
"Why does everyone hate me so much?"
 "Why there's no one who understands me?"

etc...

With these questions we have our minds blank and we often do not have any strength to defend ourselves. And we shouldn't even try to defend ourselves because we TRUST in God. When this happens, lets be in prayer and communicate with God about what is it that He wants to achieve with us.

It won't be easy but trust me, it is worth it.

Most times His ways are not man's favorite but they are ALWAYS man's needs. Doubting God is not an option.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones." Proverbs 3:5-8

Stay Blessed.