Category Archives: Spiritual Growth
Why Fast: Part 1
‘Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church. With prayer and fasting, they turned the elders over to the care of the Lord, in whom they had put their trust’ Acts 14:23
Your motive provides you with the motivation to engage spiritually. Fasting is a spiritual exercise which when embarked on with the right motives yields bountiful results. Why are you doing what you are doing? Over the next few days, we will be outlining eight reasons every Christian should engage in whole hearted fasting. Today we will examine the first two reasons. Why fast? Read the rest of this entry
Seeking God
‘So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and fasting’ Dan.9:3a
Seeking God is crucial to our love walk. It is in seeking God that we discover why we do what we do and get the understanding to live according to His purpose. Seeking God requires humility and sacrifice. Fasting is seeking God; a choice to abstain for the purpose of seeking God. The primary reason why we fast is to seek God and be still ‘in His presence where there is fullness of joy’. In other words, when you put certain things aside to make God priority and go deeper, He sorts you out. ‘That is why the LORD says, “Turn to me now, Read the rest of this entry
Our Motives
The LORD’s light penetrates the human spirit,exposing every hidden motive. Prov.20:27
‘People may be pure in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their motives’ Prov.16:2. Motives are a very powerful emotional force capable of taking you through any commitment from start to finish. It is your motive in any endeavor that keeps you going even in the face of challenges. Your motive reveals your heart. Take marriage for instance; if your motive for getting married is so you can display your husband at social Read the rest of this entry
Chastisement
‘For the LORD disciplines those He loves, and He punishes each one He accepts as His child’ Heb.12:6
An earthly father’s love translates to favour, a multitude of gifts and occasional punishment when the child steps out of line. Punishment, because his love leads him to protect the man that boy will become. How much more our Heavenly Father who is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His acts. A number of times we are led to equate God’s love to blessings and good times alone. While all of these are expressions Read the rest of this entry
The Fire
‘Look! Nebuchadnezzar shouted. I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!’ Daniel 3:25
Fire is not without purpose especially in the Christian walk. The function of the fire varies, according to God’s purpose. It could be for refining purposes. Refining could translate to a number of things and not limited to cleansing, purifying, humbling, detoxing, and teaching. God could allow the fire in your life to accomplish any of these purposes. God reserves the right to prune the branch and His pruning tools are solely His choice. Say you have this habit Read the rest of this entry
Understanding Sovereignty
‘But even if He doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up’ Daniel 3:18
The Sovereignty of God is something Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego understood so well. God is Sovereign; He can choose not to deliver us because He is God. This is an aspect a lot of Christians do not understand about God. You have heard a lot of faith preaching that attempts to rubbish the Sovereignty of God. God is Sovereign; He can choose to fold His hands and watch. Does that change the fact that He is God? Not at all and everything He does is in Read the rest of this entry
Keynote To Germination III
‘The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life; a wise person wins friends’ Prov.11:30
Key note to germination number six is put your trust in Jesus. That sounds simplistic but it actually isn’t. ‘But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence’ Jer.17:7. Your leaves will remain green and you will never stop producing fruit in the Name of Jesus. Your trust is like an anchor, it keeps you rooted to God. The converse is a dangerous place to be but that is not your portion. When you trust Jesus, your spiritual roots Read the rest of this entry
Keynote To Germination II
‘Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do’ Joshua 1:8
Prayer and fasting is the third key note to germination. The things that God is saying and doing in us we need to take in the place of prayer and burn in and grow roots. God has said this is the year of establishment. You need to take the Word and pray it in. let it grow roots. Fasting of course accelerates it the process of growing spiritual roots. Read the rest of this entry
Keynote To Germination I
‘In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation’ 1Pet.5:10
There was king in the book of Daniel who had a dream but he did not understand the dream so he called on Daniel. And Daniel interpreted the dream to mean the king needs to humble himself so that the dream will not happen to him. Humble yourself. If someone has such a dream and gets such an interpretation, what do you think the person should do? Fall on his face immediately. God waited for twelve months yet Nebuchadnezzar did not change. After the first three months it seemed as though the dream will not happen. God can be patient but dangerous. Once it was the 12th month, he became an animal and he began to eat grass. He ate grass for 7years. I often say to the Lord, ‘I don’t want to eat grass, oh Lord’. For some people except they eat grass they would not learn. And once the process of eating grass starts, you cannot stop it. The time of seven years must pass. And seven years passed and Nebuchadnezzar said ‘I lifted up my eyes to heaven and I said heaven rules in the affairs of men’. It is good to read another person’s story and laugh but check your life. How are you responding to the dealings of God in your life? 1Pet.5:10, God is saying after you have suffered a while. There is a process, a death that needs to happen before the perfection comes. When God settles you, the people who don’t know the suffering will begin to envy you. They have refused to subject themselves to their own little suffering. Key note to germination, you need to understand the dealings of God.
Secondly, you need to understand the place of covenants. You can covenant yourself to break yourself and aid the germination like Job did [Job 31:1]. Otherwise God would have had to take him through a process. The choice is yours. God also comes into covenant with us to help us germinate and take root in Him. [Deut.29:10-13 & 18]. God says I am entering this covenant with you so that we are yoked together. So that you do not get into the corridor of power and start to bring forth strange fruit.
Prayer: Lord, help me pay close attention to the dealings of God in my life and respond appropriately. Lead me into covenants with You so that I will be yoked to You, in Jesus Name.
Germinate In Christ
‘My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ Gal.2:20
The second step in growing spiritual roots is to germinate in Christ. Allow yourself to die in Christ. Allow the old man to die in Christ ‘My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’. [2 Cor.5:17]. Allow the germination to take place because it is not every seed that is planted that germinates. The parable of the sower: the first Read the rest of this entry
