NEVER SAY NEVER

Jesus said to him, if you can believe, all things are possible

 to him who believes - Mk 9:23

Michael Dell Saul in life chose to exceed the negative expectation around him. One of his teachers at Memorial High School in Houston, Texas, where he did not excel as a student gauged him against the report sheet and concluded “he would probably never go anywhere in life”. Dell, one of the richest men in the world today, is the founder of Dell Inc., one of the world’s largest computer manufacturers.

To say ‘never’ is to refuse to be inhibited or discouraged from making an attempt at a goal. It bespeaks a firm heart-felt believe in the possibility of the impossible. A ‘never-say-never’ kind of person, therefore affirms, “I can do and become whatever I set my skills on”.

Millions over history had less than distinguished beginnings but had more than spectacular endings. However, millions also have capitulated under limitations, and have conveniently said “Never”. They do not judge their failure against how difficult the task at hand is, instead they judge it against how inadequate they feel. They view themselves with so low esteem, they become convinced they are no good.

Never is not a word in the lexicon of man who never says ‘never’; but ‘nevertheless’ is the first word in his dictionary. Like Peter, you can walk on water if you truly believe.

Culled from the book GOOD SUCCESS by Maurice H. Suwa

MAKING TIME TO SLOW DOWN

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen,

I will be exalted in the earth – Ps 46:10

Our generation can be correctly described as a very busy one. Busy is a word that is often found on the lips of everybody these days; ‘no time’, you hear people say. We have so many things to do, but time seems to be the very thing we don’t have. It is always on the speeding side. Rest is gradually becoming an illusion for many.

Some organizations are now in the habit of buying the leave of their employees. A period that someone is supposed to leave work and have time for himself and his family is converted into money that quickly drains out of the pocket. In Lagos, it is no news that as early as 4am, people are already on their way to work. And they don’t return home until around 11pm in the night. Even our bedroom that should grant us a sort of rest from the madness around us has become an active office, courtesy of mobile phones, laptop, and internet. These gadgets that are meant to ease life are the very ones complicating it. The Scripture says in Eccl 7:29 “This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated” (Good News).

This is definitely not the purpose of God for our lives. A sincere and close observation will reveal that our prayer life and communion is seriously affected. In recent times, it is beginning to reflect in the physical – youths are aging very fast. Though the first commandment of God to man is to work (Gen 1:28).    Nevertheless, He still expects us to have rest in our lives like He did (Gen 2:3).One of God’s gift to man is creativity. How can we ever use this gift to His glory if we continue living these hurried lives. Remember, God speaks to us in a ‘still small voice’ (1 Kg 19:12).

I encourage you to find a way to make time to slow down. Find a moment and a place where you can shut yourself off from television, radio, PDA’s, mobile phones, internet and the rest of the world. I’m almost sure you are beginning to wonder if this is ever possible. Reminisce on your past life and begin to ask God questions like “Lord, what do you want me to do with the rest of my life?”, “What do you want me to do with all the people in my life?”, “What do you want me to do with my job and marriage?”  And most importantly “How do I start doing things right from now?”

As you quietly speak to God and listen in your heart, you will be amazed at how much you will discover.  For He Himself said…

“Be still, and know that I am God"

The Abrahamic Lifestyle 9

THE WAITING PERIOD

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief;

but was strong in faith, giving glory to God – Rom 4:20

Abraham understood the significance of God’s word. When conditions around him proved that there was no hope of the manifestation of the promise, he held on. He was not discouraged. Looking at the life of this man, a question we may want to ask is “What was he doing during the waiting period?” 

The Scripture reveals something unique about the character of this man. We are made to understand that he staggered not at the promise of God; he was strong in faith and never gave room for unbelief or despair. The most intriguing of all was that all through that waiting period, he was busy rejoicing and giving glory to God for a son that is yet to come. He saw himself as the father of the promised child and was preparing himself for that responsibility.

It is a common practice these days to see Christians becoming frustrated when their prayers are not answered on time. Their frustrations are directed towards heaven and they begin to ask God “Why, why?”  They look for alternative solution and begin to depend on humans in place of God. This ought not to be so.

There is a lesson for us in the life of Abraham. The place of faith in prayer cannot be overlooked. We must be strong in faith and believe God is interested in answering our prayers. We must learn how to rejoice and thank Him even when the prayers have not been answered. 

Are you trusting God for a spouse? Believe it is done. Organize your thought process. Rejoice in Him. Think and act like the spouse has come. Are you believing Him for a job? Believe it is settled. Envision yourself already working in that establishment. Draw the spending analysis of your expected income. Plan what you intend to make out of that job. 

In all, never fail to give Him glory. Always see the waiting period as a season of rejoicing, knowing that God inhabits the praises of His people. As you learn to do this, and wholly depend on Him, He will hear those secret cries of yours and bestow upon you an awesome reward.

The Abrahamic Lifestyle 8

SEEING WITHOUT THE EYES

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,)

Before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the

dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were

-Rom 4:17

The creation story is that which should always continue to inspire us. The Scripture records that the earth was in chaos before God stepped in. It was without form, and void, and darkness was everywhere. The interesting thing to note is that in the midst of this chaos, God saw a beautiful planet that you and I inhabit today. He called those plants and animals into existence.

At the age of hundred, Abraham should have ruled out the possibility of Sarah conceiving and becoming a mother. By every human standard, both of them should be considered finished. But Abraham held on to the promise. He saw himself as a father when he was unfit biologically. He never allowed any discouragement or limitation to creep into his life. He believed when such a belief was totally hopeless. Eventually he got the physical manifestation of his dream.

Many in life have failed to rise above their present level because of limitations they have imposed on themselves. They have allowed themselves to be limited by the circumstances around them. They have looked at their educational background, age, economy, etc and muttered to themselves “It is no longer possible.” There is a need for us to see beyond our present status in life like Abraham did. The God that has called us His sons and daughters is not limited by anything. He is Infinity! We must learn to dream big of ourselves and believe totally that God can call those dreams into existence.

Remember the Tower of Babel. In our present day, people would probably have laughed and scorned such a project. They would have regarded it as the joke of the century. However, God did not see it that way. He said nothing can restrain those people from what they have imagined to do (Gen 11:6). Sometime ago, I heard a testimony of a brother who was visiting a particular multinational company for the first time. By the time he got there, he liked the place and started praying that God should open the door of that place to him. As at the time of writing this, he is a senior executive in that establishment. 

When you visit important places or meet important figures for the first time, what goes on in your head? Do you see yourself becoming relevant in such places? Do you see yourself rising to the status of those people? Or you rejoice because of another opportunity to take pictures that can be uploaded to your Facebook account? 

We must grow beyond the level of limiting ourselves. We must grow beyond wasting timeless opportunities. Our thought process must be worked upon. Somebody once said that whatever can happen in your head can happen in reality. The character of God has never changed and it will never change. With Him, nothing shall be impossible. 

The Scripture says He calleth those things which be not as though they were. May the Lord enlighten the eyes of your understanding and may He grant you the grace to see beyond your present condition.

The Abrahamic Lifestyle 7

DIVINE OWNERSHIP

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself

himself a lamb for a burnt offering; so they went both

of them together  - Gen 22:8

The birth of Isaac brought a season of celebration into the life of Abraham. He was full of joy because his long-awaited heir has finally come. So, when God told him to sacrifice the child, we would have expected him to question God for the rationale behind such a command. He could have resisted and told God why it was impossible to perform such a sacrifice. Isaac was more than a son to him: the fullness of the promise settled upon him. Sacrificing him means sacrificing all Abraham’s hope and the future of his descendants.

Rather, we saw Abraham exhibiting total obedience. On his way to the place of sacrifice, Isaac asked him for the lamb to be used for the burnt offering. His response was that God would provide for Himself a lamb for burnt offering. We may wonder why he uttered such a statement. He was the one that needed to perform a sacrifice, not God. How could he expect God to provide a lamb when He (God) was obviously not performing any sacrifice?

Abraham said this because he understood that there is Divine Ownership upon all he had. He knew fully well that God was the real owner of everything in his possession: he was just a custodian. The child was God’s property and if God required it, he was not in a position to deny the Owner His right. It was God who needed the sacrifice not Abraham. So, it was God’s responsibility to provide a lamb for His own sacrifice.

Like Abraham, we must come to the realization that there is Divine Ownership upon all that we have. Whatever is in our possession was given to us by God. A lot of Christians have problems with giving. They believe they own everything in their possession. Nothing in our life should be too much to give to God. God demanded the most important thing in the life of Abraham and he didn’t delay in offering it. We too must not delay in sacrificing that Isaac (time, money, resources, etc) when God demands.

As Abraham laid his son on the altar of sacrifice, God gave him a better substitute. Not only that, because of his total obedience, God poured upon him unending blessings. He received the blessings he never bargained for. He left home in grief but came back rejoicing.

Learn to obey and give to God without holding back anytime he demands. Total obedience is the key to greater blessings. Giving to God by helping that fellow in need without any attached conditions will bring about abundance of blessings that the finite human mind can never imagine.

THE ABRAHAMIC LIFESTYLE 6

THE NATURE OF MAN 

And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people, he hath broken my covenant – Gen 17:14

God made a covenant with Abraham concerning the future of his seed. The sign of this covenant was circumcision. Every male seed who wants to partake of the covenant must be circumcised. Failure to do it means such a person would be cut off from God’s people.

Circumcision is the putting off of the body of flesh (Col 2:11). It is necessary for every person who wants to be a partaker of the Abrahamic covenant to be circumcised. We are not by any means talking of physical circumcision. It is our hearts that need to be circumcised.

 The nature we inherited from Adam after his fall (simply called the flesh) is sinful and opposes everything that is God’s. It is proud, arrogant and boastful. Just as an archer with a defective eyesight will always end up with incorrect shots, all our (sinful) incorrect actions are as a result of this defective sinful nature. It is the reason why we rely so much on our strength, eloquence, intelligence, beauty, etc. It is the reason why we find it difficult to please God (Rom 8:8)

A God’s chosen people, we are to be people with no confidence in the flesh. Apostle Paul enjoins us not to have any confidence in flesh (Phil 3:3) because without God, we can do nothing (Jn 15:5). We need God to deal with this nature of flesh in us. It does not need to be repaired because it is too corrupted. In similitude to Abraham’s obedience, we too must cut off the body of flesh. This is not something we can achieve on our own. We need the Lord’s help and only He can make it happen, if His covenant must be established in our lives.

This is high time we conducted an examination of ourselves. We need to identify those things that are still opposing God in us. We need to identify those things that are still making total obedience to the Lord a difficulty. They must be nailed to the cross and we must ask the Lord to help perfect every imperfection in our lives.

When we sincerely pray this prayer every time we feel the flesh is about to come alive in us, the Merciful Lord will hear those prayers and bestow upon us the grace we need to overcome.