SKILLFULLY USING THE WORD

Skill is the ability to do something well, usually gained through training, experience or both. Every profession requires one form of skill or another. God’s word is the basis of the profession of our faith. When we express faith or confidence it is in God’s word. Just like the development of any other skill that requires training, so does the use of the word of God. Here, we are going to be looking at four steps to the skillful application of the word of God.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH:  The first step to the skillful application of the word is spiritual growth. The reason for this is that the skillful application of the word of God does not pertain to spiritual babies. When you just get born again, you are born a spiritual baby and according to Apostle Peter in 1Pet.2:2, you are expected to desire the sincere milk of the word to grow up spiritually. If you apply yourself to this demand, you will grow up spiritually to the point of taking spiritual meat instead of milk just as it happens in the natural; Heb.5:13-14 says:

“For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”   

Apostle Paul enumerated the behavior of baby Christians in 1Cor.3:1-3 when he said:

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”

So everyone who is just born again is born into the family of God as a baby believer. At this point of your new birth experience, your mind did not change. Your mind will only change after a process of time invested in researching God through His word. The more you research God, the more you get to know and obey Him and as you are consistent in your obedience to the word of God, you will be experiencing spiritual growth. As you keep growing, you will leave all these character traits of a baby Christian like envying and strife behind. The book of Galatians 5:18-19 enumerates the works of the flesh which we have already seen to be traits of a baby Christian. Every Christian who still behaves like a sinner is a baby Christian not withstanding how long they have been saved. These kinds of people cannot use the word skillfully as we have already seen. Any Christian who wants to be skillful in their use of the word of God and therefore be spiritually productive must grow up spiritually. How do you grow up spiritually? This takes us to the next step we must take to enable us skillfully use the word of God.

FAITHFULNESS IN USING THE WORD OF GOD: The next step we must take to the skillful application of the word of God is faithfulness in using the word. To be faithful is to be consistently loyal to a person, belief or cause; in this case, consistent loyalty in the pursuit of God and his word. This will enable a person gain experience in righteousness. Apostle Paul says such a person can take the strong meat of the word of God because; by practice, he has developed himself to be able to discern right from wrong. In other words, such a person is mature and knows and lives by the ways of God. Heb. 5:14 says:

“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even tho se who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

A typical example of such a person in the Bible is Moses. Concerning Moses the Bible says he was faithful in his entire house. Heb.3:1-2 says:

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.”

In Exodus 33:13 while reporting one of the prayers of Moses the man of God, the Bible says:

“Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.”

An examination of the content of the prayer of Moses here would quickly reveal to us that Moses was a mature saint; not asking for any selfish thing but a revelation of the ways of God to him so that he could please God. The bulk of believers today however, do not share the sentiments of Moses. Most of the time when I receive prayer requests after some of our broadcasts, I feel sorry for many people because of the content of their request. You could easily detect that these ones have a long way to go. Many of these requests make me wonder whether these people have ever read Matthew 6:33.

Meanwhile God wants us to learn his ways so that we would not need to come crying bless me anymore; we would become blessings instead. God expects us to be blessings wherever we are found. But how can we be blessings if we are still children? It is a matured person that takes responsibility; not a child. So, we have to grow up spiritually. Growing up spiritually does not have to do with your biological age. You can be a hundred years old and still be a spiritual baby. Also, the length of time you have been a Christian does not determine your level of maturity; it all depends on your faithfulness in using God’s word. As you put what little of the word of God you know to work, you gain experience in the ways of God. As you consistently live this way, you will find out that many of these character traits of a baby Christian will drop off your life.

There was a way you lived as a sinner, as soon as you get born again; you are expected to start changing from that way to the ways of God. You cannot do this however, if you do not know the ways of God.

In Ps.103:7, we are told that God revealed his ways to Moses and his acts to the children of Israel. Moses was creating the acts of God whereas the children of Israel were merely consuming them. That was why whenever the children of Israel experienced any unpleasant situation, they would murmur against Moses and God. Can you imagine that as soon as God delivered them from the host of Pharaoh through the Red sea by sinking their enemies with the same sea he caused to become dry land for the people to pass through, that they still murmured against Moses and God when they faced a little inconvenience of water scarcity? Moses again created another act of God providing water for them.  Consequently anyone who will be faithful to seek and walk in the ways of God will skillfully use the word of God to create the acts of God.

Moses is a human being like we are, so if God used him before, he can still use you dear reader, all you need to do is be faithful in using the word. The Bible says Elijah was a man of like passions as we are but he prayed that there should not be rain for three and a half years and it was so. When he wanted the rain, he prayed again and it was so. What did he do? He applied skill. The Bible says after he told Ahab that there was a sound of the abundance of rain, He went up and he bent over and began to pray. He prayed until rain came. If he had not prayed the right word he would not have been able to work the miracle that brought the rain [Jas.5:17-18; 1Kings 17:1-7; 18:41-45]. Anyone who will be faithful to speak the word and walk in the ways of God will skillfully use the word of God.

EMBRACE THE MINSTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT:  The third step we need to take in the skillful application of the word is to embrace the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is called our helper, our teacher and comforter. He will take of the Father and the son and reveal to us. He is called to show us things to come. He will reveal things which no one has seen to us and whenever we ask Him, He will give us the right scripture for each occasion. The Holy Spirit is for the church. The fact that you have not received the infilling of the Holy Ghost does not mean he is not there. The fact that I go and jump off a cliff for instance, does not negate the law of gravity. No matter what my opinion about the law of gravity is, it will still be very functional. The Holy Spirit is still here whether you believe in his ministry or not. You will do yourself a huge favour to embrace the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

In John 16:12-16 while talking to his disciples, Jesus said:

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.”

So He is supposed to show us things to come. In Jn.14:26, the bible says:

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

Not everyone who reads the bible really understands it; so one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to teach us as we read the bible and cause us to understand it. He is our maker and He knows how we can best understand anything including the bible which He authored. Also, you can be in situations where you need the Holy Ghost to remind you of a scripture (that is what Jesus is saying here) when you ask Him, He will remind you. How do you accomplish this? Just ask Him what scripture you need to use in the circumstance and then keep quiet and listen to your heart because He is in your heart. He will speak to you through your heart. If you are not yet filled with the Holy Ghost, please go and receive the infilling of the Holy Ghost today. I strongly recommend my books: “What About Speaking in Tongues?” and “Understanding the Ministry and Gifts of The Holy Spirit” for a comprehensive study of this subject. I also wrote out some prayers in those books that you could pray and receive this precious gift of the Father.  Search the scriptures and find out your rights in the covenant and take advantage of them. It is your right to be filled with the Holy Spirit because God has said that as many as receive Jesus Christ will be given the gift of the Holy Ghost. Peter said to the seekers in Acts 2:38 that if they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, they shall be saved and that they shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. In Rom 8:26 we are told that the Holy Spirit will help us in our weaknesses one of which I believe is forgetfulness of scriptures. In Jn.14:26, we are told that He would teach us all things and remind us of the word of God that we have learnt and forgotten.

In 1Corth 14:14-15, the Bible says:

“For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.

What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.”

 So every time you pray in tongues, you are praying in the spirit. Praying in tongues and giving messages in tongues are two different things. Not everyone will give messages in tongues because the Bible says let him that gives a message in tongues also pray that he should interpret it. Giving a message is usually addressed to people and therefore must be interpreted for the people to whom it is addressed to be able to comprehend the message. When it is interpreted, it becomes prophecy. The spirit language on the other hand is for prayer and it is every believer’s right to exercise. Prayer as we all know is addressed to God who understands the language of the spirit with which we speak to Him. You do not even need to understand it. This is why Paul says in 1Cor.14:2 that when you speak in unknown tongues, you speak to God and not to men because no man understands you. You do not even understand what you are saying because as we saw earlier, when you pray in tongues your spirit prays and your understanding is unproductive.  It is your right in the covenant of grace to speak to your Father [God] in tongues; so if you are not yet filled with the Holy Ghost ensure you get filled today because praying in tongues helps to develop your most holy faith causing you to advance from babyhood to adulthood as a Christian! [Jude.1:20]

MEETING SPIRITUAL CONDITIONS: The fourth step to the skillful application of the word is meeting spiritual conditions. It is not every promise in the Bible that is automatic. There are some that have conditions attached to them. So if you are going to have your needs met by those scriptures you must first meet the conditions attached. For example Philippians 4:19 says:

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

 This scripture is for everyone who would first satisfy the conditions that prompted Apostle Paul to say that prayer in the first place. The condition is set out in Phil 4:14-16 thus:

“Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.

Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.

For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.”

The Philippians were believers who have sown into the life and ministry of Apostle Paul. They had given him gifts in cash and kind. Paul had to respond with the anointing upon his life. And told them what we read in Phil.4:19. So if you have been giving to ministers of God in worship to God, you can claim this scripture and it would work for you because you have met the condition for it to work. If not, you may want to look for another scripture to use to get your needs met. In fact if you have this habit of the Philippians, you will never be stranded as far as needs in your life are concerned.

Another example of a conditional promise is found in Ps 84:11 which reads:

“For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

You will observe from this text of scripture that there is a condition you must fulfill before God will not withhold any good thing from you and that condition is that you are walking uprightly. If you are not walking uprightly, God is not obligated to bring this word to pass in your life no matter how much you confess it.

So if you start saying God will not withhold any good thing from you ask yourself; “Am I you walking up rightly?” This is because if you are not walking up rightly good things will be withheld from you. The scriptures cannot be broken. People are actually broken by the scriptures they break!

Another example of a conditional promise is found in Exo.23:25-26 which says:

“And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.”

To claim protection from sickness and bareness on the basis of this promise, you must meet the condition of being in active service of God wherever you are found. If you do not meet this condition, then you can rely on James 5:13-15, to claim healing. I find it interesting that many believers find service of God very distasteful, yet they want to claim what is reserved for servants of God. God cannot be mocked!

MAY DESTINY 2012 OUR MONTH OF DIVINE ENLARGEMENT

WELCOME TO MAY DESTINY 2012 OUR MONTH OF DIVINE ENLARGEMENT

The word of the Lord that came to me for this month is from Isa.54:2-3 which says:

“Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.”

The bible also makes us understand in Psalm 127:1 that except the Lord builds a house, they labour in vain that build it and that except the Lord watches over a city, the security of that City would be porous notwithstanding all the security details men have put in place. This is why as a Ministry; we always look up to the Lord for everything.

As a Church leader, I have never gone this road before because I have only one life time and every day for me is a new day that has never existed before. I appreciate the fact that if I am going to lead in the right direction, I must follow the Shepherd of my soul – The Holy Spirit. Jesus said he would lead me into all truths and show me things to come.

The word He gave us last month was divine favour and every day of that month, his favour followed us and has spilled over to the rest of our lives. Last month, by the favour of the Lord, we were able to commence two very important projects as a ministry; one of which is to start developing our Church property. None of us here at Kingdom Heirs Ministries can doubt the great hand of God in providing for and protecting us. We saw him in action.

Now His word of enlargement has come for this month. We are in no doubt that God will deliver on this word also, but an examination of the text in Isaiah 54 quoted above reveals that we have a part to play and that part is to prepare. We are expected to make additional rooms to accommodate the enlargement coming – “lengthen the cords and strengthen the stakes”. Why so? The answer is that God is set for us to expand on every side. For me, I believe that structure grows from inside out. We cannot talk of a strong Church when all the members are babies who are not making any advancement in their spiritual development! People cannot enlarge beyond their spiritual capacity. As a shepherd for instance, it would be unfair for me to expect toothless spiritual babies to crack spiritual bones. So what we must do this month is that in preparation for what the Lord is doing, we must work towards weaning the babies among us and getting them trained in discipleship and getting the young men among us to advance to the next level in their spiritual development to enable them father babies and nurture them to maturity. When this is done and done well, we shall be ready to take on; with ease the next set of challenges that would be presented by the pressure of our Church growth.

Already, we have intensified our leadership training program and through practical trainings encouraged our leaders’ creativity and deliveries on their God given assignment. This is not the easy way to do this though, but it is God’s way and the surest if we are going to leave any enduring structures behind. This was the method adopted by the Lord Jesus Christ when He came and raised twelve men and equipped them for the establishment of the Church. Even though when he was leaving, they had reduced to eleven, he already had people who had what it took to pioneer what is known today as the Church of Jesus Christ which after more than two thousand years is still waxing greater and greater in everything.

Let me close by saying that I learnt from John C. Maxwell that any Church that will experience explosive growth will do so by raising leaders and I have proven this truth for more than nine years now and I can say that this works!

Please avail yourself of the opportunity for enlargement by logging on to our website, blogs and face book pages often to enrich yourself with spiritual resources that will empower your leadership skill.

If you are not born again however, you cannot talk about enlargement because dead people only enlarge in decomposition. You don’t have to be spiritually dead you can come alive today by making Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. If you want to embrace the love of God today, please say the sinners’ prayer below out loud meaning it with all your heart and the Holy Spirit will take your up from there. God bless and enrich your life in Jesus’ name!

Father in Heaven,

I come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your word says in John 6:37 that you will not cast me out when I come to you. So I thank you that you will take me in.

You also said in Romans 10:9-10 that if I shall confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in my heart that you raised him from the dead, I shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe that he was raised from the dead for my justification and I confess him now as my Saviour and Lord.

I believe that I have now become your righteousness in Christ whom you made to be sin for me on Calvary’s Cross.

Thank you father that I am saved from this day in Jesus’s name!

For more information and spiritual resources please log on to http://www.kingdomheirsministries.org/. and follow me on face book by liking our page healing and restoration time with Pastor Alero Nanna and Kingdom Joint Heirs Family Churches. You can also follow our blogs: http://www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com/ and www.jointheirsfamily.blogspot.com. www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl.

CONSEQUENCES OF DOUBTING GOD’S WORD

In the previous chapter, we began to look at the qualities of the word of God and we already established that the word of God has integrity. We defined integrity as moral excellence and truthfulness. We also saw from the word of God that the bible is replete with the demonstration of God’s moral excellence and truthfulness. Let us look at this example of people who called God a liar in Num.14 and the consequences they had to face for doing so.

In Num.13, Moses sent the 12 elders of the 12 tribes of Israel to go and spy out the land of Canaan which they were supposed to possess as their inheritance. After 40 days of roaming the land, they came back with various reports which the bible classifies into two namely; Evil report and good report. Unfortunately, the majority of them came back with the evil report. What was the evil report?

All of them agreed that the land was pleasant, rich and a very good place – a land flowing with milk and honey. They also agreed that the land had a lot to offer them but there was a major point of disagreement between the two groups. One group and unfortunately, the majority said there were giants in the land and in their own eyes, they were like grasshoppers before the giants and for that reason, they were not going to be able to take the land. Meanwhile God had earlier promised to give them the land and ordered them to go and take possession of it.

Let me disclose one secret in life to you here; there are no tree lands anywhere. You will have to contend for to take delivery of any promise God has given to you. These people ought to have known better because they had to fight a good fight of faith to be able to come out of Egypt in the first place. All through their journeys in the wilderness, they had to believe God for food and water and in all of these, God was faithful. Yet they still (by their claims of impossibility) insulted God by calling Him (to whom nothing was impossible) a liar when they insisted (in contradiction to God’s word) that they would not be able to possess the land.

On the other hand, two of the twelve elders namely Joshua and Caleb agreed that they would be able to take the land by the grace of God. However, the people did not listen to them as they were already corrupted by the majority opinion. They even thought of stoning Joshua and Caleb for expressing confidence in God’s word to them. As far as God was concerned, that was the height of it. God immediately responded to their unbelief by passing a judgment against them as shown in Num.14:10-13:

“… And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?

I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.”

Moses immediately interceded for the people who expressed unbelief in God’s word and God replied in Num.14:20-39 with this verdict:

      And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it…

How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,

Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.

But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.

And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,

Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.

But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.”

Look at what happened to these peoples in Numbers. They with his evil report

said they would not be able to take the land because there were giants there. Their feeling of inferiority was born out of a spirit of unbelief that they allowed to control them but Joshua and Caleb stood out. The Bible says concerning them, that they had “another spirit”. Apostle Paul discloses in 2Cor.4:13 that this “another spirit” is the Spirit of faith. The spirit of faith was reflected in their utterance when they began to declare that with divine intervention, they would be able to take the land. They insisted that God who had brought them to where they were was able to take them beyond there and give that land to them; that the land was theirs and that they were going to take the land in spite of the giants.

God came down in anger and all the ten of them that brought the evil report died that same day. And when the others who expressed unbelief through their evil report (in their presumption) decided to go to battle against their enemies even though Moses warned them against it, they were defeated. Those of them who survived the war ran back to tell the story.

Let me quickly say here that God’s word may not sound loud and intimidating when He says something but the word of God is the truth. It has integrity. If God is telling you to repent for instance, you better do so for your own good. God wants you saved because He loves and wants you, not because He needs you. If you do not go to heaven, God will not miss you. Heaven is real and so is hell. God promises those who will receive His salvation package in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ an abode with me after their demise from earth. That word must come to pass because God cannot lie. He also reserved eternal damnation for all who would not believe Him and receive the Lord Jesus Christ; first in hell after they die physically and eventually in the lake of fire and brimstone forever after His white throne judgment where he would judge the all the living and dead sinners from Adam to the last child to be born before that day.

But beyond going to heaven, right now on earth your life is wasting if you are not saved. Because until you come into contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, you make him your personal saviour and Lord, you cannot begin to run the course heaven has charted for you. You will only be running Satan’s program and Satan hates you with a passion.

From our text scripture, we learn the following truths about the consequences of not believing God’s word:

1.     You will not be able to walk in faith. The result is that you will not experience divine distinction. Joshua and Caleb were distinguished by God when He tagged them with another spirit which we saw to be the spirit of faith in 1Cor.4:13.

2.     Lack of faith in God’s word can reduce a person’s lifespan. Those ten spies were not supposed to die that day but their lives were cut short with a plague as a judgment from God for disbelieving Him and spreading an evil report as a result.

3.     Lack of faith in God’s word can result in bringing a curse on those associated with us. For example, all the people who associated with the ten spies in their unbelief came under God’s judgment that day and some died the same year from the plague, others died from the presumptuous war they tried to fight with their enemies against the counsel of Moses and the rest of them died in the course of wandering the land within the forty years curse of delay.

4.     Lack of faith in God’s word can result in a needless delayed destiny. The children of Israel did a journey they were supposed to be completing for another forty years.

5.     Lack of faith in God’s word, can result in lack of protection. When the children of Israel in their presumption attempted to take Canaan in our story here, they were defeated because God did not go with them.

6.     Lack of faith in God’s word can result in the fulfillment of a negative prophecy in the life of the person without faith. God told them that they would know what it meant for him not to keep his word to them because of their unbelief.

7.     Lack of faith in God will reflect in negative declarations from our mouths. In verse 28 of our text, God said he will cause what such people say to His hearing to come to pass. This should teach us that whatever we do not want to see happen in our lives should not find expression through our mouths.

This piece is culled from Pastor Alero Nanna's new book - "Exploring the word of His Power" to purchase your copy of the book, please contact flourishinggirl@gmail.com or call +233 271823700 or +234 8033459152.

Perhaps you are not born again yet and you will like to but you do not know how, you can get born again by saying the prayer below out loud to God and the Holy Spirit will take you up from there. After praying please contact us with the above email address or phone number to let us know so that we can send you an e copy of our "Belivers' Guide To Growth" to help you in your Christian adventure.

Remain on top.

UNDERSTANDING AND CONTROLLING YOUR RESOURCES

God’s pattern for your life includes specifications for the spiritual, physical and material resources that are necessary for you to live a fulfilling and productive life. Until you learn what resources God has arranged for you to enjoy and what benefits He planned for you to receive from each resource, your potential will be stunted and your performance will be less than it could be.

Types of resources: There are basically two types of resources you must understand and control if you must succeed and they are the TANGIBLE AND THE INTANGIBLE resources. The intangible resources are those resources we cannot see physically but we are very conscious of their existence. The tangible resources are those we can see like plants, animal, water, sunlight, etc. in our environment. Some examples of intangible resources are time, the resources of the soul, spiritual resources etc. Time is what you need to convert the tangible resources around you to wealth. You can also use time to convert intangible resources into beneficial relationships and add value to your life and that of others. For instance, you have to give time to cultivate a friendship; to build love with another to create the wealth of joy and support that being in love brings about. You need time to build anything you want to build; a business, a mega fortune, a house, a home, anything at all. This explains why the more time you give to doing a particular thing, the more you excel at it. Kenneth Hagan told the story of two brothers who were Pastors and how one of them had a potential for being more successful than the other because of his more outgoing disposition. But he spent his time going around and cracking jokes while his less outgoing brother was always studying and praying. Of course the one who spent more time in the word and prayer was more successful even though by his quiet disposition, he did not seem to stand a chance at success like his brother.

Time is either spent or invested. The time you put in getting to know God and serve His cause on earth for instance, is the best time of your life because that is time invested that would bring you huge dividends on this and the other side of eternity. In Mat.19:28-29, in answer to Peter’s question to the Lord on what they stood to gain for leaving everything to follow Him. The Lord said:

“Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”  

In Mark’s account of this same incidence, Jesus also said, we shall be persecuted on this side. So persecution for the cause of Christ is an indication that someone is envious of your success in releasing your God given ability where they have failed. So don’t let them stop you. Keep at it. It is part of your heritage for investing the time of your life. If you are not persecuted, it could just be an indication that you are running on the same course as the devil who is the abysmal failure causing as many as he could to fail like him.

When Daniel wanted to solve the problem of Nebuchadnezzar who needed to be reminded of his dream and have it interpreted, he requested for time. In Daniel 2:16-19, we read:

“Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.

Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:

That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.”

When time was given to Daniel, what did he do with it? He did not try to escape from Babylon so that he would not be killed with the rest of the magicians and wise men, he called his friends of like minds and they had a prayer meeting with God and the bible says that the matter was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So the next day, he walked up to Nebuchadnezzar armed with his dream and interpretation and solved the puzzle of the king bringing glory to God and honor to himself and salvation to all the wise men and magicians in Babylon who would have been killed had Daniel not provided this solution.

This kind of thinking as you can see, knocks off every lie that money is the first thing you need to be great or to be wealthy. Note here that Daniel came into Babylon bound in chains as a slave, but by investing his time with God, he emerged a leader and none of us can ever describe Daniel as a poor man.

Another good example is Joseph. He entered Egypt in chains as a slave, prospered as a slave and thirteen years later, became the number two man in Egypt because he invested his time with God.

Two Pastors can live in the same house; one would invest his time praying and studying the word and applying himself to what he is learning and the other can spend his time entertaining himself with television, radio, worldly magazines and living carnally. The result is that in time, their difference will be made clear, because when it comes time for both of them to deliver on their assignment as pastors; they would not command equal attention. The one who invested his time will deliver on his assignment and the other who wasted his time on entertainment will resort to gimmicks and lose value and relevance. In fact, the one who invested his time will emerge a servant of God and Isa.65:13-14 best describes their destiny thus:

“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:

Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.”

Dear reader, I dont know how you came about reading this post; one thing I do know however is that God orchestrated the events that brought this about because He loves you deeply and does not want you to live a wasted life. You may even has been a Christian for many years without fruit to show. I believe you were enriched by this message and that from this moment you will make the changes neccessary to bring about the fruitfulness you have always desired in your Christian life.

On the other hand, you may not even be born again yet. Then it is quite understandable why even if you have seen some measure of success, all of them are not weighty enough to withstand the test of time not to talk of Eternity. This is the reason why you always feel unfulfilled in spite of your success. I have good news for you, that can change now.

Another person reading this may have been managing failure since forever, I also have good news for you. You can become a resounding success begining today.

It all starts with a commitment that will result in the activation of your God given abilities resulting in the fulfilment of your divine purpose which will in turn make you a joy and an eternal excellency. That commitment is simple, say they following prayer out loud to God and mean it with all your heart. The Holy Spirit will take it up from there and you will be born again.

THE SINNER’S PRAYER

Father in Heaven,

I come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your word says in John 6:37 that you will not cast me out when I come to you. So I thank you that you will take me in.

You also said in Romans 10:9-10 that if I shall confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in my heart that you raised him from the dead, I shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe that you raised him from the dead for my justification and I confess him now as my saviour and Lord.

I believe that I have now become your righteousness in Christ whom you made to be sin for me on Calvary’s Cross.

Thank you father that I am saved from this day in Jesus’s name!

                                                                 please write to me

If you just said this prayer, congratulations! You are now born again. As a new creation however, you need to constantly feed on the sincere milk of the word to enable you grow spiritually so that you can mature to the point of bearing fruits. Please write to me at flourishinggirl@gmail.com requesting for your free e-copy of "Believers Guide to Growth". This will really help you in your Christian life. God bless you!!!  

WELCOME TO APRIL: OUR MONTH OF DIVINE FAVOUR

 Texts: Ps.102:13:

 “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.”

Ps.5:12:  

“For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.”

Welcome to the month of April. This month has been prophetically declared our Month of Divine Favour. The bible says except the Lord builds a house, they labour in vain who try to build on their own. No matter how good you are at what you do, if God does not grant you favour in that thing, you will remain hidden and never be able to gain recognition for it. So after all said and done in life, it is the Lord that makes the difference for us.

In Ecclesiastes 9:11, we read:

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

From this text of scripture, we gather that all who are under the sun are those living on earth where the influence of the sun is felt everywhere. Interestingly also, we are told that the race is not to the swift. This is rather paradoxical because by our natural calculation, the swiftest runner wins the race! In spiritual arithmetic on the other hand, that is not the case. Do not forget however, that spiritual arithmetic is superior to our natural calculation. Even when you are at the back of a queue for greatness, God can and will cause you to jump the queue and be brought ahead of all the others on queue when the time to favour you comes. Of course, it would not be illegal because only God has the yardstick for measuring legality. If He says you are leaving the back of the queue, who can tell you to stay there?

Beloved, you have been divinely inspired to log on and read this because God has been trying to tell you that by His favour on you, you are leaving the back of the queue to be a main player in the field of greatness on the earth.

Another interesting thing we read in Ecclesiastes 9:11 is that favour is not necessarily given to men of skill, but people have to be located at the right place and the right time to receive favour. This month of April, God will locate you at the right place and the right time so that all that pertain to your greatness will be delivered to you. The good news I have for you is that NOW is your right time – CONGRATULATIONS!!!

It is with the above in mind that this month, we shall be looking at How to cultivate the shield of favour. But first you must understand that if you have not made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, God is not obligated to favour you. Our text in Ps.5:12 says God will bless the righteous and surround him with favour as with a shield. When you add that scripture to 2Cor.5:21 which says God made the Lord to be sin for us (even though the Lord never sinned) that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him; you will appreciate that only those who are in Christ can be righteous. That automatically positions you for the blessing and favour of God that will release you into your greatness.

If you are not yet born again and you want to be blessed, you can be born again from this moment by saying the sinner’s prayer below and meaning it with all your heart. Ensure that you read it out loud to God and you will enter into your season of undeniable favour in Jesus’ name!

THE SINNER’S PRAYER

Father in Heaven,

I come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your word says in John 6:37 that you will not cast me out when I come to you. So I thank you that you will take me in.

You also said in Romans 10:9-10 that if I shall confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in my heart that you raised him from the dead, I shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe that he was raised from the dead for my justification and I confess him now as my saviour and Lord.

I believe that I have now become your righteousness in Christ whom you made to be sin for me on Calvary’s Cross.

Thank you father that I am saved from this day in Jesus’s name!

 Once again, I welcome you to our month of DIVINE FAVOUR. For more information, please visit our website @ http://www.kingdomheirsministries.org/ and check out our blog at  www.jointheirsfamily.blogspot.com and follow me or on twitter @ alero_nanna or on face book by liking Healing and Restoration Time With Pastor Alero Nanna and also liking Kingdom Joint Heirs Family Churches. GBY!

Prophetic Direction for The Month of March, Divine Destiny 2012

WELCOME TO MARCH OUR MONTH OF ENLIGHTENMENT AND HARVEST

By the word of the Lord to me from the book of Isaiah 60:1- 9, this month has been prophetically declared our month of enlightenment and harvest.

By the word of the Lord, as the darkness in the world over the children of men increases, a great light has arisen upon His Church by His revelations from heaven. This situation will make the distinction between His people and the world even more obvious showing the foolishness of keeping God out of their lives. As the darkness of pain, sickness, fear, natural disasters, confusion, disappointments etc. intensifies, this is the time when the people of the world would come to the Church for solution more than ever before because all they put their trust in before now including money, would fail them as the problems being unleashed on the world right now, is defying every solution except the revealed word.

To this end, this month, we have believed God for grace for spiritual hunger that will drive us into an insatiable quest in the word through the bible and other Christian literature including electronic messages to receive the light that heaven has released to enable us provide the much needed solution to the problems of the people of the world. This is why this month; we shall be looking at the series: SOUL WINNING. The reason is that as the world come to the Church for their much needed solution, we must deliver on our mandate to make disciples of all nations as commanded by the Lord.

Once again, I welcome you to our month of ENLIGHTENMENT AND HARVEST. For more information, please check out our blog at http://www.jointheirsfamily.blogspot.com/ and follow me on twitter @alero_nanna and on face book by liking Healing and Restoration Time With Pastor Alero Nanna and also like Kingdom Joint Heirs Family Churches. You may also want to log on to our website for more of our resource materials at http://www.kingdomheirsministries.org/.  GBY!