Living in God's Covenant (Part 2)

I really do appreciate all the responses that came in after the first post of this topic "Living in God's Covenant," they were really encouraging. But one response that caught my attention was the one with questions in it. It reads thus "In today's world, we tend to think of a 'covenant' as an agreement which we can break if the other party breaks it first. Is that the way God’s covenant works? Or are they different from human-style contracts?” The answer to these questions will be the basis of the concluding part of this topic.

Hebrews 6:13-18

When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no-one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, “I will sincerely bless you and give you many descendants.” And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchanging things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

Isaiah 55:9-11

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it flourish, so that it yields sees for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

From what we are reading in these two passages, it is very clear that the covenant of God does not take the pattern or form of what we have as covenant in the world today. But the covenant of God as He swore to them in the Bible days are still in effect till today and are fulfilled in the lives of those who have been able to keep the covenant of God.

We know from the things we have learnt in the first part of this discuss that a covenant is a two-way legal agreement; there is the one who has made the covenant and there is the one to whom the covenant has been made (the benefactor of the covenant). The one who has made a covenant has a role to play by fulfilling the promise he has made and then the benefactor of the covenant needs to ensure that he is worthy of receiving the promise that has been made.

With this foundation laid, we will try to look at the criteria that needs to be meet for God to make a covenant with man, and what needs to be done to retain the covenant of God over our lives and generations after us. But we need to bear in mind that the Lord does not change and His words will never go unfulfilled and so are His covenants. So if we are not yet beneficiaries of the covenant of God, that shows that we are yet to meet up with the set criteria that grants us eligibility to those covenant that God has made with man.

Genesis 17: 1-2

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

When we consider the story of Abraham, the first time the Lord appeared to him and made a covenant with him was in Genesis 12, and the Bible recorded that Abraham believed the word of the Lord and without questioning, he obeyed God’s instruction and left his father’s household. A little while later the Lord appeared to him again in Genesis 15, this time around Abraham had a little score to settle with God, he could not understand how he will be a blessing to many nations when he didn’t have a child. And so he asked God for a child, and the Lord promised him not just a child but told him that if he could count the stars in the sky, then so will his offspring be. At this Abraham believed and it was credit to him as righteousness.

But by the time we get to Genesis 17, Abraham’s faith was beginning to take a down turn; he had accepted his wife’s proposal and self orchestrated the promise of God by having a child out of God’s promise with his wife’s maid servant. And so God seeing what he had done, though not annulling the promise told him he needed to do more if he was to enjoy the promise for his life. We see God speaking to Abraham saying, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.” There was now the need for Abraham to have a blameless walk before the Lord. This clause was never mentioned in Genesis 12 or 15, but after the situation of Genesis 16, then there came a need for caution.

We will also notice that the Lord issued additional instructions to Abraham as a constant reminder of what he needed to do and who God had made him  in order to strengthen his trust in God and prevent him from walking contrary to that promise that God has established for his life. First the Lord changed his name to reflect his new status as a father of many nations, and then the Lord told him to circumcise himself and his entire household just as a constant reminder of the covenant that exist between him and God.

Now we should understand that God had to take these measures not because He doubted His ability to fulfill the promise He made to Abraham, but to keep Abraham constantly reminded and not again walk in sin that contradicts the fulfillment of God’s promise in his life. The manifestation and the continuity of God’s covenant with Abraham was a fact that God will not jeopardize, that is a truth that can only be annulled by Abraham’s misdeeds.

In order to consider God’s criteria for choosing those He makes covenant with, I will like us to consider this simple illustration: It is impossible for me as a person to see someone I do not know and I have never meet and promise such a person a million dollar. Even if I had a million dollar to give away, I will first consider my family, relatives and close associates who might have one form of need or the other to help. I will not just go on the street and pick a stranger to give money to, whom I do not know and I have never meet.

Same is the case with God. For God to enter a covenant with any man there must have been a pre-existing relationship between such a man and God. Even though nothing was said about Abraham prior to the encounter of Genesis 12, yet in Isaiah 41:8 God refereed to Abraham as His friend. Noah was another man with whom God made a covenant, let us have a brief view of the man named Noah prior to his covenant days.

Genesis 6:8-9

But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.

This is the account of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.

So we see that God didn’t just pick that man Noah from the blues to do all that He did in his life. Noah had established a relationship with God over time by distinguishing himself from the people of his time and walking blamelessly before God.

David was another man God established his covenant with, when we look through the life and times of David, we will see a man who held the Lord in high esteem. By the strength and power of God, David had killed a lion and a bear with just his hands without anyone but God to hold on to. And so among the whole pack of the army of Israel, it was that small ruddy boy David who understood that they were not just any legion of army, they were the army of the Lord that could not be defiled by uncircumcised Philistines. Saul the anointed king didn’t know this, David’s older brothers totally forgot this fact about themselves, but just this small handsome boy David knew the strength and ability of God based in his relationship with God and his past encounter.

This happened because David has been in contact with God a long time before the battle. 1 Samuel 13:14 reads: “But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”The man refereed to in this passage was David who was a man after God’s heart and whom the Lord had appointed king over Israel long before the time of the battle with the Philistines.

In order to have the Lord enter into a covenant with you that is forever binding to Him to keep and which for you is a ground for expectation and a sign for future excellence, then you need to be in a relationship with God.

In our present generation I am sure that a lot of people will wonder if God still enters into covenant with man. Well His covenant of old contains it all and are still in effect, binding to God to keep till this very present generation and beyond as long as the earth tarries. Deuteronomy 7:9 reads: “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his command.” The covenant of God is binding to only those who truly love God and keep His commands. So before we close the curtain we will look briefly into what it is to keep God’s covenant.

John1:12-13

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but of God.

Galatians 3:26-29

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

In our generation today, those who will retain the promise of God to Abraham in their lives are those who are true sons of God through their faith in Christ Jesus. Sons born not by human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God through their receiving and believing in Christ Jesus. If you belong to this category of people then I congratulate you so much. You have entered into the category of people who are eligible to enjoy the covenant of God.

In order to retain that covenant and enjoy the full benefit of what you have received you need to keep the covenant by keeping the commands and laws of God. This is also made very easy through Christ Jesus who lives in you as you live not by the law of sin and death but by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Roman 8:3b-4 “And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the flesh.”

In order for Abraham to fully enjoy the benefits of the covenant God made with him, he needed to walk before the Lord and be blameless. For Isaac to continue in that covenant, he also needed to follow in his father’s footsteps and walk blamelessly before God. Each time Moses spoke the promises of God to the children of Israel there was always a condition to meet for that promise to be fulfilled and that was to keep the commands, decrees and laws of God. In our present day, the instruction has not changed. In order to enjoy the unchanging nature of God’s covenant then we need to develop a righteous relationship with God, we also need to walk before God and be blameless. Then we will receive the full benefits of God’s promise and still have our eternity secured.

For more on God's covenant you can please get the book "The Covenant of God" by Aderinsola Obasa. To do that please click the link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/300350

  

   

  

Living in God's Covenant (Part 1)

In the world today there is so much anxiety, there is so much worry and the need to meet up with the very fast dynamism of the present world. There is also the worries of what to eat and drink, how to ensure that there is a shelter over ones head, fending for the family and those who wait on you to meet their never ending needs and I can just go on with what the worries of life holds in store. But one truth that we as God's children need to keep on rediscovering in our lives is that we hold a covenant with our Father in heaven that far outweigh the responsibilities and the so many issues we have to contend with.

In order to really have an understanding of what we possess as children of God in form of what we carry with us as covenant from our heavenly Father, there is the need to have an in-depth understanding of what a covenant it, and then look into God's living word to know what God's covenants are and how we can enjoy the covenant of God. 

A covenant is defined as: "a written agreement, a common pledge," another dictionary defines it as "a legal agreement, often an agreement to give money," another definition says, "a legal agreement in which someone promises to pay a person or organization an amount of money regularly." This third definition is the one I will really like to relate with. When we consider this definition critically, we will note the word legal, that is to say a covenant is binding on the one who has made it. 

Another word within that definition that I want us to consider is the word promise. The dictionary gives the meaning of the word promise as follow: "it is a pledge, an assurance, a ground for expectation." It is also defined as, "to tell someone you will definitely do or provide something, or that something will definitely happen." And lastly, "a promise is a declaration that one will give or do something; signs for future excellence."

With all of this foundation properly laid, I will like to define covenant as "a legal agreement in which someone promises to pay a person or an organisation an amount of money regularly which is a ground for expectation and a sign for future excellence." Then moving forward in my own definition of covenant, I will like to slot in God in the place of someone, then my name (and yours as you wish) in the place of a person or organisation, and then blessing in the place of money. So we'll see what the definition looks like and be able to understand what God's covenant is. The new definition of covenant is as follows: "a legal agreement in which God promises to pay Aderinsola Obasa blessings regularly which is a ground for expectation and a sign for future excellence." 

This might appear a little funny, but this is the truth of God. The understanding of God's covenant with us should be about the realization that we have been promised by God, blessing on a regular basis which is a legal agreement that God has made with us, which is binding to Him to fulfill and so He will never fail on those covenants and thus they are a ground for expectation and a sign for excellence. 

When you are convinced within you that you have a covenant with God, then I congratulate you because your future is bright, you have every reason to be joyful that no matter what today birth forth for you, still your future is good. You have a covenant from God, binding to Him that gives you a basis for expecting an excellent future.

Moving forward, we will look at some of the covenants God made with mankind through Noah and Abraham.  

Genesis 12:1-3

The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Genesis 15: 1

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.

Genesis 17:1-8

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."

Abram fell face down, and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be father to many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for you will father to many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."

Genesis 8:20-9:1-3

The Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as i have done.

'As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.'"

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beast of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything."

The covenant God made with all men through the sacrifice of Noah is a covenant of abundance. I choose not to use the past tense because this covenant like all other covenants of God is still active and effective and binding to God till today as long as you remain a child of God and you keep God's covenant, living in obedience to the laws and requirements of God. 

God said "Never again will He curse the ground because of man," and if this be so, as a covenant child of God the ground should yield it fruits to you. A covenant child of God is not expected to experience hard toil as the curse on the ground has been lifted for them. Again a covenant child of God has been promised a fruitful life of increase, and so you are expected to grow and increase from strength to strength and glory to glory in the fruitfulness of God. And then your feeding has been taken care of as God has given everything to you as food. This is your ground for expectation from God, a sign for future excellence for you, promised to you by God, which is a legal agreement and binding on Him to fulfill. 

The second covenant we are considering among the very many covenants we have as God's children is the covenant God made with Abraham and his descendants after him. The Lord promised to bless Abraham and his descendants after him so much that they will be blessing outpouring. They will not just be blessed enough for their lives' needs, but will overflow in blessing that people around them can tape from and also be blessed. No wonder the house of Portiphar prospered under the care of Joseph and Laban learnt by divination that he was blessed because of the presence of Jacob in his life (Genesis 30:27). These people where simply living in God's covenant. They were so blessed that the world could see and speak about it. When there was so much drought in the land, Isaac planted on that same land and reaped a hundredfold of what he planted because the Lord blessed him. There was a covenant of blessing on his life that God made with his father Abraham and was binding on God to keep. 

These covenants and many more covenants of God are still effective till date and binding on God to keep. They remain a legal agreement which has formed a basis or ground for expectation and a sign for future excellence for generations long past and generations yet to come because we serve a God that never changes. In the my next blog post, we will consider the criteria the Lord has given for Him enter into covenant with man and what give us the eligibility to claim and enjoy the covenant of God. 

In order to have an in-depth study on the topic you can get the ebook "The Covenant of God" by Aderinsola Obasa by clicking the link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/300350

Wining Through Praise. Having Victory in Thanksgiving

Ephesians 5:19-20

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Paul said it is the will of God that we as God's children in Chris Jesus to give thanks in everything. In these words of  Paul, in everything did not imply that the circumstances has to be favourable, but that God desires that we thank Him even when the circumstances are not favourable. In the reality of things, is it really easy to thank God when you are going through very big challenges in your life? When you are groaning under the heavy pressure of issues of life? The sickness is getting worse and not better and the doctors have given you a time limit to life; the bank account is on zero balance, the debts are heavy and wide spread and creditors knocking and calling, bills mounting up and you are loosing the shelter over your head, the children are looking up to you with questions unanswered written all over their faces; or is it when you are grieving over the lose of a very dear one. You are now becoming scared to get any more news because all the news you've been getting in the past weeks have been grossly negative. In the midst of all these scenarios that I have just described, Paul's teaching is that as a child of God, the Lord desires that you praise Him and give thanks to Him.

This kind of sounds like a hard teaching you know. But before we condemn God as a God who lacks feelings, there is the need to know why God will require that we do such tough thing as to give thanks in the midst of challenges that appears to be a valley of shadow of death in our lives. Never mind that Job gave thanks in the midst of his trials, those who have gone through tough challenges in life will not dispute the fact that it is not easy to give thanks when looking around you and considering that in your situation there is nothing to thank God for. 

I have come to understand and appreciate that what God is asking us His children to do through the instructions of Paul is to acknowledge Him in everything. The word acknowledge and thanks share a synonym word together and that common word is recognize. What the Lord desire of us His children in to acknowledge and recognize the might of His power in every situation we may find ourselves. 

The fact that you are going through tough times at the moment has not ruled of the truth of the presence of God in your life and situation. Isaiah 54: 10 says "'Though the mountains be shaken and hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed' says the Lord, who has compassion on you." The Lord never promised there will not be a shaking, but even in the shaking the presence of God is still there with you. Those trials are there to mold you into a better person if you are trained by it (Hebrews 12:4-11). 

The Bible records that Job worshiped God in the midst of his trials. The fact that he worshiped did not imply that Job did't grieve, but he acknowledge God in the midst of his trials because he was convinced that God will not put him through a challenge He could not see him through. He was a man who walked righteously before the Lord and had developed a relationship with God over time, so he was sure that the Lord was taking him somewhere even in the raging storm and in the full knowledge of this he worshiped God.

Abraham, when the Lord told him to take his only son, the fulfillment of God's covenant in his life to the mountain and offer him up as a sacrifice, Abraham obeyed, in fact when he was approaching the mountain he instructed his servant to wait while he goes further with boy to worship. Abraham considered this a worship; he looked beyond the situation and saw God who has the ability to raise his son from the dead after he had been sacrificed and so he was just going to worship. 

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego didn't focus on the burning furnace, they had their focus on God and likewise Daniel's attention was beyond the lion's den, it was focused on God. They were all mindful of the truth in Psalm 23:4 that "even though they walked through the valley of shadow of death, they need not fear any evil, for the Lord was with them, His rod and staff comforts them."  

Once in my life I faced the most terribly time of my life, like many people, I didn't see anything around me that was worth thanking God for. I had no job, no money, a very huge debt, my creditors were running after me with no where to hide, my marriage was in a big trouble, slipping fast into the valley, my wonderful children were looking up to me for their care and well being, with many demands and no hope at all of meeting any. Family were close yet so far because none could help. 

And then I heard the message of giving thanks, and the first thing that came to my mind was "what am I thanking God for in my so wretched life." Things had gotten so bad that I was at the point of committing suicide to safe myself of the shame and disgrace that was trailing me so closely. But then the voice of the message just would not leave me alone. Some say the voice of God is gentle, but for me in this case that voice was strong as persistent. 

Mind you, in all of these I was a born-again Christian, I had come to love God, and this kind of added to my anger that why will the God that I serve, let me go through such tough terrain. But at some point I began to look beyond my problems, I stopped looking a reason to thank God, but just thank Him because I love Him. I concluded in my heart that I wanted to go to heaven if I die and since all that I will be doing when I get to heaven is to praise God then I better start getting used to it now. So I began to cultivate the habit of true worship. I will praise God till I was soaked in tears. I melted before the Lord in worship and stopped to be overwhelmed by my troubles.

But God holds our worship, our praises, our thanks so dear to Him, the Bible say He inhabits the praises of His children. The restoration of my life began at the place of praise. Without me taking particular notice of the turn of events, the Lord began to fix my problems one after the other. First He healed my marriage, He returned my husband's love to me and returned my love to my husband. Then He began to take care of the debts in bits and pieces until they were totally settled. Then He restored my glory, removed my shame and gave me smiles instead of tears. That is what the Lord does with our praise. 

King Jehoshapat did't fight His battles with a sword, he won his victory in praising God. Paul and Silas did't force their way out of prison, they walked out of it majestically because they understood the power of praise.  The walls of Jericho didn't fall flat through the pulling down with the bulldozer of dynamite, it came down by the continuous sound of the trumpet in reverence to God. True there is power in praise. You get the devil that in annihilating your life confused when you praise God in the midst of your challenges. It is not that the trouble isn't there, it's that you are placing God before you ahead of the trouble. Your focus has stopped to be on the trouble, but on God who alone has the solution to the trouble. You acknowledge and thank God despite the trouble and you automatically see your trouble disgraced right before your very eyes. In deed there is power in praise, I have experienced and so I share this truth. 

For more on the power of praise you can get the ebook "The Sacrifice that Pleases the Lord authored by Aderinsola Obasa for any of your devices, just click the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/305268

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/299094

You, Your Marriage and Your Home. God's Expectations on all These. (Part 3)

In the part one of this discuss, we dealt with the rule for the woman in marriage. We were able to understand from God's word that a woman will be fulfilling her God given assignment when she submits to her husband in all things. We learnt that the wife is the physical container in which God has packaged all of the man's help and favour, and so in order to deposit what we are carrying into our husband's life and fulfill our God given destiny, we need to submit to our husbands as unto the Lord.  

In the part two of the series we learnt about the importance of letting God take the lead as we make a choice of a life partner. We learnt from God's word the importance of letting God be the basis of our marriage decision. As a woman it is most important that we allow God make the decision for us on who to marry so as not to sign off the authority of your life to the wrong husband, remember you must submit to him in all things as to the Lord. So if it is the Lord who has directed your path to the man He created you for, then you can be sure of rest and peace of mind as you imbibe the act of submission in line with God's instruction for your life in marriage. 

The Rule for the Man in Marriage.

Ephesians 5:22-31, 33  

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all no-one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church - for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 

However, each one of you must love his wife  as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Colossians 3:18-19

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

1 Peter 3:1-7

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their trust in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

Genesis 2:18, 20b-25

The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make a helper suitable for him

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 

The man said, 

"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman' , for she was taken out of the man."

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. 

As a woman I will want to seek permission to address the men on this issue. I do not write as one trying to give instruction (I am never empowered to do such), but to humbly share with you the truth of the word of God. This will enable us have a balance on the topic we are looking into, and ultimately achieve by the grace of God a beautiful marriage and a restful home just as God intended it at the beginning.

From the passages we have above, the second but most powerful instruction on the issue of marriage is given to the man, and this instruction says "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." One point that came to mind when I thought of this instruction is the fact that God will want the man to love his wife as his own body. Then the Spirit of God made me realize that in truth the wife is actually an extract from the man's body. She is a by-product of the man cause she was taken out of the man.

Never mind the fact that she is from a different country, a different state, a different tribe, a different dialect  different skin colour, different race, different nation, whatever the differences are between you and your wife, that does not negate the truth of the word of God that she was formed from the rib that was extracted from your body and so she is a product of your body and the Lord desires that you love and care for her as you would your own body. 

Again Paul said to love your wife unconditionally just as Christ loves the Church. I just hope that the men are prepared for this because invariably what the Lord is demanding  from the man is that as much grace as they have received from Christ and following in the footsteps of what Christ did and is still doing for the church, they Lord demands they do exactly the same for their wives. So if Christ did forgive the church despite all the rejections, you are to do the same for your wife; if Christ did lay a divinely acceptable way living for the church, then you are to do the same for your wife; if Christ did love the Church unconditionally, then you are to do the same for your wife; if Christ did shed His blood for the church, then you are to do the same for your wife; if Christ is presently interceding and is the Advocate of the church before God, then you are to do the same for your wife. You are to do all these things bearing in mind that she is heir with to the gracious gift of life.

Proverbs 18:22 says "He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favour from God." As a man if you have been seeking the face of God for divine favour in your life and by virtue of your prayers the Lord hands you a woman to be your wife, what we are learning now is that the answer to your very long prayers has been handed over to you in the person of the wife the Lord has given you. 

Again we learnt from Genesis 2:22-25 that God on seeing that the man needs help, formed a woman from the rib of the man and packaged in her all of the help that he can ever need based on the assessment of God. So your wife as the Lord has made her is carrying in her your divine help and favour as God Lord deems it necessary. As a man wherever you go and whatever you do as long as your God given wife is by your side, then your divine favour and divine help is by your side. This explains why you see men with virtuous wives flourish, even in the face of trials. When we read the book of 1 Samuel 25, we will see the role of that intelligent wife Abigal in the life of her mean husband Nabal.

When as a man you understand fully the role of your wife in your life, that she is the totality of the grace of God for your life, then it will not be difficult to love and care for her as the Lord has command you to. When Peter spoke to the husbands  in 1 Peter 3, he said, "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers." So it appears that a man who has not learnt to love and treat his wife with respect as God has command it be done stands the risk of his prayer hindered.

For the man who has not learnt to treat kindly and love dearly the favour of God for his life in the person of his wife, life gradually becomes a struggle, because that which is needed to end the struggle in his life has been greatly despised by him.

To love your wife is great gain, I cannot comprehend the wisdom of God as He has so perfectly issued the right instruction fitting to the man in marriage and the woman in marriage. I once heard a message preached by Joel Osteen on marriage and he made a very valuable point to the men, he said a man can only get out of his wife as much as he has put in her (Not his exact words). So to say that you can only expect to reap the value of what you have sown in your wife. If you have learnt to sow love into your wife then you can be sure that you will reap from your wife the fruits of what you have sown. The Lord will grant you grace to be all that He expects you to be.

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You, Your Marriage and Your Home: The Expectations of God on all These (Part 2)

In as much as I am excited to move on and explore what the Lord has for the man in marriage, the Spirit of God is laying it heavily on my heart to discuss the pre-marriage terms first. And so we will need to take one step back on this topic to find out what the word of God says about choosing a life partner. 

One thing I discovered about choosing a spouse is that the first thing we always want to know is if this man or woman you want to marry is someone you love and loves you back. The love element is what we always look out for first in the equation before going further to conclude if that man is good enough for us to marry or not. What we will now search the word of God for, is to know if this method is correct or not. Is love suppose to be the main criteria to choose a life partner or should it be a secondary thing to look out for. In order to get things right, we will be going back to the Creator's Manual, the Bible to know what God is saying about this.

Genesis 2:22b-25

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said,

"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man" 

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. 

Matthew 19:4-6

"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female', and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

I believe we should be able to get answers to our question from these two Bible passages. The first thing that struck my mind when I got the revelation of the word of God in Genesis 2 is that Adam didn't by virtue of his need, pick a wife for himself. Adam's parent (though didn't exist) could not get a wife for Adam, and love as it were could not bring Adam a wife. But it was the Lord who saw the need in the life of Adam, that created a fitting helper for him and then brought her to him. In any marriage union, the first thing that a man needing a wife or a woman needing a husband should do is to approach the throne of God and lay their petition there with thanksgiving.

The Bible tells us that it was God who created the woman and brought her to the man. God didn't create the woman and then ask the man to go in search of her. But that He brought the woman to the man and presented her to him. Then the status of the woman changed from being just a woman to a wife. What I have learnt here is that as a man the Lord knows you need a wife even when you did not realize it. He made a woman from the bones of your ribs when you never asked Him to and He will bring that woman to you at the time He knows is right.  

The Lord Jesus Christ said "what God has joined together, let man not separate," if we look at this words critically, it is God that is doing the joining and not any man nor is it love, but God. When it is God that has joined you to your wife, I tell you no force from the pit of hell can wage war against that union. There may be shakings here and there, but that union can never break. 

I really do agree to and recognize the importance of love in marriage, even the Bible says that "can two come together except they agree?" But the important thing here is that the basis of a lasting union should be God and not love. Love I have come to understand is an emotion just like sadness, happiness, anger, laughter, anxiety, jealousy and so many other emotions that the Lord has built into our lives. Love as an emotion fades and re-appears, just like you have happy times and sad moments. When love which has been used as a basis of marriage gets to the point where it fades then we have cases of marriages crumbling.

The fact that a lot of marriages today have been based on love and not God has been responsible for the very high rate of divorce and domestic violence. Love is essential for marriages no doubt, but I have come to understand and appreciate love as a spice in marriage that God has put in the hearts of the man and woman He has joined together to firm up their union. It's like bringing two pieces of objects together and adding a form of adhesive or glue to hold the objects firmly together. After sometime, the adhesive or glue looses it strength and when nothing else but the adhesive is what is keeping the objects together, they naturally will fall apart. But when the eye of the one who has joined the two objects together is still watching over them, he notices when the glue looses strength or wears out, and once the objects are about to fall apart he quickly puts them back together and adds fresh glue.

This illustration fits well into the marriage situation. If what is keeping your marriage together is just the adhesive or glue of love and not God, then there are no guarantees. But when the basis of your marriage has been established on the foundation of God and it is the Lord that has brought you two wonderful people together then even in that raging storm your marriage will surely stand. 

Genesis 24:1-4, 6-7, 12-14 (NIV)

Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had. "Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac." 

"Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said. "The Lord the God of heaven who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land - he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son there."  

Then he prayed, "O Lord, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a girl, 'Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,' and she says, 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too' - let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master."

What a way to choose a life partner! But the story of how a wife was got for Isaac best illustrates what the Lord has laid in my heart to share in the issue of choosing a life partner. Most definitely this marriage was not based on any other factor but on God. Abraham knowing that it is only God that can adequately get the best wife for his son told his servant that "The Lord God of heaven who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land - he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son there." 

Isaac's marriage to Rebekah was one that stood the test of time; even when Rebekah could not conceive  the marriage was still standing. No doubt Isaac and Rebekah were very much in love each other, we read in Genesis 26:8 that they were both openly caressing. Yet these were two people who had never set eyes on each other until the Lord brought Rebekah to Isaac; the woman He had created for him from the beginning of time.

It is of the essence that love reigns in a marriage, but if a man who is yet unmarried sees a woman he loves and wish to marry, it is important that he prays first and seek the consent of God on the matter and ultimately get the approval of God before going ahead with the union. This is a very vital step that should never be overlooked or watered down as unimportant. 

Jacob was one man who married for love, in fact he laboured twice to marry the one he loved, but one question that still keeps coming to my mind is that "was Rachel God's best for Jacob"? Genesis 31 tells us the story of how Jacob and his household fled from Laban his master and father-in-law, but the point to note is that Rachel the well loved wife of Jacob was a thief. She almost got Jacob into trouble and bring him so much embarrassment when she stole the gods of her father's household. If God and not love had picked a wife for Jacob, will God pick a thief? No wonder God favoured Leah above Rachel. 

So I still wonder within me if love is a good basis for marriage. If you have married based on love you are still not condemned, the Lord still has your marriage within His reach when you hand it over to Him to watch over for you. He is still able to protect your marriage from every possible harm. And when the love fades, the hand of God that is more powerful than any love will still keep your union intact.

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You, Your Marriage and Your Home. The Expectations of God on all These (Part 1)

The issue of marriage and the home is one topic I so love to discuss from time and time. I have so experienced and I am still experiencing the power of God in my marriage and home that I am of the opinion that if we really do follow the precepts of God in our marriages and our homes, then the issue of divorce and it accompanying heartbreaks will never arise. And you will never have to raise your children alone or have them carry on them the stigma of a broken home. 

It is almost an overwhelming general opinion that it is the duty of the man to pamper and care for his wife and in most cases the wife has the upper hand in divorce cases most especially in the advanced world based on their culture. In Africa the case in not exactly the same, while some cultures see the wife as someone to be cared for, some other culture see the wife as just a piece of entity to bear children, run errands and be the glorified housekeeper. In such cases the wife losses her pride and dignity and accepts her fate of never been loved, while some fight back and then we have a lot of cases of violence in the homes.

This write up is not designed to apportion blame or judge anyone, but above what the culture says, above the traditional norms of our environment we will try to evaluate the institute of marriage based on the expectations and design of God who instituted marriage. And I assure you that if we adhere to God's guiding principle for our marriage, then we are getting ready for the best time of our lives beginning from our homes.

As we begin this series of discuss on the issue of marriage, I will want us to start with the woman who has evolved into a wife by the joining together of the woman to her husband. Please note that we are starting with the wife going by the order of instruction in the Bible. With the word of God, it all starts with the wife.

Ephesians 5:22-31, 33  

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all no-one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church - for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 

However, each one of you must love his wife  as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Colossians 3:18-19

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

1 Peter 3:1-7

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their trust in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

Genesis 2:18, 20b-25

The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make a helper suitable for him

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 

The man said, 

"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman' , for she was taken out of the man."

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. 

The Bible passages above will be the basis on which we will discuss and consider critical the issue of marriage. Based on my own understanding, these are the rules of engagement for our marriages. They are the guiding instructions on which our marriages will hold firm and not break.

From the book of Ephesians, Colossians and 1 Peter, we will notice that the first to be addressed on the issue of marriage is the wife. These instruction coming from two different authors tells us that this is God's order of issuing out the marriage instruction. The first in line in marriage is the wife. Not that she is the one that holds the authority, but because she is the base of the home. She is the heartbeat of the marriage. I tell you one truth that if the woman gives up on the marriage little can be done by the man to resuscitate that marriage except by the Lord. 

The instruction to the wife says "to SUBMIT to her husband as to the Lord." The first thing I want us to do is to search out the meaning of the word submit. Based on dictionary meaning, to submit means 1)to give over or yield to the power or authority of another; 2)to agree to obey a person, group, set of rules, especially when you have no choice; 3)to place oneself under another. So what God expects of His woman is that without any force whatsoever, God's woman as a wife to her husband, places herself under the authority of her husband. She is to willingly yielding the authority of her life to her husband as though she were yielding to the Lord. 

The first and most important assignment of the wife as given by the Lord is to be a helper, suitable, meet, fitting to her husband. This is the number one reason why the Lord conceived in His heart to make the woman. Now in order to carry out this role adequately and successfully in the life of your husband God says you need to submit to his authority. This does not really sound good to the feminist, but it is the word of God. For a woman to be all that God has designed her to be in the life of her husband, she first needs to submit to her husband unconditionally. 

Some times I tend to conclude that the teachings of the Lord is hard. When we consider the passages very well we will notice that the woman is to submit to her husband in everything. So the fact that your husband is an unbeliever is not an excuse for you not to submit, the fact that he is harsh and uncaring is not an excuse for you not to submit, the fact that he is stingy is not an excuse for you not to submit. But God in 1 Peter 3 says it is the purity and reverence of your life, birth by your submission that the Lord uses in drawing your husband to Himself. The tool of change that your husband needs to become all that God wills him to be resides in your submission. You are the agent of change in the life of your husband. 

Proverbs 18:22 says "He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favour from God." Another point that we as woman need to know is that we are the physical container that carries all of God's favour for our husbands. What I am understanding from this passage is that when God is ready to favour a man, He hands him a wife to birth a new era of God's favour in his life. So as a wife you carry not just all of your husband's help in you, but you also carry in you all of God's favour for his life in you. You cannot deposit the gift that God has placed in your life for your husband into his life without submitting to him. You cannot be all that God has destined you to be in the life of your husband if you do not submit to him.

It might appear as though God is unfair to the woman as some women might view it, but when we move over to discuss the rules for the men still found in the passages above, you will appreciate the balance in what God is instructing the man and his wife to do and be. But before we drop for the day, I will want the women to understand that submission to the husband without prayers is a dangerous venture. The Bible speaks the instruction to the holy/godly wife not the canal wife. As you learn to submit, you also need to pray. A submissive wife without the God element in her is as one with the substance but lacks the power, and a prayerful wife who is not submitting to her husband is just wasting energy on her kneels. The Bible says prayers without deed is dead. But if as you submit, you also commit the heart of your husband to the Lord, I assure you, you will flourish in your marriage. Your marriage and home then becomes a positive reference point for many to see and emulate.       

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You Have A Gift (Series 2)

One of the points we closed the series 1 of this message on is that your gift/talent as endowed you by God is on a mission to bring you prominence. We saw in Proverbs 18:6 that a man's gift makes a way for him and brings in before great men. In moving forward there is a story in Exodus 31:1-6, its read "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'See I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of craft - to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftmanship. Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you.'" From yesterday's post we were able to establish the fact that indeed God does give gifts and talents to the man He has created and that every good and perfect gift is from God. And that the Lord give us gift as He alone determines in accordance with the assignment that He has assigned us to do.

From the passage in Exodus 31 there are a lot of truths that I have learnt and will love to share. The first thing I want us to appreciate is that Bezalel was a nobody without the gift of God in his life. Looking through the book of Exodus, no mention of that name Bezalel surfaced, He was not among the 70 elders of Israel, he was not prominent. But because of the Spirit of God that he was filled with and because of the skill, ability and knowledge that the Lord filled him with to be able to carry out the construction of God's temple, Bezalel's name surfaced in the Bible. By his gift he became prominent, the gift of God in his life brought him before great men like Moses. That sure proves true the word of God in Proverbs 18:6.

The second lesson that I have learnt and will like to share is that the gift of God in the life of Bezalel birth by the infilling of the Spirit of God in his life was just fitting for the assignment the Lord will have him do. And by the time they finished the construction of the Tabernacle in the book of Exodus 39:32 and 42-43, the Bible said they did the work just as the Lord commanded Moses. They did the work to perfection because the Lord had filled them with skill, ability and knowledge required to carry out the assignment to perfection. 

It is important to note that if Moses to whom the Lord gave the instruction and dimensions of the Tabernacle decides by virtue of his position as the elder of the Israelites to carry out the construction work himself, he will make a big mess of it, mainly because that is not his own area of gifting. He has not been filled with the skill, ability and knowledge in that area of work. And in like manner Bazelel will not do a good job leading the children of Israel because the has not been filled with skill and ability in that area of work.  

So now that we have been able to understand the dimension of God's dealings in our lives, there is the need to understand God's placement for our lives in His agenda. In fulfilling our own God given role in the program of the Lord, there we will excel exceeding when we pursue this assignment with all diligence and competence. God will not give you an assignment He has not filled with skill, ability and knowledge to perform. 

There is the need to pray that the desires of our lives should be in line with God's plan for our lives. The fact that you may experience bottlenecks in your field of operation does not necessarily give a signal that you are operating outside your own area of gifting, in this case the diligence and determination you show in your work tells a lot about your success level. But in order to ascertain your own area of gifting, there is the need to pray and be able to hear from God, your genuine interest  and fervent prayers in what you do tells a lot about how far you will go on that task 

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