Posts Written By: eta

God Wants you to Provoke People

The word provoke has come to have a negative meaning and application in our modern world because of the way the media (working under the influence of the prince of this world) has projected it. But God did not invent that word to have a negative application. The word provoke means to cause something to happen or to give rise to something. God wants us to provoke people. Satan also wants us to provoke people. God wants us to provoke people to love by doing and saying things to them that will make them want to respond in love. The devil tries to kill such an idea by spreading demonic proverbs such as ‘there is no free lunch’! But there is a free lunch. If you buy somebody a free lunch or a gift of any kind, you are provoking them to love. If you speak words of kindness to someone who has just been hurt you are provoking them to love instead of anger. Christians should provoke people to love everyday and they should do this proactively and without reason or cause. If somebody under the influence can rob a person without reason or cause why shouldn’t Christians love people without reason or cause. This is the command of God “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works”-Hebrews 10:24.

Pro act Don’t React!

If you allow a negative situation cause panic you’ve fulfilled the intention of its originator. Calmness is more conducive to solution than panic. Calmness in the face of crisis causes the solution to reveal itself. Panic in the face of crisis causes the problem to magnify itself. “Be still, and know that I am God”-Psalm 46:10. If you refuse to be still in those times when the enemy comes at you with a raging storm you will begin to react and God did not design humans to react. We were designed to pro act. So when the storms of life come, be still and get on your knees and influence reality by praying. The reason the enemy comes with a storm is because he wants you to panic. Why does he want you to panic? Because he knows that panic or anxiety is conducive to fear and the enemy feeds of your fear. Animal trainers will tell you that when a wild animal approaches you the one thing you don’t want to do is show fear because once you do they receive it as a signal to attack. This is why God says through Paul  “be anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God”-Philippians 4:6. The whole purpose of crisis is to instigate panic. Therefore the way to defeat crisis is to refrain from panicking. Order the unordered areas of your life. Plan for the future instead of worrying about it. Pro act, don’t react!

Forgiveness is not Naïvety

Forgive freely, but don’t be naive. There are some people who are going to want to take advantage of your willingness to forgive to always offend you because they see you as an easy mark. There will be some people who will always want to partner with you because they feel that you are a fool. There will be some people who will always want you around because they feel that you are a door mat and a shock absorber that they can always take advantage of. But 1 Corinthians 14:20 warns us “in regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults”. The Holy Spirit that lives within you will warn you about such people. Also, the principles that you are learning from the Word of God will enlighten you to the tactics of such people. When you face such people, here’s what The Holy Bible asks you to do “mark them who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and avoid them”-Romans 16:17.

We are God’s Property

Psalm 24:1 says “the earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein”. Understanding this Scripture gives you awareness that nobody owns anything on earth. We don’t own ourselves and we certainly don’t own our property. Thus, if you find yourself becoming puffed up over what you have or how good you look, consider that God can separate you from what you think you have. Canaan for instance seemingly belonged to the Canaanites, but God told Moses “Send men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel”.  Don’t form an attachment to things on earth. They don’t belong to you. Instead form an attachment to God because we belong to Him. It is when we form an attachment to God that He will give us the things that we need. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”-Matthew 6:33.

Treat Critics as a Flower Treats a Bee

In Genesis 12:1-2 we read “and Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Has the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? has he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it”. From this verse we see that many a times people complain or criticize you not because of the work that you but because of some underlying issue that they cannot admit publicly without betraying their prejudices. It is very important when you face strident criticism from people not to take their criticism at face value, but to find out the underlying cause. In any case, the best response to critics is not to even respond to them. Critics are drawn to great people just as bees are drawn to flowers. Without the flower the bee can’t survive but the flower can survive without the bee. Flowers don’t respond to bees. If you watch flowers, they open up when light comes in the morning and close up when darkness comes at night. As for the bee, the flowers simply ignore them. Open yourself up to light and close yourself up to darkness and you will continue being a flower beautiful enough to attract bees.

Quench Your Spiritual Hunger With Christ

It is so silly when I hear people asking me how the death of a man who lived in the flesh 2 thousand years ago can affect them to the point of giving them salvation. But, if a man plants an orange tree in 1970 and he dies in 1971, does the orange tree die with him? If course not! As a matter of fact, if anybody is hungry today and goes to eat orange from that tree, he will be filled even though the planter is no longer physically on earth. Jesus said “verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit”-John 12:24. Jesus is that grain of wheat that fell to the ground and died alone. But after He died, He brought “forth much fruit” and just like you can eat that orange from the tree planted in 1970 and quench your physical hunger, you can eat the fruit of Christ planted 2000 years ago and quench your spiritual hunger.

Steps Ordered by God

Psalm 37:23 says “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and He delights in his way”. Many read this verse and think that the “good man” referred to always hears an audible voice or maybe an angel appears to him to direct his footsteps. But the things of God are rooted in simplicity. Psalm 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”. The Word of God, The Holy Bible, is by far the surest way to have your steps ordered by God. It may happen, but don’t wait for angelic visitations, dreams and visions before you hear from God. Open His word, The Holy Bible, read it and do what it says and your life will be ordered by God.

Satan’s Trap: Ever Increasing Desire for Ever Diminishing Pleasure

Satan controls this world with the rat race which simply put is a law of Increasing Desire and Diminishing Pleasure so that from cradle to grave you spend your life pursuing after unattainable things. An example is fashion. Why do you think fashion always changes? Because it is unattainable. The moment you buy that $1000 Louis Vuitton bag, it is no longer fashion. The $1000 is gone and your next preoccupation will be to find another $1000 for next year’s bag that would no longer be fashionable as soon as you buy it. This is the same for cars, movies and power. If you are into football, your team cannot be champions for ever. You are either rooting for them to be Champions or your rivals are rooting for them to fall. The human appetite for change can never be satisfied which is why satan has used it to divert our attention from the ONLY thing that never changes-God and His Word. So, if you have fallen for satan’s rat race of ever increasing desire and ever reducing pleasure in life understand this-“The thief comes not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”-John 10:10. And how do you get the John 10:10 life? “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”-Matthew 6:33

The Kingdom of God is Within you. Simply Work it Out

What Jesus mean when He said “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you”-Luke 17:20-21. Colossians 1:27 says “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Colossians 2:9-10 goes further to say “in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him”. These verses make us understand that you have everything that you need dwelling “in you”. But you may ask, why am I not living the John 10:10 life that Jesus physically promised? The answer is that while God through Jesus had put everything you need inside you, it is still your job to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”-Philippians 2:12. And how do you “work out your own salvation”? By applying what you have read from The Bible and what The Holy Spirit (which is the tangible embodiment of “Christ in you”) reveals to you as you abide in God’s love. Every information that does not lead to applied transformation is entertainment and The Word of God is no entertainment!

God Forbids ALL Idol Worship.

No one knows what Jesus looked like during his physical incarnation on earth. Also, no one knows what satan looks like? So since we do not know the difference in their physical appearance and since The Bible in 2 Corinthians 11:14 already warns us that satan can transform into an angel of light, how will you know if someone makes an image of satan and calls it an image of Jesus and ask you to worship it? How do you know this is not being done as we speak in churches and places that erect images of someone they allege to be Jesus when God expressly told us in Exodus 20:4 that “You shall not make unto yourself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth”.  Both God the Father and Jesus His Son are in heaven and the command is that we are not to make any image of ANYTHING that is in “heaven above”. An idol is not just an image of a beast or inanimate object. An idol is any image because “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”-John 4:24.