Posts Written By: eta

Wouldn’t you Rather Get Paid Than Get Even?

Don’t conform to the world by letting how people treat you affect how you treat them. Transform the world instead by treating people how you would be treated. That is the only way you can leave your mark on earth. If all you do is treat people the way they treat you, how would anyone know that you passed through earth  when you did not differ from the crowd? Jesus said “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”-Matthew 5:44. This takes courage. People are going to call you weak, because the way of the world is to react and if you don’t react the world thinks you are weak. But it takes more strength to restrain power than to unleash it. And why should you unleash yourself on people who wrong you anyway when God has said “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith The Lord”-Romans 12:19? Vengeance belongs to God and if you take it you have stolen something that did not belong to you. But when you refuse to take vengeance God said “I will repay”. God takes vengeance on the offender and repays the offended. Wouldn’t you rather get paid than get even?

Transformation of Conformation

Romans 12:2 says “be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” because every information or action in this world either transforms or conform you. for instance, no one liked beer the first time they tried it, but the action of continuing in it causes you to acquire the taste hence conforming you to a beer drinker. Information that does not lead to transformation is entertainment. Are you allowing the Word of God entertain you or transform you? You can know and grow or you can groove and lose. God invented language (Genesis 11:7) and sometimes I suspect He plays with words. GROW for instance could mean Get Rich on the Word while LOSE could mean Lose Out Seeking Entertainment. Today there is an unprecedented focus on entertainment to the extent that humanity has crowded out God. Movies, music, football, sports and all such are meant to be an interlude, a side attraction to a life where God is the main attraction but alas we have flipped this order and made God a side attraction to them. Measure the time and passion you give to God and entertain and make a course correction if you love God.

Heart Condition Versus Actions

It is better for you to have your heart right and your actions wrong than for you to have your actions right and your heart wrong.”The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart”-1 Samuel 16:7. In Matthew 7:22-23 Jesus told those who said “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”. These people had the right actions but not the right heart condition. But in Luke 23: 43  Jesus told a man who was a thief  “I tell you with certainty, today you will be with me in Paradise”. Don’t let your actions of going to church and receiving miracles make you complacent. What is the state of your heart? Is your heart right with God? Hear what Jesus told religious people (as opposed to Godly people) “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you”-Matthew 21:31

Provide for the Vision

Since all languages were invented by God (Genesis 11:7) a lot can be gleaned by studying words. Take a word like provision. This word is defined as ‘the action of providing’. But is it a coincidence that the word ‘vision’ is found in the word provision? Perhaps God in evolving that word is trying to teach us something? Provision means the act of providing but who is doing the providing and for what purpose? Matthew 6:33 famously says “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”. From this verse the questions raised in the word ‘provision’ are answered. God is saying, catch my Vision for The Kingdom of God and prioritize it in your life and when I see you doing so I, The Great Provider, will provide for you. That, in my humble opinion, is the true meaning of the word ‘provision’. In essence it is to provide for the vision. Proverbs 29:18 says “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. The reason why they perish is because NO VISION = NO PROVISION. Why? Because if God gives a man without a vision provision that provision will be wasted and God abhors waste!

A Principle for Increase

A perfect verse for people that want increase in their life and keep going from place to place seeking miraculous financial breakthrough is 1 Corinthians 3:6 “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase”. This verse gives the natural process ordained by God for growth and increase. You have to sow a seed and then water it thus giving something to God to bless with increase. God’s principles cannot be violated and any attempt by workers of signs and wonders to bypass this principle is magic and what you get by magic, you will pay a terrible price for. God does not endorse laziness even for His children. In Genesis 8:22 He said “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease”. It is time for Christians to move away from this unbiblical mindset of ‘God will do it for me’. God will not do it for us. Rather God will bless what we DO.

Put on The Light Before Taking a Step

Proverbs 3:6 says “In all your ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct your paths”. This verse is clear that God needs to be invited by faith before you take a step. That is the prerequisite for Him to guide you. In Psalm 119:105 we read “Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”. Nobody starts walking in a dark place without first putting on The Light. Quite literally, this world is a dark place. In Isaiah 60:1-2 we read “arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen on you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people”. We are told that darkness covers the earth but God has sent His Light through His Son and His Word. If you want to avoid stumbling as you walk, put on God’s Light, by reading The Bible and praying, before you take a step and not after you do.

Assessing Your Daily Bread

Proverbs 16:3 says “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans”. From this we learn that man’s role is to plan while God’s promise is to bless what His children plan. The devil wants Christians to believe in the easy but fallacious theory that God will do it for us. Nowhere in The Bible does it say so. Psalm 1:3 says a person who trusts in God is “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper”. From this Psalm we see that God’s children need to “do” to “prosper”.  In Matthew 6:11 Jesus taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread”. The thing about bread is that you have to prepare the dough before you put it in the oven. If you don’t put dough in the oven, bread will not come out of the oven. If you don’t plan and put your plans in God’s oven, there will be no bread coming out for you. Which is why Proverbs 16:1 says “The reflections of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD”.

Obeying Christ’s Golden Rule

Jesus gave us two instructions that would ensure we grow in a continuum of maturity that leads to the end described in Proverbs 4:18 “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day”. The first is in Mark 12:31 when He asked us to ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you obey this law you can not think bad thoughts about yourself or your neighbor. The second is in John 13:34 “As I have loved you, so you must love one another”. If you obey this law you must consciously think good thoughts about yourself and your neighbour because that is what God and His Son, Jesus, do for us. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end”-Jeremiah 29:11. God thinks good thoughts towards us and Jesus thinks God’s thoughts towards us and so to obey Jesus’s new commandment of John 13:34 we must also think good thoughts about our neighbors  and ourselves.

Focus on Pleasing God

As believers we should focus on pleasing God even if it causes us to be disliked by men because it is not necessary to get people to like you as long as God is for you. Take Joseph. Pharaoh did not like Joseph. In fact, in Genesis 43:32 we read that “the waiters served Joseph at his own table, and his brothers were served at a separate table. The Egyptians who ate with Joseph sat at their own table, because Egyptians despise Hebrews and refuse to eat with them”. So, even where the Egyptians hated Joseph, he still had rule over them because without Joseph they could not survive the famine because God was with him. So, even where you are surrounded by your enemies, don’t give them attitude. Instead focus on pleasing God because God has promised to “prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”-Psalm 23:5. You see, “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him”-Proverbs 16:7.

Reno Omokri’s Comments in Appreciation of Pastor Ayo, Chairman of the Book Presentation of Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God.

I can never be ashamed of Jesus and I will never shy away from using any platform I have in projecting my faith in God through Jesus His Son. Let people tell me that it is unethical and unprofessional I don’t care. My ethics and professionalism are not sourced from the world’s standards but by the Word of God. And let me say that I am not ashamed of aligning with Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor in as much as he himself continues to align with Christ.

Pastor Ayo a man who models himself after the historical Jesus not after the religious Jesus. In Matthew 4:23, we see that Jesus spent His life doing three things, Preaching, Teaching and Healing, the very things that Pastor Ayo has spent his time in the ministry doing. Many people expect a docile CAN President. But Jesus was not docile. He was meek, but not docile. He stood up in Defence of God and God’s people.

In John 2:15, Jesus made a whip and chased out those who defiled the house of God. Some people attack Pastor Ayo when he speaks the truth and reproaches an ex dictator whose speech incites forgetting that Jesus spoke in the same manner to  Herod, another dictator  in reproach calling him in “that fox” in Luke 13:32.

Some people who have no knowledge of spiritual things but are so puffed up with their intellectual knowledge call Pastor Ayo ostentatious because he wears gold jewelry. You see, such people follow the religious Jesus and not the historical Jesus. If you read Matthew 2:11, the first gift given to Jesus was a gift of gold given him by the wise men from the East. So do these pseudo intellectuals think that they are more Godly than Jesus, the wise men and the Gospels? I don’t wear jewelry myself, but I admire Pastor Ayo.

And to those who attacked him because he accepted a gift of an airplane on the occasion of the celebration of his 40th year in the Lord’s vine yard and said it was not a mark of humility, I beg to differ with them. Pastor Ayo has been given a task of evangelizing. And in my opinion, the world needs knowledge of the word of God and anything that can enhance that work is a priority.

And he is a man if immense humility.  It is not humility when an intelligent person says he is not intelligent or when a beautiful person says she is ugly. It is dishonesty. Satan has instituted a stronghold in the world whereby he has people thinking that humility means valuing the gifts that God has given us less than they are. Notice that when God told Jesus in Matthew 3:17 that “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” Jesus did not blush and say oh no, I am not that. No. He accepted what God said about Him. And what does God say about you? He says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made every thing beautiful in its time”. True humility is accepting that you are a valuable and beautiful person with immense talents yet accepting that it was God that made you that way and not you. But denying and under valuing your talents is not humility.

So, Pastor Ayo, when they revile you in the press and in their inner rooms, don’t let it get to you. By virtue of Matthew 5:11, they are only blessing you because that verse says “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me”.

Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God is available in all Barnes and Noble Bookshops in the U.S. and at Waterstone’s in the U.K. and on amazon.com as well as in major book shops in the Americas and Europe.