Ebenezer – Thus Far God Has Helped Us (yes He has)!

Service today was powerful! Whoop!

When I’m in Nigeria, there are very few reasons why I won’t attend House On The Rock The Refuge in Abuja, and first four of a possible five reasons is I’m probably not in Abuja!

This particular Sunday, coming after a particularly horrible week both locally and internationally – Gaza, Air Algiers, Boko Haram, Ebola (hian!) – there was a real sense of fear/panic around me, and I promise you I was checking my calendar and things.

But God always has a word for His people, a word of peace, a word of comfort, a word of hope. And so I listened to testimonies of how God delivered a guy from violent death in an accident where the villagers were asking, “where are the dead bodies?” He came out untouched.

I listened to ‘Praise In This Age’ worship God like a man adores a girlfriend who just said yes to him, heartfelt, feeling in every single word, it was the kiss of my day. He has an incredible testimony too, God delivered him from a violent death too… He was pronounced dead after his accident et al but he’s alive today, with the most ‘goose-bumps inducing’ voice I’ve heard in a while! Dang!

Tehilah choir? Minstrels of life! Whoop! Instrumentation at its peak, and their excitement is always palpable, even when you’re sitting upstairs! Love them! Watched my sister bumping her head (with the cutest smile ever) as they did a hip-hop number today, love, love, love!

The Word. My Daddy Rev Goodheart led the church in a session of prayer, and brethren if you’re not praying for Nigeria you’re on a looooooong thing! What!! How can we be ranking highest for everything evil? Why? Can we not see there are evil forces at work? What else can we do but pray to the God who created us (and this country) to deliver, defend, and preserve His own?

Defend, deliver, and preserve us oh Lord. We will take precautions (like not hang around dodgy places, practice strict hygiene and stay aware of how to minimize risk to Ebola, etc.) but we know if you don’t watch over us and our cities, our efforts are in vain.

Rev Goodheart preached on the help of God, and 7 ways to engage it. Did I need this word or did I?

1. Admit and acknowledge you need God’s help. No point if you feel like you can run things yourself. Deuteronomy 8: 2. Isaiah 66:3
2. Denounce/release anything that might ‘help’ God or attempt to share his glory. Yes Sir! Take your eyes/hopes off them! Isaiah 50: 7. Psalm 147: 10-13
3. Acknowledge/thank Him for past interventions. Works both ways – He comes through for you, but while you wait your faith stays unshaken cos’ you know if He did it before, He can/will do it again. Psalm 103: 1-4
4. Ask/pray for His help. Hebrews 4: 16. 1 Kings 18. Don’t get weary with it. Ask!
5. Activate divine help by praising. Psalm 23:3. 2^nd Chronicles 20.
6. Anticipate a God-given strategy will be made available. God always gives instructions when He wants to come through for you. Obedience to divine leading delivers you from destruction.
7. Keep your eyes on the victory. Have you done everything you should do? Stand. Keep calm. Let God do His thing. Give God what Pastor Obi called ‘sleeping praise’! As in, sleep!

I had a great time at church, loved it! Looking forward to the dedication of the church in September, and Tehilah’s concert! Fingers crossed I can make it!

Written on the 27^th of July.

Are you a living sacrifice, or have you gone AWOL?

Sometime in February, I had a chat with a Pastor friend of mine, and what started out as me doing him a favor turned out to be the fulfillment of the perfect plan of God for him to mentor me. Apparently he had received this word as far back as 2009 but at the time we spoke (2014) the time was right. Don’t you just love God and the way He absolutely plans things?

Anyway, by the end of the evening (and we must have talked for a little under four hours), I was the proud owner of a beautiful Message Bible, and Rick Warren’s ‘The Purpose Driven Life’. Whoop!

I dug up a book by my Father in the Lord, Pastor Obi Goodheart Ekwueme which just has little pearls of wisdom for each day and so my devotion literally revolves around these two and a devotionals on my phone on the YouVersion App. This particular one is a 40-day Bible reading plan, created by Hillsongs (my home church), whoop!

So! I started on all three, and brethren (testimony mode), it’s been great! Some days I’ve been so excited with the new knowledge I glean that I call my Momma to preach it to her! PS – my Momma has prayed all three of us into loving the Lord, and am I grateful for that or what!

A few days ago, the topic for the day in ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ was all about surrendering to God, worshipping Him in ways that are acceptable to Him, and becoming intimate with Him. Yeah? Now that I think of it, that’s been the theme over the last four days or so.

Anyway, this particular morning the topic revolved around loving God being a process rather than a one-time action. It said it was a marathon (never-ending), not a sprint. The same way friendships and relationships get stronger and grow fonder courtesy constant interaction, the same way our relationships with God will grow only by constant communication. You don’t love your family and then not talk to them in weeks or months ( I can safely say I speak to at least one member of my family). Seven if you add my 23month old Boo Boo! How much more God?

It also talked about offering ourselves up as a ‘living sacrifice’, again alluding to the need for constant fellowship with God. And this is the part that amused me. It said the reason why we need to constantly rededicate ourselves up to God is because a living sacrifice can “crawl away from the altar”. Lol!

When you think of it though, we are alive aren’t we? Think of crawling babies; I know for sure that they never remain where you keep them (my nephew is a living, breathing, testimony to that)

And so everyday is a fresh opportunity to say to the Lord, “I’m willing to be used by you today, talk to me, I love you and want to please you with my day”. It doesn’t mean you should be on your knees for the 24 hours in your day, it just means you shouldn’t sing “Onward Christian soldiers” on a Sunday, and then go AWOL on a Monday! Lol, that’s another thing that amused me from the devotional.

I’m going through a phase in my life right now and these words have helped me stay strong and rooted in God; I hope they bring encouragement and joy to your heart today. Amen!

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What’s up with your New Year Resolutions?

Hello you!

So, six days into the third month of 2013; where are you with your resolutions? Did you make any? I didn’t, I think I’ve grown past that phase of promising myself to do stuff different only because I need to ‘fulfil a tradition’.

Also because I haven’t done very well with keeping a lot of them! With different resolutions, there were years I didn’t go past the first six days of the new year, years when I mentally kept adjusting the resolution (because I couldn’t stick with it), and then years I even forgot I made any resolutions!

What do I do now? Plan. Concrete, achievable plans that I can evaluate periodically and then either move forward with or discard them.

Not talking about me a lot today though. Looking through my moleskin today I found a sermon from a service I attended on the 6th of January at House  On The Rock (HOTR) The Refuge, Abuja where Pastor Goodheart Obi Ekwueme talked on ‘7 Musts For The New Year’. It lifted my spirit, and I just thought to share the notes I took on the day.

Ready? Welcome to church!

Pastor started with all of us reading Isaiah 43:18 – 19. It says:

“Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.

Then he said not to dwell in the past, but to live in today, stay alert, and expect great things from God.

Philippians 3:10 – “ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”.

The scripture above was explained thus – one of the best ways to flourish/prosper in this Fast Track year is to simply find out what way God is going and go that way. Why? It is more profitable to ask God for His plan for your life than to present your plans for Him to bless. Amos 3:3

John 2:7 tells the story of the first miracle Jesus performed, when He turned water to wine at the wedding in Cana. The obedience of the servants was implicit, no questioning, no second-guessing; Jesus said to do, and they did.  “Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim”.

My Fast Track is on the other side of my obedience. 2013 is the year to be wholly submissive to the will and direction of God for your life without question.

Proverbs 4:13 says “Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life” while Proverbs 4:18 says “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”

So, what are the seven pointers for a beautiful, super productive 2013?

1. Recalibrate and take stock of the past (in this case, take stock of the first two months that have passed)

2. Make quality decisions for this year. Some of the decisions he talked about include:

• decide to invest rather than spend/waste
• invest time in things that make for eternal consequence
• invest in quality relationships, alliances, and alignments
• decide to serve God and humanity
• decide to please God at all costs
• decide to be the best at whatever it is you do

*looks like a lot of deciding to do right? That’s why we have the Holy Spirit, always there to help, all we need to do is ask*

3. Purpose to forget the past

4. Plan and programme strategically for the year. Where do you see yourself in March, in June, by August? What do you hope to achieve? What do you need to do to be able to achieve them?

5. Count the cost of Fast Track 2013 and be determined to pay the price.

6. Make God first/numero uno/The One – establish the law of priorities and stick with it.

7. All through the year, review your progress. How far? Are we on the way to the things we want to achieve?

May God bless the reading of His word, and prosper that same word in our hearts, amen.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Hugs!

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