And Peter Sank...doubt;the greatest hindrance

If there’s anything that limits the full attainment of the power or the certainty of the promises of God, its doubt, often driven by fear; this was the case in Mathew 14 v 30, the entire event started from v22 when Jesus had to send his disciples ahead of him, late into the night, Jesus went out to meet them ;when  his disciples saw him and thought it was a ghost, the cried in fear but he calm them down, but Peter said Lord if it be thee, tell me to come and Jesus said “come” . Peter stepped out in faith, he walked towards Jesus then all of a sudden, tragedy struck, Peter realized he was walking on water, his eyes were opened if you may, just like Adam and Eve in Eden, the moment they lost touch with God, their eyes were opened then they knew they were naked. Its so common for our eyes to open to reveal the worst of us, it makes me see the concept of an opened eyes as a closed spirit, in that the use of that term never seem to connote anything good other than they loss a place of excellence, so just like Adam and Eve, Peters eyes were opened and he saw the storm and Peter sank. How often do we ask the lord to bid us to come only to turn around and refocus on the little challenges around us, its good to know that Peter made progress so long as his focus was on the lord and not the storm, in fact the amazing thing is that the storm was there all the while, the bible records that there was a storm and Jesus walked towards the boat, how come all of a sudden Peter remembered that there was a storm? The point I want to make here is focus, your focus determines how long you will stay afloat in life, walking on water is a possibility so long as you are walking in the divine conditions of faith, the bible says “the that know their God shall be strong and do exploit”, it simply means that the limit of exceptional move of God you’ll see is determined by your focus or knowledge of God, knowing here connotes communion. And peter sank, we sink daily not because we sinned but because we loose focus of who promised what, its so easy to loose track of the promises of God the moment the storms buffet our ship, the moment the devil reminds us of our last fall, we give in to doubts and unbelief, that’s why we sink, not because we sinned but because we doubt, doubt is the greatest single inhibitor of progress for a should be faith driven life, doubt is the enemy within that silently seek to hinder you from walking in the fullness of the promises of God. Its also good to not that doubt often comes from fear, probably fear of failure or fear of shame, or even the unknown, fear defined as Fake Evidence Appearing Real can take hold of you and reduce the word of God to empty letters. I know people who are afraid of dying hence they don’t travel or get involved in any form of activity, I told one of them you are already dead, same goes for a lady who wont date cos she wouldn’t want to get hurt, I also tell her you are hurting already, when you let fear take hold of you, you literally become a dysfunctional person, you become paranoid, a skeptic and eventually a victim of your fears. We cannot let the devil infiltrate our lives by entertaining fear, for when fear comes in then doubt settles within. God said I am the lord, is there anything too hard for me? At times I ask my friends why don’t we see changes in our lives even when we say we believe, in the many discussions we had to understand that topic, we discovered that faith is not saying it but believing what God says and walking in it, it’s a common thing to say it but act contrary to what you profess. If you believe you are healed by God then act like you are healed, if there’s a business problem and you prayed then you should trust God and not only declare the problem is solved but act like its solved, same goes for the pretty lady looking to God for a relationship that works for a good end, you need to stop acting desperate, rest in the promises of God, he said he would not withhold any good thing from them that love him. Rest in the knowing that God is in control,theres no need to run helter skelter,let God fulfill his word and please stop trying to help God, his hands are not too short that he cannot deliver you. We need to understand that God upholds his word above his name. That said, you need to start by putting away doubt, how do you do this? by feeding on the word of God, faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God, exposing yourself to Gods word is the fastest way to validating the promises of God. And peter sank, then he cried out master save me, then Jesus reached out and held him, Jesus said oh you of little faith, why did you doubt? He doubted cos he saw the storm, my question is why did Jesus ask that question? I guess the answer is clear, true faith wouldn’t dwell on obvious crises, faith sees solutions. Jesus expects us to focus on the solution, you see we are back to the issue of focus again, friends walking with God requires focus, focus on the end, on the master, on the purpose of God, the bible records that Jesus endured the cross,dispised the shame for the joy set ahead of him, focus is the key. I pray that we would take a clue from Peters experience and work on our focus, it’s the underlining factor for the effective fulfilling of Gods promises in our lives as believers of Jesus. The word works. Halleluiah! Written by Igonoh Godwin 4/05/12

Journey of ONE…. loneliness of transition

Hello there! I have been thinking of the process of dying, it’s been on my mind lately; I don’t mean death but dying. Dying is when you have reached a point that you know that you are leaving this place for another, in dying there is room to think, you get to ponder on life and all you’ve done in the past, dying is different from sudden death, people like King Hezekiah in the bible days experienced dying, that was why he could pray to change it. Ok enough of the analysis of dying; my reason for pondering on dying is simple, at the point of dying, we often get caught up in the loneliness of the process, its so common to be surrounded by many yet feel so alone, that’s because in the physical you are surrounded by people by in the real sense of the process, you are alone. My quest to understand this process is born out of my experience in business decision making, I have come under immense pressure by family and friends for certain decisions I made about business et el,its so hard convincing onlookers that the part you choose is the right once, one of the times, I was told I was wrong where as I am convinced that am on the right part, in fact that said inner voice we seek to hear often reassure me that my decision is the right one, however its been a very lonely journey as only a handful ever appreciate the value of convictions. Its more amazing when none of the said family members or friends have ever been in business. Anyway my point is this, I have learnt to walk in unfamiliar territory, a very lonely one I must say. Its this loneliness that spur me to study the process of dying. The loneliness that comes with transition is something that can only be understood by people who have transited from one level to another, it take you knowing by faith that where you are in where you ought to be, I know that Christians are not often disposed to thinking of the death or dying thing but for me I believe there is a need for us to understand the need to make certain decisions alone, its not a “we” thing, it’s a you alone thing, I am hoping that in discussing this issue, we can pause for a moment and think about the need to be more fervent on matters that revolve around building a relationship with God. I want us to identify this fast approaching reality that one day you would do this process alone, you wont be able to hide under the umbrella of tph or twb or which ever church you belong to,you’ll have to face the process of your transition all alone, this should not scare you, rather it should spur you to think about strong words like accountability, righteousness, salvation, judgment, eternity etc. Am sorry guys, am not here to spoil your mood or fun, am just trying to help you understand decision making and the process of accountability that must take place after here. Your life is a gift, it would warrant a return on investment, living young can be fun and for most of us it comes with appending recklessness of this generation, we do as we like and if we want to be nice, we polish it with few scriptures, its so cool lately to be hip, however I hope we don’t loose hold of the entire mix called life simply because we want to be hip. I love being hip but I love knowing the cost of being hip, ours is a generation that’s fast loosing its sense of accountability, from government to churches, everyone seem carried away by the frenzy of the season that we soon forget that there is something called accountability. We are children of God hence we should know better, God would demand of us an account for time spent here. Dying would be alone hence the need for us to judiciously use the time allotted for the benefit of what really matters and by that I don’t mean quit your job and become a pastor, I mean live knowing that there are expectations, let your life count that men may see and give glory to your father who’s in heaven. Like the decision to stay in business or marry a person of your choice, walking with God is a decision you’ll have to make independent of anybody’s influence, making an effort towards being faithful as  a believer in Jesus Christ is not negotiable, Gods grace is available to see you through. This is not such a popular topic, probably because it wouldn’t have a lot to say about blessings; anyway I hope we can reminisce on the issue and do the needful, make adjustments where needed and lets keep focus on the goal. Ours is a call to worship with faithful hands. Don’t get into bed with the system; we are in this world but not of this world. I pray that we would wake up to the call to be steadfast in what God has called us to do even when it seems unpopular to advance our relationship with him. God bless you Written by: Igonoh Godwin 3/05/12