WHY GOD WILL STILL USE YOU

I am a very passionate person; a passionate introvert to be exact! What?! I hear someone exclaim. Yes, I am. Now my personality type means that I am very observant, but I will also keep and defend my friends to the death. I also pursue what I love with such passion that standing in my way could be disastrous. That part however I have managed to bring under control by the Grace of my LORD Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit's work in me. 

 This very same passion however often works against me. I am extremely critical and unforgiving of myself. I hold myself to a very high and strict standard of performance and integrity that when I fail I sometimes think the entire world has come to an end. That too, God has worked on over time. I have had my fair share of dramatic failures in life, from which I have learned to get up, dust up, forgive myself and move on. My walk with the LORD has not been an exception to these failures. In fact, my first real understanding of this God of Grace was when many years ago as a born-again person I miserably failed, and I found myself in this place where I could not pray, could not lift up my hands in worship and could not even open my bible to read even a verse.

 In scripture we find a lot of lessons about this. Recently during the lock-down as I meditated on scripture the LORD brought back to me these lessons. Indeed we all know that according to biblical teaching we live in the dispensation of God's Grace; the time when He has both poured out His Holy Spirit upon all flesh and has as well open wide the gates of Grace that we may learn to walk with Him in confidence. God started showing me men of old like Abraham, David, Moses, Jacob and many others. These men who lived in the Old Testament dispensation knew God and pursued Him. One cannot avoid but see the greatness of these men when we read Holy writ. They were Gods “supermen”! I love reading about them because there is a certain depth about their experiences that keeps speaking each time I read. In fact, at times it is overwhelming for me. What the Holy Spirit started showing me about these men was that in our time we live a bigger advantage in God than they had, and yet, they still found Grace in the presence of God at a time when that was a rare gem! They never had the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their time like we do, and yet they can forth in power.

 The other aspect that came through is that these men had serious weaknesses each. Abraham had a major failure in the Hagar episode; David and Bathsheba – that’s another story of lust, adultery, intrigue, murder and cover-up! Jacob was a fraudster. Moses was a man with a short fuse. Yet all these men, despite their failures we also note that they did not allow to live in the shadow of their sin and sinful nature. They never allowed their failures to over shadow them. This is not to say they willfully lived a life of sin. These men seem to have understood that God understood the weak vessels they were but still loved them anyway. They never felt obscured by their weakness to serve Gods purpose.  They walked confidently with and before God. Whilst the demand to be pure still held, they still were not perfect. They still failed but never disqualified themselves. It makes me wonder because we who live today even have a much better place in God. These men understood partnership with God and confessed their sin when they became aware of it, got up and walked forward.

 The bible teaches that we are joint heirs with Christ. 

Ro 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Ro 8:17 ¶ And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Ro 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

 There is nothing temporary or transitory about being an heir! It us a firm place to be. A place of assurance. No one chooses heirs lightly only to change them at the slightest provocation. We are family so. It is ok to make mistakes as long as we are growing in the process and amending where our failures originate from. It is ok to be wrong, as long as we right the wrongs and don’t assume they are an acceptable place to stay at. So, it is ok to be a Christian with weaknesses and mistakes, who is minded towards becoming what Christ wants us to be. God is not about to write you off for that mega failure of the flesh you walked into. Yes, like a loving child you will hurt from that mistake but take that pain and cry for Grace toward that mountain (Zechariah chapter 4 verse 7), get up and walk. My weaknesses do not automatically dis-inherit me.

 If God could use the Abrahams, Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomons' of this world in their weakness and used them mightily, then He will use us all if we are willing and obedient. Yes, you will still make mistakes, but those will not disqualify you. Our relationship with God is not one of a cat and mouse commitment as some tend to think. The fact that you fall today does not mean you stand for the mistakes you have made. Whilst God hates your sin, and He prefers you were maintained in a sin free state, He is aware that Human beings are creatures of habit, thus it takes time to change the things that affect us. What matters most is that you are well on your way.

 “…but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk!”  - Acts 3:6.

WHY THE NEXT 10 DAYS BEFORE PENTECOST 2020 ARE IMPORTANT

Ac 1:1 ¶ The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Ac 1:2 Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, …

 ¶ Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.  These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

(Acts 1:1 - 14 )

 

Jesus, 40 days after His resurrection from the dead ascended into heaven, where according to Hebrews, we know He is now our Great High priest ever making intercession for us.

This year 2020, the Julian Calendar has great alignment with the Jewish Calendar (5780) in terms of the bible feasts. As a result the Feasts of Passover (Easter week), Feast of first of the Sabbaths (Resurrection Sunday), Feast of weeks (i.e. "Festival of Reaping" or "Festival of gladness"), Pentecost or Shavuot as the Jews call it (7 weeks from the resurrection), all have great alignment. On 31st May 2020, we shall celebrate the Feast of Pentecost which is the 50th day, when the 7 weeks Feast of weeks ends. The bible details all these feasts quite well (Exodus 34:22, Deuteronomy 16:10); from both the books of Acts (Acts 2) and that of Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy (Deut.16) many Bible scholars agree that this is the same day when God gave us both the written word and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So as we are looking to celebrate this Pentecost under lockdown (Lockdown being almost a type/shadow of sabbath), I want to speak to us about the 10 days preceding the Pentecost of 2020.

Since this lockdown begun, we as a congregation in my home church have received both the prophetic guidance of what we ought to do and have as well observed to see the specific words God has been speaking to us over the last 5years.

i.                     First the LORD led us on keeping watch in the deep of the night as the enemy was using that same time to work against the church to weaken it.

ii.                  Then between the resurrection Sunday to date the word of instruction by different respected prophets globally to the church has been specific: "Celebrate the Victory of Christ!".

iii.                Another word that came globally was for the church to continue daily in Holy communion at our family alters.

My purpose for writing is yet another word. If you have missed the last two "memos" above, please make sure not to miss this one this time; now begs:

Since the resurrection Sunday, I have had an unction that the last 10 days to this years Pentecost will be so crucial for the church of Christ in terms of some sort of download for the ERA that we entered into. I had no clear idea what this download was, but I felt I needed to personally hallow those days in preparation to receive something from the LORD that was not ordinary. I have told my pastors as much previously.

In the last 7 days however, I feel that the LORD has reinforced that knowledge in me. My unction is that we are to consecrate ourselves during these 10 days starting this Thursday 21st May 2020 till Pentecost Sunday on 31st May 2020. I believe God is going to download into his Sons and daughters some real unique giftings and Grace that amaze even those that receive them. This will almost be akin to the outpourings and giftings of the church in the Acts 2 portion, but with a new twist of dominion on them.

These giftings and Grace will be for His purposes in this new ERA. Many of you have even started to manifest gifts you never had before the lockdown. I mean physical enablements or talents. Some of you will manifest talents you have desired but never were really good at. Others will be enabled with lifetime attributes e.g. in leadership, with wisdom of the world but with Godliness, etc. I cannot even begin to elaborate the full extent.

If you can fast in some of these days please do, though I do not state this as a rule. Just ensure to separate those days for yourself in a special way, as a way to prepare yourself for a download from heaven. Keep at your work but ensure to have a special PERSONAL re-dedication. Make time in a unique way to sanctify yourself in those 10 days as something is coming through for certain.

We walk by faith and not by sight. I can only tell you that my unction in the Spirit tells me that something really big is breaking loose in those 10 days and you had better be positioned to be a partaker of it.

 

Shalom!