Nothing to complain about ( ?)
This morning i found myself saying to God in prayer, Lord, i have nothing to complain about, i find no fault with you. To some that is presumption, to others, healing words. If we are real, we know that often, indeed too often we consciously or unconsciously find fault with God. Life does stuff that point hidden fingers at God and condemn us to an emotional pit and theological bewilderment. And so as I heard myself, unpremeditated and unbidden begin to speak these things I was understandably delighted, finally, child, you are growing up. I celebrate God. He has done me no evil. That makes me very glad, glad that He has done me no evil and even gladder that I know it.
All is not perfect in Bola kingdom, yet God is, and is in His dealings with me. The last time I checked there was much that needed improvement in my current sphere of living. Simply put, I have a long list of things I would like to change, and, like any pastor, or just any human, of people I would like to see change. I have a long list of circumstances I would like to see change, but God is not responsible for any of this. Yet because of our limited understanding of the interplay of the fallenness of the world with its attendant evil, divine sovereignty, and human will we hold God responsible for all that is wrong.
Even those of us who chant God is good every Sunday still sometimes secretly nurse a grudge against God because we think He is God after all, He can do anything, and He did not do that for me, it’s not fair. Sometimes it is also because we have a special relationship and understandably greater expectations which when frustrated, cause us to lose some of our passion and zeal and become less certain about truths we previously espoused. Much Read more
Power twins – gratitude and testimony
One Saturday recently, a young woman I knew I had seen before came for our prayer meeting. At the end she came to speak to me and confirmed that indeed she had been at our Pentecost seminar with my dear friend pastor Samson from the UK. She came back to say what God did for her during the seminar. She had come forward to receive prayer to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be healed. After they received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, I had someone pray for their healing.
And that is why one Saturday they travelled two hours to come and find us in our own building to tell us what God had done for them. As from that day they have been completely healed, all the pain is gone. I was glad they were healed and I was also glad that they came to tell us that they were healed. We need to tell what God has done for us. Many people do not testify yet the Bible says ‘forget not His benefits’. When Jesus healed the ten lepers, only one came back to say thank you, and Jesus commended that. I believe He was commending that sister on Saturday.
Gratitude and testimony, these are power twins that reveal the goodness and glory of God and attract even greater favour on our lives. It also greatly encourages those who worked to create the forum for people to come and be blessed by God. It encourages the people who prayed for her to know that God moved as a result of their prayers. It demonstrates the love of God and encourages other people needing healing to believe that God is no respecter of persons and He will touch them too. So we constantly encourage people to boast about the goodness of God and celebrate the kindness of our Lord.
Shalom!
Speaking life – with life
Reading Romans the other day it occurred to me that had the apostles penned the New Testament in the same tone in which we often preach it, it would not have survived two readings. Many a sermon is intoned in dry monotony borne of even drier scholarship. The scriptures were on the contrary penned with passion, with feeling; even the eminently theological and Christological dissertation in Romans carries zeal, fire, logic yes but overwhelming passion.
Indeed the epistle pulsates with the apostle’s passion for the marvel of redemption, the centrality of Christ and the astounding power of faith in Christ to effect salvation where the law despite its many provisions falls woefully short. He waxes forth on the subject of his own people the Jews and their position in God’s plan. He enjoins the church to right living borne of gratitude for the awesome work of the cross.
Logic, truth, heart, feeling, emotion, passion all combine in the epistles to portray a picture of people who felt deeply about the things of God; people who were absolutely convinced of the veracity of God’s truth in Christ, people who took radical stands for the gospel and who communicated it with all their vigour, energy, spirit, passion and being. And each letter carries that heat and that fire. Consequently, they must be preached as they were written, with logic, and with passion, fire, hope, joy, tears, with life; ‘the words of this life’ spoken with life.
Might I add, the same goes for any communication of the gospel. What God is, what God did in Christ utterly beggars description, so when His people speak of it, in any context, over dinner with friends, at work, out in the streets, how can it not be with the same passion, animation, joy with which we would have it preached from the pulpit? How you feel about and speak of Jesus will most likely be the catalyst for people’s interest before they get round to examining the content of the message. I pray for passion all the time, to be so overwhelmed by the beauty of the gospel that i will speak it as I ought.
Shalom!
As I ought
‘Pray for me’, I hear quite frequently, as you no doubt do too. You may walk away saying OK or in most cases, you will stop and ask for what specifically. And the responses vary widely. One instance of a request for prayer came to mind the other day as I myself was praying.. It was Paul writing to the Ephesians and at the end requesting prayer; and it again reminded me of how much I admire Paul.
In the sixth chapter of Ephesians Paul asked for prayer that he might speak boldly and freely and make known the mystery of the gospel and then he added ‘as i ought’. And that is the clincher. It is not just a desire of Paul’s it is a recognition by Paul that there is a way things should be, and he wants them to be that way. Anything else would be abnormal. It struck me that for every area of our lives there is an ‘as i ought’, defined by God only and to which only God has the key.
When it come to your prayer life, there is an ‘as I ought’; if you are a preacher there is an ‘as i ought’ for your preaching. There is one for bible study, for business, for family, for relationships etc. In other words, there is a way that the Christian life should be lived and that the Christian should be. And we should pray that we live it and be it. My take on the Pauline prayer is ‘Lord, make me what i ought to be spirit, soul and body’.
We seek much, we crave much, but the only thing that matters is that we be and do as God desires. And perhaps you don”t have the details or perhaps you are tempted to fill in the blanks based on your own perspective, but how about praying that God will help you to think as you ought, help you believe, speak, relate to people, work, serve, praise and be as you ought.
Shalom
God’s healing power – Heidi Baker
As we prepare this week for the healing conference organised by our friends from the MIE ministry and with which we are partners, I was greatly encouraged by this video of Heidi Baker. I am sure it will bless you too. Enjoy!
God’s master plan
As part of the series on the name of Jesus, I preached on Christ today and it utterly possessed my soul. The great wonder of the ages is that God put on humanity to enable humanity to put on divinity. It is a master plan unequalled and unsurpassed in greatness, profundity and power. It is a plan we have been grafted into, it behoves us to know it, understand it, love it and perpetuate it.
- Christ pre incarnation was God, ruler, supreme authority in total dominion; He was creator, the book of Colossians eloquently describes how ‘all things were created through Him and for Him’ and He is before all things and in Him all things consist and cohere. The excellencies of the Christ must be the constant source of meditation and delight of the believer.
- Christ in incarnation demonstrated Read more
AUTHOR
pastor bola olivia ogedengbe,
The Theophilus Company,
ABBA HOUSE, Paris,
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