Prison Break | The Praise Gate

Welcome  to a new week, the last week of the month of August. May the end of August be greater than the beginning of August in Jesus' name. Thanks to Mysses Lafunky who took over for the last two weeks. As always, there was a lot to learn from her and one of the learning points that stayed with me is that it’s not enough to just confess and confess, we also need to forsake! Make sure you read it again. Last week, I had the privilege of seeing Bishop T.D. Jakes at the House on the Rock Spirit Life Conference titled: "Emerge." It was powerful! May you emerge in every area of your life in Jesus' name. 

"Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful." Psalms‬ 147:1‬ NKJV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

One of the key parts of the conference was that we spent a lot of time praising God. Praise is very key when we are trying to get into God’s presence or get Him to move in our situation. It is so important that God expects us to praise him regardless of the situation we are going through. There used to be this popular song when I was a child about how Paul and Silas prayed and sang and the prison they were kept in came tumbling down (Acts 16:25-26). Imagine these unruly fellows singing praises in prison. Little did they know that it would cause the prison to fall apart. I’d daresay that the prison fell apart because God was dancing to their praise and His movements caused the earthquake that destroyed the prison. When you want God to move and scatter your enemies, switch to praise. Why? When you praise a person, it causes their head to "swell". When you go for "owambes," on your way out, you meet bands that sing praises upon praises and if you’re not careful you’d drop your entire wallet for them. When human beings are praised, it causes them to move. Human beings were created in the likeness of God which means we also took that character trait from Him; the trait of loving praises. One man that understood the importance of praise was King David. Yup, that same David. The one known as the man after God’s heart. When you read the book of psalms, a lot of the chapters deal with Him praising God for His might and power. When you get to the end of the book of Psalms, the last set of chapters dealt with praising God and he ended the book of Psalms with this: 

"Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!" Psalms‬ 150:1-6‬ NKJV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

I love how he ended the book of Psalms: “let everything that has breath praise the Lord”. He started the last chapter by listing where we should praise God, then moved to why we should praise God. He then told us how to praise God by basically calling all types of instruments and concluded the matter by saying as long as you have breath, praise the Lord!

For a man of war, you’d wonder why David spoke so much about praise. The last 5 chapters of the book of Psalms (NKJV) ended with Praise the Lord! There’s a reason Paul and Silas praised God in the prison. It is because they understood the foundational principle that every praise belongs to God regardless of where we find ourselves and when we get stuck, praise is the key to getting us out of that sticky situation. One key thing you must note is that Paul and Silas didn’t just pray, they also praised. The praise was listed after the prayer and it came as the second gear in their prison session. When the second gear kicked in, God started dancing and there was a great earthquake. I have also personally witnessed the power of praise in my life as there were many times I couldn’t even pray but thank God I’m such a music lover. I always made sure I praised Him regardless of how down I felt and I saw how walls were broken down for me. What is that situation you’ve been stuck in for so long? Praise your way out of it. 

The charge therefore as we go into this week is to be praise machines and look for all sorts of reasons to praise the Lord! Praise the Lord for He is good and His Mercy endures forever (Ps. 106:1 NKJV). If you feel there’s no reason to praise God, I’ll assume you no longer have breath but as long as you have breath, praise Him for that fact alone. 

Sage

P.S.: Visit www.bishopsvillage.com to get more access to Bishop T.D.  Jakes and his teaching. 

"You pushed me violently, that I might fall, But the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation." Psalms‬ 118:13-14‬ NKJV‬‬. 

Photo Credit: http://deborahsdescendants.com

Confess and Forsake

Hello Readers & Followers,

I sincerely apologise for the delay in sharing this week's post. I had a very busy weekend; it was my wedding anniversary and also my birthday, it was a double celebration that was filled with so many activities.

My husband and I reflected on the beauty of marriage, an institution created by God for:

1. A loyal partnership between one man and one woman, 
2. An institution that mirrors God's covenant relationship with His children,
3. A foundation for building a family and
4. An institution designed by God for sexual expression to help married couples to build intimacy.

My husband and I concluded that practically applying biblical principles will give the marriage a stronger foundation at all times.

I don't know if you have heard a saying that the first year of marriage is very difficult. This saying is actually unbiblical and has no basis in the Word of God. The Bible says that the righteous shall live by his faith and not by what other people profess to be the truth (Paraphrased) meaning that as Christians, we should not allow what some people say influence how we live our lives but rather be confident in God's Word and allows God's Word to guide how we live and do things within the marriage and outside of the marriage. To the glory of God, I can say my first year of marriage was not difficult but rather it was beautiful and full of various adventures and blessings from God.

Back to this week's post about Confessing and Forsaking.

To confess is to admit and accept that you have done something wrong.

To forsake is to renounce or give up something, to leave and abandon something forever.

God wants you to always ensure that you confess any wrong doing, bad habit and sin to Him. He does not want you to keep confessing without turning away from those things that you are confessing but rather God would like you to Confess and Forsake those sins. The Bible says in Ezekiel 33:11 that: 

"Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD,

I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,

but rather that they turn from their ways and live.

Turn! Turn from your evil ways!

Why will you die, people of Israel?' "

Are you wondering who the wicked are? According to God's Word, the wicked are those who reject God, those who forget God, those who choose to dishonour God's Word by not living by what the Word of God says, those that are arrogant, proud, greedy, those that do not confess and forsake their sins, and those that do not worship God through their way of lives (Psalm 9:17, Psalm 10:2-11). 

God is telling you today to repent and turn back, so that He can wipe away your sins (Acts 3:19). In other words, God is telling you to change your mind and attitude to Him, change your ways and Turn to Him so He can cleanse away your sins and restore you and also bless you. Not forsaking sins can hinder your progress in life. 

Conclusion 

The charge therefore for this week is to live a life that forsakes the things that God does not like. Also, for you to let others know the importance of confessing and forsaking their sins. God loves you and He desires for you to confess and forsake your sins.

Have a lovely week. Sage will be writing for the next two weeks.

How Are You Known in Your Neighbourhood?

Hello Readers & Followers. How is the new month going? Trust it's going well. It's being a while we read your comments even though we know you are reading. It would be nice to hear from you so, kindly take a moment to comment below or send an email to trulymakingadifference@gmail.com. It would be lovely to hear from you.

As you all know that it's being a while that I have written on the blog, this is due to caring for my baby. Initially, I felt terrible for not being able to balance a number of things that I did with regards to my service to God. Nevertheless, God encouraged me with a scripture in Ecclesiastes 3:1 which says that there's a time for everything and everything on earth has its special season. With that encouragement, I made a decision to enjoy this season of my life and to be guided by the Holy Spirit on how and when I am to offer my service unto God. Sage and my husband have been really helpful with the blog; they ensured that articles were posted every Monday to build our faith. I pray the Lord will reward them accordingly in Jesus' name.

This week, I would like to encourage everyone of us to be a good neighbour and to consider how we are known in our neighbourhood. 

Do you know your neighbours? Do you know their names? If not, this week, I would like you to come out of your comfort zone or busy schedules and take a step by saying hello to your neighbours and introducing yourself to them. You may discover that you have common interests.

We can take a couple of lessons from the story of the good Samaritan where Jesus Christ encouraged us to go and be a good neighbour like the good Samaritan. 

For the benefit of those that are not familiar with the story, please click here (Luke 10:23-37) to read the story.  

A couple of lessons that we can implement from the good Samaritan are:

• We are to show love and compassion for those we encounter on this earth.
• We are to love others regardless of their race, religion, gender, etc.
• If we are in a position to give, we are to give cheerfully without expecting something back from the person we gave to as God will reward us (Luke 6:35). 

Has anyone ever been a good neighbour to you? I would love to know your experience including how you have been a good neighbour.

See my experience below...

About two years ago, where I had previously lived, one of my neighbours was absolutely amazing and helpful, he exhibited beautiful good works that I appreciated. Every Tuesday, the bin men collected our refuse, my neighbour had observed that I lived alone and I was usually out of the house very early in the morning and returned home late. You won't believe what he did, he took it upon himself to put my refuse wheelie bin back to its base albeit I didn't ask for his help. He undertook this task every Tuesday on my behalf for about a year. I ensured that I regularly expressed my gratitude to him. 

"We are to love others regardless of their race, religion or gender"

Let me share how I have been a good neighbour. Keep reading to find out...

I noticed how my husband took it upon himself to introduce himself to our neighbours when we moved to where we reside, this also gave me the courage to follow suit. Last Christmas, we shared Christmas cards with our neighbours and we shared the beautiful apples from our garden. 

One thing that I have noticed with my neighbours is the fact that we try as much as possible to show acts of love and kindness to one another. For example, I have noticed that the postman automatically brings people's parcels and big posts for me to keep for them until they return home. It dawned on me that if my neighbours had been horrible towards us, I probably would not be too keen to collect their parcels for them. Likewise, they wouldn't want to collect our own parcels for us if we had been horrible towards them. No wonder God told us that we should not plan to hurt our neighbours who lives nearby...(Proverbs 3:29).

Have you ever been guilty of hurting your neighbours? Do you live at peace with your neighbours? Living at peace with your neighbours is a sign that you are living the way Jesus expects you to live and to show His love.

The charge therefore for this week is for you to do something extraordinary for your neighbours and take time to show an act of love to your neighbours. I have given a few examples below.

• If you do not know your neighbour's names, start by saying hello and introduce yourself. Christmas is on the way, why not buy Christmas cards for your neighbours. They sell cards that says Merry Christmas to my neighbours or to my neighbours on Christmas and sign it with your names, this way your neighbours will get to know your names.
• Grab every opportunity to do good and be a blessing if you are in a position to.
• Pray for your neighbours.
• Participate in any community activities that you are able to.
• Keep a lovely smile.
• Finally, be a good neighbour to anyone you come in contact with.

With the spirit of being a good neighbour, I'd like to invite our Lagos (Nigeria) readers and followers that are youths to a youth conference that will be happening this coming Saturday (19th August @ 11am). See the flyer below and the registration link.

Registration link: https://pcym.com.ng/yoam2017-2/

Have a lovely week! See you next Monday; next week's post is going to be about Confess and Forsake.

His Mercy Endures Forever

First Monday in August, blink and you’ll be in December. For those of us that made New Year resolutions, how far have you gone in achieving them? I’m far behind in mine 🙈. Hope you enjoyed our post last week? Did you produce any good fruit? I thank God for the strength to produce the fruit of self-control despite the things that came up. This week, I’ll continue working on the fruit. All the best working on your chosen fruit for this week. To the matter for today.

"Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let Israel now say, 'His mercy endures forever.' Let the house of Aaron now say, 'His mercy endures forever.' Let those who fear the LORD now say, 'His mercy endures forever.'" Psalms‬ 118:1-4‬ NKJV‬‬‬‬‬‬

When you watch certain movies especially war movies or series like Game of Thrones, you frequently hear the cries of mercy, mercy just before the person is killed but God is not like that. We are all under His power and when we cry mercy, He hears our cry. 

As human beings, we will always do things that require us to ask for mercy. Even when our conscience tells us that we deserve the pending judgement we still ask for mercy. That’s because we know that, oh boy!, if we don’t get mercy, "it go rough." Ironically, even when we want to ask for mercy, the same conscience then tells you that you don’t even deserve the mercy. That’s why Ps. 118 breaks it down for us. It starts by telling us that God is good and His mercy endures forever. It then proceeds to break it down into three categories of people: 

1. Those belonging to Israel
2. Those belonging to the house of Aaron
3. Those who fear the Lord

You will definitely find yourself somewhere in there. What does it do? It serves as a reminder to those belonging to any of these categories that the mercy of the Lord endures forever. Not for a while, not when you’re being the perfect Christian, not before you commit that sin but forever. Before, during and after whatever it is that we’ve done, the mercy is there waiting for us to ask for it. It is important to note here that the entire Ps. 136 is dedicated to letting us know that His mercy endures forever. The key though is that mercy exists but we are to seek it and ask for it. That means that there’s a place we are to go to in order to seek it. 

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews‬ 4:16‬ NKJV‬‬‬‬‬‬

In order to obtain mercy, we are to go before the throne of grace. Even though the verse says ‘the throne,’ it doesn’t exist in a particular place. All you have to do is pray and call out to God for mercy. When we go into the place of prayer, we are going before the throne of grace. I also love how translations like the MSG and NIV versions substitute the word mercy for love. In essence God’s mercy and His love are one and the same and because He loves us, He will always have mercy on us. 

The charge therefore as we go into this week is to not allow the devil or our conscience deceive us into thinking that we’ve done so many wrong things or that mercy does not exist for the sin we’ve just committed. Simply go before the throne of grace and obtain mercy. Ask God for forgiveness and invite Him into your heart. No sin is too great, no mistake is too costly to keep us away from the mercy of God. God has assured us of His love and in assuring us of His love, He has assured us of His mercy. What a good good father. 

Sage

P.S. This is officially my shortest post. 

My next post will be titled the power of praise. 

Mysses Lafunky is back and will be posting for the next two weeks. I’ll be back…Terminator.

Photo Credit: http://focusmagazine.org