Tag: living for God

God’s Faithfulness to the Fully Committed

When your heart is fully committed to God, every step you take will inevitably be guided and guarded by Him.
“The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…” (2 Chronicles 16:9 KJV)
These are two points to remind you of God’s faithfulness to the fully committed, not just by their words but their deeds as well:
1. “Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it. Narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.” (Matt. 7:13-14 KJV).
The LORD will make sure that you are steered back onto his “narrow” pathway if you should stray away from it at any point due to affliction.
The Lord will be your help in times of trouble to make this possible.
The Psalmist (46:1-3) says “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas; though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling. Selah”.

As one who is in fellowship with His Holy Spirit, He will also give you the ability to discern what is of Him and what is not so that you know when you are on a path He has not led you on.

“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” (Gal. 5:16-17 NLT).

God’s will is that you live and walk guided by the Holy Spirit not by your own carnal longings and desires which is under the control of Satan who entices the flesh to take the “wide gate” or “broad way”. This pathway is pleasing to the flesh or carnal nature because they offer what appear to be easy and quick benefits, in the long term however one realises that the so called benefits were short lived, resulted in affliction or heartache and discouragement.

2. The Lord will ensure that you part with those you are in alliance with who

a)do not have the same call of God as you do.

b)are likely to be a hindrance to you one way or another. This is because they could be agents of conflict or contention directly or through others associated with them.

Abraham (then called Abram) had left Haran (Gen 12) with his nephew Lot, travelled with him to Egypt where Abraham’s riches including livestock had increased. Together Abraham and Lot had a large amount of livestock and there came a time that living together and grazing their animals proved difficult as the land was crowded as other communities lived there as well. In addition their herdsmen had began to quarrel among themselves. Abraham took the wise decision to separate from Lot saying

“..Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if [thou wilt take] the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if [thou depart] to the right hand, then I will go to the left…” (Gen. 13:9 KJV).

When we study scriptures closely, it is evident that Abraham’s call by God out of his country, Haran (Gen. 12) did not include his relatives. He was married at the time so his wife was included. It was therefore not surprising that a time came for him and Lot to part and what better time than when the land they occupied could not hold their combined possessions.

Today let us pray, asking the LORD to reveal to us if we are aligned to the wrong person, people or group and the wise steps we should take to dissociate ourselves from those He exposes. We need to take care that when God tells us to do something or go a particular way we are not involving anyone He has not told us to partner with.

Brothers and sisters, when we are fully committed to the LORD, we must partner with Him as He guides and guards our lives and this means we are to walk in obedience and refused to compromise with evil. As long as we know what the truth is according to God’s Word, we should refuse at all costs to live by half truths and lies.

” said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed; ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32 KJV).

Today, let us resolve to continue living as dedicated soldiers of Christ marching on fully committed to our commander in chief, the Lord Jesus Christ, helping others to stay in line or line up with us as is the will of God.

You are blessed, determine to stay blessed!
Deborah Esther x

©Deborah Nyamekye 28/11/2015

Advertisement

Let’s Talk About Motives

(Read Matthew Chapter 6)
Leaving a legacy whereby people have praised you for your achievements may not expose the motives behind why you acted the way you did; were your motives behind your achievements whether great or small founded on Godly principles and obedience to His Word of truth or on your strategic acts to gain favour and praise from men? Were your actions your own ideology or beliefs with maybe a little bit of scriptural rhetoric ? Only God truly knows! We may fool men but never God!

Reading Matthew Chapter 6, when I meditated on the whole chapter, verses 19-21 stood out as never before. This was in the context of the verses about not praying, giving alms and fasting as a form of showing off so as to receive praise from men.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.(Matt.6:19-21KJV).

It is important to interpret what Jesus is stating and why in the correct manner. He is not saying that all those who pray, give alms openly or speak about the fact that they are fasting are hypocrites and doing so to be praised or glorified by men.

Of course not all acts of holiness and Christian giving should be concluded as being done with the wrong motives for it is true that as Christians we must be witnesses for Christ openly by our lifestyles and also engage in acts of Christian service including the call to preach, teach and disciple.

What Jesus is saying is that if any of those acts are done with the motive that directs people towards oneself, to be elevated and satisfy one’s self aggrandising desires then they are hypocritical and yield no eternal rewards. Whatever hypocrites do even though they appear as treasures, they have no eternal value.

Hypocrites as Jesus said are as those who openly give alms for all to see, sounding the trumpet in synagogues and on the streets so as to receive glory from men. He said “They have their reward” (Matt 6:2 KJV).

This is how Satan’s vessels behave for as their master the Father of lies (John 8:44), they have a prideful image of who they are, founded on deception. This is why Satan who was a high ranking angel rebelled and wanted to mount the throne of God (Isaiah 14).
He is carrying on his schemes of attempting to rule and reign on the earth and decided when he tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that he would strip humanity of their God given image and mandate as representatives of God on earth. His intention is that every human being will rebel against God and be as he is.

God provided a way of escape through Christ; God is in Christ reconciling the world back to Himself (2 Corinth.5:19). Anyone who accepts Christ as their personal saviour will not perish (John 3:16), nor will their deeds. They are stating that they reject the lifestyle in satanic deception and are ready to live in integrity, examining their heart condition before God daily so as to ensure their motives are pure and ready to repent when they need to do so.

We therefore lay treasures for ourselves on earth when as though unsaved, our spiritual field of vision is centred on only what earth holds for us rather than focused on God’s heavenly realm and what it means to be a child of God; Believers in Christ are in the world but not of the world.

One is a hypocrites as defined by Jesus if one is self motivated or does things motivated by the carnal desire to show oneself as important or significant. Self motivation is rooted in self centredness and self dependence; one is the centre of their own universe! Pride comes before the fall. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

If the kingdom we partake of has its King or Head (Christ) who did not think it beneath him to associate with the rejects of society nor washed his disciples feet, then it is time to take another look at the way we define ourselves and our expectations from people we either relate to, disciple or happen to be less fortunate than us.

Matthew Chapter 6 as the bible on the whole, “speaks” loud and clear: Our Christian walk is not about pleasing and elevating ourselves before others, the “look at me I am a pious Christian” syndrome! It is about dying to self so that Christ can live in us and we can reproduce the Christlike nature in a world desperate for a saviour.

It is a call on God’s people to be dependant on God by making Christ the centre of every area of our lives and to daily pray for God’s kingdom to come and for His will to be done. May God take absolute control so that He supernaturally dismantles every “kingdom” we have built in different areas of our lives through surrendering our will to Satan.

May our daily confession be as that of Paul: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20 KJV).

©6Aug2017 Deborah E. Nyamekye

Petition & Praise: Self-sacrifice & Surrender

Deliver me from every deception O LORD, my Father!

You desire truth in the inward parts. You are the only one who cleanses my soul.

I offer myself to you once again as a living sacrifice.

All within me bows before you.My entrails hail you as LORD!

I give you my heart in exchange for your truth, never to be re-sold.

My knees bend on their own accord. Freely my mouth utters praises and my body willingly follows your leading.

Fastened by your Word, I abide in your presence forevermore.

©️DENyamekye

Living to Please God (prayer)

B9ADB8FF-D435-4C15-AAE3-984BD695843E

Dear Heavenly Father,

My desire is to live to please you each and every day.

When I wake up in the morning, I plead for daily instruction.
Every task of the day I present to you, my task master renown, for I can do nothing without you.

Every daily decision, whenever I need direction, it is only you I seek, my way maker extraordinaire, for I lack wisdom without you.

When I lay me down to sleep at night, then I can say, I have lived to please you.

Thank you dear Father, for a life that is set apart exceptionally for you. Amen.

©12-Nov17 DENyamekye

Inspired by 1 Thess. 4:1 The Apostle Paul admonishing the Thessalonian Church to live to please God more and more:
“Finally, dear brothers and sisters,[a] we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more.”

THE HOUSE THAT GOD BUILDS:The power of loving and pleasing God

We must all, not least those who minister in any capacity to believers in Christ, always have at the forefront of our minds that our worth is not based on whether people accept us or not, or what they say about us, it is in who God says we are.

We must remember that we live our lives to please God first and foremost because we love Him.

If that is your focus, then there is inevitably a ripple effect for you cannot genuinely love and so please God without desiring to and succeeding in loving and pleasing others. Loving God and pleasing Him means we obey His commands and live according to His Word.

We therefore commune with Jesus in this way for he is the Word and came to dwell among men in the flesh. He is still with us and within us today in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus prayed for Father to send us.

Loving and pleasing God cultivates His nature within us and this is not surprising because we are created in His image and our redemption through Christ is meant to restore God’s nature within us because we are reconciled to Him.

The outflow of God’s divine nature is that which others see and this is how they know that we are indeed children of God. This is expressed in how we relate to one another and the world in general.

Pleasing God because we love Him is the foundation upon which our outward expression of loving His world and creation is made manifest. When we love God because we have developed a lifestyle of intimacy with Him, we want to please Him and therefore we search the scriptures or take hold of all He has to say in relation not only to how we must love and relate to others, but also what He has predestined we are to do on earth or our purpose.

How can the aforementioned point be expressed concisely? Upon the foundation of loving and pleasing God we are inevitably built as ones who are empowered to live lives that glorify him (one becomes a “light house” of God), this means our inward sanctification or holiness affects, influences and impacts our families, work colleagues and the world at large according to God’s perfect will.

We are effective Ambassadors as citizens of the Kingdom of God under the rule and government of God.

God’s children are individually a “house” that God builds to make a difference in each life on earth and His world in general.

You and I are the “house” that God builds daily and declares through us that “the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and His Christ”(Rev. 11:15)

©Deborah Nyamekye 9/05/2016

At the Altar of Sacrifice

What does living sacrificially for God really mean?

image

As believers in Jesus Christ, we have been called to not only bring ourselves to the altar of sacrifice as covenanted children of God, but also to bring all that belongs to us and all who we love to the altar of sacrifice. The term altar of sacrifice simply means committing ourselves, what is ours, people and things we love sacrificially to the LORD.

The use of the word “altar” here is in reference to Abraham and how he obeyed God by preparing to sacrifice his son Isaac at the altar as he would do a ram or a goat. It was when he was about to kill his son Isaac that God stopped him and provided a ram as a substitute.

God then said “16..Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that 17 I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants[a] beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies.18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.” (Gen. 22:16-17NLT).

As in Abraham’s case, it is evident that it is not enough being covenanted or surrendered to God as Abraham was, He requires us to covenant or surrender all that we cherish to him.

God also led me to think further about what else constitutes a sacrificial life unto God. What came to mind is the fact that our calling is to not only love God but others sacrificially.

As much as we love God unreservedly or sacrificially and we love ourselves as a result, we are also called to love others, believers and non believers, unconditionally.

“Jesus replied, “..,You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’””Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” (John 10:26-28 NLT). One’s “neighbour” is either a Christian or a non Christian.

Sadly many hold back from expressing love and therefore care for others because of past experiences of being hurt or rejected when they had done so. Some leaders have also developed the erroneous mindset that the mark of a good leader is one who ensures they show their authority by not being too familiar with their subordinates.

Jesus ate at table with his disciples, washed their feet and allowed one of them John to rest on his bosom. Jesus did these things and more to demonstrate that in the Kingdom of God the mark of a great and true leader is one who is not afraid to demonstrate humility and love to those they lead.

One can give all one’s goods to the poor and manifest diligence in Godly service and have gifts of prophecy among others, but if one is not demonstrating the sacrificial God kind of love them one is actually not pleasing God. The Apostle Paul expressed it in this manner to the Corinthians

“If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.” (1 Corinth. 13:2 NLT).

Jesus who died a sacrificial death for mankind said “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13NLT).

Jesus taught as follows “…I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!” (Matthew 5:44 NLT)

It is worthy to note Jesus used the word “friend” in Matthew 5:44. Indeed it is sacrificial to “lay down one’s life” for someone who is not even blood related to us and also for our enemies. It means we are willing to go the extra mile in terms of demonstrating unconditional love and kindness towards them.

Jesus was criticised by the Jewish religious leaders for keeping company with “many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners…” (Mark 2:15-16 NLT).

If we are able to love sacrificially despite being at the risk of making ourselves vulnerable and therefore open to criticism and rejection, then we are truly manifesting sacrificial behaviour for the sake of God as Christ did, hence affirming our love for God.

The Apostle John said “If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?” (1 John 4:20 NLT).

Let us always remember brethren that what constitutes genuine sacrificial living before God “at the altar of sacrifice” includes but goes beyond what we normally think of as sacrifice which is the giving of ourselves, all that belongs to us i.e. those we love, to God.

In fact the affirmation of whether we are true Children of God who please God is determined by how we relate to our fellow human beings.

Therefore Brethren, when we are committed to doing all that we desire to do as living sacrifices unto God, let us remember that God places great significance on how we conduct our interpersonal relationships on a day to day basis. May He help us in our weakness.

Poem – Altar of Sacrifice

At the altar of sacrifice
I arise from the fall,
surrendering before God,
I give Him my all.

My all is giving of my heart
and that is where I start.

My all is offering what’s so dear
’cause of reverential fear of God.

At the altar of sacrifice,
I give my all
to stand tall before the LORD.

My all is loving mankind
as I am loved by God
who is one of a kind.

My all is giving up my life for
friends and praying for my foes.

Always ready to pay a price,
I surrender all
at the Altar of Sacrifice.

©Deborah E.Nyamekye 11/06/2016