Pray And Prepare; Work Hard And Have Faith
Posted on February 15, 2017 Leave a Comment
Greetings folks!
Permit me to share what I read during Bible Study this morning.
“God supplied manna to the hungry Israelites during their 40years in the wilderness (Exodus 16:14-31). In the bountiful Promised Land they no longer needed this daily food supply because the land was ready for planting and harvesting. God had miraculously provided food for the Israelites while they were in the wilderness; here he provided food from the land itself. Prayer is not an alternative to preparation, and faith is not a substitute for hard work. God can and does provide miraculously for his people as needed, but he also expects them to use their God-given talents and resources to provide for themselves. If your prayers have gone unanswered, perhaps what you need is within your reach. Pray instead for the wisdom to see it and the energy and motivation to do it.“
Quoted from the Life Application Study Bible (NLT), page 320, based on Joshua 5:11-12.
Many modern Christians, especially the ones in Africa, act as if all you have to do to succeed in life, as a child of God, is to pray, and God will work it all out for you. It is even worst when you hear some men of God preaching along those lines and misleading members of their congregation. But then again, as Christians, we are expected to search the scriptures daily to find out whether or not the sermons of the men of God are true. And if we search the scriptures, we will find passages like the above.
Thus, by all means pray and take your prayer life seriously because without prayer we will be lost. But we must also prepare ourselves for what we pray for. Even with prayer, we must prepare to pray. Someone will probably say how do you prepare to pray. Well, that is for another day but you need to know what you are praying about, you need to purge yourself of sin by asking God for forgiveness, etc. After you have prayed, make sure you work hard. Oh yes, you have to work hard and also have faith that God has already done it. So you cannot say you have faith and not do what is expected of you.
Worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth (Part 2)
Posted on February 9, 2017 Leave a Comment
Worshipping God must be done in spirit and in truth. The two go hand in hand. Truth means honesty, without any sin, with a pure heart. Thus, we must confess our sins to God and ask for His forgiveness. The truth is that God wants us to be close to Him so He is ever ready to forgive us of our sins when we confess them. 1 John 1:8-10 speaks about forgiveness and states that:
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
David talks about the joy that comes with forgiveness of sin. In Psalm 32: 1-2, he states:
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
David then goes ahead and talks about what he did when he sinned against God in Psalm 32:5. He states:
I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Because God wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth, He is expecting us to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness. As 1 John 1:8 says, if we say we have not sinned then the truth is not in us and if the truth is not in us, how can we worship God in truth? God is willing to forgive us and cleanse us of all iniquity of sin and unrighteousness but only if we confess our sins. If the Lord does not impute iniquity or hold you guilty anymore, and your spirit has no deceit then the way is cleared for the worship of God.
While I am on forgiveness, let me just touch on this issue: we need to forgive those who offend us just as Christ forgives us. If we forgive those who offend us, Christ also forgives them. Forgiveness is a critical tool in worshipping God because it prepares us to be in truth and takes away any advantage that Satan may have against us. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 states that:
Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
God is looking for true worshippers to worship Him. Worshippers who will worship God in spirit and truth and not flesh and lies and deceit. Let us aim to be true worshippers so that God can find us. Let is prepare our hearts when we come to worship to that we can truly worship God. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to lead our spirit into worship and let us ask God for forgiveness so that we can be pure in heart.
#AdvocateFor Christ
Worshipping God in Spirit and Truth (Part 1)
Posted on February 8, 2017 2 Comments
Many people have questions about how to worship God and in fact, some people, including my old ignorant self, thought worship was boring. My excuse was that worship songs were usually slow and I like to dance. But I found out later that worship was more than just slow songs.
In the story where Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water, a conversation ensued between them about where to worship God. According to the Samaritan woman, worshipping God had to take place on a particular mountain that her fathers had worshipped God but then the Jews had said that worshipping God ought to be in Jerusalem. After Jesus explained to her that she did not need the mountain or Jerusalem to worship God, He said this:
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipper will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. – John 4:23-24.
God is looking for true worshippers to worship Him. These are people who worship God in spirit and in truth. The scripture tells us that that is the proper way to worship God – in spirit and truth – because God is Spirit. Therefore, how do we worship God in spirit and truth.
Well, we are spirit beings and we have the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) dwelling in us and bearing witness. Therefore, our life must be worship to God. Also, when we pray and worship, we must allow the spirit to lead the prayer and worship. Paul says at 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 that:
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit and I will also sing with the understanding.
Thus, if we are worshipping God in spirit we must be able to pray in tongues. We should pray with the spirit and then sing with the spirit because if we pray in a tongue, our spirit prays. And if our spirit prays, it satisfies the requirement of worshipping God in spirit.
We also need to pray with our spirit i.e. tongues because we do not know what we should pray for. It is the spirit that knows exactly what we should ask for; that is why God requires our worship to be in spirit and not in flesh. Romans 8:27 states that:
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.
Therefore, let us allow the Spirit to help us in our weaknesses and to make intercession for us when we pray.
#AdvocateForChrist
Ministry of Reconciliation
Posted on January 31, 2017 Leave a Comment
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 KJV
What I got from today’s devotion (in addition to what was in ODB) was that we have been given a ministry of reconciliation. And that we are ambassadors of Christ on earth and we are to minister the word of reconciliation – which is the gospel or the good news.
The word of reconciliation is a message of love, salvation, forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Love because the Scriptures tell us that for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to die for us so that He can bring us back to Himself and have that amazing garden of Eden relationship with us. Salvation because through the love of God embodied in Christ, we are saved. Forgiveness of sins because God does not impute our trespasses to us. He washes us clean with the blood of Jesus. And eternal life because when we believe in Jesus Christ we are saved and have eternal life even though this flesh will die.
In fact, this is the same as the Great Commission, when Jesus told His disciples to go into the world and preach the good news to all creatures. The Scriptures tell us to minister to one another (especially unbelievers) as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. We should carry out our ministry of reconciliation so that when the Master returns He will say, well done thou good and faithful servant and entrust us with more things to do for Him.
#AdvocateForChrist
The Call To Ministry Is Simple – “Follow Me”
Posted on January 17, 2017 1 Comment
I just realised that my last blog post was such a long time ago – October 2016. To be honest, I have written down a number of things that I intended to share with you but unfortunately, I have not been able to find the time to do so. Yes, I know, that is no excuse and that I need to sit up and write because I know many of you look up to this blog for some inspiration – at least, that is the feedback I get and I do hope it is true. Anyway, enough of recounting my shortfalls but do say a prayer for me because I need grace to continue writing.
I wrote what I am about to share with you on 7 July 2016 after my Bible study and I think it is an appropriate message to begin the year with – at least on my blog. From the Bible study, I learnt that when God calls you to ministry, it is really a simple call. There is nothing complicated about the call to ministry. God has no major discussions with you or the people He calls to ministry. He simply says, “Follow Me.”
However, as human as we are, when we hear God calling us, we ask all the “unnecessary” questions especially, “how am I going to survive?” and “what am I going to do?” I think the answers to these questions are part of the call to ministry – that is we need to trust God to take care of all our anxieties and worries when we are called to ministry. In fact, we should simply drop all that we are doing and follow Him.
Matthew 4:19-20 gives us a clear example of what to do when God calls us. It states:
Then He said to them “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
The Scriptures tell us that Peter and Andrew, who were fishermen and were fishing at the time they were called by Jesus to follow Him, did not hesitate or ask the usual questions. They simply dropped what earned them a living and followed Jesus. They did not wait for a week or a month or a year. They followed Jesus immediately.
That is how God wants us to accept His call to ministry. We must drop our nets immediately, not worrying about tomorrow or anything and follow the Lord. And yes, He will make us fishers of men.
Now, I was encouraged by the level of faith shown by the disciples when they simply stopped what they did for a living and followed Jesus. I found their conduct to be quite challenging because it means I have to drop everything and trust Jesus. That is not an easy thing to do whilst on earth but very rewarding for the kingdom of God.
Our call to ministry may be to share the word of God with people at our places of work or in our neighbourhood or to live our lives as God would want us to live it and that may require dropping everything and following God. In all this, we need grace.
Written by Kow Essuman, Esq. ACIArb
The author is a barrister; qualified to practise law in England and Wales, New York and Ghana; an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in England; a Global Shaper (Accra Hub) of the World Economic Forum and a firm believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Official Website of Kow Essuman 