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Posts Tagged ‘Systems’

Do it yourself

12 Dec

My wife and I are blessed with a wonderful and beautiful 4-year old. But there are times I refuse to do things for her that I feel she should be able to do herself. Being a child, she likes to push the boundary and ask for help when I know she should not. Even when she genuinely thinks she cannot do something and tells me so, I tell her, “never say I can’t.” Usually, she finds out she could, after reluctantly trying.

Most of us run to God our Father for every thing having been equipped with the wherewithal to make things happen in our lives and in the world. Two interesting episodes happened in the scriptures. The children of Israel were faced with the Red Sea just after coming out of Egypt and Moses went to God on their behalf. God responded by saying, “Why are you crying to me? Tell the people to move forward.” Into the Red Sea? Yes. “By now, you should know that the Red Sea is not big enough to stand before your God, shouldn’t you? You have also been given a rod (representing God”s word) with which to do signs and wonders, so what is your problem?” – paraphrased. The other episode was when the disciples came to Jesus with the problem of feeding five thousand people in a desert place. Jesus said to them, “give ye them to eat!” Effectively, he expected them to feed the people, just the way He went on to do!

Obviously, God expects us to operate in His class. He is looking for people like Elijah who decreed no rain nationwide, “except by my word.” Elijah did not even say “Thus saith the Lord…” yet most of us wait for God to heal us when he already has! We pray for demons to stop terrorizing our communities when our very presence should terrorize them since they are under our feet. We pray for financial breakthrough when we carry the very blessing of Abraham and through us the world is meant to be blessed rather than us depending on the world for daily bread.

The message in church has been about system breakers and I so love it. However, God is not the system breaker, we are. We will forever remain under the dominion of the systems of this world if we are waiting for God to break the systems that keep us bound. He simply won’t.  Like a good Father, He would not do for us what He has equipped us for. We have been more than equipped by the finished work of Christ to dominate any system in the world and if we don’t learn to do it ourselves, God will not do it for us. How do we do it? Start small. Address headache first, without having to call on God. If you miss it, do it again since practice makes perfect. Then go on to bigger issues.

 

–Tolu

 
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One problem, two approaches

03 Dec

There are two primary governing systems in the world today: the world system and God”s kingdom, both of which require expertise. Believers have a peculiar challenge of growing up in the world system but expected to live in it as people from another kingdom. Jesus is our primary example of living in this world as one from another world. He faced the same challenges as the people around Him
but He handled it differently every time. We may consider Jesus’ works mysterious miracles but to Jesus, they were neither mysterious nor miracles. They were just actions with predictable outcomes, because He was learned in the ways of God.

The system we tap into when we are confronted with challenges of life depends on which we have expertise in. If I am skilled in kingdom principles, I will not seek to borrow when confronted with lack. I will do what the kingdom says – “give and it shall be given into you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over” and I will speak to the mountain of lack. If not, I will borrow money or work harder and meditate and talk about my lack, further compounding it.

If I have a disease in my body and I am unskilled in kingdom principles, I will consult the world’s healthcare system which is evidently a failure and is driven by greed. If I am learned in God’s ways, I will use God”s failure proof system of speaking faith-filled words to diseases. Sadly, many Christians are neither learned in the ways of the world – survival of the fittest, nor in the ways of God – faith that works by love. This makes us largely irrelevant in society. Our relevance in society depends on learning and applying the ways of God.

The disciples were not learned in the ways of the world but they turned the world upside down. Jesus did not go to Medical school, yet he knew how to accurately heal people. Elisha did not learn to produce marketable oil in school. Joseph spent his school years in slavery and prison yet he emerged from prison to run the world empire of his days. As believers, we have access to a system that has an infinitely superior solution to every challenge.

Why be in God”s kingdom if we still live like we are under the dominion of an inferior system? Why be a free man if I continue to live like a prisoner? Learn the principles of God”s kingdom and stop applying the ineffective ways of the world. The more you learn the ways of God, the more you realize how dead and impotent the world’s system is and the more you dominate it.We learn by diligently reading, studying, meditating and putting to practice God’s word and if that were easy, every Christian would be like Christ. But thank God it is easy because Jesus said so and He has given us His own Spirit to help us.

–Tolu

 
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Who do you think you are?

29 Nov

One thought that struck me from last Sunday was the importance of knowledge in breaking systems. It is clear from scriptures that God’s children, whom Jesus and God unequivocally referred to as gods, perish because of their ignorance. As Prophetess Wilson said, the strongholds are in the mind and knowledge is what we need to demolish them. We fail in life not for lack of power or opportunities but for lack of knowledge.

I believe one knowledge that will make a difference to our lives and to our world, is knowledge of our identity. It is impossible to rule any system, not even the systems in our own bodies without deep seated knowledge of who we are. The good thing about this knowledge is that when you possess it, your days of struggling are over. Even evil spirits will recognize your authority, whether or not you have a title, because titles do not count in the spirit, knowledge does. They know who to respect and who to molest.

Knowledge of your identity confers confidence, making you like Jesus, who never struggled with any disease, demon or circumstance. With just one word or sentence, oppositions bowed to Him. He did not even need to pray before the tomb of Lazarus. I was once informed by my boss after our annual appraisal at work, that I would not be promoted. Even though I needed the extra income, I promptly announced that I will not even pray about it. Mysteriously, I was promoted. I got drunk with the knowledge of my identity and that some things are so already mine that prayer will be a waste. Rather, I should praise God.

Obviously, we do not come about system-breaking knowledge by spending hours on TV or Facebook but by meditation in God’s word, day and night. It was pointed out on Sunday that meditation is not emptying the mind but actually muttering the word, and in a sense, “brainwashing” oneself with it. Joshua did this and became so confident that the Almighty showed up with a drawn sword near Jericho and Joshua fearlessly asked, “are you for us or for our adversaries?” I think God must have thought “Now, that is my child.” Another time, Joshua became so sure of his identity that he commanded the sun and the moon to stand still and they promptly obeyed. This is what meditation does to you. Meditate on your identity and watch life become an exciting adventure day in day out.

I count my worldly education garbage compared to the overwhelming preciousness of the knowledge of my identity in Christ. I am determined to lay aside every weight and sin that so easily beset me in order to pursue this knowledge because system-breaking knowledge, not worldly knowledge, is what we will need in the truly exciting days ahead.

 

– Tolu

 
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Occupy Wall Street

25 Nov

I passed by Montreal’s Square Victoria earlier in the week and saw tents set up by the Occupy Montreal protesters, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street. While I do not think their beliefs are based on truth nor their methods effective, I salute them for acting on their belief.  They want more equitable wealth distribution and they are using the tools in their arsenal. They are mad about injustice and are doing something about it. They are clearly not religious folk, because they are full of action.

Jesus made this very provocative and apt statement, “The children of this world are wiser in their own generation than the children of light.”

Here is the body of Christ, seated with Christ in the heavenly places far above any establishment or the powers that run the world’s system from behind the scenes. Here is a group of people who have been given full rights to the name above all names, in which is invested all power in heaven and on earth. Here is a group of people, just one of whom can do greater miracles than Jesus Christ did on earth. Yet, we do not use the mighty tools in our arsenal. Instead of taking the battle to the gates and subduing the principalities, powers and spiritual wickedness in high places that are clearly under our feet, we fight each other, when just a command from only one of us can turn the destiny of a nation overnight, like Elijah and Elisha did, under an inferior covenant.

Years ago, the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa decided to stop a worldwide conference of witches which was scheduled to take place in his city, Benin City, Nigeria. On live TV before a representative of the witches he announced, “the meeting of witches is cancelled” – paraphrased. The witch said, “even if God comes down, it will hold”. Idahosa replied with confidence borne out of an understanding of his identity, “God does not need to come down, I am here.” I hope you will not be surprised to learn that the conference was cancelled. One man took his place and the devil (imagine the extent of evil power and machinery behind a global conference of witches!) backed down. Talk about a system breaker. If he could, I can, you can and together we can.

Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Montreal may be pedestrian from our viewpoint but at least they are not just talking. In unison, they are acting on what they know. When will we start acting on, not merely confessing “Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world?” When will we stop conforming to the world around us and start experiencing real, even if gradual transformation into Christ’s image? When will we start bearing each other’s burdens and faults and building each other up instead of fighting and tearing each other down? When?

–Tolu

 
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Grow up!

21 Nov

The finished work of Christ guaranteed that when we believed, we became new spirits, born of God, fully capable of acting like God. That is why as mature spirits, when we speak to disease in faith, the disease thinks Christ spoke to it and leaves. Likewise when we speak to mountains, trees, storms or evil spirits, they obey us, as they would Christ. It is also why we can be holy like God. Holiness is behaving like God, not being religious.

However, new birth suggests babyhood. Regardless of potential , newborns are wholly powerless. If you saw Samson as a baby, he would have been completely at the mercy of his environment. Napoleon Bonaparte who helped shape world history, must have been powerless as a baby. When you get born again, although predestined for Christlikeness, you are a baby, totally at the mercy of  the systems of the world, as Bishop Burton said last Sunday. A baby conforms to its environment and can be easily destroyed if not protected. Little wonder baby Jesus was whisked away to Egypt.

As a baby spirit, the systems around me will dominate me, unless I grow up. If my environment says it is okay to sin once in a while, I will soak it up. If my environment says I am the righteousness of God, I will conform. If my environment says it is okay to be jobless and dependent on the welfare system, I will conform. As a grown up new creation however, I act, talk and think like Christ, in my specific area of calling, so I am a natural system breaker, like Jesus.

How do I grow? Unlike physical development, time is not a big factor in spiritual development. In spiritual things, I can mature in an area of my life in very little time. We grow spiritually through consistent nutrition (knowledge) and prescribed exercises (obedience), which is also a function of knowledge. The scriptures say the new man is “renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” We are transformed into the image of Christ by knowledge. Without knowledge, we will be dominated by the systems around us, instead of dominating them.

Much more than what we hear on Sundays, knowledge is revelation we receive in personal word studies Sunday through Saturday. The good thing about revelation knowledge is that it drives you to action, just as faith drives you to speak like God. As faith is dead without works, so is knowledge not applied.

I am very far from Christlikeness, but I am determined to keep learning and acting on what I know. I vehemently refuse to remain a baby. Even if I fall while attempting to walk, I will rise up again for I know deep down that I will dominate world systems just like Jesus did. I was born to do it, and I will grow into it by learning and doing.

–Tolu

 
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