14TH FEBRUARY! EXPAND THE KINGDOM.

February 14th is widely celebrated as Valentine’s Day. There are many histories surrounding Valentine and its origin but one thing stands out, it is that it is a day of love celebration. Lovers expressed their affections with greetings, wishes and gifts. 

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

There is a great Lover Who wants to exchange something with you today. He is relentless in His pursuit after you. He has come all the way from His pristine domain to this filthy and corrupted world in search of you. Although this world was created by Him, when He came, He was not received by anyone. Even His very people, the Israelites, through whom He came, rejected Him. But if you can receive Him today, He will give you the right to have His Life. Yes, His very Life. For “as many as received him, to them gave he power (right and authority) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). And whosoever has this life, even though he dies, he shall live again. This is what He wants to exchange with you. A life that is victorious over the greatest enemy: death. 

He is so after anyone who can receive Him to an extent that someone says “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?” This statement was made because He is far higher than man and He should have nothing to do with him. He is the Creator of all things and He should be in need of nothing. However, He was seen in pursuit of man. 

He has chosen to express and give out Himself. Therefore He created man with the hope that man would choose and accept Him so that he could receive Him. 

But man chose the devil and rejected His Creator. He rejected his real Love, His “Maker and his husband. The Lord of hosts, the Redeemer and the holy One of Israel.” He rejected what God was offering Him; He refused the gift of the life of God and went after the gift of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Receiving this gift from the devil, man was radically and intrinsically changed and distorted. He was robbed of the purpose of his creation and started drawing away from the Lover of his soul. He has so much drawn away from his Lover today that he has completely forgotten Him. And more terribly, there are many who do not even know that their Creator exists let alone the reason He created them. But can the created exists without a creator? 

So one of His messenger says “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Romans 3:10,11). 

The predicament of man was so terrible. Not only was he drawn way and was lost, but he also did not know he was lost. At such, recovery was impossible for him. He could not as much as reason that he needed to be saved. It did not occur to him that he should seek after God. He could not tell anything about life. For he was born blind and therefore could not know if there is anything called light. And even when told of it, he could hardly relate with it, having never seen it before. 

So man in his lost state did not even know his condition so he could not think about getting delivered. He however began seeking every other thing except God. And the devil has successfully replaced his real need with every other mundane thing that cannot fill his void and emptiness. The more he is offered these beggarly things of the world, the emptier he becomes, even more restless and unsatisfied. 

God Whom he had rejected is now is only hope of recovery. He is the only One that can occasion his deliverance because He is the only One with his knowledge. And if God should leave man on his own, he will never think about his salvation. He would forever be shut in darkness. 

In this state of extreme weariness of man, this Lover again showed His love. Romans 5:6-8 says:

 “For when we were yet without strength, in due  time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in  that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” 

The love displayed here is even greater than the first one before man rejected Him. Man is now no longer on God’s side. He has now become His enemy and with the archenemy, the devil and are both fighting against God and His purpose. Yet in this state of quagmire, God extends and commends His love to him once again even though it now has to cost Him His life. Is there any love greater than this? He has not just laid His life for you because you are of Him. Even when you do not belong to Him, He offers Himself to you. Will you receive this priceless gift today? Will you accept this life today and also be ready to offer yourself to Him a living sacrifice? 

You may not know that He is the Reality you need until you receive Him. It is when He begins to shine His light on you that you will realize you have been in darkness since your existence. And you actually have not been living but dying. Quit indulging in what deepens you emptiness and expands your vacuity and accept the real love that will satisfyingly fill your soul today. Jesus loves you! 

1 JOHN 5

As Christians, people who profess that Jesus Christ is the Lord which by implication means we are born of God, we must love one another because everyone who loves God, loves His children (1 John 5:1). And what does it mean to love God? It means to keep His commands (1 John 5:3a).

God's commands are actually for our own good. Thou shall not steal, thou shall not kill, thou shall not commit adultery, love thy neighbour as you love thyself. When you keep all these, you will be at peace with God, yourself and everyone around you. Guilt, fear, anxiety, regret, will have no place in your life. And the Bible tells us that when you keep these commands, it is proof that you love God and by extension, you love His children (1 John 5:2-3). When you love someone you wouldn’t want to do things that will displease the person or cause the person discomfort.

Now we know that the flesh wouldn’t want to keep God's commands. The flesh would want to live life anyhow and do things anyhow without caring about their negative effects. And so the flesh will see these commands as a burden, as something impossible. But the Bible tells us that whatever has been born of God conquers the world, conquers the flesh and its desires. Therefore, God's commands will be easy to follow. And we as Christians, have conquered the world by reason of the fact that we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God—through our faith, we have conquered the world (1 John 5:3-5). 

Verses 6 to 9 go on to restate the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and God testified to this Himself. And whosoever believes in Him, has this testimony within him/her. Whosoever doesn’t believe has rendered God a liar. And what is this testimony? That God has granted us everlasting life and this life is in His Son—whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16b), I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), I am come to give life and to give it more abundantly (John 10:10b). Verse 12 summarises it all by saying that whoever has Jesus has life and whoever doesn’t have Jesus doesn’t have life! 

“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us” 1 John 5:14 KJV. From this we learn that for our prayers to be heard, we must ask—ask and it shall be given unto you (Matthew 7:7a; Luke 11:9a); if you ask for anything in My Name, I will do it (John 14:13-14; John 15:7). And secondly, what we are asking for must be according to His will. These are the major components of effective prayers. Much as we are to ask, we should endeavour to make sure that what we ask for is the will of God. Recall when Christ was teaching His disciples to pray, His opening words were “Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done...” Also recall when Christ walked on earth, during His lowest moments when His time to go to the cross was drawing near, He asked God to take it away from Him but after He asked and above what He asked, He said that let God's will be done and not His. And do you know what? God's will was that Christ will be nailed to the cross to save mankind so He didn’t take away that part for the sake of His Son, no. He let Him go to the cross for the fulfilment of His will. Therefore, we should bear in mind that when we ask outside God's will, our prayers will not be heard because God's will takes pre-eminence. It must be done. Even Christ, God the Son Himself acknowledged this fact. Many at times we may find ourselves consistently asking for a particular thing and it seems to keep delaying, it seems as if we haven’t prayed or fasted enough. We must also bear it in mind that it may also mean that it isn’t the will of God. Either that it isn’t the will of God at all and it will never be answered or it isn’t the will of God for it to be delivered unto us at the time and so we would have to wait. Whatever the case, the foundation of all our prayers should always be the will of God.

Verses 16 and 17 enjoin us to be our brother's keeper—where we see a Christian committing sin, it is our duty to pray for him/her, that God may restore life to him/her. Therefore when a Christian stumbles, it will be wrong for us to cut him/her off or laugh at them. This is in line with the opening verses of this chapter where we are commanded to love the brethren. It is by reason of this love that we will pray for anyone who has derailed. By doing this, we are portraying our love for God and displaying that we are Christ-like in deed. God is love and it is by reason of this that He gave us His Son, Jesus to die for our sins. God saw that we were in sin, He didn’t turn away from us, He didn’t condemn us. Instead He sent His Son to redeem us, to pick us up from the pit of sin. Now if we say that we are of God and we love Him, we must in turn extend this hand of love to the brethren.

The concluding verses of this chapter proceed to list out certain key truths that we must know: that as Christians and they who are born of God, we do not sin. This means that we aren’t to continue in sin, we are new creatures in Christ and we are to remain free of sin. 

Next, we are of God while the world is controlled by the devil. This is to serve as a warning that we may face persecution or situations where our faith will be put to test. In these cases, if we remember that we are of God but the world isn’t, we will not fail.

Next is that we should know that Jesus Christ has come and has given us understanding so that we may know God, and we are in Him. He is the true God and He is everlasting life. If we are ever conscious of this, we will not stray from the path of righteousness.

Lastly, we are to guard ourselves from idols. Idols come in many forms. Whatsoever thing we prioritize above God becomes an idol. It can be money, a job, your marriage, just name it. It is our duty to always be on guard and ensure that God remains number one in our lives.

LOVE AND BE RICH

All scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

1 Corinthians 12:31

“But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way.”

Immediately the Bible finished talking about the different gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, it moved on to talk about a more excellent way, which of course was discussed in the following chapter. The subject of 1 Corinthians 13 is love. Therefore, love is the more excellent way. For it does not matter how rich one is in the gifts of the Holy Spirit or in any other material possession, without love, such riches are counted as nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3 says:

“And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

Every gift offered must be motivated and fueled by love for it to be profitable both to the giver and the receiver. In essence, love must precede giving for it to be acceptable before God. Because of this, the Bible refers to love as a more excellent way. 1 Corinthians 13:8 says:

“Love never fails; but if there are gifts…they will be done away.”

Every display of riches will fade with time, but love never fails or fades. It rather endures forever. To make the works wrought by riches to endure forever, you must let them be founded upon love. 

In comparison, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:13:

“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE.”(Emphasis added). 

Meanwhile, the word of the Lord says without faith, it is impossible to please God. Yet, it says love is greater than faith; than pleasing God, because God Himself is love. So, whatever you do must be on the basis of love. That is, must have God as its foundation that it might last forever. And about hope, Romans 5:5 says:

“Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” 

Therefore, hope still rests on love as its assurance or foretaste. 

Now, as much as love is important, it will be impractical without riches. Riches are meant to give expression to love. For instance, talking about being rich in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, if there is a sick person that needs healing, merely showing the sick person love in words will not be sufficient. The best love that can be shown this sick person is love in deed; which is healing the person. But the person who is trying to show love will be incapacitated if he or she is not rich in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In such case, love can neither be expressed nor received. Such love is not the one recommended by the Bible. It says in 1 John 3:18:

“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”

The same was done by God. Ephesians 2:4-5,8 reads:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God”

God loved us while we were yet sinners. However, He did not just speak about how He loved us and left it at that. But He also expressed the love according to how rich He is in mercy by sending Jesus Christ His only begotten Son for our salvation. The riches of the mercy of God helped us to know how much He loved us. Without it, we could not have thought that the love of God could be shown to those who were hostile to Him. Romans 5:6-8 says, 

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

By this act, we are able to see how much God loves us. So John 15:13 says: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Meanwhile, Jesus laid down His life not for his friends but His enemies. That was a love beyond comprehension. But all this was received by us because of the riches of God. By that, He was able to give full expression to His love. 

It is good to pursue love, as the most excellent way. But it will be crippled if there are no riches to give expression to it. This cuts across every area of life. Be it in ministering to the needy, preaching the gospel, healing the sick and all human relationships. It is therefore imperative to pursue love and at the same time make it a necessity to be rich in all areas. Or does the Scripture not say “EARNESTLY DESIRE the greater gifts?” (1 Corinthians 12:31, Emphasis added). And in Ephesians 4:28, the apostle counselled some of the Ephesian Christians and said:

“He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, SO THAT HE WILL HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE WITH ONE WHO HAS NEED.” (Emphasis added). 

To share is an act of love. But it will be practically impossible to share things with others when you are poor yourself. Therefore Paul encouraged the believers to labour with their own hands what is good and be rich to supply themselves and others to fully express their love.

LOVE MATTERS!!! 6 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WOW

One of the greatest ability that God has given to man is the ability to relate with his own kind. Though this ability isn't an exclusive reserve of mankind as animals also relate with their own kind, but that of human is usually more organize. By relationship here I mean "the way in which two people or two groups feel about each other and behave towards each other" (Longman Dictionary). But basically in this short piece I am referring to a relationship between a young man and a young woman(lady) working together toward getting married. Or a strong feelings, sense of care and concern that exist between an unmarried opposite sex.

Relationship with the opposite sex is one of the most amazing relationship among all other forms of relationship among humans. God has naturally implant something in the inside of virtually every human being with the innate desire to relate with the opposite sex. This is even irrespective of whether they are on a journey to getting married or not. It is just natural for instance, for a lecturer in a university to prefer talking to his female rather than male students even without any string attach. This innate desire begin right from the teenage stage. This natural craving is what use to lead to what is called 'boy friend/girl' friend relationship right from primary or secondary school.  While this desire is innate it's important to note that, the desire in it own self isn't anything bad because God consciously created us with such desire. Just as I pointed out in chapter one of my book "TEN ESSENTIALS FOR RISING TO THE TOP" that, human beings are creatures of desires. However, this innate desire must be carefully control in such a way as not to lead to self destruction.

I have carefully noticed right from my senior secondary school days, that this kind of relationship I am referring to in this article is responsible for so many bright individuals full of amazing potentials not reaching to their dreams in life. This is largely because both the teenagers and even the matured young people seems to be carried away by the sweetness of the relationship to the detriment of their future. It even somehow make relationship to be some kind of 'bad thing' in way. While I must confess that Godly relationship with the opposite sex is such an awesome deal, but that's only if you know how to play the game very well.

If you're in a relationship or planning to begin or even married, then this article is absolutely for you & your fiancée/fiancé. Because I will expose you to six key ways on how to make your relationship wow(amazingly sweet, fruitful, productive and profitable). Therefore, follow me closely as you grasp this wealth of ideas that will skyrocket you and that of your intended spouse to the TOP.

1. Clearly define the purpose of your relationship.

It was late Dr Myles Munroe of blessed memory that says "When purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable". In other word if you don't know the purpose of a thing then it becomes certain that you will abuse it. This therefore call for the need to clearly define the purpose of your relationship. Why are you in the relationship you're? What are the values that drive your relationship? There are so many reasons why people enter into relationship with an opposite sex. Some go into relationship for economic reasons. For instance accepting to 'love' a young man or a young lady simply because she/he is financially buoyant- has a lot of money to throw around for you, is economic. That's to say the purpose of such a relationship is simply to satisfy your economic needs. Some people go into relationship on political grounds. For instance, a young man that has political ambition may like to go into relationship with a lady whose father is a well known influential politician. A lot of 'amazing' reasons abound for going into relationship. Some could even be to gain social acceptance. If all your friends are into relationship, you may find out that you need to be in one for you to flow with them. The most tragic one is the one predicated on satisfying sexual needs. In my humble opinion, the leading purpose of any  relationship should be to marry. Going into relationship on economic, political, social or sexual reasons will be disastrous because ones such desire is fulfilled, the relationship is likely to brake off. But relationship on the ground of wanting to marry is good because marriage itself is a life long journey. At this point, I must say that you need not go into any intimate relationship with the opposite sex so long as you're not ready to marry. A students in secondary school or in his early university or collage days has no need for dating/courtship. All he/she direly need is to focus on attaining academic excellence & developing sound relationship with God first.

2. Control the frequency of your communication.

As I made mentioned from the introduction, it's always nice talking to an opposite sex, particularly the one you love. The necessity for having a smooth regular communication can therefore never be overemphasized. However, this must be regulated. It isn't uncommon to find young people spending nights chatting with their boy friend/girl friend. Some don't even have time for any relevant or productive activity other than talking/chatting with their 'love'. In the mornings, afternoons, nights & in fact every time is OK for them to communicate in as much as there is air time or data in their mobile phones. Tragically sometimes this happen even in worship centers like Churches & other fellowship gatherings. It's very common to find some chatting with their 'love' when lecture/class in going on. Having no concern on whether they understand what their teachers,  or  pastors are teaching or not. Our mobile service providers 'made' this worse by providing some bonazas on calls & data.

At this point I must say that, if you want to have a fruitful relationship you have to limit the frequency of your communications. For instance you could collectively decide that you will be communicating daily within the limit of one to two hours & be disciplined enough to abide by it. Failure to this may land your relationship into the den of poverty, life failure & destruction. Limiting how much you communicate will help to make you desire each other more, let you have adequate time for your personal development, be it academically, financially, spiritually & any otherwise.

3. Developing your individual self.

To enjoy a fruitful relationship, you must individually work at developing yourselves. What happens in courtship or dating relationship & indeed any kind of relationship is separate individuals coming together to share their experiences, gifts, talents, knowledge & resources . The quality of your relationship therefore is the reflection of the quality of your individual lives. As in the word of a relationship expert "God has sent you — your faith, your gifts, and your experience — into other believers’ lives for their good". That's is to say your entire life is sent to another person to make him better. A person that's struggle with sins like lust, mastubation, prayerlessness, stealing etc & academic or business failure is likely to inject such virus to his partner. If the activities that characterize your relationship is too casual or even sinful, that simply explain your lives at an individual level. But if you develop yourself in personal prayers, Bible studies, general studies, business, academics & your general relationship with people such will naturally showcase in your courtship/dating. If you have love, respect & value for people generally, you're likely to do same to your spouse. If you're impatient as a person you're likely to be impatient in your relationship. If you're a failed person in life you're like to have a failed relationship. Therefore work at developing yourself.

4. Have a balance between romance & other self development activities.

Romance is inarguably crucial in dating/courtship. But certainly relationship must not be rooted on romance. Learn to inculcate other activities that will enhance your lives such as praying&fasting together, studying Bible and other inspirational books together & where possible invest in business together. This will build in you similar thought pattern and general world view. You will begin to think & act in the same direction. You will be having less arguments & disagreement because you're building your minds, spirits, souls & bodies together. You could decide for instance to be reading at least two books in a month together, pray & fast ones & twice in a month regularly etc. I must however state that all these are easier said than done. It requires a lot of discipline. If you base your relationship on romance you will definitely discover by the time you marry that, you need more than romance to keep the marriage going healthy. I must say here that, you need to heavily invest in knowledge acquisition together. Though this may not be that easy but is really very sweet. My fiancée & I for instance have benefit so much on this. Recently we studied a book titled "The Power & Purpose of Love & Marriage". It was too fantastic reading & discussing the book together.

5. Set a boundary for your action & inaction

Don't accept to be doing just anything your heart so desired in the relationship. You have to set limits. Should you entertain kissing, hugging, caressing, sex, etc? You have to clearly define what to do & not do. Following the precepts of God as written in His word will be a good guide on this.

"Abstain from all appearance of evil." 1Thes. 5:22

Anything that is evil or look like evil you must desist from it. Sex & caressing for instance should be a no go area. "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality..." (Eph. 5:3).

Kissing in it own self isn't a sin but it could lead you to sin. So you have to decide whether you will permit kissing or not. Asides studying Gods word, seeking for counsel from godly & matured people could help a lot.

6. Discuss your life purpose/future ambition together.

Discussing your life purpose and or future ambition will also help you have a fruitful, productive & effective relationship. This you will do by helping yourself with advice on how to achieve them.

Written by:

UMAR Philip