In His Presence..........

The oxford dictionary describes gossip as a casual or unconstrained conversation or report about other people typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true. Backbiting is described as a malicious talk about someone who is not present, and Slander is the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation. I am sure many of us in time past or presently have been involved in one way or the other in gossip, backbiting or slander, they all point to the same thing which is talking about others in a negative way behind their backs, which most times is not confirmed as true. I am guilty of this sin, writing about it doesn’t mean I am innocent, but I know God hates it and he is dealing with me in this aspect, so I’m learning but not there yet. What does the bible say about gossip? Here are some verses in the bible about gossip, back biting and slander James 3; 5-6 ‘And so the tongue is a small part of the body yet it carries great p...

Have you ever been at the beach, scribbled something on the sand and then the waves from the sea comes ashore, wipes off completely what had been written and there is no sign of it at all? This is exactly what happens when our sins have been washed away in the blood of Jesus. There is no trace, no memory, it is completely washed away by the precious blood of Jesus. There is so much power in the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus washes away our sins and makes us clean, as white as snow. There is no remembrance of past sins when our sins have been washed by the blood of Jesus. The blood sets us free from the curse, which is caused by sin, so that we might receive the blessings of Abraham. It doesn’t matter how bad the sin is there is hope because God loves us so much and his mercies are new every morning. God is always willing to forgive us “Come now, let us reason together says the Lord though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they are like...

Have you ever been punk’d? if you were born after 2007, you probably don’t have a clue what I am referring to. Punk’d was one reality show I loved to watch. It was an American reality program that first aired in 2003, created by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, with Kutcher serving as producer and host of the program. Ashton Kutcher would play pranks on celebrities and when they have been fooled, believing the lie and already going with the flow. He will tell whoever “You have been punk’d”! Being punk’d referred to being the victim of such a prank. Now, imagine hearing those words from the Devil. I sincerely don’t wish this for anyone, not even my worst enemy (if there is such a person). But the sad truth is that this reality has played out in a lot of peoples after life. They died and Satan welcomed them laughing and mocking them saying “so you really believed all that lie!? Fool!”. The devil is a liar, and very deceptive. John 8; 44 ‘He was a killer from the very start....

Imagine this scenario. A master of a house was rushing out of his home in a bid to catch his flight or just prepare for a long journey , his assistant follows him behind asking some questions about work that needs to be done in his absence, and his driver was at the parking lot seated at his usual corner but he had dozed off. As the Master hurriedly gave instructions, the assistant asked about all the exotic cars parked in the garage, and the master replied, ‘please give all my cars to the driver, I wont be needing them any longer’. Unfortunately, the driver was deep in sleep he didn’t hear this all-important directive given to the master’s assistant by his master. When the driver woke up, he realised his master had gone on a long trip, but because he didn’t know his master had willed all his cars to him he still took public transport, and worked like he had done before because the assistant did not do what the master instructed him to do and he knew the driver was unaware of what ...

Then he said ‘Go borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbours- empty vessels; do not gather just a few. And when you have come in you shall shut the door behind you and your sons then pour it into all those vessels and set aside the full ones’ 2 Kings 4: 3-4 NKJV. A certain widow who was a wife of a prophet who had died came to Elisha for help. Her husband had died but left his family in debt and the creditor was coming to take her two sons as slaves. Elisha asked her what she had and she said she only had a jar of oil, then Elisha asked her to go and borrow empty vessels not a few but a lot , shut the door, and fill them with the oil she had. The widow of Zarephath kept filling the empty vessels with the little oil she had and the oil kept flowing, but the moment the empty vessels finished the oil stopped flowing. As a business woman when I read this story I couldn’t help but think what if she had borrowed all the empty vessels in the country, she would have not on...

A few days ago, as I was watching TBN and the preacher was talking about failure and how we as Christians constantly fail and get back up again. He also quoted that ‘Christians will continue to fail until we become just like Christ’. And I thought to myself ‘fail always?’ ‘Ah no oh, I can’t fail because God didn’t promise me that, ‘I will not fail’, ‘I am not going to fail’. I was already beginning to feel very uncomfortable with the sermon, so I didn’t watch it to the end. As   I went about my day that same day I heard God say to me have you forgotten how you fail almost every second of the day? yes you fail in your thoughts and in the meditations of your heart and they are loud before me. It was not the outward failure that the preacher was referring to, it was failure in our hearts, because God does not judge us outwardly but inwardly. I realised suddenly that oh yes! I do fail every day, and if God judges us inwardly and not outwardly like man does Ah! I probably fail e...

Our God is a God of order, he does everything orderly. Its easy to think that as Christians we are walking orderly until God begins to show us ourselves, then we will be amazed at how disorderly our lives have been. Christians are expected to be good Soldiers, stand in battle formation, keep rank and march on to victory, but a Christian will not be able to stand if he cannot keep rank. Keeping rank in the army does not come naturally, a lot of hard work and discipline is required to mold a Soldier that would be able to keep rank in battle. For Christians to keep rank we must not be fainthearted or be of double heart (1 Chronicles 12:33), because it is the Lord who fights our battles and wins the war, but when we fail to keep rank we give the enemy a foothold in our lives. As a church we also give the enemy a foothold because just one man breaking rank and deserting his duty post can be disastrous to the whole operation. When our lives are out of order we break rank and give t...

A lot of Christians often desire to have spiritual gifts which isn’t bad, God has distributed them to us freely. Paul mentioned them in 1 Corinthians 12: 8-10. The word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, different kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues, gifts of helping and gifts of administration. Paul wanted us as Christians to desire the best gift but he knew that having these spiritual gifts wasn’t a sure way to make heaven, please God or even fulfil God’s will and purpose for our lives. There was a more excellent way. 1 Corinthians 13. Love is the more excellent way. Anytime we are doing the work of God without love we are simply wasting our time and just making a lot of noise, so when we preach or pray in tongues, we are just making noise if the underlying foundation is not love. This kind of people are like the people Jesus was referring to in Matthew 7:22 who did many wonders for Jesus...

Philippians 4:6 ‘ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’ NKJV. I remember reading this verse of scripture earlier this year and it was as if a light bulb lit up in my head. ‘So why have I been anxious all these years?’ I thought 'if my life is in alignment with God’s will and I have thanked God genuinely from my heart and made my request known to him I need to trust that God is in control'. Before then, I had spent time with God and prayed all night about some issues but I was still anxious about some things after all the prayers. Aren’t we all like this? When we have bills to pay and don’t know where the money will come from, when we have unmet targets and the deadline is coming soon, unmet expectations, for women feeling we are not pretty enough or slim enough, for the ...