"DIS" PHENOMENON (PART 1)

I'M POSSIBLE (YES) ... IMPOSSIBLE (NO); same word, different views, different worlds.
Life is a function of your interpretations of the events it presents to you. Build your world by re-framing your words and attitude. Things might look down, but chose to look at them the other way. When men speak about casting down, chose to see lifting up.

What I called the "DIS" phenomenon should cease from your mind and your life. DIS is a prefix that when in place spoils everything good. It represents the opposite of good and great things. Look at these: it spoils obedience and turns it into DIS-obedience. It conceals appointment and turns it into DIS-appointments. It paralyzes courage and it becomes DIS-courage. It turns ability into DIS-abilities. With it advantage becomes DIS-advantages. What is this destiny monster I call "DIS"?

D=Disbelief (Lack of faith)

I=Indiscipline

S=Sin

When you overcome these 3 things, no demon or enemy can stop your destiny.

You are destined for a life of TRUE GREATNESS in God...and you shall succeed in Jesus' name.

ASSOCIATION VERSUS SALVATION

That you are associated with Jesus does not mean you are saved. Any time they talk about the two thieves on the cross they associate them with Jesus, for example: “And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left” (Mark 15:27)...But one still went to Hell. It thus means that Heaven is not by association, it is by salvation. Your association with Church and your membership in all the Church associations including ‘Good Women Association’, ‘Men Association’ etc, without salvation is express way to hell.

Where do you belong; do you have salvation or you have thrived on association? Association will put your name in the Church register but salvation will pen your name in God’s register, which is the book of life. Association will/can take you far but the farthest it can take you is to the judgement seat...but salvation will take you beyond the judgement seat, away from Hell, into Heaven.

Many have been associated with the Church from childhood, children church and choir, and gradually they spilled over into the adult Church and by association with the things of God they become established in the church. Some of them even rise and become music directors, elders, etc, but remember they are thriving on association, they do not have salvation...when they have to, they still lie, drink, womanize, etc. And eventually when the enemy comes with his antics and “storms” these people have no anchor to hold onto, so they are easily uprooted and sail away with the tides of worldly pleasure and its passions. The truth is that the devil knows the difference between association and salvation...he respects the latter but knows that the former is just in the letter.

No matter how long association thrives it cannot become salvation. Some had been in association with God, His church and the things of God for many years, but until they discovered they were never saved and made the decisions to surrender their lives to God and become born again, they were never known in Heaven. It is not surprising therefore why many will hear God say to them on that day, “I never knew you; depart from me ye workers of iniquity” (Luke 13:27). How come? Good associations, godly associations, all minus salvation can never inherit eternal life. This was the case of Nicodemus...“Jesus answered and said to him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” (John 3:10). He was a master and ruler and was associated with religious traditions, but he did not know salvation.

Looking at the trends where those who sang in church choir end up in the secular music world, singing to glorify the devil, they started with association and perhaps never found salvation. They end up become vessels for the devil in promoting his kingdom principles of iniquity. The other day a top Nigeria musician and rapper was invited by some so-called organisers to a gospel music fiesta, and when he grabbed the microphone he said he was glad to be back home in the church because that was where according to him many of them started from. So he was saying they had association with the church but salvation was questionable, no wonder they did not abide.

The other time I taught about the difference between reformation and transformation...to add; association at best will bring reformation, but salvation births transformation. It is needful for you to be sure now which one is true in your life, if your ticket is association or salvation...this is the best time to know before you reach the judgement seat when it becomes too late.

EMBRACING THE “YES” TODAY BEFORE IT BECOMES YESTERDAY

Most times many do not realize that the today we have will in a few moment become yesterday...and once it becomes yesterday, it becomes irreversible. And when today is past and becomes yesterday only then will many realize that they ought to have made the best use of it.

The today you see has a component of it that many do not see and they keep saying to themselves that tomorrow will bring all their opportunities and avenues. Like I said, today has a component which is hidden inside it and there are 2 ways to find out; one is by doing today all you have planned to do and never procrastinate till tomorrow. When you explore today you will realize that most times beyond the “ugly” face it may present, deep inside it lies a gift of God carefully packaged to make your life blessed. This is the reason every new day carries a new dimension of glory, but the ones who actually partake in it are those who persist even when the beginning of the day looked dull.

 The second way to realize there is something positive about today is to simply let it pass and become yesterday. This is the difference between people whose lives count and the others...It is all about what they do with today before it becomes history and is called yesterday.

The Bible says, “Now (implying today and not tomorrow) is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2; Hebrews 3:15; Luke 23: 43). Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today (not tomorrow) you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). He also told Zaccheaus, “Make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house” (Luke 19:5). It is all about today!

What you do today has a superior edge over what you will do tomorrow. Today is a gift and it has a special component called YES. This YES is often not noticed until you decide to make use of today despite whatever frustration or discouragement that comes with it and without procrastination.

This YES is the hidden answer behind every difficult situation that confronts your life and ministry. It is a YES to your salvation, YES to your expectations, YES to your prayers in line with God’s will, YES to the prayer of faith and healing, etc. It is this YES that becomes so obvious by the time today is past and becomes YESterday. This is why many people look back and discover there is actually a YES(terday) that had come and passed but they never saw it. It is like Jacob saying “God is here, but I never knew it”.

People look back and see all the opportunities they allowed to slip away; all the decisions they procrastinated about; all the things they could have done but did not do. They discover that those situations that confronted them and appeared would have hit them down were not as they appeared, but they had YES hidden in them; the YES to the answers they were looking for. They start to wish YESterday could come again, but alas it is gone.

Friend, is there an opportunity you have mistakenly allowed to pass? Perhaps, an opportunity to make your life right with God, to forgive and reconcile with somebody, to be of help to someone, to right a wrong, to bring a change, to stand for something  right and positive, to impact your environment..I bring you good news, though it came and passed, but God has brought today as another opportunity for you to make it right. Will you allow today pass by you again and become another yesterday, or you will use it accordingly? Thomas missed the first appearance of Jesus, but he had another chance to be re-joined to the apostles, “And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus” (John 20:26a). He had another opportunity and this time he used it. God is giving somebody another opportunity to secure eternity in Heaven and escape the wrath of judgement to come.

There is a YES hanging today for you to step into the love of God and enter into divine destiny. There is a YES today, use it before it becomes a YES-terday. God bless you.   

Dr. Bukola Williams, TreasuredHouse International, www.treasuredhouse.org, www.drwilliamsbukola.blogspot.com, info@treasuredhouse.org

FAKE HUMAN BEINGS

We live in a world where almost everything is being faked and so much so that there are equally fake human beings. The truth is, if you are involved in and derive pleasure in producing fake things and products, you are a fake human being. And just the way fake things do not last, you, your money and all you accumulate by fake means shall not last.

It is sad how desperate human beings have become in thriving on the wheels of fake things ranging from fake drugs through fake building equipment to fake bathing soaps. When you are confronted with battling lives at their point of death and you are confronted with the face of fake drugs as the only option made available, then you will wish these fake human beings are excommunicated to the other side of life.

How about the incessant collapse of buildings that have killed innocent tenants? It is not only the use of fake and substandard building materials but the application of fake manpower and desire for cheap labour by these fake and godless contractors. It is a phenomenal ‘Fake people using fake products to build fake houses for fake landlords’...The end result is the innocent paying for it. God will judge.

Fake result is another dimension of fake lives. Bribing to get a job offers you a fake job; remember that bribery is ungodly, and so every product of ungodliness does not please God. Whatever God will not give you, you don’t need it (perhaps yet).

And then fake living; claiming and pretending to be who you are not...giving false and exaggerated impressions about yourself. Another one is disclaiming your real identity in the face of environmental influence. This is the reason many people have different personalities even in the church...On Sunday they dress like saints and go to church, sing in the choir, share testimonies, and then on Monday at work, the same person signs 8am when he/she actually got to work at 11am; this same person steals company money; this same person is sent on official errands and inflates cost of travelling only to go to church and share testimony that God has blessed him/her. This is not the God kind of blessing!

This is the kind of life that young people live...a double-standard life. This is why many secular musicians glorifying the devil with their music actually started singing in the church. The other time MI (a secular singer and rapper) was invited to a so-called gospel music fiesta and he held the microphone only to say he was glad to be home in church because that was where many of them started from. Shame! I do not blame him; I blame those who invited him in the name of the gospel... “Dead people on dead pulpits with dead messages”; the dead on the dead cannot yield any impact. Fake human beings!

If you have a second version of your life which is the things you do and you think people do not know, you are leaving a fake life and remember that God sees and knows all, and He will judge both the open and the hidden things. Anything that you do in the name of compromise, whether to get a job, admission, relationship, money, etc, it is fake and it is vanity. The devil is the source of all fake things and this is why everything that is fake, including everyone that is fake (plus fake pastors and preachers) shall end in Hell except such people repent. God will destroy all vanities one day...Be sure you or your life is not vain.

“Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase” (Proverbs 13:11). “Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope” (Isaiah 5:18).

PRAYING IN FAITH AND HOLDING ON

GLEANINGS FROM THE LIFE OF ELIJAH (BIBLE STUDY COLLECTIONS)

·         It is not the prayer that shut the Heavens that will open the Heaven…Ask Elijah! Every new dimension in life comes via a new dimension of prayer. Elijah shut Heaven with prayers and when he needed the Heaven to open, he did not depend on the prayers he prayed three and half years ago; the Bible says “And (Elijah) prayed AGAIN and the Heaven gave rain” (James 5:18). This is what it means to pray without ceasing.

·         This thing about Christians saying God will do everything for them isn’t spirituality at all, but perhaps ignorance. They simply say that since God has said it, whether or not they do anything about it, it shall come to pass. Sounds “spiritual” but indeed, it’s error. So, God will pray for you, fast for you, help you study the Bible to locate God’s promises, believe them for you, etc. Hmmm. This is not faith. God has said many things about you, but you have to establish them through prayers and faith. Every word of promise and prophecy would remain hanging until the prayer of faith is released. This is the law of divine establishment of God’s promises. Look at this: God told Elijah that He (God) will send rain upon the earth after three and half years (1 Kings 18:1). That was an assurance enough for anointed Elijah to perhaps go and sleep expecting the rain to come. But he did not…He knew that as much as God’s words are forever settled in Heaven, yet for there to be earthly manifestation there must be prayer connection. So, after he (Elijah) had declared to Ahab (according to God’s word) that rain was coming, Elijah went up and “cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees…and he prayed AGAIN, and the Heaven gave rain” (1 kings 18:41-42; James 5:18). The covenant of God to send rain was converted from its raw spiritual form into a visible earthly manifestation by the tool of prayer. Stop believing God to pray for you or do your responsibility; stop running from one prayer/spiritual house to another searching for who will pray to God for you…who says God cannot hear your voice? It takes the prayer (of faith) to establish your blessing. Pray! You are blessed.

·         Still on Elijah and manifestations of God’s promise to send rain. God promised to send rain, Elijah started praying, and then he sent his servant to go and see if there was any cloud symbolic that rain was coming. The servant went the first time and came back to say there was nothing. Someone would say, ‘but God promised me, but nothing is happening yet and whereas I am praying’. But Elijah did not stop praying. As much as he understood, once God had said it, and there is prayer connection, it was just a matter of time. Then he sent the servant the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth times, and the young man came back with the same report that there was nothing…but Elijah did not give up; he clung to God’s word, he hung unto prayers and faith. This is what it means to pray in faith and pray without ceasing. However, this is the moment many people give up and throw in the towel…they feel god is either unfaithful, too slow or doesn’t answer prayers. And then Elijah sent the seventh time, and this time there was a sign of manifestation, and then rain came. Let me explain something here; the time between spiritual ordination and physical manifestation is called WAITING. You wait in prayers, you wait in faith…God never lies.

It is not unlikely that there are some promises that God made to you at the beginning of this year that are yet to be manifested physically and you are already thinking perhaps God has forgotten. Friend, God never forgets. It is possible for a breastfeeding mother to forget the sucking child, but God says He never forgets you. Keep trusting Him, never give up…God is too faithful to fail. He has never failed, and you cannot be His first failure. God bless.

·         I feel God is trying to pass a message across to somebody about WAITING ON GOD’S PROMISES. Many know the story of Nehemiah, how he prayed to obtain favour before the king and how the king granted him his desires. It appears so serially that we usually think it this way; Nehemiah prayed and fasted yesterday, and God gave him favour before the king today. But, let us see more critically (but briefly). Nehemiah 1:1, he got the news in the month Chisleu. Nehemiah 2:1, and it came to pass in the month Nisan that the king favoured him. The month Chisleu is November in Greek, while the month Nisan is April in Greek. So, it is obvious that Nehemiah prayed in November…then December passed and that year ended yet nothing happened in the physical. Then January came and passed; February passed; March passed and still nothing happened. Then one day in April, the king was moved and favoured him…after 4 months. The big question is; when Nehemiah first prayed, did God hear? YES! But why did the answer seem to delay until 4 months later? This is what is called waiting period.

Friend, from the day you lifted up your voice to pray, God heard you and something took place in the spiritual realm, but the physical manifestation is based on God’s perfect timing…but it will surely come to pass. God is always on time; keep the faith! Anything that delays is coming big. God bless you.