WISDOM: THE WAY TO LIFE

TEXT: PROVERBS 3: 13-18

“Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,
 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.

 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.
 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honour.
Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed.”

Wisdom is the right application of knowledge. Knowledge on the other hand is information gained through experience and acquaintance. It is possible for one to be knowledgeable and lack wisdom, but not the other way round.

For instance, you can be knowledgeable in how to drive a car, but it is your wisdom that will tell you not to overtake another car at a bend or at a dangerous spot.

Go wants us to be wise. The book of James 1:5 emphasised the importance of wisdom by admonishing that whoever lacks wisdom should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault.

The right place to get wisdom is from the almighty God that gives liberally. Any wisdom gotten from any other source is foolishness as the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:19.

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom, and in all thy getting; get understanding (Proverbs 4:7).

The place of wisdom for godly and successful living cannot be overemphasised.to live and to have good success, you need wisdom. To walk with God and be blameless, you need wisdom. For divine direction and guidance; you need wisdom. For supernatural healing and sound health’ wisdom must come to play. To live in this sinful and perverted world gloriously, the wisdom of God must be evident in your life. Nothing can be achieved without wisdom, no matter how knowledgeable you are- you need wisdom in other to be able to apply your wisdom in the right way.

Having knowledge without wisdom is like using a dull axe to cut a tree- it involves using greater strength and energy; and achieving less success.

“Using a dull axe requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That is the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed.” (Eccl. 10:10).

Our text in Proverbs 3: 13:18 highlighted some of the benefits of wisdom:

·        Wisdom makes you the blessed of the Lord

·        You will be valued more than gold

·        You will be profitable

·        You will be more precious than rubies

·        Wisdom guarantees you long life

·        Wisdom gives you riches and honour

·        Wisdom gives you peace of mind

·        Wisdom makes you a blessing to your generation

·        Wisdom protects you (Prov. 4:6)

·        Wisdom exalts you (Prov. 4:8)

I I pray the wisdom of God will reign in our lives in Jesus name. Shalom!

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YOU SHALL DECREE A THING AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS

TEXT: JOB 22:28
"Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways."
There is great power of accomplishment in our spoken words. As children of God, the Lord has delegated some of His rights to us. One of these rights is the power and ability to decree a thing and see it become established.
Jeremiah 1:9-10 says "then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. "See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, To pluck up and to break down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant."
If you have faith and you believe in God, you don't have much stress to deal with any situation; no matter how difficult it may look. All you need to do is to speak the word, decree what you want to see to come to manifestation; and it shall be done and established.
As you speak God's word with faith and confidence, divine power accompanies it to make it fulfilled. When David went to face Goliath in 1st Samuel chapter 17, from verse 45 down to 50.
Before David could raise his hand to fight the battle physically, he had fought and won the battle spiritually by sending out "God's spiritual bullet" ( name and the word of God).
45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
48 So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. 49 Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. 50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David."
The scripture made us to know that there is no force or power that is greater than the name of God. At the mention of the name of God every knee must bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2: 9-11).
The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runs to Him and they are saved (Proverbs 18:10).
What difficult situation are you?  Don't be afraid to speak and decree the powerful word of God into the situation. Decree healing into that sick body, speak life upon that dead business, decree fruitfulness into that barren womb. What about the dead situation? Common speak life upon all those dry bones. The Lord is waiting for your declaration, so that He can stamp it with the zeal of accomplishment.
Do your part by decreeing the word, and the Lord will fulfil His own part by making the word come to pass. The only thing that could make a believer's word not to hold water when spoken is sin, unbelief/ lack of faith. Void yourself of sin, ask for forgiveness, repent genuinely, act in faith and be confident to decree a thing and watch as God backs up your word and bring it to pass.
I speak to you today that the power to decree a thing, and see it become established shall rest upon you in Jesus name. Amen.
Shalom.

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WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

TEXT: EPHESIANS 3:20

“Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”

There is great power in our thoughts. Thought is the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the use of our senses. Thought is the perception about a thing, circumstance or situation. Thought can be positive and negative, it can be said that your thought is what determines your action; and your actions shapes who you are or what you become. Your life will reflect your dominant thought, if all you think is negative; the same will reflect in your life. If you think positive at all times, you will experience positive transformation in your life always. This is so because whatever is not present in your thought can NEVER be evident in your life!

Our text talks about how our God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than our THOUGHTS AND IMAGINATION! Therefore, if you think positively, the Lord will do unto you more than your positive thoughts and imagination, consequently, if you think negatively about yourself; the Lord will do to you more than your negative thought and imagination. The scripture says “as a man thinks in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23: 7).  This is to buttress the fact that whatever you think about yourself, so shall God make you to be.

In Numbers 14 when the children of Israel were complaining in the dessert, they said “If only we have died in Egypt or in the dessert… this utterance came as a result of what they had in their mind (thought) - they were “thinking aloud.” The lord replied them in verse 28 “As surely as I live declare the Lord. I will do to you the VERY THING I HEARD YOU SAY, in the dessert your bodies will fall…” Their thoughts caused them to utter words of destruction into their lives! The scripture says “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34) either you are thinking it or you go a step further to confess it with your mouth, the Lord is ready to do beyond your thought, confession and imagination.

On this note, if you have been thinking negatively before, it is high time you changed your perspective. Even if the situation shows negative and unpleasant, your positive thought and confession can change the situation for good. Change your thought and your world will change, once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you are on your way to positive result and great success. Your thoughts create your future, THINK POSITIVE!

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COME LET US REASON TOGETHER

TEXT: ISAIAH 1:18

“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 Red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

The scripture made us to know that the eyes of the Lord are too pure to behold iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13) yet God did not hate sinners but the sin in them. Sin is a stumbling block that deprives man from enjoying quality fellowship with God.

When Adam and Eve committed sin in the Garden of Eden, there was separation between them and God. They were unable to continue the privilege of God coming down to them in the dawn of the evening to “gist” with them. Despite their sin, God was still protecting and providing for them. This shows that God loves sinners, He does not want them to die in their sin but repent and turn away from their sinful way, and then He would embrace them and adopt them into His kingdom as children. If your child soiled him or herself with chocolate and was coming to you in your flowing white attire, you would not embrace the child; instead you would move back so that your white apparel would not be soiled too. If the child cleansed herself and ran toward you to embrace you, you would not move back but embrace the child to show your love to him/her. This illustration is applicable to us and God. When our clothes are soiled with sin, God would not embrace us, but when we are clean without any blemish; He would be willing and happy to embrace us. Moving away from your child that soiled himself with chocolate; does not mean that you hate the child, but because you wouldn't want to be stained with chocolate. For God to keep sinners at arm length does not mean He hate them, but he wants them to do the right thing- to clean up their “mess” so that He would be able to embrace them.

Our text is giving the assurance that no matter how deep you are in sin, God is ALWAYS ready to cleanse and forgive your sin. It does not matter how far you have travelled with the devil, if you can make a U turn and follow the right route by confessing your sin and depart from it, He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness( 1 John 1:9). Don’t continue in sin, don't allow the devil to rob you of your salvation, don't fall for the lie of the devil that your sin are too grievous to be forgiven.

Like the prodigal son, make a U turn today; go back to your maker, ask Him to wash and cleanse you of every iniquity. Rededicate your life to Him and make every effort to live for Him alone.

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GIVE AND TAKE

PSALM 18: 24-26

“The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight. To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.”

Who you are determines who God will be to you, our God is capable of changing from being a Lamb to a Lion. He can change from being a fountain of love and rivers of life to the consuming fire. Your attitude and your behaviour will determine the side of God that He will show to you.

The Lord showed the side of favour to the Israelites at the Red sea, and they walked on dry land. At the same time God showed His side of vengeance to the Egyptians, the Lord did baptism of destruction for Pharaoh and his chariots at the Red sea. What an awesome God we serve!  Though our God is a merciful God, yet He is a God that stands His word.

Our text can be used to drive home the fact that whatever you sow you will reap (Galatians 6:7). The Lord will reward each and every one of us according to what we do and who we are. If you are kind; you will receive kindness, if you are mean and cruel; you will drink from the same cup. If you are faithful; the lord will not forsake you, He will remain faithful to you in all your ways. If you live to bless others, the Lord will bless you beyond your imagination. If you use your wealth to oppress others, you will be oppressed in return.

If your work is blameless and you live pure, the same measure will be used for you. Search yourself today, take the inventory of your life, do genuine examination of yourself. “Let everyone examine himself; and let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” (1 Corinthians 11:28). Only you can genuinely examine yourself, no one else can. Do the soul searching today and make necessary amends. 

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THE SECRET OF SUCCESS

TEXT: JOSHUA 1:8

“Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Prosperity has nothing to do with your efforts, hard work or your hard labour. It has nothing to do with your intellectual knowledge or your academic achievements, it does not matter how many degrees you bagged in famous universities. True prosperity is of God, there are people that are well educated; yet they can barely meet the basic needs of their lives. Many are working tooth and nail with nothing to show for it.

The scripture says in Deuteronomy 28:12^b that “I will bless the work of your hand...” Except the lord blesses you, your struggle, efforts, and hard labour may yield nothing, this is because hard labour is nothing without God. The secret to great success is obedience to God’s instructions or His commandments. Our text shows the commandments that God gave to Joshua, “the book of the law should not depart from Joshua’s mouth; he should meditate on it day and night. He must also obey and do all that is written in the book of law, then God will bless him and make his way prosperous.”

Likewise, as children of God if you desire success; the book of the law (the Bible) must not depart from your mouth. You must study and mediate on the word daily. You must diligently follow the instructions in it, then the lord will open His bounty to bless you more than you can ever think or imagine.

The word of God is rich with “prosperity nuggets” for all areas of profession. The word of God is capable of giving you insight to what will launch you out to limelight even more than what your qualifications or university degrees would do. Examples of this fact are the mighty men of God all over the world that are doing great exploit for God. Some of them are highly educated while some are averagely educated. Yet these people are globally known not because of their university degrees or by their professional achievements. Their success and fame came when they surrender their totality to God; they decided to make the word of God their number one. The way of God and His commandment became paramount in their lives.

If these people had decided to stay in their field or area of professions, I can tell you that their fame may not spread all over the world, they would only be known in their lines of professions and not globally.

The lord may have a secret that will make you a household name worldwide. This will only be possible if you allow the word of the lord to dwell richly in your heart, when you meditate on the word and diligently obey all that is written in it, and then the revelation of what will bring you into limelight would be given to you.

You don’t need to be running around looking for success and prosperity, if you make the word of God your number one and make all effort to walk in obedience; the lord promise that He would make you the head and not the tail (Deuteronomy 28:13). Don’t look for success look for God and success will come looking for you!

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ASK FOR THE ANOINTING

TEXT: ACT 10:38

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”

Before Jesus Christ could start his ministry, he waited to be anointed by God. Without God’s anointing in a man’s life; his efforts may yield little or no result.

Anointing is the drive power that enable believers to work and walk in the real m of the supernatural. Anointing empowers you beyond your human efforts and wisdom. What you cannot do ordinarily; when the anointing of God falls upon you, you will continue to do them. Peter was a coward before he got anointed on the day of Pentecost. After Peter was anointed, he received boldness to stand up and preach the gospel among multitude and many souls were saved! Anointing gives you courage to do exploit.

Another advantage of the anointing is that it gives you speed and accelerate your progress to outrun people that are doing things with human efforts and wisdom. This can be seen in 1 King 18:45-46. When Elijah told Ahab to go on his chariot because it’s going to start raining, Ahab had gone before Elijah, but when the spirit of God (anointing) came upon Elijah he outran Ahab on his chariot while he was running on his feet! It takes the supernatural power of God to do that not with human strength.

Anointing also breaks the yoke (Isaiah 10:27) When God anoints you it breaks every yoke of limitation, affection and barriers. Anointing gives you the power to do things with ease and achieve greatly where others are struggling.

Anointing goes beyond being ordained as pastor, deacon or deaconess, you may be an ordinary believer without any title and have anointing to do better than what other title holders in the church will do. Anointing equips the anointed for spiritual assignments that human strength and wisdom cannot do.

Another benefit of the anointing is seen in Psalm 18:50^b “He shows unfailing kindness to His anointed, to David and his descendants forever.” God showed David His unfailing kindness because he was God’s anointed vessel. He committed a lot of sin; but God did not discard him and his generation from His presence.

Anointing makes your talents to make launch you out to greatness. If you have talents and you lack anointing, you won’t be able to make impact with your gift. Your talents with the anointing of God launch you to a height that you cannot think of getting to.

God’s unfailing live and kindness will be for you if you are his anointed. Without God’s anointing; believers will not be able to fulfill their God’s original plan for their lives. No much success can be recorded in ministry, business, work life, marriage and in the entirety of existence. Ask God to anoint you today for supernatural breakthrough and greatness.

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AVOID PROVOCATION

TEXT: PSALM 106:32-33

“By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord, and trouble came to Moses because of them, for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and harsh words came from Moses’ lips.”

The Israelites had been a bunch of problem on Moses right from the time they left Egypt, as soon as the Lord parted the Red sea for them and drowned their enemies in the sea, they forgot how powerful the Lord God is. All the wonders that the Lord did in Egypt for Pharaoh to release them, all the protection God gave to them by becoming fire by night and cloud by day to shield them, the Manna and Quail supplied for them in the wilderness were forgotten by the Israelites.

As soon as they wanted something, they started grumbling and complaining making reference to the life they lived in their land of slavery, regretting leaving Egypt.

Their attitude shows that of the ungrateful hearts that appreciates instant favour or help. As soon as the period of the favour or help is over, they don’t see any reason for appreciation again. This can be very painful and disappointing.

Moses knew what he went through before he could come to face Pharaoh for the release of the Israelites, he knew how hard and difficult it is to single-handedly lead a multitude of people, men, women, children and their animals out of slavery, through the Red sea, the wilderness, to an unknown destination (promised land).

Moses exchanged Royal robes for rags to deliver the children of Israel, yet the people refused to appreciate or have the heart of gratitude to God and Moses. Instead they complained bitterly about God and launched their anger on Moses as God representative that they could see. The Israelites wanted water and they started their usual complaint. Maybe Moses that had been condoling their complaint and their excesses got fed up; he reacted by uttering harsh words to them in anger.  Moses was too provoked that he missed the instruction that God gave to him, God became angry with Moses and vowed that Moses would not take the Israelite to the Promised Land.

Despite Moses’ efforts and struggle, he missed it all at the last minute. Provocation made him to miss God’s plan for his life even though he was not at fault!

Many believers have been provoked to leave their place of assignment, either by their pastor, pastor’s wife, or other members of the church. It is prevalent these days that people you are helping in their ministries will end up not seeing what you are doing, instead of appreciating the calling of God upon you and thank God for bringing you their way to lift their hands up in the ministry. All you would get from them is insult, complaint, and abuse. The scripture admonishes us in Galatians 6:9 that we should not become weary in doing good... don’t let anyone provoke you to leave your place of assignment. You will reap the reward of your good work in due season if you do not give up (Galatians 6:9).

You must run this race to the end, you MUST finish well. Fight the good fight of faith, AVOID PROVOCATION

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