KEEP THE FIRE BURNING (1)

TEXT: LEVITICUS 6:12-13

¹² The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. ¹³ The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

Fire generates heat, it brings out light and smoke, it is a chemical reaction. When fire is burning, no one can stand the heat that comes out from it. In the scripture when the three Hebrew boys were to be thrown into the fiery furnace, the heat of the furnace killed the men who took the three Hebrew boys to the furnace (Daniel 3).

Today we want to talk about Spiritual fire and altar, every genuine believer has a Spiritual altar. In fact the scripture made us to know that we are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:19). There is no temple without an altar.

However, what you have on your altar determines the effectiveness of your temple. Is the fire on your altar still burning or it has been taken over by ashes? The Lord commanded us in the text that the fire on our Spiritual altar must be kept burning, IT MUST NOT GO OUT… this means that the Lord wants us to be “hot” for Him at all times, He does not want us to be hot this minute and the next minute to be cold. Keeping your Spiritual fire burning means you always have unending fellowship with God, you communicate with Him constantly through prayer, praise and worship, and by studying and meditating on His word daily. God our father is called the “consuming fire” therefore as His children we must be as hot as our father, so that the fire that our Spiritual altar is generating would be hot enough to consume the devil and his cohorts.

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A COMPASSIONATE OR A CRUEL LEADER?

TEXT: NEHEMIAH 5:14-19

¹⁴ Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. ¹⁵ But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. ¹⁶ Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we did not acquire any land.

¹⁷ Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. ¹⁸ Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.

¹⁹ Remember me with favour, my God, for all I have done for these people.

A leader is someone who influences a group of people to achieve a goal or purpose. A leader is the one that leads by example for others to follow him. He is the one that is committed to the goals of an organisation or an establishment. We have different types of leadership style, the type of the leader you are determines the type of the followers you will have. From the definition above, it shows that leaders have influential power on their followers; they influence their followers either positively or negatively. If you are nice and compassionate to your followers, they will in turn be nice and supportive for your vision to be accomplished, but if you are cruel and wicked to them, they will also be mean and make every effort to see to your down fall! An autocratic leader will breed rebellious and insubordinate followers, this could lead to anarchy.

From the text, we can see that Nehemiah showed an example of a leader that led with the fear of God. He saw how the people were suffering, how the poor were being oppressed by the rich among them. When the poor complained, Nehemiah took it upon himself he summoned the usurers and rebuked them, he used his position to deliver the poor from being oppressed.

Verse 14 talked about how Nehemiah forgoes his lawful emoluments attached to his government, he did not eat the food allotted to the governor, because he was a compassionate governor, he could empathise with the poor. He does not want to burden his people with his position as the governor. He made this known in verse 18^b “I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people”.

Nehemiah was feeding one hundred and fifty Jews and officials; as well as people from other nation, out of his own resources. Remember as a leader you will not be there forever, is either you leave at the expiration of your tenure, or by death (for lifetime position). Whichever way you CANNOT be there forever, one day you will be out of the office! The question is how do you want to be remembered? Will your exit be a relief to your followers or will you be greatly missed? A leader that is walking in the fear of God will not be greedy or cruel to his followers, if you are a child of God, you won’t find it pleasant to be a problem to your fellow brethren. Nehemiah delivered the poor and the needy from the hands of the oppressors by calling the oppressors to order, he used his position as the governor to minister to the needs of his people. Rather than being a burden to them; he lifted the burden of the masses by providing them with food at his table, he deprived himself from eating governor’s food just because he was a compassionate leader.

Are you are compassionate leader or you are a cruel leader? Don’t forget whatever you sow you shall reap in due season.

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BEWARE OF NEGATIVE PEOPLE

TEXT: NEHEMIAH 4:1-3

“When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, ² and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?” ³ Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”

It is not everybody around you that wants you successful, while some are positive in their words and actions about your visions, some people won’t be happy that you are doing something great. These people that are never happy about other people’s achievement are called negative people. They are those that never see anything good in what other people are doing; they are haughty scorners that look at the good work that the lord has committed in your hands with contempt. Their words never encourages! All they have in their mouth is negative words that can pull people down and destroy people’s destiny. Negative people never applaud or appreciate any good thing; they are proud and full of envy. Once they see somebody doing any good thing; they develop envy and hatred for the person.

There are some negative people waiting to laugh you to scorn, but as the lord lives they will wait in vain in Jesus’ name. Amen. Sanballat and Tobiah the Ammonite were angry with Nehemiah and his people for rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, with ridicule and sarcasm they said the good work that these strong and able men did wholeheartedly could be fallen by a mere Fox! This comment would have been able to cause Nehemiah and his helpers to give up on building the wall, but thank God for the spirit of “we must accompany our mission through Christ” that they had. Nehemiah ignored their negative comment; he prayed to God and they continued their good work. He did not lose focus on what he wanted to achieve, he refused to pay attention negative people around him, rather he gave his full attention to finishing the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem.

Consequently, if you want to accomplish your mission on earth, you must learn how to make advancement in the face of opposition. You must comprehend that negative comments and people will arise as long as you are doing something outstanding. Like Nehemiah did; learn to ignore all negative people and remarks around you, and let your focus be on God and His assistance towards the accomplishment of your purpose. Friends may become your enemies because of your vision, societal opposition may arise, humiliation, all sort of difficulties and pressure will erupt to derail you from your vision. The likes of Sanballat and Tobiah are still here on the earth, and Satan is ready to use them to provoke, frustrate and discourage us. Never throw in the towel in the midst of opposition, do not forget that “greater is He that is in you than he that is the world”. Pray to God and He will frustrate the plan of the enemies. May you finish well in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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DIVINE SUPPORTERS

TEXT: NEHEMIAH 2: 8^b, 17-18

“And because the gracious hand of my God is upon me, the king granted my requests.” (Nehemiah 2: 8^b).

“Then I said to them, you see the trouble we are in; Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned by fire. Come let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied let us start rebuilding “so they began this great work.” (Nehemiah 2:17-18).

To fulfil purpose in life you need some positive people that believe in you and are ready to support your vision until it becomes reality. These people are better referred to as divine supporters or destiny helpers.

A supporter is a person who is actually interested in what you are doing, and they would want to put every effort to make your idea or endeavour a success. A supporter is a person that has keen interest in what you are doing, and they are passionate about how they can put their effort together with yours to make your vision successful. Divine supporters are ordained by God to join hands with you to make His plan and purpose for your life come true. It is not everybody that will support your vision, your family members and friends may not be willing to help your vision to become reality. Do not be angry with them; the fact is that God has not put your help in their hands.

Your divine helper or supporter may be a total stranger that you have not seen before, but if God has placed your help in his care, he will surely fulfil it (Even against his wish!). in verse 8 of our text, Nehemiah was saying that the Lord has granted his request because the Lord was gracious unto him. Yet he was unable to build the wall of Jerusalem alone, he had to call on some people to join hands with him. This tells us that for you to fulfil purpose; you cannot do  it alone, you will need positive people around you to lift your hands up, so that your vision can become reality. Doing it alone without helpers prolongs and reduces success. You need the help of God to connect you to your divine supporters so that your success would be accelerated. I pray for you today that your helper of destiny will locate you today in Jesus’ name. Amen.

YOU CANNOT PLEASE THE WORLD

TEXT: MATTHEW 11:18-19

“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say he has a demon. The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say “here is a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners...”

Human beings are the most difficult species of God’s creation. We have different ideologies, perspectives and views towards life. We have our different ways in which we believe things should be done, our views about life situations or issues differ from one individual to another. What is acceptable by A may be a “NO, NO” to B. what one person or a group of people think is right may be offensive to another set of people.

From our text we can see how difficult human beings are to please. John the Baptist did not eat or drink, he was hated because of that, Jesus Christ came he ate and dined with people they complained about him too. This shows that no matter what you do, people will complain, they can NEVER be satisfied with whatever you do.

Consequently, trying to please people may make you end up displeasing yourself and your God. The Lord encouraged us to live in peace with all men (Hebrew 12:14). As much as you would want to fulfil this scripture, you have to be sensitive to know that as you would want to live in peace with all men; yet you cannot please all men. This is so because by the time you want to do what will please A, you may be displeasing B by that same action, and vice versa. (Don’t forget we look at the world from different directions and from different windows). What you did that made people happy yesterday; if you do it today they may react in a negative way, human beings are subject to change, the only one that is ever constant and remain unchanged is the Lord Almighty. He is the only one we should try to please, when you are in the right standing with God, whatever people say or think about you does not matter. Let your attention and focus be on how to please God and not how to please human beings that are difficult to please. In most cases what you will do that will please the world will definitely displease God. The scripture says in James 4:4 that friendship with the world is enmity against God, all that are acceptable by the world are forbidden by God. As a child of God do not try to please or impress the world, rather strive to please and impress the Almighty God. Let me leave you with this verse of the scripture to dwell on.

 “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10). 

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NOT BY FAITH ALONE

TEXT:  JAMES 2:24

“You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24).

Faith is the evidence of things not seen yet believe, to have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, and to be certain of the things we cannot see. As believers the Lord Almighty admonished us to have faith in Him and believe in His words. In fact the Lord made it clear that without faith we cannot please Him (Hebrew 11:6). As essential as faith is in our Christian walk, we need to add action to compliment the measure of faith in us so that we will be able to please God, and be able to get a desired blessing and experience positive change in our lives.

For your faith to complete you need to enhance it with action, it is only unwise people that will be exercising faith without necessary action.

“You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without actions is useless? How was our ancestor Abraham put right with God? It was through his actions, when he offered his son Isaac on the altar. Can you see? HIS FAITH AND HIS ACTION WORKED TOGETHER; his faith was made complete through his actions” (James 2: 20-22). For example if you are believing God for a job; you need to write application and send your C.V to places that you know your service would be required, you need to attend interviews and faithfully believe that the job will be yours. Your faith will only work for you after you have taken action by writing application, sending C.V and attending the interview. Nonetheless if you are trusting God for a job and you refuse to take action by applying and sending your C.V’s, such faith is useless. For your faith to produce positive result, you need to play your part by taking necessary actions. God can do all things, but He will not do for you what He has committed in your hands to do. Compliment your faith with actions so that you would get a desired result.

WORRY NOT

TEXT: MATTHEW 6:25-27

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry⁾ about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

What does worry mean? It means to feel uneasy or concerned about something. It means being troubled over a situation that is uncertain. As human beings we are created to exhibit our feelings through various emotions. These emotions can be joy, sorrow, fear, anxiety, agitation, hate, hurt, worry and so on. Emotion can be positive or negative; you can decide to respond to a situation either positively or negatively.

Worry is a negative emotion that the devil is using to weigh down God’s children; it is the weapon that the enemy is using to make believers to shift their concentration from God to their problem. Naturally speaking as human beings, we are prone to worries, but the fact that we know God should make the difference. The text admonish us that we should not worry about our LIFE, neither should we worry about food, drink, or clothes, why? Because our heavenly father knows we need them. He knows our pain and our burden, and He has made provision to carry the burden for us (If we allow Him).

Someone said worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do; but won’t get you anywhere. That is why verse 27 asked “WHO OF YOU BY WORRYING CAN ADD A SINGLE HOUR TO HIS LIFE?” Getting worried over a situation won’t change the situation for better, rather it will change your mental state negatively, it will drain your strength, weakens you physically and spiritually. It will make you to start living in unbelief and doubt, and the scripture says in James 1:7-8 that double minded man shall receive nothing from God.

When you are waiting on God for a change of situation or circumstance, wait in anticipation, be full of hope, be steadfast and let your faith be strong. Remember His word in Romans 8:28 that “ALL things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. Stay in the will of God, He will saturate you with His peace and everything will work for your good.

Prayer: Lord; saturate me with your peace and endue me with your Spirit, let me not be dominated by worry; deliver me from every spirit of worry in Jesus name I pray.