Thursday 3 November 2011

WINNING MY BATTLES BY BEING STRONG IN THE LORD AND HIS MIGHTY POWERS

Well, yesterday I shared what the Lord taught me in his word from the book of Ephesians 6:10-12. (Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms).
And the devil heard me loud and clear.  As I write this I want to tell you, sometimes it is good to preach what you know you will stand on and not just preach water and drink wine.  What am I talking about here?

After a very powerful revelation from the Lord the devil felt very bad and he wanted to test me and see if what I was really confessing is real in me or I just wanted to please the world and take the praise that the Lord can speak to me.  I want to say here today what I will share about my encounter yesterday evening.  This is not for boasting or for making myself look like a queen or a perfect person, but to encourage you my friend whom the devil is targeting because he knows what you are looking for and the only person who can give you what you want is no one else but Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Look here, it is not about you, but about what God wants you to be for his glory and use in his Kingdom.  

Yesterday, evening I rushed to a class that I mentioned about earlier (OMBI) a class I am taking from my church programmes that is really teaching me a lot.  Well, I arrived home on time and I had to share what I shared yesterday on my blog with my classmates too (life group members).  I could not wait to share it and I remembered yesterday’s verse of the weak was based on Ephesians 6:10-12.  I had read it before I read the other pages of the readings that I was to do that day and the Lord revealed to me what I shared with you.  Little did I know that the Lord was revealing to me what I shared like an overview of what was intensely in the lessons that I was to read in preparation to my lesson session.  After I went through the lessons, that is when I realized the power behind praying and fasting.  We have all the power from God to do his work, but the devil has made us so busy with the things of this world and we are just lost in the businesses of this world that have entangled us from reading the word of God and hearing from Him. I am not saying we should not work or do the business we do on our daily bases, but I want to remind ourselves that we should have some time to read the world of God and listen from Him. 

Anyway, I shared with my friends and to be honest they were like, what?  Rose, even if we closed our books and went home, your sharing was just what we are reading today.  All the same we had to do the lessons since it was more intense and I was just giving a nut shell of what we were to do and the class was very interesting from my highlight and my friends’ encounters too.  It was such an awesome class and all of us after the class went home with a lot of joy and power in ourselves and we thanked God for his mercies and love for us. 

Time to go home came and we had to part ways but I remembered as usual I usually drop my friends home since they live far.  I took my car and to be honest my Car Insurance expired on 17th October 2011 and my Driving License in August.    I have been trusting God that I will renew them in the course of the month but I got some delays that have caused me this embarrassment but I still thank God in the situation that I am in.  In any case I do not use my car to drive to town, I took advantage that it was at night and no one will spot us because I had done it before and the Lord took care of us.  I took my friends and funny enough yesterday I did not carry my pass nor my Driving License. In any case I knew even if I carried it, it was already expired so there was no difference anyway with leaving it.    One of us who usually does not go with us also wanted to accompany me to drop our friends and it was fun going together and I thank God she did because we were all tempted and we all witnessed our Victory.

We never remembered to use the route that has no police checks and we remembered just when we got there and let me tell you, the hell broke loose.  It was not an easy time for us because I had shared with my friends my Driving License was expired and the Insurance.  You can imagine the scenario.  So, the policeman stopped us and he asked for my Driving License and I told him I left it home.  He asked me then, why are you driving without the Driving License? I repeated myself and told him am sorry I left it home and that is a mistake for sure but I pleaded with him to forgive me and he did.  Little did he know I had even I bigger offence than that and he went and checked my Car Insurance.  What I heard him say was just come out of the car and give me your car keys.  He took the keys and asked me can you read this insurance cover of yours?  I told him yes Sir.  When is it expiring?  I told him it expired on 17th October 2011 he asked me, surely even if I had to forgive you, can I really forgive you when you know very well you are carrying 5 souls in your car without an insurance cover? I told him Sir, to be very honest I am very sorry I did a big bladder but I thought I was saving a situation because it was late at night and raining.  Now this reminded me what Paul was saying in Romans 7:15-25 (I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do,  I agree that the Law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do- this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want  to do, it is longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.  So I find this law at work; when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s Law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the lay of  my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  What a wretched man I am: who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind on a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave of the law of sin. 

My dear friends, I will not tell you; now that you are saved you will not sin.  But I will tell you when you sin please do not justify yourself because I really justified my sin because I was expecting some money from somewhere, but it delayed and that is why I had not renewed my license but the fact here was I was wrong. 

I tried pleading with him but he could not really know if I was sincere with what I was saying but I kept on pleading with him because I knew I was true to him and God himself knew I was honest and I did not stop pleading with him. That was a side of humility that I had that time that I never had before and the Lord is teaching me to have humility.

 Let me tell you, when you are saying the truth remember it is only God who can tell that you are saying the truth, but the Policeman could not believe me and he decided for me to get away with that case I just buy him Nyama “meat” in (other words a bribe) which he said so lightly because he is used to be bought Nyama.  I told him I did not carry my wallet so I could not buy him nyama and he insisted I should ask my friends to contribute we buy him nyama.  I pretended that I am going to ask them and when I reached to them I told them I am not ready to bribe let them charge me but I do the right thing since I knew what we profess and we should do what we confess and preach “not to take bribes”.  My friends supported me but it was not easy to convince him to let us go and also bearing in mind of the offences that I had committed but we trusted on God and continued pleading.  We adamantly refused to bribe.

But deep down inside my heart I had the peace that surpasses all understanding and I knew that there is nothing that is impossible with my God and this is the time I should be strong in the Lord and in His Mighty Powers. I stood firm because the Bible reminded me that if I put on the armor of God I will be able to stand the tests of the schemes of the evil one.  When they realized we were not cooperative they decided to gossip us in their mother tongue and it was also my mother tongue and that is where I got my breakthrough.  Immediately he finished saying what he said, I commented in that mother tongue and I asked them, Surely, we are all human beings and we find ourselves sinning or doing wrong, can’t you forgive me even on the grounds that you are my brothers since we come from the same place and we are talking the same language and trust me that I will renew my car License immediately I get the cash? 

To be honest, I can’t tell whether it is because I talked my mother tongue or because he finally trusted what I told him, but what I know it was my strength in my Lord that he is mighty and has all the powers to rescue me from all my shortcomings because that is why he brought His Son Jesus Christ to die for me once and for all for all my sins and to win all my battles.  

My friend, how would you have reacted in such a scenario?  Would you have given the “bribe” since you knew you were wrong and cover that sin instead of standing firm with the armor of God and fight against the schemes of the evil one because he also knows that we are bound to sin?  I know very well, the devil, was saying, today, she will see us.  You see how powerful she is because she is on God’s side, we will show her that she cannot leave our territory just like that she has to face us and know she will never have peace as long as we are here (devils schemes).    Today, it is my prayer that I will always be alert so that I will win my battles because they are not through flesh and blood but against the powers of this dark world and his other evil schemes that are meant to destroy me but I am confessing today, my Lord is Mighty and Powerful to fight for me.    

Be encouraged and stand firm to the faith that you have been called for and the Lord will fight all your battles.  Walk also in the spirit and truth of the Word of God and you will not be ashamed to walk in freedom and peace that the Lord has called us to walk in.

God bless you and keep you!  Amen!     




Wednesday 2 November 2011

Understanding Spiritual Warfare

Understanding Spiritual Warfare

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:10-12)


Finally, After what Rose?  You have really suffered this much because you have been blind and you did not know what has been fighting you, I thought I have been saved all these time and things should not be going the way they have been why, because I should be strong in the Lord.  Kwani I have not been strong in the Lord?  Yes, why I have been doing things with blindness and the devil has taken advantage that I am weak in the things of God, How?  How many times do I pray and fast, how many times do I read the word, because now that I am doing Ombi, I am able to read the word, I am fasting and the Lord is revealing to me so much like even interpreting this verse for myself through the holy spirit (I do not need to wait until Sunday to hear the sermon so that I understand the word of God).  Look here, I have been thinking my God is powerless and he is not strong enough to help me overcome all what I have been going through.  But now that the final time has come for me, I hope you too, That now you (I) understand now why I have suffered, because through this verse I now get  that I should be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Which I could not recognize before because the devil has been blinding me but now through his power am now able to know by even knowing him more now that I am being taught how to Put the full armor of God, what is this armor of God, by reading the word, praying, fasting, praising, giving and all those other things which is the armor of God so that you (I) can be able to stand against the devils schemes,  one would wonder what schemes are these, hatred, fear, self pity, offenses, backbiting, stealing and others that we all know, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, the things I have mentioned, can you see stealing, lying, hatred, fear self pity? meaning to me now as I do OMBI and the Lord is revealing to me, it is not about the people who have flesh and blood flowing in them that I will see myself fighting with day and night, No!, but against the rulers (bosses or those in authority or all those I am put under them, Against authorities (Government look at our country people who lead us who are not Godly and what they have put us in this shame and cry) against powers of this dark world.  One would wonder does the world really look dark but the darkness here is the bad things happenings, killings, sorcery, cheating, injustice, backbiting,  name them all these things make the world the world a dark place because nowadays it is even not easy to trust each other even in the church and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Remember the devil came from heaven (Arch angel) and he was thrown in this world meaning he knows all the good and the bad and now he came here on earth when he was thrown by God from the heaven and has brought these confusion because we can’t see him he is a spirit.  Remember, us who are born again we know all these bad things but we find ourselves doing them why?  Because of the spiritual forces that are too intense to us and the schemes the devil is using to pin us down with sinning whereas we know it is wrong.  But if we put the armor of God, we will defeat him and he will be under our feet.  Let as thank God that we are doing OMBI not like any other class, but to seek God more and to be more focused with the things of God.  Amen 

Thanks this is what I had to share with you as the Spirit of God guided me.  I hope I have helped you even before we proceed with our Lesson. 





Tuesday 18 October 2011

A DREAM

Well, many a times we dream and we are not able to tell what the dream was all about.  They can be nice dreams or even horrific.  Well, I dread a horrific dream because it makes my night long and tiring.
 
Yesterday I had a dream.  Well, I will talk about what happened yesterday prior to my going to bed. I had a very wonderful day and kinder busy because of meeting some deadlines I had on some assignments, work and personal issues.  I could not walk out of office at the office closure time.  All in all I managed to do what i was able to do and left for home.

Reaching stage (Bus Station) I complained going home because I really argued with a Bus Conductor because of increasing my transport from 40/= to 50/=.  It really pained me and I encouraged other passengers in the bus to air their sentiments for being the first one to complain and everyone was at the loudest voice protesting on the same.  Well, I am not saying that as an achievement, but it was part of my predicaments and I had to air out my views and feelings which did not yield to any fruit because in the morning I paid the same 50/= with no quarrels because I did my part yesterday by talking it out though nothing was done about and I think guess that is how my pain ended.  Anyway, that was beside my story but I want to go back to my dream story. 
               
When I reached home I was happy that I arrived safely and with no problems.  I had to embrace my lovely son who is home and I had some time to bond with him.  I made sure he has gone to sleep so that I can have my time and do my Quiet Time of which I did and it was such a lovely encounter and I learnt a lot. In that spirit, I had a call to my best friend whom I talked to for more than hour and I had such a wonderful time and I was ready to go sleep well and have my sweet dreams. 
 
I did not take long and I had such a wonderful sleep but in the course of my dream I had a dream that made me get confused and disturbed.  I was wondering was this from God or just from my subconscious mind. It was a very hard situation of choosing between two dear things that I could not let go.  In my dream and I shared with a friend the dream and I asked her what to do and help me chose from the two choices.  So, I sought her help and she picked on the option I did not like but she had facts on why she picked for me that choice.   I got really disturbed and I did not want to tell her I did not like her choice but had to agree with it since in a way she had the facts that I also had but did not want to believe in.  Anyway I can’t remember how it all ended but I was left confused and not knowing what to do.  I can’t also remember seeking intervention from God on the same, but the dream ended and I woke up.  

I sat down beside my bed and tried to remember the whole dream and it was such a torture because I have issues that I can’t really solve or tell how they will end but they have been disturbing my soul.  In the morning when I woke up and prepared to go to work, I called the friend I was dreaming with so that I can share the dream and I hear her version in the real sense.  Guess what I heard, "Hallooo ni nani?  heee!!!!,” She picked the call and replied.  Then i was like “it is Rose have you left home?”  I asked.  She replied.  "Mimi, niko mbali sana."  After that remark, I could not speak or ask anything because I felt put off fully and I do not know if anyone feels me or i am just in my own world judging her or feeling sorry for myself because someone I really wanted to listen to me and share with my dream was not in the same wave length. 

Sometimes, God can be speaking to you through your friends and most of the time we struggle even being good friends with our friends.  I was expecting her to reply in a very jovial mood and enjoy with me the dream and also help me come up with either solution to what was disturbing me in the dream and we share about it because it has also bothered me for long.  Remember on a normal circumstance, I do not know if I would have shared with her because those are very personal issues to discuss with every friend but through a friend the Lord showed me in a dream that, that is the person I should either share with or listen to that person’s version.  But I had a revelation that it is not always that the Lord will use that person to interpret that dream for you or make use of them to help you come up with solutions.  No. The Lord wants to speak to you directly and also give you a burden about others.  Well, why am I saying this?  After sometime, my friend realized that the person who was talking on the phone was me her good friend and she was very sorry she put me off that quickly and she told me she had lost her phone with all the numbers and she did not have my number which made her react the way she did. Well, I did not quarrel her or behave offended but I felt bad that she did not come to my rescue and help me when I really needed but the Lord helped me realize he wanted me to speak to her because she sounded very wounded and worked out.  Today, I have chosen to pray for my friend and tell God to give her, the breakthrough she needs and to bless her.

Many times we want God to come down and give us instructions so that we can serve him or do his work, but it will never happen.  The Kingdom of God is with us and we have to make it come.  (Matthew: 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.   Brethren, did you have a dream and you are wondering who will interpret it for you.  You have all the power and mandate to do all what the Lord has called you to do.   Joel 2:28 And afterwards, I will pour out my Spirit on all people, Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams your young men will see visions.     We are in the times of the Lord and if anyone is waiting for another time it will never come to pass.  Can we love on God because when I do my quiet the Lord reveals a lot to me.  I always imagine if I read the word of God just the way I do facebooking, how much more will the Lord speak to me even to those really stubborn issues that i struggle with solving?

Why have I shared this story/dream?  I will not really tell the dream because it is touching on very personal matters that I cannot really share here.  But I want to say that the devil knows our concerns and he will always torture us with all what we think about but the Lord wants us to pray about it and surrender it to Him.  Why am I saying this, in real sense, that dream did not need me to struggle because one of the choices I was to make was already taken and I was just left to take the other choice because that is what was mine.  But the devil will always bring confusion that, what is already taken is yours which is not the true.  The remaining choice was mine and is still mine and that is what I should thank God for because that is what He wants for me.  As a matter of fact when I woke up I did not need to struggle with the choice because it was already done for me it was at rest but I have refused to admit it, that is why it is still conscious in my subconscious mind and no wonder I had to dream about it.  It was just a matter of me knowing what I wanted and taking what God has provided for me and appreciate it period.
  
I want to encourage you.  Do you have a problem with letting go, yesterday during my Quiet Time, read (Genesis 19:1-26) I was reading about Lots wife and I realized that she was struggling with letting go!  May be she loved Sodom and Gomorra and that is why she turned back to see what she was leaving instead of focusing on what God had purposed for her.  You might be like me who is struggling with letting go because you really feel that, which the Lord is taking away should have been yours, please I plead with you join with me in making a prayer that the Lord will help you and me to let go and trust Him for what is ours and ask Him to help us to have patience because most of the time we lack patience.  You do not need to be turned to a pillar of salt and lose what God has ordained for you.  Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding and in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path.
 
Be blessed and learn how to interpret your dreams too!  Amen!

 

Tuesday 4 October 2011

God listens to all prayers!

LITTLE PRAYER THAT GOD HEARD AND ANSWERED ME IMMEDIATELY

I was really encouraged when i read a story written in Our Daily Bread and i had to write my story too on the same.  How many times do we thank and praise God?  Only when he is doing something good to us?  I have a testimony.  On the 23rd November, 2010, in the Morning when I left the house at around 8.00 am, I told God to help me do something that I was feeling it is hard for me to do.  I had parked my car somewhere that I could not remove on my own because the Lord had just blessed me with my first car and I was still a learner with an “L” sign stuck on it.  Actually I did not bother to call anyone to help me coz I said I should do it so that I learn on my own.  When I prayed, it was such a short prayer which was, “God help me remove this car from here safely”. Amen.  I prayed because I did not want the worse to happen since I had seen where I was, there could be a danger coming because of lack of expertise in reversing the car the reason being that the car was parked behind a building in my estate which is a flat and on my left side there was no way, on my left there was a car parked just next to mine and where I was supposed to reverse there were stones so my concern was not to hit the car next to me on my right, not to reverse on the stones towards my right and not to enter in the ditch coz on the left side there was a ditch right where I was supposed to come out from but I was to be very careful when coming out and I had to do it anyway and see if I am an expert since after doing that I would know am a true driver.   

Well, I prayed and moved.  But guess what!  The worst happened and I asked God, but I prayed?. I was right inside the ditch and to make the matters worse I was in the car with my little baby Calvin 1yr and three months who was left by my house help because she realized that I had left her without cooking oil in the house.  So, she followed me so that she can remind me that I have left her behind without the cooking oil.  I told her, to go back in the house and bring the money I left on the shelf in the sitting room since I did not have money with me to spend.  So she rushed back to the house to pick the money.  So, I thought, now that she has gone, I can be reversing the car and face the direction that I was going so that I am ready to go because I was even late for work, that is when I reversed unfortunately I miss-calculated and entered in the ditch with the baby in the car the baby had no safety belt nor did I have them on.  And the Lord reminded me that it is true I had prayed and He knows that I prayed.  So, because the Lord knew I had prayed and answered me I said let me then start thanking God.  I did not curse why I entered in the ditch but came out of the car and I laughed instead of crying.  I started praising God inside myself and looking for assistance from people who had started coming from different directions

Let me tell you, I had a peace that surpasses all understanding.  Instead of crying i was praising God and laughing inside myself.  I looked at my baby he was just slightly frightened because he wondered why I was not driving more and we were inside a ditch.  The good part of it is that I did not go in a bung I was in the ditch like I really wanted to fall into it or I had purposed and yet I had not because the car did not bang and no one was hurt nor moved.  So I came out of the car and I was shocked to see where I was.  It was bad I wondered how I will remove that car.  Unless I call those who have the cranes to come and pull my car, then I did not know how I was to come out of it.  So neigbours started gathering around and looking at the car.  Some were laughing, others were surprised, others were wondering, others were concerned, but still called them.  I remember one person that I called and he said “God has heard my prayers today.  I told him how?  He said, “Because yesterday I slept hungry and now I can see I will have food, God remembers us and He knows when we have problems”.  The message he was driving home here was, he will help me with his friends but I have to pay them.  I answered him and told him that, if God wanted me to get in the ditch so that he can eat, then, may His will be done because I did not have that idea.  What I wanted is that they help me take the car out of the ditch because I could not take out myself alone unless I called the people with a crane to come and remove it, but the other alternative was to call those who were near to help me push it so that it can come out.  When they all came and started pushing the car, it refused to come out and I suggested to them, that I get into the car and put the reverse gear and reverse while they were pushing it out.    To my surprise, my car moved out very fast and I was not in the ditch anymore.  They did not even use that energy they thought they would use and my car had no damage.  My baby too and I had no scratch and I thank God for his protection.   Very true I had to give them 200/= that was in my wallet and I understand they shared it to themselves I do not know how.  When I was in that problem they were wondering why am I not crying and i was at peace.  And within a short time of period I was out of my problems and all those who witnessed were shocked because they thought the worst would have happened to my car but God helped me and nothing terrible happenedl.  I thanked God and gave God all the Glory and I went on praising God and thanking Him for he was so faithful on me and showed me His favour by answering my prayers even when I was in my problems because He knows my problems even before i know them and He will always save and deliver me.  

I went on with my journey to work and I realized time had really gone and it was past 8.00 a.m. and am supposed to report at 8.00 a.m. I called my boss and told him I will be late since I had that problem that I had solved but I was late for work and he told me it was alright.  While on the way I asked myself, why didn’t I wait for my house help to come and may be check for me the car before I move because if I did that then I would not have landed in the ditch and the Lord reminded me that He wanted me to know that He cares and loves me.  So I stopped asking myself many questions because I said the devil might start ministering to me and I did not want that.  I forgot about the whole issue and went to work.  Where I was supposed to go and park at KICC there was no parking that day and I called a good friend from the Ministry of Education who told me to go and park my car in their compound and I found the favour of God because where he told me to park it is a place where people of high caliber in the Government and I saw the majesty of God in my life because he says those who will humble themselves he will lift them.  I have learnt now to thank God and praise Him at all times.  Even when am driving, washing utensils, walking in the streets and so on I praise God in my spirit and I always get victory in my Praises to my God in heaven.  Brethren, let us thank God in all situations and the peace of God shall be with us and we shall be victorious people all the time.  The devil is a liar he wants us always to be gloomy and sad!  God bless you!