ĶEY SCRIPTURE: Joh 12:27 KJV “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.”

We continue with our discussions on the walk with Jesus through the gospels. The Lord had been talking to his disciples concerning His impending death, that would bring glory to the Father. His human sentiments immediately went into action. He felt the great burden of the pains and the shame that would be coming on Him. The scripture said, He was troubled in His soul. The flesh of man would always cave in under pressure. If anyone allows the flesh to lead him, he will not please God. Rom 8:7 KJV” Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” The troubles of His soul led Him to ask the father to take away that cup of suffering.

The Lord did not hold to that position, but quickly added that He was alive to fulfill the will of the Father. That was to die for all humanity. The cries of His flesh to succumb and forsake His divine mission was very strong. He did not yield at all to the fears and worries of the flesh. What made Jesus not to yield?

The Lord had a great reverence for the father and placed His will first above all. Matt 26:42 KJV “He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”  The next reason why he stuck to obeying God, was the glory He will enjoy after the pain Heb 12:2 KJV” Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The third reason why He overcame was His deep love for all men. John 15:13 KJV” Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” The above were some of the reasons why Jesus decided to accept the pain and shame of dying on the cross.

We are to learn a lot from the master concerning how He subjected His flesh from dictating to Him. Place the will of God above everything, for God is the essence of life, and everything must be done to please Him, for our own good and peace. Every man’s satisfaction, success, peace, and liberation is dependent on him pleasing the Father.

There is always glory from the Father when we overcome the desires to sin.

CONFESSION

Thank you, heavenly father, for your ways are always higher than ours. I give no place to my flesh to dictate to me. I learn from the master concerning how He also overcame the demands of His flesh, and so I overcome.

FURTHER STUDIES

Mat 4:4 KJV” But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Isaiah 53:11 KJV” He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”

KEY SCRIPTURE: John 12:26 KJV” If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.”

Service is the basic criterion for any follower of God. Serving God is the basic sign that you are submitted to God. The reason for God’s deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt was to serve Him. Exo 9:1 KJV “Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.” God always rewards servant and not bosses or titles. In Philip 2:6-11, the scriptures reveal the progression of Jesus’ Service, which culminated in his death, and so God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every other name, and that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord.

Our key scripture reveals two main things about servant of God.

1.  The requirements of servants
2.  The benefits of the servants.

The requirements of service;

The Lord said His servants must follow Him. This implies learning from His example and doing likewise. The Lord worked acidulously through His three years and over of His ministry period. He begins with an early hour of prayer and meditation. Mark 1:35 KJV “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” In some cases, He spent the whole night praying Luke 6:12. The Lord combed through the regions of Judea and Jerusalem and some aspects of Samaria, sharing the Goodnews to multitudes and certain individuals on some occasions. At one moment He explained to His disciples that, I must work the works of Him that sent me, whiles it is day, for the night comes when no one can work John 9:4. At the close of His service, He crowned it with suffering and dying on the cross. He says every servant of His must go that way. The servant is not greater than his master.

The second statement about His servants is about the benefits of His servants.

He said that His servants would be with Him wherever He would be. His servants would share his authority with Him, as He is seated at the right hand of the Father. It also means His servants would be with Him in the heavenly kingdom when they die.

 Secondly, He added that those who serve Him would be honoured by the Father. To honour is to approve the servant by confirming your relationship to Him through various divine acts. Acts 2:22 Men like Moses, Elijah, Peter Paul, and all these   who made impact in their time of their service here.

PRAYER

Thank you, dear Father. I pray for all Christians, especially those who are in leadership to develop a real heart of dedicated servants. May we be true followers of our Lord.

FURTHER STUDIES

Mat 4:19 KJV “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Acts 13:36 KJV “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption”:

KEY SCRIPTURE: Joh 12:25 KJV” He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”

Our key scripture is God’s paradox to men. It says if a man loves to preserve himself in this world and would not let God have His way in his affairs, that man would lose his life. On the flip side, if a man hates his life, such that he throws his interest away and chooses God’s interest, that person would rather save his life. This may look like a paradox, yet it is not, but the most logical truth that one can employ. In Rev 12:11, the bible lists three things that those who overcame the devil employ Rev 12:11 KJV And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. The last of the three, was the fact that they loved not their lives even unto death. This means these people were prepared to even lose their lives, for the course and for the name of God.; they saved their lives from Satan. The Bible said, by taking such a stance, they overcame the devil. What would have happened, if they had loved their lives and were not prepared to lose it for the course of God? Satan would have overcome them.

Remember Eve who loved to be like God and so ate of the forbidden fruit. She and her husband who took it died. Gen 3:1-20

One aspect of our walk and relating with God is to walk by faith. Faith on most occasions is very ridiculous and unreasonable. It is very natural and humanly safe to be reasonable about various issues in life. When a man chooses to love himself by being reasonable, he or she cannot walk by faith. Faith counts on the unseen word of God to relate with seen and tangible issues. Those who dare to hate themselves to walk by faith, win all the times. Heb 11:2 KJV For by it (faith) the elders obtained a good report. The Lord says we should not walk by our own understanding, but in all our ways, let his way lead us. Prov 3:5,6

The Christian life is unpleasant to many because they have not chosen to go by the principle of hating themselves to save their lives. Many homes are on fire because they would not put aside the love for themselves and not put Christ first. The Lord said, husbands should love their wives, and wives submit to their husbands. This is God’s unconditional command for the couple. It is not dependent on whether the man loves the wife, she must submit to him. The husband must also love the wife, whether she is submissive or not to obey this, is to love the Lord and put aside your ego. People who accept to live by this would save their marriage, and would have a happier life, than those who love themselves, and so would not obey it.

CONFESSION

I obey the word of God, by hating myself to love God. The very things that are gain to me, I count them as dung, so that I may please Jesus. I place my trust in Him against the odds of dangers, and I always come out as the winner.

FURTHER STUDIES

Phi 3:8 KJV” Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,”

Act 15:26 KJV” Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

KEY SCRIPTURE: Joh 12:24 KJV Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

In John 12:23, the Lord talked about the fact that it is time for Him to be glorified. The Lord then added that unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it would bring forth much fruit. It is the bringing forth much fruit, that the glory is manifested. John 15:8 KJV “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so, shall ye be my disciples.”

Natural experience teaches us that, a seed can only grow and become fruit when it is planned. The Lord calls the process of planting and growth as a dying process. To have a meaningful life, one has to die to himself. The whole idea, is to place the will of Jesus first. The Lord Jesus in a few days’ time was going to be crucified, and shamefully portrayed to all men. He knew that, through this death He would be resurrected and out of that many people would receive life.

The act of planting a seed is a form of sacrifice. Sacrifice remains the only means of multiplication in the kingdom of God. Every act of sincere sacrifice would always bring a multiplication of what was sacrificed. To sacrifice is to willingly give out something dear, precious or costly to you. In this case, you sacrifice your very interest to accept that of the Lord Jesus. There is no glory without sacrifice

CONFESSION

I thank you dear Lord for your goodness unto me. I surrender my will in total subjection to you. I refuse to live to please myself but to daily take up my cross and follow you.

THOUGHT: NO CROSS, NO CROWN”

FURTHER STUDIES

Phi 1:21 KJV For to me to live Is Christ, and to die is gain.

Act 15:26 KJV “Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

KEY SCRIPTURE: John 12:20 KJV” And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:”

The Pharisees did their worst, yet the Lord kept thriving in His ministry. He gave no attention to the negativity of His detractors. Multitudes kept following Him because He kept blessing mankind. In our key scripture, some Greek citizens came looking for Jesus. His ministry had become so impactful that the Greeks who were supposed to be the elites of their time came looking for Jesus. 1Cor 1:22 KJV” For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:” These were people who always wanted to hear philosophical thoughts. The impact of the Lord had travelled so far to their lands such that, they came looking for Jesus.

What was the secret of the Lord’s great impact. He was focused on doing the will of the Father. He was not attracted by what people said about Him, or the kind of people that would want to see Him. The activities of the Pharisees, was not His concern. He kept on His heavenly given assignment. Whether people praised or cursed Him was not His business. His number one concern was to please the Father who had commissioned Him.

In the past week, Ghana had the visitation from one of the world’s renown servants of God, Ps W. F. Kumuyi the founder of the Deeper Christian life Ministry, an 82-year-old man, who because of his love for Jesus, has mapped up a series of evangelistic programs across the globe dabbed, ‘Global Crusades with Kumuyi’. He travels to a nation every month to hold open air crusades and ministers and professional conferences. At his age, he stands preaching for about one to two hours. He does all this because of His passion for the master. On the last day of the ministers’ conference, he distributed books to all non-deeper life pastors, worth thousands of dollars, yet there was no offering taken at any of the meetings. His example is a path for the Church of God to learn from. Dear young man in Christ, what is your commitment to Jesus?

PRAYER

Father, I pray for all Christians, to be filled with such love as to be totally given to your course. Let the power of self-centredness be broken from the church, such that Christians would focus on pleasing, you and you alone.

FURTHER STUDIES

Luke 14:26 KJV” If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”

Phi 1:20 KJV” According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.”

KEY SCRIPTURE: John 12:19 KJV” The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.’

Envy in any form makes you a fighter of progress, and more still an enemy of God. Prov 27:4 KJV” Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?” Envy goes beyond being selfish, but seeks to destroy the very one who is making an impact to bless others. Envy is therefore a cancer to the social systems.

The envious Pharisees sat and made a mockery of each other, by admitting that, their envious activities had made them losers” They implied, they have been trying to stop Jesus from having multitudes thronging His meeting, yet they failed. Please note, it is a very big mistake to envy an anointed man. In actual fact, it is foolishness to do so. The anointing is God’s seal of approval of His works in that individual’s life. To envy him, makes you come against God, who anointed him. Unfortunately, many men, especially some Christians and some pastors are caught up in that web. The anointing is never the private benefit of an individual. God anoints a man, with multitudes of people on His mind. People get envious because of the affluence, benefits, and the social honour that goes with the anointing. Such people have no idea of the pressure for help that society places on the anointed man.

Stop that evil desire for the failure of those who may be making great headway in life. It is true that some people are treading in deceit, as they seem to be prospering in whatever endeavour they are. To envy them is to desire their error. God has blessed everyone with special abilities: appreciate God for who you are, and put your best into whatever you are doing, with a desire to bless your world to the best of your abilities. Success is being a ray of sunshine to the many God ordained for you to bless. Just give your best and happily admire those who seem to be better than you. At the end of the day, it is not how big your output was but how much you sacrificed to produce what you did.

CONFESSION

I am grateful to God for how wonderful he made me. I thank Him for my unique gifts and abilities. I have no evil feelings towards any. I wish and pray for the success of all. Even to the froward, I pray they walk in truth. No room in my life for the refuse of envy.

FURTHER STUDIES

Prov 14:30 KJV “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.”

Job 5:2 KJV “For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.”

KEY SCRIPTURE: Joh 12:13 KJV’ Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

In Zechariah 9:9, the prophet Zechariah prophesied as follows,” Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” This prophecy is evidently confirmed by the Lord Jesus in our key scripture. The events leading to this were that the high priest and the Pharisees had, decreed that anyone who sees the Lord must report Him to them, so that, He would be arrested. This meant the Lord could not come into the public domain. In the midst of this, the Lord would either have to continue hiding, or act on the word of God He chose to do what had been written about Him, caring less about the threats of the religious leaders None of the proposals of the Pharisees could be established. They were all set aside.

It takes faith in God to bring to pass what God has said. Remember that, there are always giants in every man’s promised Land. These giants are not there to stop you, but for you to overcome them, in order to make you strong to face later battles that would be coming your way. Acting on the word of God is what sets God into action, to bring to pass what He has said concerning you. If God has spoken, whatever the devil says does not matter, no matter how fearful it may seem.

When the twelve spies were sent by Moses to inspect the promised land; ten of them came with the ‘words’ of the people of the Land. They said, they were giants, and they the people of God, were like grasshoppers. Num 13:33 ” And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight”. Caleb and Joshua said to the people to stop considering the ‘words’ of the people, they are bread for us, and our God would deliver them, into our hands (Num 13:30). To bring God’s word to pass, you must never give attention to the word of the enemy, go ahead with what God has instructed and follow through to the end. The enemy may show up with dangerous threats, yet give no attention to any of these because they can never materialise, for God has put their words aside.

Whatever God has said concerning your health, business, marriage, and future, believe it and act on it

CONFESSION

Thank you, Father for your word. Standing on your word or doing as you have said gives me the edge over the devil, and makes me bring your purposes to pass. I enjoy a stream of blessings because I act on what God says.

FURTHER STUDIES

Prov 4:20 KJV” My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee’.

KEY SCRIPTURE: Joh 12:10 KJV” But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;”

When evil fills a man’s heart, his actions are not reasonable. The scripture says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. Prov. 9:10. In my life journey so far, I have witnessed the life story of many who acted against the way of righteousness, and how they ended up. How reasonable were the actions of King Saul, who left his Palace and ran through caves and bushes, looking for David to kill? David was the very man who saved Saul and his kingdom, from being wiped away by Goliath, and his Philistine’s army. David was the same person who could play the harp that drove away the tormenting devils that came to torment his mind. There was no wisdom for King Saul to seek  David’s life, yet he pursued him, till he died himself.

In our key scripture, the high priest and the religious leaders decided to eliminate Lazarus because many people were believing in Jesus because of him. What was the offense of Lazarus? Certain people have become the concern and are evilly spoken of because they are in a pole position in some aspect of life. Some good students suddenly became hated by a group in their class, all because they stood out among the lot. In certain towns or villages, it becomes an offense to be doing well. Anybody who builds a good house would soon be eliminated. Well, no child of God, who truly walks in the light can be stopped by such people. All these are unreasonable wickedness.

Dear reader I wish to get home to you that, the only path of wisdom, is to tread on the path of honouring God. Jesus asked, how reasonable is the man who forsakes God, to pursue the things of this life, only to eternally lose his soul in hell? Now who is the wicked according to the word of God? The wicked is anyone who gives no regard to the word of God. 2 Samuel 22:22 KJV” For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.” According to Prov 4:18, the path of the just is as a shining light and shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness and he stumbles without knowing Prov 4:19.

Dear one, I have shown you the extreme unreasonable ways of the wicked, yet the whole error begins with neglecting God and His word. If you have not humbly submitted your life to the Lordship of Jesus, then the Lord calls you the wicked and your end is definitely going to be miserable. Come to Jesus today.

CONFESSION

True wisdom is a function of submission to God. I walk in the light, and my path keeps shining until the perfect day. I have humbled myself before God and have His peace in my heart. Glory be to God.

FURTHER STUDIES

1Co 1:21 KJV” For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

Isa 48:22 KJV” There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.”

KEY SCRIPTURE:  John 12:9 KJV” Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.

Derrick Prince, a British teacher of the scriptures said He met an evangelist from Kenya, who testified that he does not need to advertise his outreach programs. He gets to a market or any place, looks around for one blind man or someone with a physical deformity, and in the full glare of the people he opens the eyes, of the blind man or restores that deformity, and in less than thirty minutes, the whole place is packed with people. Our Lord Jesus, always had multitudes thronging His meetings, because His presence everywhere was characterised by diverse kinds of miracles. Miracles are the number one advertisers of the gospel. Men, whether, enlightened or not, whether poor or rich, whether black or white would always be attracted by miracles.

Our key scripture says multitudes did not only come because of Jesus but to see Lazarus who was raised to life, after four days in the grave. Although men are not necessarily saved by seeing a miracle; miracles act as catalyst to cause their hearts to gravitate towards believing the gospel. Miracles bring glory to God and blessing to men. Miracles are the normal activities of God. The difficulty of seeing miracles in our everyday life is not a doing of God. God desires to consistently manifest His glory in the midst of men, but on many occasions, He is limited by men.

What limits God from manifesting a consistent stream of miracles? In a world where men authenticate science more than God’s word, God will be limited. In a world where human traditions are the normal world view of most people, then the power of the word of God would not be seen.

To see miracles happening always, men must cast their lives on the word of God. Miracles are always a response from the Spirit of God, when men sincerely believe the word of God, enough to act on it. That positive act of faith, compels the faithfulness of God to go into operation. Miracles are therefore a collaboration between God and man. Believe God’s word wholeheartedly, act on what God has said, and God will surely do His part by working out a miracle.

CONFESSION

Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for your love, that makes your power available to work miracles. I cast my confidence on Him, doing all that His word commands me. As I obey He honours His word with miracles.

FURTHER STUDIES

Mar 7:13 KJV” Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.”

Heb 11:33 KJV “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”

KEY SCRIPTURE: Joh 12:8 KJV “For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.”

We continue with the discourse between Jesus and Judas after Mary Magdalene had anointed Jesus with the ointment. The Lord said she did that to prepare His body for burial. He also added that, as for the poor people, they will always be around., yet, He the Lord would not always be with them. The Lord in a way was telling Judas to discern events in the order of their importance. Judas was also prejudiced about his views since he wanted to get some monies to be stealing.

Knowing the proper order of events is very paramount to having a successful life. Our story shows us some of the reasons people are not able to assess the importance of events in their proper order. In the first place, Judas should have asked the Lord, why did the woman pour the ointment on Him? Asking questions would help you discover many things you do not know. The next reason why Judas erred was his desire to gratify his lust. Some people take decisions based on their lust for certain things. Such people almost always end up with regrets.

A man complained to me about how terrible his wife was treating him. I asked him, what on earth made him marry such a lady? He said he was moved by her fair colour, hips, and general body shape. Note; You do not marry beauty, rather you marry a character. Young men, do not make such a mistake. For a wife, ask the Lord for the green light. She must also have a good character based on her fear of the Lord. Thirdly, look for her ability to get along with others, before beauty will follow. For a husband, you also need assurance from the Spirit of God, and then you consider, a good character based on his fear for God. The next is his industriousness before the handsomeness comes. Certain people have it in a reversed order. These people normally regret it in the long run.

CONFESSION

Thank you, heavenly Father, for your wisdom. I seek proper counsel on every matter. These godly counsel saves me from making very dangerous mistakes. I have a peaceful and fulfilled life.

FURTHER STUDIES

Prov 24:6 KJV” For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.”

Prov 3:7 KJV” Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. “