ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL.....(04/09/14) Good morning dearly beloved, Great to connect to you this morning. Quite difficult connecting to you since yesterday. Obviously, something is wrong somewhere. Possibly my modem device has a problem. Too difficult for me to understand how I will recharge and without use, it will be as if I am not credit worthy enough to operate. And there will be an indication that there is nothing wrong with the network as the bar indicator will be full. If it is from the network providers, they are treating me unfairly, charging me without providing the requisite services. Somebody who knows what is happening to me here should help before I take AIRTEL management to court. Now, let me get to message 4 of GLEANING THROUGH HEBREW CHAPTER ELEVEN. Do you know the hymn All things bright and beautiful....All creatures great and small....The Lord God has made them all. Since yesterday, I have been reflecting on my secondary school days at the Saint Saviors College, Umuaka, in Imo state. I was there between September 1979 and June 1984. A life chapter of five years that I cannot forget. It was there at our school assembly ground that we sang hymns like this one written by a female school teacher many years back. The faith in that beautiful woman of faith sang that. The writer of the book of Hebrews under the power of the Holy Spirit wrote Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Heb.11:3). You know what, you need a mindset of faith to operate in faith. God Himself has that mindset. The human mindset got terribly marred in the Adamic fall. So that it became skewed to the fact that things which are seen must be made by things which appear. That is the basis of the perpetual asking by man of empirical proofs. Empirical proofs are those things which appear. You know I have taken the gospel to highly intelligent people and the first thing they ask me is for empirical proof. You tell them of heaven, they ask you prove it. You tell them of hell, they ask you to prove it. You tell them that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, they ask you, how? Paul met those idle intellectuals at Athens Mars Hill. I call them idle because they were gathering at that place just to tell and hear new things. Bible said that they spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new things (Acts 17:21). Intellectual gossips they were! Where then is creativity? Where then is the release of intellectual power for positive impact from those men? You know as Paul spoke to them about their religion, they were in rapt attention. Oh, as Paul quoted one of their great poets the applause was deafening. It was until he mentioned the resurrection that some mocked and others raised a motion for adjournment (Acts 17:32). And that was the Faith Zero Hour of that talk. The ones that caught it like Dionysius the Areopagite and Damaris caught it at that Faith Zero Hour. Hour of decision. They bible recorded it thus Howbeit certain men clave unto him and believed,,,, (Acts 17:34). If the word preached is not mixed with faith, it will profit nothing to the hearers (Heb.4:2). Why did the men at Mars Hill go a mocking? They were asking How Can?. It was the How Can? that made Pastor Zacharias dumb (Luke 1:18-20). Unbelief is a dangerous thing oo. Unbelief can make one dumb. Bishop, Biologist Zacharias asked a biologically stirred question How Can. You remember those Cry-Cry Baby Men in the wilderness who asked Can God furnish a table in the wilderness (Psalm 78:19). They could not reach Canaan. They perished in the wilderness. Unbelief cannot take any one to Canaan. Without faith a man or woman will remain restless because rest comes through faith. All things bright and beautiful the Lord God made them all. God does not need anything else other than His word to bring things which are not into existence. You see these men of God that we hear that they go and look for powers outside God to manifest power are stark unbelievers. They know nothing. Nothing else than His Word. Even all these drama of blowing air into the mic - signs of unbelief. Nothing else but His Word. That faith-full Centurion told Jesus, you do not need to come physically to my house, just speak your word, my servant shall be healed (Matt.8:8-9). Even Jesus marveled at the mans faith (Matt.8:10). Jesus got excited. Faith excites God. He gets delighted at acts of faith. Speak thy word only. That is all. Only His word not His word plus oil or water. Some believers today until something appears, they will not believe. Naaman wanted somebody and something to appear. It is in the occult world that things usually appear for something to happen. My dear, with God things that are seen do not need things that appear to be. All they need to be seen is Gods word. Faith has no other raw materials to bring things into existence than Gods word. The so called Big Bang theory is a foolish and thoughtless theory. Few days ago, I was watching a CNN documentary on a place in Namibia. Oh my God, God is awesomely beautiful and great in creation. For those of you who have visited tourist sites of this world, do you think those things banged themselves out? Which bang? All things bright and beautiful, the LORD God made them all - the little flower in the meadow. The rivers that flow along. The hills, the mountains, the galaxies He made them all by His word. My dear, God calleth those things which be not as though they were (Rom.4:17). With faith, it does not even need to have happened before to happen now. Unbelief asks, have you seen any with this kind of cancer survive before? It asks, where have you seen a woman without womb getting pregnant? Unbelief asks again, have you seen any sickle cell anemia person survive to a certain age. Faith does not need a precedent to set a precedent. You reading me can call those things that be not as though they were. Once while I was still in courtship with my wife then to be, she phoned me from Ibadan where she was (I was in Kaduna) that she has chicken pox. And she had gone for test to confirm. On phone I told her that together we are going to call the chicken pox heat rash. We did on a phone prayer. And that was what it became. The following day I landed in Ibadan to confirm it. Who wants to marry a woman that chicken pox has made the skin look somehow? Is skin not part of beauty? Not that I will reject my wife if something happens to her skin oo which I am sure is Gods will oo. But if not, why? Speak the word of God. In chaotic situations, speak the word of God. If something is getting wrong with your marriage, forget all these textbook marriage formulas and speak Gods word into the situation. Even storms obey His Word. The storms and oceans must obey. Be still. Speak Gods word unto the road as you travel by road and unto the sky as you travel by air. The winds and the storms must obey. Go now and practice and live faith. We shall continue tomorrow. Shalom.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 03:22:35 +0000