25th March

Testimony Time:-Have you been given the opportunity to live in His presence again? Then think about this; definitely you have been put in charge to unravel the mystery surrounding various persecutions thrown like darts by the Devil to all Christians. As well, the Devil prowls day and night armed with tribulations and these are powerful enough to test our faith. It is also the plan of Satan to throw many into undue captivity. This trend within the Christendom can be unwanted; even at that the Bible enjoins us to "be faithful until death, so that God can give us crown of life" (Revelation 2:10) Who then can be classified as being faithful in His word? Psalm 24:4-5 describes the person as "He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully". He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Can you categorically say you have a clean hands and a pure heart? Is it in your habit to swear deceitfully? Do you follow fashions and customs of this world to begin to live in spiritual darkness? Definitely, these are ploy which Satan has taken into captivity. So also Christ has given "to each one of us grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” (Ephesians 4:7-8) Surprisingly, there are some gifts earned through worship which preach love, perseverance, humility, tolerance, forgiveness, service etc.; and without them we will remain captive to the traits of Satan. May God remove every deposit of spiritual darkness which may have taken us into captivity in Jesus name. Amen Just Checking into His Presence...

24th March

Testimony Time:-Life should not be about a competition; it must not be viewed in terms of those who are successful or down trodden and have suffered some ill fortune along the way. Quite simply; we cannot describe life in terms of wealth, beauty, feelings and costumes. Oftentimes, we may have heard life summed up in two sentences- (No one has it all and one man's food is another man's poison). If you are rich or wealthy therefore, it is on own terms. If you consider yourself to be beautiful; have you heard about a saying which goes-"beauty is in the eye of the beholder". You may be rich, your name and riches may be recorded on a poor list in some quarters. What many perceive to be beautiful may bring some displeasure to many in other areas. Above all, life should not be measured in terms of riches, achievements or successes, beauty or otherwise. Life simply should be seen in terms of what you can contribute to make a difference. A message from Barrister Dipo Bada's Facebook post brings some suggestions regarding what he sees as the law of life. Please read:- LAW OF LIFE ⚓ "When a newspaper reporter interviewed a farmer who grew award-winning corn each year he entered his corn in the state fair, it was revealed that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. Perplexed, the reporter asked, “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering their corn in competition with yours each year?” The farmer smiled knowingly and explained, “The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.” So it is with our lives. Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others. For the value of a life, is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all. Call it power of collectively. Call it a principle of success. Call it a law of life. The fact remains, “None of us truly wins, until we all win.” In life, when you help the people around you to be good, you surely become the best. Always bear in mind that "Real happiness is helping others. live and let's live." Above all, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, and then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:32-46) Father in heaven, we beseech You to give us the power to honour You in this world so we can be empowered to reign with you in Your eternal kingdom. Amen Just Checking into His Presence...

23rd March

Testimony Time:-I received a message from a brother of over 40 years today. The theme gave me the impetus to use the write up as my main message. The message itself is potent enough and can serve as a sequence to my message of yesterday. Please read along; I am sure you will pick something out of it. "Just finished work on a film set in Reading location; though tiring but I was not tired instead energized seeing another dimension to life. How people come and go, I meant how people were born and die (ultimate price). The struggles, the business of life, the neglects and the neglected etc. The location of the set speaks volume of its self; it’s a place where all manner of people looking for help converge daily, some go home smiling maybe with new babies, and some go home crying for whatever reason not palatable to them. At a point during the shoot my hands were shaking I felt a cold shrill moving down my spine. I tried to comport myself so as not to mess the whole shoot-up but then my mind was fast racing decoding different thoughts about life e.g. what is the purpose of man’s life? Is life all about dining and wining? Is life all about struggle? Or being rich/wealthy makes you an acceptable person in the society. People want peace instead they get wars….. What beats my imagination really is how elusive these goodies of life have become to those who actually crave them irrespective of how much they tried. Some got these goodies for a brief moment and disappeared. Some do not actually crave for them but they come and stick/stayed while the recipients lack good health and peace of mind thus rejecting them. What is the benefit of a man that gains the goodies of life and then loses soul or sanity? The environment I found myself today answered some of these questions that I have been pondering about for ages. That life is nothing but vanity upon vanity!" Summarily, everyone wants to go to heaven but no one is prepared to die. We all claim to work for Christ but there is absolutely no one who is prepared to have their faith tested. We flinch in times of trouble; we groan, complain and see ourselves beyond every hitch. Matthew 16:25 says "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." If we are to go on living in our body, would that mean fruitful labor for us? What you shall choose I do not know! (Philippians 1:22) "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21) May the peace and good health of God that surpasses human understanding rest upon us all. Amen (Partly authored by Apostle Shola Bankole) Just Checking into His Presence...

22nd March

Testimony Time:-Apostles Paul in 1st Corinthians 12:3 gave the impression that "no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit". The Holy Spirit in every Christians should therefore demonstrate the willingness to accept Gods reign as eternal. Christians should always find a way to develop a lasting relationship with Christ with the hope of having an everlasting life. It is not uncommon for the result of lusts borne out of the courage of the human flesh to make it hard for Christians to excel in having a perfect relationship with Christ. Naturally, this tends to impede the process that brings to fulfillment the purpose of God in their lives. As a child of God, do you limit God with nonchalance to His rule? Is God everything to you? Why are Christians not so pleased to come to His Presence blameless, without doubts and or reservations? Do you also know that those who are called by the name of Christ must be aware that it is the Holy Spirit which can give empowerment? Besides, the Spirit can also intercede on behalf of every dithering Christian, but first the onus is on them to believe in Him who bore the guilt of our sins. "Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand." (Isaiah 53:20) Mark 16:16 says "anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned". If we then believe the Bible to be true; we must allow the truth in it to set us free. Brethren "if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land"(2nd Chronicles 7:14). I therefore pray to God to empower us to seek His face always so that we can receive healing in all spheres of our life. Amen Just Checking into His Presence...

21st March

Testimony Time:-I just read this prayer from one of my daughters. I found it is really convicting and thought I'd share: Lord, help me to be a good wife. I fully realize that I don’t have what it takes to be one without Your help. Take my selfishness, impatience, and irritability and turn them into kindness, long-suffering, and the willingness to bear all things. Take my old emotional habits, mind-sets, automatic reactions, rude assumptions, and self-protective stance, and make me patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. Take the hardness of my heart and break down the walls with Your battering ram of revelation. Give me a new heart and work in me with Your love, peace, and joy (Galatians 5:22-23). I am not able to rise above who I am at this moment. Only You can transform me. Show me where there is sin in my heart, especially with regard to my husband. I confess the times I’ve been unloving, critical, angry, resentful, disrespectful, or unforgiving toward him. Help me to put aside any hurt, anger, or disappointment I feel and forgive him the way You do—totally and completely, no looking back. Make me a tool of reconciliation, peace, and healing in this marriage. Enable us to communicate well and rescue us from the threshold of separation where the realities of divorce begin. Make me my husband’s helpmate, companion, champion, friend, and support. Help me to create a peaceful, restful, safe place for him to come home to. Teach me how to take care of myself and stay attractive to him. Grow me into a creative and confident woman who is rich in mind, soul, and spirit. Make me the kind of woman he can be proud to say is his wife. I lay all my expectations at Your cross. I release my husband from the burden of fulfilling me in areas where I should be looking to You. Help me to accept him the way he is and not try to change him. I realize that in some ways he may never change, but at the same time, I release him to change in ways I never thought he could. I leave any changing that needs to be done in Your hands, fully accepting that neither of us is perfect and never will be. Only You, Lord, are perfect, and I look to You to perfect us. Teach me how to pray for my husband and make my prayers a true language of love. Where love has died, create new love between us. Show me what unconditional love really is and how to communicate it in a way he can clearly perceive. Bring unity between us so that we can be in agreement about everything (Amos 3:3). May the God of patience and comfort grant us to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus (Romans 15:5). Make us a team, not pursuing separate, competitive, or independent lives, but working together, overlooking each other’s faults and weaknesses for the greater good of the marriage. Help us to pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another (Romans 14:19). May we be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10). I pray that our commitment to You and to one another will grow stronger and more passionate every day. Enable him to be the head of the home as You made him to be, and show me how to support and respect him as he rises to that place of leadership. Help me to understand his dreams and see things from his perspective. Reveal to me what he wants and needs and show me potential problems before they arise. Breathe Your life into this marriage. Make me a new person, Lord. Give me a fresh perspective, a positive outlook, and a renewed relationship with the man You’ve given me. Help me see him with new eyes, new appreciation, new love, new compassion, and new acceptance. Give my husband a new wife, and let it be me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen Just Checking into His Presence...

20th March

Testimony Time:-Nowadays, the most widely traded slogan has to do with one religion or the other. It is so popular to the extent that those who perpetrate evil use the name of God or Allah to reinforce their actions and beliefs. As a result, many have successfully used these phenomenon to deceive, exploit, cajole, and swear and or trade, thereby parading themselves as God sent; to the detriment of those who are weak in faith and in their religion. If we then claim God is behind every action of ours including oaths taken wilfully or when under duress; can we safely say all actions in the name of God have been inspired under His directions or Authority? So to say; many believers have been trapped in the darkness of their beliefs; thereby usurping the duties of God. They very wholeheartedly lack the wisdom from God and so often they work without His spirit. As they struggle to cope with the demands of His ministry; they appear bare in His presence; this cannot give them the grace and the humility which can guarantee any inspiration from God. Above that, there is a popular mantra which suggests "whatever a man sows so he shall reap". This brings to light the story of Solomon in 2 Chronicles 1:6-7. "Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the LORD in the tent of meeting and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it. That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." Therefore, when it comes to God said! God said! And God said! Which of the utterances did actually come from God and which of them have been divinely inspired? Matthew 7:16-20 says "You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. “Of what fruits are you? Does your work before the Lord brings fruitlessness or hopelessness? Which of them is sour and how many can be classified as sweet in His presence. Solomon brought a thousand offering before the Lord; it yielded rewards in great abundance. What rewards are you expecting? Or perhaps you might know of what returns you will get for your atrocities right from the start. Either way; "Don't be misled--you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant." (Galatians 6:7). God must input His divine Grace in us so we can achieve where Satan fail. Amen Just Checking into His Presence...

19th March

Testimony Time:-You may act as if you don't know; but the deeper you go in Christianity should help to empower you to shed more ungodly things in your ways of life. It then follows that wherever we worship should not serve as a means to dip our hands further into any ungodliness. If that happens to anyone in any gathering of Christ, such person has not found a rightful church! In every perspective, sins give and also represent some outside forces working against our faith in God. Indirectly, sins can coagulate into powerful forces of darkness, which gives the body false energy of some sort. Ultimately, this new energy can sip through a heart made of rock; acting to confuse the view an ordinary Christian may have or keep on issues relating to righteousness. It is possible for all the years we have served as Christians, we may have been acting as if we like what the Lord wants and we may not actually love His requirements. In order words, if we cannot link any success and good memories to the ways we lead our lives as a Child of God, we cannot make any rightful claim to His Kingdom. As well, it will not be strange to have limited access to the grace of God wherever we portray ourselves as Christians within any Christian gathering. Finally, it will be a disaster if the reality of our claim is not potent/cogent enough to deliver salvation into our domain. 1 Peter 2:1-2 says- "So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like new born babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment," Father, of all the time we claim to know You, let our love for the things You love be genuine in our hearts so they can be drawn towards You in Jesus name. Amen Just Checking into His Presence...