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THE GREATEST WEAPON ( Part 2))

And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22 KJV . Our preliminary article has established that of all the weapons, including prayer, praise/worship, knowledge and faith, obedience is the greatest. Faith is proved by obedience. As the popular adage is, ” practice makes perfect.”, so knowledge itself is also not complete without obedience. Prayer, praise and worship are all forms of sacrifices, yet God says obedience is better than them all. Today’s piece reveals why Obedience is God’s number one ! As quiet as obedience is, it remains the loudest tone of faith amongst prayer, praise and worship. The three Hebrew boys had not even the slightest hint of deliverance from God if they disobeyed the king’s orders.But their faith-oriented obedience was voiceferous in the ears of God ! How about Daniel, Job and Joseph? They equa...

RIZPAR

Rizpar was one of Saul's concubines. She stood and witnessed the gruesome murder of her two sons - Armoni and Mephibosheth. More disdainful to her is the fact that the two were not burried; they were left to rot contrary to the prevalent tradition of burrying the dead within the next 24hours. With sorrow, Rizpar spent days and nights with the corpses ensuring that they were neither swamped nor dragged away by any animals. Soon enough, King David noticed her discomfort, and was moved by her attitude; David ordered for the burrying of Rizpar's sons, the remains of their father, Saul and that of Jonathan. BACKGROUND: Joshua promised that Israel would be at peace with the Gibeonites. But Saul broke that oath, killing as many Gibeonites as he could in his time. In retallating, the Gibeonites asked David for seven of Saul's son whom they murdered in the presence of Rizpar. LESSONS: 1. Customes can be broken; protocols are skipable. If only we consistently...

LISTEN CAREFULLY !

" Be careful therefore how you listen..." Luke 8:18. Words do not only have the efficacy to colour our thoughts; with their forceful potency, they simulate and propel our Spirits into a certain direction. Whereas some words deepen our fears, others expand our faith depending on their source. God-originated Words do not only invigorate us with His POWER; they also never disappoint when we live them out. So we are charged from our opening verse to listen to God alone. And when we do, we must also understand Him so we can aptly effect His Words. Here's the reason for the failure of some prophecies - The Prophet of God might be mistaking another voice for God's voice or he misinterpretes what he actually heard God say leading to an erroneous application. It's the reason why James says, " be quick to listen but slow to speak". James 1:19. Ezekiel, the Prophet of God, full of this wisdom, would never prophesy until God first commanded him. And when he di...

KEEP YOUR HEART WELL.

" Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23. KJV. Lot of the things christians are surrounded by today in this world, chiefly the social media, are not helpful. It is the reason why our opening verse suggests that we guard our hearts. Now, the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart. And these spoken words go a long way to shape our lives. It's therefore patent that we can only let out good words when we first stock our hearts with positive information and faith-filled words. The two main gateways to the heart are the eyes and the ears. Now, guarding the heart means preventing negative information from reaching it through these main channels. That means, friends and environments that pose as potential threats to the peace, joy and love in our hearts must be barred. Disclosed below are a few ways by which we can keep our hearts as we journey through this world. 1. Mind your Mind: "A good man produces go...

DELILAH

NAME MEANING : Dainty One CHARACTER : she was very resolute and purposeful in realising her selfish aims. STORY IN BRIEF : Delilah, an irrestibly pretty prostitute, whose nationality has not been disclosed in the Bible was Sampson's lover. She offered to help the Philistines out in capturing her Nazarite lover - Sampson, for a very substantial amount. So Delilah would aften coax Sampson into uncovering the secret of his strength. But she was deceived on the first two attempts by her lover. Sampson, however, fell for her lover's ploy on her a third attempt; the Philistines pounded on him, plugged out his two eyes and imprisoned him in Gaza. For his blindness, Sampson's growing hair was ignored by the Philistines, who would rather focus on celebrating the Victory their god, Gadon, gave them over the Nazarite. FURTHER READINGS : Judges 16:4 – 22.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it (LUKE 9:24)

A certain man counceled his Christian son against being too industrous for God. This man's fear was that his dear son could lose his life serving Jesus Christ and preaching the Gospel. But the son replied, “Dad, I’m only doing what Jesus said I should do; I’m serving Him with my life.”

The man took offence at that and asked back, “You’re doing what Jesus said you should do? That’s why He died young; at thirty-three! They killed Him!” Like that man, there’re many who neither understand Christ’s purpose, nor the meaning of life. It’s not how long you live; it’s about the life you live.

The truth is, for such people, the issue really isn’t that they want to live long or want their loved ones to live long. If that were the case, God promised them eternity; their real problem is the fear of death.

As long as the fear of death possesses a man, he can’t live to his best potentials; he can’t fulfil his calling in life. He’ll say and do things doubtfully, all so he could save his life. But we read in our opening verse, “…whosoever will save his life shall lose it….” Hold nothing back living for Christ! You’ve got to be able so say, “Come what may, I stand for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom! I’ll serve The Lord, no matter what!”

Remember what He said in Luke 10:19, “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” As you go about preaching the Gospel, especially in these last days, be fearless, for the Lord Himself is your defence. Even now, He’s saying to you the very same words He said to the Apostle Paul in Acts 18:10, “For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.”

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