RAISING OUR LAND (S2/EP3: LABOUR OF LOVE)
RAISING
OUR LAND
“Thus says
the LORD, In an acceptable time have I answered you, and in a day of salvation
have I helped you; and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the
people, to raise up the land, to
make them inherit the desolate heritage…”(emphasis mine)
Isiah 49 vs 8 (Hebrew Names Version
of The Holy Bible)
WELCOME TO THIS EPISODE FOLKS.
I would like a hundred people or more to join me in praying
this prayer, based on the scripture that says “And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall
put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. Lev 26:8”
The enemies we need defeated in our lives presently are: the
veil which may be over our eyes: as it prevents the light of God’s word to
enlighten and be sown in our hearts; and those obstacles that prevent our
hearts from being good soils. Our swords are our words of prayer.
Therefore, the prayer goes thus:
Therefore, the prayer goes thus:
We pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
him: that our minds may be opened to see and receive his light, so that we will
know what is the hope to which he has called us.
We also pray that God should by His Holy Spirit prepare our hearts by making it a good soil for the word of God which when planted in our hearts will grow and prosper and yield forth good fruits just as a seed would in good soil.
And that by the Blood of Jesus, we clean every heart from
whatever may be present within which would negatively affect the growth and
prosperity of the Word of God in our lives in Jesus Name, Amen.
EPISODE 3: LABOUR OF LOVE
By the prophetic
utterance of the Senior Pastor of my home church, Covenant Christian Center,
year 2017 is the year of INGATHERING. Based on my understanding of prophecies, for
a prophetic utterance to become flesh or reality we have to understand what
that prophecy means or signifies especially as it pertains to our individual
lives; and we also have to believe the prophecy. The bible shows us that ‘Father
Abraham’ as we so fondly refer to him believed in God and it was counted to him
as righteousness.
What is Ingathering?
Ingathering or ‘gathering in’ – if you don’t like complicated English like King
James’ - emanated from the nation of Israel as a feast (the Feast of Ingathering
– Exodus 23: 16). It occurs at the end of the year, after all labor had been
gathered out of the field. Hence, ingathering is the reaping of all we have
sown and are sowing (because ‘ingathering’ is in the present continuous tense)
in the field of labor. An example of a man who in my opinion experienced an ‘ingathering’,
where that which he had labored for in the past was suddenly rewarded to him is
Mordecai – Let’s look at an aspect of his story in Esther 6: 1 – 11:
On
that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles;
and they were read before the king. And
it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the
king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the
king Ahasuerus. And the king said, What
honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the
king's servants that ministered unto him, There
is nothing done for him. And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman
was come into the outward court of the king's house, to speak unto the king to
hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king's
servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the court. And the king said,
Let him come in. So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the
king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would
the king delight to do honour more than to myself? And
Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honour, Let
the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that
the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head: And let
this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble
princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour,
and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before
him, Thus shall it be done to the man
whom the king delighteth to honour. Then the king said to Haman, Make
haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to
Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that
thou hast spoken. Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed
Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and
proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king
delighteth to honour.
What an interesting
story right? Mordecai was paraded through the street of the city in the King’s
apparel and horse by a man who detested him because it was time for him to ‘gather
in’ what he had sowed a while ago. What delights me is that all of a sudden he
became a man whom the King was delighted to honour. That is something special.
Imagine, being someone who God (as represented by the King) delights to honour.
But, a seed was sown which begat this honour, and this seed was Mordecai’s act
of looking out for the safety of the King.
His seed was a labour
of love, and one interesting thing is that even though he wasn’t immediately
rewarded for his good works, he never stopped sitting at the King’s gate –
which amounts to staying in the presence of the King, even as a servant, so
much so that the King recognized Mordecai as ‘Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate’. Mordecai’s act
of Love was to him a duty which he must perform.
Jesus talked about this
when he said:
“Luk
17:7 - 10 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will
say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to
meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and
gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou
shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that
were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all
those things which are commanded you, say, We
are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”
So we can actually draw
out a pattern from Mordecai’s experience:
A labour of Love +
Patience + Constantly returning to the presence of God regardless = Delight by
the King (in His own time) + Gathering in of the harvest.
This
year, if you believe in the prophecy, will be a year where you will harvest all
that you have sown in the past and are sowing presently in Jesus name. Amen.
‘Sown’ or ‘Sowing’ are
key words that cannot be separated from the subject matter. Without the labour
on the field there will be no gathering in; if nothing is sown, nothing will be
reaped. Presently, I know of two kinds of labour a Christian must be involved
in. (1) Labour to enter in to rest – the work of faith (2) Labour of Love. For
this write up, we will be focusing on the labour of Love, although, as we go on
we will realize that both labours are interconnected. One should not be done
with the other left undone.
1Th
1:3 Remembering without ceasing your
work of faith, and labour of love,
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our
Father;
Heb
6:10 For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labour of love,
which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints,
and do minister.
As Christians our duty
is to be like Christ; in fact the literal meaning of the word Christian is ‘Christ
Like’. And how was Christ like? Well, we know that the reason he came to the
earth was to show the love of the Father - John 3: 16 “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life”. All
that Jesus did on the earth was out of love, he walked in an infinite
compassion and it was testified of him in Acts 10: 38 that he went about doing good: and “The blind receive their sight, and the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and
the poor have the gospel preached to them” Mat 11:5.
He summarized the
commandments into two, see:
Mat
22:36 40 “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?Jesus said unto
him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
You know, ‘neighbor’ in
the scripture above doesn’t mean your christian brethren alone; but also that
non-christian or defaulting Christian too. In fact Jesus puts it this way:
Mat
5:43-48 “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour,
and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is
in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you,
what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your
brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Be ye perfect as your
heavenly Father is perfect! That seems like an enormous task, one which looks
so farfetched and unreal. However, there is a man in scripture, even before
Christ’s redemption for us who God called perfect. That man is Job. See:
Job
2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast
thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that
feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity,
although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
Job
29:12 v 17 Because I delivered the poor
that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing
of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to
sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a
robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a
father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out. And I brake
the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
Job, describing himself
prior to his affliction gave us a clue as to how a man becomes perfect. He
describes himself as a man of charity, who always looked out for the poor,
fatherless, widow, blind, lame and those in captivity.
By the way, remember
the reward for Mordecai for his labour of Love? He was clothed in the Kings’
robe and crown. Job confirms this as a reward for him too when he said “ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me:
my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.”… #Justsaying
From the testimony of Job,
we can draw an inference that being a person of Love; a person of Charity is
one that brings one unto that place of perfection that Jesus spoke of.
Personally, I have realized
that my first reaction to a request for help from somebody is usually negative.
It sometimes feels like a spontaneous reaction to say ‘NO’ first; even though I
may have the resources to lend a helping hand to that one. After saying no, in some cases…no in
most cases my conscience convicts me and I am reminded of the commandment to
love. Sometimes, the opportunity to repent and help the person still exists, at
other times the opportunity is gone. And this often lives me wondering why I
act the way I do.
I have now learnt that
it is a matter of changing oneself from the inside. As Christians, we moved
from the Kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light as the scripture says (…Who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son…Col 1:13). And it is my belief that during our
residence in the Kingdom of darkness we inherited the culture and character of
its god, satan, who the scripture describes as a roaring lion looking for whom
to devour – definitely not a person of love!
Now, that we are in the
Kingdom of one whose very nature is love, we may find ourselves still acting in
the same character of our former kingdom. It is just like if someone moves from
Nigeria to Canada, although he can look at the people and mimic or pretend to
act like a Canadian born and bred citizen, at some point in time his Nigerian
character –(which is mostly good by the way, lol)- will emerge spontaneously as
he reacts to certain situations. It will continue unless that one knowingly
changes his thinking.
This process of
changing one’s thinking in scripture can be described as ‘labor to enter into
rest’. It was used in exact terms in the
book of Hebrews 3 & 4 especially chapter 4 vs 11. What does it mean? An
event happened when the Israelites that Moses led out of the land of Egypt into
the wilderness were about to enter into the land that God had promised them. As
they got closer to the land, they sent out 12 men to spy out the land. 10 men
out of the 12 men gave a report that although the land was good, but because of
the inhabitants of that land looked like giants, they did not think they could
capture that land. However, the other two disagreed and declared that the land
could be captured. The major difference between the reports was that the group
of 10 doubted the promise of God to give them the land he had promised them,
hence that group had not entered ‘rest’ on the matter; while the other two
believed that God will fulfill his promise, meaning that they had entered ‘rest’
on the matter (read Numbers 13 and 14 for the full story). As the scripture
says:
Heb 3:18 - 19 And to
whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of
unbelief.
Now the way we believe
is first by not hardening our hearts when we hear the promise of God for us - Heb 3:7 & 8 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if
ye will hear his voice, Harden not your
hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness –
Then we follow the
instructions in Joshua 1:8 and Proverbs 4: 20 – 27. Let us not forget that the
grace of God is always with us as we move from a point of unbelief to belief.
Joshua
1:8: This Book of the Law shall not
depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that
you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you
shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good
success.
Proverbs 4: 20 – 27: 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. Ponder the path of thy feet, and
let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left:
remove thy foot from evil.
This is the point where
like I earlier mentioned the ‘Labour of Love’ and the ‘Labour to enter into
rest’ are interconnected. We must enter into the rest of God (Know and believe)
that we as individual Christians are perfect in Love. The Apostle John, who
like me describes himself as one whom Jesus loves, is another witness to this
inference, see what he said:
1Jn 4:15 - 17 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son
of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in
God. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God
in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may
have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
I take three things
from these verses as crucial for us to believe and for us to get to a place
where we are perfect in love.
1) That as Christians
God dwells in us and this also means that Love dwells in us and us in Love for
God is Love.
2) That the Apostles ‘Knew
and Believed’ – they came to a place of rest on the love that God hath for
them. We too we must Know and Believe that God loves us.
3) That the way our
love is made perfect is by ‘Knowing and Believing’ that “as He is, so are we in
this world.” Since we know that He is
Love; it means that in this world, we are love; hence we must enter into rest
on this fact… We are Love! I am Love! You are Love!
Let us also take the
advice of Apostle John in 1Jn 3: 18 seriously “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in
deed and in truth.”
This buttresses what
Jesus said in Matthew 25: 31 - 40
Mat
25:31 - 40 When the Son of man shall
come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the
throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall
separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the
goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For
I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I
was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye
visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or
thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or
naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto
thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto me.
There are a lot written
on the matter of Love and Charity in scripture, it is very important to the Kingdom
of God. Let us find, read, study and meditate on them.
God bless you.
O reader, you may
notice that in IJohn 1: 15 it proves that only one that believes in the Son of
God dwells in God and hence dwells in His love. And we have shown how important the labour of love is to
our eternal life, I therefore enjoin you now that if you have not given your
life to Christ Jesus, you do so immediately by believing and praying the words
below.
“I believe
that Jesus Christ the Son of God is the Lamb of God who has taken away my sins
by shedding his blood, and dying on the cross, I believe that God raised Him on
the third day and He has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of
God, the Father. I am now born again.”
Congratulations. You
are now Born Again. Do join a Bible believing Church for you to continue to
grow in Christ. Pray that God guides you to the church that will be best for
your spiritual growth. This is very important!
I pray that God’s grace
continuously keeps us as we enter into His rest on the matter of our labour of love in Jesus Name. Amen.
…meanwhile; West
African Faith Believers’ Conference (WAFBEC) 2017 organized by Covenant
Christian Center, begins today 27th of January by 5:30pm and is scheduled to end on the 4th
of February.
The conference will feature in no particular order; Bishop Keith
Butler; Rev. Mark and Trina Hankins; Bishop David Oyedepo; Dr Bill Winston;
Bishop Wale Oke; Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo; Dr Creflo and Taffi Dollar; Pastor
Taiwo Odukoya; Pastor Poju Oyemade and many other ministers.
Attend @ The Covenant
Place Iganmu, Lagos Nigeria. (Beside the National Theatre).
Watch Live @ DSTV
Channel 345 – Kingdom Africa and DSTV Channel 349 – Dove TV
Listen Live @ www.rhemaworldradio.com and www.praiseworldradio.com
Stream Live @ www.facebook.com/wafbec and www.insightsforliving.org/livestream
For questions or more information
follow @wafbec on twitter.
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