Month: April 2015

WEALTH IN MY HOUSE

In early 2013, the population of the Jews in the world was estimated to be 13.9 million which is about 0.2% of the world’s population. It has also been estimated that there are approximately more Jews in the United States than in Israel. There are about 6 million Jews in Israel and between 5.4 and 6.8 million Jews in the United States. They make up 3% of the US population but they also make up 50% of the top 400 richest Americans.

According to Forbes’ latest annual list of billionaires (released a couple of weeks ago), about a fifth of the 50 richest people in the world are Jews.

In 2013, of the 1426 billionaires known around the globe, 165 of them were Jews, about 11.6% of the billionaires in the world. Also interesting is the fact that the wealthiest Jews are living outside Israel. I consider this a fulfilment of the promise God gave to Jacob through Isaac.

In Gen 28:1-4, Isaac blessed Jacob and pronounced the blessing of Abraham on him.

Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan…

… “May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly of peoples;

And give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.”

The Jews have continued to enjoy this blessing irrespective of their spiritual stand. God blessed them in Abraham and they have remained blessed.

What am I bringing out of this? God’s promise and covenant with the Jews is true and is still active today.

How does this concern us? From the scriptures we are told that as Christians, we are also partakers of this covenant and promise. Ephesians 2:12-22 says … at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: … Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

So God has made us qualified recipients of the promise and the blessing.

The Message translation of Galatians 3:13-14 says:

Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing—just the way Abraham received it.

Let’s remember that one of the blessings was that they would inherit lands in which they are strangers. For that to happen, they have to be in foreign lands. You definitely can’t inherit foreign lands in your backyard.

Remember also that Jesus and Apostle Peter declared that we are not of this world.

Joh 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Joh 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world…

1Pe 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims…

So we perfectly qualify to be partakers of that blessing and promise, knowing that the promises are yes in Christ (2 Cor 1:20)… all promises, both physical and spiritual. If the promises and covenant still follow the Jews till date, how much more the covenant and promises which are amen in Christ.

The Jews are blessed and so are we. They are smart and so are we. They are successful and so are we.

How does this become practical in our world? We need a personal revelation of this reality – a revelation that brings a conscious awareness, one that brings a reorientation of our thought patterns and aligns us with purpose. It has to come alive to us that we have been blessed to prosper. It has to become a living reality to us. We are of the covenant and are also qualified because we are not of this world.

This is what I would do:

I would daily confess the word of God concerning my prosperity and wealth.

I and my household must consciously conduct our affairs as partakers of the promise. Our thoughts must align with God’s thoughts on the blessing, wealth and prosperity. My children must be convinced that they are from a wealth generating stock. Paul refers to us as children of the stock of Israel (Acts 13:26).

I will step out boldly to create wealth. I will put to work the Holy Spirit-guided ideas that I receive. I will continually depend on the Holy Spirit for guidance and inspiration. What I lay my hands upon to do will prosper.

I am blessed to be a part of God’s family and so are you.

Selah

DON’T WORRY – BE HAPPY

Following the announcement of the result of the Nigerian presidential elections and its acceptance by the incumbent president, Nigerians generally heaved a sigh of relief that the worst may be over. There had been lots of speculations of possible uncontrollable violence after the elections. Some people remembered a certain prediction that the country would disintegrate by 2015 and felt the election or its result would trigger this. Threats of various shades had come from the cardinal directions of the country, each with a perceived assurance of certainty. Worry levels suddenly shot up and were at an all-time high for the average Nigerian. Those who had previously heard about or experienced the devastating effects of any form of violence would genuinely have had a cause to worry. We are grateful to God for the peace he has given.

We are indeed grateful that God always has our best interest at heart. While we are awake or sleeping, he has genuine thoughts of love and peace towards us. In spite of whatever we see around us or experience, we should rest assured that God always want to give us His best. And so He urges us not to fret or be worried.

We were not made to worry. Worry is alien to our nature. It does more harm and no good to our mental beings. But in all sincerity, we still find ourselves worrying about everything. We worry about our bodies, our safety, our career, our finances, our children, our social status, our relationships or even the number of likes or retweets on our pictures or posts. Someone might ask, ‘Can we ever stop worrying?’ Well, yes, I believe we can, if we believe what God has said in His word.

One of my favourite scriptures is found in Matt 6:27. Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? (The Message). Worrying doesn’t improve our circumstances. Worrying does not bring solutions. Please, don’t mistake worrying for thinking out solutions. Creative thinking is healthy for the brain but worrying wears out the brain. It really isn’t a natural thing for us to do but it is what the devil would rather have us do.

This is what I discovered about worrying:

Worrying takes up memory space. Worry is like an unwanted app or program running in the background of our lives. It takes up valuable memory space that could be used to think about other more productive stuff. It slows us down. Imagine spending several hours of your day ‘thinking’ about a situation you have absolutely no control over when you could have spent the same time to pray about it, develop a plan for a new business idea and plan a fun way to spend the later part of the day. Mental time lost is difficult to recover.

Worrying defines wrong thinking patterns. Our actions and reactions are basically a product of our thought lives. We can establish thinking patterns and habits that define how we respond to issues, by what we spend our time thinking about. So when worrying is what we use our minds and brains to do, our thought-triggered reactions would have a tint or maybe a splash of worry on it, leading us to most likely make wrong decisions. This happens subconsciously and is very real. Let the peace of God that is beyond human comprehension rule your mind and govern your actions (Phil. 4:7).

Worrying affects our health. Worrying has a negative effect on our health. It leads to anxiety; it speeds up the aging process; it causes stress and even triggers different physical illnesses. Science says there is a tendency for our bodies to respond to worry the same way it responds to danger. This means certain hormones are released in the body and a sustained release of these hormones would eventually have a negative impact on the body. So even though God created these hormones for the good of the body, a misuse of them would negatively impact our health.

God says He would keep us in perfect peace if our mind is stayed on Him (Isaiah 26:3). Once we commit our cares to Him, trust Him to take care of them. Align your thoughts with His and think His thoughts. Our security, health, prosperity and success are His business and he would cause all things to work together for our good because we love Him.

Selah.