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Someone Around You Might Be Dying Without Your Knowledge

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Sometimes I wonder if you understand what it means for people around you to really be lonely. If you do, you’d possibly judge them less than you do.

Some people have found themselves in relationships they know are killing them gradually, yet they have difficulty walking away simply because the ‘relationships’ are meeting a need (though it’s at the expense of other needs).
People (not just girls) want to feel loved, wanted and also have a sense of belonging in a moving world. While there may be several reasons for this social vulnerability in people, I am quite particular that family has a huge role to play. Admittedly, not all parents of the current generation were basically educated on personality development and formation of growing children, and the bond-fostering impact of ‘family-hood’ (pardon that word). Hence, most parents have little contact with the true needs of their children. But I get confused when even siblings create gullies between themselves. These gullies create siblings fragmentation leaving some lonely, yet within families. Why?
The ‘bird of prey’ would come in the form of succour to a deep-seated need that often eludes the daily companions of the target person. The ‘hawk’ comes and makes a ‘kill’, and the society and family calls him either a paedophile of gold digger of some sort. You wonder why in some cases, the victims were willing to play along and keep it secret for as long as the emotional opium is offered by the predator of the conscience who first came with ‘good intentions’ (at least to the poor judgement of the minor).
Later we read of suicide, and rapes, and murders, and hyper-sexuality, and a lot more, yet these lived with us. The only problem being that communication doors were either shut or narrowed. The explosive desires burning in the young gets harvested by a beast out there looking for whom to devour.
Please permit people (both around you & strangers) be free to open up to you and pour out their hearts with assurance their information is safe. We’ll save far more people in 2020 whom the enemy has desired to take away through suicide if we show our willingness to be involved in some more lives. Sometime what they need is just someone patient enough to listen. In such cases, never be in a rush; allow them to ‘take your time’.
You can save someone by being a listener; a good listener, not necessarily a good speaker

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The New Year; The Prophecy and You

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At the beginning of 2019, while preachers were prophesying to their diverse audience, one pastor’s prophecy wasn’t welcomed with excitement by his audience.
Grabbing the mic he screamed

“in 2019, you shall reap what you sow…!”
The place was quiet. He said
“I know you heard me. You shall reap what you sow…!”

The congregation was uncomfortable with the ‘prophecy’.
They wanted something else; something more appealing to the ears. But that man was only quoting scriptures (Gal. 6:7).

People don’t even want to know if what was proclaimed the previous year came to pass or not. They don’t want to ask themselves questions regarding ‘failed prophecies’. They just love the forceful sound of
‘…this year, you shall …’
without paying close attention to what roles they have to play.
Furthermore, if your love for the ‘AMENs’ is greater than your willingness to take responsibility for yourself, you’re likely trapped in a circle of December-January disappointment and ambitions.

Adults ask questions; children’s gullibility questions nothing. This is a sign a majority is not ‘grown up’ in spiritual matters. It takes more than feeling good to have a great year. Someone, somewhere has to be responsible for something, if someone must have a great year.

The Spark Words

The Communion of the Holy Ghost – 1 (intro)

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Ref.: SOS 5:1-7; 2Cor. 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, [be] with you all. Amen. We have several privileges that fall in for us as believers and as members of the body of Christ. One of such privileges is the ability to host the Spirit of God right here on earth. We are His earthly dwelling place, scripture says (1Cor. 6:19) About Jesus, he was called Emmanuel (God with us); and while introducing the Holy Ghost, Jesus told them the Spirit ‘…shall be in you‘ (Jn. 14:17), not just with you. For the disciples then, it was ‘God with men’, however, after the resurrection there was an additional edge: God in men.
While leaving the apostles with the Great Commission, Jesus urged them to wait for the ‘promise’ of the Father before any purposeful venture. We all know today that the Spirit of God (the promise of the Father) has since arrived. And we are His earthly lodge – His earthly dwelling – His temple! (1Cor. 6:19). While planning on his departure from this world, Jesus told the disciples the arrival of the Holy Ghost is for the utmost benefit and advantage of the believer (Jn.16:7; Acts 1:8). Paul admonished that we maintain a fellowship of the Holy Ghost (2Cor. 13:14) as a norm. As new testament believers, one other advantage we have is the ability to access God’s blueprint for us (His eternal purpose) and the things that Heaven has availed for our lives without requiring any intermediary but by the Holy Ghost (1Cor. 2:12). The Holy Ghost knows the deep things of men and of God. He can lead us aright in the light of the deep things of God – God’s perfect will. Communion and fellowship are interchangeably used in this light. In either case, fellowship or communion involves more than one person. In this case, a mortal and an immortal – man and God’s Spirit! From our position as mortals, we owe ourselves the responsibility of nourishing this corporate, participatory relationship with the Spirit. It’s our duty to continually ‘place wood’ on the burning altar (Lev. 6:12).

Here’s where believers are mostly missing it

You know, sometimes you just want to relax, rest or just hang around with friends or family, then suddenly there’s a nudge in your spirit to ‘come away’ into the place of fellowship and prayer, alone with God. I tell you something, most times that’s sure a real interruption and requires a pure willpower to truly yield. In fact, on the average most believers ignore such nudges more often than they respond. And that’s one reason I wrote you this piece. Perhaps your principle is to be in bed at certain time of the day, yet He ignores your etiquette and principle by asking for your audience in the secret place. I tell you what… consider yourself highly privileged for God to just want to ‘hang out’ with you. Sometimes, the nudge might linger for a while (but not forever) then gradually it lifts if ignored. It leaves. What that means is that communion came, and it walked away unattended. It takes sensitivity to trap such moments in your life. If you would immediately respond to such nudge, you’d be trapping a Divine moment or season that probably came unannounced, which could be lost if you ignore such defining moment. This is one of the ways people miss out on visitations (Lk. 19:44) – simply because they think they could have devotion anytime they wish. But devotion is only an aspect of a flourishing intimacy with the Holy Spirit. There’s more to intimacy beyond devotion, but never excludes it. I am talking about picking signals, prompt obedience, responding to nudges, etc. This is one unique way of sharpening your discernment which can be employed under different circumstances. If you continuously ignore such moments, you’ll come to a point when you’ll desire to have just a taste of what used to be normal with you in the past. However, when you make a habit and lifestyle of the secret place, of intimate fellowship with the Holy Ghost, you gradually begin to unconsciously manifest some attributes of the personality you meet continually in the secret place. Then people can see the fruit of the Spirit effortlessly exuding from you; the aura of that personality also accompanies you. You develop good habits from your secret place while undesirable ones dry up without a ‘formula’; holy walk becomes a norm; and the supernatural becomes a way of life. That’s Jesus’ secret life while on earth – the secret place! On a final note, while you should endeavour to make a habit of responding to nudges and to the wooing of the Spirit into the secret place, also deliberately learn to walk into the secret place without a beckon, but simply because you want to ‘hang out’ with your Father. Meanwhile, I have a voice note in this regard. Expect it soonest on our facebook page, LightBearers.
The Spark Words

Getting More Out of Your Prayer

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A Secret in the Secret Place

Firstly, bear in mind that what you don’t know or fully understand, you can’t deploy or utilise effectively. A matter is only a mystery for as long as something about it is not yet known or properly understood. The difference between the results commanded by Mr. A and Miss B is not just in their environment but in (and not just who they are, but) what they each know and deploy. Scripture says God’s people suffer not because circumstances are too hard but because of the requisite knowledge they lack (Hos. 4:6).

When you go in to pray with mere religious assumptions that you know what you want to pray for and how to go about it, you will very likely leave with the cycle of confusion and guesses between what is accurate and what’s not. Because: what you need to pray for might be more than what you know as a need; how you are probably going about it might be different from how you ‘should’ go about it.

Secondly, you need basic ‘prayer education’. This might not sound popular to many Christian folks, and I don’t know if many churches or religious gatherings teach such, but I know I have read them in books. Different authors can’t just be ‘accurately guessing’ on the same matter. Get yourself books on How to Pray. Read, read and read again; then follow them one at a time again as a student going in between lines. Effective prayer particularly.
There are many reasons people miss out on receiving answers in prayers, I have a few here:
● People are in a rush, they are impatient.
● People pray with emotions instead of with faith.
● People pray just with words of the pastors/prophets instead of with the Scriptures.
● People generally assume they know God’s will regarding a matter they are praying for, hence putting prayer pressure on a matter they are yet to be certain on Divine will.
● People limit their prayer points/needs/approaches to some ‘prayer booklets’ which have been tailored by an author somewhere, hence their true prayer needs are masked.
And so on…
There are many things that will be solved if people will choose to gain prayer education. A lot is taught on prosperity and deliverance as well as positive confessions and mindset, but people have to take personal steps to learn some basic things on prayer for themselves. Prayer is not just learnt by praying, you learn it by understanding and applying the protocols of prayer. This is why most ‘prayer warriors’ are not necessarily the best prayer coaches. The Word coaches you. They may teach you stamina in prayer, but as for accuracy and effectiveness, not really. Get it right: you need stamina to draw from the enduring impact of tarrying in prayer, but how good does it do you to tarry with ineffectiveness? However, it would be a blast to combine accuracy with stamina.
An example of a benefit of prayer education: “I love the Lord” is not saying the same thing as “I love you Lord”; and “He is Lord of all” is not saying same thing as “You’re the Lord of my all…”
Now, while you might think prayer is in the heart and that God sees your heart, don’t also forget that prayer is to be spoken and not thought or imagined. While teaching them on prayer, Jesus said ‘when ye pray SAY…’ (Lk. 11:2)
Referring to my examples above; between ‘I love the girl’ and ‘I love you girl’, which is more intimate and likely to bring results? Professing ‘He is Lord of all’ is an acknowledgement while ‘You’re the Lord of my all’ is not just a confession but a statement of surrender. However, these nust be real in the heart as they sound on the lips to be true worship. You see, because we understand less, we apply less, hence we see less results. This is what most people use in almost every aspects of their prayer lives – guesses and assumptions! This misunderstanding impairs faith. And you wonder why sometimes you get results and other times you hang! God is not a gambler, and does not give a Word He’s not ready to uphold. Humans miss it from their end.
Finally (though there are more not covered here), misappropriation of scriptures! Taking scriptures out of context to make them say what God is not saying! I think those in the ministrations of the prophetic often fall short in this aspect. The Word is not your word; it’s God’s Word! Manipulating it to suite your demands is wrong use of the Word. Never in scripture does He promise to back His Word taken out of context. You may press, and even linger, but if you are ‘out of joint’, my dear sorry, you won’t have His backing. Your expectations will crash! Simple. Most of the times you felt God failed you is because you didn’t think well. It’s actually ignorance that failed you.

Faith is not a feeling, but can be expressed in feelings. So, that you have a very strong feeling about a matter does not mean you have strong faith about it. Faith is a resident conviction on a matter, that can push you to act. But actions don’t necessarily mean active faith. Exuberance is also not faith. Enthusiasm is as well not faith. These all may be stirred by faith, but faith is not necessarily stirred by them. You can’t stir faith by faking things. Only the Word stirs faith. Without the Word, you may have mere motivation. But faith is a grip, not just a motivation. And like I say often: when you will experience faith it will be clear to you that you never really had it all the time you thought you did.
So while you want to throw in the towel, I advice that you channel that energy into prayer education. Prevailing prayers are lacking more today than they were three decades ago. We have more ‘outsourcing’ of our spiritual responsibilities now than before, because people are reluctant to learn the art (not just the act) of prayer.

(Meanwhile I have a short voice note on this matter you can listen to via this link: https://clyp.it/y1qg1zno)

The Spark Words

The Music Minister: Some Advice For You

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Between 1999 and 2014 I grew in the music lane to be known as a bass guitarist, and I think prior to hanging the guitar I was eventually good at it.

However, for those 15yrs of mingling with different instrumentalists and singers, I observed certain traits to be common among church music ministers. I’m not going to talk about them. But if you have anything to do with gospel music, then note these few points:

1. Whenever you sing or play with a competitive attitude, you’ll not be spiritually effective, no matter how skillfully you do it.

2. God should be your first audience, and not the crowd

3. If you’re morally weak, you’ll find partnership with sin while on the Lord’s duty

4. Most people who say they want to learn from you are primarily interested in your social network or something else. Very few are truly in need of coaching

5. Whenever in a service you’re ‘benched’ take it that God wants to use someone else at the moment. Don’t feel conquered by another’s expertise (even when it appears so)

6. Understand that someone somewhere is far better than you at what you think you’re good at, you have to accept that; and that person is ‘cool-headed’ with their level of expertise

7. If you’re a strong worship leader, don’t give a sermon when called just to lead in worship

8. Don’t be a guest minister with the intent to hook up with new guys. Go as a minister that’s just a guest; simple. If you make friends, fine

9. If you can’t handle men’s praise, you’ll steal God’s praise and think nothing wrong about it

10. Finally, if you don’t plan a career in music, don’t let it interrupt what you should pursue in life

The average instrumentalist is not interested in the word (preaching or teaching) session, that’s why immediately they’re done playing, they walk outside the church hall for the so-called ventilation they seek.

I have seen animosity arise due to guys not finding a slot to display skills either with the mic or on an instrument. Many times, the ‘perfomer’ is out there primarily to impress the host audience and not minister to God or draw men into His glory cloud. No wonder competition has a growing niche in the church music sector. It shouldn’t be so.

We shall all account for every opportunity we had to make God’s glory known for which we stood on the way. My dear, beyond the stage, there’s a throne that looks forward to your incense. If you corrupt it, it will be required of you in due time.

I am sure this is not all there is to know. But take it from me: many Christian music ministers (especially Instrumentalists) see far less than they ought to see about standing in the place of incense. Be faithful at where you stand today and make sure you minister first unto the LORD, and let self be aware of that priority.

When a servant mistakes him/herself for a master, they’ll soon find out that it takes more than title to be a master.