THE MESSAGE NOW

Vol. 2, No. 13 – Monday, 27th March, 2017

(Heb.13:16, 1 Cor.7:1-40, Eph.5:20-33)

IS IT STILL AS IT WAS IN YOUR COURTSHIP DAYS?

Against this edition of The Message Now, I strongly recommend not just a read but a spiritually-thoughtful read of the book written by Walter Trobisch titled, ‘I Married You’. Note: this recommendation is a must for everyone.

To the Most High God, the blessed father of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ of Nazareth who is the sure foundation over this Ministry, be glory, honour and praise forever. The wonderful deeds of the Eternal Most High are without count over Express Image Glory Ministries. I cannot but express my most profound appreciation to the Great I Am, the most blessed Eternal Reality for his care, mercy and kindness to my most amiable workers and partners in ministry too.

At about the closing moments of my final year in the University, a somewhat mild argument ensued between me and a close friend. The basis of our melodrama at the time was a statement from this good Christian friend and brother.

Quoting another classmate of ours, my Christian brother and friend softly argued that it is said that ‘love in any marriage never lasts for more than seven years’. What an atrocious criminal statement of the most uncommon echelon.

If love in marriage has expiry moment, then something is foundationally wrong with either the institution of marriage itself or with the institutor of marriage. But get it clear, nothing is wrong with the institutor of marriage. In my view, the absence of certain associates of love is the key reason.

The reality is that there are four associates of love which must necessarily conduce with love in order to give it its strength and dominion. If such associates as money, sex, communication and innovation or inventiveness are not given their rightful priority and place in marriage, then in deed and in truth, love in marriage has determinable moment.

The purpose of any Christian marriage is first and foremost for God’s own glory, for companionship, for communication and for continuity of life. As such, I contend further that if these four associates of love are out of the way, the very essence of marriage is defeated. Sex in marriage for instance is exceptionally vital.

Sex in marriage is GOOD. Its primary purposes are for procreation and for pleasure. Did you just read that with your very eyes? That sex in marriage is not just for procreation but is for pleasure. Stories abound from Christian couples on the misconception and misunderstanding of the purpose of sex in marriage.

Get it right dear brother and dear sister. Your holier than thou attitude and defrauding of yourselves of sex in marriage is nothing short of sin. Understand that you have driven God out of your home and marriage because of your attitude to sex.

It is to me most shockingly staggering and annoying to hear a Christian sister say to her husband: ‘because of what you have done to me, I am not going to allow you get in-bed with me’. What a shame! Dear Christian sister!

The greater shock is that on further research, one discovers that the bone of contention between them was simple disagreement without any serious ranchor. What do you really understand marriage to be? Is marriage not to you a spiritual union and not just a physical one? Sister! Do you not attach any value to your husband? Aha! if God is the institutor of marriage and indeed your own marriage, that deliberate denial of intimacy with your husband, what value or glory does it give to God? Sister! Have you not read 1 Cor.7:3-5?

It is unheard-off that there is abstinence from sexual intimacy in your marriage for more than a year now. I am sorry sirs and madams, you should have opted to be a Reverend father, Reverend sister or better still be in the place of Pope Francis. By now, we should all be paying yearly homage to you at the Vatican inside Rome.

Learn this mystery and understand the deep spiritual fact that sex in marriage is a form of worship which glorifies the Almighty. Understand that sex in happy marriage is one of the surest media to prayers being answered.

The question is this: what has happened to the romantic feelings in your courtship days? Did it ever graduate into genuine love in marriage? Be sincere, did you marry your husband for a purpose, out of sympathy or because it is better than nothing? Is your husband to you just a husband not a friend?

Whatever your responses are: there is now a solution from the Lord (to be continued next week).

Hymn: Take My Life And Let It Be

Pray now:

1. Pray very hard for Christian marriages.
2. Pray very hard for your marriage.
3. O God, repair every broken flower vase of my marriage.
4. O God, pour out fresh oil, wine and honey from heaven into my marriage.
5. O dear father, let the dew of heaven fall upon my home for financial blessings and romance renewal (be not unholy holy, make sure you mention the word romance in God’s ears).

Pastor Mike

THE MESSAGE NOW

Vol. 2, No. 12 – Monday, 20th March, 2017

(Josh.9:1-27, 2 Sam.21:1-14)

THE POWER AND EFFECT OF SIGNATURE AND OATH IN CONTRACTS AND COVENANTS (Part 2)

Part 2 of last week’s message begins today with two inquisitions. First, it is understood from our text that the Gibeonites came with subtilty, guile and deception to the elders of Israel led by Joshua (Josh.9:4, 14-15). Remember that this great Man of God was the only one in Israel appointed by God to step into the shoes of prophet Moses – a much bigger Man of God (Num.27:18, Deut.31:7).

Such responsibility bestowed upon this great Man of God meant that the fulfillment of the covenant and promise made to Abraham (Gen.15:12-14) was resting on his shoulders. It meant also that the destiny of about 3 million jews which left Egypt was squarely  at his doorstep that such destinies did not crash.

That being the case therefore, the first inquisition is: why did Joshua and the elders of Israel fail to inquire from the Lord about the intelligently configured fiction of the Gibeonites, knowing fullwell the implications of spiritual assents and covenants? Second, on realizing the deception, why did the Almighty yet ratify the spiritual signature and oath appended and sworn to by Joshua and the elders of Israel?

To start with, I will answer with all sense of respect. Why? Joshua is another Patriarch of Faith to whom great honour is due. The question in answering that first question is: was Joshua in the same habitual character of inquiring from the Lord like Moses his predecessor?

Apart from the inquisition in Josh.5:13-15, was there any other from the Lord by Joshua? The unequivocal answer is NO. St. Paul’s letter to the Romans in Rom.15:4 admonishes us that ‘all things written aforetime are for our learning……’. Therefore, inquiring from our dear heavenly father for direction is a compulsory personal and daily responsibility.

As to the second inquisition, I contend very sharply that the  Lord God Almighty had nothing to do with the contract and covenant between Israel and the Gibeonites. Don’t forget that this was a contract and covenant that the Lord God Almighty was not invited into.

But it rather got ratification because God is a sure respecter of oaths and covenants. Equally, it is good to realise that every man is and will continue to be responsible and accountable for the consequences of his actions. The human (not spiritual) law of agency propounds that: Qui facit per alium facit per se (he who acts by another acts by himself).

It may be argued that as representatives of the Almighty, Joshua and the elders implicated God by getting Him bound. But that is only one side of the coin. The consequence(s) of their action lingered and lingers on forever.

Certainly the case of Joshua and the elders of Israel in dealing with the Gibeonites calls for very serious concerning scrutiny and further re-examination, especially with respect to our attitude towards mistake-making.

It is one thing to flippantly think that no one is above mistakes. Agreed, only God is above making mistakes. But are you using that as an excuse?

I contend that such an excuse is abstruse and absolutely unacceptable. Why? In a number of instances, it is great wealth of wisdom to avoid making any mistakes because the resultant implication may be irreparably costly.

What consumes the heart of most men of God is passion at the mention of satanic oppression. Very good.

But alas! My brother! Man of God! Take on board this all-time guiding instruction. It is in your interest, in the interest of God and the work of God in your hands that you blend passion with caution. O Man of God, aren’t you aware that there are many who attend your counseling room for the mere purpose of pulling you down?

That prayer you have been asked to offer dear servant of God, did you check up on it? Do you know that your prayer or spiritual/prophetic step can ratify the desire of the devil unknown to you if you are not careful?

Are you aware that there are human agents of darkness who request for your spiritual attention simply for the purpose of waisting your God-given anointing? As children and servants of the Almighty, we have been saddled with certain responsibilities on the behalf of our heavenly father.

In carrying out these responsibilities, let us be guided by the fact that there is a difference between sympathy and empathy. Let us be guided by the Spirit of God not by emotion. I sat down patiently attending to God’s people about three to four weeks ago.

There she was, a few metres from me, a lady rolling and weeping on the floor. Anybody seeing her in that state can easily be carried away by her tears and rolling. I plead to her to repent and be converted. In the meantime, I have bound her from my counseling stand.

She is not just a deceiver; she is the actual deceit working to destroy me and God’s ministry in my hands by the spirit of witchcraft evidently possessed by and in her. If the Lord had not helped me, I would have been ensnared by her.

Finally, what do you think? Is there a spiritual but equally grammatical mystery and consequent lesson derivable from the word signature? Although slightly varied in spelling, nevertheless I countenance the word signature to be a combination of two words: sign and nature.

Whether we like it or not, we are a sign to God and man for our generation. Whatever sign you are, is depicted by your nature. Ask yourself the all-important self-examining question: who truly are you? That which you manifest in the secret is what you truly are.

Your outburst or reaction at unguarded moments is what you are. Do not deceive yourself, your nature will sell you out and tell the world, God and man who you are some day if you don’t challenge it and seek character change through earnest prayers.

An inflated balloon cannot be imprisoned under water forever. As soon as you remove the hand holding it down under water, the balloon will shoot out. No man is ever faster than his shadow. No matter how much you hide from a prophet, pastor, close friends and associates, parents and allies, you cannot hide from yourself, from satan and from God.

In simple arithmetic and by the facts of man, tomorrow is the day after today. But indeed, as far as the needfulness of change is concerned, tomorrow is not just today, tomorrow is now. Now is the right moment to effect any positive change in our nature, not any tomorrow.

It is often late when it is left till that configured tomorrow which may never come before shame announces its undesired presence. Only one instruction is most necessary in this end-time my dear heaven-going brethren.

BE VERY WATCHFUL AND BE VERY PRAYERFUL.

Hymn: Trust And Obey

Pray now:

1. I shall be a positive sign for God in my generation.
2. O God, give me enormous grace and strength not to disappoint or bring shame to your name.
3. Read Ps.68:1-3 (and say): Every agenda of the wicked to destroy my glorious dream and fellowship with Christ, be shattered.
4. Pray against motor accident and death of a loved one.
5. O God, help me to retrace my step from any way I have acted or acting against the good course of the gospel.
6. That which is polluting me and my prayers, be washed away by the blood of Jesus.
7. Read Ps.57 (and say): O God, soak me in your oil of mercy, grace and favour today.

PASTOR MIKE

THE MESSAGE NOW

Vol. 2, No. 11 – Monday, 13th March, 2017

(Joshua.9:1-27, 2 Sam.21:1-14)

THE POWER AND EFFECT OF SIGNATURE AND OATH IN CONTRACTS AND COVENANTS (Part 1)

Whether strokes of luck exist or not, I cannot tell. However, that the signature of God triggering His favour does not exist and that such signature cannot paved the way of breakthrough for any man is a doubt existing in the minds of the deeply ignorant, unlettered atheist and the petulant fellow.

Wednesday, the 21^st day of January 1998 remains most memorable in the biography of a then young man. Having messed up his university application form (UME) by filling-in wrong choices both for university and for desired course of study, the sad stage was now set for him to settle for a much undesired state university which was not going to offer him his dream course.

But that Wednesday morning arrived in history with a golden pen inscribing God’s signature which in turn triggered favour. That favour subsequently re-wrote the poor young man’s obviously irreparable errors made in his application form.

Arriving back in his Alma Mater to see his Principal that faithful Wednesday morning, the young man sat still, sad and bewildered in the visitors’ room. A number of his tutors who saw him and knew his academic prowess back in his days as student greeted him with utmost respect on the one hand and concern on the other.

The young man was so traumatically aghast that hardly could he answer any of his concerned tutors. Shortly after the departure of one Mr Akinsanmi (a very close tutor), a visitor sitting next to this young man began to address him.

Suddenly, the young man who was depressed and hopeless about life began to speak with the visitor. At the end of their almost less than five minutes discussion, the visitor informed the young man: ’I like the way you talk. The signature of God is on your life’.

Unknown to this young man, this visitor was the fourth in command in hierarchy in a most popular federal university in his country. This was the very federal university the young man actually wanted. Unknown to him also, that visitor had been sent by the Vice Chancellor of that federal university to secure admission for his son in the young man’s Alma Mater.

In the end, at the entrying-in of the visitor and the young man to see the Principal, the signature of God had prearranged and arranged the debate that was soon to begin inside the Principal’s office. . How? Whilst the visitor was seeking the admission in that federal secondary school for the VC’s son, the Principal too was asking the visitor to secure federal university admission for her one-time best student to read law.

It will interest you to know that that same visitor had visited the same Principal the previous day being Tuesday, 20^th January, 1998. Likewise, the young man visited the same college that same day but not to see the Principal as his appointment with the Principal was scheduled for the following day.

For whatever reason but the divine signature of God in active service, that visitor despite all effort was not able to see the Principal during his initial Tuesday visit. As such, the visitor too had to return the following day to try to see the Principal.

It was on that following day that the visitor and the young man met in the Principal’s office. What a coincidence you may exclaim! Well, such coincidence are sparked up purely and solely by God’s signature.

The rest is all history today; the signature of God triggered and still triggers the favour of God. The whole point is: there is something known as the spiritual signature of God. Have it; and your life is settled not just for good but for the very best.

What really is signature and how does it relate to man? The Oxford Dictionary defines signature as: ‘a person’s name written in a distinctive way as a form of identification in authorising a cheque or document or concluding a letter’. It is ‘a distinctive pattern, product, or characteristic by which someone or something can be identified’.

Legally speaking, one’s signature means that one has read the agreement in question, agree to its terms and conditions, intend to enter into the agreement, and one is legally authorized and mentally competent to do so.

As such, it is wise to make sure that one understands all the terms of the agreement and that every “blank” in the document is filled. Of course, it is most essential to make sure one gets the other party’s signature and a copy of the agreement with both signatures.

Further, it is worth noting that there exists what is known as online signature. Signing a contract online means that both parties can have legal copies without the hassle of shipping, copying or faxing.

Understand that there are instances when one is expected not to sign a document. It is often in your best interest that you do not sign an agreement:

• that still has unfilled blanks, whether for a date, an item, or a certain unspecified amount

• if one feels threatened, or under duress

• If there exists some ingredients of unfairness, unconscionability or bias. or

• if one feels like he/she don’t understand something and want to review it for purposes of clarity (to be continued next week).

Hymn: Trust And Obey

Pray now:

1. O God, every arrow of the enemy compelling me into mistakes, I fire you back to your owner.

2. I break every evil pattern of repeated errors and mistakes.

3. Every decree against me to offend my destiny-helpers, be cancelled now.

4. I see the word ‘fall’. Pray fervently against backsliding.

5. Read Dan.12:4 (and say): O God, put your seal and signature upon my life.

6. Every agenda of the enemy pushing me to depart from my place of today and tomorrow’s blessings, be frustrated in the name of Jesus.

Pastor Mike