Can there possibly be any blessing from the Law?

Romans 4:15 says;

“because the law brings wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression“.

The only reason the law breeds wrath is because no man has been able, or can successfully keep it! Meaning that the law inadvertently introduces sin and Paul reiterated this much in Romans 7:7;

“what shall we say then? is the law sin? certainly not! on the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said; ‘you shall not covet‘.”

In Timothy 1:8; we find out that the law is good!

“But we know the law is good if one uses it lawfully“.

Quickly, let me draw your attention to Deuteronomy 28:1-14.                 The ONLY law we see all through that reading is in verse 1;

“if you Diligently Obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe all His commandments…..”

Wouldn’t you say this is a rather tricky singular law?   I mean it is all encompassing, and to ‘diligently obey the voice of the Lord’ implies doing everything He commands!!

This brings to mind, Jesus’ Two Commandments;

1. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…..
2. …You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”          Matthew 22:37-39

Deuteronomy 28: 3-14, gives a picture of a bumper harvest of blessings emanating from obeying the law, while in Galatians 3:13,  every curse of the law in Deuteronomy 28: 15-68, seems to have been rendered null and void for every believer in Christ Jesus, while the Blessings of the law are preserved (selah).

Praise God that His promises of blessings endures forever and they are mine to enjoy for always because I believe that Jesus Christ paid the eternal price for every sin (Hebrews 9:12).

I declare today that every blessing of the law is mine through Christ Jesus and I receive them by faith.

Amen.

Except otherwise stated, all Bible quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV). 

Words are free, but their impact is so huge. Words can mean the difference between a good and bad experience, between life and death.

Proverbs 18:21 says;

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Proverbs 18:21
https://bible.com/bible/114/pro.18.21.NKJV

This is a republish of this article. The story below happened almost 7years ago. Trust me, I am a changed man now.

Don’t be careless with words. ..

It was almost close of work and as happens often in Port Harcourt City, I imagined that the traffic had begun to build up. To avoid being plunged into the gridlock and jam that many times threatens early pick up of my kids from school, I leave the office a few minutes before close of business (with my boss’ approval ofcourse).

Thank God I made it to their school on time.

My kids and I regularly stop over at a grocery shop on our way home. As we made our way to the counter to pay, the cashier waved us on! I looked at her in utter confusion. On further inquiry to understand her reluctance in attending to us, she nonchalantly said I should go to the next cashier. No explanations offered. ah-ah.

I took her on, pointing out that she could be more polite and nice. She retorted; ‘stand there na,….no be your legs?’ My head spun!! I was already exhausted from a hard day’s job and needed nothing of the disrespect salespersons so quickly rub on customers!

I asked for the shop Manager to formally express my displeasure at her attitude, and just then she accepted to attend to us, but she just couldn’t stop being nasty.

Honestly, I have very limited tolerance for young people who don’t behave well (God is working on this area of my life!).

I realized I’d raised my voice when the attention of other shoppers turned to me. My annoyance wasn’t even at her behavior which is very common with salesgirls, but she cooked up an unimaginable version of what transpired between us to her Manager, outrightly denying that she ever said I could stand there for as long as I wanted and further painting a picture of me as the troublemaker!!!

I was highly infuriated. I heard myself say to her; ‘I give you just one week and you’ll be out of your present position in this shop’. As I said it, I could hear in my spirit; Grace did you really need to say that?….

Even if I could retrieve my pronouncement over this young lady, her attitude didn’t help much as she kept talking, asking who I think I was?

My kids and I stopped over at the shop about a week later, and the young lady was still at her station. She beamed with smiles as we walked past her stand. We just shopped and left. My kids did not fail to observe and call my attention to her continued presence at the shop!! I had no explanation.

A few days later, we stopped at the same shop again, but this time, there was a different person in her slot. When I asked her colleagues about her, I was told she’d been moved to a different section of the shop. And she has not returned to that stand in over a year now.

Was I happy now? Not sure. But the experience left me with an important lesson; the tongue is a powerful tool.

Like James says it: “For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing” James 3:7-10.

The second and not to be missed lesson from that encounter is the power every believer in The Lord Jesus Christ has in his tongue. You just need to apply it appropriately. Jesus cursed the fig tree! (selah).

I have not said ‘go about cursing people who do not behave well or disrespect you’, no. But doesn’t the tongue just make a rather little you big and powerful?

Use it wisely!

Having managed my Facebook page for almost a year now, and finally starting my personal blog, its been an absolutely enlightening journey and experience, many thanks to the generation of social media users who would rather have nothing to do with a God-laden blog or post! (Hahaha..).

A few lessons anyone with a God-given vision may want to learn;

1. Hear Him clearly. This marks the beginning of your ‘adventure’ and ‘discovery’ walking with God. Because very few God-given visions are spectacular or fascinating, inevitable thoughts of the acuteness and authenticity of your spiritual hearing may become questionable even to you. The level or depth of development of your ability to hear God and be certain of it, sure comes to play here. Because things may not be moving at your expected pace, one thing that can keep you going  (apart from God intervening supernaturally to keep you focused), is the assurance that you know you heard Him right!
2. Do it exactly as He says to. This is so important because God-given visions may not just make sense at all to the human mind (and sometimes even spiritually!), so the temptation to ‘help’ God package and deliver it in a more likely to be acceptable way is always there. But if it’s a God-given vision, then the only way to go, is the God-given way!
3. Recognize that you are only a steward or custodian of a Godly vision. It is not your vision, and as is commonly said; ‘don’t cry more than the bereaved’.  Stay committed to the God-given plan and present every difficulty you encounter before Him. He’ll fix it.
4. Recognize that Godly visions unfold. So don’t plug your spiritual ears and continue in a unidirectional manner like a train without stops! Although God is unlikely to change the purpose of a vision, Godly visions can broaden and unfold. It is important therefore to stay sensitive and focused on God. People will always offer suggestions on how to improve delivery or achievement of a vision, ensure to spend time in prayer before God until He gives directives on these. God will always respond. Sometimes, it may just require a couple more days of waiting.
5. Recognize that God specifically gave YOU the vision. It can be pretty difficult to convince folks, very close friends, etc to buy into your God-given vision. And there is always the temptation to tag them as ‘unreliable’ or ‘not loyal’. But God didn’t give a corporate or collective vision, why are you expecting a concerted drive and passion from others?  Ask God, like Jesus did to; ‘send the harvesters/labourers’. And if you ever consider expanding the scope of delivery of a God-given vision, identify and run with the folks (or strangers) that have bought into it, than your most trusted friend, otherwise you’d be casting pearls at swines who’d innocently trample it under foot.
6. Statistics don’t always count with God. There are satanic churches with very high attendance but without a Godly presence! Jesus only had 12 disciples (Selah).
7. There is a lesson to learn every step of the way. Do not jump process (es) and cheat yourself. God will build you up as you follow His leading.

Hope these words are encouraging to you as you walk with God towards actualization of His purpose in and through you.

Stay Blessed and Love Always.

Grace Obomanu.

A person is certified clinically dead when the two (2) criteria for sustained living (breathing & circulation) have been lost such that the body is unable to carry out its vital functions. So, the expression ‘dead man walking’ can readily fit into an oxymoron description, because it is naturally impossible for a dead man to walk! But I refer here to a man, physically alive and moving but spiritually dead.

You ask what I mean?

Romans 5:12 reads;

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”

This verse of scripture suggests the following;

1. That there was once a sinless world.
2. That sin brings death.
3. That sin and death were introduced through one man.
4. That every man received sin and death from this man.

And 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 helps us identify this ‘one man’

“For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in ADAM all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”

So we confirm from the Bible that sin and death emanated from Adam!

But how did this happen?

Maybe we should start from the very beginning….

In Genesis 2:15-17 God gave Adam a clear and special instruction;

“Then the Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord commanded the man, saying; ‘of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you Shall Surely Die’ “.

I want to assume that we all know the rest of the story; how that Adam disobeyed God’s commandment (Genesis 3).

Now, whether it was Eve or the Serpent that distracted Adam from keeping a commandment God originally and purposefully handed down to him, is a matter for another day’s discussion and we might consider that in the future.
But note with me that in Genesis 5:5 Adam lived well beyond the day God promised him he’d die if he disobeyed Him and ate the forbidden fruit.

“so all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years..”

Most times when I put these two scriptures before people I teach, (i.e Genesis 2:17 & Genesis 5:5), I push their imagination a bit, by suggesting that God may have lied! And every time I do that I see horror suddenly spread across people’s faces. Almost as if they want to scream…Blasphemy!! This always amuses me.

But you know, that simple exercise really gets them thinking and they almost always come up with another possible version of what God meant. While some say God implied man cannot live forever anymore, others suggest a ‘spiritual’ death. (this is always an interesting part of my class as everyone would usually have something to say).

So what do I think?

I doubt that God referred to man experiencing a physical death. I choose to believe that man would have died anyway as long as he’d not eaten the Tree of Life (Selah!), which was one of the reasons God gave for driving man out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:22).

Having established therefore that Adam did not immediately drop dead after he disobeyed God, and also that, man couldn’t possibly live forever without eating of the Tree of Life, I choose to believe that when God said to Adam “..you shall surely die…”, God referred to the real Adam (his spirit) not his physical body.

Adam died spiritually immediately he ate of that tree, and suddenly became aware of his physical body (Genesis 3:7);

“and they knew they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings”.

And every descendant of Adam is born spiritually dead from a corrupted seed inherited from Adam (Romans 5:12 & 1 Corinthians 15:21). The Bible tells us that; ‘…in Adam all died’.

But note, that ‘all men are not actually dead physically! Or are they? 🙂

While you ponder on that, let’s quickly consider the encounter between Nicodemus and Jesus Christ (John 3).
Nicodemus was a Jewish ruler in search of ‘sanctification’ and who although perceived that Jesus could sanctify him, was however too used to gaining gratification through lobbying rather than following due process (like so many rulers are today).

Jesus immediately saw through him and said to him, ‘you stop that joke!, don’t attempt to mess around with God’s business. Your fame, position etc cannot help you now, you need to be born of the water and the Spirit. As funny as that sounds, I can appreciate Nicodemus’ confusion as expressed in his question;

“How can a man be born when he is old?” (John 3:4).

This question was a follow up to Jesus’ offer of sanctification for Nicodemus in John 3: 3, 6

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. …that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”.

Apparently, Nicodemus came in flesh form 🙂 so if Jesus is saying he needed to be born again making reference to a spiritual birth, then one can safely assume that Jesus was saying to Nicodemus; ‘hey man, you need a spiritual rebirth’!.

A spiritual rebirth only became necessary because man died spiritually following his disobedience to God’s commandment in Eden.

So then, how does one gain spiritual rebirth?

Jesus answers this in John 3:16-18

“…..that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved“.

The ONLY way to spiritual rebirth, salvation, redemption is through Jesus Christ! You believe in your heart that Jesus came, died and saved you, and you confess your believe with your mouth!

As 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 tells us that;

“For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive..”

That’s the good news! Halleluyah!!

This is the most thrilling part….

God did not take the old spiritually dead you, touch it up a little with His Holy and Pure Nature, to give you a spiritual rebirth. No!

He birthed a brand new spirit within you. Halleluyah!!

2 Corinthians 5:17, tells us that much;

“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

So the day you give your life, a brand new creation is born in the spiritual realm. The ‘old’ is completely done away with! You become born into God’s own family, where Jehovah is Father and The Lord Jesus Christ is our Big brother!

I am more than excited!!!

Satan tried to mess up God’s original plan of having a pure man in a sinless world. But God has made a way of escape for man in Christ Jesus. Yes, although you were made spiritually dead through Adam, you can be made spiritually alive today through Christ Jesus, if only you can make this simple confession;

Almighty God, I come to you today, recognizing my sinful nature. But more importantly believing that Jesus Christ came and died just to save me. I receive Jesus Christ into my life today and ask Him, dear Lord to come be the Lord and Master of my life. I believe that I am saved through Jesus Christ. Thank you Father. In Jesus name.

Congratulations to you if you said that prayer!!

You have just been moved from the kingdom of darkness and death, into the kingdom of God and His dear Son Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:13). And I join the host of Heaven to rejoice at your birth.

Just like any new born baby, you need to grow! You need to Build and develop your faith in Christ by seeking out a good Bible-believing and teaching church around you. And by continuously looking into the ‘mirror’ of God’s word (The Bible), your entire life will become Christ-like 🙂  (2 Corinthians 3:18, James 1)

We find all over the Book of ‘Acts of the Apostles’, that Water Baptism by Immersion is a crucial step in the Born Again process, as it signifies that we were buried and raised with Christ. (Mark 16:16, Acts 1:5, Acts 19:5, Galatians 3:27, Romans 6:4 etc). Jesus Christ Himself was baptized by immersion (Luke 3:21, Matthew 3:13, etc).

You need to be baptized by immersion just as Christ.

You also need to be filled with the Holy Ghost with an initial evidence of speaking loud in other tongues (Acts 2, Mark 1:8, Acts 10:47 etc). Jesus promised the Holy Ghost to teach us all truth and help us lead fruitful christian lives.

Once again, Congratulations!

Love Always

Grace Obomanu.

Except otherwise stated, all Bible quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV).

The foundation for this particular article was mostly laid through my role as a Believer’s Class II Teach, at The Carpenter’s Church (Port Harcourt, Nigeria). 

A traditional surrogate is artificially inseminated with a man’s sperm. She carries the baby to term and delivers.

Although a traditional surrogate can be considered the biological mother of a child being that she (sort of) donated her eggs towards the formation of a baby, she may however have to hand over the baby postpartum to the parent (s) to raise.

A gestational surrogate on the other hand has no biological or genetic ties to a baby. What happens is; a mother’s eggs are harvested, as well as a father’s sperm, and through In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), an embryo forms, and is then placed in the uterus of a gestational surrogate to harbour till delivery.

Let’s play a little mind game today…
Please say: John……Ada……Mercy, Grace……Your Name….STOP!
Now Say: Satan….Satan…..Satan ……..STOP!
Now please mention Jesus….Jesus….Jesus….STOP!
If I were to see you physically, I’d probably notice a reluctance and carefulness when mentioning Satan. Right……?
But did you have a similar feeling when you mentioned Jesus?
I can bet you felt; peace, hope, power, might, assurance and everything soothing and comforting when you mentioned Jesus.

Nobody wants to meet Satan. Imagine if you received a mail inviting you to dinner in some luxurious place, and the invite came from Satan…….(gasps!!!). An unquantifiable quantum of fear may immediately just flow through your entire body that you’d immediately head for the loo.

But why do people get the jitters with the name Satan?

Let’s try another game….
If you have an electronic bible, locate the ‘search’ area and just type in ‘Satan’.
What do the scriptures that pop up tell you about the personality Satan? Or maybe you were even too scared to type in that name?……hahaha…

My Bible gives a picture of Satan that suggests a Bad Guy figure….Satan appears to be all about doing some not so nice things.
He deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3),
he provoked David to number the children of Israel against God’s will (1 Chronicles 21:1),
he entered into Judas to betray Jesus (John 13:27),
he tormented Job’s flesh for days (Job 1:12),
he filled Ananias heart with lies (Acts 5:3),
he binds people with sickness and disease (Luke 13:16, 2 Corinthians 12:7),
he resists good (Zechariah 3:1, 1 Thessalonians 2:18) and so much more…..
Anywhere in the Bible Satan is mentioned, there seems to be an associated evil or not very nice occurrence…..

So who exactly is Satan?
The Bible identifies him as a specific character. He is a being. He moves, has powers, has followers/children, he knows the bible, etc. So Satan is a being unfortunately related often in the Bible with evil. Satan is the Devil (Revelations 12:9).

In John 10:10, Jesus tells of a ‘thief’ whose job is to Steal, Kill and Destroy. The 2 characters described in John 10:10 are;
a. The thief (Satan)
b. The person speaking (Jesus Christ).
Satan works through devices (2 Corinthians 2:11).

The 3 temptations of Jesus Christ as narrated in Matthew Chapter 4: 1-11; provides more insights into the traits and personality of Satan;
1. He knows the Bible and twists it into a subtle lie (verse 6, Genesis 3)
2. He comes to the Temple/Church (Job 2)
3. He is a tempter (verses 3, 6, 9) and most times tempts Believers/Christians based on a modified version of the Word of God (Genesis 3: )
4. He can tempt anyone. If Satan tempted Jesus, then no one is exempt.

Pause please:
Do you think Satan physically ‘carried’ Jesus Christ on his back or on his shoulders to the wilderness, pinnacle or high mountain?..
I think not. I believe Jesus Christ walked with His 2 legs under Satan’s influence, to all those places…
Verse 1 says; ‘then Jesus was LED up….”. The devil led Jesus to the wilderness, high mountain and pinnacle. That’s instructive for all Believers; you may not physically ‘see’ the devil when tempted…..and he may show up in familiar places (remember Jesus referring to Peter as Satan?).

5. Satan tempts with;
(i) Bread (food);
Jesus’ first temptation was to turn stone to bread. It was not a coincidence!
Eve was tempted to eat from a tree named; ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. A tree Eve thought looked good for food, pleasant to the eyes and one that can make one wise.
(ii) The ‘glory’ of the kingdoms of the world (money, wealth and power)
(iii) an Urge to ‘prove’ God (Matthew 4:6). Any day you become Really tempted to ‘show’ that you know God to anyone, recognize it as a likely spirit of Satan. And if God did not direct your actions (for His own glory and to profitably boost the faith of others), you’d only be obeying Satan and will be thoroughly messed up.

A few other characteristics of Satan I’d like to highlight here:
6. He has followers (1 Timothy 5:15; “for some are already turned aside after Satan”).
7. He is a father to some (John 8:44 “ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do).
Sometime ago, I lost my Ipad and was really sad because of all my notes stored up in it. I hoped and hoped that I’d find it, but didn’t. One day, the Spirit of God opened my eyes to see that Satan and his children also come to church!! (Selah).
8. Satan’s is a murderer and CANNOT tell the truth. (John 8: 44 “…..he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because THERE IS NO TRUTH IN him….”

We see that Satan has powers (Acts 26:18, 2 Thessalonians 2:9) with which he DECEIVES the whole world (Revelations 12:9) and he has a synagogue of liars, murderers, and everything evil (Revelations2:9, Matthew 12:26, 1 Timothy 5:15).
So if you find yourself in any ungodly gathering where you are promised ‘heaven and earth’, it can only be a lie with an ultimate aim to kill and destroy you as well as steal you away from the Kingdom of God.

Little wonder then people get quite anxious and jittery when they hear ‘Satan’. Poor guy with so much mess around him…..

Now, what are some of the important things a Believer must know about Satan?
1. Jesus saw him fall as lightening from Heaven (Luke 10: 18) and he transformed into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
2. Satan is the present lord of the world/age, an authority Adam handed over to him in the Garden of Eden. And he is roaming about the earth causing a lot of havoc as is his nature. He does not know how to be any different!
3. But he has no power over a child of God that has not been allowed him by God (Job 1:12, 2 Corinthians 12:7). Importantly, though we live in this world, we are not of this world. Our citizenship is of Heaven. We are Not under Satan’s Kingdom and should always know that.
4. Satan’s works are TIMED (Revelations 12:9).

5. And although Satan fell down from Heaven to Steal, Kill and Destroy, Jesus Christ CAME that we may have life and have it More Abundantly. It’s like saying, yes o, somebody came down to earth before me and spoilt things a bit, but take heart, fear not, don’t be dismayed or worried, BECAUSE I (Jesus), I have come to render his works null, void and of no significance!
Oh my goodness, Jesus Christ HAS COME and resides in me, so Satan has absolutely no powers over me. He may try a few tricks, but the TRUTH still remains that Jesus Christ Came and nullified all his works and gimmicks.
This is a REALITY that every Child of God must walk in.
6. Everyone born of God overcomes the world and its lord through believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. (1 John 1:5). That singular act changes your citizenship and destiny. You become Translated into another Kingdom, not of this world, but of God. The Kingdom of God.
And you MUSt live on earth with a full consciousness of your Heavenly citizenship. There is no sickness in Heaven, the streets of Heaven are paved with gold (doesn’t sound like a poor place), so resist poverty and sickness.
7. If Satan (in all his roamimgs) misses his way and comes around your neighbourhood, simply Rebuke and Resist him and he will flee (Zechariah 3:2, Psalms 68:1, James 4:7).

Recognize that every GOOD and PERFECT gift comes down from the Father of Light (JEHOVAH), in whom there is No darkness, no evil, and no badness of any form!!!
Jehovah CANNOT be bad. He is All good!
Even if God wanted to punish man for any wrong doing, I believe that Jesus Christ will not allow Him. As our Advocate, Jesus is Constantly saying to The Father; “they are not guilty of any sin, because I paid the ETERNAL price with my precious blood”.
Did you notice in the scriptures above, all the time Satan would come and meet God, to sort of ‘take permission’ to inflict a child of God?

If it looks evil, bad and destructive, I believe you know the culprit…..
My Father is ALL GOOD. I Believe so. …..

Halleluyah!

Have a victorious day and walk in the reality of who you are in Christ Jesus.

Love Always

Grace Obomanu.

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Sometime, not too long ago, my body was challenged with some strange illness and that got me wondering what on earth the problem could possibly be.

One day, as I pondered on the myriad of symptoms surging through my body, the Lord opened my eyes to ‘The Whole Armor of God’ in Ephesians 6.

What I believe God was saying is, it doesn’t really matter much the source of these very strange symptoms.Just cover up and stay protected!

Besides, there is hardly any sickness that is not caused by something, and new causative factors, bacteria, viruses etc are being indicted or discovered daily…. (Selah).

I decided to look up meaning of armour and got this;

“a protective covering that is used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual, or vehicle by direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action (e.g., cycling, construction sites, etc.)” -Wikipedia

The picture above looks nothing like a joke! And this is how Apostle Paul, thinks we need to dress up ALWAYS as Christians! This guy is battle-ready from head to toe. Fully covered up!

The armour of God though (Ephesians 6:10-18) , is not a physical one as depicted above, but it does cover up fully. It is not as inconveniencing as the photo above, but certainly requires personal discipline and dedication to put on.

It simply entails;

Helmet-of Salvation

Breastplate-Righteousness

Loins/Waist-Truth of God’s word

Feet-The Preparation of the gospel of peace

Shield-Faith

Sword-The Word of God.

Wow!!

I had to come up with my personal confession on the armour of God, which I repeated regularly. The more I recited it, the more the reality of my true identity in Christ became clearer. And over time, I could just carry on with my life, symptoms or not.

You are the Lord’s army, constantly been thrown darts at by the devil and his agents.

Simply stay covered up.

Many times I meet people and listen to them recite their many troubles over and again. A few of such times I look at such people and wonder; ‘is he/she really ready for a miracle? if I offered to pray with/for this person would his/her faith connect with mine for a miracle?
Familiarity and resentment towards a God-given vessel/medium for a blessing will always steal the blessing away! ……Selah

Little wonder Jesus, inspite of his compassion and passion could not perform a single miracle in His home town.
In Mark 6, Jesus walked into his home town and began to teach, reflecting great wisdom to the astonishment of his kinsmen.
But they looked down on Him and said;
“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? and not his sisters here with us?
And they were offended in him” Mark 6:3

They knew Jesus inside out, he’d grown up with them, ate with them etc and worst of all; his father was a carpenter and so was he!!!
How dare he consider, conceive, and even attempt to want to teach them?
They can see and agree that he speaks wisdom
They can see and can attest to all the miracles wrought through Jesus
But all they’ve always known him as; a carpenter born to a poor wretched carpenter.

Somebody walked into my office a few years ago and audaciously said to me: ‘no matter what you do, you can never be head over us’
Shock and bewilderment swept through my entire flesh all at once!!
So, I had just been appointed into a new position that as far as I could see spelt out Responsibility to me in bold letters, without a shadow/smell of dominance or increased pay and yet someone did not only imagine such thought, but had the impetus to say it to my face…….ah….
But you know, that action painted a new picture of the role to me and also communicated the person’s subconscious recognition that I’d just been elevated higher than him….Selah.

Why have I shared this experience? Simply to convey the weight/impact of familiarity in inhibiting progress. This guy and I, had appointment letters with same date. So he couldn’t just bring himself to accept that I’d left our common ground and moved up. He felt he KNEW me.

But then again, God has brought my way, freinds, acquaintances and people with pure, clean hearts and thoughts who confide in me, we pray together and they return months later sharing awesome testimonies about how God answered that our prayer, sometimes, they even remind me that I prayed with them concerning it. Wow!!
So there you go, asking; haba Grace, how can you pray for someone and then forget?
Simply because I didn’t see it as a big issue in the first place, knowing that God has made provision for it to be handled and also because I believe that when we agree and pray together according to God’s word, I count it as Done and move on.
So they come with their big bellies filled with God-given babies (not from babalawo et al), beaming with joy and excitement.
I’ll just smile knowing that from the moment we prayed in unison, My Father, ‘passed it’
Praise God in the highest!!!!

Take away any blinds and inhibitions you have put on yourself because of pride and envy
Stretch forth your hands, open up your hearts and receive your God sent medium for a miracle.
Because God will almost always work through people to bless you.
Reverence the prophets, pastors, teachers God has sent your way, so you can drink of His fullness.
It is not your duty to judge them. Correct them where you can but recognize that they are ultimately accountable to God.
I have been thinking very much lately about Saul and David. Despite the fact that Saul attempted to kill David several times, the unlucky and very unfortunate fellow that brought David bad tidings of killing Saul did not live to see another day.
David killed him without a second thought!!!….Selah
Can we reverence God’s anointed ones like David?
It’s a question you need to answer as a child of God 🙂
If I ever have a ‘king’ as diabolical as Saul, I want to Always be on the same side as David. Let the Lord judge. I trust The Lord to protect me from the king’s wicked plots….

Love Always
Grace Obomanu.

I decided to read through Matthew 4 (Bible’s Narrative on the temptation of Jesus Christ) again; probably for the umpteenth time, and there it was, staring right at me: God’s Strategy for Tackling Satan!

Isn’t it instructive that in all three (3) instances of Jesus’s temptation, Jesus did not consider it a dialogue of any sort. He seemed to have approached Satan decisively and business-likely.

Scene 1

Satan: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”.

Jesus: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'”.

Scene 2

Satan: “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written; ‘He shall give His angels charge over you and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone”.

Jesus: “It is written..’You shall not tempt the Lord your God'”.

Scene 3

Satan: “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me”.

Jesus: “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

Isn’t this absolutely entertaining? Imagine it as a movie, and probably you’d appreciate Satan’s tricky and sad display of f-o-o-l-I-s-hness!

Jesus had an ‘it is written’ for All of Satan’s suggestions and gimmicks. (Selah). No ‘pleading of the blood of Jesus’, no sprinkling of the blood, no anointing oil bath, no holy water drama, no running to papa, pipi of mummy G.O!

Ephesians 6: 17, identifies the SWORD of the Spirit as the word of God.

The way I see it, every child of God is always at war. You ask me how I know that? Because the devil is always roaming around looking for who to tempt, who to kill, who to steal from and who to destroy.

But praise God that, no matter the depth or weight of the wiles of the devil all the Believer needs is an ‘it is written’!

Sometimes, as we see in scene 2, the devil can even attempt to twist the word at us. He pushed right back at Jesus an ‘it is written’ from Psalm 91(seemed quite ridiculous to me reading it!).

Jesus allowed no room for discussion on this matter. Like….

‘you wanna show me the bible? do you know how long I’ve been born again, preaching, teaching the bible?’ or I (Jesus) I am the word and you wanna pull ranks with me on it?

The moment we engage in such useless arguments or discussion, we basically fall headlong into Satan’s trap, giving him a good laugh.

So then, we need to constantly ‘be hearing’ the word and meditating on it such that at any time (t), we simply just release it.

No break of sweat!!

Jesus already did it all.

Halleluyah

Hi there,
My name is Grace Obomanu
I am a Christian and Nigerian
I trained as a Medical Doctor and I am currently pursuing a career in Health Administration under the Public Health Domain.
My steps were ordered to The Carpenter’s Church (TCC), Port Harcourt, Nigeria in December 1996 (to the then Royal Evangel Church), where I have been taught the undiluted word of God precept upon precept, and also given the privilege to function as a Premarital Counselor. My service in the past seven (7) years as a Believer’s Class Teacher in TCC, ignited in me a passion for teaching the Word of God and helped me discover my gifting in this area.
I have known my husband, Arnold, for 17 years, 12 of which we have been most happily married and blessed with 3 lovely children.
My Facebook page; ‘Talk with Grace Obomanu’, available online @: www.facebook.com/graceobomanu.org, which was launched to provide Godly counsel for every-day-real-life-issues, has somewhat become almost overtaken by teachings on the Bible, and I hope to correct that with the introduction of this blog site.
I believe that this blog will bring you Godly wisdom, shining the Truth of God’s unchanging word in your circumstances, and leading you through The Way that guarantees Life in its fullness.
Welcome!
Love Always,
Grace Obomanu.