My first draft on this blogpost was 3 weeks ago. Isn’t it interesting how God’s Spirit works?; this was a sub-theme discussion in Church last Sunday! Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother publishing this again but for this reason; I am interested in doing a personal study on this scripture. I hope we can together gain some insights as we draw from the wisdom of Christ (Colossians 2:3).

My notes 3 weeks ago reads;

The real identity of a person is revealed in not always what we see them do or the way they act but in the way they think which they eventually voice out. The Bible tells us that ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks‘ (Matthew 12:34)- Interesting that that came from Jesus Himself! Little wonder Jesus said, speaking about the Pharisees; to listen to what they say but never to act the way they do.

Focus scripture for this blogpost is Philippians 2:5 and I love the Message translation;

“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of Himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of Himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, He set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. he didn’t claim special privileges. Instead He lived a selfless, obedient life and then dies a selfless, obedient death-and the worst kind of death -a crucifixion.”

So how exactly is the mind of Christ?

1. A mind of great reverence for the Father (The Supreme Head).

Many times we misunderstand and misinterpret the Godhead. Jesus didn’t. On more than one occasion, He clearly reverenced the Father….don’t let me lose you now 🙂 – the Godhead consist of 3 ‘persons’; The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The 3 have EQUAL status, power, authority, but with distinct roles in their interaction with man. I believe that while Jesus walked on earth, he clearly identified the different characters of the Godhead. The Father as the Supreme Head, Himself as the Messiah and the Holy Spirit as the Comforter/Teacher.  Need we do same? ………

I used to wonder why Jesus repeatedly admonished His disciples to ‘make their requests to the Father in His name’ (e.g The Lord’s Prayer), why He’d pray to the Father at Lazarus’ grave before calling  him out of the tomb, why He’d ask the Father to take away the cup of His death from Him, why he said He’d pray the Father to send us the Comforter, why he’d say ‘in my Father’s house (not His house) are many mansions’….and many more why’s. The Father is just that….THE FATHER. Did He give birth to the Son? We’re not told, but we’re told the Son existed in the beginning with The Father with same God status (John 1:1-3).

Does it then mean that every time we call ‘GOD‘ we’re referring to the Godhead? Would we get the attention of all 3 of them or would they work in unison to respond? (Selah).

Certainly, we can be specific (just as Jesus always was) in clearly identifying the deity we’re referring to by calling on their specific titles; The Father, The Son (Jesus Christ) and The Holy Spirit. While they remain ONE and can do All things, but can our knowledge and familiarity of the Godhead be of added benefit to us, especially when we pray?

Back to our discussion on reverence……..

There is a particular tribe in my country Nigeria, where ordinary word greeting (good morning, evening etc) is unacceptable, especially for elders; any greeting unaccompanied by full physical prostration is considered disrespectful. Can we describe physical prostration, kneeling, bowing etc as reverence? Depends on how you look at it. Did Jesus have to do any of these to communicate His reverence for The father? (Selah).

What does it mean to reverence someone?

Dictionary definition: Simply to regard or treat someone with great respect, to think highly of someone, to hold someone in high esteem, to value someone, etc.

My all-time personal definition for reverence as relates to my faith walk?: What would God have me do (in every given situation)?  Like it or not, I tell you that this personal understanding of reverence have kept me on the right track, kept me away from trouble and given me peace.

There is a strong relationship between reverence and obedience/submission. I find that because I answer the simple question of ‘what would God have me do?’ in very challenging life situations, I am compelled, against my natural and preferred inclinations, to give a divine response to such situations and circumstances . It always pays better!  🙂

So first question to answer for ourselves: Do we have the mind of Christ as regards reverence for The Father? Do we often follow our flesh and personal inclinations, often ignoring God’s word and Spirit?

Jesus could have walked away from the cross. But He submitted to the Father’s Will (Mark 14: 36; Luke 22:42, Matthew 26:39).

We’re having a 3-day, 4 session Bible-study time in my local assembly next month April 4th, 5th and 7th 2019 with the theme; ‘the righteous shall live by faith’. I am usually excited any time Word conferences come up (micro or macro), especially when I sense it’s going to be good stuff, ….always great time for me. Somehow, for some reason, my imaginative mind raced ahead of this conference as I caught myself thinking on the theme. Yes the righteous should deal in faith as a lifestyle but that wasn’t my thought line, my brain was reading; if the Holy Bible says ‘the righteous shall live by faith‘ (Romans 1:17, Hebrews 10:38, Galatians 3:11, Habakkuk 2:4), shall the righteous without faith die? 🙂

As funny as that question may sound (and scary too), it is a pretty serious one and a wake up call to Christians. The story that comes to mind as I think on this is recorded in Mark 4:36-40.

As someone who grew up in a coastal community, take my advice when I tell you that except you can swim like a fish (in the real sense of it), resist the temptation to embark on a journey (short or long) across a sea with small boats….do not tempt The Lord Thy God 🙂

But hey! here was Jesus in a boat, probably smaller than the little ones that taggged along him, definitely a small boat all the same, crossing a sea! When the boat began to fill up and sinking as the waves beat water into it, the disciples panicked (understandably so), threw up their hands in the air and yelled..”JESUS! JESUS!! JESUS!!! Surely, whosoever calls upon the name of The Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13, Acts 2:21, Joel 2:32), even more so when The Lord is just a tap away. Jesus quietened the sea alright, but he was disappointed that the disciples didn’t apply their faith.

Questions: What would have happened if the disciples didn’t wake Jesus up? Would the boat have become totally submerged? If the boat sank completely, would the disciples have perished as they feared? Could the disciples really speak calmness to the sea? Did they have such powers as Jesus suggested?

To answer these questions, consider them from the perspective of your own ‘little sinking boat’ right now (if any). Will you ‘wake Jesus up from sleep’ or will you spare Him another disappoint by speaking ‘peace be still’?

My experience with my faith walk? ….. dead untapped faith is useless/dead and can result to spiritual stagnancy or death. James 2;20.

Part 1: We answered Arnold’s question that the Passover (holy communion) may have become commonly known as ‘breaking bread‘ among the disciples probably due to the change in its frequency of occurrence following Jesus’ command to ‘do it as often as we can’. Secondly, we noted that while the Jews were to commemorate the Passover as a reminder of God’s mighty deliverance from Death, the Destroyer and their release from slavery in Egypt, Jesus commands us to remember Him every time we partake of the communion (Luke 22:19 NKJV, Exodus 12:22-27, Acts 2:46 , 1 Corinthians 10:16).

Question: Since the frequency and focus of the Passover changed with Jesus Christ, did its significance also change? I think not.

I believe that when Jesus commanded that the disciples observe the Passover in remembrance of Him that He meant to remember;

1. That He represents the new Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7).
2. That we have a New Covenant with God sealed with His blood (Hebrews 9:12, Mark 14:24).
3. That the old covenant of sin and death is obsolete.
4. That while the old covenant covered sin (atonement) to prevent death and destruction, the new covenant completely removes sin (remission) from us (Matthew 26:28, Hebrews 9:26).
5. That this New Covenant affirms of eternal deliverance from the law of sin and death for all who believe (Romans 8:2, Hebrews 9:12), therefore we are protected from Death and the Destroyer.
6. That for our transgressions He received wounds, for our iniquities, he received bruises, for our peace, He got chastised, for our healing, He got stripes and for every curse emanating from the old covenant, He got us the blessing ( Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24, Galatians 3:13-14).

Therefore every time we break bread, we must remember and affirm these things.

Get My Book On Healing; “When The Doctor Says No”

To learn more about our healing benefits in Christ Jesus, follow this link to my book, “When The Doctor Says No” available online at here

The Book is available in two formats; kindle and paperback. It is also available for order online from all amazon market places, meaning that the Amazon shop in your neighborhood should be able to supply you.

I have shared this testimony some years back on my online talk page and I promised someone who missed it I’d share it again this morning on the blog. Like David, this testimony (and the recent testimony of how God restored my health-which is narrated in my blog post “When the Doctor says No“), stand as my own ‘I have overcome the bear and the lion, this uncircumcised Philistine wouldn’t be different’.  God’s faithfulness is sure. We can depend absolutely on His faithfulness.

Many years back as an undergraduate, I had the priviledge of having my own private accommodation outside the school hostels. I didn’t really like the campus accommodation for more than one reason; shared rooms, dirty rest/shower rooms, shared and very small cooking areas, etc etc. A personal room was private and more suiting of my personality at the time I think. Not that I could afford to rent one myself, The Lord miraculously gave me a free room most of my university days through my Uncle (God bless him). So I wasn’t really born with a silver spoon. My Uncle practically trained me through school-tuition, books, allowances, etc etc. God bless him again.  But you see, sometimes, even as would happen with a rich child, my supplies ran out-toiletries, provisions, groceries, etc etc.

Like most Nigerians, I was brought up eating mostly a Nigerian staple food- garri (processed from cassava). Many Nigerian households survive on garri, it’s filling and you only require a bowl of soup to stay full and sustained for hours.

It was Saturday morning, I was in my room and there was drought; my supplies had ran out, totally out. My beverages, cereals, biscuits, everything was gone! But not my garri, I had a handful of garri somewhere in the room.

Not that this was the first time this would happen, but for some reason, I was greatly vexed in my spirit. I was angry, not with my parents, Uncle or anyone else, I was upset that God would constantly let my supply run out!  I prayed out loud and told God, He had to send me soup that day, as I was not going to try to ask anyone for food, visit anyone (hoping they feed me), or even go home (to my Uncle’s house). I needed a miracle, period!

So the whole day, I sat at my table studying my big medical books, occasionally reminding God that I was waiting for Him to show up with my soup. And it wasn’t a small wait! I was hungry, I was fagged out and I was tired. There was temptation to just discard this miracle/faith chase and simply ‘soak’ the garri and drink it. But I didn’t. I didn’t really also know how to speak ‘faith’ words at the time, or how to give so as to receive, but I’ve been enjoying a close intimate relationship with God and I was certain He existed.

It was not until about 16.00 hours that someone knocked at my door. I delayed in answering the door, upset that the response to my request was coming too late. But then, I told myself to check who’s at the door first 🙂  To my utter surprise one of my aunt’s was standing by the door with a big bowl in her hand. Her house was about 30 minute’s drive from my room. Sorry to say that at the time, I was not particularly close to this aunt. So you understand my surprise. What was she doing here? It was after I let her into the room and welcomed her warmly, that she explained that she felt in her spirit to bring me some soup as she cooked that afternoon. I thanked her immensely and she left. That was the last time she visited.

The Lord showed up with my soup!!!

There are so many things I do not know about God, so many things I am discovering about God as I walk with Him daily. But I know for sure; that God is faithful- it is His nature, He cannot be otherwise. He is faithful, He is merciful and He is a Covenant Keeper.

 “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.” Deuteronomy 7: 9  NKJV.

Many times, Christians speak about faith as if it’s some religious ceremony. What is faith?  Faith is the substance of our belief. Faith is Christian living. Faith is Evidence. Faith is Believing and Seeing. Faith is Now! (Hebrews 11:1). Faith was me fixing my eyes on my bowl of soup until it showed up (and oh! I need to take on many more faith projects to continue to enjoy the fullness of The Blessing).

You know, faith can be easy and yet difficult. It is easy to speak faith, but it can be challenging to patiently wait until the substance of it becomes evident. The beauty in it all though is that while you wait, your spiritual muscles are strengthened, you move some rungs in the ladder of your faith walk and more importantly for me, you build memorials of God’s faithfulness for your future walk as your the object of your faith becomes physical.

So I ask you today- Where is your focus? Who is your source? Where will the refill of your supply come from? If you answer “from a known man” to any of the above, then I say to you; ‘you are of all men most miserable‘. Man will fail and fade, but not God.

From the time Jesus served His last Passover to the disciples onward it would seem that the disciples’ understanding and practice of the Passover changed somewhat, from being a very sacred ceremonious event that took place at an appointed time, to something that needed to be done more frequently. Did that change the significance of the Passover in any way?

Good day,

It has come to my notice that a lot of articles have been erroneously emailed out from my blog. My sincere apologies. This has been brought under control. It was due to a site maintenance activity.

Thanks for your understanding.

Once again, I apologize for this inconvenience.

Love always,

Grace Obomanu

The Warfare
Welcome back to the 7th part of this blog post series. In parts 1-6 we discussed extensively on the whole armour of God taking our reference scripture from Ephesians 6:11-17. 

Today, just to tidy up the "The Warfare' bit of this series...
Warfare simply means engagement in or activities involved in war or conflict. It also means combat, struggle, conflict. 

Ephesians 6:12 tells us the kind of warfare we're in as Christians;
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood {contending only with physical opponents} but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this {present} darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places" Amplified Version.

And 2 Corinthians 10:3

"For though we walk in the flesh {as mortal men}, we do not war after the flesh" NKJV. 

Two obvious conclusions from the above scriptures;  

1. The warfare is not against humans
I remember a dream I had most of my childhood; a woman tried to kill me several times in very subtle ways,always initially pretending to be friendly and motherly but with an ultimate intent to hurt me, which wasn't initially obvious. Considering the frequency of the dream, I decided to mark her face and possibly relate it to a physical being. One day, the scales fell off my eyes and I saw her exactly for what she was -evil, Satan's agent. I rebuked her to her utter shock, that was the last time she appeared in my dream :)


We're in a spiritual warfare and it is not against humans. 

So no need to  move about pointing accusing fingers at mere mortal beings.  Yes, the devil can work through humans who make themselves available to him, but we do not fight back at humans or physical beings else we lose. There is a spiritual strategy for spiritual combat. 
This is liberating for me also in handling everyday relations- sensitivity to understand when conflicts require spiritual handling is crucial- and I believe we can win every conflict irrespective of how they present, when we adopt a spiritual combat approach. There is so much peace handling stuffs that way :) 

2. The warfare is against Satan & his gang. 
 Yes, the warfare is against the tricky cunning old fellow of John 10:10b-the thief and his gang! The one who came to steal, kill and destroy. 
He is the ruler of this present world {to the blind and unbelieving), he commands principalities and powers of darkness of this age, the wickedness in the heavenly places and he still wields his powers among  ignorant folks. But those who know know it that Jesus Christ totally DISARMED him at Calvary...Hallelujah!

"Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it". 
Colossians 2:15. 

For me therefore, the current status of Satan is Colossians 2:15, he seems to often forget that. As Christians we have a duty to remind him every time he pulls his old stunts. 


In the concluding part, we'll look at the very interesting 'Weapons of Our Warfare'. 
Till then....stay blessed :) and keep musing over Colossians 2:15. 

My love always....

A few months ago, we mourned in my country, the death of a young doctor who parked his car on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos Nigeria, and jumped into the lagoon.  A few days ago, I read about a Pastor who killed himself! These are not normal occurrences. 

Matthew 4:5-6 flashed through my thoughts a while ago, then I found myself thinking; ‘was that a suicidal thought Jesus had’?  Can anything be done about them? what did Jesus do? 

“Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “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”.    NKJV.

How do you think a young well educated man, drove his car to the seaside, parked it carefully, then drowned himself? Thoughts! Thoughts!! Thoughts!!! 

Despite the many insinuations that followed the death of the young doctor mentioned above, we sure cannot say for sure what his life experiences were like but it’s possible he  must have THOUGHT himself worthless, useless and somehow hoping that killing himself would free him from his misery. Or do you think that maybe just like Jesus, this young man was physically led by hand to the sea by the devil? 

When you read the temptation of Jesus Christ in Matthew 4, you may choose to believe the devil was speaking directly to Jesus as a physical being, that’s fine, but personally, it seems Jesus battled with some  devilish thoughts, among which was a suicidal thought.

In one of my recent blog posts; ‘Trading Depression‘ I shared some ways of living above depression learning from Isaiah 61:1-3, here again, we can learn some lessons about managing suicidal thoughts from Jesus as seen in Matthew 4:5-6; 

1. Suicidal thoughts can come to anyone;  if Jesus was tempted to jump down from a pinnacle and possibly die, anyone can be tempted too. 
2. Suicidal thoughts come with a promise of something better than currently experienced. Imagine angels holding you up in their hands….sounds heavenly, doesn’t it? 
3. Suicidal thoughts are not from God, Jesus recognized them as coming from the devil. 
4. You overcome suicidal thoughts by challenging them with the word of God. Have ready (at all times), an ‘it is written‘ from the bible, just as Jesus did and speak it out loud. 
5. Suicidal thoughts always bow to an ‘it is written‘ from the word of God.  

So the next time a suicidal thought comes to you, recognize that they are not coming from God, Jesus was tempted with such thoughts too but He overcame,  you can overcome when you throw back an ‘it is written‘ from the word of God because suicidal thoughts and their source always bow to the word of God. 

Do not be ignorant of the devices of the enemy; cast them Down & Out, and subject every thought to the obedience of Christ as we are told in 2 Corinthians 10:5;

“…..casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ….”

Finally brethren, I leave you with the words of Apostle Paul;

“…whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of a good report, it there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things.”   Philippians 4:8 

If it is not pure, just, noble, true, lovely, if it will not mean a good report, if it has no virtue in it and it doesn’t smell like something praiseworthy, choose not to think  or meditate on them    🙂  

My love always……….

Probably the most terrifying kind of fear for anyone to have is the fear of death. Nobody really wants to die with unrealized dreams and ambitions. Unfortunately, we hear news about death every time and everywhere. Whether resulting from terminal health conditions or ocuuring suddenly from accidents or unknown causes, death always leaves a kind of vacuum and void that people are generally unprepared for, either for themselves or for their loved ones. 

I found it interesting that God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, faced death several times, people constantly conspired on how best to get Him off the scene and possibly control the disruptions His teachings brought to their existing belief system.  Even more interesting to me was His attitude towards death at all times.  He’d practically ignore or dismiss it, choosing instead to confess that His Time hasn’t yet come.  Such disposition and confident disregard for what many tremble at it’s thought is worth exploring in my opinion. Why did Jesus often display nonchalance to the thought of dying? 

I looked up a few scriptures that came to mind as I meditated on this blog post….

“Now some of them from Jerusalem said, “Is this not He whom they seek to kill? But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?”
John 7:25‭-‬26 NKJV

“Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to take Me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.”
Mark 14:48‭-‬49 NKJV

From John 7:25-26 and Mark 14:48-49, Jesus seemed to know something about His death that others didn’t know;

1. There was an appointed time for His death.
2. Those plotting His death were under a restraint, they were restrained by the appointed time. Jehovah had fixed the time for His ministry and death and no man could change it. 
3. Death lost it’s grip and tormenting effect in Christ Jesus. 

But then, it was not an endless living for Christ, He came as a Man on a mission. And so when the appointed time came, He willing walked up to death and surrendered Himself. 

“Then He came the third time and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough! The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.”
Mark 14:41 NKJV

Now brethren,  that’s a good time to die; when you’ve accomplished your mission on Earth and you know it. When you’ve fulfilled the purpose for which you were created. When you can say ‘ I have fought a good night and now I am ready for my crown’. 

Remember beloved that Jesus Christ was the first born… everyone in Christ Jesus, is a son of God sent on an heavenly mission to Earth. 

There’s an appointed time to live and die. That time was not set by Satan or Death. No! Both Death and the Thief are RESTRAINED BY THE HOUR. 

Like Jesus Christ, I’ll not go home until my work on Earth is done….in Jesus Christ name. Amen! 

The Rains….the former and the latter Rains, coming in abundance. And bringing with them, growth, productivity, life & fruitfulness. The Rains will cause green vegetations all around. They’ll bring grain, oil and wine. They’ll bring seed, bread, fresh insights and anointing for great exploits and manifestations of covenant promises, outpouring of God’s goodness in overwhelming measures.