As a Christian, I don’t believe in coincidences. My steps are ordered by the Lord. I therefore believe that God sends people my way to bless me (in different ramifications) or for me to bless. And every opportunity to express our love and gratitude to God can translate into an opportunity for increase.

‘Healing is the children’s bread. Healing is available always. Healing is accessible always. Healing should be a daily experience for the Jews {and everyone born of God through Jesus Christ}.

With 3 children, a distracted husband and a recent job loss, Rita has had more than a fair share of life’s troubles for her young age. The recent demise of her bosom friend and confidant, who has been a great source of support through her challenges, almost plunged her into depression.

We are thankful at ‘Talk with Grace Obomanu’-(https://web.facebook.com/graceobomanu.org/) that Rita {original name withheld}, reached out for help. Our first focus was to help Rita take control of her life and her life experiences by reconnecting back to her Creator. Helping her develop, nourish and enjoy an intimate and loving relationship with God was crucial to ensuring she regains and secures her self-confidence by being assured of God’s everlasting and never-changing love.

Rita would need to spend more time talking and listening to God and less time complaining or worrying about her present predicament.

A few weeks later Rita had questions, interesting questions; “how do you hear God?”, “how do you know what God is saying?”, “how do you know what God wants you to do at any time?”.

Now, God connects with His children in different ways and every Child of God would need to develop their spiritual ears to hear Him and understand how He speaks to them. True, we have the Word of God which constantly speaks the mind of God to us, but remember times when you just want to hear God speak to you, you pick up your Bible, open it and what you’re reading doesn’t add up? That happens! The same true, timeless Word of God seeming not to speak directly at such times.

In this very long blogpost, (sorry), we’ll explore (in no particular order) some of the ways God speaks to us and how we can know what He is saying.

1. God Speaks to us by His Spirit: Many times people talk about hearing a ‘still small voice’ and they often want to associate that with God talking. Indeed, God speaks in a ‘still small voice’, He speaks in a roar, and He can speak in a thunder. Now hear this; ‘with his innate subtleness, the devil can speak in a still small voice! Selah.

So how do we know God’s ‘still small voice’?

1 Corinthians 2:11-12 tells us that because we have the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of God, we can KNOW and UNDERSTAND the thoughts of God!

“For what person knows the thoughts and motives of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So also no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the {Holy} Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the {wonderful} things freely given to us by God.” Amplified Version

And we see a beautiful and sweet way of HEARING and KNOWING what God would have us do in John 10:4-5;

“……he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger but flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” NKJV

Ofcourse we can hear Jesus Christ speak to us real time, but John 10:4-5 is telling us of a sensitivity to hearing God that emanates from an existing bond or relationship. It says; …….‘MY SHEEP’. A Sheep and Shepherd relationship is developed from repeated exposures and interactions which ultimately sublimes into mutual understanding and leading up to a point where communication can take place without words.

I remember one time my children went visiting with a relation. The relations were amazed at my children’ commitment to abstaining from some TV programmes because ‘Mummy doesn’t allow us to watch this or that’ channel. So, even in my absence, and without any direct words at that time, the children knew certain TV programmes were a no-no.

Another way God speaks to us by His Spirit is when we pray in other tongues. Now, because this article is not about speaking in tongues, let’s avoid doing an exposition on that. Just to quickly point out 1 Corinthians 14:2;

“For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.”

Obviously, there’s something about this scripture that is not very clear (at least to me), because at Pentecost, the people around understood the tongues and God has also given the gift of interpretation of tongues to some.

But our focus is in the second part of that scripture; “they utter mysteries by the Spirit”.

So when we speak in tongues, we are speaking to God, speaking the mysteries of God by His Spirit. But you know the most exciting part of speaking in tongues for me? When I get the interpretation of the mysteries I have spoken about. And they do come. You just keep at it. Listen and be sensitive. The interpretation of your tongues will flow out of your own lips. 🙂 You’ll know the mind of God and you’ll know what direction to go.

2. God Speaks to us through His Word (The Bible).

2 Timothy 3:16 tell us;

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for DOCTRINE, for REPROOF, for CORRECTION, for INSTRUCTION in righteousness.” NKJV.

And in Joshua 1:8 also tells us;
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall MEDITATE in it DAY and NIGHT, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For THEN, you will make your way PROSPEROUS and you will have GOOD SUCCESS.” NKJV

We can look at God speaking to us through His Word in two ways;
a. Generally:
Like we see in 2 Timothy 3:16 and Joshua 1:8 above, the Bible is expected to play a holistic role in building up a Believer. There’s instruction in it, there’s direction it, and we should build our whole life around the Word of God. Our Prospering and experience of Good Success is tied to it! ‘DAY and NIGHT’ as seen in Joshua 1:8 suggests that meditating on God’s Word should be a Lifestyle.

b. Specifically:
God can also give specific answers to life’s questions and troubles through His Word. And I mean you picking up your Bible, opening it and right there staring at you is the answer you’ve been looking for.

In all, as the Psalmist’s says in Psalm 119:105;
“Your word is a LAMP to my FEET and a LIGHT to my PATH” NKJV.

God’s Word guides our Steps and Directs our Course. It is the Compass we must all come to rely on as Believers in Christ Jesus. Amen.

3. God Speaks to us through People
Let me start this part by sounding a note of caution. Yes, God can speak to us through people but we must be careful what we expose our minds to and what we accept as God speaking.

I always remind myself that Jesus Christ referred to Peter as ‘Satan’ at some point. Peter didn’t physically transform into Satan, but his words and actions were not in sync with God’s Spirit. Peter was being manipulated by Satan. And was Peter a very close associate of Jesus Christ? YES!

Not too long ago, I was really ill, weak and sometimes feeling like life was just leaving my body. One of such times, a very close relative sat by me and asked; ‘Grace, what’s the worse that can really happen in this your condition? Death? Then what? Even if you die, life goes on. Death is not such a bad thing and it comes around everyone you know!’
This was definitely not God speaking. And I rejected it.

Now, the first group of People that God can speak to us through are;

a. Under-shepherds:
And this can include ‘Pastors’, ‘Prophets’, and all the titles we meet in todays’ Christianity.
A Believer who truly knows his/her God will need to believe Jeremiah 3:15;

“And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will FEED you with knowledge and Understanding.” NKJV

The shepherds God give to us are there to FEED us with KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING of God. It is this knowledge and understanding that guides our decisions and choices.
Your Under-shepherd may on rare occasions instruct you on what path to take if led by God, they can deliver a specific word from God directly to you, but ultimately, it is your prerogative to make your decisions and choices.

It is therefore no brainer then to say that to gain the RIGHT knowledge and UNDERSTANDING of the Word of God and your Identity in Christ Jesus, a Believer must be constantly exposed to and influenced by the RIGHT Under-shepherd. That’s why I sometimes don’t understand ‘Churches’ were all they do is demon chasing, devil-binding and casting, enemy-stumping, miracles, signs and shouts! No! you need to be rightly located to be rightly fed and illuminated.

Everyone born of God is a Spirit, leaves in a body and has a soul. Your spirit thrives on the word of God. You thrive on the word of God.

1 Peter 2:2 tells us;

“as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby…” NKJV.

By the way, ‘Signs and Miracles’ are supposed to be a way of life for the Believer. Signs and Wonders ‘followed’ Christ. Stop chasing them around. Chase the Word of God. Selah!

b. Through ‘any other’ person
Any other person here can include brethren, an angel, a stranger, etc. Sometimes we’re blessed and inspired by a ‘stranger, someone we’ve never met before. Sometimes in the course of a discourse, we can get confirmation of a thought God dropped in our heart and which we may have been musing over.
These are not always coincidences. God may just have directed our path.

4. God can speak to us Directly.
As a young enthusiastic Christian, I’d often find my way to Church, somewhere in Lagos, Nigeria, at odd times- times when nobody was expected for fellowship or service. I’d pray, study my Bible and walk away. I had a strong hunger to know God.
One day, I asked God that I wanted to see Him. So, I scheduled an appointment to meet with Him at a particular time and location in the Church. On the set day and time, I was seated, waiting and expectant. Waiting for God to appear…. I didn’t see Him! But I had an experience of a lifetime that I still do not understand till date..
As I waited, there was suddenly a heavy presence in the room. There was a BIG presence in the room. It was so strong it seemed my heart and head would burst. Nobody told me to RUN out of the Church. I have never asked to see God again.

But I can categorically tell you that I have many times ‘heard’ God call my name. Yes! heard Him with my physical ears. Sometimes, He calls me from my sleep and I wake up to a situation that needs my urgent attention. How did I know it was God? The same way a baby recognizes the voice of a mother/father, and the same way we recognize the voice of close relatives and associates. Exposure and Practice…..

So God can speak to us in many and different ways and He chooses which way to speak to us. No one way is inferior or superior to the other. We just need to grow in our understanding of how God speaks to us as individuals.

Most importantly, we must operate by the Spirit of God, be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit at all times, and to test every spirit as admonished in 1 John 4:1;

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” NKJV.

Thank you so much for staying with me to the end of this article.
Once again, I apologize that this has been one long blogpost.

Stay Blessed.

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

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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.

A lifestyle and disposition to continuously give to others presents us the givers with divine opportunities for personal increase and growth

Welcome back!
In “Divine opportunities for Increase: blogpost1” I’d said we would look at Christian Virtues that help make divine opportunities come our way. I apologize that we will not be doing that today. Instead, we’ll go through and complete the ways God brings divine increase our way first.

In part 1, we looked at SERVICE, as a springboard to success and increase. The kind of service that is self-less, outstanding and done in the fear of the Lord.

The opportunities for Increase that God sends us can also be through;

2. Receiving and Acting on an Unusual instruction from God.

Unusual instructions here refers to uncommon, remarkable, extraordinary, significant instructions. A different or strange instruction that attracts attention.

When God gives you an instruction to sacrifice your long-awaited precious only son and you summon up the courage to obey, be prepared to receive a ram for sacrifice and also get ready to become the father of many nations (Genesis 17:4-5, Genesis 22).

When God sends His prophet to you, a poor wretched Widow, with no human support system and tells you to release your last piece of bread, meant for you and your son, to this prophet, who is a fully grown able-bodied man, and you look beyond this prophet’s seeming callousness to obey and act as directed, then get ready for the jar of flour that will not be used up and the jug of oil that will not run dry until the famine is over (1 Kings 17).

When God speaks to you to relocate to another land, where you know no one at all, where you have no contacts at all, when you have made no reservations or preparations for a place to sleep or stay even for the first night, and you act in faith, get ready for a bumper harvest.

When God tells you to give a huge offering, amounting to most or all of your annual income and you muster the courage to act as directed, you have just taken advantage of an opportunity for divine increase. Your increase will come! (this is good prosperity gospel).

Unusual instructions that will bring divine increase are often difficult instructions. They don’t usually add up mathematically. They are not logical. They may not make sense. But they test your trust and faith in God and are pregnant with your next level of increase.

Again, do you know how GOD speaks to you? Can you hear Him when He speaks to you?

The unusual instruction that will bring you divine increase should come to you from God directly, through His Word or through His prophet.

Are you looking to make a big leap in your finances, career, ministry etc. God may just send you an unusual instruction.

Seize your opportunity for divine increase. Don’t let it slip ?

Medicine is a professional discipline having different specialties. To rise to the status of a Specialist in medicine you must undergo some professional exams plus minus a residency training. This is the usual career path in medical practice.

As a young doctor I started asking questions about administration and management in Health. This is not a common pathway for doctors to rise to the top. But as far as I could see, clinical practice wasn’t my thing. Yes! I prayed, prayed and followed my heart, glad I did.

Generally, success is defined by power, wealth or prestige. People reckon you as successful if you have made good enough profit to be considered wealthy, if you occupy a position of power or if you have earned or become conferred with a prestigious role.

Often there is a lot of emphasis on hard-work, sharpening skills, grooming talents more than on chasing one’s passion, especially if such passion has not been known to bring prestige, power or profit.

In this blogpost series, we’ll be exploring ‘ways of increase with God’. And we’ll be answering some key questions as we go along; ‘should a Christian rely solely on God’s grace and not work hard?.’ ‘Is the message of prosperity as popularly preached in some Christian circles unrealistic?’ We’ll also look at essential Christian virtues for sustained divine increase, as well as enumerate killers of increase/growth in a Christian’s life.

The first way of divine increase with God to consider is;

1. Service

Service is a springboard to success and greatness. Service simply means doing something for others voluntarily or for a fee.

Eight years ago, I was randomly selected by the Commissioner of Health in my State to work in a committee with top shots in the healthcare sector at the time. Then I was appointed the welfare officer. Being the youngest member of the committee (in every sense) the greatest challenge I faced servng in that role was insisting that members earned their stipends. I acquired enemies that tried to hunt me many years later ?. But that’s not all that happened, many months on, one of the older ladies in the group, picked me to work with her as part of the management team in a newly established health board, a role that brought me to limelight in that area of healthcare delivery in the State. Years later, she said she chose me because of my dedication, hardwork and commitment as welfare officer in that committee we worked together at the time.

God deals with His children in different ways. As a Christian, God may endue you with strength and wisdom to serve and He provides opportunities for you to climb the next rung of the ladder by putting your gifting to use through serving.

The kind of service that would pull from your strength and gifting and bring divine increase will have to be selfless, conscientious, plus or minus an immediate or obvious personal gain. This can be service to humanity; done out of the fear of the Lord, or service done to God as an act of gratitude or show of love.

Our example of selfless service from the Bible is Joseph. As a mature man at 30 years, Joseph began serving in the court of Pharaoh the King of Egypt. The story of Joseph the son of Jacob spans over many chapters of the first book of the Bible, Genesis. We’ll look at a few;

“Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh King of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and travelled throughout Egypt.” Genesis 41:46. NIV

“The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered and lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Portiphar put him in charge of his household and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. Genesis 39:2-5. NIV

If you are reading this blogpost and you are currently serving an ‘Egyptian master’ I urge you to stay where God has planted you because therein lies your increase. Or at least spend good time in prayer asking God’s direction before jumping out. God does not make mistakes. You may just be on a divine mission just like Joseph. Your service could be God’s opportunity to you to spring to the top for His divine purpose.

Interestingly, another person we see in the Bible that had great resilience for service is Jacob, Joseph’s father. Jacob served to get the love of his life, Rachel.

“So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.” Genesis 29: 20. NIV

Indeed, service can buy you prestige, power, profit as well as take care of your passion 🙂

In the next part of this blogpost series, we’ll look at key virtues for divine increase, some of which Joseph possessed.

Stay with me.

I have been truly blessed writing and meditating on this blogpost series. It is absolutely exciting to be reassured of God’s faithfulness, His mercy and His Integrity to keep His promises. The peace Jesus Christ already won for me is further cemented by the knowledge of these 3 truths about God….attributes that are inherent and intrinsic to God and that will never change. Halleluyah!

We have looked at;

1. The Lord our God is Faithful, meaning that He is dependable, reliable and trustworthy.

2. The Lord our God is Merciful, meaning that He does compassionate, gracious and forgiving.  In fact, Jehovah is RICH in mercy which is an offshoot of His Goodness. The Lord is GOOD always and His mercy is everlasting and brand new every morning.

And today we end this series looking at the third attribute of Jehovah we need to know as His children..;

3. Know that The Lord Your God is a Covenant-Keeper.  

Scripture reference has been:

 “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. 

Covenant is an agreement, contract, treaty, pact or deal. A covenant brings about a relationship of commitment between 2 people.

From the Bible we see that God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, David and Moses (1 Chronicles 16:16, Psalms 78:37). He also confirmed the Oath He made Isaac to Jacob (1 Chronicles 16:17).

Jehovah takes His covenant seriously. Yeah, that is something to know. He valued His covenant to Abraham, David, Jacob, etc and He stayed committed to it. God remembers His covenant.

“I have made a covenant with my Chosen, I have sworn to My servant David.”  Psalm 89:3

“then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land.”  Leviticus 26:42

Someone may be asking; ‘when did I sign any agreement with God and what are my entitlements’? Yes, we did enter into an agreement with God the day we gave our lives to Jesus Christ.

“Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” Psalms 50:5

Through His sacrifice, Christ traded His Righteousness for our sins at Calvary. He received stripes on His body to purchase our Healing. He was chastised for our Peace. He willed All the powers God gave Him over to us post resurrection to enable us do exploits. He made us More-than-Conquerors and we have Victory at all times and in every situation by Faith.

Knowing these attributes and being confident of them is a great anchor of faith for Believers in Christ Jesus.   God WATCHES over all His promises made to us and He is committed to performing EVERY SINGLE one of them.

So what is that problem staring you in the face? What is that situation? Turn it anyway you like, analyse it anyway that makes natural sense. Yes, tell me how big it is. Tell me how terrible it looks.

But please allow me also tell you that Jehovah has done everything in one single sacrifice to ensure every mountain in your life becomes a plain.

Confidently and Assuredly I say to you, God’s faithfulness, mercy and integrity guarantees you a great package. Trust Him!

The FLESH & the SPIRIT.

“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word…and Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judea…” 
Luke 1:38-41

“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word…..and Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judea……and it came to pass, that when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe in leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.”  Luke 1:38-41

The WORD 

Have you ever wondered about words? Words make the world go round. Whether written or spoken, we communicate our thoughts, emotions and feelings through words.

In Genesis, God teaches us the power of words. Words Create!

God created the whole word through words. God created light, day, night, water, sky, land, seas, vegetation, sun, moon, stars, living creatures in the seas and on the land, human beings (male and female).

Wow! Wow!! Wow!!!

I proudly present to you, My Father….. Master Creator, with awesome imaginative abilities, excellent conception and display of beauty, wonderful display of power without gimmicks. My Father is self-sufficient in Himself! And my Father created All things through Words, and faith in His Words.

All the miracles of Jesus Christ were performed via words. He healed the sick and raised the dead through words. And He tells us we can move mountains through words;

“…for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’, and it will move..” Matthew 17:20

Let’s see what Words got for Mary.. 🙂

Mary listened attentively to Michael. And received (conceived) all Michael said to her, then walked away, merrily.

The Bible doesn’t tell us that Mary consulted a doctor or midwife to confirm if she was pregnant after seeing Michael. Instead, we’re introduced to a ‘blessed fruit of Mary’s womb’ (Luke 1: 42).

Pause…

How did Elisabeth know the things that Michael said to Mary? Elisabeth wasn’t with Mary at the time, and Elisabeth has given Mary no time at all to ‘gist’ her of her encounter with Michael. Elisabeth spoke and prophesied as soon as Mary stepped into her home.  That’s the pregnancy test Mary needed. She was indeed pregnant, just as the Lord said to her through Michael.

Question: What did Michael give to Mary?

The Word!

Question: And what did Mary conceive?

A Child!

God is His Word. When we speak God’s word into a situation, we introduce/put God in it. And when we receive or believe God’s word we conceive God in us. And God in us can became anything we receive the Word as because God’s word is life, health, power, spirit….

“....the words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.”  John 6: 63

“My son, give attention to my words; incline your ears to my sayings ……for they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh.” Proverbs 4:20

Mystery #2: Mary received The Word and conceived a Child. The Word creates. I can create anything my faith can believe for. I can move mountains through my words. 

“… ‘Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, ‘Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name JESUS.”    Luke 1: 28-31 KJV. 

MARY

How does a young virgin respond to being told by a man she’s meeting for the first time that she has found favor with God?

Michael sure didn’t look like an angel when he appeared to Mary. No! he came to her in human form; as a man.

Flip that scene to today’s realities; a good-looking man walks up to a young naïve and innocent Mary declaring that she’s found favor with God….? Chances are that Mary could smile sheepishly, blushing all over considering her naïvety and gentle nature, or she could blow her tops, wishing he never appeared anywhere in her vicinity again.

In today’s world, not many top-level women get to prestigious positions through sheer brilliance, creativity or hard work.  Not many get there because they’re innocent, naïve and gentle. If you got the  charms, use it or burn with your brains and talents.

That is not the case for a select distinct group of persons who received a blessed Jesus born by a highly favored and blessed Mary. Ask Elizabeth about how favor permeated the air to reach her from a favored Mary such that she became filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied (Luke 1: 41-43).  Jesus Christ is no longer in Mary’s womb, no! He lives in us. We are blessed and highly favored.

Favored means to be treated or thought of with greatness, preference or partiality. Having special gifting, talents and advantages. Privileged.

Oh! I proclaim that because I received Jesus Christ as Lord and Master over my life, I am blessed, highly favored, greatly gifted and talented. God is bias in my favor and He thinks of me with greatness because I am an offspring of a Great God. He is partial towards me and so I am constantly being preferred in the things that line up with His will and plan for my life.

Thank You Faithful Father.

Mystery #1: A greatly blessed child born of a highly blessed and favored mother got me great favor and blessings!