Mary is in her early 40’s.
Exactly 10 months ago, she had a terrible scare; her doctor told her she was hypertensive. Her blood pressure on repeated measurements was over 160/100.
She was admitted for a few days and monitored.

It would have been good news for Mary that her doctor was considering placing her on very low dose antihypertensives for a short time considering that she also recently received a course of steroids for another health condition. According to the doctor, steroids can raise blood pressure. 
But Mary was deeply concerned, her parents are hypertensive. Could this be familial?

As things turned out, Mary’s blood pressure normalized within one month. She was relieved and so was the doctor. And thinking it’s possibly the effects of the steroids had cleared, the doctor withdrew the antihypertensives.

Two months ago routine medical checkup revealed Mary’s blood pressure was about 170/110 again! 
Mary was distraught. What was she going to do now? She can’t possibly start taking antihypertensives from her 40s and for the rest of her life.

Tossing and turning over on her bed all night, sleep eluded her. What were her options? Drugs or God’s intervention? Can she give her professed faith a little push? Could God fix this for her? Mary prayed most of the night asking God to normalize her blood pressure. 
She remembered her covenant of healing with God and made a decision to believe God for a miraculous healing.

God honored Mary’s little faith. 
She heard in her spirit to make just one dietary change which she did. Within 3 days Mary’s blood pressure was back to normal as confirmed by another medical check. 
Result of Mary’s last BP check was 103/83. 
Praise God! 
……………………………………………..
As a Child of God, resist the temptation to approach difficult and challenging situations with fear and trembling. God will Always give an answer of peace; sit back calmly and listen for the wisdom or strategy to your victory.

Welcome back!

This is the 6th part of this blogpost series.

We have been looking at the composite parts of the Whole Armour of God as seen in Ephesians 6:11, 13-19;

“Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil…Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints-and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”  NKJV.

In the preceding parts, we have discussed; the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation,gird your waist with the truth and shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Today, we’ll conclude this session of this series {that is ‘His Armour‘} by looking at the remaining 2 components;  the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit. In subsequent parts, we’ll look at ‘The Warfare‘ and ‘Our Weapons‘.

Take on the Shield of Faith

What does a Soldier need a shield for?……………

A soldier’s shield protects him by deflecting or intercepting missiles thrown at him. The shield is usually held in the hand or mounted on the wrist or forearm. So most shields are positioned in front of a soldier so as to provide good cover.

The dictionary defines ‘faith‘ as;  ‘a complete trust in someone or something‘. The Bible definition of faith as seen in Hebrews 11:1 is however different, it goes beyond trust and confidence and gives tangibility to faith. It tells us faith is a ‘substance‘ and an ‘evidence‘.

The way I understand it, an evidence substantiates a belief or claim. Therefore, the Bible is saying that faith is the physical reality of the Christian belief.

How so?…..

I gave my life to Jesus Christ several years ago, precisely, in 1993, just after graduation from high school. A few weeks ago I remembered some terrible ‘unchristian’ experiences I had in college, the kind of memories that make you sad.  Thank God for the Holy Spirit, He fixed me up, and reminded me those experiences weren’t in vain.  I am thankful for the strength and loss of innocence they’ve brought.

As I did the throwback on my Christian walk, one thing remained clear to me; it’s been a ‘faith-walk’ through and through. Everything I know about God is by faith. Everything I have accessed in God is by faith. Every miracle I’ve experienced in God has been birthed through faith. I got back up from my fallen state, by faith and I have lived victoriously everyday after, by faith.

That’s what faith is. Faith is the substance of our belief. Faith is living. Faith is Evidence! Faith is Seeing! Faith is Now!

I believe I am born again by confessing Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour,….. by faith, and everyday I see a new me manifesting. I believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost,…. by faith, and as I ask the Father to pour His Spirit on me, I open my mouth and find I am actually speaking in other tongues. I believe I have been healed by the stripes of Jesus Christ,….. by faith, and as I maintain my confession and walk by the spirit of God, my healing manifests.

So how do we use faith as a shield?

Probably the best approach to answering this question is for us to remind ourselves; how it all started. How did we become born again and filled with the Holy Ghost? The last time we accessed divine healing for a health condition, how did it happen?

Notice anything peculiar to the kind of faith we’re discussing here? ….

There is always a preexisting undesirable situation or circumstance! 

You know, God displayed what I believe is the highest kind of faith in The Beginning {Genesis 1:1-3}.

A previously empty, chaotic, formless and dark earth, received light and became filled with beautiful forms through a magnificent display of faith by God! 

God simply spoke what He wanted into existence and changed the status quo for ever!

That’s how simple faith is.

Yes, I hear your question, ‘Grace, do you really mean that?’ Yes.

By simply saying what God says about a situation rather than what we feel about it. By proclaiming and maintain our Godly desires about a situation rather than what we see. By speaking, confessing and maintaining the truth of our belief irrespective of present or prevailing circumstances.

The truth always prevails. Halleluyah!

So it doesn’t really matter what missiles, darts, arrows the enemy throws at us {and they don’t stop coming}. What matters is how we react – accept it or knock it off (or quench it) by faith?

That’s how to use faith as a shield.

When I feel weak, I confess that I am strong. When there is no money in my pocket, I confess that I am rich. When strange symptoms pop up in my body, I confess that I am healed.  And I maintain my confession until my faith becomes tangible, a substance and an evidence. A reality!

Praise God.

The Sword of the Spirit

To help us fully appreciate this component of the Whole Armour of God, first, we must answer the question of; what a sword is to a soldier?

A sword is a bladed weapon intended for slashing or thrusting. A sword is usually, long, straight or slightly curved with sharp edge (s). A good soldier would have swordsmanship- proper use and handling of the sword, and maneuver it so as to slash or thrust as the need arises.

What is the Sword of the Spirit?

Well, Ephesians 6:17-18  tells us to use the Sword of the Spirit, tells us what the Sword of the Spirit is, and how to use it.

“…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints…”  (NKJV).

And according to Hebrews 4:12, the Word of God is sharper than any known sword….

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”       NKJV

As we see, the Word of God is both a part of the Whole Armour of God (as the Sword of the Spirit) as well as a Weapon of Warfare {we’ll be discussing this further}. The word can slash, thrust and reach deeper than any known sword.

But of what use is the Word of God if we don’t use it? And how do we use the Sword of the Spirit?……….

By basing our Prayer and Supplication on the Word. By praying always in the Spirit, in patience and perseverance.

Friends and brethren, as we conclude our study on the Whole Armour of God, it is very obvious that the purpose for the Whole Armour of God is to make us prepared, immovable and victorious in the day of trouble. Therefore to successfully resist and stand our ground in time of danger, we must proactively and consciously be kitted in this armour always.

Let us always remember that our citizenship is of Heaven, we are born of God, we have His genes and our experiences should reflect same as we live in the awareness of our rights and privileges. We are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, sin has no power over us and where there is no sin, there is no charge or penalty. Let us stay reminded that God’s word is the truth over our affairs. And so let us always proclaim this truth, testify of this truth so as to gain victory at all times.

Thank you so much for staying with me to the end of this session of the series. I appreciate all your feedback and thank God for the opportunity to share His word. It’s been quite refreshing and a tremendous blessing doing this study 🙂

Shalom and my love always.

I like to pick my children’s brains on the Bible sometimes.  I really find this very exciting.  I’d simply throw a scripture they should be familiar with at them requesting their interpretation of it.  For example; ‘Where is the secret place of The Most High’? ‘What do you understand by The Lord is my Shepherd’?  Believe me when I tell you these children come up with brilliant interpretations, sometimes they drop new revelation to run with for many days 🙂

On this beautiful morning, with their boxes packed ready to return to school, I needed to remind them of who they are in Christ Jesus.  Matthew 5:14-16 has been ringing in my head for about 3 weeks now, and who better to study it with than my lovely trio?

“You are the light that shines for the world to see. You are like a city built on a hill that cannot be hidden. People don’t hide a lamp under a bowl. They put it on a lampstand. Then the light shines for everyone in the house. In the same way, you should be a light for other people. Live so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.                    -Easy-to- Read Bible Version.

You know how we read this scripture and then suddenly burst into the timeless ‘little light‘ song {this little light of mine, I am gonna light it shine…}. Oh dear! Do I love that song? Yes! I also have a lovely and most cherished personal quote on being Light (deduced from John 1:5) – ” I am light. Darkness has no place where light is“.    🙂

But Matthew 5:14-16 isn’t talking about a ‘little‘ light or darkness. Nope.  And I am glad my kids didn’t sing me the ‘little light‘ song. Instead, as always they provided beautiful and astounding explanations of the scripture they were presented with. Like this one; ‘Mummy it means to live in a way that nobody can prove that you are not a Christian’ WOW!!!  Even I did a step-back, sit-down and some thinking to fully grasp the revelation in that response.  🙂

Light is simply defined on Google as ‘the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible‘. Light illuminates, light accentuates radiance, brilliance, glow and gives a glaring dazzle. Light shows direction in darkness.

Jesus is saying in Matthew 5: 14-16 that we should be a direction for other people. We should show the way to live and act. We should live worthy of our calling as children of God. 

Not too long ago I was member of a team assigned the task of making a purchase for an organization. Having made the first contact and subsequently introduced the merchant to the team, many questions were directed at me for clarification. One of such questions was; ‘ who’d get the discount the merchant was offering, me or the organization’?

We know it is common practice in many business settings for a link person to request variations that accrue to his/her account. Sadly, even members of the body of Christ partake freely in this practice. They see nothing wrong with presenting a receipt for a purchase that they’ve privately secured a personal kickback on.  I still struggle with these things. So my response to this particular question of; ‘sorry I don’t handle such details’, I know, would likely mean my exclusion from such negotiations in the future, but it did guide the team, because following my response, the question was withdrawn. {glad that some decency was displayed}.

Why have I shared this story? Because Matthew 5:14-16 came to me in the midst of it all.

Now, here’s the interesting part for me. A few days after the team meeting, a strange face with a familiar name popped up around my Facebook account. {Now you know I see you if you’ve been sneaking around my Facebook account 🙂 don’t ask me how}.   On a closer look, I was able to relate the face to the lead person at the merchant’s store who I’d met during my initial visit to the store on market survey.  What was she doing around my Facebook  account? Surfing! Who’s this Grace Obomanu? Didn’t this name sound familiar? Is she not the same person that blogs on the Bible?  Or maybe, she was just checking me out and can you imagine her reaction finding out that I actually openly profess to be a Christian?  You know how bad news about Christianity spread like wildfire? ……I am glad I didn’t sell out my birthright in this situation.

Like my little ones said, we should live such that no one can prove that we are not Christians. Let’s stay set like the lamp on a lampstand, like a city set on a hill. Let’s light our world.

 

I walked into a Nigerian children’s shop some days ago; needed to replace my girls’ lunch bags. After picking and fitting a set of lunch boxes into 2 Thermos lunch bags, I was satisfied because the girls have a similar set of lunch boxes at home, or so I thought. I got home about 30 minutes later only to realize that I’d had a memory lapse; I changed to a new set of lunch boxes the previous term. So this new purchase was a misfit. I immediately asked my driver to return them and possibly be refunded because having looked through the shop, there were not many other choices for a swap. All these happened within one hour. Despite my efforts at explaining to the shop owner via phone call that I’d really appreciate a refund, she refused to take the bags back, insisting that I must pick any other thing. To say I was furious and disappointed is to say the least. I have shopped with this lady for as long as 10 years with no record of ugly occurrences!  I was being arm-twisted into making a useless purchase and I didn’t like that.

Why tell this story? Because the title of this blog post seems persuasive and compelling, a little similar to the shopping experience I just narrated.    🙂  Forgive me, but that’s not the intention. This blogpost simply aims to share with you what Talk with Grace Obomanu is all about, how it started and what The Lord Jesus has been doing through TWGO.

Sometime in May, 2014 I’d gone for my monthly spa routine. As I lay on the couch waiting for the skin exfoliation part of my facials, God gave me a vision. It was huge, it was scary and it was unbelievable. I will not burden you with the details ….afterall its My vision from God 🙂  .

Suffice to say however, that ‘Talk with Grace Obomanu’ was a part of that vision. First, as far as I was concerned, it sounded foolish to make and stick signposts with ‘Talk with Grace Obomanu’ on streets around my city, which was part of what I heard in my spirit. Something I have never imagined or thought of doing before!  Not that I was bored and needed something else to do. I was fully employed and serving in a very challenging role at the time (overseeing 350+ health facilities across my State). I was also undertaking a Master’s degree programme with a UK Top University in addition to my family and Church obligations and commitments. I was sufficiently challenged and fully occupied.

It took me approximately 11 months from when I first perceived TWGO in my spirit to go live on Facebook with it! and another 2 years to realize that by going live on Facebook with TWGO, I was actually putting up signposts around the world. All along I would often ‘apologize’ to God to bear with me about the signpost bit, as it wasn’t clear to me at all and actually did sound ridiculous. Nobody knows me, nobody will call me for counsel or trust me with their deepest secrets.

Before going live on Facebook with the TWGO page, I booked an appointment to meet with my Pastor.  No! you’re wrong! It wasn’t to discuss TWGO. In fact at this time, I’d pushed that vision ‘safely’ out of my mind. I went to see my Pastor because I needed counsel and direction about the burden of God’s word constantly popping up in my mind and the sweet and amazing revelations and in-depth understanding they came with. I would type almost unstoppably on my Ipad, just to clear my head. I thought I had a call to preach!  Infact, on the 2nd of January, 2015, I knelt down by my bedside and told God that I receive His call even though it wasn’t exactly clear to me. That brought some peace. Who knows? I may still preach……if The Lord wills and directs.    🙂

The meeting with my Pastor was after ‘I accepted God’s call’.  I am thankful that God gave me an answer of peace through that meeting. I understood that God’s call may not always be to preach and secondly, God will make His call clearer with time.

I started TWGO writing up and sharing questions and problems people contacted me about in the past and the solutions I’d proffered. The whole idea was to guide people about how the page would work. In no time, people were sending in their personal questions and requests. This was awesome! I also got a ‘YES’ response from 2 brethren whom I believe The Lord directed me to invite to become co-publishers on the page. These were 2 well-seasoned believers!  They thankfully accepted my invitation. Again, this was awesome! Let me just say at this point that I deeply appreciate the support of these true lovers of Jesus Christ. We remain united and focused on the vision of TWGO and have by our constant communication become strong and reliable support for one another. Praise God.

The first fallout of starting TWGO is the Graceobomanu’s Blog. As I spend time in God’s word; reading and meditating on Him, I get  so excited and the blogsite provides a structured social-media friendly storehouse for all my thoughts and divine insights which I can readily share with others.  It’s always exciting writing on the blog.

The blogsite went on live on March 2, 2016. So far I have written 69 articles and published 46. The remaining 23 are drafts at different levels of completion.  Statistics on the blog show readers from across the continents of the world. Awesome!

So what is TWGO?

TWGO simply means Talk with Grace Obomanu. You can find an introductory post on Grace Obomanu in the maiden blog post; “This is  Graceobomanu’s blog” (at: http://www.graceobomanu.com /blogsite/this-is-graceobomanus-blog-welcome)

TWGO is an online talk-page that runs presently on Facebook and can be reached at:   https:web.facebook.com/graceobomanu.org .

*Copy and paste any of the url addresses provided to access the materials. 

On TWGO you have access to simple, practical and divinely inspired solutions and insights for everyday real life issues. My 2 contributing writers regularly share easy to read teachings on God’s word.

After turning down a few requests for publication on the page, I recently welcomed ‘Moment with Jesus Org.’ to publish every Wednesday.  I am glad to have them on the page as we work together to spread the good news about Christ’s Kingdom.

TWGO has a total of 4,451 followers presently from around the world.  Most of these are young men and women of African descent, but like I constantly hear in my spirit; ‘Grace, they won’t be so young in the next 10 years’!

Initially we sent out invitations for people to join the community, but we have not needed to do that in recent times. We find that as we share God’s word on the page, people just follow us on their own without any invitation. This is also awesome!

I believe that TWGO is providing positive social change to its community as people receive Godly wisdom and insights for daily living. As a strong believer in the experience of a positive change for anyone who dares to believe, the encouragement, counsel, wisdom and insights provided on TWGO through God’s word are guaranteed to bring about positive change. I know this!

Since inception, TWGO have shared 58 Real Life Issues on the page and attended to many others privately. We have sometimes been led to make phone calls to some of our followers and have received good testimonies of their ability to handle their challenges given the support we provide. We have also occasionally provided financial support to people in one need or the other. This has been more than rewarding!  In addition to sharing articles from Graceobomanu’s blog through the TWGO page, my contributing writers have written and published numerous teachings on God’s word, which have been quite engaging as we regularly receive awesome responses from readers.

Our publications reach thousands of people wherever we choose and even more  🙂    This we are able to do when we ‘boost’ the posts and increase its reach and delivery. We do this FREE of charge, although, altogether we have invoice from Facebook totaling $365 USD as at May 2, 2017. We have fully paid for this and do not owe a dime.

I am thankful for what The Lord Jesus is doing through TWGO. But I am even more excited about the vision God gave me. It’s Big, it’s Great and it’s for the Good of mankind.  Join us on TWGO and become part of God’s great move in these times.

You can pray for us regularly.

You can join us in the TWGO Community. It’s easy! Just like the page and you’re in.

You can invite your friends and acquaintances to follow us.

You can direct people to us for counsel. (We get this often)

You can send us articles based on God’s word. We will publish these if they meet our terms and conditions.

You can also provide us with financial support. $1 is just enough to get a Godly post or counsel to as much as 1,000 persons in different locations.

Whatever you decide to do, contact us by using the ‘Message’ button on the page.

Stay blessed.

My love always.

Grace Obomanu.