Blessings For All

Greetings to all God’s blessed people.

It has been a long while since I last wrote about blessings on my blog. The blessings of God are such a pivotal part of our lives as humans and the more we hear or speak about them the more we stand to benefit from them. For faith comes by hearing and he who believes speaks that which he believes (2 Corinthians 4:13). I am so excited to have this opportunity once more to share with you on this glorious subject. As I said before, God’s blessings form a pivotal part of our lives for they are that which is meant by the bible when it says: everything good comes from God (James 1:17). Whether one is aware or not, they do benefit from God’s benefits on a daily basis.

On a daily basis, God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). Indeed this shows us that success for both the good and the evil-hearted comes from God. God does not discriminate against the unrighteous but lets his sun shine on them and his rain to fall on them as well. So whether a person is a believer in Jesus Christ and in God or not, the blessings of God play an important part in their lives. I have a lot of revelations and lessons that I have learnt in my life in the last few years that I cannot wait to share with you on this blog and I hope you will learn from them as much as I have.

God be with you and be blessed.

One Night with Dr Creflo Dollar Review

It was on a warm tuesday afternoon that I joined the throng that was standing on a queue outside the Dirk Van Der Hoff building, waiting for the doors to the auditorium to be opened. It was two hours before the tuesday night service could commence yet the crowd outside suggested otherwise. The doors finally opened and we went inside. After a brief intercessory session the service began at ten minutes before six. Some of the VIPs on the night were already making their way into the auditorium, amidst jubilant cheers from the congregation.

The sensational Incomparables choir started on a high note with some African choruses which were followed by some African worship before Mandla and Sbu could take to the stage. It was during their performance that Bishop Gitonga- the host for the night arrived, followed shortly by DR Creflo Dollar and his team which included his son. After a brief introduction and welcome of the guests on the day, Uchechukwu Agu went on stage to perform his internationally acclaimed hit "My God Is Good." After Uche's performance it was time for the main event of the evening.

Dr Dollar's message thus commenced. It was based on the fact that "You are a Spirit, You possess a Soul and You live in a Body." Dr Dollar would use this phrase to ultimately drive it home. When a Christian is saved his spirit is born anew and become a new creature. The very power that raised Christ from the dead resides in the inside of him. The Christian immediately becomes hundred percent like Christ- in his spirit. But his soul (which includes his mind) and his body (which includes the senses) remain the same. Basically the body is carnal and it always is at war with the spirit. Hence if the soul and body are left as they are then the power that was deposited into the spirit becomes of no value.
Progress cannot result if one does not align his soul (and consequently the body) with the spirit. The soul was depicted as some sort of a bridge between the material and the spiritual. Before one is born again, the soul is in total agreement with the body and the spiritual lies dormant. But once one is born again, one needs to renew his mind so that it might come into total agreement with his spirit. For one's soul/mind to know what it is that which the spirit is all about one will need to look into the spiritual mirror which shows exactly how one's spirit (already) is. That mirror is God's word. A christian needs to read his bible and hence renew his mind accordingly.

When the mind is renewed then it will be in total agreement with the spirit. When this agreement is reached then the body/flesh is defeated by majority rule and it will have to submit to the spirit. When this state is fully realised then there is nothing that will be impossible, all things are possible. "You are a Spirit, You possess a Soul and You live in a Body." Once a person come into this stage he can be able to fully embrace and live in the blessing.

The following scriptures were read to bring the message home: 1 Thessalonians 5:23 ; James 1:23-25 ; 2 Corrinthians 5:17 ; Ephesians 3:16 ; John 1:16 ; 1 John 4:16 ; Philemon 6 ; Romans 8:6

Ro Zwi Vhona

Anyway, I was meditating on God's word, thinking about how Jacob after blessing Joseph's children leaned on his staff and worshiped. This was an oldman, probably in a condition more like the one President Mandela is in right now where standing up was a great chore- but he went to the trouble of rising up and supporting his body with his walking staff and worship God. I asked myself why? The text in Genesis 47 says he did this after Joseph promised to bury him in the promised land. In that moment he believed Joseph's words, I believe that was because he saw Joseph's faithfulness and God's faithfulness as well: that he will be buried in the promised land, that his grandchildren would one day go back and occupy the land, but most importantly- that Jesus would one day come- because he is the seed which was promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob- even Moses knew about it. I believe that when Joseph said "Yes Dad", all these images ran before Jacob's eyes.

Afterall, Joseph's response symbolized Jesus' response. Joseph's faithfulness to his father symbolized Jesus faithfulness to his ABBA. So Jacob saw Jesus die on the cross of Calvary at that moment. You might be asking: is this possible? Jesus told the Jews before he was even crucified that Abraham saw my day and he rejoiced. Let me come up with a revelation: Jacob saw Jesus' day and he worshipped. Although it was difficult for him to even stand up, he stood upon his staff and worshipped!

Then I asked myself: what might he have said during his worship? Immediately the words came to my mind, yet they were not words but a song- let's sing it together with Israel:- "Ro Zwi Vhona, Ro Vha Vhona, Uya Fhulufhedzeya Yeso". This is a Venda song that symbolizes God's faithfulness. It says: We saw it, we saw you- u r faithful Jesus. For the same way Joseph would be faithful in sending Jacob's body back to the Promised land for burial, Jesus was faithful in sending his body to Calvary for the crucifixion. What a God! (Psalm 18:28)

He is still faithful in our lives even today, no matter how hopeless a situation might seem, God is faithful enough to see us through. Let's look at our situations through the eyes of God. What He says we are entitled to we will get despite what the circumstances seem to be implying.

Ignorance is Bliss? Think again...

I have always had great admiration for the gospel of John; more because of its beginning in comparison to the other gospels. John divulge on some very deep yet simple doctrines which many Christians actually do take notice of but do not ultimately fully grasp. Like the prophet Isaiah said they "hear but do not understand" and see but not fully comprehend the gravity of these things. John explains in the 13th verse of the first chapter how those who believe in Christ are actually made children of God, born not of the will of a natural father but by the will of God. Many of us see this mystery and rejoice at this scripture and hope for that day when it will finally be manifested- when we will be sons of God completely and we will enjoy in him. But do we really get it really or are we just playing inside a small locker when the Kingdom is actually a billion times bigger than that locker?

This reminds me of a scene from the movie Men In Black II. In this scene an agent and his partner meet some little creatures which live in a very small locker. To these creatures the locker is all they know- it is the whole world to them. They worship the agent because he left them with an illuminating watch and this irks his partner as he feels that someone should tell them that the world is much bigger than that, there's so much to be explored out there. The agent leads his partner to a door which when he unlocks reveals the chilling truth: they are also in a locker of their own and there are much more gigantic creatures than them out there- their world as they know it is just a tip of the iceberg. Josh Harris in his book Kissing Dating Goodbye tells a story of how his parents bought his younger brother a bicycle for a birthday present. They put it in a box and wrapped it nicely before presenting it to the birthday boy. When they finally presented it, the boy was very excited and unwrapped the present quickly but seemed confused when the bicycle finally emerged. The boy thought about it for a while and then to his parents disappointment started playing with the box. It took the Harris family a few days to finally convince the boy that the actual present was the bicycle and not the box. I can't help but realize that a lot of Christians are actually playing with this box and neglecting the bicycle- playing with the box in the locker. Ignorance is their main killer in this instance.

Ignorance is a very dangerous phenomenon which mostly springs from laziness or foolishness- hence the scripture that says my people die for lack of knowledge. I honestly don't think Esau would have sold his birthright if he knew exactly what consequences that would have had for him. So the reason why we find ourselves in bad situations which are contrary to what scripture says about us is because we have somehow lost and neglected the crux of our calling. It is sad to step into a church and hear a preacher go on for 80 minutes about church politics and utter rubbish, judging and bringing his congregation down instead of building them out. In a way we're not that different from Esau in that we're so ignorant, yet we claim that we're not- and indeed we're not for Christ has redeemed us from that kind of life but our conduct brings us back to that state because of our negligence. We are "gods, sons of the Most High" yet we're in danger of dying like mere men.

Yes, indeed we're gods! This is the message that the introduction to the book of John actually conveys but our ignorance suppresses us and keeps us in the dark. If we actually think that salvation doesn’t benefit us anything then we’re very much mistaken, for “the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.” (HCSB, Heb 10:6). God has reserved for us an inheritance unto which we’re suitable heirs and we ought to believe that. We don’t have to work for it, believing is key for without faith we cannot please God. But how do we believe without knowledge, and how will we know if we are not told- but haven’t we been told about this good news?  “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the inhabited world.” (HCSB, Rom 10:18). Ignorance is what has prevented us from our true potential. So since we have heard this ignorance of ours resembles that which Isaiah referred to when he said: Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? (Isa 53:1) Of course Isaiah was referring to the children of Israel and in the next topic we will look at the ignorance of the children of Israel- how they failed to hearken to the words of their prophets.

Blessings

Goodday good people. This is my first post and need I say that I'm really excited about this experience. Minkateko is de Tsonga word for blessings and that is what I'll talk about. For the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he adds no sorrow to it. He's blessed us with blessings in heavenly places so let's talk abt dem and get hold of dem. God bless you mightily.