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The Sin of Rebellion [Part II]

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The Sin of Rebellion [Part II]

Numbers 13:1-13

Take Your Present Assignment Seriously
In Num 13 and 14, there is a sad story stated of how some “great men” of God who should have been great by all accounts failed because of unbelief. They refused to fight their way to their breakthrough. They not only refused to fight for their inheritance but discouraged others from doing so. Their sin made God to set a bar on the age limit of those who were going to enter the Promised Land. They polluted the minds of everybody. They sent many people to their early grave. The Bible records their names because they were renowned. They were already rulers among the people (v2).

God may have given you an assignment which looks little but use it as a training ground to develop your faith. If there are no people to do the assignments ahead or God decides that you have been long on your present assignment enough He might chose you for a new task. Woe betides you if you are not ready. God will not put on big shoes on your feet when an assignment is too big for you. You limit yourself by your lack of preparedness on the great tasks God has ahead for you. God recognized them and chose them for a special assignment. Moses acted on the commandment of God and appointed them (Num 13:3). Moses made sure that these were the people God wanted on the trip. There was no bias in their selection. Moses took their names to God and God approved it. They were complete.

Twelve is a very important number in mission work. Jesus had twelve disciples which turned the world around to God. When you are given an assignment, seek to engage 3, seven or twelve people as the Spirit of God directs you. It depends on how “spiritually Herculean” the task is but you must never rely on your strength or power to do the work. You could fail miserably if you try to do it alone or at least suffer from burn out and maybe premature death. Of the twelve only two “survived” or passed the test of the spiritual assignment. Joshua was the leader of the pact. He was appointed and recognized specially by Moses [Num. 13:16].

Did God know they would fail and still sent them? He perhaps did because of His omnipotent power. But that was not His plan for them. God saw them as people who would succeed. The way God saw them is the way God sees us too. He sees that we will succeed. They were programmed to succeed. However, as we see later, the tight knot of faith of their hearts began to unwind gradually by fear and doubt. Moses gave them direction about the assignment; a modus operandi that made their work easy. He told them the way to follow to the land, see and assess who the people that dwelt in those lands were; how fortified their cities were and the fruitfulness of the land. Their assignment lasted for forty days. When you are on a spiritual journey you should be increasing in faith not decreasing. By forty days your heart can either be full of faith or be full of doubt. Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days after which the devil came and challenged Him.

1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. 3 And Moses by the commandment of the LORD sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel. 4 And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur. 5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori. 6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. 7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph. 8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun. 9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu. 10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi. 11 Of the tribe of Joseph, namely, of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi. 12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli. 13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael. 14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi. 15 Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. 16 These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.

The spies came after forty days and reported what they had seen. There were two reports; a majority report and a minority report. There is no record who gave the majority report. It was not important. They all agreed. Failed people, that is, those who decide to remain failures, refusing to cooperate with God or His word have no place in His kingdom. The ten banded together and chorused their response [Num. 13:26-29]. In such spiritual duties and in the world of Faith what you see and report is what you get. As you said it, so you will receive it. If you see and report a positive thing that is what you get. However, if you see and report negative thing, be ready for the consequence. Unfortunately it is usually the judgement of God or punishment for the result of our failures which we cannot redeem ourselves from. Hence if you are in such situation, cry out to God for mercy through the blood of Jesus.

26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.

Prayer Points
1. Oh Lord, fill my heart with faith. I will not doubt your word in the name of Jesus.
2. Oh Lord, strengthen me. Every giant and spiritual bully standing against me in God’s Promised Land in my life, be uprooted, fall down and die like Goliath in Jesus name.

CHRISTIAN PARENTING [PART III]

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Christian Parenting [Part III] by Pastor Godwin Okafor

I am bringing the third part of the excerpts from my soon to be published book dealing with the art of ministering prayers to babies and children, even while they are in the wombs of their mothers.
When children who have been initiated in their mothers’ wombs, because of lack of the type of prayers I suggest in this book grow up, they exhibit characteristics that would normally confuse their parents, who could ignorantly go to the same satanic agents for solution. Of course, the church, whose ministers are the agents of the Kingdom of Light, would just sit down and look in confusion at the fiasco that would normally unfold in such cases. The confusion emanates from our mistake to try to deal with the child according to its age and not according to the age of the spirit inhabiting that child, no matter what the physical age of the child could be.
That’s the reason a little child of less than two years could be so aggressive and rain blows on another timid child of over three years old, and that one could just cry to attract the attention of adults to rescue him or her.
I have been told of how a three year old little girl embarrassed her mother by waving at every pregnant woman they passed on their way to where her mum was going with her. The little girl could see the babies in those wombs and would greet them. She would say to her mother,
“Mummy, see baby…”,
and would wave at the protruding tummy of a woman just passing by. I was told how people who overheard that little girl gathered quickly, and this embarrassed mother had to run for her dear life with her three year old child before she and her little girl were lynched as witches.
I believe the church is yet to seriously consider the plight of our children who have peculiar spiritual challenges, and who present strange behaviours in our midst. In fact, I dare say that children are hardly considered in the Christian Ministry, except in few places where provisions are made for bible based activities aimed at diverting their attention and contain or re-channel their excessive energies, until their parents close from church services.
It is pitiful that children are often times hindered or totally forbidden from coming to the Master, through His ministers to minister to them according to their needs. I was reminded while writing this book that most Christian parents may actually deny that a child in their household who has a peculiar spiritual challenge need special attention by their pastor.
However, the foundation of Christian living ought to be laid at this stage of a child’s development so that he or she grows up never to depart from the ways of the LORD.
Children, including the unborn, usually want to express themselves. It was written of Jacob and Esau that they “struggled” in their mother’s womb before they were born.
Gen 25:21-23: “The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
Did you know what made John the Baptist leap for joy while in Elizabeth’s womb? He heard the sound of Mary’s voice as she greeted his mother!

Luke 1:40-41,44: “… where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit… As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”
Mary’s voice carried an anointing that could make Elizabeth to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to begin to prophecy, because she was carrying in her womb the one who anointed and still anoints with Holy Ghost and Fire. Did you know that Mary could have spoken to John in the womb to do something she desired? Agents of Satan who carry evil anointing know how to speak to unborn babies in their mothers’ wombs to do their sinister biddings, and they would obey.
Moses’ mother must have started interacting with him while he was in her womb. Therefore, it was easy for her to just look at him after he was born to conclude that Moses was not an ordinary child, and did not fear if Pharaoh found out that she was hiding him from being destroyed and killed her. I believe she had started ministering to him so early (even in the womb), and easily concluded his spiritual training (when Pharaoh’s princess hired her to look after Moses), before surrendering him to Pharaoh’s palace for his princely training.

The LORD, God, will help us in Jesus’ precious name.

Missions Seedtime & Harvest

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Hallelujah!!! Christ our Wisdom has a new look to its website. Please, browse through and familiarize yourself with the website at www.christwisdom.org . You will find many articles in the CATEGORIES section of the website.

One of the new features of the website is that you can now pay your tithes and offerings on-line through the Ministry’s’s website. You can also begin to sow your seed for on-going and planned Missions Outreach of the Ministry. You will find the e-donate button when you click the MISSIONS menu on the website, or you can follow the link below, (or copy the link into your brownser), and it will take you directly to the Account of the Ministry.

Link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5MHRXJLWM2BQY

VISA, MasterCard or direct payment from your bank account are accepted.

Did you know that your sowing to the work of God is a testimony of your righteousness? It is also an act of obedience to His Word.

“It’s time for you to sow to yourself in righteousness, reap in mercy and break up your fallow grounds ……” Hosea 10:12

“8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:…….10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness)”…… 2 Cor. 9:8-10.

It’s time for all of God’s children to increase in the fruit of righteousness through giving. God Bless you as you choose to excel in this gift also.

We are a Canadian registered “Charity” (Charity Registration no.: 806085882RR0001) with proper accounting records. Your donations and gift to the Ministry will be receipted to you at the end of the year for income tax purposes.

Treasures of Wisdom

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Proverbs 1:1-4

Purpose of Proverbs
These are three-fold: knowing, receiving and giving [Prov. 1:2-4]

The act of knowing Wisdom
Prov 1:2 2To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
To fully grasp a proverb in your spirit man, there is the knowing part, the receiving part and the giving path. All three are important. The knowing part is the easiest of the three, the receiving part is the next and the giving part is the hardest. If you master all three, it is spiritually very rewarding.

To “know” something means you are “familiar with” or “thoroughly acquainted with” something. It means you can “discern”. Knowing something is in the mind realm. It doesn’t mean it is a part of you yet. You may not be practicing what you know yet but this stage is important because you need to store the knowledge in your mind. The mind is the treasure house of knowledge so you need to know or store good things in it.

The act of receiving Wisdom
Prov. 1:3 3To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; To “receive” means to receive or “get” something. It also means to “accept” something. It is the Lord that gives us or we receive something from that is meaningful to our spirit man. When the word of God transcends the soul man into your spirit man, then you are operating in the realm of receiving. For example, we receive grace for our salvation from God. The grace is there as it is already given by God but except you accept it you cannot receive it and even if you have accepted it there are different measures that a man can walk in of the grace of God. God gave Solomon wisdom that was exceedingly much. It was beyond what the capacity of the human mind can hold, yet it was all locked up in the mind of Solomon. His mind was sharp.

The act of giving Wisdom
Prov. 1:4 4To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. The “giving” part is the operating aspect of knowing a proverb or proverbs. At this third stage, not only have you known it but it begins to direct you. You become guided by what you know. The word of God becomes your compass and directs your spirit man on what to do even when you are boxed in a tight corner which no other person thought you could get out from. You can ask God in prayer to expand the capacity of your mind to receive His word and let His word transcend into your spirit man in the name of Jesus.

The Sin of Rebellion [Part 1]

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The Sin of Rebellion (Part I)
Gen. Chapters 3 and 4; 1 Sam. 15:22-23; Num. 13:1-13

Rebellion is from the Greek word meree and it means to rebel or be bitter or resist or disobey or grievously provoke. Rebellion is bitterness. Webster defines it as open opposition to any authority. The rebellious shows open discontent with the goodness and love of God [Rom. 11:22, 33]. The rebellious resists the authority and Lordship of Christ over his or her life. He does not see the reason why he should be subject to the law of God. His natural mind is perjured. He operates on a carnal realm. He reaps his reward.

There are two types of rebellion. Open rebellion like the sons of Korah did to Moses, and subtle rebellion, whereby you challenge the authority of the word of God. In this message we will discuss the sin of “subtle rebellion” or “faithlessness”. Note that both open rebellion and subtle rebellion carry the same consequence. They cannot stay in God’s presence or enjoy God’s promises for their lives. Adam and Eve were rebels for example. They rebelled against the word of God. Theirs was a “combo rebellion” consisting of “open rebellion” and “subtle rebellion”. The “combo rebellion” is a deadly rebellion, totally extricating a person from the presence of God. Adam and Eve suffered the “death” penalty for their combo rebellion. Another person who partook of combo rebellion in Scriptures is Cain [Gen. 4]. Even when God warned him of the danger of rebellion, he still went headlong and slew his brother, Abel. God banished him from His presence. No wonder he went away to land of Nod. He became a wanderer [Gen 4:1-16]. Another person who had the sin of rebellion in his heart always was king Saul. We can say Saul’s rebellion was a subtle rebellion but grew to become an open rebellion eventually ending in a combo rebellion. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Both sins carry the same penalty.

The rebellious dwell in a dry land, David says [Psalm 68:6]. Obedience is the exact opposite of rebellion. Obedience brings honour and promotion while rebellion brings shame and destruction. Through obedience we have access to the blessing of the Lord through the finished work of Christ on the Cross. The Word of God is a two-edged sword. To the obedient it grants you the riches of His grace but to the rebellious, it drives you away into the wilderness [Heb. 4:12].

Isaiah 1:19-20 reads: If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land, but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured for the mouth of the Lord had spoken it.

Prayer Points

1. I bind every spirit of rebellion. I shall not stray away from my destiny. Let your counsel prevail over my life in Jesus name.
2. Lord, let every stubbornness of my will against your word be broken in Jesus name. I yield my will wholly to the Holy Spirit.

Warfare Weapons

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Warfare Weapons
When soldiers go to warfare, they go prepared. They load their armoury with different weapons. Similarly, when wrestlers are fighting, they strategize and change tactics to overcome their opponent. In both cases, quick and decisive victory is always preferred. The case of the believer is no different.

Ephesians 6:10-18 lists the spiritual exterior armour you and I must put on to wrestle down the enemy and his forces. With the Word of God you overcome the enemy. The armour of the blood of Jesus is another weapon you must use always. I recommend you use both combined. With the Word and the blood you have double advantage over Satan because you can knock him out with either weapon or both weapons combined. The word in the mouth of the saints and the blood of the Lamb are the ultimate overcoming weapons against the enemy for his final defeat [Rev. 12:11].

Jesus used the Word against Satan in Matt. 4:1-11 from which we see that you overcome the evil one when you stand your ground with the Word of God in your mouth. You literally become a witness for the efficacy of the Word.

Eph. 6:10-18 does not list the blood as a weapon because that chapter describes the exterior armour of the believer. As you use those exterior weapons to battle him to submission, he eventually becomes completely paralyzed unable to help himself. At this point you must ask him to surrender. In most cases, he will obey and flee as he did when Christ overcame him in the temptation in the wilderness. Remember the blood of Christ had not been spilled at that time when Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness.

If Satan refuses to obey, know that he is questioning your authority. Examine yourself whether unconfessed sin is the issue. Satan will readily disobey you when you are living in sin because he sees you as living a double life or a life of hypocrisy, knowing you will not be acceptable to God in that condition. If this is the case, ask for forgiveness and begin to plead the blood of Jesus, which is also a very powerful weapon for your total deliverance. The blood of the Lamb is like an explosive over Satan. Take it as your secret weapon which you bring out from your inside. “Pepper spray” the eyes of the enemy from time to time with the blood of the lamb in your prayers. Satan will be blinded, and so flee from you. When a soldier captures an enemy, the enemy becomes completely submissive to the orders of the soldier. Similarly, Satan comes under your complete control when you plead the blood of Jesus.

When you speak the Word of God, you are testifying of its truth, its creative power of the obedient (which you are by your position in Christ and your determination to abide by the Word), and destructive power to the disobedient. Since Satan is already wired to disobey, he does not agree with the Word and must submit to the Word since the Word is truth. That is how you overcome him by your testimony.

Note, when all else seem to fail or you are using the Word and Satan is not responding, he must respond to the blood of Jesus since that was the final knock out punch at Calvary. Living in sin will not allow the blood of Jesus to work for you. So you must repent and have nothing to do with sin, whether besetting or not. The blood of Jesus is the strongest antidote to the power of sin because it was spilled on your behalf on the cross which knocked out the devil for all eternity. Because Jesus conquered Satan and the power of sin through His death and resurrection, you can too if you use the weapons Christ has given to you. The devil’s muscles are seriously weakened. He cannot stand before you. Remind him of the defeat he suffered at Calvary and he will flee from you.

Bible Reading: Matt. 4:1-11; Eph. 6:10-18; Rev. 12:11

Prayer Point
Oh Lord, anoint me with the Holy Ghost and Power in the name of Jesus.