The Insights

With emphasis] “Listen to this wise advice; follow it closely, for it will do you good, and you can pass it on to others…” Proverbs 22:17–19 [TLB] When God wants to take you into a new experience with Him, what do you do? I would say the only response is to follow Him. And this is the beauty of relationship; the more you spend time with God, the more He reveals Himself to you. Has God not been beautiful beyond description even before you and I were formed? But as you spend time with Him, as you experience Him and tarry in His Presence, these things become real to you. Then you become better equipped to pick out His voice even amidst a crowd. Let me illustrate with this example and I hope it births in you a hunger to know Him more. At first, it used to be when I pray and prepare for a service that God talks to me about the service in my closet. Right there, I write down what God has said and so when I am ministering, I just read out what God had told me and then God does what...

“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” John 1:12 [RSV] God is more interested in your character than in your comfort. God is more interested in who you are becoming than in what you are acquiring.  And God gives us a checklist in His Word. James 3:14-17 [NIV, with emphasis] “If you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition... such ‘wisdom’ is of the devil... The wisdom that comes from God is pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, impartial and sincere.” Be more like Christ. The additional test parameter to determine if God is speaking is: Is it consistent with my experience of God? Is what you are hearing consistent with your experience of God? John 10:3 “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they kno...

“In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus.”   Ph. 2:5 [NCV] Test #6 for determining God voice is: Does this make me more like Christ? God’s goal is to make us like Christ Jesus and God will not say anything that will make us less like Christ. Take note of all the Scripture references I have given these past few days. These tests are not made up. They are rooted in God’s Word and you can build your faith on God’s Word. “In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus.” One sure way to achieve this is, 2Cor.10:5 [GW] “We take every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ.” Is the thought, the idea, the inspiration, or revelation obedient to Christ? Taking thoughts captive is something we must do on a day-to-day basis. Nobody is exempt, not even pastors. I started playing golf recently so when my brother who also plays golf came to visit, I invited him to play with me. We are very competitive in my family. I mean we eat and drink competiti...

Therefore, now no condemnation awaits those who are living in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King (Romans 8:1) Guiltiness is not next to Godliness! A lot of people liken the feeling of being guilty to spirituality. So many people are used to just feeling downtrodden before God because they believe guiltiness is next to Godliness. Again I say guiltiness is not next to Godliness. That feeling of guilt that you feel when you are about to pray, is not from God; it is the devil. The goal of condemnation is to put you down. The objective of conviction is to lift you up. Conviction has a definite solution; the Holy Spirit will tell you how to resolve issues and be guilt free. Condemnation usually has no solution, and if any, it usually compounds the problem. Condemnation tells you nothing is enough. Conviction tells you Christ is enough. With conviction, as soon as you acknowledge and repent, the feeling of guilt goes away. But with condemnation, the feeling of guilt never leaves. ...

“We will all be judged one day, not by each other’s standards, or even our own, but by the judgment of God... It is to God alone that we shall have to answer for our actions.” (Rom.14:10-13) Sometimes, God talks to us about other people so that He can confirm what He has said to them. This is closely linked to moral authority. You must have the moral authority to engage people at that level otherwise keep quiet. Even with yourself, with certain things and in certain situations, you need to ask yourself “does this concern my responsibility”? Let me give you an illustration. Billy Graham, a great man of God, years ago was so popular in the polity of the United States that they offered him a cabinet seat. But Billy Graham refused the position. Why? He said, “God has called me to be an evangelist and this does not concern my responsibility”. A lot of people would happily testify about it and how God has opened doors for promotion. The question is, does it concern your responsibility? ...

“Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (Romans.14:4) A lot of people just abuse the things of God with, “God said…”. Keep quiet! Does it concern your responsibility and is it your business? Telling other people about God’s will for their lives can easily turn into presumption and arrogance. Yes, God speaks to us about other people but take note of this - under certain conditions. #1. If you are in authority over them, God will speak to you concerning them. For instance parents, God talks to fathers about their children. The fathers in turn change the destinies of their children through prophetic utterances. If you provide spiritual covering, for instance pastors, God can talk to you about them. #2. If you have the “moral authority” to speak into their lives, God will speak to you concerning them. In other words, you have built trust. With my pastor, Pastor Eskor of bles...

 "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow Me."  (John 21:22) Test #3 for recognizing Gods voice is: Does it concern my responsibility? Is it your business? Peter was asking Jesus in John 21:22 what was going to happen to John. Jesus had already told Peter what would happen to Peter, and how when he grows old, how he was going to be led by another plus how he would die. But Peter turned around and began to ask about John. Jesus’ response in essence was, what is your business? A lot of people are quick to say, “God has spoken to me about you”. My thoughts are, “Really? Where was I?” (Romans 14:4) “Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” A single lady says to a married man, “While I was praying, God showed me that your wife was rude and not submissive”. The question is, how exactly is that your business? Does it concern yo...

(Eph 3:10) “God’s intent is that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known...” Test #2 for recognizing Gods voice is: Does my church family confirm this? God wants us to connect to each other. The people that usually get into trouble, are the people who do not want to have anything to do with other people. They feel they are better than everyone else so they do not want people in their business. God did not design us to be silos. God designed us for community. (Proverbs 11:9) “ The wisdom of the righteous can save you.” The correction or guidance you get at your life group meeting can change your life. The wisdom of your friend in church can save you. When you talk to the ministers and pastors, their vision can give you that breakthrough you have been praying for for twenty years. Speaking to mature Christians is so indispensable because if you speak to immature Christians you will have a lot of problems. Ask Joseph; he told immature Christians [his b...

“And though all heaven and earth shall pass away, yet my words remain forever true.” (Luke 21:33 TLB)  Over the next few days, we are going to learn six plus one ways of testing a message and recognizing God’s voice. This is not some clever way of getting you to solve a math problem. It is six plus one because the first six ways are indispensable. Every Word from God must pass the first six tests. If it fails even one out of the six, throw it out or keep it in the cooler. The seventh is also very crucial but again it is not. You can authenticate with just the first six. So let us just say the seventh is an added advantage. Test #1: Does this agree with the Bible? Luke 21:33 [NIV] “Heaven and earth will pass away but My words will never pass away.” Why will God’s Word never pass away? It is because God will never invalidate His Word. If God says you should wait till marriage to have sex, He is not going to change His mind. In fact, some people’s reason for cohabiting is beca...

1 John 4:1 [LB] “Don’t believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God; test it first to see if it really is!” Today, we will take off from a thought we touched on yesterday and that is, that there are three sources of voices that exist. The first source is God. Scripture points out in Job 33:14 “For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.” I pray that you will always recognize God, in Jesus Name.  The second source is Yourself. Unfortunately, people talk to themselves and say God has spoken to them. No, dear brother or sister; you are the one talking to yourself. I talk to myself, I say “why did you do that?” You can talk to yourself but do not talk to yourself and say God has spoken to you. Why? It is because your ways are not His ways. Pr.14:12 “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death. We can actually broadcast stuff to ourselves. If we are left to ourselves, we will take the path tha...

Ps.46:10[NIV, with emphasis] “Be still, and know that I am God.” God spea ks to people who take the time to listen. When you still yourself, you are better able to listen and God is able to speak to you. He is able to breathe upon you. When the water is disturbed, it is almost impossible to see the bottom of the swimming pool. But when that same water is still, you can see through clearly. God takes us to a new level [and He will continue to take us higher in Him in Jesus Name], but while we are getting into the flow of things, because we are humans, we get ruffled. It could be anxiety that throws us off course. Or anger that ticks us off and takes us off course. The question is - how does one attain that oneness with the Spirit of God in the place of waiting? I am going to share three things I do and if you deploy them, it will help you too. The first thing I do is to calm down and regurgitate the Word. I speak [I confess] the Word of God. If you do not know Scriptures by he...

Hab 2:3 But these things I plan won't happen right away.  Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled.  If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place.  It will not be delayed.” [with emphasis] Now that we have gotten rid of the challenges to fine tuning, we will turn our focus to fine-tuning and learn how to fine-tune from two prophets in the Bible - Habakkuk in the Old Testament and John the Baptist in the New Testament. Please read Luke 3:1-2 and Habakkuk 2:1-3. With God’s plans and promises, sometimes it appears as if God is slow. But God assures us that even if it appears to be slow, the only thing we are to do is to wait for it. “Slow… will not be delayed”- is that a contradiction? Yes, God uses contradictions but still He assures you and I that steadily and surely, it will come to pass. I do not know what you are trusting God for this season but I am here to say to you, it is going to come to pass. I have...

2 Cor.10:5 [ERV] “and we tear down every proud idea that raises itself against the knowledge of God. We also capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ” We have established that there are voices in the atmosphere around us and all that we need is the right gadget to tune-in to those voices. Note that the fact that your gadget can receive does not mean you will be tuned-in automatically. You will still need to tune it right? Again while you are tuning, you will notice that some channels came easily. But some other channels need to be fine-tuned for clarity. Spiritually, the channel that needs a lot of fine-tuning is the expressions of the Holy Spirit. To get clarity in the expressions of the Holy Spirit, we need to understand that when it comes to prayer, to fine tuning, and to hearing God accurately, there are two things we need to contend with. The first is our Commitment and the second is our Conscience. With commitment for instance, you would discover that it i...

“Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.” Channel #5: God speaks to us through Pain. Sometimes, in order to get peoples attention and to get them to slow down and seek Him, God has to resort to letting them go through pain. I am not suggesting that all pain is from God, but sometimes for God to get our attention, He needs to whack us a little bit. If you miss the Word, you will not miss the rod. I can show you my scars as proof of this truth. I have been wired to spot business opportunities very quickly. During my service year in the Northern part of Nigeria, I noticed that cows were dead cheap. But in the southern part of Nigeria, cows were expensive. So the plan was to buy from the north and sell in the south. I sorted out my supply chain. In fact, I could see the profit already. The next thing was to gather capital and God opened doors for me. People gave me money, not as investment or loan but they gave freely. It was a lot of money. And then ...

Rom.1:20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God [with emphasis]. So far we have examined three channels God uses to speak to us. If you are not reading your Bible consistently, if you are not listening to messages over and over again, and if you are not accountable to other believers, you do not have believers that are speaking into your life, you have already missed three main channels God speaks through. Channel #4: God speaks to us through His Creation. Ps.19:1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2 Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. 3 They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. 4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world [with emphasis]. God’s cre...

God Favourite House Daily Devotional November 6th, 2016 click here to listen to the  audio devotional: “Take the time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit” 1 Tim.4:7 [Ph, emphasis added]. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” Rom.1:20. You and I are without excuse, because spiritual things are clearly revealed even in our daily living. Take physical fitness for instance, if you want to be physically fit it is going to take time and trouble. You have to take the trouble to wake up early to jog, to go to the gym and exercise for one hour daily. If you do not do it, you are not going to be fit. Some of us have taken the time and trouble to spend time with God’s Word today; it shows you want to be fit spiritually. There are five commitments that you have to make for you to grow spiritually. I must commit to C...

God's Favourite House Devotional October 30th, 2016 A farmer went out to plant some seed.  As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds came and ate it” Luke 8:5 [emphasis added] Jesus explained our Scripture reference today to mean, “The hard path where some seed fell represents the hard hearts of those who hear the words of God, but then the devil comes and steals the words away and prevents people from believing and being saved” Lu.8:12 [LB, emphasis added]. To understand the footpath, you have to look at it from a farmer’s perspective. The footpath is the trail the farmer takes when he is sowing seed or irrigating his farm. So it is usually narrow and hardened because the soil there has been compacted by the farmer’s feet. Sometimes when he is scattering seed, some fall on that pathway. But because it is narrow and particularly hardened, the seed does not go into the soil. So it does not germinate and birds ...

click here to listen to the audio devotional: God's Favourite House Daily Devotional October 29th, 2016 A farmer went out to plant some seed.  As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds came and ate it” Luke 8:5 [emphasis added] Over the next few days, our focus is going to be on thinking clearly about spiritual growth. Our discourse will be centered on the parable of the soils in Luke 8:4-15 [please study]. Your life is not an accident. You are not here by chance. You were designed for a purpose. You need to understand that. But in other to become all that God has designed you to be, you must grow spiritually. Meaning, you cannot be all that God has called you to be if you do not grow spiritually. The life you and I are meant to live begins with salvation [spiritually birth]. But you cannot enter into the fullness until you grow spiritually. Typically, your children are the heirs apparent of your prope...

God's Favourite House Daily Devotional October 23rd, 2016  “Don’t be selfish...  Be humble....  Don’t think only about your own affairs, be interested in others too, and what they are doing. Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had.  Though He was God, He did not demand and cling to His rights.”  Phil. 2:3-6 [Emphasis added] Three things jump out at us from this passage of Scripture. The first of which is Selfishness. It is my way or the high way. Folks that do not get their way by bullying, try to get their way by manipulations. It is still selfishness. The second thing we see there is Pride. God says be humble because when we act in pride, we tend to be demanding and unsympathetic. When we act in pride, we hold grudges and keep scores. That was what you did November 5th, 1982 at five o clock. You did it again in 2012. When we act out of pride, we refuse to admit mistakes. Do you know anybody that has done wrong and instead of just sa...

God's Favourite House Daily Devotional October 22nd, 2016 click here to listen to the audio devotional:  “Don’t be selfish...  Be humble....  Don’t think only about your own affairs, be interested in others too, and what they are doing. Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had.  Though He was God, He did not demand and cling to His rights.”  Phil. 2:3-6 [Emphasis added] The secret of defusing conflict is in understanding where people are coming from. Understand their circumstance, their background, and their temperament. I know that understanding can be tough and a lot of people do not know how. So I will let you in on the secret to understanding and it is; you understand by listening before you speak. It sounds very simple but this is a life-saver. However in a conflict, all people care about is what they want to say. Have you noticed? But it will only cause more strife. In some cases, one person is practically begging the other person ...