₦airaland Forum

Is too expensive though

Thank God I don't have Phone that does whatssap, this recession bad oh

LastMumu:
if you don't go to church means you won't pay your tithes and give offerings. You not giving tithe and offerings means funds meant for the pastor have been diverted somewhere else. This means you haven't fulfilled your financial obligations to the church and God. Which finally means you are destined for hell!

delishpot:
My point is, encourage the men too. Encourage men to live Godly lives too. Evangelism is not about preaching to women alone. Men also need to learn about Gods expectation for them. You are a man, it is high time men also teach fellow men what God expects of them. Believe me, women have heard enough dos and donts to last them a billion generations to come.

Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Notice there that all these blessings are spiritual, not material. Earthly blessings were what the Israelites were promised under the old covenant. We can read that in Deuteronomy 28. This is what distinguishes the grace that Christ brought, from the law that Moses brought. If there were a verse like this in the Old Testament, it would have read like this: “Blessed be God Almighty (not our Father) who has blessed us with every material blessing in earthly places in Moses.” So those believers who are seeking primarily for physical healing and material blessings are really going back to the old covenant. Such “believers” are actually Israelites and not Christians. They are followers of Moses, not of Christ. Does that mean that God does not bless believers materially today? He does – but in a different way. As they seek His kingdom and His righteousness first, all their earthly needs are provided for them. Under the old covenant, people sought only these earthly things and they got plenty of them – many children, much property, a lot of money, victory over enemies, honour and position on earth, etc. But under the new covenant, we seek for spiritual blessings – spiritual children, spiritual wealth, spiritual honour, spiritual victories (over Satan and the flesh, and not over the Philistines or human beings). Our earthly needs, like the health and money we need to do the will of God, are added to us. God will give us as much money as He knows will not ruin us. Under the old covenant, God may have made some people billionaires. But he does not do that for us today, because it might prevent us from seeking the things that are above – and thus destroy us.

Even if we have lived faithfully for 70 years, when we come before the Lord, we can come only on the same basis as a new convert – in Jesus’ name.
Many believers have not understood the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. That’s why they still pursue after the things which God promised people under the old covenant. People who preach prosperity from the Bible are very selective about what they preach. For example, the old covenant blessing in Deuteronomy 28:11 promised that God would bless the Israelites with plenty of money as well as many children. But these preachers won’t preach the second part. This proves their lack of integrity. I have not heard any one of these prosperity preachers preaching that God will bless His people with many children. This one fact alone is enough to prove that they are deceivers of the first order. They preach material prosperity because they want to justify their immense wealth (that they got by collecting money from poor people) by quoting an irrelevant Old Testament verse. Don’t be deceived by such preachers.

The words “spiritual blessing” in 1:3 could be translated as “blessing of the Holy Spirit”. God has already given us every blessing of the Holy Spirit in Christ. We have only to claim them in Jesus’ name. Imagine a beggar girl sitting begging by the roadside. A rich prince comes by and decides to marry her and puts millions of rupees into a bank account – an account from which she can draw money freely any time she wants. What a lucky girl she is! Once she had nothing but a little tin can with a few coins in it. But now she lives in grand style with the finest of clothes. She can withdraw any amount of money from the bank, because she has so many blank cheques signed by the prince. This is our picture, spiritually speaking. We can now go to the bank of heaven and claim every single blessing of the Holy Spirit because they are all ours in Christ’s Name. Everything of heaven is ours in Christ if we remain in this bridal relationship with Him, if we can say, “Lord, I want to be true to You all my days on earth as Your bride.” Then every blessing of the Holy Spirit is ours. We don’t have to try and convince God that we deserve any of them – because we do not deserve any of them. Can you imagine that beggar girl imagining that she deserves all the wealth she got freely? Not at all. All that we receive is by God’s mercy and grace. We can take everything of heaven because they have all been given to us freely in Christ. We cannot earn them by our fasting or our prayers. Many do not receive the blessings of the Holy Spirit because they try to earn them in these ways! We cannot receive them like that. We must accept them all through Christ’s merit alone.

I remember how the Lord taught me this lesson when I was praying for some earthly need once. I said, “Lord, I have served you for so many years. So please do this for me.” The Lord said, “No, I won’t do it, if you come in your own name.” That day I understood what it means to pray in the Name of Jesus. That day I realised that the new believer who was just converted, and I who had been converted in 1959, had both to come to God on exactly the same basis – in the merit of Jesus Christ alone. He has to come to the bank of heaven with a cheque signed by Jesus Christ. I too can come there only with a cheque signed by Jesus Christ. If I come to God saying that I have been faithful to Him for so many years, then I am coming to heaven’s bank with a cheque signed by me. And heaven’s bank will reject it. That’s the reason why many of our prayers are not answered. We are not going in Jesus’ Name. We are going in our name. We think that because we have sacrificed so much for God, He should answer us. Even if we have lived faithfully for 70 years, when we come before the Lord, we can come only on the same basis as a new convert – in Jesus’ name. I thank God for that revelation, because after that I never took a cheque to God signed with my name!! When I am tempted to do that I say, “That cheque will never be cashed. Let me go in Jesus’ name and because of His merit alone.” So every blessing of the Holy Spirit is ours in the heavenly places in Christ.

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In Luke 1:34-35, we read that when Gabriel came to Mary, she quite naturally asked him, “How can this be? I am a virgin. How can a virgin have a baby?” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” The Holy Spirit always brings to us the power of God (See Acts 1:8 and 10:38).

As the Spirit of God came on Mary to produce Jesus in her, so the Spirit comes upon us primarily to produce Christ in us.
As the Spirit of God came on Mary to produce Jesus in her, so the Spirit comes upon us primarily to produce Christ in us. That is the clearest guideline you can have to understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our life and in our service for the Lord. As it took time for that body to grow inside Mary’s womb, it will take time for Christ to become manifest in our lives too.

Mary submitted to God’s Word and said, “Let it be done to me according to Your word.” (Luke 1:38). I am a great admirer of Mary (even though I am not a Roman Catholic) because she was such a godly young woman. God looked all over Israel to find one young woman who was really godly; and He found Mary, who was probably only about 18 years old at that time. Read Luke 1:46–55 and see how mature she is and how steeped in Scripture her song is. It is amazing how mature one can become even by the age of 18, if a person is God-fearing. God doesn’t make any mistakes in the persons He chooses.

Mary knew that everyone in Nazareth would spread scandalous stories about her when they knew she was pregnant. No-one would believe that this was the work of the Holy Spirit. And she was willing to suffer that reproach – to bring forth the body of Jesus from her body. Now apply that to your life. Do you want to build the body of Christ in your town? Do you want honour for that or are you willing to suffer “the reproach of Christ”? God does not support those who seek for honour in His work. Such people will only build a congregation, not the body of Christ. Building the body of Christ will always bring reproach, misunderstanding, wagging tongues and gossip – as Mary faced in Nazareth. But all that didn’t bother her. She still brought forth the body of Christ. And so it is even today. The body of Christ will come forth where people are willing to “go outside the religious camp of denominational Christendom and bear His reproach”.

I am certain that Mary did not complain about the difficult circumstances she found herself in that cowshed. Imagine if Mary had been like some of the spoilt teenagers today. She would have been yelling at Joseph saying, “I told you we should have started our journey two days earlier. Here we are now without any room available. I have no privacy at all – and I have to deliver my baby in this cowshed with all this filth around me. What an irresponsible husband you are,” etc. Can you imagine Jesus being born into an atmosphere of complaining and grumbling like that? God would not have permitted that. So He needed a girl who would not complain. That was why He chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus – one who had learnt in her youth to be content with poverty and difficult circumstances. And that was why God could not choose any of the other girls in Israel.

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It is written about Stephen that when he preached to the Jewish religious leaders, they could not refute the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke (Acts 6:10). That can be our experience too, when we speak. Stephen went on to ask them, “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” (Acts 7:52). Every single prophet in Old Testament times was unpopular and persecuted. A prophet is different from a teacher. A teacher may be accepted by many, but a prophet is usually rejected and unpopular. A teacher is a non-controversial figure. A true prophet however is always controversial. So prophets are always persecuted, but not teachers and evangelists. Stephen preached in such a way that they were convicted. This made them so angry that they killed him. He was the first martyr in the Christian church (Acts 7:54, 55).

The way you react to people who do evil to you could trigger a reaction in someone watching you that could result in his salvation.
In the words written about Stephen in Acts 7:55–60, we see some marks of a truly Spirit-filled prophet:
1. His mind is steadfastly set on heavenly things.
2. He sees the glory of God in all situations.
3. He is unruffled by the opposition of men.
4. His vision is fixed on Jesus at the right hand of God.
5. He testifies boldly about this Risen Christ.
6. He is persecuted and at times killed.
7. He forgives his persecutors and prays for them.

God allowed Stephen to be killed for many reasons – one of which was the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. I wonder if Paul would have been converted if he had not seen Stephen’s attitude when he was being killed.

When the Roman centurion heard the way Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him, he was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God.

When Paul heard the way Stephen prayed, his conscience began to prick him and he began to think, “This cannot be a false religion. Maybe I am wrong.” Later, on the Damascus road, the Lord told him, “It is hard for you to keep on kicking against the pricks of your conscience” (Acts 26:14) – and he was converted.

The way you react to people who do evil to you could trigger a reaction in someone watching you that could result in his salvation. Paul was just the first of many thousands who have been converted in the past 2000 years by seeing the godly reaction of Christians to persecution. But to react like that, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit.

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abuayman:
DIFFERENT GRADES OF CHOPIN IN
GOVERNMENT
1. When you chop alone in government and no one chops with you, that is called OBJ

2. When you chop in government and you allow others to chop their own, that is called IBB

3. When you chop in government and you give others from what you have chopulated, that is called Abdusallam

4. When you chop in government and d place you are chopin eventually fold up, that is called Atiku

5. When you dey chop in government, you no remember your driver, secretary, office assistants, dat is called Gowon

6. When you dey chop alone in government, no remember anybody, you kon dey get
headache today, fever tomoro, hehehehehe. .. I laff oyinbo laff...dat one is called Shonekan

7. When dem just appoint you for government position, and you just chop small, auditors kon come say bring all papers, dat is called Nwodo

8. When you chop in government and you die while chopin, that is called Abacha

9. When you want to chop in government and you first give others to chop before you
begin to chop, that is called Goodluck Jonathan

10. When you are chopin your own in government and you call your friends to come and chop their own too, that is called Ibori

11. When you chop and clean mouth like say you no chop anything, that is called Fashola

12. When you chop from this government, that government, this government, that
government like say na you dem create Nigeria for, dat one is called Tinibu

13. When you chop in government so taaay you scatter ground, three houses for America, two for London, six for Maitama, seven for VI, as madam dey go shopping for Dubai, children dey go summer for Spain, EFCC kon gbab you, dat one is called Deziani

14. When you chop well well for government and people know say you chop well well but you dey deny say you chop well well, dat one is called Rotimi Amechi

15. When you chop in government so tay you are even richer than the place you dey chop, dat one is called Rochas

16. When you chop so tey you tire and come
begin de distribute the choppings to others. That one is called Dasuki

17. When you see government money and can't chop and won't let others chop, and u say all govt money belongs to people's projects dat one is called Buhari

18. When u read dis n refuse to share with others dat one is called OYO. On Your Own!!!
God save Nigeria