ENCOUNTER VS EXPERIENCE

MEMORY VERSE: and the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man, Acts 9:7

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Sam 19, 1 Cor 1, Lam 4, Luke 24

I shared the dream that changed my life forever with a brother and he said ‘I want such an experience so that my life will be changed forever’. The dream was just an experience, my life changed when I encountered Christ. It is not an experience that changes a fellow but an encounter. An encounter is deeper than an experience. 

In Acts 9:1-7, Saul and co were en route to Damascus to arrest believers and commit them to prison. Something unusual happened as they traveled, a bright light shone from heaven and Saul fell. A voice began to speak – Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? At the end of the day Saul surrendered, he gave his life to Christ and became one of the greatest apostles. Everyone who accompanied Saul saw the light. Do you know it was only Paul that fell? They all heard the same voice but only Saul surrendered and gave his life to Christ. Not only that, only Saul had a change of name. Saul and co had the same experience, but only Saul encountered the One behind the experience.

Many hear the same message of salvation but only a few responds to altar call, why? Everyone in the church had the same experience but only a few encountered Christ through the message. An experience may change how we process information but an encounter changes the information we process. An experience may change when we go to places but an encounter changes where we go to. An experience may change how we say things but an encounter changes what we say. An experience may satisfy our hunger but an encounter creates a deep hunger in us. When we talk of salvation, we are talking of encountering Christ not experiencing Christ. 

PERSONAL REFLECTION: from the day i gave my life to Christ, what are the things I used to do that I no longer do? What are the things I used to say that I no longer say? Where are the places I used to visit that I no longer visit? Who are the people I used to walk with that I no longer walk with? Since I gave my life Christ what are the things I never used to do that I now do? What are the things I never used to say that I now say? Who are the people I never used to walk with that I now walk with? What has changed in my life since I met Christ?

Bro Samuel – Reaching the world for Jesus

KEYWORD: An encounter brings about a change in personality but an experience only changes one’s perspective.

THE REWARD OF TREATING OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN AS YOU WOULD TREAT YOURS

MEMORY VERSE: for Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater, Esther 9:4

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Sam 18, Rom 16, Lam 3, Luke 23

Everything Mordecai achieved in life was as a result of how he treated the child of others. He started as an ordinary slave in a foreign land and ended up as a mighty prince courtesy of Esther – the daughter of his late uncle. When the parents of Esther passed way, Mordecai took her as his own daughter (Esther 2:7). He loved her like he would love his own daughter. He treated her like he would treat his own daughter not the daughter of an uncle or a cousin. When the king was looking for a queen and all parents were bringing their children to the palace to participate in the audition, Mordecai brought Ester to participate. During the audition, he gave this young lady the support he would give to his own daughter. The bible records that he walked every day before the court of the women’s house to check her welfare, and see what should become of her (Esther 2:11). When Mordecai heard of Bigthana and Teresh’s plan to murder the king (Esther’s husband) he reported them immediately just like a true father in law would do (Esther 6:2). Just as a real parent will out of love scold or rebuke their wards when they do something wrong, Mordecai scolded Esther too and Esther changed.

Because Mordecai took Esther as a daughter, Esther in return took him as a father. When Esther heard that Mordecai was wearing a torn garment, she quickly sent him raiment (Esther 4:4). When Haman (the king’s favorite) set out to kill Mordecai, Esther risked her life to save him (Esther 4:16). It was a law that you don’t go before the king except he calls you, failure to abide by this could result in a death penalty. Esther went before the king without been called all because of Mordecai. Do you know that when Esther became queen, she pulled Mordecai up? When it was time to introduce Mordecai to the king, she referred to him as her father not an uncle. Mordecai went from sitting by the king’s gate to become the second in command to the king. Not only that, Mordecai began to ride on the king’s horses too.

If we treat the children of others like ours, those children will treat us as their parents. As Christians showing favoritism is prohibited. God can use the child of anyone to bless you or fulfill your destiny. Mordecai would not have become a great man in the land if he had abused Esther. Mordecai would have remained at the king’s gate, if he had mistreated Esther. We would not have heard of Mordecai, if he had been wicked to Esther. The whole nation heard of Mordecai not because he was a politician or because his daughter married a great man. He became great because of the child of his uncle he trained as his own daughter. 

ACTION: treat the child of others as you would treat yours.

REGRET, REMORSE & REPENTANCE

MEMORY VERSE: and rend your heart, not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil, Joel 2:13

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Sam 17, Rom 15, Lam 2, Luke 22

Why do people in the bible ‘rent their clothes’ or tear their shirts when something happens? They do that as a way of showing extreme anger for example after interviewing Jesus, the High Priest tore his garment and shouted blasphemy to show he was angry with the response of Jesus (Matthew 26:59-66). People also rent their clothes as a way of showing deep sorrow for example Reuben rent his clothes when he found out that Joseph had been taken from the pit and sold (Genesis 37:29). The third reason why people rent their clothes is to show regret and remorse like we read in Joel 2:13-and rend your heart, not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

God is not interested in regret that does not lead to a change of heart. Actually we have learnt that regret profits nothing anyway. Regrets only leads to emotional pain. It can lead to rash decision. It can also hinder one’s progress, cause stagnancy and if care is not taken it can lead to death as we saw in the case of Judas Iscariot. God is not interested in the death of any sinner so regret is not what God is looking for. Remorse is been sorry about ones action but never putting measures in place to stop it from happening again. Saul did everything in his power to kill David. Every time David had the opportunity to kill Saul and he didn’t, Saul will start to cry. He would say I am terrible person, you are a good man. The next minute you find the same Saul chasing after David to kill him. This is remorse. 

Repentance is not only about feeling sorry but putting measures in place to ensure that you don’t fall again. For example as an individual, you know that too much talking gets you into trouble – you say things you should not say. What you do is minimize the way you talk. You know there are one or two things you do not like doing, but you find yourself doing them. Instead of crying for forgiveness every night, investigate the cause or what circumstance leads to them. Take for instance masturbation and pornography, 99 per cent of the time people masturbate when they are idle. What you do is avoid idleness and keep yourself busy. Not only that, distance yourself from nude pictures, music where they talk of sex or movies where they have sex. How about fornication? It is impossible to fornicate when people are watching, what you do is avoid going to visit the opposite sex alone. If you find yourself alone with the opposite sex at your place or any where make sure the doors are open and the windows are all open with the curtains up so that everyone can see what is going in the room. If it is at night, don’t sleep in the same room with the opposite sex alone. If internet pornography is the problem always use the internet when people are around. If it is gossiping, avoid the company of those that gossip and if you find yourself in their midst whatever they say just tell them nobody is perfect. Lastly, you also need to take your bible studies very seriously and fast for mercy.

FACTS: Identify what causes you to sin or the circumstances that leads to them and deal with it.

Bro Samuel – Reaching the world for Jesus

LIFT UP YOUR HEADS, O YE GATES

MEMORY VERSE: lift up your heads, o ye gates; and be lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in, Psalm 24:7 

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Sam 16, Rom 14, Lam 1, Luke 21 

The main purpose of a door or a gate is to restrict access. Doors are used to keep those who are in – in and those who are out – out. Doors are also used to minimize movements in and out of a property. There are visible doors like the one we have at home, and there are invisible doors like the door of our hearts. In Revelation 3:20 , Jesus said I stand and knock at the door and knock , if anyone hears my voice and opens the door ,I will come in and sup with him and he with Me. The door referred to in this verse is not a visible door but an invisible door. 

The best way to define some words is by their opposites for example what is light? Light is the opposite of darkness. What is life? Life is the opposite of death. What is glory? Glory is the opposite of shame. Bible scholars said David wrote Psalm 24 when he was at the lowest point of his life most likely when Saul was chasing. He had just been anointed king over Israel (1 Samuel 16:1-13), instead of taking the throne he became a servant in the palace (1 Samuel 16:14-23). Later he ended up in wilderness. The man who was supposed to be living in the palace began to reside in caves. The anointed king who was supposed to rule over the princes of Israel began to rule over the vagabonds and debtors in Israel (1 Samuel 22:1-2). Brother David, who was meant to be feeding people, began to beg for food (1 Samuel 25:1-44). At this point he decided to invite the king of Glory into his situation. 

This man understood that once the King of glory comes in, everything to do with shame in his life will disappear. Before he invited the King of glory, he did something very intelligent – he addressed the things that had been restricting the King of glory in his life. Psalm 24:7 says lift up your heads, o ye gates; and be lift up, ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in. One of the doors that had restricted the King of glory in the life of David was the love of women. He loved women to the extent that he killed a man and took his wife. When you study this verse, you will notice that David did not say lift up your head o ye gate, he said lift up your heads o ye gates which meant that they were more than one. Until the gates are lifted, the King of glory will stand by the door. The gates in some of our lives are unforgiveness. Oh that brother promised to marry me, he even proposed to me, I took him to my parents and at the last minute he jilted me so I will never forgive him. Oh I trained that sister in the university; I was there for her financially, immediately she graduated she married another brother so I will never forgive her. Brethren forgive. The gate restricting the King of glory in some lives is stubbornness – no matter what anyone tells me, I will do what is in my heart; the man of God has preached his own, I will do my own. The gate in some lives is malice and anger. 

PRAYER POINT: Every gate restricting the access of the King of glory in my life be lifted in the mighty name of Jesus.

Brother Samuel - Reaching the world for Jesus

ACT AFTER PRAYING

MEMORY VERSE: nevertheless we made our prayers unto God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them, Nehemiah 4:9

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Sam 16, Rom 14, Lam 1, Luke 21

Christianity does not exempt you from life challenges. The fact that you serve God in spirit and truth does not exempt you from facing challenging situations. The fact that you are a faithful tither does not mean you will not have challenges. If anyone tells you that once you give your life to Christ, you will stop facing challenges they are telling you a big lie. According to Psalm 30:5, the righteous will face many unusual challenges but the Lord will deliver him out of it all. John 16:33 says these things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. In our lives we will experience storms but we have nothing to worry about because we have the Prince of peace in our ship. Nehemiah and co were rebuilding the house of God yet the enemies planned an attack.

The first thing to do when you face challenges is to pray not cry or ask questions e.g. why me or panic. The news that the children of Israel were rebuilding the house of God angered Sanballat and Tobiah so they decided to attack them. Immediately Nehemiah and co heard the plans of Sanballat and Tobiah,  they prayed not run to herbalist as some do. Many of us are quick to run to people not God when we face challenges. Instead of abandoning the rebuilding works in the temple or giving up on the entire project, they prayed. By reporting a matter to God, you have won 80% of the battle.

After praying they took action. The reason why many of us pray and don’t get results is that we pray and don’t take action. Some of us pray for provision but we never sow after praying. Without sowing there will not be a harvest. There maybe one or two who nurse the ambition of lending to nation like me, we would need to give our first fruits after praying. Do you want expansion? Pay your first fruit increase. Proverbs 3:9-10 says honor the Lord with thy substances and with the first fruit of thy increase so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Many of us have been praying that the Lord should open the windows of heaven, do you know it is tithing that opens the windows of heaven, Malachi 3:9? According to James 2:14-26, faith without work is dead. After we must have prayed for promotion, let us take action by working on our character, integrity and punctuality at work. After we must have fasted and prayed that the Lord should empower us, lets us take action by living a life of holiness. Not only that, let us begin to study our bible daily , pray in tongue daily , give to the poor .

ACTION: Take action.

THE NEED FOR VISION PT2

MEMORY VERSE: where there is no vision, the people perish, Proverbs 29:18a 

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Sam 14, Rom 12, Jer 51, Luke 19

BIBLE STUDY: 2 Kings 6:15-18

For the last two days we have been discussing around the subject of vision. The reason for this is that there is someone the Lord wants to open his or her eyes. Proverbs 29:18a says where there is no vision, the people perish. We have defined the word vision as seeing things through the eyes of God or seeing things as God sees them. According to John 4:24, God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth. Seeing things through the eyes of God simply means seeing things through the eyes of the spirit. There are many of us who see physically – we can see cars moving around, houses, people e.t.c but spiritually we are blind as a bat. When we talk of been able to see spiritually, we are talking of the ability to see things as they are not as they appear in the physical realm.

The servant of Elisha woke up early to run errands for his master, on his way he saw that the city had been surrounded by horses and chariots so he ran back home to inform his master. When he told Elisha what he saw, that one just laughed and prayed that God should open his eyes. The Lord opened the eyes of this servant and he saw that the surrounding mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire.

There are one or two lessons to learn for this passage. Firstly when a fellow cannot see, instead of progressing he may start to regress; instead of moving forward, he may start to go backwards; instead of reaching his destination, he may return to where he started from. The servant of Elisha was going somewhere, immediately he saw the chariots he ran back home. If his spiritual eyes were functioning as it should function, he would have continued his journey. Secondly when a fellow cannot see spiritually, he may become confused. The first thing the servant of Elisha said to Elisha when he returned home was Alas, my master! How shall we do (2 Kings 6:15)? This statement reveals confusion. Confusion comes when we cannot see. Lack of vision can lead to indecision – indecision is birth by confusion. When a student cannot see, he will be confused when it comes to the choice of a career. Thirdly when a fellow cannot see spiritually, he may start running when no one is chasing him. The army came for Elisha not the servant but because he was blind spiritually he began to run. The shocking thing was the armies did not even say a word to him. 

TO PONDER: Vision aids decision.

THE LIVING HAS A HOPE

MEMORY VERSE: For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. Ecclesiastes 9:4

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Num 10, Ps 46-47, Sng 8, Heb 8

In elementary school we learnt about living things and non living things. The difference between living things and non living things is that living things make decision. Plants and trees make decisions, one of the decisions they make is that they grow towards sunlight. Animals also make decisions; they purposely decide to move away from burning fire. There are three seasons in the life of a man – the past, present and future. Out of these three seasons we have control over the present, the past and future are out of our control. The most important of these three seasons is the present because we make decisions in the present i.e. we are alive in the present. After that, is the future because the decisions we make today affects our future. This is why Proverbs 22:29 says those who decide to be diligent today will sit before kings tomorrow (the future). Those who decide to be idle today will suffer hunger tomorrow (the future), Proverbs 19:15. To avoid a future of hunger, please get busy with your work or studies today.

The least important of these three seasons is the past. There is no one alive today who does not have a past. We all have past experiences – some of which are good and some of which are bad. We have all been let down and disappointed in the past. Many of us have been taken advantage of, and deeply hurt from events of the past. Some have made terrible mistakes in the past maybe in relationship or business or in career. Many have been abused in the past and molested by those who are meant to protect them. Friends I want you to know that we all have a past and we all have reasons to look back into the past. 

The past is considered dead. It is dead because we have no control over it. We cannot make decisions in the past and no matter what we do today, we cannot change the past. When you look to the past or think about it, you are just grasping the wind or chasing after shadows. Ecclesiastes 9:4 says for to him that is joined to all the living there is hope .Anyone that focuses on the past is joining his or herself to the dead. The dead has no hope of a better tomorrow, only the living has hope. Dwelling in the past is a step in retrogression. Looking back keeps you on the same spot for a long time. When you keep your focus on the past, it discourages you and stifles your initiatives. The reason for many depressions today is as a result of people failing to let go of the past. Do you know looking back prevents you from moving into the glorious future the Lord has for you? The only way out is for you to focus on the future and that is a function of the present. Change in circumstances is a possibility for those who focus on the future. Focusing on the future propels you to get into your future. Join yourself to the living today by dropping your past!

PRAYER POINT: Father I drop my past at your feet, and pick your future for my life.

Bro Samuel - Reaching the world for Jesus