Do I have to kill myself just to follow peace?

Hmmmmm...life and its never ending drama!

Ok, so weeks ago I put up a post about knowing your God, being strong and all that, only for me to get all weak a few days later.  Ever gotten so upset to the point of wanting to use needle and thread to do some running stitches right through someone's mouth? I was that upset! Even though I tried to be calm, the level of anger deep within made me realise how much I needed Jesus in my life!

Anyways, the whole drama got me thinking about Hebrews 12:14 which says "Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see God"

In a world filled with people with different beliefs, behaviour and temperament, is it really possible to follow peace with all men? What exactly does God mean when He says we should follow peace with all men?

Is following peace about making sure you don't step on anybody's toes or is it about making sure you are in everyone's good books?

How does one really follow peace in an environment where drama just never ends?  Is it by keeping quiet irrespective of what people do to you or by addressing issues in a godly, fair and open manner?

Is it by turning the other cheek when you've just been given a dirty hot resounding slap or by taking to your heels after the first slap in order to avoid getting slapped again?

In my quest to follow peace with people, I tried doing all sorts in the past but sadly enough nothing seems to have worked 100%. In many cases it was more like I got into bigger trouble after each peace-making strategy!  

At some point I started thinking "Do I have to kill myself just to follow peace or please people?"

The question is how far do we have to go in inconveniencing ourselves just to follow peace? Following peace with everyone isn't always easy, I think it's one of the hardest thing God requires of us. People will get on your nerves, frustrate and disappoint you from time to time but you have to aggressively pursue peace because contrary to popular believe, the christian race isn't just about our relationship with God, our relationship with others matter a lot! For example, the bible says in Matthew 5:23-24 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you,  leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift." 

Like me, I'm sure at some point in your life you've read that bible text murmuring something close to " why can't I give my nicely packaged offering just because somebody somewhere is upset with me for no good reason? or why should I be the one to go say sorry first?".  

Following peace with others can be difficult . There will be times  you have to apologise to people not because you are wrong but because you just want peace to reign. Sometimes following peace with others will hurt you terribly, you might have to do things your natural self won't like but you see, it's really not about what you feel, it's more about what God thinks.   It's impossible to pursue holiness without pursuing peace  and without holiness you can't see God. In other words, if you cannot follow peace with all men you cannot make it to heaven!

On this issue "follow peace with all men", I really can do with some grace and more of those fruits of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23...It is my prayer that God will give us the grace to follow peace with all in Jesus name. Amen.

Because I KNOW MY God, I'm Strong, Doing Exploits & Amazing Myself.

If you know a little bit about me, then you would have noticed that I like to plan ahead. I love dreaming and creating mental pictures of where I'll like to be in the future, what I'll like to do and goals I'll love to have achieved. With these dreams comes questions, worse case scenarios and 'what ifs'...What if this doesn't happen? What if that happens?

You see, in life things don't necessarily go the way we plan even after series of preparation and marathon prayers. For me, some of the things I dreaded most, my worst case scenarios actually happened. I never thought I would have been able to face or survive these challenges but here I am today basking in God's glory. In those very places where I was despised, He has made me beautiful and now I'm called sought out, desirable and not forsaken (Isaiah 62:12).

Sometimes God lets us go through certain things just so we can get to know Him better. In the words of Sarah Goebel, "God is revealed in the devastations and challenges of life. Without them, how would we know God? These events are a necessary part of life’s journey in order for us to know our God and do mighty exploits".

In Daniel 11:32b, the bible says "But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits". Like you, I've had my fair share of ups and downs but because I know my God, I'm strong, doing exploits & amazing myself! How well do you know your God? Do you really have a relationship with Him? Selah!

Have a blessed day
With love,
LadyMay

THE WONDERS OF WORSHIP by Pastor EA Adeboye (June 2013 HGS)

JUNE 2013 HOLY GHOST SERVICE

THEME: THE WONDERS OF WORSHIP

MINISTER: PASTOR EA ADEBOYE

BIBLE TEXT: John 4:23-24 "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

Worship is reverential treatment to something i.e to show reverence and adoration for something/someone. There are people who worship their husbands/wives, some worship money, some worship things like bicycle, some worship man-made gods etc but today we shall be talking about worship to God.

Worship means total submission to the one you are worshiping. As a Christian, worshiping God should be the same as breathing for you. Worship should be a habit/lifestyle, not a one off thing.


Worship is not passive, it is active! You can pray to God silently but there is no way you can praise silently. Also worship is not just a thing of the mouth, it's a thing of the mind.

When you worship God, he shows up in your situation. You can weep as much you like, it doesn't solve your problems. At times prayer doesn't even guarantee solutions but the moment you begin to worship, the Helper of your destiny shows up and situations will change.


When you worship God, He breaks protocol to attend to you. It is against protocol for a prophet to touch a leper but when the leper worshiped Jesus, Jesus touched him and He got healed immediately (Matthew 8:1-3).


Worship is a weapon of warfare! When you worship God, God and your enemies will enter the same trouser (African saying which means God fights your battles)


When you worship God you provoke God to intervene and brings about divine intervention. You can weep as much you like, it doesn't solve your problems. At times prayer doesn't even guarantee solutions but the moment you begin to worship, the Helper of your destiny shows up and situations will change.


The greatest wonder of worship to God is that when we are not too sure prayers will succeed, we know worship would . This is because the most important ingredient to answered prayers is in Isaiah 55:6 which says “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near”. In other words, there may be times you may seek God and he cannot be found and times when you call on him and he may not be near. Also in proverbs 8:17, God said “…those that seek me early shall find me.” Ok, when is early? Is it at midnight or 6am? How early is early? So we have a problem in prayer because since God is not visible we don’t know whether He is near or far while we are praying. However there is a solution is in John 4:23-24 where the bible says that God himself will personally seek out those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. If you worship God in spirit and in truth, He will seek you out Himself. Believe me, God knows your address, He knows how to find you when He needs to pay you a visit. 

Psalms 68:1-3 says "Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice." When you worship God He arises and as soon as God arises to pay you a visit, you enemies are in trouble. In Judges 15:13-15, when the spirit of God came upon Samson , he killed a thousand enemies with the jawbone of an ass.

What is your enemy tonight? Many a times when we talk about enemies, people start to think mother-in-law but your enemy isn’t necessarily human. The bible talks about leper who got healed after worshiping Jesus in Matthew 8:1-3. The beauty about the story of the leper is that when he was going on his knees to worship Jesus he was a leper but as he was getting up, he was completely cleansed and healed from leprosy. Also in Mark 5, the mad man of Gadera got healed from madness after worshiping Jesus. Tonight as you worship God ,whatever sickness followed you here will be solved in Jesus name. Amen. (N.B. After you get your healing, don’t stop worshipping because if you stop, things could go worse.)


What if your enemy isn’t sickness but bondage? Worshiping God can deliver you from bondage! If you are a good worshiper, you don’t need deliverance service to be set free. There is no way you can be a good worshipper of God and still have demons living in you. The devil and demons don’t stay where people are praising and worshiping God because nobody enjoys watching people praise his/her enemies. Tonight if you are in any form of bondage worship God and as you worship God, He will set you free but remember never stop worshiping after you’ve been delivered.


If you need material breakthrough, worship God. The bibles says in 2Chronicles 1;1-16 that Solomon worshipped God by offering 1000 burnt offerings to God and as a result became one of the richest and wisest man that ever lived. The thousand offering Solomon gave was an act of worship people in his days had never seen before. After this worship, God showed up and told Solomon to ask for anything, he asked for wisdom and God blessed him so much with it.


Anytime you worship God he responds mightily. David said in Psalms 108:1 "O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.’ The almighty responded in David’s situation and in psalms 23 :6 David said “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”


If you make up your mind that you are going to praise and worship God despite all your challenges, He will respond, show up in your situations and even bless you despite all your enemies try. In Psalm 34:1, said “I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Then God replied ‘David since you are going to bless me at all times, goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life.


There are 2 categories of worshipers
1) Baby Worshipers: These are Christians who worship God only after He has done something for them.
2) Adult Worshipers: These are Christians who worship God before their miracle happens. They worship God when the wall is still standing. Those who worship God before the miracle they are expecting happens always get more than they ask for.

Finally according to the word of God, the sacrifice of a sinner is an abomination to God. If you are a sinner, don’t bother worshiping God tonight because your worship is an abomination but if you truly want to worship God, then you have to surrender your life to Jesus. You need to confess your sins, ask for forgiveness and surrender your life to Jesus. Giving your life to Jesus is another way of saying you will worship God with all you have and you will no longer worship any other thing .


TONIGHT DON’T ASK GOD FOR ANYTHING, JUST WORSHIP GOD FOR AT LEAST 30MINUTES 

***New Song by the Daddy GO***
Shout Halleluyah, shout Halleluyah
For His goodness, for His mercies
Shout halleluyah.