Get Rid of 'Hagar' and Settle Down With 'Sarah'

Have you ever been party to a series of events that were simply a preamble of things to come? Well, on Wednesday I met a young woman that I could not place and whose name I could not remember. As we stood chatting, we talked about a number of things to do with GOD and then we exchanged contacts, which was when she gave me her name - ‘Sarah’. I did not think much of her name because I thought that our meeting was to do with something else entirely. However, I later found out that our meeting had to do with the name, ‘Sarah’ more than it did anything else. Early this morning, the name ‘Sarah’ flashed before me but I thought it only had something to do with the woman I met on Wednesday - I was wrong.

Now, more than a year ago, I met a young boy who was on the verge of completing his university degree. He saw me with my Bible on my desk, found out that he was also born-again and we soon began talking. He told me he wanted find employment, so, I prayed for him. I also helped him draft a recommendation, for a job, which the university he was studying at had asked him for and later approved. He and I soon parted ways. ‘Abraham’ ventured into the world and I changed location for a while. I moved away from where we had met to another place from which GOD later moved me and said it was ‘out of bounds’. Therefore, I found myself returning to my former location where ‘Abraham’ and I had earlier met.

A year went by before I saw him again. In fact, to be honest with you, I forgot about ‘Abraham’. Now, a few hours back I looked up to see a respectable young man approaching me. ‘Abraham’ had grown up... he looked quite polished and mature...I was pleasantly surprised. Well, he told me that he had tried calling me on the telephone number I had given him but to no avail – I had changed numbers. He had then visited the place where we had met but had not found me there either until today.

He said he had wanted to testify about the goodness of the LORD. I was touched. You see, I meet many people in my line of ‘work’ who I pray for but very few look me up to tell me that GOD answered. What ‘Abraham’ did was also to buy me lunch! I was touched once again. As we talked, I asked him about his personal life and was suddenly led to ask him for the name of the mother of his child. I was surprised when he actually told me that her name is ‘Sarah’. He also told me that he was having second thoughts about settling down with her and that was when GOD spoke. GOD told me to tell him that ‘Sarah’ is the right woman for him and that he should marry her. GOD also revealed that he was interested in another girl but that he must let her go. His destiny lies with ‘Sarah’ and that it was through her and her seed that he would receive his blessing.

“...Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring [Or seed] will be reckoned” (Genesis 21:12).

I then realized why GOD had not let us meet all those times that he had come looking for me. You see, GOD wanted me to reconnect with the other woman for the message to be complete. I needed to hear the name, ‘Sarah’ and then ‘hear’ it again so that GOD would give me a message concerning this young man’s life and destiny. In other words, today was the perfect time for us to reconnect because GOD had a word for him that would save him from a lot of trouble.

I know that GOD wanted you to hear this for a reason...the same reason why He allowed ‘Abraham’ and I to reconnect. Your ‘Sarah’ is the only one through whom your blessing shall come. In fact, the children that you shall bear with this person are the children through whom you shall receive your blessings. Therefore, get rid of ‘Hagar’ and settle down with ‘Sarah’.

Prayer

Dear GOD, forgive me for considering to settle for Hagar instead of Sarah. I now realign myself with your will and choose Sarah. I now choose to get rid of the slave woman and her son and focus on Sarah and Isaac, by your grace. In JESUS’ name, I have prayed, amen.

GOD Has Given You The 'Land'

“...and those who devoured you will be far away” (Isaiah 49:19).

You will look around you and your enemies will be nowhere to be seen - those who gave you trouble before will be far from you. You will suddenly be made aware of the fact that the ‘land’ that was restricted to you before has now been made available to you. You will be free to ‘come and go’ as you please. In fact, GOD has assigned someone to ensure that you work in peace every day - He has given you the ‘land’.

Get Thirsty

I have been feeling thirsty at different intervals lately. Even if I would ask GOD to fill me with rivers of living water so that I do not thirst again, I did not take it seriously enough to pay much spiritual attention to it until this morning.

This morning, GOD reminded me about part of a prophecy that He gave me on 24^th March 2008. It was then that I realized that He actually let me feel the thirst in a bid to remind me of that word.

24^th March 2008

“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams” (Isaiah 44:3-4).

Get thirsty, my people. GET THIRSTY – I want to pour out my Spirit on you but you are not thirsty enough! GET THIRSTY.

The kind of thirst that GOD refers to is the one where there is a gap inside of us that desires to be filled by Him. GOD wants us to get thirsty again so that He can fill us up with His Spirit. We must yearn to have more of Him...we must desire to get more intimate with Him.

Sometimes, this thirst comes from knowing that you have been to ‘some place in GOD’ to which you would like to return. At other times, it is a thirst that is birthed from a desire to go somewhere that you have never ‘been to in GOD’...you yearn to go deeper in Him. When we desire this, we move closer to Him and do all that we possibly can to get more of Him – we separate ourselves from groups or crowds, read the word of GOD, and fast and pray among other things. In other words, we create an environment that will take us there.

“Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10).

This thirst is nothing you have worked on or decided to have. It simply surfaces and it must be addressed or else you ‘die from it’. We must also remember that GOD is a giver and that He will give us what we ask Him for but also that which we have not asked Him for. In other words, He will give us more of His Spirit if we ask Him but also if we don’t. However, He wants us to feel thirsty enough to reach out to Him.

I sometimes feel as if I have moved away from GOD although not because of any known sin in my life. In fact, I do not feel that emptiness when I wrong GOD or mistakenly do something that I am aware is not good. Interestingly, I only feel this thirst when I have been a good girl and I honestly believe that this thirst is orchestrated by GOD so that I can move closer to Him.

“Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

It is true that when we do not take in the right amounts of water, we become thirsty. Yet, dry weather also contributes to how thirsty one feels just as the amount of work one carries out does the same. In other words, in my case, thirst sometimes results from not taking the right amounts of water daily, which can be interpreted as not seeking GOD as much I should or not reading the word as much as I should. Now, your thirst may be caused by something else and before you know it...you find yourself so thirsty for GOD that you will do anything in your power to cover that distance. The good thing is that the Holy Ghost is our Helper. He helps us quench the thirst even as He is the living water that GOD feels us with so that we do not thirst again. 

Now, there are two kinds of thirst. The one kind is like the one the woman at the well had, and was one that Christ needed to quench so that she could never thirst again. It had to do with sex and it needed to be replaced. However, the second type of thirst is the good kind. It is a thirst for the Spirit of GOD and it takes us to a deeper level in Him from which we do not want to go. It is the thirst that GOD is telling us to have more of so that He can pour His Spirit on this dry land.

GOD is beckoning us deeper in Him...He wants us to seek Him more...to be thirsty for Him so that He can fill us up. 

Prayer

Dear GOD, please make me thirsty for you so that you can fill me up. Heavenly Father, please quench the thirst for those immoral things that sometimes fills me up and replace it with rivers of living water so that I do not thirst again. In JESUS' name, I have prayed, amen.

The Believers' Sins

Are you aware that sometimes our sins, as believers, turn people away from Christ and from salvation? The things we do without a thought or while taking the grace for granted are actually great hindrances to evangelism and to salvation. Well, this morning, our sin as believers was one of the reasons that someone gave for not considering giving her life to Christ.

 

“...Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3).

 

Even if I love evangelizing, people do not always receive me with open arms. In fact, sometimes people border on insolence when I open my mouth to request that they give their lives to Christ.

 

In respect of the above, I needed to buy something this morning. Therefore, as I was walking to work, I noticed a tiny shop that I had never noticed before. It was one of those shops that one can only describe using the term ‘struggling’; so feeling compassionate for the woman inside I decided to support her business. After I had bought what I wanted, I asked her if she is born-again and she said that she is not. However, I noticed a change in her body language indicating her sudden defensiveness. Well, that did not stop me so I told her that one would only make it to heaven if he or she is born-again. It was the wrong thing to say...according to her.

 

She then started a tirade of how born-again people think they are so righteous and that that is why she cannot give her life to Christ. I could tell she was Catholic even before she loudly and proudly declared it and she said that GOD knows us all and that she would never give her life to Christ.

 

You see, according to her even if we believers ‘pretend’ to be righteous we carry out so many unrighteous deeds and then hide behind salvation. I did not even deny that. I told her that even though a born-again person may sin that shouldn’t stop her from giving her life to Christ. However, she was so engrossed in listening to her own nasty remarks about born-again people fueled by her justification that her current religion is the best place to be that her deaf ears rebuked the sweet words of salvation. Seeing that I was getting nowhere with her, I felt sorry for her, blessed her, and excused myself. As I walked away, I could hear her continue her side of the conversation. You must realize that she was alone in the shop...

 

“He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15).

 

Although I was sadder when I walked away from her shop than I had been when I walked in, it was a bittersweet feeling - I was sad but I was also happy. I was so sad that she failed to see the freedom in and of salvation. I was also sad that she refused to take hold of the gift of salvation yet secured her hold on the religion that she had put in Christ’s place. I was also saddened by the fact that she insisted on focusing on all the nasty things that born-again people do instead of focusing on the goodness of GOD. Nonetheless, I was happy that I had at least evangelized to yet another soul and that GOD had opened the ‘Zion’s file’ while I preached about His Son and recorded what I had done. You see, for me I had done my part – I had fulfilled the great commission by preaching the gospel of JESUS CHRIST! The rest was up to her.

 

As I continued to think about it, I pitied all those souls out there who are held in bondage because of the mistakes that believers make. I pitied them because if they continued looking at the mistakes of others, they shall would fail to get to heaven. You see, even if I tread carefully lest I fall, I cannot promise that I will not fall. However, if I do fall, I will realize that I have fallen and I will feel extremely bad about it instead of justifying myself. I will then look up to GOD, confess my sin and ask Him to forgive me. I will not flippantly use the grace, donning a carefree attitude that I can sin as much as I want because the grace is sufficient...However, because I have given my life to Christ, I endeavor to love what He loves and hate what He hates which makes me more secure against sinning.

 

The reason why most refuse to give their lives to Christ is that they think that we condemn them by preaching the gospel of salvation to them. Therefore, they justify themselves and hold on tight to whatever it is that they have put in the place of Christ.

 

Without being too complicated about this, salvation is putting Christ first in your life. It is taking what you call ‘religion’, putting it down and picking up the true ‘religion’ – CHRIST. I do not care what religion you are inclined to, if does not have the word Pentecostal or born-again in it, you have taken a name and put it in place of Christ. If you have not confessed Christ as your personal Savior and asked Him to come and live in your life, you are not born-again regardless of whether you believe that He is the Son of GOD. If you have not purposed to lay aside those sins that you committed before you gave your life to Christ, then you have repented your sin but still hold on to it. If you do not feel remorseful when you are verbally abusive or when you are sexually immoral, among other things, then you are not truly born-again...born of the Spirit of GOD. Salvation is a relationship with GOD - you choose Him over everything else and determine to relate with Him. You believe, in your heart, and confess with your mouth that JESUS is the Son of GOD and that He died and rose again. You believe that as He died, you too die to your sins and live in Him. I did not argue with that woman in the shop about the sins that we believers make sometimes because we do fall. However, that is not how it is supposed to be. If we indeed have Christ, we should not sin but in the event that we do, we should be remorseful for having wronged the one we love! You do not give your life to Christ because you will not sin but because you are supposed to give it to Him – you are required to. All the other religions that believe in Christ but that have not confessed Him as their personal Savior have invited Him to their living rooms but have not let Him into the rest of their house.

 

“and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:47).

 

Today, I do not promise you that I will not fall because I may but I promise you that I will try not to fall but that when I do fall I will not be down for long!

 

When you do give your life to Christ, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit as well - He will help you along. The Holy Spirit is our Helper and He helps us in our relationship with Christ. He convicts us of sin that we are about to commit as well as that that we have committed already. He also encourages us to confess and repent of that sin and turn back to GOD. You must realize that we do not walk alone in this journey of salvation. GOD carries us through it and helps us do the right thing. You see Christ called it the repentance and remission of sin! This means that we repent of sin and ensure that we sin no more!

 

If you are born-again and are living your life flippantly by sinning and not feeling remorseful about it or by not turning away from it, I would like you to know that you are giving Christ a bad name. You are the reason some souls out there will never give their lives to Christ. Consequently, I urge you to stop doing all you are doing that does not glorify GOD. Repent and turn from that sin right now.

 

We all like acclaim and being cheered on but we must also be accountable first to GOD but to those who have cheered us on. If you are in any sort of leadership, and I would like you to know that we all are in some way, boldly declare your sin to all and ask them to forgive you after you have done so with GOD. Tell them that what you did was not right and that you ask for their forgiveness.  

 

However, if you are reading this but are not born-again, I ask you to give your life to Christ not because those of us who have are without sin but because it is required of you. If you give your life to Christ, you do so in order to go to heaven.

 

Prayer

 

Dear GOD, I confess that I have sometimes been a bad example to those I lead. I repent of all the things that I have done that have led souls away from you instead of towards you. Please forgive me.

 

I have sometimes also been flippant about my sinfulness taking the grace for granted. Please forgive me. I now ask you to cleanse me and make me whole again. Holy Spirit, please help me never to sin again and when I do, please convict me of that sin and help me repent and turn from it completely.

 

Lord JESUS, I believe that you are the Son of GOD and that you died for me on the Cross and rose again. I confess that not confessing you as my personal Savior, makes me a sinner by default. Please forgive me. I now release all my sin, habits and the religion that I have always put in your place. I enthrone you in my life as the King of my life, all my thoughts, plans, and actions. Hide me under your precious blood so that I am secure in salvation and so that I do not fall or turn away from you. Give me the grace to be exemplary to all those around me but also to those I am in leadership over so that I can point them to you instead of away from you. In JESUS’ name, I have prayed, amen.

 

Happy Anniversary

PUSH That 'Baby' OUT Of Your 'Womb'!

A midwife is someone who helps in delivering children. Sometimes, she walks you through the pregnancy but most times she will only appear when you have reached 'full term' (nine months) and are ready to deliver that child. Some ‘deliveries’ are quick while others are not. You will find the midwives loudly cheering on the mothers to PUSH...

 

I have told you before that I am a spiritual midwife. I will walk to you at the exact time that that ‘baby’ needs to come out and urge you to PUSH ‘him’ out. Although, some ‘women’ do not need much cheering on while others do sometimes my heart breaks for the ‘babies’ that may die before the mother PUSHES them out...

 

"... Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive” (Exodus 1:19).

 

It is true that some women need help while others are like the Hebrew women who do not need help with ‘delivering babies’. However, those that do not need help will have pushed out that baby before the midwife arrives. If GOD puts me in your path, as He is doing now, before you have PUSHED out that baby then it must be that you need me to cheer you on...

 

I recently met two women at two different times of my life. They were both PREGNANT and I was the assigned midwife. I had been encouraging one of the women to push for some time but to no avail. Now, late last year I had a major milestone in my ministry and one woman’s 'labor pains' began to come...but she still did not push...until I screamed at her and told her to PUSH and she did. Now, the ‘baby’ is out and ready to be ‘nursed’.

 

The ‘baby’ happens to be her calling. She is a worshipper who had started on the production of her music years back but put it aside. You must realize that I did not have the baby for her – she recognized the season and made the necessary movements. This ‘pregnant’ woman recognized her visitation, ‘shopped around’ for studios, allowed to walk into the studio, met the producer, sung one of her songs while the producer did his part and then paid for only one song of the many that she has. I only urged her on.

 

A few days after that, I met yet another ‘pregnant woman’ who no matter how much I said or how I said it was not ready or willing to ‘push’, so, I rested my case. However, my heart broke because I happen to be passionate about children (human beings) but I am also passionate about spiritual children. I am passionate about your gift. My heart broke because, by now, I know how to recognize a season and an assignment when I see one.

 

Now, her reason for not ‘pushing’ was to do with money but also quality. You see, she was saving until she had all the money required (a substantial amount) but was also particular on who should do it because of a certain quality. This other woman also preferred to push out all the babies at the same time. Nonetheless, I know that I was the right midwife because of the season of harvest that we are in right now and the seemingly coincidental timing between the two 'births'. It is also possible that she was not yet ready to push or even that the children were not ready to be delivered. Sadly, it scares me to think that she may have missed her visitation and did not realize that we are in the 'birthing room'.

The word that GOD gave me for 2015 was that it is HARVEST time. Therefore, we must be seen with YIELD and I would like to urge you to PUSH... GOD has blessed us all with a seed or more inside ‘here’ and we need to nurture it while it is still in the ‘womb’ but we also need to push it out when it is time to do so.

 

For me, what took me long to push my ‘baby’ out of the ‘womb’ was money. I looked at it from the bigger perspective and thought that I needed to deliver the baby once. I also forgot the fact that the entire ‘body’ of a child does not come out at the same time and that the medical team will take the head first, then the other parts will follow if the baby does not make his or her own unaided entry into the world.

 

You see, what I did not realize was that I could actually recite one poem, pay for it and move on to the next instead of paying for the recitation of the entire book (The Bridge). When I asked GOD to take care of the entire backlog of what I had not done but was meant to do in 2014, He did. GOD moved ahead of me and everything happened in a way I still struggle to comprehend. He gave me the wisdom to approach this project piece by piece ...head first, and then slowly ease out the entire body...

 

...I only needed to take one step at a time and even then I needed to push out ‘one baby at a time’... I have many other projects waiting to happen but this baby has to get out of the way first in order to make room for the rest...

“This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them” (2Kings 19:3).

 

Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength” (Isaiah 52:1).

I know that you are ‘pregnant’ but I am also aware that that ‘baby’ you are carrying is a big child – he weighs a lot but is also quite precious so you need to handle him with care. Now, even if that precious gift inside of you is ready to come out, are you ready to push it out? Do you realize that you can take it slowly (one-step at a time)? Do you realize that this is your visitation and that you must move now and bring in your harvest? Please do not let that gift die inside of you because you delayed to push it out. Do t let it be like that day of distress that Hezekiah talked about when children are ready to be birthed but there is no strength to deliver them. Arise, oh daughter of Zion, put on your garment of strength and push out that child!

 

GOD BLESS YOU,

Zion.