Rest

Every so often, we endure situations that break us but that do not kill us. They are so painful that we wonder if we shall ever make it ‘out of here’ this time. These situations usually remind me of an ‘illness’ and the rest that must follow during and after it.

Hebrews 4:7

“Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Hebrews 4:10-11

“for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no-one will fall by following their example of disobedience”.

Entering the rest of GOD is something that is hard for most of us. Sometimes, we ‘work’ so hard that resting is simply not an option! The ‘rest’ that I am talking about is what happens when you choose to ‘get away from ‘it’ all’ until you 'heal'! You get away from the anger, the pain, the bitterness, and all those painful emotions that result from being hurt. These emotions are what I sometimes refer to as brokenness – you get undone. Each one of us has a breaking point. However, as we grow in our walk with Christ, the breaking points become fewer. I am yet to find out if we will ever grow so much that we stop breaking.

Nonetheless, sometimes we refuse to break – we resist it. It is unfortunate that this resistance is tantamount to hardening one’s heart. We should be pliable to brokenness so that we can enjoy the healing power of GOD as we choose to rest in Him.

Sometimes, we suffer from particular sicknesses and take the necessary medication prescribed to us. Doctors then advise us to ‘take it slow’ and that we must not ‘get up too soon’. However, some of us do not know how to rest – in fact, as soon as we can stand up and support ourselves, we up and GO! Sometimes, we get away with it but at other times, we do not because it catches up with us and we succumb to the same illness again!

Lamentations 1:2-3

“Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is none to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies. After affliction and harsh labour, Judah has gone into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress.

Brokenness is a place of tears, betrayal by friends, affliction, lack of comfort and exile. It is a place that you cannot call your own – it is not your ‘resting place’. Brokenness is actually a place of distress where your enemies have pursued you and overtaken you! It is a place in which you admit seeming ‘defeat’ and choose to return to the GOD of all peace. This place is one in which you feel the nails been dug into your flesh – your ‘flesh’ feels the pain!   

Now, I relate this to our spiritual and emotional lives as well. Sometimes, things happen to us that derail us for a while but because we think that we need to pretend that everything is just fine, we get up too soon! I have found this not to be good at all. If we ‘get up’ too soon we stand the risk of not ‘recovering fully’ from that ‘illness’ or falling sick again after a very short time!

Of course, it is not easy for someone as ‘busy’ as you and I are to rest but GOD Himself tells us to enter His rest! It is no wonder, therefore, that He rested on the seventh day and that He tells us to do so as well! We must rest from our ‘work’, and be still and know that He is indeed GOD! Of course, there are so many things that we should be doing and that are linked to the area we operate in from which the brokenness accrued, but rest we must. This rest enables us to allow the healing process to go on without a hitch.

The ‘emotional and spiritual illnesses’ are my main concern today. In life, we meet people who break us by their words, actions, or even inactivity even as we too do our own ‘breaking’. If we are on the receiving end, nevertheless, those who break us move on without a care in the world. It is true that they may not know that they hurt us but even if they do, they will continue doing so for as long as they have access to us.

Subsequently, it is imperative for us to allow ourselves to hurt or grieve but also to ‘heal’ – we must enter HIS REST. Unfortunately, as Christians, we ‘program’ ourselves into believing that it is not right for us to hurt or to take some time off to ‘deal with this’ and that is why most of us break under the strain. We must allow ourselves to hurt so that we can grow past it and so that we can take some much deserved time off to heal. We are not superwoman, batman, or any of those cartoon characters – we are human and human beings hurt and hurt one another.

2Corinthians 12:9

“...for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong”.

What breaks us most is denying, to ourselves as well as to others, that ‘that really hurt me’. Some Christians believe that admitting that we are hurt is a sign of weakness and, YES, it is. However, how then would GOD’S power be made manifest in us if we were not weak enough to receive it? For this reason, I will often look back and think to myself that, ‘I would never have made it through that if it had not been for GOD’.

You must realize that you cannot enter His rest for as long as you pretend that you are macho and that everyone else is the weak one...You can only enter His rest when you admit, to yourself, that ‘this is hard...it is so painful that I need to go away for a while...I need to heal’. However as long as you pretend that you are okay, yet you are not, GOD’S rest will be far from you. Therefore, today, I encourage you to feel the pain, hurt as much as you will and allow yourself to rest and grow past it.

John 14:30

“I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He

has no hold on me.”

By the grace of GOD, I have learned to be silent when in this place. I do not allow myself to say anything at all – I sit in one place with my finger on my lips as an act of silence so that I can hear GOD more but also so that I can grow faster. I have also learned that the enemy has nothing on me provided I am silent. In fact, I will often allow myself to stay away from certain people or certain places so that I do not say what I should not say but more so so that I can heal better. It is my belief that the people who hurt us or break us are those that we should not allow near us during our rest. We need to feel the peace of the LORD again before we can allow them in. We must also be willing to forgive them and bless them because this is what GOD wants us to do but also because it is balm to our very own hearts. I have never been able to explain it but when I forgive my enemies and bless them, peace replaces the anxiety in my spirit.

In this resting place, I have also come to acknowledge something. The source of my pain may never change his or her stripes but if I am to continue dealing with the likes of him or her, I must be the one to change. I must be able to stand him or her. In other words, I must mature beyond the person who consistently causes me pain. This place is truly a place of growth for me even as it is my healing place. It enables me to see the areas in which I need to grow and then ask the Spirit of GOD to help me grow. You must realize that each ‘sickness’ makes me aware of the things I may or may not have done that ‘opened that door’. On this ‘sick bed’, I will also determine not to continue doing those things that caused this situation. I must not get out of ‘this’ the same way. I have to get out as a better person – that is the plunder that I, as the VICTOR, walks away with!

You must realize that just as choosing to rest is not easy and is a process, so is healing and growth. They do not happen overnight. However, I can determine how fast I heal by being still and silent but also being careful to do only that which GOD commands me to do. Sometimes, I do not feel fully recovered to return to the ‘arena’ or to do the things that GOD commands me to do but I must obey the Master. You see, part of my recovery has a lot to do with obedience even when I do not want to. I MUST never leave the resting place the same way I entered it. I must forgive and bless my enemies even as I must obey my Master.

I will also often remember and apply what I have come to know as the ‘measles example’ that the older generation has been gracious enough to share with me. Well, they say that even if measles is a very deadly disease and that some children do not survive it, it is better that a child suffers from it and recovers from it. You see, they say, that once someone has suffered from measles, he or she will never suffer from it again. I do not know what the Doctors call that. Anyway, I will often take every ‘ailment’ as a measles example. Once you have had it, you will not have it again provided you receive the right treatment for it and recover from it. Whatever, it is that breaks me accords me the right to heal from it and to decide that ‘I will never feel like this again’... ‘I will not return to this place’. This too, is part of my plunder as I return to my normal way of life.  

The time comes, in my ‘resting place’, when I feel around me inside and realize that I HEALED and that it is time for me to return to the place where it all began. I will not rush into the arena, though, but will take ‘baby steps’ until I am sure of my bearings and stability. This time, as I step forward, I purpose to do things differently as I do them the way I have been taught to do them in the ‘resting place’.   

May you, too, allow yourself to feel the brokenness but also to enter His rest. May you be still and silent as you rest from your works and get healed by the Master. May you obey His instructions as you rest and when it is time to return to the ‘arena’, may the grace of GOD go ahead of you.

Finally, I want you to realize that even though brokenness feels like defeat to you, GOD may see it differently. You may feel like you have been defeated but only because your flesh feels the pain.

Prayer

Dear GOD, I admit that I am sometimes too proud to admit that I am hurting and that I am weak. Please forgive me. Give me the grace to allow myself to feel the pain and the hurt so that I can enter your rest. I pray that today I do not harden my heart but that I make it pliable to you. Help me to be still and silent as I learn to rest in you. Teach me to forgive and bless my enemies because that is what you require of me. Father, I also ask you to give me the grace to obey you and follow your instructions to the letter even though I may not want to.

Heavenly Father, may I also acknowledge that what I may see as defeat in the natural may actually be victory in your eyes. May I always see situations as you see them and may I follow you wholeheartedly as Caleb did. In JESUS’ name, I have prayed, amen.

Cancer

Have you ever been disappointed at the seeming delay of a certain prophetic word? Well, sometimes, I am. Even though, this is mainly about cancer, allow me to talk about HIV as well because when I think about one I remember the word that GOD gave me concerning the two diseases. I will also refer to different prophecies that GOD has given me concerning healing.

 

22^nd December 2007

 

The lame shall walk and the blind shall see. At my appointed time, I will heal all those suffering from HIV/ AIDS, sickle cells and glaucoma.

 

November 2009

 

I AM going to heal all those suffering from HIV and all types of cancer in 2010. This shall be the beginning of the eventual victory over those and other stubborn diseases.

 

On 22 December 2007, GOD said that He was going to heal all those suffering from HIV/ AIDS, sickle cells and glaucoma. In addition to that, in November 2009, GOD said that He would heal all those suffering from HIV and all types of Cancer. A few months back, last year, He said that He was healing young boys of Leukemia. He was very clear that it was about young boys just as it was about leukemia.

 

A few months after that, still in 2014, He again spoke and said that we were in the season for Him to heal people of HIV and I wrote about it on 30^th October 2014 (HIV) on my zionmukisa.blogspot.com. He was clear that this had to do only with HIV. Even if, I really wanted to include cancer in this article GOD was adamant about the fact that He was only healing those infected with HIV at the time. I was not very happy about that.

 

Anyway, as time went on, I started hearing evidence of healing from different sources. Now, I do not know much about science or medicine but I understand that if a mother infected with HIV breastfeeds her baby, she puts it at risk of acquiring the HIV virus.

 

One testimony was from a cleaner somewhere who said that her sister who was infected with HIV, breastfed two of her children who had been born HIV free but did not infect them through her breast milk.

 

Apparently, after that, the children were tested and it was found that they did not carry the HIV virus. Even though, the one who shared the story with me did not know that what she had said as important to me, I recognized it as fulfillment of prophecy. Shortly after that, I was part of a similar scenario where a woman infected with the HIV virus but about whom GOD had spoken to me concerning her healing, insisted on breastfeeding her newborn baby. Since, I knew about her health, everything in me was screaming for her to stop but just then the Spirit of GOD told me that this was a confirmation of her healing. I know that the Spirit of GOD simply wanted me to hear the cleaner’s testimony about her sister as well as be party to this other scenario so that I would know that He was indeed doing that which He had said He would do.

 

Yesterday, Pastor Robert Kayanja gave a testimony of a ten year old girl who had been raped and infected with HIV at the age of five. He said that she was healed in one of the miracle crusades his Church held a few months back!

 

 

12^th August 2012

Using Plants

 

I will heal using plants. My voice will direct those that I have chosen. They shall pluck and many will be healed. It is not by Baal but by my Spirit. Do not be confused by Baal. Pray that my Spirit, who I have sent, guides you.

 

On 12^th August 2012, GOD said that He was going to heal using plants or herbs. Now, just a few hours back, the same woman (the cleaner) told me of certain relatives of hers who had been infected with the HIV virus but had been healed by taking herbs. I was shocked. You see, sometimes, the things that GOD says to me are so unbelievable that it has to take Him to make me believe. The mere fact that this woman shared all these testimonies with me was not a coincidence. The GOD who spoke to me about this had to make sure that I hear about it and I did.

 

You may not be aware of it, but I do not like disease and my prayer is that GOD will heal everyone infected with any incurable disease such that hospitals will remain empty. It is no wonder, therefore, that I become aggravated when I hear that someone is ill. The HIV and cancer cases unsettle me the most, so, I pray but rarely do I receive the answers that I expect especially concerning cancer.

 

Recently, my sisters’ former teacher succumbed to cancer! I only learned of his death a few hours after I had prayed for him during one of my watches... You see, I prayed that he would be healed yet he had already passed on. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. Of course, I asked GOD about His word concerning the healing of all those suffering from cancer to which He responded by telling me that it was not yet time. You see, although the words, ‘appointed time’ were a crucial part of His prophecy I did not remember them. He told me that His prophetic word is for an appointed time but that did not stop my heart from breaking. Even if, I was not closely acquainted with the man who died I was grieved about the loss for the mere fact that he had died of cancer!

 

Yesterday, I learned of the death of Rosemary Nankabirwa who had suffered from a rare type of cancer! Again, I did not know her personally but my heart broke and I again cried out to GOD. Once more, He told me that the time for the prophecy to be fulfilled was yet to come. I rested my case.

 

As if to reassure me, today morning, on my way to work, a young man passed me and took his spot ahead of me close enough for me to read the words on his T-Shirt that read, ‘Winning The Battle Against Cancer’. Finally, my spirit lifted. I immediately knew that GOD used this to communicate to me that the fulfillment of this prophecy is on the threshold only waiting to come in.

 

Today, I would like to encourage you that GOD will indeed heal all who are suffering from cancer. I honestly do not know how long it will take or how many will die before He does, but I do know that His word will not fail. I also would like to encourage you that no matter what it looks like, GOD will do that which He promised He would do in your life. He is only waiting to do it in His appointed time. Take heart and keep the faith.

 

GOD BLESS YOU.

 

Prayer

 

Dear GOD, I know that I have been disappointed that some people have died from cancer, yet you published your word of healing about this. However, I also know that your appointed time for this prophecy to be fulfilled is on the threshold. Please give me the grace to wait on you even as I keep my mind fully focused on your word.

 

King of kings, I thank you for all the promises you have made to me. I know that they too have an appointed time in which you shall fulfill them. Give me the grace to wait on your timing but also to be productive in your kingdom while I wait. In JESUS’ name, I have prayed, amen.

Do Your Words and Actions Give Life or Do They Maim Others?

John 6:63

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit [Or Spirit] and they are life”.

The one thing that brings me the most pain in Church and among believers is the fact that we spend most of our time throwing 'barbs' at one another. It is as if we suddenly became GOD! In fact, ‘delete’ that and ‘save’ because the GOD who we proclaim to love is not like that at all. GOD is a comforter and a peacemaker. GOD does not thrive on sending veiled barbs to us...Yes, even if He does convict us of sin in our lives through His Spirit He does not publicly talk about our wrongs. When GOD convicts us, He does so privately but if we refuse to listen He sends us someone – a prophet. However, even the prophet He sends has no business telling our business to others unless it is as a report or something that others can learn from. The prophet should not even rebuke us openly or preach about us on the physical pulpit or that of facebook, Twitter to mention but a few. GOD encourages us to rebuke one another privately – this is kingdom business and should not be blurted out on worldly media for all to hear! In other words, if you have a problem with the way someone else handles his or her ministry you can either pray about it or speak to that person using Godly wisdom.

Romans 8:6

“The mind of sinful man [Or mind set on the flesh] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace”.

I do not refute the fact that the Holy Spirit may use something someone has written or said to convict us but this is done at a spiritual level. If someone’s flesh sets out to fight you, your flesh will feel the barb (condemnation) but if the Spirit of GOD sets out to convict you, your spirit will feel it and be encouraged to respond by repenting and doing right. This 'thing' that the barb awakens in us is a result of the condemnation of fellow believers. We often forget that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! When we set out to correct one another from a judgmental standpoint, we end up killing instead of giving life. True, there are times when we need to be mature enough to receive correction but the person giving the correction should also be mature enough to relay it without killing the receiver. It is also without a doubt that even the most holy person may at times do something unholy but the one who rebukes must be in a position to have a holy standing that will cover the two of them and rebuke in love.

Romans 8:1-2

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, [Some later manuscripts Jesus, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit,] because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death”.

Today, my prayer is that we as Christians stop fighting one another with weapons of the flesh but with those of the Spirit of GOD. We must stop condemning one another and instead gently guide one another along the right path. Let us seek to offer peace instead of strife, subduing our flesh and nurturing our spirits so that when we act or respond we do so in the spirit and not in the flesh. Let our words give life instead of death so that those who receive them can glorify our Father in heaven.

I have reason to believe that when we get to heaven, GOD will not ask us how many people we broke, ‘policed’ or caused pain but how many we built. I believe that as our Father, GOD is more concerned about us doing good for His kingdom but also for and to one another. Stop for a moment and ask yourself if your words heal or kill (maim)? Do you set out to write just so you can fight someone else’s 'flesh'? Do your words bring peace or strife to those about whom and to whom you address them?

I want us to remember that we are not a superpower and that it is not our responsibility to fight every battle. In fact, sometimes, we are supposed to pray out one another’s weaknesses instead of silently (yet openly) declaring war.

My prayer is that we each speak words that give life and preach peace to those about whom and to whom we speak or write. Let us take off our policing attires and don our priestly garments of peace and spiritual counsel.

Prayer

Dear GOD, I admit that I have often set out to rebuke others openly and on public social networks or in the Church that I minister in. Please forgive me. I now know that you are a GOD who builds up His children all the time and that is why your word is called the Good News. You are the GOD of peace not of strife.

Heavenly Father, I also know that my calling does not lie in causing others strife by the words I say or write but in bringing peace, joy, laughter, hope, healing and faith among other things. Please give me the grace to heal instead of kill. Let my words show the world that I am indeed a messenger of peace for your kingdom.

I now choose, by your grace, to subdue my flesh and nurture my spirit. I choose to operate in the spirit and keep in step with the Spirit at all times. Almighty GOD, I choose to turn my back on those things that my flesh is quick to react to and that cause people pain. I now turn my face to the things that your Spirit, inside of me, gently reaches out for and washes clean of all dirt in order to maintain peace in your kingdom and to glorify your name. In JESUS’ name, I have prayed, amen.

Do Not Return To Where You Came From - Remain in CHRIST

Today, I had so much on my mind, which was normal since I have just ‘returned’ from seeking GOD. As I walked on wondering what exactly to share with you, I met a woman with whom I once attended the same Church.

She did not recognize me at first but after all the pleasantries she did. As you know, I am in a particular Church for as long as GOD wants me there. As soon as I have accomplished what He wants me to do there, He takes me to my next ‘post’. Now, I told her that I no longer fellowship there and she told me that she had moved back to her ‘mother Church’. Even if she is old enough to be my mother, I spoke to her in silent rebuke. I tried to tell her that what she had done had made a loud statement. Of course, as is always the case, she tried to justify herself as she gave me reason as to why she had moved back. She told me that the fellowship she used to hold at her house every week had also scattered. In fact, I would have expected her to tell me that there was some valid reason as to why she turned her back on Christ to return to ‘her mother church’ as she called it. I would have liked to ask her if her mother had died for her sins...but I only thought about that after we had parted ways.

I am telling you this because every year, I meet one or two people like her who simply wake up one day and decide to walk away and return to the vomit they left behind.  

Proverbs 26:11

“As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly”.

2Peter 2:20-22

“If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

I know I have said this before but I will say it again. When you turn back to the religion you came from, you turn your back on Christ. Christ is salvation. In fact, the name ‘Jesus’ stands for ‘GOD is salvation’. You cannot say that you have gone back to your old religion or mother Church. The mere fact that you say, ‘go back’ means that you have turned from one thing that seemed so good in the beginning to an older one that you once saw as not worthy enough to remain with. Secondly, you do not ‘own a Church’ nor does your mother!

Let me tell you this. Regardless of what religion you were ‘born in’, when you make a commitment to give your life to Christ, you make a statement. The statement you make is that ‘I have forsaken all other for Christ’. In fact, when you make that decision, you choose JESUS and not a particular sect or religion. You make a choice to relate with Him alone. Christ becomes your all in all – He becomes the foundation upon which you do everything. It is for this reason that He is called the chief cornerstone upon which the Church is built. Although, we do have buildings that we refer to as Churches, you and I are also the Church. In fact, the Church buildings would be empty if you and I did not exist. In other words, our relationship with Christ greatly determines the physical character of any Church setup, growth, and maturity.

Therefore, salvation goes beyond religion or even a building. It is a personal relationship with Christ. When we receive Christ as our personal Savior, we accept Him into our hearts. It is because of this that I say that when we decide to turn our backs on Him and ‘go back to our mother Church or religion’ we shut our hearts to Him.

I want you to remember that moment that you gave your life to Christ. I want you to remember the words you uttered when you did. You said them amidst a congregation in Church or in a Church setting. Even if you gave your life to Him in the confines of your house, the fact remains that you GAVE YOUR LIFE TO CHRIST. You made a covenant with Him. You made a promise to Him and you RECEIVED HIM. I want you to stop and think about this for a second – what would it mean if you woke up tomorrow and for some reason decided to GO BACK to wherever it was that you came from? You would have broken the covenant with the Messiah. You would have ‘reneged on the contract’ that was written and signed in His blood.

I want you to realize that it was a promise and that it is only a matter of integrity, if nothing else, for you to keep that promise. In fact the mere fact that you justify yourself about leaving salvation and returning to where you came from is in itself a warning to you that what you did was not right. You must have no reason whatsoever to justify yourself if you think that what you did is the right thing. In fact, you should not even talk about it – it is so shameful.

You cannot have known the sweetness of Christ and of salvation and then turn your back on Him. Although, I do not profess to know any of these religions I know that when you give your life to Christ there are things that you used to do that you will not do anymore.

Take for instance, before I knew Christ and gave my life to Him, I used to dress so indecently and continued to do so when I gave my life to Him. However, somewhere along the way, He changed me. He simply walked into my closet while I was getting dressed and commanded me not to put on a certain pair of trousers and to empty my closet of all miniskirts and mini suits. I must tell you that I emptied ninety-nine percent of my wardrobe and it has not yet returned to half of what I had then. However, my joy is in the fact that I now dress mostly to please my Master than anything else. In fact, the Holy Spirit will at times convict me of the length of my dresses so I have to give them away. Now, this is only a fraction of what living a life of salvation is really like. We also get to act and think in a way that is pleasing to Christ unlike how we used to behave before we gave our lives to Him. In other words, you cannot know Christ and cling on to your former lifestyle. You cannot know Christ in the real sense and then be able to turn your back on Him.

I always relate salvation to marriage. Now, when you decide to marry or get married to someone you have chosen him or her among many. If your union is divine and okayed by GOD, you (the man) are the ribcage out of which she was taken or you (the woman) are the rib that was taken out of him. You belong with each other and GOD Himself has joined you together spiritually, even before you were born, but physically when you do get married. You become one flesh and should not be separated. If we can look at salvation as the physical union between each of us and Christ, our delinking ourselves of Him would then be like divorce! However, you and I know that GOD hates divorce and equates it to violence! Why then would you want to extricate yourself from the only one out of whom you were taken or for whom you were made? When you make a decision to walk out of salvation, you are in essence saying that, ‘I made a mistake. This is not going to work because we are incompatible. Let me return to my ‘ex’ because he or she is actually better than Christ’!

When we say the sinner’s prayer, we make a vow to GOD and we should be careful to keep it.

Consequently, my dear, I need you to recommit your life to Christ. I need you to take a moment and reconsider your decision to walk away.

GOD BLESS YOU.

Prayer

Dear GOD, when I gave my life to you, I made a vow that I intend to keep. Regardless, of what trials I face, I will not turn my back on your Son. I ask you to give me the grace never to return to my vomit. In JESUS’ name, I have prayed, amen.