Adventures of Faith

Many times, when we discuss the power of praise and how potent a weapon it is to the believer, we fail to recognize that praise itself doesn’t stand alone. We often discuss praise as a last card, it is almost as though when you have done everything you can; prayed and fasted, and you still don’t get any result, then you should switch to praise, and you will automatically get your desired result. We know well enough that praise is a powerful weapon, but how does it work really? One of the scriptures that really reinforces the position of praise is the story of Paul and Silas in Acts of Apostles 16. These men of God had been locked up in jail, and the scripture records that they sang praises to God at midnight, and other prisoners heard them. Then there was an earthquake that shattered the prison, and they were loosed from their bounds, even though they did not make their escape from prison. As we read that story in the bible, we understand that praise definitely played a vital ...

Then they asked Him, “What are we to do, so that we may  habitually be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered, “This is the work of God: that you believe [adhere to, trust in, rely on, and have faith] in the One Whom He has sent.” So they said to Him, “What sign (attesting miracle) will You do that we may see it and believe You? What [supernatural] work will You do [as proof]? John 6:28-30 (AMP) An interesting scenario plays out in our text, between Jesus and the multitude that followed Him. This happened at a time when not only had they seen Jesus perform the notable miracle of turning water to wine, He had also fed them with just five loaves of bread and two fishes. If you combine both miracles together, it means you have forever solved the most vital need of man – what to eat and drink. The multitude then approached Jesus again, and this time He opened up to them that they were seeking Him not because they saw other miracles, but because they ate bre...

Some trends have become observable among believers, particularly among young ministers of the gospel. I dealt with one of the trends in my article - Identity by association . In this piece, I will deal with another major trend that needs to be addressed. You will agree with me that the primary calling of the believer is to be with the Lord and then He can send us on assignments as it pleases Him (Mk. 3:14). This implies that your identity cannot be defined by your performance in ministry but by how much you are dwelling in Him. Today however, there are believers who are beginning to measure their success or the success of their ministry by their ability to perform, this is what I refer to as identity by performance. Your identity in Christ cannot be based on how well you can perform, but on that which God through Christ has already accomplished in your life, and the measure of your dwelling in Him. Your performance therefore doesn’t define your identity, neither is it necessari...

Written by Oluwakemi Folorunso Abraham by God’s calling had become a blessed man walking in the blessing. God appeared to him, changed his name and gave him the covenant of circumcision. One would have thought that all this will happen to just Abraham and his family, but not so, the blessing as we see it (Gen 17: 12-14) was also for as many as were with Abraham at that time. They came into the lineage of blessing simply by association with the man Abraham, they were to be circumcised just like Abraham and came under the same covenant blessing. These people who were associated with Abraham at that time including his household servants, enjoyed the most of the covenant that God Almighty gave to him. It therefore goes to show that there are associations in life that will forever set you up for the blessing, that is why you must treasure the relationships that God brings into your life and never take them for granted. In the last piece published on this blog, Identity by assoc...

God’s plan and expectation for every man is that each one will be productive in his/her life’s work, and in God’s sight, nothing will serve to justify your lack of productivity. However, there are some people who have chosen to be unproductive, but masquerade as people who are productive by their association with others who are truly productive. This is a pitfall that you must strive to avoid at any cost as it relates to your work or ministry. Being productive in your work requires some level of commitment to see progress and results. Even when these results are not forthcoming as you may have expected, the appropriate thing to do is to stay there until you get your desires results. It is possible that in the course of your waiting or putting in diligent effort, God will show you how better to strategize to get the best results in your endeavor. While this is true, some have resulted to a shortcut in order to appear productive. This they are doing by simply associating with ot...

Have you ever heard someone say “I don’t even know why God is blessing me”? Well, it may come across to you as though the person is being spiritual or trying to magnify the grace of God, but it may as well be the result of ignorance. If you don’t know why God is blessing you, then there is possibly no way you can effectively play your part in ensuring that the blessing is sustained. It is your responsibility to find out why God is blessing you. It is possible that you just begin to notice multiplied blessings in your life but if you don’t take time out to find out what actions of yours have provoked such manifestations, you will not be able to keep that blessing flowing, neither will you ever be able to help others to replicate same in their own lives. Unfortunately, believers try to spiritualize everything, no need to research, let the blessings just keep flowing mysteriously. Even organizations study to know what strategy yields the best result for them, so they can chan...

Reflecting on the church and looking at the charismatic movement in particular, you would agree with me that the knowledge of the word of God has greatly increased. It is as the scripture says in Hab. 2:14 for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. However, in reality there seem to be a gap between the spread of the word of God, and the vital manifestation in the life of believers. What then could be responsible for this gap? Well, we understand from studies in the word of God that as Christians, we have both legal and vital realities. When you read God’s word and you get a revelation, you immediately come into contact with your legal realities. But it doesn’t end there, these legal realities must translate into vital realities for the cycle to be complete. It is the failure to bridge that gap between our legal and vital realities that makes it seem as though the word of God is of no effect in our lives, thereby maki...

It is often said that the enemy of better is good, in like manner, one may conclude that the enemy of faith is mental assent. This is so because while those who are in complete unbelief know where exactly they stand and why they are unable to receive from God, the one who is mentally assenting supposes that he/she in faith, yet is still unable to receive his/her desires from God. Mental assent is so close to faith that it is often times easy to be mentally assenting to the word of God while assuming that you are in faith. Faith is a product of the revealed word of God (Rhema) to the human spirit. Faith comes when we receive light from God’s word, signifying that the word of God is crucial to building faith. As you hear and meditate or reflect on God’s word, light will come to you and faith will be there. Faith development is therefore a process of a lifetime because as long as that cycle of hearing and meditating is sustained, your faith will continue to develop. On the ot...

There are so many believers today that are confused about what true biblical faith is. This problem obviously is tied to the various teachings that we have on the subject of faith. However, regardless of what your view on the subject of faith is, there are certain things that are constant and consistent with faith. The essence of this short piece is to highlight one of the things that we know to be consistent with faith which is Rest. Faith isn’t mere boldface, it is quietness and absolute confidence in God and in His word.  One of the key indicators to know whether you are in faith or not is to check if you are rested. If you are not rested concerning any issue, then you are not in faith concerning it. Let me quickly clarify at this point before we move any further that the rest we are talking about is not synonymous to being laid back or to assume a “ce sera sera” mentality, for that is the mentality of an atheist. In his classic, Sit Walk and Stand, Watchman Nee des...

You may very well know that mountains represent obstacles, limitations or challenges in life that seem to deter you from making progress or moving forward. Sometimes, the Mountain appears so large that you begin to wonder if truly you can ever overcome it. At other times it is not only the largeness of the mountain that bothers you, but the timing and condition at which you are now confronted with it. The fact remains that the challenges of life comes to us all whether we are prepared or not. It is therefore how we handle and deal with these challenges that set the difference in our lives. It is not as though we are all confronted with the same Mountain, no, our mountains are as different as our faces, but the goal of the Mountains confronting us remain the same - to limit us. In Zechariah 4:7, ( Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain ) Zerubbabel was confronted with such a mountain and it definitely looked like a hopeless situ...

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.  Zech. 4:6 When you cross into another year as we have just done a few days ago, it may be with mixed feelings of Joy, and of pain or regret; Of joy because it is a new year and you have hope that things will be better this year than the previous years. Of pain or regret because of the things that didn’t work out in the previous year or because of the losses. However, the important thing is to focus and not allow the feelings of the past to overwhelm you. God definitely has better things He has prepared for you this year. In our text, God promised to make the impossible looking situation before Zerubbabel possible, but definitely not by Zerubbabel’s effort, it was going to be by the Spirit of God helping him. That promise still holds true for you today as a citizen of the kingdom. Go...