1 + 1

The prayer of the meditations of my heart this morning was that one
plus one should be two.

This was the theme of my morning devotion period and indeed the theme
that would follow me through today.

Maths is so beautiful. It is a world where the variables, those things
that can bring about various results to a situation if they are
changed ever so slightly can be summed up with a symbol.

Real life situations is nothing like maths. With mathmatics when you
add one to another one you get a logical conclusion and the answer is
two. With real life situations, this is not always or necessarily the
case.

We know the scripture says that whatsoever a man sows that is what he
is going to reap. But have you ever wondered why this seems to be more
so the cased when evil is sown than when good is the thing that is
sown. It is as if evil is given a right of way to produce results, so
it ends up producing results faster so much so that one plus one
almost immediately becomes two. But when it is good, certain limitatin
forces raise there head and the result does not come as fast as if it
was evil i.e. if it ever comes in the first place.

So it was a consciously clinical and deliberate effort when I prayed
this morning. There is nothing like seeing a good plan and executing
it and seeing the predictable results. But with life, if you don't get
to know that one plus one being two would almost always meet with
resistance when that one being sown is in all goodness and hope life
in itself can become a fustrating experience.

What really made that meditative prayer have a deeper effect on me was
that I was led to Psalm 13 this morning. It was the 6 verses of that
Psalm the God's Spirit used to speak to me. And I saw a man asking God
how long? The combination of the Psalm and the call that woke me up
this morning brought the prayer up from the depths of my spirit having
being incubated by God's Spirit.

You will have to pray for one plus one to be two in your life. You
would have to spiritually exert that the drama should be put paid to.
That since in the physical sciences one plus one is two then when you
sow or execute a plan that is good the expected result must come
without delay. One plus one must be two.

Not in the Fire

".... was not in the fire" of events in mount Horeb 1 Kings 19

How many times have we looked at someone or something and thought in our hearts that this must be it but it eventually turned not to be? You don't have to amswer that.
Elijah had good reason to expect to see or hear from God.
It was God who told him to come to the mountain. It was a clear cut direction and the direction came as a result of a copnversation held weeks back. He was fleeing and hiding from Jezebel when God approached him. He told the Lord his own version of the story and his thoughts about it and God as if saying that they should hold this conversation in a more condusive environment, told him to get to a mountain.

He had angelic encounter along the way. This would have further butteressed the first point. First the discussion and secondly an angel met him along the way. The angel actually roused him from sleep, indicating or implying that he was being watched over as he headed towards the point of rendevous.

He ate angel's food. Along the way, after being roused up, he was more or less served a meal in bed. He was been givem first class service all the way by spiritual beings as he was ushered on the meet The Spirit and creator of all beings. It won't be too far fetched if he imagined himself from that moment on being treated like royalty along his journey. He could have been chauffer driven in chariots of gold in the midst of an entourage and as he got to the mountains, angellic beings would line the streets and throw their robes and palm fronds on the ground as he glided by towards the majestic throne room of The Almighty.

He received miraculous strength. Who would go forty days without food and with strength and not imagine that God Himself will be waiting at the base of that mountain to lead him on to some private room to continue the discussion?
But Elijah got to the mountain. The ground shook, the wind blew and there was fire, God was in neither. Samuel saw Eliab and rose to pour the oil on his head but God was not in the fire. He looked the part and six more men of the stock of Jesse passed by, everyone of them "kings" but God was upon neither, God was not in the fire. Saul waited and waited and when he saw that men were scattering, he decided to do the sacrifice himself, God was not in the scattering, God was not in the fire.
After all this years, we still walk by sight yet God is not in the fire. We still look and judge by what we see but God is not in the fire. We say if its God then it must feel and look a certain way but God is not in the fire. This is sum of the matter: God is not in the fire.

The Expectations of Jonathan: How it Works

Quotes are paraphrased by me and may not necessarily reflect what is found verbatim. They are only meant to give an idea of what's there as it reflects what we want to share.

"..and I will be next to thee, and Jonathan went to his house, but David stayed in the woods" Jonathan

Two Principles
In every achievement in life, there are people who play various critical roles. All of these roles can be summed up in two principles; the partakers principle and the bystanders principle.
With the partaker's principle, those that fall under it are those who one way or the other, contributed directly to the aforementioned achievement. They are people who took part in not just you being where you are right now but were with you getting there.

"It is you who have followed me in all my sufferings...." Jesus
"When I sit in glory, you shall sit in twelve thrones judging Isreal" Jesus

Those that partake in that achievement, share in the glory.
The eighty men of David, indeed the whole six hundred of them had more right to partake in David's glorification ie enthronement than Jonathan.
They were partakers of his journey to the point of enthronement.

But there are those who fall under the bystander principle. These are those who are side spectators and were either passive or active spectators. These may also translate to either have a negative or 'positive' influence.

The passive bystanders don't lift a finger when it matters. They are just onlookers and people who at best can only relate an event even more accurately than most because as it were, they were there from the beginning.
"The Lord had done great things for them"
These are the passive spectators who can tell anyone who cares to listen how these people were before the Lord did great things for them. They were familiar with the state of those people before God lifted them up. They were passivie and did not really contribute anything negative or otherwise. They were just watchers.

Active Bystanders
"And when they heard that we had built the wall.....they were less than nothing ...."
the player haters during the time of Nehemiah

These were active bystanders in the negative sense because they did their best to hinder the glory of God from shining forth. They actively pursued after their failure but didn't succeed. Active bystanders don't contribute any positive thing to the cause. Rather, they interfere and may even derail the whole issue if care is not taken.

"If God were to open the windows of heaven, can these things be?" The counsellor that had the ears of the king.

Here was a man who had the ears of the king. Here he was using his position to disuade or discourage the heart of the king from believing.

The Reward of the Bystander
"You shall see it with your eyes but shall not taste of it"
The reward of the active or passive bystander is different from the active or passive partaker.
Jonathan with all his words was not a partaker as such. The expectations of Jonathan was sadly misplaced. And there are bystanders who talk like partakers and make a show of being partakers.

Your Position
The spiritual thing about this is that just as it is not your place to claim that you are either an active or passive partaker, it is also not your place to determine who a bystander or partaker is. Now it is your place to give honor to whom it is due. That is, there are those who visibly did things and should be acknowledged for what they did. But the spiritual reality is that those that walk under one principle or the other one will receive their just reward and it is not yours to give. So even of you say that so and so did so much good(or so much evil) to you in getting you to the place you are now, the real reward that will come to them is totally aside from your acknowledgement and will surely find its way home because it is what they sowed in the spiritual that would eventually manifest in the physical. Jonathan's 'prophecy' about David's enthronement came to pass but the most critical part was missing because he was not part of it. Water will find its level.
Now does this mean that you should see evil and call it good or draw it near you because you don't really know whether what you are calling evil is good? No! Evil is evil and you shall know them by their fruits.
"I will not allow any wicked thing to stand before me" somewhere in the Psalms

"If the good man of the house knew when the thief...he would not have allowed his house to be broken into" Jesus

Act in accordance with what is revealed but acknowledge everyone that visibly contributed to your achievement. The reward doesn't come from you, it comes from what they have sown in secret and not what is seen publicly that your are now acknowledging. If someone has helped you(by all visible standards), then acknowledging and even rewarding him if it's in your power to is all good and proper.

"When thou doesth good, don't do good to....lest they repay you" Jesus

So if it's in your power to repay, then don't hold back.

The partaker/bystander principle follows after everyone when it comes to their contribution to an achievement in the real sense of the word because that which they have sown will find them out inspite of what is apparent to all. It is the work of their hands that finds them out. If that man who had the kings ears had gone to hide in shame or had acknowledged the supremacy of God, he may not have died. But he still went on to find relevance in something he did not partake in, in something he chose to be a bystander on and he paid the ultimate price for it. Bystanders who force there way into partaking eventually pay the price of humiliation or worse. There are people who think that as long as some people don't know how they were just bystanders, that they can stand side by side with you as partakers. They fool themselves and are actually walking on dangerous ground. Haman was an active bystander in the upliftment of Mordecai and he too payed the ultimate price at various levels. Don't fret with those you think shouldn't be on your train. If they did visible wrong, then you have the responsibility to address them as or with such and deal with that issue squarely.

"But it was you o my friend, we used to walk to the house of the Lord together...take sweet counsel together"
"If it were my enemy, I would have hid myself from him"

Address the issue and take the expected action when it is evidently seen. But as for the rest, there works will find them out and they won't enter into a place that is not there's. And them doing so would only translate to certain destruction because the scripture cannot be broken. Thank you

The Milk, The Honey and The War

"And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee......when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the Lord thy God hath promised thee" Deut. 27: 2&3
Do not allow the milk and honey to becloud your mind from the reality of the war you must need go through. It would have been very easy to take the fulfilment of the promise as so much as a time of celebration that the sobering reality of the war to come would be entirely missed.
The first time they turned their backs from the promise was simply because the saw giants living in the land. They could not connect the dotted lines; there are giants (to conquer) waiting at the entrance of every promise. This is probably why the events that led to them crossing the Jordan, and that occurred when they were about doing so were sombre issues just like the case of the instruction to build an alter after crossing and the curse and blessings from the mountains. It was as if God wanted their feet to be on the ground even while what they had been anticipating all their lives was about taking place.
This is very instructive because every crossing of the Jordan in our walk with God does not just talk about the fulfilment of a promise as it has to do with milk and honey, but it also guarantees a war. Your mind could be so set on the milk and honey that it is caught unawares by the war and the offence this would create could make one loose the promise or become enslaved in the land of promise.
If you don't look to the battles that comes with the promise and fulfilment of wealth in your life, that wealth could end up enslaving you, having fallen victim to the battle. This is a categorical statement; there is no fulfilment of a promise that doesn't come with its own war i.e the war comes hand in hand with the promise. To enjoy that promise, you must have victory in the war. To have victory in the war, you must fight with respect to instructions.
The reality of events in the old testament still continues now. The promise has been there for long and its now being fulfilled. Don't focus on it; be ready for the war.
"If riches increase, set not your heart on them" somewhere in the Psalms
Be ready for the war. The war is actually the first thing that meets you while the fulfilled promise is the first consciousness that you have. So they crossed the Jordan as promised but came to the plains of Jericho, it was war already. Look out for the war, it's there. The conflict starts from our own members jumping for attention and wanting to binge on the promise. Don't give in to them, it's the war first and you would need a war/battle plan just like Joshua.
God will always prepare you for the war because He knows that it's the war that will determine the direction of the promise or how the promise will affect your life. You will come into your land of milk and honey but never forget the war.

The Reality of Hell

'I just don't see how a loving God will send His creation to a place called hell' the common thought of the illogically minded

God is love. Jesus is love. What is 'love'?
"I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except by me" Jesus.
This same Jesus said of hell "...where the worms dieth not..."
This same Jesus talked about hell and judgement. Encountered a rather interesting person who asserted that he didn't believe that the whole of the bible is the word of God. He then went on to specifically mention the 'old testament' as being the one he was was referring to in a particular. He also separated the 'new testament', dividing the gospels from the epistles(he had some issues with Paul).
Now after extolling the words and person of Christ, he then went on to run his own version of the quote above, of how God can not and will not 'condemn' of 'judge' anyone or consign them to such a place as hell.
So we went into a discourse. The first thing was to start from the partitioning of the scripture and selecting one portion as being more 'authentic' than the other.
If some part of the scripture is not 'authentic', how can you say for certain that its the words of Christ that you seem to approve of that is the one or portion that is authentic?
And on the matter of hell and judgement, Christ talked about them clearly. So where does that stand in the scheme of things seeing that he underscored there reality.
He then went on to dispute some of the words 'attributed' to Christ(!). So in effect, every thing that you approve or that agrees with your own contraption of 'love' that Christ talked and 'supported' are the ones you agree with but those He spoke of that contradicted your own perception and belief must have been 'attributed' to Him by someone who added it there.
So what you are actually following is a Christ and a God that is of your own design.
"But if someone preaches another Jesus...." Paul
If there is light then should there be 'darkness'? Even matter has anti-matter or does not science agree with the idea of a balance? Or should there not be a reciprocal, an antagonist? Our humanity teaches and shows us contradictions and opposites yet there are those who don't believe in the reality of hell.

WORLD PEACE?

"For when they shall say peace......" Some where in the scriptures

Will there ever be world peace? Yes. Betterstill, there will be a consciouness and sudden realization of that peace because at some point "they shall say peace".
To say peace implies that certain critical things have taken place. For them to come to that point where they will say "peace", then 'war' or what they call war would have been taken out of the way. The thing of offense, the very thing of conflict would have been got rid of for them to say "peace".
They can not say peace in isolation. It has to be linked to a consciousness they have of their own definition of the antagonist of peace being taken out of the way before they can look about them and declare "peace".
Now this "peace" won't be the peace of God even if they might assume it to be. It would be the peace of this world, of their own morality and according to the definition of what they call peace which spiritually speaking would not be related in any way to anything that God calls peace. outwardly, it may appear to be godly, it may appear to be but may not necessarily be because in the book of revelations, when the prophet was killed and left to rot people celebrated and sent gifts to each other. That is a typical situation when they can say "peace".
But when humanity generally mouths the word peace they are usually directing their attention to humans of all races living in perfect harmony. They are looking at a time when wars and crime would be obsolete because humanity had come into a 'higher consciousness' aided by technology and consensus. They are actually looking at the pre-babel era(there is nothing new under the sun) when humanity was one and moved in the same direction as one.
World peace? Not in reality but they will see it or see their own definition of it so much so that they can declare and say "peace" but "when they shall say peace then sudden destruction will come upon them".
World peace then? Never.

Word Work

"Without faith it is impossible to please God" somewhere in the book of hebrews
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The problem The Word has with us is that we want to work for it, rather than it working for us.
We work for The Word but The Word is designed to work for us. The conflict that ensues sadly cancels everybody out. That is both our work and The Word.

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"The Word of God is quick and active.." Somewhere in the new testament
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The Word is alive. Its primary assignment towards God's people is to work for them. The problem is we think we are to work for it and we go about doing this.
The importance of what we are talking about demands that we take this slowly and explain it gradually and systematically.

First: The Scenario
A man is believing God for something. He comes to God in prayer and makes his request known(with thanks giving). Then he goes about 'trying' to look for ways and means to see that he sees the fruition of what he has just prayed for.

The Word wants to work FOR us. That is when it is in its element

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"In the beginning was the word....there was nothing that was made that wasn't made by the Word" the first chapter of John
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The Word was at its element then and the worst thing you can do to the Word is to stop it from breathing. The Word breathing is the Word living. The Word living is The Word being allowed to be in its element. The word being allowed to be in its element is you allowing the Word to Work for you.

The Word doesn't need helpers. The word functions when it creates. It wants to create but when you go about creating you are sending mixed signals

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"A double minded man will receive nothing from God" somewhere in the new testament
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The word works and will continue to work. But the work of the Word in you is you believing that it can accomplish what it is designed for without your interference.

Second: The Word Instructs
That's part of it living and being in it's element. Your part is to follow the instruction and not to give The Word direction. The power and enablement to follow that instruction that comes from The Word resides in The Spirit. It is not you as in self but The Spirit of God that is the power of The Word. The Spirit enables you.
The Spirit enabling you is you hearing from it and following His leading in going about accomplishing The Word. The Word needs you to let this happen so that it can work. It doesn't need you to work for it. The Word works for us, let it work for you.

The Bronze Serpent

'And Moses made a bronze serpent...those that looked on the serpent when biten by the serpents were saved' paraphrased by me from somewhere in the Old Testament
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The serpent was on a pole and when they looked out towards it direction, it was with hope. There is always a bronze serpent, hanging on a pole. Something that is set before us to look unto with hope. It is almost always far away yet close enough for us to be inspired to hope, wait, believe....continue. At times we never attain to that thing in that particular moment in time and there are even other times when they loose there significance like a high school crush that makes you spend a bit more time making sure you look good enough before leaving home for school. Yet the moment passes, nothing really happened with that 'bronze serpent' you kept on looking at and now you can look back with hindsight and say, well it kept you and indeed helped you to look good those days. It is no longer relevant now and the crush is something that you can shake your head over.
Now maybe the anology is not on point. The bronze serpent actually healed people. But that is just what we are talking about, something that God places before us that He maybe knows that we would never get if He has any say in it but it works in keeping us in shape...until the period passes. As we look, we hope and as we hope we purify ourselves. So in a way it is healing, keeping us in the shape God would want. We might want it terribly then but the period passes.
We do find such situations in our lives every now and then, but it is only after the passage of time that we can really look at them and they really become to us like that high school crush we talked about.
We are in effect prisoners of hope until the day we enter into the rest of God. That rest maybe His perfect will for us in a situation or what we will get by and by. But the point is He places those bronze serpents so close yet just out of reach so that we may keep alive and be in that state of anticipation till His time comes. This is a food for thought. God may not be in the whirl wind, fire or earth quake but those things keep our hopes alive until the still small voice comes, until expectations are met and surpassed. May His Love preserve you. Amen.

Unclothed

All scripture quotes are taken from the KJV except otherwise stated.(Some could be paraphrased by me and without necessarily quoting or showing where they are taken from)
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"And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in his shepherd bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the philistine" 1 Sam. 17:38-40
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Saul wanted David to go into battle with his own equipments. He took time to clothe David according to his own experience and desires, life does not necessarily work out this way. Your experience may be invaluable to the next person, but we can see here that Saul's experience could have meant certain death to David had he taken it on into battle.
There is nothing wrong with discipleship of mentoring as such, but the scripture above tells us that we must take care to know where we draw the line or else we will be sending people into battle with the wrong equipment.
Now to Saul, he was even honoring David and doing his best to give him everything he needs to deal with the foes he was about coming up against. But the spiritual and physical reality shows that the very things he was been given would have become the very things that would have destroyed him.

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"Take heed how ye hear..." Jesus
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There is an annointing in you that teaches you all things and any other thing outside of that Annointing is meant to complement or equip you in line with the trainings or teachings of that annointing.

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"I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them" David
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God had been preparing him for such a time as this, but He had been preparing him with another set of equipments and not what Saul handed down to him. Saul had a dream and wanted David to fufil it. To him, he already had a set notion of how David should engage the enemy, and he would have sent David to war with his own set notion of how David should go about fighting in that war.
David had a destiny and Saul's dream would have derailed it. May your destiny not be derailed by someone's dream. This is a prayer that many have failed to watch over in their lives.

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"I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them" David
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Here was a boy, someone who had barely left his teens telling the annointed king over Isreal that this battle was his to fight and what he will use was his decision to make and to the king's credit, he accepted it. But today, grown up men cannot look at their pastors or who ever they have submitted to and tell them God's truth, even that which is written in black and white. You must get your loyalty straight or else you may end up making a shipwreck of your God given destiny whilst chasing after and fulfilling another man's dream.
And how many men today in the position of King Saul in the lives of others would even backdown from the initial position the King took? Would you have backed down or would you have gone into another sermon on loyalty and refusal to be mentored or discipled? Would you not have taken offense that your 'boy' could reject your 'supreme' command and that in front of so many people?

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" As touching our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren: but his will was not at all to come at this time; but he will come when he shall have convenient time" 1 Cor. 16:12
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Spiritually speaking, Apollos was his spiritual grandchild yet he could say no to Paul and The Apostle did not take offense at this.
After all is said and done, everything and everyone about you is meant to help you in the fuifilling of your God given destiny. And in the end, everyone will answer for themselves. David refused the dream of Saul because he had his own. His path was different and eventhough he had to meet Saul to help him along the way, him meeting Saul was not to exchange his destiny and dream for that of Saul's. This is something any onyone under the pursuit of God and his God given purpose should take to heart. Thank you and God bless.