When God Disappears

"For he that comes to Him must believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those that deligently seek Him" para-phrased
You can't come to him except you believe that He exists or maybe you are willing to hazard this. But His existence is hinged on belief. That is, His existence to you.
The first thing (therefore) the scripture above shows is that God exists (to you) or does not exist (to you) when you either believe or do not believe.
God disappears when you stop believing. But there is a dynamic to this disappearance. He disappears when you come with a request that you do not see or get answers to.
This does not just happen immediately in most cases but it is something that gradually ebbs at the heart of belief when they repeatedly "ask without receiving". We are not looking at WHY they are not receiving but we are looking at how unbelief sets in.
Unbelief means God has stopped existing to the person that falls into it. Unbelief is a product of disappointment on the part of the person that falls into it. This is why unbelief tends to have real meaning to those who have already been exposed to the gospel rather than any other set of people. Look at the background of a man who has unbelief in God and there is every chance that you would find a time in that man's life when there was belief. But along the way, God stopped existing to that person and unbelief set in.
Therefore the effective weapon that can break the wall of unbelief is the coming alive of God in that person's life again. It is not God coming alive in their environment or in the life of someone around them but coming alive to them. Unbelief set in because of what they came to see as the silence of God. It crept in because of what they came to see as His unresponsiveness to them. Once the reverse of this silence or unresponsiveness begins to happen the hold of unbelief is broken.
Praying with Understanding
God breaking His silence or coming alive to them may not necessarily be on a matter of their own choosing or in something they had previously requested of Him. It may be just like in the case of Jonah when God made a plant to sprout one moment and then killed it and it triggered something in Jonah that opened the door for God to break through his heart. He did not break through his heart by destroying that city which was something Jonah had been requesting for.
If you know of someone being dragged into the bowels of unbelief your prayer of intercession should be that God should come alive again to that person. He should start existing again to that person. Once God does this, the hold of unbelief weakens and it can't but let go.
"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick"
Sick with what you might ask? Sick with unbelief is one of the replies. You might think that unbelief is "all on the person". That is, they brought it upon themselves and are the ones that control it as if unbelief is a human emotion or force. Well think again; unbelief is of the devil and when he speaks, he talks and sows unbelief.
"Did God say..."
"He was a ...from the beginning and when he speaks.."
Unbelief is ushered in and takes its place in the heart by the one who stands against all things godly. This is why unbelief usually takes to the heart of someone who had experienced belief at one time or the other.
The unheard cry of one bound to the chains of unbelief is that God might come alive. You can play a part in that with this understanding. God Bless.
One Word -emmanuel iweha

Your wallet; your confidence

This is just a thought that we hope will add some degree of value to the reader.

It is no gainsying that the degree of our confidence has a "mysterious" link to the size of our wallet. We may not notice this when the wallet is always full. But it suddenly comes into reckoning when we experience a depletion of the size of our wallet.
But on closer inspection, we can see that it is not really the size of our wallet that is the issue but the source. That is, even when our wallet is to our own standards, rather on the thin or skinny side, we may still have a degree of confidence that goes beyond the size.

This is because our confidence may not link to the size but the source.
If you have just a hundred of what ever currency unit and no credit card, and to your eyes that is really small, your confidence will definitely still be strong if there is a hundred thousand somewhere. That is, if the source of that wallet that only has a hundred in it is a hundred thousand somewhere, you will still walk and talk and be as confident as someone that has a hundred thousand.

It is the source that gives you confidence and not the size.

Your pocket and your wallet may even be without a dime but if you have a million somewhere, it will reflect in the way you are talking or handling an issue that is somehow connected to money. This is interesting.

"In quietness and confidence shall your strenght be"

This is really interesting because what this behaviour is saying in effect is that if we can get to know the source i.e. what we have in our 'account', it will have a direct impact on our confidence and will show in how we relate and handle things.

It is not what you have at hand that is the issue but what you have coming. It is not the amount in the wallet but what you know is coming into that wallet that gives you the confidence.
This is why someone might have a considerably fat wallet but because they know that the source has just been cut off maybe through job loss, they are still really not as confident as their wallet would suggest they should be.

Saul was king and ruled as king but he knew he had been cut off from the source and his confidence was very low even though he was king. It is not what you are now that is the issue but whether the connection is still there. It is not the size of your wallet that counts but the security of the connection you have.

"He waketh me up morning by morning.."

The connection is the key to one's confidence. It is not even what happened yesterday or past glories but your connection presently. Imagine if we can look beyond the size of our purse/wallet and know the amount in our accounts? Imagine if we can actually walk with this as it has to do with its spiritual implication? Imagine.
One Word -emmanuel iweha

Poverty

Poverty is not what a man does not have but what he cannot release.
One Word -emmanuel iweha

The Onion Effect

How many of us, when slicing an onion would suddenly stop midway and throw it away, saying "it is making me to shed tears so I threw it away"?

Would the onion become "bad" because you are crying? Would you stop and throw it away?

But you would continue slicing. The sting does not let up or get better yet you continue. The tears come flowing but you still continue. Now your nose is running but you use your apron to wipe your nose and still...you continue slicing.

You encourage yourself by saying "next time I will slice it differently so that it won't sting my eyes". But you don't stop slicing, you don't stop chopping, you make sure you get to the end of it.

At the end you are sniffing and wiping the tears but you are not angry at the onion. You might even transfer what ever aggression you have to the nearest human that needles you or gets on your nerve which is already touchy and you quickly snap at the person but you don't even think about the onion.

It made your eyes sting.
It made you cry.
It made your nose to run.
It put you in a position of discomfort.

By the next meal, you will still pick up another onion and start the journey all over again, with everything repeating itself.

Now what if it was a human being you were interacting with?

Spouse?
Friend?
Acquaintance?
Sibling?
Grown up kids?

At some point do you know what might likely happen? Yes; you will throw that relationship away.

Every "expert" will tell you to throw that relationship away.
Every natural law will tell you to throw that relationship away.
Every thing in you will tell you to throw that relationship away.

The "temptation" would then be "should I or should I not throw this relationship away?"

Throwing away never crossed your mind when it came to the onion maybe because somewhere deep down our subconscious, we just "know" that onions would make us cry. So we think about the flavor and what it adds to what is being prepared rather than the experience of getting there or making it into that meal.

We are all natural born hypocrites.

With the onions our thoughts are on the end product. We recognize and know the pain and the discomfort and the tears and ugliness with mucus dripping from the nose and the red face and even irritation at anything that moves aside from the onion. We recognize it BEFORE we interact with the onion but we go right on. We go ahead with that interaction with all the tears, irritation, ugliness and what have you.

We are all natural born hypocrites.

At the end, the fragrance that comes off the steam that escapes from the encased pot soothes your senses. Your belly (that did not complain when you were in the heat of that interaction) just knows it is going to get the flavor it has been dying for once the first spoonful gets into the receptor and goes down the funnel to finds its natural berth in it. You are happy just with the aroma alone; imagine how you will feel with the tasting?

We are all natural born hypocrites. Selah.

"Love forgiveth all things"
And we go "Yeah; right".

"Carry each other's burden"
But we go "Are you serious"?

Then there are those who believe that they too are wise. So with the first, their response will be "forgive your spouse everything except...unfaithfulness". And for the second, they will go "for each man must bear his own burden".

All these do not apply to the onion of course. Our minds are fixed on what the onion will add so what it is taking from us is something we bear and put up with. The onion showcases our natural disposition to hypocrisy and it points the way for those who want to learn one thing or the other. Selah.
One Word

The Great Theft of Satan

"The Devil only comes but to steal kill and destroy"

The greastest thing the devil has stolen and is still stealing from humanity is TIME.

"Occupy till I come" is Jesus telling the child of God to build a fotress over the greatest gift that the enemy will do all in its power and channel all his wiles and strength to take from us - TIME.

Jesus said filled up your time till I come. Time is the thing that will determine how you stand before Him and His response to you. Each man's time will be wieghed in the balance of what he pre-occupied that time with.

The parable of the master who gave talents to his servants and on coming back asked them to come give account underscores the reality that it was TIME and what they did with it that he was after and not how much they made.

Satan craves after time and wants to pre-occupy the whole world -he is succeeding. By now scriptures should be coming to your mind that brings that hidden message of TIME to the fore front.

The world is pre-occupied and we as God's light have become pre-occupied with their pre-occupation. This is a well developed and cunning devise of Satan -us being pre-occupied with the world's pre-occupation.

-This is why Christians are more interested in the entity called Isreal as it stands today that in the gospel of Christ of which any refusing i.e. Jews and Gentiles alike will perish. They are busy romanticizing Isreal, pre-occupied with every move like some star struck teen with posters of her idol pasted all about her room. They are pre-occupied with the worlds pre-occupation of either hating or loving the nation and the gospel's injunction to occupy till He comes suffers. Another success story of Satan as he keeps on stealing TIME from such people.

-This is why we are so into what the world is singing, watching and doing rather than concentrating on what we should be singing, watching and doing -TIME is being stolen from under our very noses and someone has been fooled to belief that God has called them to be moral watchdogs rather than preachers of the Word and occupiers in the occupation given. As if morality is of God or has anything to do with Him.

-This is why the child of God within his closet would spend hours on end and after he is done and reflects back on what he has done he still still can't find a reason as to why he has just gone round in a complete circle -TIME has been successfully stolen from that person and he is none the wiser.

- This is why the seed which is The TIME Occupier that has been sown in our hearts and spirits is choked and stifled from growing because other seeds which are pre-occupiers have taken root and overshadowed it.

As we speak TIME is being stolen. I dare say that there are people actually reading this very piece whose TIME is actually being stolen by the very reading of this piece because anyone that knows what is right to do and refuses to do it to that person it becomes sin. So what they are actually doing by reading this is just plain and dead religion because what they should be doing this very moment is not hidden from them.

What we just mentioned is one of the most subtle devices of Satan in stealing TIME -where the act looks and sounds holy and can't be faulted by anyone that sees you doing it but Solomon's Charge against that man stands true with such people:

"Your heart is privy of the things you have done"

They know that they are just going through the motions and those that do know are the ones that even have hope because they can change since they know. The ones in real captivity are those who actually believe what they are doing is the 'right' thing and they apply TIME to it because it has all the trappings of holiness and their 'convictions' or the opinions of men supports them. TIME, TIME, TIME is being stolen everyday and the stealing won't stop until TIME stops.

It is TIME to arise and wake for the night is far spent and the day approaches. Another word for the commandment of Jesus to occupy till He comes? It's a one-word warning; TIME.

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