Month: May 2020

Ephesians 4:32 – “And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

When I became a Christian, I had a big problem with the concept of forgiveness, not for myself but for other people. I was surrounded by women who had the most horrendous things done to them as children. One of the worst stories I ever heard was from a lady whose mother got her addicted to heroin at the age of seven and sold her into prostitution. How could God expect her to forgive her mother? How can God expect the parents whose child has been murdered to forgive the perpetrator? I could not reconcile with this, and I still don’t have the answers. I can only assume that God will empower those who come to Him with the supernatural strength to do so.

Despite how difficult it is, as with every God given command, there is a principle behind it. According to the American Psychological Association, forgiveness is connected to the mind and body, unforgiveness is linked to chronic anger, anxiety, depression, a weakened immune system and a host of other negative physical ailments. Therefore, forgiveness is not about the other person, it’s about you. In my last blog post I wrote about vengeance. The same principle applies here, when someone has wronged you, it is only normal that you are going to want to get revenge on that person. The desire to want revenge only leads to anger, but once you have got revenge you are still angry. I met a woman in prison who had killed a man for raping her daughter, she had a life sentence, and even though she was satisfied with the fact that the perpetrator was dead, she was still very angry.

Forgiveness is not about weakness and accepting defeat, it is freeing yourself from the negative feelings attached to what the other person has done to you. Click To Tweet

Forgiveness is not about weakness and accepting defeat, it is freeing yourself from the negative feelings attached to what the other person has done to you. It doesn’t mean that you should become their best friend, forgiveness is not about reconciliation, especially if you are at risk. It is about allowing God to take control; He said that “vengeance is mine,” so trust and do believe that the person who has wronged you is not going to get away with it.

I had to forgive my prosecutor and judge for conspiring to ensure that I was convicted. I was able to forgive them for two reasons; first, I understand that we do not fight against flesh and blood, and that anyone who attacks me is being used by the devil. Second, I can now see the benefits of my incarceration; and in fact, I am grateful that they sent me to prison because I wouldn’t be the person that I am today if I had gone home when I wanted to.

I am in no way suggesting that forgiveness is easy, but what I do know is that the Spirit of God has changed my perspective in many areas. With man, it might look impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

May God bless the hearers and the doers of His word.

Romans 12:19 – “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” says the Lord.”

I used to be a fighter, you couldn’t say one bad word about me, my family, my friends or Michael Jackson (I am his greatest fan), without getting a black eye. If I so much as heard that someone might have said something, that person was either getting a phone call, I would turn up outside their school, or I would show up on their doorstep! I was always involved in some type of drama and would fly off the handle if I thought I was being attacked in any way. I spent the majority of my time and energy fighting. My friends knew who to call if they needed backup, whether night or day, I would be there ready to throw the first punch. In fact, most of my friends didn’t need to fight their own battles, because I would fight on their behalf.

I had stopped fighting long before I went to prison, I grew out of it, but I was still involved in verbal wars. I would let some things slide, but most of the time, it was very easy to get a reaction out of me.

People pretty much left me alone in jail, I stood on the side lines and observed the culture of the institution and learnt very quickly that if you stay to yourself, and don’t talk too much, you can avoid getting on anyone’s bad side, and so that’s exactly what I did. But when I met Jesus and started speaking to the women about God, that is when the attacks came.

There were many instances where women attempted to destroy my reputation. I used to hold a prayer circle once a week, and one lady (a very well respected inmate due to the length of time she has been incarcerated), decided to go from cell to cell and tell them that they shouldn’t attend the prayer circle because I was a killer, that I was evil and that I was praying to demons to ensure that no one got out of jail because I knew I was going to prison for life. That evening, very few women attended the prayer circle.

My instincts were to approach the lady, and then go around the dorm defending myself. But the Holy Spirit had given me a clear word regarding the situation. First, Ephesians 6:12 states, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” The battle is not physical, it is spiritual, but the devil and his demons can not do their work unless they have a willing human vessel to work through, so when Christians are under attack for no other reason other than the fact that they are born again and trying to do the work of the Lord, it is important to understand that those attacks are coming from the kingdom of darkness. The devil knows that there is nothing he can do to Jesus because He is seated at the right hand of the Father, but as every parent knows, if you want to hurt them, touch their children. Not only does the devil want to hurt Jesus, he also wants to ensure that the bound remain that way. And what better way to do so than to tarnish the name of the people who are delivering the Gospel?

Since I knew that I wasn’t fighting a physical battle, prayer became my weapon. Instead of trying to vindicate myself, I gave it to God. Click To Tweet

Since I knew that I wasn’t fighting a physical battle, prayer became my weapon. Instead of trying to vindicate myself, I gave it to God, and not only did he vindicate me, the following week, the person spreading the rumours not only came and apologised to me but went around calling the prayer group in the evening and joined the prayer circle every week after that! There was not one woman left in the dorm during prayer time! Praise Jesus! “When a man’s way’s please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with Him.” – Proverbs 16:7.

Choose your battles wisely, allow God to fight for you and you will see the salvation of the Lord!

May God bless the hearers and the doers of His word.

1 Corinthians 7:2 – “Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.”

A couple of days ago, one of my non-Christian friends asked why Christians don’t believe in sex before marriage. She had some very valid arguments as to why it didn’t make any sense; such as, why would God create humans to be sexual beings and start experiencing sexual feelings at a young age if we are not allowed to use it?

I have done a lot of research into this issue, namely because I don’t believe in blind faith. I question everything for several reasons; for one, I got saved in 2012, prior to this Christians were always ministering to me. But I found that when I asked them certain questions, they gave me vague responses such as, “Because that is what it says in the Bible.” These answers gave me no incentive to want to follow Christ as my inquisitive mind was not satisfied with what I was hearing, I wasn’t a believer and couldn’t relate to what they were saying. So now that I am saved, I have spent many years studying why God gives us specific instructions, and what I have discovered about the biology of sex is very interesting.

As we know, God created sex for marriage; however, due to societal and cultural influences, we have been conditioned to think differently about it. Christian counsellor Waylon Ward refers to this dilemma as the, ‘Pickle Principle.’ He explains that cucumbers become pickles by soaking them in water, brine vinegar and spices for a certain amount of time. Ward describes humans as pickles; in other words, we have been transformed into something that God did not intend. We have been soaked in the brine of a culture that devalues sex, and as a result, we have absorbed its beliefs and principles.

This brine includes the notion that our bodies belong to us; and therefore, we have the right to do as we please with them, and this includes having sex with whoever we desire. These ideologies are delivered through movies, TV and music, we are told that sex is the ultimate form of pleasure, and as long as we are of the legal age, we can indulge in it as often as we like. In other words, the main aim of sex is for satisfaction, which reduces humans to objects of sexual gratification.

However, the Christian perspective is that sex is for marriage, and pleasure is the by-product of this union. God did not only create sex for procreation, it is also deeply satisfying; our heavenly Father strategically designed the male and female body to compliment each other with hormones to initiate the desire for sex.

You will often hear the words, “soul tie” spoken from the pulpit when this topic is discussed, but rarely will you hear an explanation as to why it is referred to as a ‘soul tie.’ For those of us who have had sex outside marriage, we know that we still have an unexplainable connection with the people we have slept with, even if we don’t like them.

In his book, “Change Your Brain Change Your Life,” Daniel Amen explains that when a man and a woman have sex, there is a release of the hormone oxytocin which creates a limbic emotional bonding between two people. One of the reasons why it is so much easier for men to have one-night stands is because women have a larger limbic system than men, which causes her to form emotional attachments faster. Another hormone released during sex is dopamine, it is responsible for causing addiction because it activates the reward centre in the brain when a goal has been accomplished. This is one of the reasons why pornography is such a destructive behaviour, and why people are constantly chasing one-night stands – they are addictive. But these hormonal and neurological consequences were designed to create a bond between husband and wife. But for the man or woman watching pornography or having a one-night stand, that bond is formed with the image on the screen or the person they have met and the biological response that was intended for marriage gets hijacked by ungodly practices.

That is the biological side, the physical consequences are much more serious. As you are aware, there is a worldwide problem with abortion, adoption, single parent families, rape, sexually transmitted diseases and much more. I won’t bore you with the statistics, because I think you get my point.

God created us, and He knows what’s best for us,  when we choose to live outside of His will, there are going to be consequences. Click To Tweet

God created us, and He knows what’s best for us, when we choose to live outside of His will, there are going to be consequences.

May God bless the hearers and the doers of His word.

Revelation 20:15 – “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Even as a believer in Christ, I often wonder why a loving God would sentence people to burn in hell for eternity? I know some really nice people who are not believers, they help the needy and they are very decent human beings, but they don’t believe in Jesus, and they have very valid reasons not to. However, some time ago, I was given this revelation, and I want to share it with you.

Imagine that you lived in a neighbourhood where nobody spoke to you because you were different to everyone else, they would avoid you in the street, never invited you to any of their gatherings, and said terrible things about you behind your back. But what they didn’t know is that you had a certain amount of power giving you access to a HD TV screen in your house where you could see into every home on your street. Day in and day out, you watched what your neighbours did without them knowing.

The lawyer down the road with a wife and two children spent his evenings verbally abusing his family, but on the surface, their household looked perfect. Number 44 got a kick out of stealing random items from work, the residents at number 46 appeared to be the nicest people in the world, but they would smile in your face and speak all manner of evil against you behind closed doors. Number 48 was an accountant but a secret cocaine addict, some where genuinely nice people, but they were advocates of immoral sexual practices.

One day, there was a tornado, and everyone’s house was blown away apart from yours. All your neighbours came and knocked at your door asking for a place to stay, what would you say? You would say no, not because you are being mean, but because you’ve got children and you don’t want your house contaminated by liars, alcoholics, drug addicts, thieves and people who no matter how nice they are in other areas of life, don’t have your best interests at heart. Therefore, you shut the door.

Similarly, if your household has rules and standards, you are not going to allow people into it who break them and have no regard for how you choose to live. As simplistic as it sounds, God is no different, when we leave this earth, we will be ushered into the presence of the one who created us. Back to my revelation, the earth has been destroyed, and the only place still standing is the house of the Lord. But many of those who are knocking on His door have said terrible things about Jesus, they avoided their Christian neighbours because they were different, they don’t know anything about God or the way He expects them to live, but they want to come into His house. Psalms 66:1 states, “Heaven is my throne,” in other words, heaven is God’s house, why would He allow anyone into it who refuses to live by His standards? God threw Satan out of heaven for this very reason, so allowing those who have not lived a life that is pleasing to Him while they were on earth into His dwelling place would only stand to defile His holy temple. Therefore, He must shut the door.

But why hell? Isn’t there somewhere else for them to go? I can’t answer that question, all I know is that hell was not created for mankind, it was created for the devil and his angels, and if the soul lives for eternity, it’s got to go somewhere, and according to the bible, it’s either heaven or hell.

May God bless the hearers and the doers of His word.

Psalms 91:11 – “For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.”

Every believer has an assignment to complete on the earth, you were not saved just to go to church every Sunday. You have a specific mission that you must fulfil during your lifetime. The minute you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour; God dispatched angelic protection to assist you with your work. There are countless stories in the bible of angelic beings helping the people of God. There are also many testimonies today of believers receiving angelic protection during times of need.

However, it is your responsibility to activate the angels that have been assigned to you. We read in the book of Daniel that when he began to pray, the Lord heard him immediately (Daniel 10:12), when the archangel Gabriel was commissioned to deliver the answer to Daniel, he was intercepted by demonic forces and they fought for 21 days (Daniel 10:13). During that time, Daniel was in prayer and fasting. I believe that his prayers empowered the angels to keep fighting on his behalf.

Think about it, God is the most powerful being in the universe, Satan himself can not stand against Him, so why is it that Gabriel had to send for Michael to assist him, why didn’t he just ask the Father to destroy the demon so he could go and deliver the message to Daniel? Because it is the words from our mouths that strengthen angelic forces.

In Psalms 103:20 we read – “Bless the Lord you His angels, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word.” The dictionary definition for the word ‘heed’ is ‘to pay attention to.’ So, the angels of the Lord pay attention to, and listen for the ‘voice of His word.’ Which means anytime they hear the word of the Lord, whether it comes from heaven or earth, they are activated.

Ephesians 6:17 states, “And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” In this verse, the Apostle Paul is referring to the bible as a weapon, and weapons are only used to fight. In my mind, I envision swords being released in the spirit realm every time we speak the word of God, these swords are captured by our angels and used to fight against the demonic forces that have been assigned to hinder the plan of God in the lives of believers.

If you fail to use the word of God, you render the angels powerless to assist you in the earth. The police are there to protect and serve, but if you call them and don’t tell them what you need, they can’t help you. Angels are no different, they won’t move until you speak which means they are hanging around with nothing to do. So make a habit of releasing the word of the Lord over your life and over your situation and watch how quickly things begin to turn around.

May God bless the hearers and the doers of His word.