Losing My Religion

Belated Happy New Year!!

I’m back to blogging again. Thank you to everyone who’s been reading…I’m quite surprised at the amount of daily visitors on this blog because I’ve not been writing at all. But thank you again!

2015 was a tough year for me. I went through A LOT spiritually. I feel like God allowed me to go through certain trials in order to redefine what I call Christianity. I’ve always been an advocate for knowing God personally (for yourself) but I guess I didn’t understand what this meant; in fact, I think I’m still learning.

The Myth of Singleness by Dr. Myles Munroe

Recently a friend of mine referred me to this amazing teaching by Dr Myles Monroe. In this teaching, Dr Monroe said the reason why he and his wife had been successfully married  for such a long time was because they were both still single. This is a valuable teaching for definitely those who are still waiting for their spouse. As for those who are already married, this teaching is definitely still applicable to your self development; this self development will ultimately improve your relationship with your spouse. I loved these teachings and I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I did!

Stay blessed!

The Power Of A Focused Life

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I love the festive season and I had a great time.

I’m sure you’ve all made your new year’s resolutions by now. Nevertheless, may I suggest that you should take an even bigger step by writing yourself a life action plan? Mike Bickle has an awesome teaching called: The Power of a Focused Life. I would encourage you to follow the link and listen to the teaching.

Personally when I heard that message, it really inspired me to live a life of purpose. I wanted to become someone who lives with intentionality. So then I followed Mike Bickle’s recommendations and wrote my life plan. It took a while because I invested prayer into understanding what my life vision should look like.

Journaling

Hello everyone, sorry I haven’t been so active on my blog lately. However, I have been very busy with Heaven’s Talk. I’m very excited to re-launch Heaven’s Talk with exclusive interviews from great people of God such as Martin Smith (from Delirious?), Kirk Franklin, Philippa Hanna and many more! We will be covering so many different topics such as self-worth, racism, worship, self-harm and anxiety problems. I’ll keep you updated as to where and when Heaven’s Talk will be broadcasting this upcoming year.

Anyways today I just wanted to write about the importance of journaling. Journaling is simply writing about your daily experiences or reflections in a journal/diary. I used to think that this was for kids and so I often said that I outgrew my diary days. Nonetheless, I wasn’t aware of the benefits of journaling.

A few months ago, I was listening to the Jesus Culture Leadership Podcast when Doctor Heather Ridnour taught on the science of gratitude. In a nutshell, she outlines that we cannot experience negative and positive emotions together at the same time. Therefore when we cultivate a heart of gratitude (through intentionality), we displace negative emotions within us.

Worship and the Presence of God – Benny Hinn (Part 3)

We have been looking at Benny Hinn’s teaching on worship and the presence of God. We have had part one and part two so be sure to read through those articles before reading this one if you want to fully understand this topic. I greatly recommend this topic to worship leaders. This is such an important topic for every believer – especially if you lead people into the presence of God in worship. In a nutshell, we have looked at the outer court and the Holy place. We left off at the altar of incense and now we are finally entering into the Holy of holies.

The Holy of Holies

Worship belongs only to the individual. Nevertheless, unlike thanksgiving and praise, worship is the utterance of the heart (not lips!). Massive difference. Worship can ONLY be done by the heart. Kim Walker Smith teaches that activities such as singing, dancing or art are simply expressions of worship. However, worship itself is from the heart, it is that relationship you build with God which becomes more intimate as a result of continual fellowship. Worship is related to God’s holiness and is done in the Holy of holies, where God dwells.

As aforesaid, it is at the altar of incense that you are stripped bare. It is at the altar that your spirit comes alive in the presence of God. This is where the revelation of God’s holiness becomes so tangible that one’s spirit begins to intercede on this revelation. This intercession becomes worship. And that is how one enters into the Holy of holies. To elaborate, intercession becomes worship and worship becomes intercession. When your incense [your intercession: your worship] begins to rise, you are led by the Spirit from the Holy place to the third realm: the Holy of holies.

Worship and the Presence of God – Benny Hinn (Part 2)

This is a continuation of the teaching by Benny Hinn that I posted last week entitled: Worship and the Presence of God. Last week we looked at the outer court: the gates, the courts, the altar, the laver and then we finished at the doorway into the Holy Place. In this article, we will cover the Holy Place. Again, in order for you to fully understand this teaching, you should watch the video teaching alongside.

The Holy Place

The body is active at the outer court but during the process of thanksgiving, praise, sacrifice and sanctification, the flesh is dismantled. Therefore as you walk into the Holy Place you leave the body behind. Remember, it is at the altar that we surrender the flesh. Additionally, now you have no pollution as a result of the cleansing at the laver. So as you enter the Holy Place, your soul now comes alive.

Remember that in the outer court, many could gather but now only few can gather in the Holy Place. As you get closer to God, the crowd gets smaller. Consequently, although you can praise with a multitude in the outer court, you serve with only a few. In the Holy Place only 10 can gather; as this was a place of service it demonstrates that you can serve with a group.

Worship and the Presence of God – Benny Hinn

I have been thoroughly listening to Benny Hinn’s teaching on worship and the presence of God. This teaching is absolutely amazing because it outlines the correct roadmap – the only way – which leads into the presence of God. As a worshiper myself, I have found this teaching extremely helpful because I have discovered that true worship cannot even take place if the steps outlined by Benny Hinn are not followed. I have enjoyed this teaching so much that I have played it over and over again – in fact, I will continue to make reference to it in my personal prayer and worship times. I want to share these notes that I have made for those who learn like me – by reading. You can use this article (which is a written version of the teaching by Benny Hinn) as a guidance during your attempt at applying the process outlined in your personal prayer and worship sessions. Please note that you must watch the video teaching otherwise some points may not make sense because Benny Hinn uses the Tabernacle whilst he teaches. You can watch before you read this or as you read this. Enjoy!

God is longing to restore to his church both his presence and his power. There are major differences between the two:

• Power – God’s power is not for you, it is for those around you. God demonstrates his power through people but this is only to touch the world around those people.

• Presence – God’s presence however is for you. When you are in God’s presence you are changed, nourished and in his presence you are maintained. This is where God feeds you, keeps you and transforms you. This is where God keeps you alive – your spirit being.

Heaven is For Real

Hello people!! Sorry I haven’t been able to post on my blog for a while now. I have recently moved to a new city so I have been really busy. Just a quick one today. I recently watched ‘Heaven’s for Real’ and it really stirred up my faith. I recently wrote on a topic I entitled ‘Focus’; in my opinion the message encoded in this movie is quite similar to that post.

A young boy, Colton Burpo, went to heaven whilst in a coma. However, when he regained consciousness, his parents and those surrounding the family doubted his accounts concerning his experience in heaven. The people around Colton Burpo, aged 4 at the time, focussed on his age and dismissed the idea that God could use him to reach out to the world. It was rather strange that none of them prayed about it or even sat the boy down to fully listen to his experience. It was after a long while that his dad, a Pastor, decided to pray about it. Even so, it took a while for the church to accept that God had actually used this young boy.

God’s Not Dead: the Cosmological Argument

Certainly the question of God’s existence crosses each person’s mind irrespective of whether you were born into a Christian household or not. We wonder if it is really true that there is a God and question whether we would be wasting our lives worshipping a non-existent God. It is a question that determines our final destination according to Saint Augustine. It is when we choose to either believe in God or reject him that our eternal home is prepared: heaven or hell. Some say that God is not as merciful as he claims to be if he sends people to hell; nonetheless, it is not that God is not merciful. His mercy was poured out for us on that cross; Jesus suffered more than any words could ever explain just to redeem you and I. When you choose to reject him now, in this life, you choose the devil’s side. That side is the side of rebellion and sin. What you are screaming to God is that “I do not want your goodness and I will take whatever consequence”. How is it that you can call him unmerciful? He is love but will not allow those who reject him to corrupt the paradise he prepared has for his children.

FOCUS

Please have open Mark 5:1-20.

Imagine a viciously strong man who is unclothed, has an overgrown beard and knotted wild hair, has scars and blood covering his whole body, is repulsively smelly as a result of not bathing for God knows how long and this person being deafeningly loud. Imagine this man charging towards Jesus in full speed. And when he gets close enough he falls to his knees and bows before Jesus, face down, and worships him. At once, I can just envision a moment of silence and reverential respect. The word ‘worshipped’ there in the KJV is ‘prosekynēsen’. It means to bow oneself in adoration, it is to worship and adore, paying reverence, or homage by kissing the hand and it can be by prostration.

Notice there was no word spoken to him; Jesus was busy getting off his boat and this possessed man noticed Jesus and then began to run towards him. I believe this was a man desperate for relief and deliverance from this evil that possessed him; perhaps it was at the sight of the saviour that he was compelled to respond to such a force of hope and life. Jesus is truth. In the book Intimacy my spiritual mother, Prophetess Beverly Angel, teaches about Jesus being the truth – a force of life. When this man looked up he saw truth, truth embodied. I know this because of John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” For me truth just summarises who God is. When I am in his presence and I encounter this truth, Jesus, I am complete because everything bows to truth. Hence why this man, and all the demons within him, bowed before Jesus: the truth. 1 John 4:8 is one of my favourite scriptures, it states “God is love”. Those three words change everything for me; when I look at scripture with this in mind it changes everything! Now I really see a lost soul possessed by so much evil but then awakened because he felt love approaching. I can just see a man running to love in order to feel and experience love. The worship he offered was heartfelt but more importantly this man was longing to be touched – to be loved.