Greater Things Shall Ye Do

As a young believer, I was fascinated with the stories in the bible. How can God though Moses divided the red sea and the children of Israel walked in the midst with pillars of sea of sea on both sides, the crumbling of the wall of Jericho just by “mere” shout and some other miracles recorded in the bible. Even though Jesus have been promised to be crucified from the foundation of the world, His birth by Virgin Mary is incomprehensible and a miracle (Luke 1:27, Revelation 13:8). Baby Jesus grew up in favor and stature and was about His Father’s business. He started his Ministry at the age of 30. Within 3 years, His fame spread around Jerusalem healing the sick, the deaf and blind. He performed various miracles some recorded in the bible. He completed His ministry on the planet called earth when He breathed the last and said it is finish (John 19:30). Our salvation and salvation was completed on the Cross of Calvary.

His last commission to every believer is to go into the world and make disciples of all Nation (Matthew 28:19). Some are passionate about this especially the missionaries whereas others are indifferent about it. How can we preach to the poor when we ourselves are poor? How can we preach to someone who is hungry and we cannot meet his or her needs? How can we say we are Christians if there is no performance of signs and miracles? To be candid, the easiest way to preach to an unbeliever is through your life and not even by opening your mouth. Remember, action speaks louder than voice.

Interestingly, while Jesus was still in this earth, He promised us one thing; greater things shall we do (John 14:12). Why then are we powerless Christians? Can we heal the sick lest raising the dead? You have to let the Spirit move! My friend once said, Jesus came into this world to show us what we human beings are capable of doing. Jesus was hungered, thirsty like everyone. He was notably called Son of Man in the New Testament. He was God in human flesh but He prevailed through all and was able to perform all the miracles. Before Jesus started His ministry, the concept of Trinity was conceived. The dove, which signifies the Spirit of God, descended and rest on Jesus and a voice from heaven, was heard, saying this is my beloved in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10). We can see the Trinity working in harmony, God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

If Jesus, also a God, would need the Holy Spirit before He started His ministry, we are powerless without the Holy Spirit. Everything we need, have been deposited in us. We are children of God because we have a piece of Him in us and the Holy Spirit testifies about this. When He created us, He breathed air into Adams’s nostrils. We all share that part of God in us. If we allow the Holy Spirit to work, we would be unstoppable.

So, what’s stopping us from performing great and mighty things? We have continuously grieved the Holy Spirit and deprived Him of “action”. Hence the reason why we are powerless. How do we grief the Holy Spirit? We grieved the Holy Spirit by sinning. There is constant warring between the flesh and our spirits. The spirits wants to do well but the flesh is weak. Therefore, we must mortify our flesh and renew our mind everyday. Inasmuch as we have this flesh, it’s a constant struggle and occasionally we will fall but we must learn to get up and ask for the help of the Holy Spirit.

A measure of faith has been given to every believer when you give your life to Christ (Romans 12:3). It’s an individual decision whether to increase it or not. Some people have a higher level of faith and others have marginal faith. Bible says if you have faith like mustard seed, you will say to the mountain be thou removed and it shall be removed and cast into the lake (Matthew 17:20). Unfortunately, most of us lack faith that is needed to do greater works including myself. Doubt is the exact opposite of faith. When there is doubt, there is no faith and we cannot do greater things.

Satan will always bring doubt in our minds whenever we fall into sin. He will always bring the sins to remembrance and try to convince us that we are not acceptable into God’s presence because of the sin and neither are we worthy. Remember, Jesus already have victory over Satan. Rise up and face Satan because he is powerless but can only bring doubts into you to question your standings with God and whether God can do such a great thing or not.

In conclusion, the two things that we are lacking to do greater things are Holy Spirit and lack of faith.

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Praising God

Being a medical student, I have to be on call whenever my doctor is on call. Here, waiting at the hospital, this song “10,000 reasons (Bless The Lord O my soul) by Matt Redman couldn’t depart from my lips. I kept on singing even though I don’t know all the lyrics. I repeated the chorus over and over again. It’s like one of the days I have no worry whatsoever.
Why is praise so important? I just want to write why I think praise is a must have ingredient for a Christian. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name (Psalm 100:4). Praise is a step further to thanksgiving. Thanksgiving will open the gate for you but you have no access to the inner court where the throne of God is. Think about all these old adventure movies, entering the gate will give you access to the outer courtyard whereas praise will take you to the Throne of Mercy”. When everything seems down, when you are at your valley, when you have prayed all prayers you can say and it’s like God is not answering, revert to Praise. This will get God’s attention and remember God is merciful. When all hope is gone, you can count on praise.
Peter admonished the believers to show forth their praise to Him who bring us out of darkness (1Peter2:9). It’s a good thing to give praise to God. Honor and give praise to the one that redeemed us from the snares of the fowler, from the claws of the predator that is the Satan and saves us from the pit of darkness and damnation. The knowledge that our death is not the end of life, that there is a life after death and that He had prepared an eternal mansion is enough to give glory and praise to God.
Jehoshaphat defeated the vast army from Edom just by praising God (2Chronicles 20:21). Singing and praising God proved the difference between victory and defeat. With praise on your side, you can count on victory. There are many other instances in the bible where their victories over their enemies was assured due to Praising God. It was with praise that the Great Wall of Jericho came down. After the 7th time of shouting, after the 7th day, the wall crumbled. You should not only praise God for what He had done but what also He’s about to do. Praise Him in advance for what He is about to do. Because faithful is He to bring to pass all that He had promised. Praising Him even right before the miracle is manifested will ensure that you will never miss it.
Praise is our reasonable service to God. It should continually be on our lips. One person that knows how to praise God is David. God said about David that he’s a man after His heart. I wish same can be said about me.
Judah means “Now will I praise God” (Gen 29:35). How many Judahs do we have? Only the living can praise the name of The Lord. The dead cannot praise Him. Praise Him while you still can.

Why was Jesus Christ Manifested?

According to the last part of Revelation 13:8 (and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world), Jesus Christ have been slain from the beginning of the world and it was only manifested two millennium years ago. He came that the word might be fulfilled through Him. Rather than using the blood of the doves, sheep for atonement of sin, He gave Himself up once and for all, to redeem us to the Father. On the Cross of Calvary, before He gave up His ghost, He said it is finished and the veil in the temple was torn. What does this mean? It means we now have direct access to God, we don’t need any medium or whatsoever to communicate to God. In the old testament, the priest go into the holies of holy once a year but now there is nothing withholding us from God. We can seek him anytime of the day and He will answer us because our God doesn’t sleep nor slumber.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday

What is the significance of Jesus? What of if Jesus had not resurrected from the grave? Does it matter to Christians when Jesus Christ resurrected because some will argue how can you fix three days and three nights between Good Friday and Easter Sunday? Does it matter when we celebrated Easter?

Easter was derived from Pasch (Pascha) meaning Passover and some claimed it to be from Eostre, a name for a kind of goddess. The first Passover as we will recall was celebrated in the Old Testament when God brought his people out of Egypt by force. They were asked to kill a ram, using the blood to make a sign on the door and when the angel of destruction see the blood, it will Passover the Israelites (It is recorded in Exodus 12) God said they should keep it as an ordinance until the end of time. Unknown to the Israelites, they were celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! What’s the significance of this? The death of Jesus and afterwards His resurrection from the grave shows His victory over sin, death, grave and satan. Satan no longer has power and dominion over us because our Master Has already overcome. Therefore, the bible says, These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33-KJV). The angel of death looked upon the blood on the doorposts and turned away. God as well will look upon the blood of Jesus and have compassion on us, forgives us if we have for forgiveness and give us anything we ask through the name of Jesus because we are the ones that His precious son died for.

Easter is the basis of Christianity. Assuming Jesus Christ has not risen from the grave, His death would have amounted to nothing. We would have become like other religions. Christianity is a religion but we are Christ-Like, living our lives as Christ lived. He has given us new hope and new life. Everything has changed.

Most Christians celebrate Easter using the March 21 (equinox, if am right) as the base line, Eastern Orthodox uses the Julian calendar and Jewish continues to follow the Passover calendar. It doesn’t matter the calendar we follow, the most important thing is that Jesus Christ died on the Cross of Calvary and 3 days He resurrected.