Lord, teach me
By admin | June 24, 2009
I believe that our success in life, business and career is directly related to our relationship with God. Success (true biblical success) is linked to God. That’s why, if you have been a subscriber or reader of mine for a while, you would have realised that I apply biblical truths to the business and work environment.
This week’s post is therefore an extension of this concept. Lord, teach me. Teach me what I hear you say? The answer is teach me …’whatever I need but I am not experiencing’. Let me explain.
The disciples came to Jesus (Luke 11:1) and asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. This is a strange request. By this time, the disciples had seen Jesus do mighty miracles, teach them extensively through the parables, and witnessed His prayer life and communion with the Father etc. They had a close relationship with Jesus. So they could be forgiven if they had thought that they knew how to do all these things, after all, they had a close relationship with Jesus BUT we know that ‘knowing’ is very different from ‘experiencing’. They did not assume that they knew how to pray. They humbled themselves and asked Jesus to teach them.
Recently, I asked God to teach me how to praise and worship Him. That might be a strange request, particularly as this is an area that the church has grown in for the last decade , but I decided not to assume.
My prayer style or my praise and worship style has to be the style that God expects from me. I believe that we all need to keep on coming to God and asking Him to teach us to run our Christian businesses, love our work colleagues, tender for contracts, conduct business meetings, look after our customers etc, or whatever your specific need is.
To teach means to ask someone to show us the way to explain things to us, so that we can understand and begin to apply these concepts. Spiritual teaching however, goes beyond that. With spiritual teaching, we not only learn the way to apply these concepts but we also have divine enablement to enable us to walk in and experience biblical truths in our lives.
Asking to be taught is a way of humility on our part and also a sign of dependence on God. We spend so much time and money on things that we believe would make us successful and that has its place but we also need God to teach us how to live Godly lives. I know that the bible teaches us on how to live Godly lives, but we need to go beyond the ‘knowledge’ to ‘experience’ the bible.
When the disciples asked Jesus to show them how to pray, He was only too happy to help them. Perhaps, there are areas in your lives where you need the Lord to teach you or perhaps there are areas where things are not quite working, despite your best efforts. Why not ask Him to teach you today. He is also willing to answer our prayers as we ask ‘Lord, teach me’.
Once again, than you for the opportunity to share with you this week. Until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed
Ola
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What do you do when……………………..
By admin | June 11, 2009
you have no specific message from God and you need to send out your post or blog?. Writing is my vocation and I am very passionate about sharing God’s word with His people, so that they can also grow up in Him. I look forward to sending you a post as often as I can. Getting emails from readers’ week in, week out, about how my posts encourage you, also encourages me. By the way, the last mail – Coping with the crisis of life, had a huge response. Thank you both to those who wrote and those who thought of, did not get round to writing.
Getting posts out therefore brings a ‘pressure’ to write or ‘perform’, especially as I intend to make these posts as regular as they can be. If you have been a reader of my posts, you would know that I like to write by revelation only. The messages always have to be fresh and specific.
So what do you do when you have no specific word to share? When you feel God is silent? Aaaargh!
It’s easy to try and go into the archives of articles and ‘bring out’ something to write. I feel the temptation to conjure something up something to send out. The process of waiting almost becomes frustrating.
I learnt something though this and this is what I want to share with you this week– you have to let God be God. I learnt that if God does not speak, then neither do. That does not mean that I would not communicate with you, which is what I am doing now, but simply that I don’t conjure up a message for the sake of it. My aim is to be relevant and useful to my generation and I can only do this, when I have God’s word.
What do you do when God is silent? Do you feel under pressure to ‘keep on performing’? It might be that you had prayed about something that has not come as quickly as you expect. Do you what seems best, rather than delaying the decision till you hear God? We see this so many times in the marketplace and in our Christian business. Decisions have to be made today, as if the world will fall apart if we don’t make that decision. Let God be God. Remember the story of Saul who did not wait for Samuel.
I had a funny but serious thought when I was writing this – can you imagine our pastors coming to church one day and saying I tried all week but have no word from God. Think for a minute about how you would feel? Well, I don’t think I would be too happy (sorry, confession time) but it could be that God wants to do something great instead. , that would only be revealed at the ‘last minute accordingly to our timetable’ – let God be God. Perhaps, this silent move could be the beginning of something great in our lives, when we have to pause for a minute and focus all on Him.
Therefore this week, I am letting God be God. Let God be God in your life and not fall into the pressure to perform.
The interesting thing is that God has now given me a message to share on the glory of God in the marketplace, so don’t miss the next post. But for now, perhaps the message that God wants us to hear is that we should ‘Let God be God’.
Remember that the site www.purposeforchrist.com is the platform where you can leave your comments and submit your articles. As I have been blessing you, why not bless others by writing about what God is doing in your lives?
So until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed and Let God be God in your life.
Ola
Topics: Christian | 1 Comment »
Coping with the stresses of life
By admin | May 22, 2009
I was forced recently to take a four-day rest. I had been working very hard for a few months and my body was crying out for rest. So I took advantage of the last public holiday here in the UK and rested (In fact my four-day rest extended into six days). So with the children off to their respective friends, my husband away and the home tidied, I felt I deserved the rest (a feeling I am sure that many married women can relate to). I even made sure the telephone was off the hook and the mobile switched off! The only thing I couldn’t resist was checking my email. I guess that has become something of a habit for a lot of us but that’s another article for another day.
As I began to rest, two things happened. The first is that I became physically refreshed and secondly, I quietened my spirit to receive from the Lord and was spiritually refreshed.
As I began to rest, two things happened that relate to the title of today’s post: coping with the crisis of life. The first thing is that I ‘lost’ some money. To make matters worse, I needed that money at that time to pay for something urgently. As I searched and searched, the Lord gave me a peaceful reassurance that the money was not lost and would be found. Based on this peaceful assurance, I proceeded continue my rest and proceeded to watch a football game shortly after the ‘loss’. The following day, I mentioned the ‘loss’ to my husband, who promptly reminded me that I had given the money during the week.
So with a ‘thank you Lord’, I continued my ‘rest’ only to be awakened the following day by the news that a relative had died. Another stressful situation - absolutely not! Again, I experienced the peace of God.
Since then, my rest period seemed like the calm before the storm, as I had since been faced with many difficult situations . Yet, in the midst of it all, I am able to experience the peace of God. Oh! How I wish I had lived my Christian life all along like this.
The stresses of life will come and go but the peace of life is one of the ways that we can live through the crises and difficulties of life. It as a peace that the world cannot give and by implication, cannot take away.
Peace is the legacy which Christ gave to his disciples and to us. In John 14:27, Jesus said ‘Peace I give to you, my peace I give to you’, After His resurrection, He said, Peace be unto you (John 20:21). Peace is Christ’s legacy. God wants us to experience His peace regardless of our external situations and troubles, as peace is independent of external circumstances.
God promises in Isaiah 26:3 that He will keep in perfect peace, those whose mind is stayed on Him. In the Christian way of life, peace comes through fellowship with God and a preoccupation with Christ.
I share this experience with you for one purpose. Do you experience the peace of God? Peace is something that you either have or you don’t. If you don’t, why not stop and ask God to fill you up with His peace. It’s a journey I am taking myself
May the peace of the Lord, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Till I appear again in your inbox, hope you have enjoyed my story and stay blessed. Don’t forget to leave a comment on the blog
Stay blessed
Ola
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Are you working from Him?
By admin | May 3, 2009
I read something recently that challenged my thinking about work. The author was asking the question ‘Are you working for Him or from Him?’ This is not a play on words but a serious question that we all need to ask ourselves. In this post, I want to focus on the concept of working from God. Work is anything that we are currently putting our hands towards.
In our modern day society, a lot of us work very hard. The scriptures give us an insight into how Jesus conducted His work. Many times we are very busy with work but we need to be like Jesus who only did the things that he saw the Father doing?
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel (John 5:19-20)
Whether we are productive or not is not the issue, the question is whether our work flows out of our relationship with God. Yes, we all need to work very hard but are we only doing the things we see the Father doing? Are we sure that in every decision that we make, every step that we take, in our decision making etc etc, we are flowing from God.
We should not be mistaken that this principle applies to only those in full-time ministry, but if this was the case, the scriptures would have stated it as such. In whatever we are currently putting our hands to (work), we are co-labouring with God in ruling the earth. In whatever profession we are in, we are all in God’s ministry.
Cast your mind back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were walking in the cool of the day with God (Genesis 2). They had been given instructions about work and their work flowed from their relationship with God. The presence of sin changed all that but the fact remains that God’s intention was that our work should flow from Him.
Try and imagine your life back in the Garden of Eden before the fall. Whatever picture you come up with, is what you should expect now. Perhaps you would have spoken to God about some things you don’t understand or how to relate to people; perhaps you might want to talk to Him about how your day is going etc. Whatever picture you have of yourself in that environment, I believe is available now
Flowing from Him simply means that we do all from His vantage point. Of course, this is a tall order, especially in our busy 21st century lives but we need to be careful that we don’t interpret scripture by our experience but instead acknowledge where we fall short of scripture and ask for help!
We need to draw our inspiration, strength, knowledge and wisdom from Him, as Adam did. This is what the scripture is referring to when it states that the world is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. A people whose lives are radically different from theirs. A life lived in communion with God.
Let’s get before God and ask Him to teach us and give us the grace to let our work flow from Him.
Please don’t forget to leave a comment about this article.
Until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed
Ola
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Have you been called?
By admin | May 3, 2009
The focus of our recent posts has centred on examining ourselves from a spiritual viewpoint and examining the resources of heaven available for us. In particular, we have examined how to be full of God and how to work from God Increasingly, I am aware that God’s ways are not our ways.
In this post, we continue by examining a command that Jesus gave to His disciples and to those of us who are in the marketplace. As the Father has sent me, I also send you is a command that Jesus made to His disciples (John 20:21).
What Jesus is saying here is that the commission He received from the Father has now been passed to us. Jesus is sending us to the marketplace. It is possible to be in the marketplace and not feel sent or commissioned to make an impact and make disciples (Matthew 28:18).
To be called means to have a definite sense of purpose. You will know in your innermost being when you have been called. It’s no different than being called to the ministry. In the same way that many people who have been called to the ministry can point to a particular time and location, when they heard God’s calling, so should we who are called to the marketplace. There was a particular time in the life of Jesus (at Hid baptism), when His public ministry was identified. This calling is not a head calling of Matthew 28:18-20, but a spiritual reality that lies within our spirits.
Calling brings with it passion and zeal to fulfil it. Reading through the gospel of John, Jesus constantly referred to His Father’s business. Our calling should become our focus. It’s no different from an athlete who wants to be an Olympic champion or a tennis player who wants to win Slam titles. Our commitment should be the same.
If we do not have this calling, we will find that the marketplace and business environment is somewhere where we spend a lot of time but make little impact! In some cases, we might even be waiting to escape from there.
We are to go into the marketplace with signs and wonders, demonstrating that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus told the early disciples to wait in Jerusalem until their calling had been confirmed. Remember, this was after He had given them the commission in Matthew 28:19
The calling and the mandate is clear, we have no option, the question is ‘have you heard the call? Let us start with a desire and ask God to give us the heart for the marketplace. Ask God to make the calling of Matthew 28:18-20, a personal calling for you. Ask Him to make it a reality in your heart. God has promised to give us the desires of our heart. As in the words of the songwriter, ‘Here I am wholly available, as for me, I will serve the Lord’
Let God’s business be your business. God’s presence accompanies His calling. Ask God for His presence to go continually with you. Let’s be like Moses who said to God that he will not take the Israelites on the journey through the wilderness, unless God’s presence goes with them.
If there is ever a time that people need to see a demonstration of God’s people, it is now. I pray that the Lord would enable us to be worthy carriers of His glory (Amen).
Leave a comment below about this or any other articles
So until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed
Ola
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Filled with the fullness of God?
By admin | April 14, 2009
Have you been in a situation where you wanted to demonstrate more of the power and presence of Jesus in your business or workplace? Perhaps, there was a difficult situation that demanded the wisdom of God in a special way; a colleague with an incurable disease that needs healing from God; a project that’s making no headway despite many hours of labour; a member of staff that’s shared their inner thoughts with you that demands God’s insight or a business that needs God’s divine intervention. Sometimes, we feel inadequate at meeting these challenges. We know that God can do all these things and more, after all, we have read the Bible and know what it says and yet sometimes we still feel quite incapable.
I guess, the question is, ‘in your interaction within the marketplace, do people know that you have been with Jesus? Are you actively demonstrating God’s power? Does your face radiate the glory of God as Moses’ face did or do you think there is more?
I am sure all of us (including those who feel that they are currently doing this) would like to say there is more that could be done. You wish to demonstrate through signs and wonders to people, the presence and reality of God.
If you have been a reader of mine for a while, you would know I am going somewhere with this. Let’s look at Ephesians 1:17. Paul, in praying for the Ephesians church, prayed that God would give to them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The key is the knowledge of Him. I believe that the extent to which we demonstrate God in the marketplace is the extent to which we know Him.
In this verse, Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit unlocking the scriptures so that we can not only know Him but also experience His power and presence. Demonstrating God’s power would take more than human efforts and energy. We need to be energised by the Holy Spirit so that we can minister to other people in a way that meets their needs.
But it goes beyond knowing God, God actually wants us to be filled with all His fullness. His fullness? Yes, His fullness! (Ephesians 3:19). What an awesome thought. So at what point do we become full of God?
If you fill a glass with water, at what point do you know that the glass can no longer hold water. It’s the point at which the water starts to overflow. Before that, even if the glass is visibly full, it might still be able to hold small drops of water. When we are filled with the fullness of God, we will start to overflow to the world around us. Only then can we represent Jesus to the world.
Therefore, as we pray and ask for more of God and seek to be consistently full of God; we will begin to flow out to others. Unfortunately, there is no short cut. Let’s be so full of God that we can be both transformed inwardly and be relevant to the people around us.
I am sure that you’ve been blessed by this post, so until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed.
Ola
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A paradigm shift on giving
By admin | March 25, 2009
I am sorry I could not get a post out to you last week. I promised in my last post to write about getting rid of small compromises. I will still do that but I was asked to share something recently on giving for a small group. The subject blessed me so much that I just had to share it with you. Enjoy.
Giving is something that most of us participate in – particularly the giving of our money to God. Whilst giving is not new to a lot of us, but sometimes it is important to re-examine our beliefs then this article does just that.
The most important thing to start off with, when discussing giving is that all things including our finances belongs to God.
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:36a)
I heard someone say recently, that life is a privilege and not a right. We do not own anything. Life in itself belongs to God. All that we have including our lives comes from Him and we owe all to Him. This means that 100% of our income belongs to Him.
For those of us who believe in the principle of the tithe (which is normally 10%) of our income, this therefore means that He has chosen to give us 90% of our income for us to live on. Tithing was one of the ways that God had ordained for His children to live in covenant with Him. Should He ask us for more than 10%, then we should be ready to give it to Him. We do not own 90% and give 10% to God. Instead, God owns 100% and He has chosen to give us 90%. This is the paradigm shift that this article deals with.
God’s generosity is shown in 1 Timothy 6:17 - Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
If I own something and I give away 90%, this makes me very charitable and people would consider me to be generous. It’s precisely the same with God. By asking the Israelites to give 10%, He was expressing His generosity to them by asking them to keep 90%.
God wants us to be generous. By being generous, we are partaking of His divine nature. That’s why I believe that the emphasis in the New Testament is not so much about tithing but generous giving, though we know that Jesus did not come to do away with the law but to fulfil it.
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 9 As it is written: “ He has dispersed abroad,
He has given to the poor;
His righteousness endures forever.
10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. (2 Corinthians 9:8)10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. (2 Corinthians 9:8)
I trust today’s post has been a blessing to you. Learn to consider all that you have as belonging to God and pray for God to make you generous so that you can give to every good work like your Father in heaven. My prayer is that God should make us generous people both towards Him and also towards others.
Remember to register today at our new website at www.purposeforchrist.com
Till I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed
Ola
Topics: Giving | No Comments »
You need the favour of man
By admin | February 27, 2009
Not many of us would doubt that we need the favour of God in all that we do. However, one verse struck me recently and I realised that we need both the favour of God and of man.
I remember many years ago when I started my business, I was a bit disappointed with people who had volunteered to help in one way or the other, but did not keep their promise. I remember thinking to myself, as long as God was on my side, nothing else mattered.
With the benefit of hindsight, I no longer hold that view. In fact, I have turned 360º on that thought. The fact that people have disappointed does not mean that you don’t need people. I should have prayed for both the favour of God and man. In this article, we concentrate on the favour of man.
So back to the scripture in Luke 2:52 “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man”. The same is said of the great prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 2:26 ‘Now the young man Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favour with the Lord and also with man.
Let’s stop and think about this for a minute. Jesus was the perfect man. He was perfect in every way and on top of that He’s the King of Glory. He has enough power resident inside Him to make possible whatever He wanted to make possible. Yet He needed to grow in favour with man. No doubt this favour would have opened doors of ministry and life that perhaps would have been closed to Him. The point to start with is - that if Jesus needed to obtain the favour of man, so should we.
So what exactly is favour? A lot of us associate favour with preferential treatment. We associate it with the word grace. The Greek word for grace is charis. Favour simply means a kind disposition towards someone. The interesting thing is that the scriptures give us an idea of how to obtain this favour.
Proverbs 3: 3-4 “Do not let kindness and truth leave you, so you will find favour in the sight of God and man”. From these scriptures, we note that truth (absolute truth as expressed in God’s words) as well as kindness will lead to favour with both God and man.
This thought is further expressed in Proverbs 11:27 “He who diligently seeks good seeks favour”. The word ‘good’ conveys the idea of seeking the things that are pleasing to God and which brings benefits to others.
Another scripture that refers to favour is found in Proverbs 13:15 “Good understanding produces favour, but the way of the treacherous is hard”. In my ebook ‘spiritual understanding’, I explain the difference between spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding.
The book of Proverbs gives us a lot of insight on how we can obtain favour and I would like to encourage you to study the book.
In the book of Ezra, when the Israelites returned from exile to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, they had the favour of Darius. When the Israelites were coming out of Egypt, God made the Egyptians so favourably towards them that they left with great possessions. The scriptures are full of people who God used to show his favour to; we should expect nothing less in our lives. Favour will make us succeed when others fail. Joseph had favour with Pharaoh and Daniel had favour with Nebuchadnezzar.
As business people and representatives of Christ in the workplace, we need the favour of God and ‘man’ to succeed. This favour would put us in a beneficial position where doors and opportunities would be opened to us, thus increasing our ministry, effectiveness and recognition of Christ in us. Favour with man will cause people to see you out to bless you. Favour is when the ability of God works for us.
Favour will cause us to experience unusual breakthrough in business. It qualifies us to hold offices which we would not normally occupy. Favour causes us to command attention and influence. Favour causes people to celebrate us. Favour is when there is an upturn for us, when there is a general downturn in the world.
Having said all of the above, favour with man needs to be secondary to seeking God’s favour. Favour with God is a priority; experiencing the favour of man flows out of experiencing God’s favour.
My prayer is that you will experience the favour of God and man. I trust that this post has been of some encouragement. Don’t forget to ask God for the favour of ‘man’. In the next post, we will examine how to get rid of those small compromising situations we all face, particularly in the business and workplace. It’s a key that requires some work.
If you have not registered on our new site, please do so at www.purposeforchristians.com .
So, until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed
Ola
Topics: Christian Business, Favour, Grace | 1 Comment »
Prayer is not one-sided!
By admin | February 19, 2009
In this week’s post l’ll share a personal experience and talk a little bit about myself. This post is in a sense, a continuation of the last two posts.
Many people who know me will say that I am a strong Christian and I have certainly been in the faith for a while. I do basically like ‘staying behind the scenes’ and love writing and sharing God’s word through writing. God is really my passion but there is one thing I always felt guilty about – my prayer life. I admire people that can pray for hours (though I am now realising that when you enjoy God’s presence, you won’t know when you have spent hours in His presence). There is of course nothing wrong in admiring people, but it also made me feel a bit ‘inadequate’.
The irony of the situation is that most of the time, I do have an unbroken relationship with God and I would say that God is my friend in the true sense of the word. I love to worship God and one of the things I have been blessed with is the ability to hear God’s voice on a continual basis.
So, back to my ‘inadequate’ prayer life. I was ‘thinking’ about this, when I heard God speak the title of this post to my heart. Suddenly, the eyes of my understanding opened and I realised that it’s not the amount of time I spend with God – though I must stress that it’s important to spend valuable time with God, but whether God is speaking to you.
Regarding prayer as communication between two people, I realised that yes, I do pray. Prayer in its simplest term means talking to God. During prayer, we speak to God and He speaks back. Prayer is when we focus our minds on God and to build a relationship with Him.
Yes, I know that there are various types of prayer e.g. warfare prayer, intercessory prayer but the question to ask ourselves is whether we are regularly hearing from God.
Regardless of the type of prayer, intercessory prayer calls for us to know the will of God in a particular situation, so we can pray it back to him, in warfare prayer, we need to know the word of faith (rhema) that we need to take hold of, so we can quench the darts of the enemy. You get the point. We need to hear from God in all situations. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, like the time when we feel that God is ‘silent’, but even in these times, I believe that as we draw near to Him, He will make His presence real to us.
Now to our business or workplace, sometimes we can be mistaken that this is such a trivial part of our lives. I believe that God can give us insights into business deals and situations. Solomon encourages us to acknowledge God in all our ways and He shall direct our path.
The question I’d like to ask is whether you are standing in the council of God where you receive His counsel. Remember that Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of His mouth (Matthew 4:4). This sentence implies that God is continually speaking. As we need ‘bread’ to survive on a daily basis, so we need God’s word on a daily basis. The question is, are we listening?
I guess there will be different categories of people reading this post. Some will have the opportunity to develop and appreciate those moments when our hearts are tuned into Him, some are those who pray and spend time with God (which is to be greatly desired) and the challenge is whether you are hearing His voice and I guess another category are those who are constantly hearing His voice, and whose challenge should be /More Lord’.
My prayer is that whether we fit into any of these categories or not, we will hear God’s voice on a daily basis.
Look out for my next post titled ‘You also need the favour of Man’. Thanks for the privilege of sharing God’s word with you. Until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed
Ola
Topics: Christian, Prayer | 1 Comment »
What has God said recently about your business?
By admin | January 31, 2009
In my last post, I encouraged you to listen out for God on a daily basis, so He can give you instructions for your business. I continue the theme in this post by discussing one of the ways that God can speak to us. Many of you might actually be familiar with today’s topic, but can I encourage you to still take time to read through the whole article and ask yourself, whether you are hearing God in this way. It is important to continually remind ourselves of the truth and also make sure that we are working on it.
I have been thinking of a particular verse of scripture that I believe is particularly relevant in our time. The verse is found in Matthew 4:4. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Bread here signifies food, the very basis of our sustenance. Without food, we die. Food is needed on a daily basis to keep us alive. This scripture equates the word of God as being equivalent to food. The word of God is spiritual food, necessary for our daily survival within this secular world. By feeding on Him, we can know His guidance, direction and instructions.
One of the interesting things about the text in Matthew 4 is the Greek word used. The word ‘word’ translated in the verse is known as Rhema.
Rhema is one of the two Greek words in the New Testament that refers to the ‘Word of God’. The other is logos. Whilst logos is the general written word of God i.e. the bible, the rhema is the spoken word.
Rhema refers to a specific utterance of God’s word, a word divinely and specifically spoken to our hearts. Rhema bears application to the specific context of the believer e.g. the believer might be wrestling with a particular issue in their life and during their time of communication with God, they read a verse that ‘speaks’ to the situation that they are dealing with. Thus, that portion of scripture becomes a rhema word. The scriptures are quickened or come alive suddenly and they can relate the word to the situation. Rhema can be quickened within our hearts whilst praying, listening to a preacher, a tape, reading the bible etc.
We can then stand in faith in the rhema word that He has given us and confess it particularly when the enemy tries to discourage us. It is the rhema word that will not return unto Him without accomplishing the purpose for which it was sent
To believe God for great things in our business, career and work will require faith. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Again the Greek word used here is rhema – that divinely inspired word spoken to us at a specific time.
God does not always give us the details of our lives but one of the best ways to hear from God about how to conduct your business is through the rhema word. Remember, all we need to do is to desire it and ask God to give us His rhema.
If I could let you into a secret of all my posts and writing, it’s this simple truth. I never write a post unless I hear a rhema word from God. That’s why I am glad when you write me and tell me that you have been blessed by the message/s.
I trust that this post has encouraged and challenged you to seek God for a Rhema word in all your daily business and work related activities
So until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed
Ola
Topics: Christian Business | No Comments »