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Gutter Fight

Don’t ever wrestle with pigs, even when you are right and sure of winning. Because you both get dirty and the pig likes it.
However painful, this is one choice every wise person must make.
David was provoked extremely and dragged up to this point by King Saul. Even his lieutenants encouraged him to get into the gutter with Saul. But he refrained: “And he said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master…’So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul…” 1 Samuel 24:6-7. NKJV.
The only way to prove you are not a pig like them is not to join issues with them in the gutters, however tempting or justified. Or else you make the pigs happy.

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Boundless

Without any doubt, possessing some qualities could give you a sort of leverage to reach your goal in life.
Education, family background, technical know-how, beauty, and stuff like that are some of the things that give you the wings to fly.
But all these put together still have their limitations.
Something is far more important and you could see this when the king of Egypt needed to hire someone who could manage the affairs of his nation: “And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph…Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled…” Genesis 41:38-40.
Joseph, a slave and convict, who had no education, or any of such desirable advantages; but had what others didn’t, the Spirit of God!
If we can create quality time to ceaselessly seek the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, as we do for these other things, I am sure He will take us beyond the limit of whatever advantages we already possess.

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Heartometer

  • Speed is measured by an instrument called speedometer, temperature by thermometer, and the power output of an engine by dynamometer.

“Heartometer” is the instrument that measures the state of our heart.

And one of the times the state of your heart is revealed is when your mates are moving pass you or when you lose what they still have.

A woman lost her son, and the next thing she wanted was for her friend to lose hers also. So, she requested the king, “…Let him (the living child) be neither mine nor hers, but be divided.” 1 King 3:26.

If you derive consolation and comfort from seeing or wanting others to be as miserable as yourself, that adds nothing to you but shows how pathetic your heart is.

She was only happy for her friend because she had a son like she did. The horrible thing she had in heart was revealed when she lost hers.

How do you feel when your friend gets a job while you are still searching, or gets married when you still remain single, or doing well while you are still struggling? What is the state of your heart when your mates still hold their positions after you have lost yours, or their world still intact when yours is crashing?

Her bad hearted request notwithstanding, “the king answered and said, Give her (the other woman) the living child, and in no wise slay him: she is the mother thereof.” V. 27.

With such a bad heart, you’d shut the the door of God’s mercy and blessings against yourself.

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Battered for Better

Sometimes, when the Lord wants to move you up, it might seem He’s messing you up. When He wants to make things better, it might seem like battering.
If you therefore do not understand the ways of the Spirit, you are likely going to miss the blessings intended for you.
“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.” John 9:1. To help him to see, robbing sand on his eyes wouldn’t have come to mind. But that’s exactly what Jesus did! “…He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.” V. 6.
By the time he went to wash the mud away, as commanded, he “…came seeing.” V. 7.
Does it seems like everything is worsening despite leaving it in the hands of the Lord? If you can only allow Him to do it His way, it will surprise you how everything is going to turn out for your good.

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Stage-Management

 

We live in a world where many would rather opt for the fake whenever they are unable to produce or afford the genuine.

It’s therefore not surprising when “…the chief priests and Pharisees came together to Pilate, Saying…Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead…” Mathew 27:62-64

Their thought was that the Lord’s disciples would stage-manage His resurrection, to make it look real.

But that wasn’t what happened! With infallible proofs, the Lord truly rose from the dead!

Rather than living a lie, faking and stage-managing anything, trusting the Lord for the real thing should be your goal.

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Living Exceptionally

Humans have perfected a strategy that keeps them looking honorable, even when they don’t really deserve it. We carefully watch the time we express our ugly side, when it is hardly noticeable.

You wouldn’t know the bad some are capable of doing just because they have successfully hid it from you.

The chairman at a wedding reception validates this view in his remarks to the bridegroom: “And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. John 2:10.

But, this is contrary to what the Lord expects! He wants us to be at our best, especially when nobody is watching, hence the miracle of the best wine at a time the worse should have been served.

This kind of attitude makes you exceptional.

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Stretch!

When the Lord wants to stretch you to your maximum potential, it might seem like a stress; because a method that used to work for you won’t any more and all previously known solutions would fail.

When the Shunammite woman cried to Elisha for help over her dead son, he quickly responded with a tested solution, asking his servant to go with his staff and lay it on the dead boy. But nothing happened!

Rather than becoming confused and distressed, Elisha knew that the Lord was up for a stretch and so he did: “…and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.

Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.” 2 Kings 4:34-35.

If everything you knew to do has failed, the Lord might just intend it for a stretch of your faith, an expansion of your horizons.

Just go ahead and stretch; you would be amazed by the results.

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Pay Me First

Though it has been established that you must be operating in the area of your competence to be free from some of these financial embarrassments. But that is not enough!

Though the Lord directed Peter back into his field of specialty, fishing, when a financial concern arose. That was not all. The fish carrying coin was equally directed to his fishing hook.

You also need that the client carrying your “money” be directed to your space.

This is just about the only advantage the “big guys” have over the not too successful ones.

The challenge is; how do we get the Lord to direct the gold carrying fish to our hooks?

The Lord shows us the secret in His instruction to Peter: “…go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.” Mathew 17:27.

It’s “…for Me and you.”

We have to learn how to pay the master first, before paying ourselves. Otherwise, the struggles continues.

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FortuneTeller

Coming out of some of these financial embarrassments that we face over paying our bills and meeting our needs requires that we inevitably adopt the Lord’s precept.

More often than not, our financial blessing is tied to our areas of expertise, skills, professionalism, giftings and talents.

That is the foremost, unequivocal and surest way our needs are designed to be met. Hoping it would happen otherwise might be comparable to expecting snow to fall in summer.

When the tax people were trying to harrass our Lord Jesus and Peter over tax payment, the Lord wouldn’t join them in unnecessary argument. He simply directed Peter back into his field, as an expert fisherman, to raise the needed money: “Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.” Matthew 17:27.

Believing the Lord for breakthrough in the areas of our expertise is the most appropriate and effective way, instead of focusing elsewhere for provision.

If it isn’t your area of competence, it’s unlikely to fetch you any fortune.

I doubt if anything tells your fortune more than this truth.

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Unlock

It’s completely left to you either to be in control of your own life or you let your challenges be; either you allow the crisis to stop you or you stop it.

Too many people allow their problems to get the better part of them; incapacitate and restrict their reach, turning them into a shadow of themselves.

We’ve all got to learn to live our lives to the fullest, come what may.

Rather than recoiling into her shell, like most people in her condition would do:having no child and worse still, an aged husband, yet she threw herself into making life meaningful for others.

This woman did all she could to ease the pressure associated with Elisha’s assignment, by providing him with a comfortable environment: “a small upper room on the wall…a bed…a table and a chair and a lampstand…” 2 Kings 4:10

This she did continually and without expecting anything in return.

It’s in the process that the Lord visited her:  “The woman conceived, and bore a son…” (V. 17)

The solution to the issues you’ve got isn’t in withdrawing from everyone or everything.

You are not just blessed to be a blessing, being a blessing gets you blessed!