Can't Have too much of The Spirit of God

Ministry Wednesday: Can't have too much of the Spirit of God

The Holy Spirit is a person. I know how controversial that statement can be in some circles but it is true to be fair. To be fair, if I can call myself a person, then the Holy Spirit should be more of a person. We know He speaks, He can be grieved, He leads, He inspires, He helps, He gave birth to us, we were born of Him in the New birth, He dwells in us, I don't know if we can use the word "dwell" for something that don't have personality, He can be pleased with what we do, meaning He has a will and should be a free moral agent also... I wonder then how anyone could say He isn't a person. If He isn't, then we aren't.

But He has other attributes like being an invisible fluid, I don't know a scripture yet that presents Him as solid material, He's either described with gaseous elements like the wind and fire or as liquid substances like water and oil, all of which flow.

We are anointed with Him to do whatever we have been sent to do. The accomplishment of the assignments given us is dependent on the space we give Him to fill in order to work within us. We know that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone of us for the benefit of all.

He works with the gifts given us to bring help to our callings to become mature and fruitful. Without the Holy Spirit the believer can do nothing.

The power of the New Creation person and the fulfillment of our purposes and assignments is in the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ said, we shall receive power only when the Holy Spirit comes upon us. Jesus became Christ only by the Holy Spirit coming upon Him. He is the anointed One only because He was anointed of the Holy Spirit. The word 'Messiah' or 'Christ' means The Anointed One. Anointed with the Holy Spirit to be able to do those things the Father desired having taken upon Himself the nature of man.

It is out of Christ's abundant overflowing of the Spirit of God that we have received grace upon grace because He was anointed without measure. He is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. He immersed us into the Holy Spirit. While the Holy Spirit immersed us into His body through the New Birth.
There's very little we can do without the Holy Spirit. We need to understand that till the Holy Spirit is permitted to intoxicate and take our lives over, leading, quickening our bodies and illuminating our minds, we can not live in true holiness. If we don't
Until He teaches us the word, we would lack understanding and wisdom, until He reveals divine knowledge we can not come to faith. He is the custodian of the knowledge of God and the revealer of the same. No one knows the Son, except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, apart from those to who they are revealed, Jesus said, but it is the Holy Spirit who reveals.
Until He empowers we can not perform. He is the custodian of the omnipotence. The word gives the fuel, He is the wind and the fire and in this system incredible things happen. He and the Word are one. He is the anointing on the word with which it becomes flesh, doing good and healing all that are oppressed of the devil.

Jesus Christ had Him without measure. He gives us His water to become a well of life in us out of which flows the rivers of living waters to other people, giving life as it goes. We are vessels and pipes extending His flow of power.

Through Him we build a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices unto God. We worship God as He leads. He is our worship leader. He is the environment of acceptable worship.

We can not do without Him. We can not do with just the minimum level of Him. Even just an average won't do. The truth is, we can't have too much of Him. We can't have enough of Him.

And He is willing and looking for the thirsty to fill. He is looking for the weak to empower. He is waiting for the brokenhearted to be mended. He is the comfort of the believer. The joy giver beyond a comedian. The inspiration of every innovation. The indwelling carrier of our eternal life.

Drink more and let Him express Himself better and better. Get drunk of Him, lose control to His fire within, perform at an amazing level, produce beyond normal and all the glory will go to God...we can't have too much of Him... You can have much more! Keep drinking! Get drunk, till He manifests ceaselessly!

It's a good day!

Avoiding the Cul de Sac

Motivation Monday: Avoiding the Cul de Sac

Life is about pathways because life is about destinations and in life we travel. Vision draws us through people, places, events and seasons, pulling us to a point of purpose fulfilment.

Vision is the picture of that fulfilment, revealed into our spirits as we come into life's consciousness. When you wake up, you open your eyes and see, same way as we grow, we come to consciousness and we see.

The plan had been long before we came, some may even have seen it concerning us before we knew it. It is a book written and some can peep, God shows some and parents should know to a level. Remember Rebecca, the Lord told her, two nations, not babies, are in your womb, one will be greater than the other and and the elder will serve the younger...that information is enough to bring forth a vision!

Then the journey began, but it must be traveled with a plan. The time given for accomplishment and the assignment itself must agree. So long as there's life, the assignment lives on too. The journey ends at death, purpose keeps us alive, because life is for purpose, not personal purposes but the purposes of God.

But that journey could end in a rot, in a cul de sac, in a close or at a dead end. Why? Because it needs a divine companion. It requires someone who had known the way, a guide to take you through.

There's a way that seems right to a man which ends in destruction. Yes, it seemed right, beautiful and pleasant at the start but it ends badly. So many people haven't been able to make much impact in there world, not because they don't have the potential to, or didn't make success in whatever they might have chosen, according to other people's judgements but they ended up pursuing the things that don't permit maximum impact and personal fulfillment.

The pathway designed for our destinies leads to fulfilment at the end irrespective of the rivers, the valleys, the mountains and the hostilities we encounter on the way. Fulfillment, not just in things we have but in what we do. When the way ends in frustration, then we had missed the guide at some point and had ended in a wrong place.

If we follow God's Word and Spirit, we can't miss it. He will open doors and close others, He will prod, press, and pull, He will work and walk ahead so we can follow, He will speak, teaching and counselling till those who desires His guidance hear and follow. His voice will never bypass His sheep.

And if you have gotten into stagnation and frustration, be bold to do an about face and turn around to the right path. Life is for purpose, the light of today gives a new hope and opportunity to take on our journeys again, but now in the right direction with better experience and determination to follow the life Guide, the Spirit of God.

In following is fulfilment. No mountain is too high, no valley is too low, no wilderness is too rough, no river is too wide when you follow by faith...in following is maximisation of potentials, following is the pursuit of purpose... Learn not to walk alone... Follow Him who knows the way... Don't let us keep walking based on limited knowledge, walk in the path that leads to life and total fulfillment.

Good morning. It's a great week!

Keeping The Body Under

Ministry Wednesday: Keeping the Body Under

1 Corinthians 9
27. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

I actually love how the version quoted puts it... 'I keep under my body...' It sounds to me like a perpetual pinning down so that it's tendencies are caged and restricted.

It's quite amazing that Apostle Paul would go that length for the reason he expressed there, so that after preaching to others, he won't be a cast away.

That's a message for every preacher. It has been argued that being a castaway doesn't mean what it sounds to mean, that it doesn't mean a preacher going to hell fire or eternal damnation, but whatever it means isn't alright. It sounds to me as if apostle Paul was referring to what Christ said, "Get thee away from me, I know you not, you workers of iniquity"

And it has also been argued that all the teachings of Jesus Christ, particularly on hell fire were for the Jews and not us... I just feel I should let you know.

But I believe the teachings of Christ are for us, starting from His fundamental message of the Kingdom and how we must be born again of the Spirit and the Word to enter therein. The essence of the Spirit and the opportunity to partake of the Holy Spirit all by the works of faith and not of the law. Which formed the basis of the doctrines of the apostles and even of Apostle Paul.

God declared Jesus Christ as the word of God to the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration, when having withdrawn Moses and Elijah, who represented the law and the prophets, announced Jesus Christ as His beloved Son who must be heard. And so declared Him to the Son and the Word of God by power as Paul put it, having being told, I believe, of what happened at that mount and how He told them not to tell anyone about what happened on the mount until after His resurrection. Using that to tell them of the importance of His resurrection to His being declared the Son and the Word of God.

Now, He isn't a dispensational Word of God, No! He is eternal Word for all ages, past, present and future. Anything said before and after Him are to be judged as God's Word with Him, His teachings, His works and His lifestyle being standard. He is the one we are told to hear...

A reason why no one who came after to preach a tribal version of what Moses was given can't be telling the truth. According to Apostle Paul, such a person is accursed

So we see how not being a castaway should be interpreted by the teaching of Christ and not by modern human right advocacy. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Almighty God and knowing the terror of God, we persuade men, according to Paul, the Apostle.

So as ministers of God, of which Apostle Paul was chief, we must learn those areas where we can easily fall into the traps of the enemy and avoid them.

We must keep our bodies, emotions, and desires down so that they don't take us to the edge of being castaway after preaching to others.

The lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life are issues every minister must watch out against. We aren't keeping ourselves away so that we won't be caught, create scandals and lose our ministries, that'll be a wrong reason, and such reasons can be circumvented. We can get to a position where whatever we do is approved by men...whatever we do will always have people to defend...

But we must do what we have to do if truly we believe in God and in His justice system that cant be compromised. He is no respecter of persons.

It's therefore important that we take decisive steps to check on what the book of Hebrews call 'weights and the sin that do easily beset us'. We must check on the areas of our job hazards to preserve ourselves.

The good news is, if we thirst and hunger for righteousness, we shall be filled. If we desire to keep the body under and to be crucified, the Spirit of God will activate and work it out in us but we have to take steps first.

We must put away lusts, pride, anger, covetousness and put on Christ in humility, love, contentment, honesty and discipline.

This is the way by which we can preserve our own Salvation in endurance to the end. We must not be careless with our lives. Pride and arrogance are subtle in ministry as we seek position above others to look down on them, love of money often disguise as prosperity and lusts of the flesh disguise as bringing people of the opposite sex into intimacy. We must be careful as we preach to others.

And as we desire to keep our bodies down...the power of grace will step in to help and to achieve divine desires and consequent divine approval.

Remain blessed servants of God. It's a great day!

The Land is Before You

Motivation Monday: The Land is Before You

Genesis 34
9. And make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. 10. And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein.

 This particular passage is not intended to be interpreted within the context of the story from where I'd ripped it. I intend using this to drive home that point of making the most of our immediate societies and environments within the opportunities hidden in there.

Wherever God has brought us has within it its reserved treasures. Everyone eventually arrives at a land that flows with milk and honey from where treasures might be dug.

Deuteronomy 8
7. For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;

8. A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;

9. A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

The land may be more than a geographical expression, it may be a virtual community, a profession or whatever situation we may have found ourselves.

Just as God gave the children of Israel Canaan land, so He gave the sons of Esau, Mount Seir and its environs and I'm sure so He also gave you and I our own lands. Whatever land He gives would flow with milk and honey for the people for which He has given it.

When Jacob and his sons got to Sechem, the land asked of them to take advantage and to use it. That's where the opening passage of this message came from. Though it took them another half a century to finally take the land, after a sojourn in Egypt, they eventually got the land.

Look around where you are? What opportunities do you see? Many people only see opportunities to illegally take advantage of the societies God has put them and so destroying such opportunities so that it doesn't continue to the future or to others.

Many are so engrossed in where they were coming from, that they waste energy pursuing what's not lost and missing the treasures before them especially people who live in societies with better infrastructure and social policies than the lands of their origin.

 Many would want to take short cuts that lead nowhere rather than follow quality pathways to perpetual future greatness.

But it must all begin with a vision. Where there is no vision, the people become indiscipline, they lose constraints and perish according to King Solomon.

 It takes faith, knowledge and divine inspiration to acquire vision. The knowledge of what's possible, the freedom to believe what's possible without the usual mental constraints, and a vital connection with the Spirit of God, the Creator will produce quality vision and direction with wisdom to make the most of the vision.

God had first told Abraham to lift up his eyes and look all around the land and walk through it, promising to give the land to his descendants... Of course, you can't see or walk through such a land in a moment physically, but mentally and spiritually, which he did. God then told him, as far as he could see, he would have.

Genesis 13
14. And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
15. For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
17. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

And that was exactly what God did. We must seek to have complete information of what opportunities are available within the environment where we have found ourselves, particularly if God has planted us there, irrespective of the downsides of the society. That knowledge of the land gives us the opportunity and power to see and know what's possible, the programs, policies and so on, which the land has and what it needs.

We need to build the faith that all things are possible. Unbelief is a limiter. Unbelief is myopic and is blinding. Unbelief won't see beyond what's impossible. Unbelief will build a cage around a person and all the problems of the world, making possible exploits invisible and unattainable. It takes faith to conquer the yet to be seen world of the future. Without faith, there's no worthy vision.

Thirdly, divine inspiration is needed to see vision. God will keep showing us the possibilities within us. He has told us that by the reason of His Spirit being poured upon us, we'll see visions and dream dreams. And He is faithful. We must not close up our hearts to the inspiration of the Spirit of God. He has the blueprints of our future. The things which eyes are yet to see, which ears are yet to hear, which are yet to get into the imagination of men's heart are with Him to reveal to us. These things are preserved and prepared for us. They are within our reach through the Spirit of God. But He won't inspire to rip off the system or do the illegal, rather, He'll give wisdom to know what's possible that's yet unknown and undone reserved for us to discover and to do.

And this provision has no age limits. If you are young, go for visions, and if you are old, dream dreams... They are also not gender sensitive, you may be male or female, don't let nothing stop you from receiving vision to do exploits. And it doesn't matter what your financial or social status is, dreams and visions cost nothing. They often look like daydreaming, especially when your social and financial status of today don't match those dreams, but don't mind all that, vision has a way of pulling you through life till it marries you...particularly if they are from God.

See, the land is before you, it's a land God has given you and all you'll need are there within it...what can you see? Look for the pathways and open doors, acquire knowledge and education, build skills and competencies, do your researches and discover the mines, the land is before you in its lengths and breadths. Give it time and diligence, don't seek the broad and short way, endure the narrow way, it'll lead to life.

Believe beyond the problems and the limitations you see, because to the believing one, nothing shall be impossible so said Christ Jesus.

That land is before you, go and make the most of it!

Good morning. It's a great week!

Torn Between Life and Ministry

Ministry Wednesday: Torn Between Life and Ministry

We often divide the situation of a minister between what we call life and ministry in trying to differentiate what the minister does privately and what he or she does publicly in reaching out to people by grace.

Ordinarily there isn't anything like that because both the private and the public areas of his or her life are rolled up into one to present a platform to minister to people.

The areas we call the life of the minister aside his or her ministry include his family, finances, personal lifestyles, recreation and other choices he or she makes outside ministering to people.

Ministry then would mean how he or she manages his or her gifts to minister to people, manages his office, the administration of the organisation, public preaching and teaching and other engagements that has to do with delivery of spiritual contents to people.

One reason why this distinction is dangerous in fulfilling ministry is the aspect of the ministry that requires of people to follow our faith as ministers.

Hebrews 13
7. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

So we see how we aren't only meant to provide the word through speaking but to make our lifestyle of faith visible and tangible enough to be followed by God's people considering the purpose and the outcomes of their lifestyle.

It is clear that being examples to believers is part of our ministries. We aren't to just preach the word by speaking but by doing. So what we separate as life is still part of ministry, what we separate as ministry is still part of life.

The challenge is how to bring the two into one and not to be torn between the two.

Ministry is powered by gifts and calling. The Christian life is powered by the choices we make based on the word and the leading of the Spirit of God.
The gifts and the calling work with us to be able to deliver what God is saying to the people for whom they are meant, so that through the materials, they may build lives and lifestyles of faith and obedience in God's word.

And we can really impress people through ministry. That impression is important if they are to receive the word. But it comes with its own challenges. The challenge of high expectations. When we preach and teach the word, people forget that it's the anointing at work and so believe we have arrived and perfect.

And that calls for the other aspect of the situation, our own lives. Meaning we have to use the same word preached and taught to build our lives if the whole preaching and teaching won't end up as farce and fictions to the hearers.

Yet we face challenges in marriage, money, health, emotions, relationships, parenting, sinful temptations etc just as any other person. Sometimes even much more. The struggle not to fail God and the people is real and can be so excruciating.

Sometimes we want to use different means to cover our struggles and to always present a beautiful front, but that doesn't change the fact of the struggles.

That people don't see the struggles won't solve the problem, we can hide all we can, that's not part of the prescriptions for overcoming those struggles.

We must know that the struggles are part of our ministries. They present a platform or a pulpit to preach the word with our lives and choices. They aren't to be kept hidden, no one lights a candle to put it under a bucket. The challenges are meant to be opportunities for God to show the practicality of His word through us so that people can see His faithfulness and believe.

They are exclusively packaged to respond to the word of God. So we must be well prepared with God's word and Spirit to handle them in order to produce godly testimonies even in adversity.

Our successes aren't better testimonies than our failures. What God wants is how we use the word to handle both of them when they come so that people can see and glorify God.

Of course, we don't want failures but they are part of life, aren't they? People fail and they need our faith to follow at such times when words alone won't do. When they see how we handle our own failings, their faith is encouraged and they can keep holding on to God in their own circumstances.

When we present our lives as perfect, always rich, perfect homes, always healthy etc we create a vacuum, they have no examples to follow at such difficult times of their challenges. There's no faith to follow.

That doesn't mean we should make up the failures that don't exist. Sometimes ministers exaggerate their challenges to drive home points but we don't have to do that, it suffices that we had problems we overcame, others may even have tougher challenges than our exaggerated versions. The bottom line is that we too are people of like passions, tempted in every way as others but equipped with same weapons of God to overcome and in so doing become encouragements and examples to follow.

We need not be torn apart between ministry and life, we are to live the word of God and so make our lives a ministry platform for the world to see the faithfulness and love of our God.

We must live in this consciousness daily knowing that ministry is beyond the pulpit and the church office but into every area of our lives being used as platforms for dissemination of the word.

It's a great day. Let's live the life!

Watch at your Life's Post

Motivation Monday: Watch at Your Life's Post

I believe in destiny. Not that whatever happens was predestined but that there's a preplanned way things should be to work out the best as an option for individuals to make. That's where the idea of good and bad came from. The force gravity, for instance, has been there before we came here. It already predetermined that we would be fixed to the earth and not be floating as if on the moon. It won't be the plan of the Creator that people would live jumping off cliffs to the death.
There are ways things work that show us how to relate with them to make the most of life. We don't always have a hand in the way they present to us. We only have to make do with them in order to use them to our advantage, existence and survival.
In same way, we were each created and wired certain ways, definitely and obviously, not same way. No two people are exactly wired same way. And the wiring of individuals makes them perform differently, and so we have different effectiveness and efficiencies in different things. This individual uniqueness locks individuals within certain pathways in life. Either we like it or not, it shows how limited our choices can be, almost locking us up to only two options of what's  good for us and what's bad.

And within these options, the good options are always fewer than the bad. Between what's right and what's wrong, you have fewer rights and many wrongs. If we are to choose the white color or any other color, out of many colors, only one color will be right among the many different colors.
So we are locked up within very few choices in life based on our make up which we didn't choose. Even those who change genders still won't be able to change a whole lots of things about their physical bodies and minds, some changes are absolutely beyond us. Majority of things that make up our personalities are beyond our ability to choose and still be ok.

So, within how we were made are things we can do and can't do. Within that make up are what we would like to do and what we won't like to do. Within our peculiarities are those things we are wired to do and the things we aren't wired to do. This brings us to the limitations we have as individuals, which aren't limitations in themselves but opportunities to be able to choose from within the limited choices the things we were actually tailored to contribute to the world.

I understand that the human being, with his innovative make up, has the capacity to learn new skills and develop new capacities, but no acquired skills will naturally equip him or her to perform to the highest levels beyond what he or she would have being able to perform developing and maximising the original skill sets.

Life, therefore has set before individuals the post or position in life where they would be able to perform maximally and live most satisfying lives. Within the success plan of the Creator for the world, individual creature has been created to succeed at its own post. Every creature was made to add something unique to the whole and so is everyone of us.

But we have choices to make even if few. We have the tendency of making choices outside how we are wired. You can blame that on the power the Creator gave us to be able to choose even after making us in particular ways. I don't think it's wrong to be equipped with the power to make choices, I rather think it gives us the opportunity to participate in the fulfillment of our destinies and the plan of God for us and so should be handled with utmost responsibility. We should never use that right and the ability to make choices against God otherwise it'll hurl us out of the way set for us and hurt us badly.

It's good to follow the path life had laid before us and explore that to its extent rather than going off key like in music and turning beautiful songs into unpleasant noises that hurt the ear, if you have ever heard people not gifted with singing trying hard to sing.

My admonition this morning is that we discover how we are wired and seek to know exactly what we were cut out to deliver in this world and develop our skills to go and deliver them. We are more recognized, better paid and much more fulfilled when we discover and watch that post God created us for. It is there that possible positive open doors are, there, grace is more abundant. There, God had placed other resources and people to make things work. The team mates for success are waiting at that point for each one of us, to accomplish the life projects God has sent us to deliver.

Have you left your post to seek what you think would deliver faster or easier? It may be an investment into failure and frustration. It's good we do a reassessment to know what we are doing and to know if to stop and to do what's right.

To close your eyes and pick the correct option out of many is a risk not worth taking when it comes to life's business, rather check what you are wired to deliver and go for it, closing your eyes to any other but with the determination to pursue that path to its extents.

Such determination enjoys grace and opportunities that make whatever pain and sacrifices worth it.

Discover and keep watch at your post... Don't wander! There success awaits! Good morning

Proverbs 27
8. As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.

Why Walk the Tightrope?

Relationship Friday: Why Walk the Tightrope?

One of the greatest awe inspiring entertainments are those performed by stuntmen and women who walk on tight ropes, some with bars to hold for balance and others without. Some perform in circuses and more daring ones do it between skyscrapers. We applaud those who made it and reward them lavishly with their acts recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. Those who fall and die hardly make it beyond the evening News. The world doesn't celebrate failure.

Now, that tells us how dangerous walking on tight ropes can be, and why only a daring few ever gets to perform it at the highest level. And even the best of these stuntmen don't live on those tight ropes, no matter how much they make per performance. They step down afterwards to enjoy their pays in normal lives.

This morning, I'm inspired to tell you, married and about to marry folks, why you shouldn't transform your marriage into a tight rope you walk on daily.

God's plan is that our homes will be resting nests for every member of the house. A place to remember when away and be hopeful of returning to. A place where after being battered and beaten at the market place and offices, we can return to for entertainment and comfort. A place where we can find solace for all the troubles of labor and of men. If that's not what you want in marriage, don't bother to go in there. It must be a place we prepare for ourselves and for our partners so to be.

It shouldn't be a place where we are always struggling to maintain a balance so as not to fall off and get injured or even die.

Why do we find ourselves in such situations? The sense of having just a thin line to tow or to toe is a sign of limited space for manoeuvre. It's a kind of bondage and binding to a narrow route of which stepping out of such a line would cause a big problem.

It is that sense of having to compulsorily do things in certain way so as not to offend or cause disruptions in the home. It is that sense of superlative carefulness that steal peace of mind. It is a kind of cold war, a maintenance of a kind of peace that don't offer freedom. Real peace comes with freedom!

The home however is a place of freedom. A place where you are free to be naked and not be ashamed. It is a place where you should be yourself and create room for others to be themselves too. A place where others are free to boldly without animosity correct our errors and mistakes and where we too can correct other people's mistakes without the fear of them taking things personal.

We aren't perfect people. We get into relationships with other imperfect people. We need not be there demanding perfection that we ourselves can't give. Marriage isn't flying a plane. It isn't managing the atom bomb button where being careful all the time is the job. Where safety and security won't give room, not even a foot space, for play.

It is a place where we share our foolishness expecting that the other person will bear us gladly. It shouldn't be a place of criticism and cynicism at every little mistake. Not a place where you are always looking over your shoulders to see if you have not offended the other person. It isn't a place where you take offence even when there's none.

I wish we can grasp the fact that in marriage submitting and obedience to each other is purely for love. They aren't things enforced. When it gets to their being enforced, know that something is wrong already and steps must be retraced. When my wife scolds me, it isn't like she would scold our seven year old daughter... It's play, fun and love...and when I correct her, it isn't that I'm lording it over her, it's all loving in such a way that even if the correction isn't taken, it's still OK, we would always come back to joke about it. It has nothing to do with our egos, egos don't play any positive part in a loving marriage.

Men sometimes want to talk about their wives respect for them as a right and it's laughable sometimes, how some are so overtaken with that. In a relationship where you are expected to see each other's nakedness and display your emotions and base vulnerability in the desire and in the act of sex, someone who has seen you at that point over and over should be one to be so free with. We shouldn't be so overtaken with laws and rules that we make the home a prison or a military training grounds even if you live in the barracks.

Create that ambience of freedom in your home, be ready to enjoy your lives together. Create room for freedom and pleasure between yourselves. Nobody lives on a tight rope without getting tired to either come down or fall off. It's not a display we put up in the home neither what we should subject our spouses to. Be free and don't be afraid of the freedom of the other person. That's the kind of peace that is self sustaining. Wise people understand such kind of peace and not one created by a balance of power and by being so careful not to offend one another.

Let's work on it. Thanks for reading. Extra thanks for sharing!

Have a lovely weekend of peace and joy in the nest!

Good Morning!

Pathway to Exaltation

Monday Motivation: Pathway to Exaltation

Exaltation is a possibility. Everything grows from a small size. The destiny of anything good is to increase and multiply. But we must know the things that make for exaltation and lifting. They are more than mere activities and hardworking.

The basic lifting factor is righteousness. King Solomon said, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

Every human endeavor must engage the force of righteousness to rise. The force of doing what's right and doing them rightly. Righteousness isn't merely a religious word. On the spiritual plane, the grace of being declared righteous is a gift. An empowerment and not just a certificate of indulgence.

One who has been declared righteous but who continues to do things without the spirit of excellence and perfection can't turn around to claim the benefits of doing things well.

Every opportunity to make things happen places a demand on the gift of righteousness we have received to perform excellently and exceptionally. Whereas, we give certificates to people after they might have be proven qualified, God gives the gift of righteousness as a down payments for His children doing excellently going forward.

No one will care about the gift of righteousness you have received, if you perform poorly on your job: claiming you have been made the righteousness of God won't make clients pay you for not doing your job well.

But to everyone who does things well, who keep working on themselves to find out best practices and to commit to setting them as the only standards, there's lifting coming.

Many Christian businessmen often would separate spiritual life from business life, thinking righteousness won't let them do well in business. They often believe that you can't but lie and be deceptive to get along in the business world.

They had forgotten that trust is what made the business world. You can't go too far disappointing your business partners and clients. How long can a substandard product, though well packaged and advertised continue to rule the market? Even the people who deceive don't like being deceived, they detest it more than others who don't and can hardly endure the same things they do to others.

Part of doing things right is humility. Even proud people know that they have to stoop to conquer at the market place and they show a degree of humility in the presence of their benefactors even if not to their beneficiaries.

Humility is the king of courtesies. It is the foundation of customer service etiquette. Righteousness without humility isn't true righteousness. Righteousness and pride can't go far together. Just as pride and lifting don't go together. Pride can only go before a fall.
Yet, humility isn't same with being shy with the truth and with what's right. Humility isn't mere men pleasing. It isn't just a look good cosmetics, applied to get along and ahead at the work place. It is being able to sincerely show due respect to any person irrespective of age, color, sex, or social state while maintaining integrity, assertiveness and a good self esteem.

Another thing that exalts is integrity. Integrity gives solidity that can be relied upon. When a piece of engineering work loses integrity, it decays and decomposes and can't be trusted to carry weight. So is integrity at the work place. It also speaks of consistency without patches of adulteration that has no tendencies of failing a test of promise. When there's a possibility of integrity failure, the chances of lifting become slimmer.
As Christians we have the gift of righteousness that empowers us to reflect these traits from the nature within us. We have the better chance of presenting these character traits and no system will ordinarily deny a Christian a lifting who's good on his job and trust worthy in all he does with humility and love. Definitely, persecutions may make people deny such a Christian such lifting but we know that as we serve and do business as unto the Lord, God Himself opens doors of lifting and raises our heads up.

Do you think you can do with some lifting and exaltation? Look closely into these, do them and wait, it'll surely come.

Good morning and happy new week! It's a great day!