God desires to speak
1 Samuel 3:3”Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was..”
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Let me tell you something, as much as we would like to hear the voice of God and speak with Him, God is even more anxious and eager to speak to His children. You got to be avid in your thirst for God’s voice! Are you hearing me? Nevertheless, He speaks to people who are desperate to hear Him and also obey His instructions, God knows the depths of our heart. Why do think false prophets, false teachers are mushrooming, because rarely do we find people who willingly engage in hard, solid pursuit of God and His voice. People look for easy ways of hands being laid on their head and to have a quick prophesy for their questions. “GOD TOLD ME” is what we hear today from every Tom, Dick and Harry, be cautious!
After spending the entire night in prayer(October 2, 2020, Friday), I was preparing early morning to go to bed; however, my spirit was awake and my heart was still lingering with God, I felt the urge to read His Word, because that’s where we hear the crystal clear voice of God. I was led to the above portion of scripture and I write my revelations here, hot from the throne room of God., let the anointing permeate through this platform Oh Lord!
Sub- headings:
A.The environment doesn’t matter
B.Uncomfortable zone:
C. HARD PLACE: Just God and you!
D.SAMUEL HAD A STRONG BACK-UP OF PRAYER:
E. My SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE
F. UNITED IN SPIRIT WITH GOD
A.The environment doesn’t matter: The Bible says: “the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD before Eli. And word from the LORD was rare in those days, visions were infrequent.” (1 Samuel 1:1) It was during a dark period of rebelliousness, callousness and carelessness among the people, that God chose to come down and speak to a little boy Samuel. Therefore the state of our surrounding doesn’t matter, God is still looking for someone who would be willing to hear His voice and patiently listen to Him without distractions. You can live in a ‘black hole’ of wickedness surrounding you, but still God can reach out to you if are passionately desiring to hear Him.
Cluttered and engulfed with social media networks and umpteen other distractions, today people are not ready to read more than 3 words, they scroll past your words, but still they sit and read the article of some crack who talks about making million dollars. Have you watched words shrink for convenience, OKAY becomes just ‘K’, now even that has vanished replaced with emojis. Sad. God just cannot show up for people who do not want to strain and go the extra mile to hear the voice of god! I have preached in zoom meetings where the video of all the participants were muted, did you hear me, yes, all of their videos were muted. I spoke to EMPTY boxes; but I have been getting smarter, clever and proficient in writing to people who don’t care to read, preaching to closed, empty boxes in zoom meetings, speaking online in front of a camera in the church with empty chairs and so on…..Don’t you ever feel sad for me, I have been called for such a time as this! I will run the race for God faithfully until the end.
B. Uncomfortable zone:
Now look where Samuel was lying down, the Bible says, “Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was..” Wow, there you are! Samuel was in the right place to hear the voice of God! He was away from his home, lying down alone in the temple, attending to the work of word in the temple and sleeping where the ark of God was, but look where Eli the priest was during that time, read: “Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well.” Did you see that, Eli was lying down comfortably in ‘his place’, while the boy was alone in the temple of the Lord. Awesome! Awesome! Moreover not only Eli’s eyesight had become dim but is insight had also become dim due to careless, lazy dozing. People who had been doing great work for God when they were young and robust would slowly doze off when they get older; however, men like Rev. Reinhard Bonnke, the man who set Africa on fire for God, would come online and preach to people with fire even after they cross 80 years. Rev Bonnke said: “God always works with workers and moves with movers, but He does not sit with sitters. “ Ah, that’s a good one!
Come on friends, just dust yourselves and arise for God with fire, there is work in the vineyard! I got saved during the birth of my second child and the complications brought me to God, after that my life changed drastically. I donned multiple hats of being mother for a new born infant and my elder daughter who was 8 years old then, handled work at office and also became an atom bomb for Christ, I started prayer cells at my work spot, started night prayers and preached in many corporate prayer groups. While I was still working, God opened a full-fledged out-reach ministry, prayer-cell ministry in the office and I was even invited to preach among doctors in hospitals, IT professionals and various other places. We had started our all-night-prayer services as well once in a month. Beginning of 2004, I received a call from the Lord for full-time commitment, when I fasted and prayed, God gave me a clear indication to resign the job. It was a major decision in my life, while my elder daughter was 12 years old and my son was just four years old. I determined my heart to obey the Lord and follow Him. When I resigned and walked out of the bank, I had to walk out on many other things as well. I had to walk out on our beautifully air-conditioned apartment, give up luxury and give up on many other things as well.
I was floating in the air with the thought that God was going to immediately increase the borders of my present ministry. After my resignation, when I had to stay at home and wait for further instructions from the Lord, the first thing I did was to get into my prayer closet. I never knew that I would be locked up there!
God slowly closed every door of our ministry. Hey, what’s happening? I did not know! People who used to call me for outreach ministry stopped calling me. Not knowing what to do, I started spending time only in fasting and prayer. Have you ever prayed until your mouth pained and your back ached? I did! It was a hard place to endure, “inactivity” was killing me but God kept me there and trained me for the ministry that He had kept in store for me. It is this “experience” that has stirred me to write the book, “Locked up with God.” It is available in PDF format in my website, I enclose the link below:
https://worshipjesusministriestrust.org/ebook.php
I was lonely and the only roots I had was writing. God has a way of accomplishing His purpose in our life, there is simply no way out, but to say, ”Here I am.” God had to break my self-will and teach me to obey His will. God did not want to use an aggressive and ambitious person, but He was keen on making me humble and simple, content to be curled in His Hands.
Besides reading my Bible vociferously, I had a disciplined method of reading books of spiritual giants during the day, this habit triggered my faith and also I was desperate to know more of Him, still searching…..
God is eager to speak to His children who intensely and fervidly seek Him!
C. HARD PLACE: Just God and you! 1 Kings 17:4 “And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
God says, “and I have commanded the ravens to feed you ‘there!’ A place called ‘there’? It is the place where God wants you to be! When you are in the center of God’s will, He would then command even ravens to take care of you. It may not be a place of our choosing, but it is God’s chosen place for us. A place of Isolation, Harshness, Aloneness and Obscurity! It is here that God’s training begins and brings obedience, preparation, humbleness, closeness to God, revelation, cleansing and revival. Say Amen.
It was here that Elijah was prepared for revival at Mount Carmel. Many times we miss Mount Carmel experiences, because we refuse to go to the ‘place’ that God prepares for us. God has a reason to take us ‘there’! God wants to do some more work in our soul and spirit. During these tough isolation camps, God teaches us to trust Him one day at a time. God didn’t tell Elijah what the next step would be, until he had taken the first one. God will not show you your future, until you come away with Him. Rick Warren puts it beautifully, “God doesn’t owe you an explanation or reason for everything He asks you to do. Understanding can wait, but obedience can’t. Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions. Obedience unlocks understanding.” (The Purpose Driven Life, page 72)
Isolation and separation are too tough for people to handle who live active lives. We are people who love to be busy with our computer, cell phones, friends and IPODS, but God has to tear us apart from these in order to mold us. If you want to see a life filled with greater power, anointing, and the supernatural, it will only happen at the Brook Cherith. Elijah needed all the training God had for him in the secret place, if he was ever to speak on behalf of God in the public place. Before God will ever take you to Mount Carmel and use you in a mighty way, He has to take you through the desolation and obscurity of Cherith.
Evangelist A.A.Allen in his book, “The Price for God’s Miracle-working Power” writes about being locked up inside a room to hear the voice of God. The very first chapter grips our attention and he vividly explains his weakness of wanting to come out of the closed door by the smell of food and how finally he waits, until God speaks to him. It is scintillating! He says, “I began to realize that the light filling my prayer closet was God’s glory! It wasn’t that my prayer closet door that had opened, but the door of heaven! The presence of God was so real and powerful that I felt that I would die right there on my knees. It seemed that if God came any closer, I could not stand it! Yet, I wanted it and was determined to have it.” The books that I quote are all from my own library that I have built up for myself during my relentless quest for God and His awesome voice. What did Elijah do in the brook? He was alone with God and nothing but God and him. Elijah was locked up alone with God! Ah, how wonderful! No cell phones, no projects and no travel! JUST GOD AND HIM! Now watch what happens after the training at Cherith! God commands Elijah to “go to Zarephath”. He is sent by God to Zarephath, a city of Sidon, out of the borders of the land of Israel, to meet a poor widow there. But why to a city of Sidon? Why to be fed by a widow? I am sure Elijah expected a better assignment this time! Elijah did one commendable thing, though, and that is to obey the voice of God!
D.SAMUEL HAD A STRONG BACK-UP OF PRAYER: Eli’s children did not get the prayer backing like the way Samuel received, Eli the priest had lost the zeal for God and thereby his children went berserk and the temple of God was neglected. Very sad. Look how important it is to have a good leader, otherwise the entire place begins to stink of sin. Oh yeah, don’t you think that you reached where you are without the help of people praying for you. Hannah was a prayerful mom and she was ceaselessly praying for Samuel while he was alone in the temple.
If you find your children gifted, skilled and they have the calling of God in their life, then it is imperative that parents fast and pray for them. Even otherwise, parents got to set aside a day during the week and pray hard for their children, don’t you ever slacken and loosen in this area.
E. My SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE: John 10: 27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”
Look what Jesus said, ‘MY SHEEP’, oh yes, you have to become His sheep 100 percent, throw away the rest that hinders your walk with God. Jesus commands full surrender, half-baked people cannot hear the voice of God. I threw away, yes, I just threw away all secular books, magazines, video/audio cassettes that were contrary to the Bible teachings and thereby I consecrated myself wholly for my God. My book shelf were filled only with Christian material and nothing else. Did anybody force me to do this? NO, in fact, my family were surprised with my weird behavior of all the time talking about Jesus or reading about HIM. I became an ardent fan of Jesus, after 20 years, I still am!
F. UNITED IN SPIRIT WITH GOD: 1 Corinthians 6:17”But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” Whoa! That’s beautiful! You and God become one! Only those who are united in Spirit with God, can hear Him crystal clear.
Did you know the tremendous impact the person you move with brings on you? Today as I was serving lunch to my school kids, I watched one particular boy eating his food very neatly and cleanly compared to the other children who normally have a messy way of eating; surely, what they see the elders do every day reflect in their habits. We also run a free school, Abide School for the poor where we offer everything FREE for the kids, besides we also run a Children Home for the abandoned kids where we offer free shelter and education, called ABIDE ANGEL HOME.
Same goes with the friends that we move with, we got to be extremely careful with the kind of crowd that we associate with, their character would sure rub off on us. The Bible clearly warns us that we should make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go. - Proverbs 22:24
Now, I come to the awesome portion of being joined to the Lord! While we meditate this, we surely remember the words of Jesus when He categorically stated, ‘Abide in me.’ Jesus further stressed, ‘you can do nothing without me.’ Very true! Let me quote John 15:5: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Friend, the more you spend time with God in prayer and reading His Word, his qualities start growing in you, His patience starts operating in you, His love starts flowing out from you, His compassion starts filling you and overall you slowly start being a ‘city on a hill.’ This is what you call as ‘joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him!’ People who spend much time on ‘Face Book’ and the internet would never know what I am talking about, they would gruff and puff over small matters, they would be hasty and nasty while judging others, they would blow their top off over small issues, they would be selfish and hard to adjust with. Apostle Paul warns us in Romans 8:13, ‘For if you live according to the flesh you will die..’
I remember reading a small book written by a wonderful servant of God years back, which talked about ‘divine walk’ with God. He gives us three phases of our walk with God which starts with little of God in your life and more of you, then the second phase where more of God and less of you and then the third phase where everything is of God and nothing of you. The last phase is spiritual highness! Seriously, I did not understand the true spiritual richness behind that revelation then, but now as a preacher I can literally feel when I am ‘full of God’ and when I am ‘full of self’ because my preaching and teaching clearly reflects the level of my ‘filling!’ I’m excited! On a particular Sunday I allowed myself to get distracted a little bit but I faced the consequences in the pulpit when the ‘Living water’ was not flowing freely in my preaching. I knew then that I had grieved God and I pleaded God for forgiveness; only when you’re sharply sensitive to His presence would you be able to sense His movements and HEAR HIS VOICE.
How does one get joined to the Lord? Avoid unnecessary distractions: Facebook, internet browsing, needless chatting on the web/mobile and meticulously start spending time in prayer and reading His Word. Have a disciplined timing and stick to your schedule aggressively, give every molecule of your being to it. I remember clinging on to the alarm clock like a kid and keeping my time with the Lord passionately.
Only a man like Apostle Paul can write such words that ooze with anointing: He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him! Powerful! I repeat the more time you spend with Him, you get merged with Him, like getting stuck To HIM with Fevikwik! Quick! Run to Him!
I’m full of beans as I write this! I must, I must, I must… tell you what happens when you get ‘Fevikwik stuck‘ with the Lord:
• You would quickly make up with people who have offended you and that would be like a ‘Mary Kom punch’
• You would quickly wake up to pray
• You would be quick to read His Word
• You would be quick to keep your word
God bless you!
