Starsofgrace’s Weblog

“Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.” Revelation 16:15

But many [who are now] first will be last [then], and many [who are now] last will be first [then].  Mark 10:31 (Amplified Bible)

Before I write any article, I always ask the Lord what He would like me to write about. Sometimes, He impresses a scripture or an experience that He wants me to share with others. This has now become my habit; however, recently I asked God what I needed to write about and He gave me the two specific “scary” scriptures above. I must confess that I was surprised because I do not think about His coming on a daily basis; I suppose like many believers  I am busy facing the challenges of life that the rapture is not what is on my mind.  Am I ready? Good question; nevertheless, God was asking me to write about it.  What do I say Lord and to whom? It has been weeks since the Lord spoke to me and I have even written other articles and pushed this one away from my mind; yet, it did not fade away; now, I have to obey His voice.

Jesus Christ is coming back again; however, He will return unexpectedly ( 1 Thessalonians5: 1-6) If you are like me, you want to be ready when He comes. In a past devotional, I shared with you that no one knows the hour; neither Jesus who is to come nor the angels but only God the Father knows. (Matthew 24:36) This is a secret and privilege of God: when to send His son back to earth. Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians  reminds us that we should be prepared at all times for the return of Christ.  In what ways do our lives show either readiness or lack of preparation for christ’s return? Before you start counting your acts of service and position of leadership, remember that many who are now first will be last and many who are now last will be first (when Jesus comes).  That calls for indepth soul searching and may be some frowning faces. So how do we get ready?

Having confessed Christ, we should be firm to stand against temptations and be committed to God’s moral standards. How I pray that the Lord will  find us working in the harvest fields where the labourers are still few while the harvest is plenty. ( Luke 10: 2) Here is the sum total of it all: Jesus said that there are only two commandments: to love God and others. (Matthew 22: 37-40) Are you now ready?

Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You for salvation. I acknowledge that You are coming back again. Help me to remember that and to prepare my heart for Your coming. Give me strength to live for You even when I do not know the hour of Your return. In Your precious name. Amen

“If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God, “I’ll get you out of any trouble.
I’ll give you the best of care if you’ll only get to know and trust me.
Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times; I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party.
I’ll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!” Psalms 91: 14-16 ( The message)

Last night I had a dream; a scary dream: I saw my son run across a highway; he then tripped and fell before he could get across. I ran and quickly took him by the hand and lifted him. I was abit angry that he had decided to run and  cross the road, probably wanting to catch a waiting bus. Suddenly, I woke up.

During my quiet time later in the day, God reminded me about the dream. I began to pray against any plan of the enemy in my son’s life because falling in whichever way, is not a pleasant thing.  Shortl, I received a call from my son who sounded sad and disturbed. He explained to me that he had made a few work related errors; one of which was going to cost the company some money. His boss had told him that the company would recover the cost his salary; that meant him losing seventy five percent of his salary. I immeadiately knew why the Lord had showed me  the dream. We prayed over the phone and stood on the Word of God. My son was at fault since he had forgotten a procedure that was now going to cost him a huge part of his salary. However, weboth knew that the Lord is gracious. I reminded God that my son was a tither and that he was serving Him;  and prayed for leniency and mercy.

I remained prayerful and thanked God for His favor and grace. Then the Lord asked me to tell my son to ask his boss for forgiveness for the mistake.  Before I talked to my son, he called me that evening, and told me the good news. The boss had made a dramatic move; she suddenly found reasons to blame each worker for the fault that was now going to cost the company and informed my son that it would be unfair to recover the money from him alone. In that case, she forgave all the workers and that saved my son his salary. May be you dont get it: the moment we prayed, the Lord by His Spirit caused the events that led to the boss thinking about the whole issue again; which made her see that all the workers were to blame for the mistake. Why did she not have such thoughts in the first instance? I believe the unfolding events were triggered by the Lord through the weapon of prayer. We serve a mighty God who will never forsake His own. I humbly realise that God did not sanction the job error done by my son; instead, He showed him compassion and mercy;  He proved that He is a forgiving Father and through my son, the rest of the colleagues received pardon.

Every believer is special to God and occupies a special place in His heart. You and I are not ordinary, normal people; we move in the power of the supernatural; if only we realise it always;  but more, when the enemy throws challenges our way.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for my place in Your heart. Thank You that You hear me when I call. Help me to remember to whom I belong at all times so that I can pray in boldness knowing that Your power resides within me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I woke up recently with a certain scripture in my mind. The Holy Spirit illuminated it so much that I had to meditate on it; yet, it was a very familiar verse.  Here it is.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4: 19

I had often read, prayed  and spoken this verse with other believers but this time it was very personal to me. I had watched a short video from Pastor Chris Oyakhilome about believing and speaking the Word a few days before. On that day, I remembered it and started speaking the verse and thanking God for meeting all my needs; I did it for most of that day. Then it occured to me that it was the end of the month and I had bills to pay but no income.  I heard the Lord tell me to check my account balance. I had checked it the previous day because I was expecting some good money but for various reasons it had failed to arrive.

The status of my account had changed having received a different payment that was owed to me from a different source;  I was not expecting the payment then. While at the bank, I got a different idea; I approached the cashier and requested him to transfer some money that had been held up in the quick purse account for more than a year.  The money had erronously moved to the quick purse account when I pressed the wrong button at the teller machine. I visited the bank but I was not successful in manually retrieving it back due to lack of suffient knowledge.  However, it was now time to retrieve it under the direction of the Lord. When I added up the two amounts, it was just enough to pay all my monthly bills. Praise God, He met my need in an unexpected manner; I believed and spoke the Word that He had impressed in my heart and it worked. Dear brethren, God will meet all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus. However, He will not believe and speak the Word for you; that is our privilege and responsibility. Let us embrace it.

Dear Father, thank You for knowing all my needs and  meeting them through Jesus Christ. Help me to receive a revelation about this powerful Truth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Often times, we do not prepare to meet God; may be because unlike in the old covenant, He now dwells in our hearts. But the principal of preparing to meet God has not changed. Yes, we have been made right through Jesus Christ but God is still the Holy One of Israel. He asked Moses to prepare the people to meet him.

Then the Lord told Moses, “Go down and prepare the people for my arrival. Consecrate them today and tomorrow, and have them wash their clothing. Be sure they are ready on the third day, for on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai as all the people watch. Exodus 19: 10-11 (NLT)

I was in prayer agreement with a friend who was undergoing deep tribulations. During prayer, the Lord asked me to tell her to prepare to meet Him. As I searched the scriptures about preparing to meet God, I came across the above verse and the unfolding story. God wants us to prepare ourselves always before we meet Him. We need to remember that He is a Holy God in whom there is no sin. Just like the Israelites washed their clothing and abstained from sexual relations before meeting God, we too need to cleanse our spiritual garments ( our hearts) before meeting Him. Our fallen nature is sinful and we must consecrate ourselves through repentance before we approach the throne of grace. He will hear us when we call for repentance because we come in the name of Jesus.

We should not take light the atonement of sin by assuming that God is now lenient with us and has compromised His holiness; Jesus died in vain if it was that easy. Our fear of God which is the beginning of all wisdom needs to remain in our hearts. God is still the jealous God who will not put up with idolatry and other sins in our lives; He is still the God who punishes the iniquity of the fathers up to third and fourth generation (Exodus 20) He is still the God who gave the ten commandments and who has made a connection between the old and the new testament. This far, there is nothing casual about approaching the throne of God. Even the priests were not spared if they did not prepare themselves to meet God in a proper manner
( Exodus 19:22).

God cannot compromise His holiness; today, even the church leaders must approach Him in a worthy manner for He has no favorites. Before you label me to be religious, recognise that He is still the loving Father; compassionate, faithful and patient. He loves us and has a made a way for forgiveness but not a licence to sin. Despite what we hear preached that makes the gospel seem what it is not, we must find the Truth in the Word; because everything will pass away apart from the Word.

Just a different thought: if we want the Lord to receive our worship and requests seriously, then we cannot approach Him casually.

Heavenly Father, help me to strive for holiness so that I may approach You, Holy God in confidence. Thank You that I can stand before You in the righteouness of Jesus. Teach me not to take the cross for granted. In Jesus’ name. Amen

“Give us today our daily bread”. Matthew 6: 11

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”. Matthew 6:34 (NIV)

Have you ever worried about tomorrow and the day after or even the week, month or the years to come? I have and so many others that I know have been worried too. I have worried about many things in my life; my children, marriage, job, health, death, relationships and other minor things that I should not even worry about. I have come to learn that worry is counter productive. In most cases, it paralyses us and makes us not to see the opportunities that are meant to be the solutions to our worry. It also stops us from seeing God through the eyes of faith but only through the particular object of worry. Worry stops us from enjoying the day that the Lord has made. With worry we are unable to take one day at a time yet we can change nothing with it.

God is aware of the possibility and the high probability that mankind will have worries in this life. And that is why he has given us his word of encouragement throughout scripture about his love and care. God wants us to take one day at a time because his grace is sufficient for the day with all the issues we have to deal with. In other words, one day is crowded enough for us to worry about the next day or week. God in his sovereignty holds the future which begins in the next second or less up to eternity. God would like you and me to rest in his power and live today in abundance irrespective of the circumstances. One day after praying about all my burdens, I heard the Lord ask me “Why do you tell me about your troubles yet you keep on worrying about the very things you have prayed about?” He said, “Live one day at a time.” I am still practising that.

Jesus taught that we should ask God to give us our daily bread and not our monthly or annual bread. Just enough for today.

Dear Lord, help me to take one day at a time and to enjoy the day that you have made and rejoice in it. Amen