A life worthy of celebrating

Recently, I attended the funeral of one of my close friends' mum and this brought back to me the reality of death once again. At the church service, I looked into the lifeless body in the casket and later on at the cemetery I watched as it was lowered into the open grave.

Two events that man has no control over is life's birth and it's death. No one can give the breath of life and our death is a sure thing. So how do we use the time between our birth and death?

When I was writing my book; Living a fearless Life, one of my best friends died in her forties. I was saddened and felt the pain of loss ~ I will never see her again in this world. The pain of loss was gut wrenching, even now I can still feel the numbness of loss.

I was able to confront my fear of death as I wrote the book. You know what, death brings rest from the world's hustle and bustle. We rest until we are awaken to a glorious eternal life with Christ. Once you are dead, you feel no more pain or sorrow but those you leave behind are left with the pain of loss.

King David prayed, 'Lord teach me to number my days.' Since physical death is as certain as the breadth we take, I am determined to maximise my time on earth, using it to the glory of God for the hope of eternal life. I want to positively impact lives here on earth. When My time is up, I do not want tears but a celebration and worship to Almighty God in honor of my sojourn here on earth.

In the corner of the world where I came from, most people are superstitious about talking of death. It is believed that when you talk about death, it is a premonition of your death. You know what the word of God declares 'I will not die but I will live and declare the works of the LORD' (Psalm118:17).

'With long life will God satisfy me.' (Psalms 91:16). Live your life worthy of celebrating!

Discipline - A tough lesson

 I usually wake up with the word of God in my heart (‘…and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking…’ Jeremiah 7:13). This amazes me all the time; the connection of the Spirit of God with man even in sleep. It confirms the word of God that ‘He is always with us.’

I woke up to a beautiful day, in the city of Bamako in Mali where I am writing this blog. I rearranged the small table in my hotel room and sat down, facing the window where I could see the trees, with their leaves gently swaying to the unheard music in the winds; as if they are dancing in the presence of the Spirit of God in the winds.

The essence of the word woke me and got me out of my comfortable bed at 7am. It’s the weekend and I always look forward to the weekend for a lie-in. Yet, as I turn to the side for a second round of sleep, the word came fast. As always, I know if I don’t get up and put the words on paper, it gently flies away never to return in the same fresh, enlightening way…a great opportunity lost.

I got up and here I am – putting words on paper.  As I continue on my spiritual journey, daily, I look forward to being taught by the Holy Spirit as God promised..“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye” (Psalm 32:8 NKJV). The lesson I have been going through recently is on discipline.

I have a vision of the life I want to live, I have plans and goals that I need to achieve if my vision will become a reality – and it will take hard work. One of my goals this year is to study the whole bible in a disciplined and consistent way. I have discovered the reality of the wisdom contained therein, like finding treasures as you dig in. I am passionate about leadership – the wisdom for leaders is there; I desire to grow spiritually – what better place than the Word of Life. So, this year, I made a decision, I will dig for the treasures in a more disciplined way.

And God has been using it to teach me  how to be disciplined. I set reading targets for each day (including writing the wisdom nuggets) but I find myself lagging behind in the first month. I made the decision that even if I lag behind, I would just have more chapters to read each day. I must continue on my goal to the end. This goal brings more benefit to me and the cost of procrastination is too high.

I have reflected on why I keep missing my targets, and my conclusion is this; laziness and procrastination. It’s not because I don’t have the time; I could wake up each day one hour earlier to read the chapters for the day. But I want more sleep, so I postpone it to later, then later comes, I believe (it’s a mind thing not necessarily the reality) I am tired right now and will read it later before I sleep; later comes, I read a few chapters, then I am too sleepy - next day comes. Of course now I have many more chapters to read.

If not for the Word that wakes me up each morning till I ‘heard’ the essence of the lesson; ‘A stitch in time saves nine.’ Discipline requires me to do what I need to do ‘right now’. If you have goals, especially spiritual goals, start on it right now, don’t procrastinate.

What about you? What are your goals for this year? How are you doing so far? Is the Holy Spirit waking you up?

 

Shalom,

Adeola Akintoye

PS: if this post has encouraged you, do share and encourage someone else.

If only I could briddle my tongue

In my journey into spiritual maturity, I have been blessed by many sermons on the power of the tongue. I have also noted in my life that the more I grow in faith, the less I engage in conversations that do not lift people up. I still feel though, that sometimes I talk too much!

A while ago, I was reading a book by #DrDavidYonggiCho titled ‘Ministering Hope for 50 Years’ (I would recommend this for all spiritual leaders – amazing testimonies of God’s unfailing support when He has given you work to do).

In the book, Dr Cho related a conversation he had with a renowned neurosurgeon; this man told him that research have found that the speech area nerve controls all other nerves in the brain. Basically when you speak, you send a command to other nerves and they then activate it. As an example, if you say; ‘ I'm gradually getting weaker’, other nerves receive the message from the speech nerve and obey it – telling others to ‘lets get weak, we need to get weak.’ If you say, ‘I am healthy’, the message gets transmitted and process the command.

Of course what this neurosurgeon found out from research is not new; it had already been said thousands of years ago by the Master Creator (James 3:1-6). In fact we are told in verse 2; ‘….for if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.’ And ….’those who control their tongue will have long life’, (Proverbs 13:3).

As believers, we understand the power of confession – it activates and deepens our faith. Isn’t God wonderful? He has put in us, the design of our organs to work with our faith to bring into reality what we confess.

We use our tongue to decree positively and negatively; to bless and curse. We can use the power of the tongue for good or for evil, to bless each other and to turn around bad situations in life.

Let’s be quick to bless and slow to curse. It can be disheartening to read what believers’ write on our social media platforms. Most times people are quick to curse leaders – ‘….those who have been made in the image of God,’ (James 3:9). When I read such, I ask myself; do you curse the person or the spirit behind the person’s act? Should we appropriate the power of our tongue to rebuke evil spirits that enables a person to live an ungodly, immoral and corrupt life? How do we, as children of light, use our power of the tongue without committing sin ourselves? We must remember it is okay to be angry but we must not sin in our anger. When a child does something really stupid, you don’t tell that child, ‘You stupid child’ rather you tell they child what s/he did was stupid. The power of the tongue!

Let the Holy Spirit guide what we say in all things. A quiet person is not a fool, those who are wise follow the leading of the Spirit; in what to say, when to say and how to say.

Are you struggling with taming your tongue? Consciously pause and think about what you want to say, why you must say it and the best way of saying it. What is the intention behind your words? Pray and confess the following;

Almighty God, thank you for the gift of the tongue; I thank you that I’m able to talk, I’m able to use my tongue to praise you and testify of your goodness. Give me the grace to think before I talk. Let the Holy Spirit direct my speech to the glory of your name.

I confess that my tongue will be a channel of blessing and a vessel unto honour.  I appropriate my authority in Jesus over all sinful speech in the name of Jesus. Amen

If this article has blessed you, I would love to hear your testimony so that we may together continue to offer praise and thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father. Leave a comment or send me an email; adeola@we-can-leadershipinstitute.com

 SHALOM

Adeola Akintoye

Selfish Ambition

 Have you ever met someone, and one of the things that crosses your mind immediately is how this person can help you….. contribute to your business…..open doors for you…..

Yup, been there and done that. Many of us have as well and still do. When you meet someone, we think immediately, ‘How can this person be a channel of blessing to me.' The new member that just joins the Church is assessed for financial status;  the person you just met is assessed for what they do, who they know, their financial status – generally what do they have that can be of benefit to me.

It’s all about me – what I can get from this person/relationship. It’s rarely about what I can contribute into this person’s life; how can I be a blessing in their life. Yes, God uses people to bless us but this is not an excuse to deliberately assess people for what and how they can be a blessing to you. That is selfish ambition.

As I continue on the journey into spiritual maturity, I have had to deal aggressively with this attitude in myself. I had to transform my thinking with the help of the Holy Spirit to always think; ‘How can I be a blessing to this person,’ instead of the other way round.

 I use the word ‘aggressively,’ because I have come to understand that as long as we are in this earthly flesh, our sinful nature will continually try ( can only try because it no longer has authority over us) to rear it’s ugly head and you need to eliminate it with aggression. A soft approach would only lead to you giving in.

One of the results of giving in to our sinful nature is selfish ambition; ‘When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear…..selfish ambition’ (Galatians 5:19-20 NLT). And it is certain that, ‘anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.’ (vs. 21)

Apostle Paul was talking to the ‘born again’ Christians in Galatia. Even after being born again it is still possible to miss the Kingdom of God! My friends, all evidence of the sinful nature must be dealt with aggressively.

Thanks be to God that we have the Holy Spirit in us to guide our lives. You still have to make the choice though to, ‘…let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.’ (Galatians 5:16 NLT)

 Are you struggling with your sinful nature, renew your commitment to Jesus today and let the Holy Spirit guide every area of your life. Pray the following prayer and make the bold confession below;

Almighty God, thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct my life. Give me the grace to say NO to all sinful desires and YES to the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Let the fruit of the Spirit be evidenced in all areas of my life; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness and self control.

I confess that Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of my sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there (Galatians 5:24); I appropriate my authority in Jesus over all sinful desires in the name of Jesus. Amen

If this article has blessed you, I would love to hear your testimony so that we may together continue to offer praise and thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father. Write me at adeola@we-can-leadershipinstitute.com

SHALOM

Adeola Akintoye