THE SHEPHERD

THE SHEPHERD!!!

should not shepherd take care of the flock?

Woe to you shepherd who takecare of yourselves.

You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool,

You refused to care for the flock.

The shepherd !

You did not strengthened the weak or healed the sick

You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.

You ruled them harshly and brutally; 

So, they were scattered, because no shepherds.

The shepherd !

You make them become food for all the wild animals,

Because he didn't cater to search for the flock.

The wrath of God will cone against the nonchalant shepherds.

You shall accountable for the lost flock.

He (God) will judge between the fat Shepherds and the Lean Sheperds.

SELECTIVE WORSHIP

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: 1 Peter 2:9

Read: John 4:21-24

John 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Message

The wise men who traced Jesus after seeing His uncommon star were truly wise and we can learn from them. We notice that when they got to where Jesus was, they fell at His feet and worshipped Him (Matthew 2:11). These men were worshippers but they worshipped selectively. They knew who to worship. On arrival, they saw Jesus with His mother Mary and worshipped Jesus and not Mary. Today, many people are still worshipping Mary and praying to her so that she can be a mediator between them and God. 1 Timothy 2:5 says,

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

The wise men did not see an uncommon star in Mary the day she was born, so they knew she was human and not divine; therefore everyone who worships her is an idolater. Anyone who makes an image of God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit or Mary or dead saints and bows the knee before them or is worshipping them is violating the first commandment documented in Exodus 20: 1-5. Are you worshipping what you do not know?

You are created to be a worshipper of the invisible God. It is either you worship God or you will worship the devil, money or something else. The devotion you fail to give to God will be taken by something else. But if you know how to worship God in truth and in spirit, you will end your race in Heaven. God forbid that it happens that I die by accident and I find myself being locked outside the gates of Heaven, I will begin to worship Him and by the time I would have done so for one or two hours, the Lord will ask: 'Who locked that fellow out? He belongs here'. Give time to worshipping God. Some people deliberately avoid the time of praise and worship during service and come for the sermon, thinking that worship is not so important. What a great mistake! Excluding worship from your service makes your service incomplete. The time spent in worshipping God is not wasted and cannot be wasted and cannot go without being noticed in Heaven.

Key Point

When God calls a worshipper home, it is for the fellow to continue in Heaven what he or she has been doing on earth.

GOD PROMOTES

When God set out to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt, it was to take them out of captivity and bondage and to lift them up. God has come to take you out of your current location in the miry clay to your promised land – a land flowing with milk and honey. This simply tells us that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the God of promotion. When He promotes you, nobody can demote you. Psalm 75:5-7 says promotion comes from God but He can decide to effect it through any medium. If you catch this revelation, your attitude to God, your boss and your work place will be redefined. If God is the One to promote you, you will not break your relationship with Him. Also, you will not have to compromise your faith in any way. The fear of being denied promotion has made many believers to switch from serving God to serving their boss. Never let any superior or boss rob you of your relationship with God!

God still promotes. There is no promotion that takes place without the knowledge of God. If he says your time for promotion has come; there is nothing anybody anywhere can do about it. This season, the Lord shall promote you. Moreover, when He is set to promote you, it does not matter where the enemies have kept you; you are coming out and going up! For instance, He can locate you in the miry clay and take you up according to Psalm 40:1-3. He can also go to the dunghill to pick you up from there and set you up among nobles and princes and nobody will be able to challenge you (1 Samuel 2:8). He can take you from any depth and lift you up to any height. He can lift you beyond any level any man can take you. When he decides to promote you, even the sky will be your starting point. This season, the Godhead is taking a decision to promote someone, to take the fellow from the depths to the heights. That fellow is you. Thankfully receive your promotion today!

KeyPoint

The only time your boss can sit on your promotion or entitlements successfully, is when God allows you to go through that situation as a trial of your faith, for a period.

Victim of comfort

Just as your attention can be arrested by certain things while undergoing a physical journey, so also can your attention be diverted while running the race to Heaven. One of such things that can divert heaven-bound citizens is prosperity. Prosperity can give you a lot of comfort which can affect your focus, reduce your consecration and play down your personal relationship with God. Prosperity can truncate one's journey to heaven if unchecked. One victim of this was Demas. 2 Timothy 4:10 says,

“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.”

While other co-labours of Paul were travelling to different cities of the world for the work of the Gospel, Demas – a co-labourer of Paul, fell in love with the world to such an extent that he went back to Thessalonica having been taken captive by worldly pleasures and amusements. Is your prosperity gradually pushing you off the heavenly track? Control it now before it destroys your soul completely!

Many years ago, when all some of us had were two shirts, two trousers and one pair of shoes, we prayed, loved the Lord and served Him with all our hearts and strength. But today, it is a different ball game. For many who have now been blessed materially, it has become a herculean task to give even a quarter of our time and strength to God. Some find it extremely difficult to make sacrifices for God: everything now operates on how convenient it is. I remember when I called church members to join in a 100-day fast, those from low-income areas in Lagos such as Ajegunle, Mushin, etc., immediately received the announcement with joy, while on that same day when I went to make the same announcement in the high brow areas of Lagos – Ikoyi and Victoria Island, they were not happy to receive it, but thank God they joined. Is the comfort of your bed, store house and bank account now negatively affecting your fire? Watch it and adjust now before you become its victim.

ActionPoint

Ask God to take you to the level where nothing 

SIMPLY GRACE

After identifying his problem, King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:4-13 refused to walk by sight but looked up to God in the face of threats. This was exactly what God wanted. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says,

“For we walk by faith, not by sight:”

Those who will be ready for God's use in these end times must be ready to walk by faith and not by sight. Our sense of sight is so limited. Sight sees and speaks only of what is available, but if you have to wait until certain resources are available, you may never achieve what God wants done. For instance, when God sent Elijah to the widow at Zarephath in 1 Kings 17:8-16, if she was to wait until she had enough before accepting to take in the man of God, she would never have obeyed God's Word, and would most probably have died during the famine. Many times, if we were to go by our physical weaknesses, we would never have been used by God to do the impossible.

The difference between what we have and what we need for the assignment is His grace. When God is sending you on an assignment, He knows your limitations before asking you to go. If He cannot make up the shortfall, He would not have sent you. How is it ever possible for one to chase a thousand and two to chase ten thousands if the sense of sight is applied? It is only grace! How can God pick up a notorious robber, clean him up and ask him to go and start preaching to people including those he once robbed? Sight will say: Never; but thank God for grace. How can God give that assignment to you, in spite of your low educational qualifications, whereas, by all reasonable standards, it is meant for professors? It could only have been possible by His grace. So trust His grace. His grace can fix the difference. Accept that task the Lord is giving to you because He had already prepared to cover up the difference. His grace will be sufficient for you.

PrayerPoint

Father, between what I have and what I need to do Your assignment, let Your grace cover up the difference.

Meekness

One of the outstanding qualities of the midwives in Exodus 1:15-21 is meekness. Many people usually misconstrue meekness for weakness but this is not so. To be meek is to be capable of doing a lot of damage but to refuse to use such powers for evil. Those midwives had the power to kill new born babies but they refused to use it. Matthew 5:5 says,

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

This tells us that if you are meek, you will attract material possessions in ways you cannot explain. That also means that if you usually use the power at your disposal to do evil and not show mercy, you will be repelling material things in ways that you cannot understand. No wonder the meekness of the midwives gave them households! In addition, meekness causes things on the earth to cooperate with the one who has it. Meekness is a show of mercy. The merciful obtains mercy and the way of the meek is clear. When the way to progress or prosperity is blocked for some people, they will begin to look for some external enemies, not knowing that it is their vengeful, highly retaliatory and unforgiving disposition that is causing it.

Every believer is a potential divine midwife and as such should be meek. When somebody is doing everything to pull you down, and you have information about the fellow that can bring him or her down, don't use it. Those who say: 'Before you bring me down I will clear you out of the way', are lacking in meekness. Is your senior pastor persecuting you? Are you seeking ways to get back at him or even to get him sacked? If you are, where is your meekness? A meek fellow does not have the terms: vengeance, unforgiving spirit, impatience with offenders, etc., in his or her dictionary. The meek fellow makes excuses for his or her offenders. Moses was the meekest of men in his days. Also when Stephen was being stoned to death, what did he say? He told the Lord not to record the event leading to his death because they did not know what they were doing. That was also what our Lord Jesus Christ did. That is meekness.

KeyPoint

If you will not be meek because of the sacrifice it entails, be meek because of

Newspay is good on the house