SUNDAY WORD: HOW TO WALK WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

Galatians 5:16-18 (NIV):
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Hey Everyone! This Sunday I wanted to concentrate more on teaching on how to live by the Spirit and not in the flesh. I’ve discovered in my life and from my experiences, that it can be a challenge to walk in step with the Spirit even after you have decided in your heart to accept Christ as your Savior and Lord and today I want to teach on that topic.
So firstly, to understand how to begin Christian living it is key to realize that we receive the Holy Spirit as our guide and helper when we step into the body of Christ. You may ask-well who is the Holy Spirit? He is the Spirit of God (Ezekiel 36:27).
And we all receive Him when we accept Christ into our lives. When you yield to the will of God-through accepting Him into your heart and starting to listen to that spiritual push that we all have in our conscience concerning our daily life choices-you are yielding to the Holy Spirit because He is the voice of God that directs us in our lives.
And this is why the Word above starts with action: walk by the Spirit. To walk by the Spirit as I have just explained is to yield our choices through our actions to the leadership of God-this means-that relationship the LORD has told you is not good for you? It is time to yield to the Spirit of God and let it go. That job the LORD has told you to continue to work at? Or those marital issues He has shown you how to handle ie listen more, argue less or even any relationship advice the LORD has spoken to you about like being less stubborn? Yield to the Spirit. This is how you walk by the Spirit.
And what happens when you begin to incorporate these changes?
Well let me illustrate for you through an example. If you are going from A to B-the more you travel on that route, the closer you get to B, and the farther away you get from A.
What I mean is if you are travelling from Lagos to London for instance, the more time you spend on that journey, the farther you are away from Lagos and the closer you are to London.
Hence the more you yield your actions to God by walking by the Spirit, the easier it becomes to stop sexual immorality, alcoholism, profanity and so much more because you are moving farther away from yielding to acts of the flesh which are sexual immorality, fits of rage and so much more and closer to the leadership of the Spirit and your identity as a Christian (Romans 8:14).
Another reason is, as verse 17 above says, it is because the Spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh and hence when you choose the route of obeying God, you are walking in the opposite direction from the flesh and from sin.
Which is why as a practicing Christian, it will become easier for your habits to change, because it is not by your power but by His Spirit. (Zechariah 4:6).
This is an area that I feel Christians need to understand more-the more you spend time with God-and build that relationship with Him, (as you build it with family and even friends which is through constant conversation and communication,) the more He will start to influence your decisions. And you will notice those sexual urges you’re dealing with? Or that fit of rage that is so prominent in your personality? Will begin to die because the Spirit’s power has begun to speak in your life as you yield to Him in obedience.
This is why verse 18 says if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. What this means is that for instance, we all know if you break the law, you go to jail or you have to pay certain conseqences. But the Spirit is not led by the law. So just because you have dealt with certain issues in the past does not mean you have one particular outcome ie if you deal with alcohol, in the Spirit, as you yield to His leadership by following His instructions, as He whispers in your heart, you are free from the consequences of that decision because His power begins to speak in your actions and He changes your position.
And when you are led by the Spirit meaning when you accept Christ into your heart and start to follow His leadership as He whispers instructions to your spirit (1 Kings 19:12) and begins to speak by His Spirit through your conscience, you will be led away from sin which is contained in the law.
This is what it means to start to live a Christian life. It is when you allow your faith to partner with your deeds/actions. Because if not, the Word says it-faith without deeds is dead! (James 2:26). Its no use saying, you are a Christian and still silently struggling with sin. Start from accepting God in, and then yield to His instructions in obedience and He cleans up your mess-you will notice, your desires will change because when you start to yield to Him, He places His desires for you in your heart and makes them your own desires:

Ezekiel 36:27 (NIV):
27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

You will start to feel a desire to obey God and it will no longer feel difficult because it is not by our power but by His Spirit. And He makes your weaknesses a testimony of His strength (Philippians 4:13).

So start yielding to the Holy Spirit today through following His instructions in your heart-and these instructions are good instructions ie He could tell you to let go of a relationship you already know is bad for you or He could lead you to choose to respond to an angry person in love.
The more you spend time with the LORD, the more you will begin to recognize His voice. This is why you know the voice of your friends, but you have difficulties recognizing the voice of a stranger.
Hence make the LORD your friend and you will know when He is speaking because the devil’s voice will become a stranger to you:

John 10:27 (NIV):

27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

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For more on this topic, check out my videos:
How To Spend Time With God
How to Hear The Voice of God

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Q: What challenges do you face walking with the Spirit? How do you tackle them?

Challenge: Practice yielding to the Spirit in your choices this week-Ask and He will respond.


THE DECISION TO WAIT (KINGDOM COURTSHIP)

Ruth 1:13-22 (NIV)
13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,[a]” she told them. “Call me Mara,[b] because the Almighty[c] has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted[d] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

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I decided to start this series with the story of Ruth. Now Ruth is an interesting character in the Bible-she was a woman that had known loss, grief, uncertainty but the LORD gave her peace, progress and prosperity. Why did I start the story before she met Boaz? Because men and women of the Most High, we all start somewhere-you are a person, your progress does not depend on your partner. It depends on God. And it is important to realize that-when you are single your duty is first to the LORD:

1 Corinthians 7:34 (NIV)
34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.

Now a single man/woman is devoted to the LORD in body and spirit meaning in all you do-the LORD should come first-and the more you spend time with Him-the more you begin to understand how to walk in His presence and submit to His will.
But back to Ruth! So Naomi lost both her sons who were married to Ruth and Orpah. And so we start the scene at the stage of grief. Naomi encouraged these women to leave her and Orpah complied because Naomi’s arguments were rational-they were based on physical facts-she had lost her two sons and of course the two women could not wait until they grew up.
Some of you are struggling with waiting-you think just like Naomi-in other words will I wait forever? Where is this man/woman? Will I remain unmarried for so long? God is not working in my favor! Can you see the similarity? Can you see the pattern? This is how Naomi’s mindset was working-and this is how she was thinking-and Orpah agreed with her-some of you are like Orpah and to be honest we have all struggled with Orpah’s position-looking at the facts and thinking you know what-he/she will never show up; I’ve been waiting for nothing-there is nothing good for me here-I should go.
The danger with thinking like Orpah is-Orpah plays it safe-she stays in the zone of the present, she is afraid to look ahead-are you like Orpah? Are you struggling with the idea of waiting for a spouse? Have you given into the thought that he/she will never show up-if you leave, they never will. Which is why we never hear about Orpah again after this passage-she kissed Naomi goodbye, and that was the last we hear of her in this passage. Some believers are like Orpah-they fall away and allow their flesh infect their faith.
Or are you like Ruth-you need to cling to the promises the LORD has given you. She clung to Naomi. That is a powerful word: to cling means to hold on tightly to. Ruth showed by her actions that she was serious.
Let me say something Orpah kissed Naomi but she said goodbye? How many of you have said to the LORD, yes I will wait and then you go about your business-faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:26). You are only deceiving yourself not Him.
Ruth showed in her actions-that she was serious-she clung to Naomi.
And it is in that resilience that you grow-faith is a muscle-it needs to be exercised. And Ruth exercised her faith by clinging to Naomi.
Naomi urged Ruth to leave-there will be circumstances and places and even positions that you are in, you may be in a certain environment that is not encouraging and people close to you may urge you to stop waiting. But you need to persevere.
Ruth did. She did not listen to Naomi.
Pay attention to Naomi’s words-she encouraged Ruth to go back to her gods-don’t go back to whatever idol you were serving ie alcoholism, sexual immorality, loose morals etc. that is the only other option and it does not end well-case in point from this passage-we never hear from Orpah again.
Notice something as well: Ruth’s response reaffirmed her decision: your faith should partner with your words: speak and pray over that matter-pray over your future spouse, pray over your marriage, speak words of faith-they are powerful.
Ruth said your God will be my God…where you die I die…even death will not separate me from you.
And you know what that is? That’s love.
How you may ask? Well the Word says not even death will separate us from God:

Romans 8:38-39 (NIV):
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


And love is very powerful:

1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV):
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Think about your own lives-your families, siblings, parents-can you quantify that level of love? The thing is, the more you cling to the LORD, the more in love you become with Him-and He teaches you how to love-that spouse you have been praying for? The LORD will reveal how to love them to your heart-He will give you a heart of service as partners, and submission unto Him.
It is a covenant kind of love. That was what Ruth was professing.
Another important point in these particular words of Ruth is, as a believer, you need to embrace God as your God. It is not enough for Him to be your parents God, your siblings God-He has to become your God. This is the first step towards meeting your God ordained spouse and more importantly beginning to walk with Christ as your Savior-you have to open your heart to Him personally. (Jeremiah 29:13).
When you cling to the LORD as Ruth clung to Naomi, you have begun to walk in relationship with Him and He will lead you to your spouse-which is only a tiny part compared to the beauty of this intimate relationship with Him. I only make reference to it because of the context of today’s teaching.
Now Naomi stopped urging Ruth when she realized she was determined. Those people telling you that you are wasting your time? Or all those relationships that are blooming around you, they will stop to irritate and pester you as you cling to the LORD-do you know why? Because you grow stronger in faith-remember I said-faith is a muscle.
And even those that tell you to stop waiting will get tired of talking like Naomi got tired of trying to convince Ruth-because they would realize, that you are determined.
And so the two of them went to Bethlehem. This has significance-because Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And in relation to this passage, you will meet your spouse, where the LORD has assigned you to be placed in purpose.
And as soon as they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred-the environment changed. Obviously because Naomi had lost her sons and she was so bitter she wanted to be called Mara. She was in a place of grief and blamed God for her pain. But fact and faith are very different.
Even if your circumstances look dire-even if it may seem you have been waiting forever and you tell everyone that, you are tired and they should not even bother encouraging you in the place of waiting, you have no idea what is going on behind the scenes-you have no idea what the LORD is planning.
And this is clear from this passage how? Well, because the barley harvest was beginning. In other words, the season was in the process of changing.
So don’t be discouraged-keep waiting-your harvest is beginning.

For more on the Kingdom Courtship Series-Listen:
Divine Appointment
Fighting In Faith
Treasure
Power In Waiting
Dangers of Dating

And finally one of my favorite!:

Deborah

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Q: What has been your challenge in the place of waiting?

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THE PATH TO SELF CONFIDENCE

The path to self confidence has a lot of detours and road blocks and stop signs and even dead ends-it is not a straight forward path that leads to answers or solutions; it has a lot of doubts, deeds, questions that lead to quests, answers that lead to assertions, all in the path of self discovery and uncovering your truth. I start like this because I want you to understand-self confidence is not gained overnight.
Those that walk in it have walked through trials, tests, temptations and still battle doubts, darkness and lies. It is a path more attuned to self discovery-more keyed into the reception of your individual thoughts.
This is the path that leads to self confidence-that is where you find that unique roar. The sound that gets attention, the presence that speaks of self assurance, the laughter that rings with a deeper knowledge of truth, the words that carry the weight of wisdom behind them-all cushioned into the comfort of humility.
This is where self confidence speaks. And you may ask-how do I discover it, where does it reside? The answer is-it is an inner voice that speaks from the core of your heart.
Self confidence starts from the point of self conversation, self realization, self investigation-and this is when the thoughts of uncertainty, and the doubts of future decisions meet and mingle with your thoughts-this is where experiences are created, this is where personalities are formed-and out of this beautiful melody-self confidence is born.
It is more than a voice, it is more than a sound you make to create an impression-it is a presence that speaks of the weight of experience, a voice that carries more words even when it speaks in silence, it is the aura you project when you have walked through the lanes of life’s many tests. When you meet people, form new friendships, break old bonds-through those moments self confidence is formed.
This is when you realize you are more than enough-when you face your true reflection and stop hiding from your thoughts. When you no longer feel the need to justify your behavior you bond with your words. This union creates a powerful environment of alignment-it is why you see many that speak on the platform of stages in words, melodies, music and song, many that write and teach and lead have all danced before with self esteem issues-but have won.
They have all learned there is no need to justify your actions to another person’s words. There is no need to spend so much precious time you have, pleasing others and still entertaining defeat. There is a difference between receiving wise words, and listening to careful instruction as opposed to being pounded with demeaning tones and being surrounded with jarring accusations.
Self-confidence is found when you start to speak with your unique voice. When you begin this internal monologue, it will affect your external dialogue, and your growth will reflect the progress you have made in discovering the depths of your soul.
This is why self-confidence is really a road map of self-discovery. There are detours of delays and worries, dead ends blocked with dangerous thoughts infested with infirmities. But, on each turn, there is a passage that leads deeper into your inner being-a place where you grow strongly rooted in your unique reality.
So begin this walk today-start talking to yourself-stop entertaining delay. You are more than enough, you are beautifully created and wonderfully made-all you need is to unlock the key of discovery to your true face-a face that shows your ability to speak, to move, to teach, to lead that all comes from your inner core-confidence speaking from within-unashamed at its core. This is what happens when you dig deep into conversation with yourself, like so many relationships where we want a return on our investments, the more time you invest in your thoughts, the more protective you become of your identity, the more keen you become to understand your true nature.
And this is where self-confidence is born. You glow in imperfect perfection when you begin to speak from your inner core-when you entertain your inner sights-you will become uncomfortable with lies because self confidence releases a unique insight through your eyes.
So let your heart begin to talk-listen to its beat as it leads you down a new street of discovery-don’t be afraid-embrace it.

This is when you will begin the journey towards self discovery-this is when self confidence joins with your form and you can now speak from a position filled with confidence of your calling and where you truly belong.

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To learn more on this topic, check out:

Discover Your Identity
Accept Yourself
Awakening Destiny
Doorway to Destiny
The Power of Identity
Finding Destiny
How to Live Your Dreams


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Q: What have been your challenges in realizing self-confidence?

HOW TO DEAL WITH A BREAK UP

From this week I will start sharing my Youtube Videos on this page every Tuesday! This week I discuss "How To Deal With A Break Up".
This video enables you to understand the steps and stages you can apply in your own life and situation to be able to move forward.
Let me know what you think!

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To learn more on "How to Deal With A Break Up", check out:

Healing From Hurt
Settling For Less
Dangers of Dating