GOD CAN BE FUNNY

EBENEZER AFOLABI

GOD CAN BE FUNNY

Copyright © 2013 by Ebenezer Afolabi

All Scriptural quotations are from the New International Version (NIV), 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

First Published in 2013

All rights reserved. Apart from brief quotations in critical materials or reviews, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without permission in writing from the author unless otherwise notified.

ISBN-10:1492801798

ISBN-13:978-1492801795

DEDICATION

This book is specially dedicated to my parents, my faithful friend and companion, Olawunmi Lawal, and to two churches in particular who have been very supportive of my ministry: Foursquare Gospel Church, Hallelujah Quarters and Foursquare Gospel Church, Ebute Ojora, Ibafo.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank my Pastor and Leader, Pastor Sola Olamakinde, for believing in the call of God upon my life. Special thanks to Rev. Efe E-Pat, the presiding Pastor of Champions' World International, who went through the manuscript and made very helpful suggestions. I must not fail to also appreciate some special people who contributed in a way to the success of this book: Brother Kehinde Odulaja, Pastor Oliver Eluwa, Tobi Ogunfeibo, Ehikodi Thelma and Dr. Sabrina Adams. God bless you all. Amen

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE 6

1. SLAVES TO REASON 10

2. FAITH CAN BE RIDICULOUS 29

3. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS 47

4. THE GOD FACTOR IN PRAYER 60

5. FAITH WITH RESPONSIBLITY 78

6. FAITH IS A RISK 88

7. THE FAITH- FIGHT 98

8. GOD IS NOT A COMEDIAN 112

9. ADD FAITHFULNESS TO FAITH 119

10. IT’S ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH 126

11. ADDICTED TO PRAYER 132

ABOUT AUTHOR

PREFACE

Isn’t it funny to promise a ninety years old woman a child? I mean telling a ninety years old woman that she would be pregnant and have a child. This is not only funny, but also absurd and ridiculous. But God told a ninety years old Sarah to get prepared for such an experience. This is crazy! I can’t imagine the possibility of such a thing. Medical experts say it is impossible. Guess what! God says with Him all things are possible.

During my studies at L.I.F.E Theological Seminary, Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria, I held discussions with a friend where we discussed life related issues and I told her my intention to write a book with the title: “God Can Be Funny.” Her immediate response was, “What do you mean by that?” This response gave me the impression that what I said was sacrilegious but I took time to explain to her what I have in mind about the book title.

The title of this book is the result of my meditation on God’s dealings with His people from the bible days to this present time. Because of the limitations of our human minds, we consider most of God’s actions absurd, especially those that transcend nature. Many of God’s dealings with humanity from the historical perspective have always looked absurd and they do not make sense to a natural man because they cannot be explained through mere natural instinct. They defy all human explanations and surpass the conventional. That actually makes Him look funny and His ways look absurd to natural men who cannot see beyond the physical realm.

God’s love is so extravagant that He would command His children to love those who hate them and pray for those who persecute them. This is unthinkable for a natural man who considers loving an enemy a risk and a gross absurdity. In fact, if you love too much the world will consider you imprudent.

God is incontrovertibly supernatural and incontestably awesome that He could promise a ninety years old woman a child when she had stopped menstruating and had reached the menopause long before. This could actually cause anybody to laugh because having a child at age ninety is not only unreasonable, but also impossible. I can imagine sceptical doctors and medical personnel laughing at what God told Sarah because it makes God sound unknowledgeable, unserious and funny. Medical science and even common sense would disagree with the possibility of such promise made to Abraham about Sarah that she would have a child after the age of ninety, but man’s extremity often give birth to God’s opportunity to prove Himself as the Almighty God.

I do not care what the recent medical diagnosis said about your case or what friends say about you. No matter how true, logical and reasonable doctors’ conclusions are, there is yet a God who can do all things and whose conclusion is the final. That is the Almighty God. Just trust Him even when His ways are not making any sense to you because God can be funny.

Nevertheless, I consider it wise and expedient to intimate my readers with some of the ideas that may reoccur as you read this book. It is not my intention to impose any human idea on the biblical stories narrated in this book to make them read differently from what is recorded in the Bible. It is neither my interest to unduly exaggerate any of the biblical stories beyond the actual lessons they convey. The stories are rather narrated in such a manner that will make you put your rose-coloured glasses aside and read the stories holistically.

Many Christians read biblical stories with their rose-coloured glasses. Such readers only see the stories and their characters as perfect (and as perfectly presented) but fail to see the other side’s that have to do with the weaknesses and imperfection of the characters. This is not my intention. I seek to utilize the biblical stories narrated in this book in a way that will make them have bearing upon contemporary situations.

For instance, one of the stories told in this book is the story of the woman with the issue of blood, medically known as ‘Haemorrhage.’ This woman’s case is painted as one who was ostracized and denied of the privilege of entering the Synagogue to pray (which the Jewish law forbids for anybody under such condition (Lev. 15:25-32). This book also paints her as someone who had lost her dignity and identity. The point of emphasis here is that, the Bible may not have narrated some of the stories you are going to come across in this book the way I narrate them. However, I want you to understand what I actually have in mind; my intention is to narrate these stories in such a way that we all might approach them holistically and realistically, rather than approaching the stories superficially. Always remember that the stories are intentionally narrated in such manners so that they may have bearings upon contemporary situation.

My advice to you is that you should read this book prayerfully and allow God to minister to you through the messages of this book. Shalom!

Ebenezer Afolabi

CHAPTER 1

SLAVES TO REASON

“…You are a slave to the one whom you obey….” Saul of Tarsus

The ability to reason and make sense of things is one of the inherent qualities God bestowed on man and this helps him to decide and make adequate judgement when necessary. This fantastic inherent quality in man is what distinguishes him from other animate creatures. The decisions he makes and his conclusions over issues begins with how much he reasons. He can only relate to nature and fellow men excellently through his ability to reason.

In fact, it is interesting to know that his dispositions and responses are the functions of the way he reasons. His judgment portrays the way he reasons; his love life is the product of how he reasons. His words and ways reflect how he reasons. These make human reasoning faculty one of the greatest gifts from the creator.

By definition, reason means the application of the logical principles to the available evidence. The reasoning faculty of a man gives him the ability to draw conclusions, choose his responses and justify what he believes, based on the available evidences.

However, reasons always conform to the perspective to which we see things. We usually reason base on our worldviews and the level of knowledge attained. We reason also based on our experiences and the shared experiences of others, and we tend to adhere strictly to the knowledge gained through those experiences until we see a better picture of a superior experience.

Therefore, due to these components (perspective, knowledge and experience) which influences the way we reason, we revile every idea that contradicts our perspective, knowledge and experiences. It is human to express doubt for things we cannot logically explain. It is human to question what does not correspond with the general beliefs of the people and to revile what we cannot explain. Nevertheless, we must understand that sometimes, the manifold wisdom of God and His incontestable awesome nature makes His acts in human situation look beyond what any man can explain through logic and reason.

At times, His ways does not make sense to us and we cannot find any reasonableness in His dealings with us. Yet, God’s way is perfect and reliable (Ps. 18:30).Without any iota of doubt, the ability to reason is a wonderful gift from God and God is not in any way against it because, it is the power of the mind to think in a logical way, to understand and have opinions. However, when man’s line of reasoning is faulty, his judgment will also be faulty.

Reasoning is far better than just mere thinking or imagining something in the mind. It gives shape and identity to what is imagined. It queries what you think or imagine, dissects it, processes it mentally and gives a verifiable judgment and conclusion. Interestingly, many of the government policies are the products of this great and awesome gift called ‘Reason’. Geniuses and great inventors in history achieved a lot through their abilities to reason creatively. Scientists, Psychologists and Philosophers must relate to reason if they would ever have anything to offer.

Likewise, any religion that fails to appeal to reason will soon lose its ground. That is how great man’s ability to reason is.

However, it is people had succeeded unfortunate to know that many in making themselves slaves to

reason. A man will make himself a slave to reason when he fails to recognize the limitations of his human mind and accept the matchless wisdom and power of God to do all things. Men who are slaves to reason see no sense in what God says and do because they have no explanations for them. They cannot see beyond the physical. They are spiritually myopic and they believe not in whatever they cannot explain either intellectually or logically. They are very judgmental and critical about the things which transcend their knowledge.

These men do not believe in the possibilities of anything they cannot fathom and explain through their human senses. They try to debate and rationalize everything. Thus, this makes believing and trusting God a hard task for them. In these days, intellectual idolatry has almost saturated the entire world and the Philosophical humanists believe that the highest authority is the human intelligence and his real god is the human mind. Rationalism finds it hard to succumb to any belief that defies or transcends what it considered reasonable or rational.

However, there are hundreds of cases in the Bible where God’s acts defy all human explanations. For instance, the gospel of John records one of the outstanding miracles performed by Jesus during His earthly ministry. In the sixth chapter of John, the Bible records an occasion where Christ had to preach to the congregation of about five thousand people and still feed them with the physical meal. Moved with compassion, He would not let them go without giving them what to eat so that they would not collapse on the way while returning home.

Jesus therefore said to Philip, “ where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do” (John 6:5-6).

Philip reasoned for a while and answered Jesus, “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”Philip’s reasoning faculty informed him of the insufficiency of what they had to meet the present need. He actually reasoned well but his reasoning faculty denied him of the opportunity to exercise faith in the God who is capable of doing the impossible. Philip enslaved himself strictly to reason that he could not see beyond what reason sees. Reason sees ‘eight months’ wages not enough to feed the multitude’, while faith sees ‘just five small barley loaves and two small fish’ too much for the multitude to consume.

This is not to disparage the necessity for reasoning, but it is to inform us that there are more to what God can do that are far beyond what our minds can conceive or reason.

There was nothing logically wrong with Philip’s response to Jesus and Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother also gave a reasonable answer to Jesus when he called His attention to the boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but he reasonably asked how far the five loaves and two fish would go to feed the crowd.

As I said earlier, this inherent ability given to man to reason and make sense of things is such a wonderful gift from God. However, it can become a snare to any man who questions the sovereignty of God and try to diminish God’s supernatural ability to just a mere mental scrutiny.

God is sovereign, unlimited, incontestable and powerful that no amount of human intellect can debase His mightiness. Having realized our limitations (in spite of our literacy), and the unlimited, unfathomable wisdom and power of God, it is therefore imperative for us to submit our reasoning and intelligence to His mightiness, because He is capable of doing beyond what we can reason out.

God may not make sense to our human minds, but even in what seems ridiculous and irrational to us, God can still make sense out of it. He specializes in making sense out of nonsense.

Millions of souls around the world deny themselves of the opportunity to receive the totality of God’s love, His offer to save humanity in spite of their terrible and unimaginable deeds, simply because they could not figure out the possibility and the vastness of His magnanimity through their human minds. They consider the pureness and vastness of God’s love as unimaginable and beyond what anyone can offer. Therefore, when God demonstrates His love to them, they doubt it because it is beyond all explanations. Yet, the fact that a thing does not appear sensible or conventional does not deny its reality. For example, things like love are too big to be rational. They look too messy and sometimes absurd. When our hearts are obsessed with love, we are often compelled to do beyond what we could not have done before.

These men reasoned, “How could the death of just one man deal with the sin problem of the entire world? What have I done to deserve such love? Perhaps God is up to something. Maybe He is feeling lonely and out of demand, and He needed people to come around Him and present their needs to Him so that He will feel more important? Perhaps that is the reason He is doing love bonanza and He is trying to get the world through Jesus?

How will the death of the man who died over 2000 years ago still bring forgiveness of sins and salvation to humanity without paying a dime to earn it? How on earth do you want me to believe that mere believing and confessing Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour will bring salvation and reconcile me back to God?’’

These are myriad of questions in the minds of the rationalists who try to explain everything through logic without giving room for the revelation of God’s love to permeate their hearts. These men summon themselves to mental apprehension because they fail to submit their reasoning and intellect to the supernatural power of God.

Consequently, they deny themselves of the opportunity to receive God’s best for their lives. Yet, the fact that a thing does not look rational does not deny its reality.

As aforementioned, things like love often take us beyond the border of convention. When we become obsessed with love, it makes us sometimes do what others consider imprudent, unreasonable or unwise. However, the fact that it does not seem prudent does not deny its reality.

The same is faith; it is sometimes too big to be rational. Faith, love and hope often look messy and absurd because they may defy all our explanations.

When reason fails to submit itself to God’s

sovereignty through faith, the chance of experiencing the miraculous is forfeited.

GOD IS NOT EXPLAINED; GOD IS REVEALED

A friend who studied philosophy in the University once asked me to explain God to him. I was very careful to answer because I knew he was up to something. In order to pre-empt any further argument, I boldly let him know that God is more than what any man can explain through human intellect. God is revealed! My response to his request gave me a better advantage to explain to him how God reveals Himself. No reasonable man or scholar can claim to be an authority or a sole custodian of the knowledge of God in its totality, because God is too great that words of mouth are too inferior and inadequate to express who He is in totality.

We can only know Him to the level at which He chooses to reveal Himself. He is far greater than any human reasoning. He is too mighty to be captured on telescope. He is too awesome to be experimented in the scientific laboratories, and too complex to be debated by mortals. Not even an Aristotle can search Him out through human wisdom, nor an Einstein can discover Him through any scientific empiricism. He is only known and recognized by those He chose to reveal Himself, and faith is the key to this revelation, not reason.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever...” (Deut. 29:29).

FAITH IS BEYOND REASON, NOT AGAINST REASON

Reason is what we need to relate with the natural world. Our ability to reason is one of the strongest proofs that man is indeed a free moral agent. God designs man to reason and make sense of things, choose his response and make decisions that is suitable to him. Man is not made to be a robot that has no ability to think or feel. God created us with the ability and the right to think, to reason and to make choices. Without any iota of doubt, God is not against reasoning.

However, we must understand that our reasoning ability should not be the veil that covers our inner eyes from seeing into the things of God. God is Spirit; and it takes faith to relate to Him. As reason relates with the physical world, faith also relates with the spiritual world.

Yet, faith should not be against reason, because faith does not ask us to kiss our brains ‘good-bye’. Faith is not against reason because faith itself is a product of choice and a deliberate decision to trust God or not.

If faith then is a choice and the product of a deliberate decision to follow and trust someone, it is therefore not against reason, because choices and decisions are made through reasoning. Therefore, reason should lead us to faith, not against faith. Joe Farinaccio once said, “Faith is present prior to our thinking about any subject. We all reason from the perspective of an established worldview. We begin with faith presuppositions and then use them to reason.” Besides, faith is beyond reason. Faith transcends reason, because faith is a force that can move the mighty hands of God. Hebrews 11:6 categorically says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God….”

The Bible has not at any time state that it takes a sound, systematic and logical reasoning to please God. Rather, it says, “without faith it is impossible [not possible; unattainable, unworkable, without solution] to please God.

Let us get it right here. Nothing is wrong when we reason out things because even God once called for reasoning (Isa.1:18). Nevertheless, we can displease God and break His heart when we give more credence to reason than faith in Him.

Faith transcends reason because it sees possibility in what reason considers impossible. Reason relates to sense knowledge while faith relates to revelation knowledge. Reason is of the mind and faith is of the spirit. We interact with nature through reason, but it takes faith to relate to God.

Just as we read in the story recorded in John 6, Philip gave a very reasonable answer to Jesus, but it was not a faith-filled answer. His reasoning faculty informed him that eight months’ wages would not be enough to feed the multitude, but faith saw the five loaves of bread and the two small fish as too much for the multitude to consume.

It is not all that looks reasonable and logical that are actually right in the eyes of God. The Bible records: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Prov.14:12). God’s thought is purer than our thoughts; His ways are better than our ways; His understanding surpasses ours, and His wisdom is nowhere compared to ours. Therefore, it is expedient for us to trust Him and rely totally on His wisdom, even when it does not make sense to us. Our reasoning should solidify our faith and make us trust God the more, even when we cannot explain the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of what He is doing or promised to do.

When we reason based on the infallible Word of God, and not on human philosophy, it leads us to faith that can cause the miraculous. We must reason in line with the Word of God, and cast our minds back to what He had done before. Like David, when King Saul and the armies of Israel had been mentally handicapped by the threat of Goliath that no one could face him in battle, because all they saw was a giant with a great strength and their reasoning faculty only informed them of their incapability, David recounted on what God has done for him and through him. He reasoned, “If God did it then, He will do it now again”. King Saul saw Goliath and the Philistine armies as a big problem, but David saw Goliath as a big opportunity.

Slaves of reason entangles themselves with their thoughts and thereby shut all doors against faith in the God whose power transcends nature and all human reasoning because they think it is ridiculous to believe what they cannot explain. Set yourself free from the manacle of doubt today and receive God’s Word with the simplicity of heart and faith, because God specializes in bringing sense out of nonsense.

Therefore, when faith conflict with reason, which may be part of our daily experiences as we grow into Christ’s likeness, we should submit all thought and ideas to the immutable and infallible Word of God with all simplicity and meekness.

Paul says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (2Corin.10:4-5).

THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM

Why is man finding it so difficult to understand spiritual realities? Why is his reasoning faculty not able to capture or comprehend God’s revelation of Himself? Why is he finding it difficult (Atheists and Evolutionists) to accept that God exists and He is the creator of the Universe and man as well? Why would man reject God’s claims for His creation and fail to consider it a great privilege to be identified with the Almighty God as his creator, but debase himself to believing in the lies that human beings are the products of the random chance and just a glorified animal? The answer to all these questions is nothing but the FALL OF MAN.

Man was created an excellent being, with God-like qualities that distinguished him from other animate beings. As the Bible declares, God created man in his own image and after His likeness. Created in the image of God, he was clothed with God’s glory, possessing great qualities that set him apart from other creatures. He possesses the ability for self-consciousness, with the capacity for intelligent reasoning, and good moral and spiritual sense.

Before his fall, man has no problem believing God, relating with his creator, and comprehending spiritual realities. He was created an intellectual, moral and spiritual being. Superlatively intelligent that he could name all the animals and birds in the Garden of Eden.

He was created with such purity of mind. He had dominion over the earth and everything in it. Adam was the first and the greatest polymath that ever lived. He was the resident scientist of Eden, a botanist of repute, a brilliant zoologist, a skilful farmer, a wonderful horticulturist, and anything you can think of.

No wonder the devil became envious of him that he caused him to sin against his creator by tricking his wife, Eve. Adam was not without a fault because he willingly consented to the devil’s suggestion, which led to his separation from God. According to Paul Little, “In their transgression, Adam and Eve rejected God’s authority, doubted His goodness, disputed His wisdom, repudiated His justice, contradicted His truthfulness, and spurned His grace.”

The fall of man brought devastating consequences upon him that the animals, which he named himself, became threat to his posterity. Nature rebelled against man because man rebelled against God. He was separated from God and he lost his position of dominion. He was very depraved and his depravity affected every area of his life, including his will, his emotion, his intellect, and even his life span.

Romans 3:10-11 testifies to this assertion: “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.”

• Man is depraved in his morality (There is no one

righteous)

• Man is depraved in his intellect (No one who understands)

• Man is depraved in his desire (No one who seeks God). Therefore, his fall and his total depravity forms the

root of his problem, thus, reasoning God-ward becomes a

problem. Since his fall, his intellect has greatly declined

and he is no longer operating in his original compos mentis.

Paul E. Little summarized the results of man’s fall as

follows:

• The image of God in man was badly marred in both its moral and its natural dimensions;

• Man lost his original inclination towards God;

• Man’s desires inclined away from his Creator; and

• Man’s intellect became bound, his emotions corrupted, and his will enslaved.

THE WAY OUT

Imagine a man groping in the dark, trying to find his way out of the wandering trip of uncertainty he finds himself. He may have his two eyes wide opened and claims not to be blind, yet he cannot see what is behind or before him. He gropes in uncertainty, his judgements are not very reliable, and his sense of precision dampened. He is confused and perplexed, not knowing where to turn to. Can you still picture such a man in your mind? Okay, let us go ahead. At this point, he needs to find his way out because it is dangerous to remain in darkness. However, he needs more than his eyes to find his way out. He needs light.

Darkness produces false imagery. It misrepresents a thing or a person, and misinforms its victim, but when light comes, the truth surfaces, uncertainties roll away, precision is achieved and confidence regained. What a great thing to be in the light.

This is the description of a depraved man. He gropes blinding in darkness, his judgements are unreliable and he does not actually see all that he thought he saw. He needs light because staying in darkness is risky and dangerous.

Now the question is, “what light does he need?” First, it is necessary that he knows that it takes light for him to the way. Secondly, he needs to be aware that the kind of light he needs is that which can shepherd him through the wilderness of darkness, and thirdly, this light will make him know the truth. Back to the question previously asked, “What light does he need?”

Do you remember the seven “I AM” statements of Jesus in John’s gospel? He says, “I AM the bread of life”, “I AM the light of the world”, “I AM the door of the sheep”, “I AM the good shepherd”, “I AM the resurrection and the life”, “I AM the way, the truth, the life”, and finally, “I AM the true vine”. Jesus is the light that he needs. He is also the shepherd that will lead him through the way. He will restore his weary soul, give him water to quench his thirsty soul, and guide him in the paths of righteousness.

Remember, darkness is a place of uncertainty, unrest, perplexity, and all manners of evil prevail there. However, as David said in the twenty-third Psalm and the fourth verse, “Even though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Likewise, he needs not to be afraid because the Shepherd is by his side.

When He shines His light, darkness disappears and truth is revealed, because He (Jesus) is the way, the truth and the life. Therefore, the only way out is to totally surrender to Jesus, take Him at His words and accept Him by faith as Lord and the saviour.

CHAPTER 2

FAITH CAN BE RIDICULOUS “Faith does not demand to see all the way ahead” Wesley L. Duewel.

Faith is so essential to our walk with God that nothing else can substitute for faith. It is all we need to journey with God, experience His power, accept His Word and plunge into the ocean of His mighty power. No one can claim to be God’s except through faith. By faith, we know He created the world. By faith, we offer prayers to Him because we believe He hears. Yet, faith is not only applicable to spiritual things. It also takes faith to relate to the physical world; otherwise, we become slaves to nature.

Any man who fails to relate to nature through faith will definitely make himself a slave to nature and will soon be branded as ‘Insane’. For instance, it takes faith for you to move into a new apartment and pass the first night there without thinking that the house will collapse on you while sleeping at night. It takes faith for you to make a deposit in the bank and later go back to the same bank to make a withdrawal of the money you deposited earlier without the fear of losing the money. I am expressing faith in this context as the act of ‘believing’ and ‘trust’ a thing or a person.

We are saved by faith, redeemed by faith, justified by faith, healed by faith, made righteous by faith, become God’s children by faith, pray to God by faith, believe God exists by faith and we can only please God by faith (Heb.11:6). However, faith in God is more than just a mental assertion or words spoken to make God feel good.

Having faith in God sometimes look like a man travelling through the subjective world without control, and embarking on the voyage of uncertainty. Sometimes, faith in God defies all human explanations. It may mean walking alone in the wilderness without seeing a man to comfort you or a friend to accompany you. It may be very boring and undesirable. It may cost you your comfort and dissociate you from all acquaintances.

Faith in God may put you in the wilderness where you walk alone, experience the scorching sun without a place to keep your head. Faith is a journey where one often walks alone. It is a journey in the wilderness of life.

Sleeping in this wilderness with two eyes closed is a risk of one’s life but quitting the journey would be a waste of time and energy. The bushes seem too much for one man to clear and the pathway to the destination seems invisible.

No cucumber to eat, no bread to buy, no ATM to dispense money, and the little bread you kept in the sac are almost exhausted. In this journey, there are no words of consolation from any quarter, except for the horrific sounds of wild beasts. It is a journey full of despair and despondency. The thought to quit frequently flash through the mind, yet, the promises of God and the glory ahead never stopped ringing in the heart like a programmed alarm clock.

Then as the journey bears this great burden on you, you suddenly see a man approaching with a sac in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. “Finally God had sent an angel my way”, you say. Your fear subsides as you see the man approaching and your heart bubbles with joy.

Unfortunately, what you heard from the man was heart breaking: a ferocious beast had just killed a man ahead on the same path you are walking. Worst still he had no bread to offer and no water to give but only the bad news that created fear and doubt instead he counsels you to quit the journey and look for the easy way to the Promised Land”. “Go back” he says, “Quitting the journey is an opportunity for you to preserve your life from danger”.

“No friends to comfort, no shelter to rest your head, and no bread to eat, and the journey seem unending; worse of all, the threatening sounds of the wild beast at night. I think it is ridiculous to insist on faith in the situation where everything seems to contradict itself and life no longer makes any meaning to me,” you muttered.

Listen friends! Reason considers the option to quit as an opportunity but faith sees quitting as the greatest misfortune. Faith stands on the promises of God even when the promises seem unattainable.

You must be mindful of the voices that speak to you and the ideas sold to you. They may sound good and logical, but if they contradict what God told you earlier, do not receive such words. They are mere deceptions.

Only concern yourself with what God told you even when it does not make any sense. You think you are the only one in the journey, but God is there with you. Have you not wondered how you escaped the terrors of the night and how the wolves and the serpents in the wilderness never located you? It is because if the LORD be with you no one can be against you.

Moving ahead in the journey of faith may no longer look sensible to you and the people around you, because you could not reconcile your experiences with your expectations.

However, you can be sure of God’s faithfulness to His Word. You can be sure of His provision, His protection and His preservation as you walk through the wilderness because God will not fail your faith in Him.

Faith can indeed be ridiculous but it is greatly rewarding. It may initially not make sense but God can bring sense out of nonsense. Remember Jesus was called a madman because He did what is unusual (John 10:20), Paul was told by Festus that he had lost his mind (Acts 26: 24) and other men of faith had been at one point or the other branded insane because men could not give human explanations for their faith claims.

Second Chronicles 20 records a faith-inspiring story of how the Moabites and the Ammonites with some of the people of the Meunites came to make war on Jehoshaphat and God’s people - the Israelites. Jehoshaphat and the people of Israel became terrified at the vastness and the military might of the armies of Moab, Ammon and Mount Seir.

Confused and perplexed, Jehoshaphat turned to God and presented his case before the Almighty. After he and all the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones had stood before the LORD, the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah and he said:

“Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.” (2Chr.20:16-17).

God told Jehoshaphat and the men of Judah and Jerusalem not to think of fighting back or shoot a single piece of an arrow. Who then will do the fighting? Are the men of Judah and Jerusalem supposed to fold their arms and see the vast armies of Moab and Ammon invade their lands, kill their wives and children, plunder their goods, and even send them to the grave without doing a thing about it?

Is it not ridiculous to stand looking like zombies and expecting one unseen person to fight for you? Will you not at least defend yourselves with your shields, your spears and your swords? After all, the best way to defend is to attack.

Will it not be ridiculous to see the enemies approaching with their sophisticated weapons of war, their spears, swords, javelins and countless number of wellsharpened arrows, and yet you do nothing about it?

The cavalries of hundreds and thousands approaching and great armies of Moab, Ammon and Mount Seir ready to launch their attacks, yet you were asked to do nothing about it.

Common sense would tell the men of Israel to hold at least, their swords in their hands and their armies should at least put on their armours for protection, but God told them not to be afraid even when there are reasons to fear.

However, the men of Judah and Jerusalem did the ridiculous before they could get the miraculous; they sang and praised God in the face of their battles. They were not afraid of the vastness of the enemies and they never allowed the threats of the enemies to hinder them from singing and praising God.

“As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another.” (2Chr. 20:22-23, emphasis added).

What an interesting and glorious ending for a story that started with perplexity. It is a story of God’s mighty power. However, humanly speaking, it is very absurd to substitute the battle you ought to fight for singing - not when you can see the enemies approaching and they were not coming for peace but for war.

They emptied their arsenal because they wanted to fight you, they matched forth against you with the best of their weapons, and you are sure you are not daydreaming, what you see is real and not mere figments of the imagination.

Yet, instead of getting ready for the battle that may claim your life, your wife’s and your children’s lives if not fought, you started singing and praising God. Ridiculous, is it not? Humanly speaking, it is.

However, God can make a great weapon and armouries of war out of the praises of His people, especially when done in faith. God can make a mess of the threat of your enemies and bring the miraculous out of the ridiculous.

When your faith triggers God to act on your behalf, He can make a spider’s web be just like an impregnable wall, and an impregnable wall becomes just like the spider’s web

Abraham, with all his exposures set out by faith on a journey he knew nothing about. Imagine his neighbour met him with his travelling bag and asked him, “Neighbour, where are you going?’’ “I don’t really know yet. I am just going because God said I should,” Abraham answered. “But that’s ridiculous,” said his neighbour. “Did you have the map in your hand?” Abraham’s neighbour asked further. “I don’t have the map, but God said He would show me the place,” Abraham replied.

“Common! How could you descend so low and become a dice in the hands of one unseen deity that He plays you around at will?” Abraham’s friend queried.

That is indeed ridiculous, but that is why it is called faith. According to Bishop T.D Jakes, “Faith does not demand details. Just do what He asked you to do.”

THE FAITH THAT INTERRUPTED JESUS

Bleeding for about 4,380 days, an equivalent of 144 months (12 years), she went about seeking for who could help her out of her problem. Her illness defied all medical solutions and rendered the expertise of the finest medical practitioners useless. Even the finest medical practitioners of her time could not help her stop her copious discharge of blood. The medical doctors called her case “Haemorrhage.”

What a tragic experience for her. Her predicament took away her joy, her comfort, her strength gradually became depleted, and friends rejected her, her house owner threatened with a quit notice, neighbours dodged her and never wanted her company. She had spent all that she had, left with little or nothing to fall back to. Her pillow was constantly soaked with tears and she was at the same time dying of loneliness. Living among multitude but feeling lonely. She was ostracized, ignored and despised by all.

What a pathetic experience for a daughter of Jacob. No one wanted to neither dine with her nor share thoughts with her. She had sold all her properties just to pay the medical bills but no solution yet. The few clothes she had in her wardrobe were beginning to wear out and she had no money to buy new ones.

The law did not consider her clean to enter into the synagogue to worship God nor have fellowship with her brethren, perhaps she would cry aloud to God to heal her if she had the opportunity to enter the synagogue just for once in twelve years. She became a laughing stoke, a victim of circumstances, and her problem gave her a new name – ‘the woman with the Issue of blood’ (Mark 5:21-34).

She lived with her problem for twelve years, stinking, irritating and gradually emaciating. Everyone in the neighbourhood could easily know she was around because of the horrible spread of her nauseating odour.

What a mess! Her issue took away her dignity; her dreams were already fading away, and her face was like the reprint of the book of Lamentations. What a high level of humiliation for someone to be this ostracized, not given a place in the community, disallowed from taking part in any social function and disallow from entering the place of worship because of her flow of blood.

Love and friendship had become a strange idea to her. She knew she was neither wanted, nor on the demand list. Her social status was in shambles, her emotional life was in jeopardy and depression almost took her life. She fell into wrong hands for twelve years until one day….

One day, an extra-ordinary man was passing by with a large crowd following Him to the house of one of the rulers of the Synagogue named Jairus. Jairus’ daughter was dying at home and Jairus needed Jesus’ attention urgently.

As Jesus was heading to Jairus’ house with the crowd following Him, perhaps to witness what will happen, this woman with Haemorrhage scurried through the crowd minding neither the crowd nor the high-placed personality in question – Jairus. She said to herself,

“I rather get it now or never.” She continued in thought, “How on earth will I be able to get this man’s attention that the crowd will not embarrass me, knowing who Christ was set to attend to?”

Jairus was an influential man in the society and one of the respectable rulers of the Synagogue. The woman reasoned, “What will make this man called Jesus to attend to me before getting to Jairus’ house? Besides, Jairus’ case is also a touching one?”

All these questions flashed through her mind in a moment, but she concluded, “I don’t have to mess myself up here. The embarrassment would be too unbearable. If I can just touch the hem of His garment, I will be healed.” She scurried through the crowd and finally, she succeeded in touching the hem of Jesus’ garment and her bleeding stopped instantly.

“At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” (Mark 5:30. Emphasis added).

The woman’s faith was strong enough to interrupt Jesus that He could not but wait to find out what happened and who touched His clothes. Jesus could not move beyond that spot because the faith of a woman had tapped power from Him. The woman had a contact with the main source of power and the surest physician on earth.

Remember Jesus was on an urgent mission to Jairus’ house, but the faith of this destitute woman held Christ bound for a moment. She was not only healed, but her situation ministered hope to the hopeless around, further strengthened Jairus’ faith, assured the crowd of Christ willingness to also reach the lowly in the society and it further affirmed Christ supremacy over every circumstances.

The woman was not just healed but she was restored. Her health was restored, her strength was restored, her identity restored, her dignity restored, her liberty restored, her joy restored, her beauty restored and her story changed. For the first time in twelve years, she got a divine attention, a global attention and a historical recognition because of her exercise of faith.

Friends, I do not care how terrible your case is; all I know is that Jesus is still in the business of doing the miraculous. Just believe, trust and confidently depend on Jesus to solve your problems, meet your needs and turn your mess to miracle for you.

However, the result of faith is not always automatic; it is workmatic. It requires action and activeness. Faith only survives in the right environment. The woman with the issue of blood was in the place where she heard that Jesus was passing by.

The Bible says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Are you in the environment where you can hear and listen to the words of faith? On the other hand, do you live, dine and wine with sceptics and doubters who will never encourage you in faith? Are you in the place where your faith can grow and survive or you are in the midst of pessimists and detractors? Beware of such men because doubt is contagious.

The woman heard that Jesus was passing by; she was desperate, desirous, determined, and dogged in her faith. Consequently, she went home transformed and triumphant.

Do you still doubt God’s ability to solve your problems? Light up your faith in Him today and see Him do great and mighty things you can never imagine for you.

However, you must understand that walking by faith may not really be easy. It may look ridiculous, you might lose friends and family may brand you insane and too extreme - especially when you insist on this faith thing.

Never mind! Just hold on to your faith in God, take Him at His words and He will surely stand by you when others stand aloof.

FROM RIDICULOUS TO THE MIRACULOUS

I actually started writing this book in January 2012. This was during the nationwide strike action and national protest against the government’s policy of fuel subsidy in Nigeria.

I had ran out of cash, and it is not ideal for a pastor to start borrowing money from church members or buying things on credit.

I had been fasting and it was time to break the fast. All I had at home was uncooked rice and beans, but no kerosene to cook the rice and beans. As I was thinking about what to do, a thought came to my mind. Did Jesus not turn water to wine at the wedding ceremony at Cana of Galilee?

Immediately, I poured water into my empty kerosene container, and I prayed to God that the same power that turned water to wine should do the same in my case (to turn water to kerosene).

After the prayer, I poured the water into my cooking stove, which has a very small quantity of kerosene that could not light the stove. I poured the water into the stove filling the stove’s kerosene compartment to the brim, and I lit the stove. Can you guest what happened next? The stove started misbehaving.

I knew if I should wait to see the outcome, my faith would not work because there were already conflicting thoughts going on in my mind. Reason told me that it was impossible, but faith said, if Christ did it, then it could happen again.

There was a struggle between intellectualism and faith going on in my mind. So that my doubt does not prevail, I started confessing that I know God can do it. I picked a bucket to go fetch water so that I will not start doubting God because the stove was already misbehaving as I have said. Yet, I kept confessing my faith in God while the struggle continued in my mind.

To my amazement, by the time I returned, the stove was working perfectly, and finally, the water I poured into the stove cooked the rice and beans successfully.

Although, believing that water could cook rice and beans was hard for me to believe because that was not a reasonable thing for me to do in the first place, but on the other side of my mind, there was a great conviction that such is possible with God only.

I wanted to try that again that very day whether the first experience was just a coincident or actually, a miracle, but it did not work this time. I was already thinking of what to eat the following day and God reminded me of what Matthew 6:11 says: “Give us today our daily bread.” I started thanking Him for what He has done and that very day, somebody blessed me with a sum of money that could take care of the following day and the day after it.

Friends, pouring water in the stove and expecting it to cook your food is not only ridiculous but also intellectually illogical. Now I can tell anyone that God is still in the business of converting the ridiculous to the miraculous. He can turn your mess to miracle, and make sense out of nonsense. He is the Almighty God. Just trust Him.

Never allow intellectualism or any human philosophy to deprive you of the opportunity of experiencing the miraculous.

CHAPTER 3

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS “…But with God all things are possible.”

- Jesus of Nazareth.

The entire Bible is saturated with the thoughts, prophecies, messages, miracles and teachings of Christ Jesus. Talk about the Tabernacle in the wilderness, it was the type of the things to come; things pertaining to Jesus. Talk of the Aaronic priesthood; it was the shadow of Christ’s priesthood. Talk of prophets in the Old Testament, every one of them directly or indirectly prophesied about the man Christ Jesus. In fact, Christ is the unifying theme of both the Old and the New Testaments.

Modern Bible scholars and Christians alike believes in the christocentric structure of the Bible and that every genre of the Bible from – Pentateuch, History, Poetry, Prophets, Gospels, History (Acts), Epistles and Prophet (Revelation) all points directly or indirectly to the person of Christ Jesus. For instance, the Pentateuch (Genesis to Deuteronomy) is the foundation for Christ.

The Historical books (Joshua to Esther) portray the preparation for Christ. Poetry (Job to Song to Solomon) is the aspiration for Christ and the Prophecy (Isaiah to Malachi) is the expectation of Christ.

Likewise in the New Testament, the Gospels (Matthew to John) are the manifestation of Christ; Acts is the propagation of Christ; Epistles are the interpretation and application of Christ and Revelation is the consummation in Christ.

Every standard library in the world will have at least one or two books in its shelf that talks about Jesus – whether in support of His person or against Him.

Surprisingly, this man Jesus did not write a single book to His credit. Yet, His thoughts, teachings, philosophies and works permeate millions of books.

The synoptic gospels talk extensively about Jesus – His birth, His works, His teachings, His arrest, His crucifixion, His death and His resurrection. You may have read or heard about the gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

All these gospels were written because of Jesus. Nowhere in history was it recorded that Jesus wrote any of the gospels nor is there any canonized book of the Bible called “The Gospel According to Jesus.” However, Jesus actually preached the greatest gospel ever preached by man, and the four gospels were all written because of Him.

At this point, it is expedient to intimate ourselves with the literal meaning of the word ‘GOSPEL’. Literally, the word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’ or ‘good tidings.’

The four gospels therefore record the good news of the kingdom of God as preached and taught by Jesus. Jesus in the gospels preached the Good News of The Kingdom of God but the one necessary for our discussion for now is seen in the gospel according to Mark chapter 10:27 which reads: “Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God ”(emphasis added).

The Gospel (Good News) Jesus preached here is that, man may be chocked up and run out of ideas and solutions, but God is inexhaustible, unfettered and allpowerful. In the journey of faith, man’s conclusion is God’s beginning. When doctors cannot help you out and your bank account is almost running out of money; your business is almost folding up and it seems all hell is breaking loose around you.

The only sign you could see is roadblocks, the only voice you hear is, it is over; Jesus is saying here, “it’s not over yet, until God say so.” The road is blocked only because the civil engineers of heaven are at work trying to help you make the crooked way straight.

When the doctor says they have done their best but could not help your situation, just turn to the God who does not need to do His best to get you out of the bed. Doing your best means, “your good is not good enough and your better is not better enough.” God does not need to try many methods to solve your problems because all His ways are perfect. God’s good is good enough to get you the solutions you desire.

You don’t have to bother yourself so much on man’s conclusion or worry yourself so much about that scaring doctor’s report. Yea! The doctor is an expert and one of the finest and trusted doctors in the city. It is true that you can still feel the symptoms and situations seem no better but worse.

Can you wait a minute to see what the scripture says? The Bible says, “Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?”(Lamentations 3:37). Is the doctor’s report the decree of God? Who told you it is too late to rise again? Is it God, circumstances or man? Who said you are too old to get married? Could that be God, man, or circumstance? Who said your womb is too weak to carry a baby? Who said God is through with those He wants to bless and all His blessings are already exhausted? I guess it is man, circumstances or the devil.

If the answers to any of the above questions are men, circumstances, or the devil, they do not have the final say. You have only plunged into their fictitious opinions. It is only what God says that stands. No man has the final say, only God does.

When Isaiah, the man of God went to King Hezekiah to tell him to ‘put his house in order’, because he was going to die of his illness, Hezekiah went back to the God of all men and told Him he didn’t want to die, and the God of all men added more years to the years of Hezekiah. “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

The text quoted above (Mark 10:27) shows man’s inability to play a divine role. It reveals man’s limitations; it expresses man’s dependence on God and it informs man of his insufficiency without God.

Furthermore, the text also reveals God’s absolute sovereignty and His matchless and unlimited power. He is omnipotent. However, Paul E. Little adds, “the omnipotence of God has intrinsic limitations, self-imposed, as it were. He is intentionally limited by His moral character. For example, though “nothing is impossible with God,” Hebrew 6:18 tell us “it is impossible for God to lie.”

His omnipotence applies to inherent possibilities, not inherent impossible.”

Interesting, the text in our discussion (Mark 10:27) is not the word of a mere man but of Christ Himself. Jesus, in the gospel of John affirmatively declares that He is the truth (John 14:6). Therefore, if Christ is the truth – I believe He is – then all His words are true. Jesus further clarify that His teaching is not His own. It comes from Him who sent Him (God).

It is therefore certain that Jesus is speaking the mind of God. Jesus declares, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…” (John 14:11). Here Jesus is speaking of His oneness with the Father and this informs us that the words He says and His gospels are worthy of trust. His words are dependable and reliable. He is still in the business of doing wonders. Your case is not impossible for Him to handle. The only problem is your faithlessness.

This gospel according to Jesus says God can do all things. He will not only do the possible, but He can also do the impossible. He commanded the storm to become calm; he raised the dead, healed the sick, forgave sins, restored sights, parted the sea, stopped the flow of blood, blessed the barren with the fruits of the womb and redecorated the destinies of the destitute.

What else can He not do? Come on friend, your case is not a big deal to Him. “… For with God all things are possible.”

MENOPAUSE NOT MENOSTOP

Mrs. Sarai had been childless for years and she had already forgotten about childbearing because of her age. Her case was not that of miscarriage or stillbirth; rather, it was barrenness. She had never experienced the joy and the pains of being a mother. She had not been pregnant for once, let alone breast feeding a child. No child to collect her bag when she returns from her place of work, except her maids.

Though, her husband loves her dearly and she had all she wanted as a woman, except one thing: a child. No record of any offense against the gods, nor was her infertility the result of any medical carelessness. She was just barren. Is it generational curse? Maybe!

‘Come on babe; stop worrying yourself about the issue. I am very much there for you,’ her husband consoled her. ‘You don’t understand dear,’ she replied. ‘It’s a reproach for a woman to be childless. Besides, I have reached the menopause,” Sarai told her husband.

Sarai and her husband Abram looked into each other’s face, sighed deeply, and simply submitted to fate.

They were both silent and no one was ready to break the silence when suddenly, a neighbour knocked at the door and dashed in at their approval. With a joyful expression, he said to the infertile couple, “my wife had just given birth to twins.” ‘Congratulations!’ they both replied.

After the man had departed, Eliezer came in to tell his master Abram that his cows had just given birth also to their young ones. These good news resulted into another thoughtful moments for Abram and Sarai. ‘The cow we bought with our money could give birth while we the owners couldn’t,’ Sarai muttered.

Abram and Sarai his wife concluded they could not have a child any longer. So Abram concluded that Eliezer, his servant would be the one to inherit his estate.

Immediately, God interrupted Abram’s thought and said to him, “this man (Eliezer) will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” (Gen. 15:4).

Perhaps Sarai considered herself too old to have a child due to her age or her faith that God could fulfil the promise through her was no longer there. She advised her husband to sleep with her maidservant, Hagar.

Amazingly, Hagar became pregnant, yet, Abram could not impregnate his legitimate wife. What could have been responsible for that? I would not know. Maybe we call that a ‘divine setup.’

In the seventeenth chapter of Genesis, God came to Abram and his wife again to reaffirm His promises to them. To prove to them He meant what He said, God gave them new names. To Abram, God gave ‘Abraham,’ meaning ‘father of many’.

In addition, Sarai’s name He changed to ‘Sarah’, because she will be mother of nations.

Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” I can imagine Abraham saying, “God can indeed be funny! Even common sense will say this is impossible.”

In the next chapter, three unusual visitors came to visit Abraham and his wife Sarah. According to their regular practice, Abraham ordered his wife to entertain their visitors. “…get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread.” Then he ran to the herd, selected a choice, tender calf, and gave it to a servant who hurried to prepare it. He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. 8).

Guess what! These are the angels of the Lord, but one of the three was the LORD Himself. They asked for Sarah and Abraham told them where she was. Then the LORD said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” (Gen.18:10).

‘Spare me all these promises’, Sarah said in her mind. ‘The doctors had confirmed it long ago that I had reached menopause, even nature confirms it that it’s impossible for a ninety years old woman to bear children.

Besides, the beauty of my youth has faded away and there are wrinkles all over my face. I am too old to be sexually active and my husband too couldn’t do much again,’ Sarah reasoned.

Lost in her thought, Sarah unconsciously busted into laughter. “This is unthinkable, unrealistic, ludicrous and impossible,” Sarah muttered. The LORD noticed that Sarah laughed at His words and He said to her husband, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘will I really have a child, now that I am old? (Gen. 18:13). God therefore asked Abraham a rhetorical question, “is anything too hard for the LORD?”

Realistically, anyone who hears what God said to Sarah would laugh along with Sarah because a ninety years old woman having a child is not only funny, but also absurd and risky. Sarah’s reproductive system was already unarguably shut down.

“The process of ovaries shutting down is a phenomenon that involves the entire cascade of a woman’s reproductive functioning, from the brain to skin, and this major physiological event usually has some effect on almost every aspect of woman’s body and life.”

That is what nature says but that is not what God is saying now. God does not go against nature but His acts can transcend nature. His temporary interference into time and nature, which defies the natural principles of life, is what we call a ‘miracle’. Reason does not consider the possibility of such things but faith believes its possibility because it knows and agrees that with God all things are possible.

Medical science calls Sarah’s case ‘menopause’. Guess what! It is just a ‘pause.’ God can still supernaturally play what is paused. I am glad to announce to every woman having similar case with Mrs. Sarah Abraham that ‘Menopause’ is just what it sounds like. It is not ‘Menostop.’ Relax woman!

The period of Menopause for a woman, though is a period of infertility and permanent shut down of the reproductive system, but to God, the ‘pause’ is but a mere hiatus and break in proceedings which can be brought back to work by His miraculous power. It is not permanent to God; it is just a ‘pause’ that God has the power to play and make fertile again.

All you need is faith to make Him work wonders in your life. Nothing is impossible with God. He is still in the business of doing the impossible and bringing a miracle out of your mess.

Your faith do not have to be as big as mountain Everest nor as mighty as the Atlantic Ocean. God only require faith as small as the mustard seed.

As Rev. John Hagee would say, “It does not take great faith to believe in someone who has never failed”. Friend, do not think your case is worse than what God’s power can handle. If God could still make Sarah to have a child at a very old age, why then are you worried about your case.

God has not given up on you; so do not give up on God or yourself. He was never on vacation; He is always at work. Sign up for faith today so that you can always log on to receive all His packages for you and never forget your password – No impossibility.

Finally friend, are you trusting God for healing in your body or for the fruit of the womb? Please kindly say this prayers with me and believe God for an answer:

Father, I thank you for all that you can do. I trust you today to deal with my problems (mention them) and I pray that you turn my mess to miracle. Heal my infertility; heal my marriage, heal my body and give yourself the ultimate glory in my life. Thank you for granting my request in Jesus’ name (Amen).

CHAPTER 4

THE GOD FACTOR IN PRAYER God is not a slave to our faith; He is sovereign and He does what pleases Him.

It is a deadly and expensive mistake for anyone to say the sovereign God has no choice but to answer his prayers or grant his request. God is not a trash canister that has no choice but to receive all manners of junks thrown into it. He knows how and when to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to any of our requests.

Unfortunately, many popular televangelists and social gospel preachers often present God to their audience to be a god who has no choice, but to grant all their requests – especially when offered in faith. It is true that God honours the prayers of faith, yet, it is still not all about us.

It is all about Him. Faith is the only currency recognized and accepted for any transaction in the Kingdom of God. Any prayer not offered in faith will certainly have no result. However, faith, though a strong force, does not throw God off balance nor make Him violate His divine order or bend His moral principles to please a man.

God only answer the prayers of faith that agrees with His eternal purpose and that is consistent with His moral and spiritual nature. The fact that you pray in faith does not give you the guarantee that you will receive what He has not decided to give. Rather, we must recognize His sovereignty in all things. However, not receiving what you requested for is not in any way a sign of inability on God’s part.

The delay or the denial you experience about your request may be as the result of His matchless wisdom, which sees and knows the adverse consequence of receiving what you requested. What you just have to do is to trust His wisdom because not all that seems good to you seem right to God.

Therefore, you should understand that, though faith pleases God, it does not force God to do what He does not want to do. We must always acknowledge His sovereignty, surrender to His will, trust His wisdom, and allow Him to answer our prayers His own way, because it is not all about us, but all about Him.

In his book titled, ‘Prayer is invading the

Impossible,’ Dr. Jack Hayford writes, “Prayer may be filled with faith, uttered with boldness, offered in obedience, and overflowing with praise and confidence. But after all is said, it’s still up to Him.”

“We must not conceive of prayer as overcoming God’s reluctant, says Archbishop Trench, “but as laying hold of His highest willingness.” It is therefore advisable to first, find out if our requests align with His eternal purpose and His will for our lives.

God does not answer prayers just because they are faith-filled; He answers because they agree with His purposes, will and nature.

“The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depth” (Ps. 135:6).

Just as it was established earlier, God honours faith, He answers the prayers of faith, yet faith do not get God crazy that He does whatever you requested at the expense of His will and eternal purpose.

The God factor in prayer is recognizing God’s sovereignty, surrendering our wills to His, trusting Him wisdom and allowing Him to have His way. God is never a subject to our faith. He is sovereign overall and He only does what pleases Him, not what will please us and displease Him because we pray in faith. Remember, “… after all is said, it is still up to Him.”

PRAYER ONLY ANSWER TO GOD’S WILL

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” – 1John5:14.

Free yourself at this point from the manacle of the long-time deception that God must answer every word you utter in prayer and give a stamp of approval to every request you post to Him – even if it is against His will – because they are offered in faith. If God does, He then becomes a slave to faith. God can then speedily grant your unkind request to eliminate your neighbour who always antagonizes you at the community meetings.

You prayed such prayer because you know God has the power to kill and make alive, and because you are aware that the power of death and life lies on your tongue. Therefore, you start to offer your ungodly prayer for God to eliminate the neighbours who will not greet you in the morning and object to all your opinions in the community meetings.

Excuse me friend! God is not a slave to faith. As much as He honours faith and would not be pleased without faith, He does not act against His moral nature or His eternal purpose and will.

The above Bible passage confirms that. It affirms that God will only hear us if we ask anything (pray) according to His will; not according to faith at the expense of His will. I think the passage is clear enough and selfexplanatory. There is nothing figurative or allegorical about it. It needs no special exegetical principle even for a layperson to understand.

“…if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” On the other hand, praying in faith is still part of God’s will. The two must go together. Pray in faith, but pray in accordance to His will.

Maybe this will shock you a little: do you know that not all who calls on the name of Jesus are actually praying in Jesus’ Name? I guess that is strange and hard to chew. Many church leaders had succeeded in teaching their innocent followers that prayers are only answered when the appropriate formulas and postures are employed. They have presented the name of Jesus and the shout of Holy Ghost fire as the formulas that bring quick answers for prayers.

Some calls the name of Jesus twenty-one times before they start praying and some are asked to scream the name aloud so that God will hear their voices.

It is good and biblical to pray with fervency and intensity, but they are not to be taken as the only components that bring in the answers to prayer. You do not pray in Jesus’ Name because you screamed the name for twenty-one times and backing it up with the shout of Holy Ghost fire for seven times.

You pray in Jesus’ name when you pray in accordance to all that the name stands for. You pray in Jesus’ name when you pray in accordance to the will, the purpose, the character, the words and the person of Jesus.

Is seeking the death of the man who does not support your selfish view in the business meeting the will of Jesus? Oh, you see him as an enemy who deserves to die. Have you forgotten that you were once an enemy of God before He saved you through the precious blood of Christ? (Rom.5:10)

If God had considered killing you, where would you have been today? If God could still love you in spite of your enormous sins against Him that He sent Jesus to die for you, why do you find it difficult to love that your neighbour who has become more of an arch antagonist to you?

The name of Jesus stands for love, unity, truth, forgiveness, justice, mercy, integrity, godliness,

holiness, selflessness, reconciliation, restoration, redemption, pardon, righteousness, meekness, sincerity, humility, healing, faithfulness, and whatever else that please God.

Do you always check the motive behind the request you make before God to clarify if it agrees with all that Jesus stands for? When you pray for that promotion, is your motive to tell the world that you have arrived and to start to lord it over your subordinates or to glorify Jesus and seek a better way to affect others positively? Sincerely examine the motive before you start praying in Jesus’ Name.

Ministers and seeking the anointing preachers of the gospel; are you

because you want to be known, recognized and celebrated like Billy Graham, Pastor Adeboye and Pastor W.F Kumuyi or so that God’s people might be blessed, prepared for heaven and God may be glorified? Why are you praying for increase in membership?

Is it to boast that your church is one of the fastest growing churches in town and to make more money? Why, are you so particular about the gift of prophecy and words of knowledge as if that is the only gift God can use to bless His church?

I guess you have been seduced and greatly influenced by the popular, yet, ungodly notions that had recently infiltrated the twenty-first century’s church that if you are not prophetic in your ministry you cannot be prosperous and if you do not have a car it means your call to the ministry is not sure.

Oh, pastor, is that why you keep fasting and praying for the prophetic gift to come so that men will visit with the loads of their problems and seeing you as the solution to their problems rather than God. You have caused men to focus their attention on your gift rather than the giver. You give more attention to the rich but less to the poor because you think they have better things to offer you. Examine your motive.

You take a long time to prepare your sermons and carefully construct your outlines. Is it because you want to please God and minister to His people or is it so that your sermons may be presented with a well-polished oratory that is good enough to catch the fancy of the elites and the wealthy in your congregation? Is it so that at the end of your ‘flesh-born’ sermon, the host pastor may give you a huge honorarium and the church may put you on a request list for another time? You fabricated prophecies and visions based on presuppositions rather than spiritual truth revealed by God, to woo the rich in the church to yourself and make them your victims.

Change your ways and examine your motive today before you start praying in Jesus’ Name. Only the prayers offered in Jesus’ Name, with faith and in accordance to the will of God receive divine attention.

FAITH WORKS ONLY IN LOVE

1John 4:8 says God is love. Love is what characterizes the entirety of His being. He loves unconditionally and nothing on earth can match His love.

Can you imagine the depth of love that caused Him to give His only begotten Son to die for the world, not minding the wickedness of man? What an unspeakable love. He still expresses this great love without restriction to humanity even when we get out of His way and follow our own ways.

Why then must we request anything from this loving God without making love our utmost motivation? Actions motivated by love motivate God because that is the very nature of God. Hence, when love becomes our motivation in prayer, we can be sure of His attention.

In other words, do not just say you have faith to receive a thing from God when your life and your prayers are void of the very nature and the person of God to whom you make your request.

You cannot separate love from His nature. He is love, and whoever does not love does not know God (1John 4:8). Faith is what we need to relate with God and access His throne, but love is who He is. If our prayers contain the former and it is devoid of the later, we are still yet to get it right. Your prayer must be full of faith and motivated by love.

The apostle Paul tried to point out the essentiality of love in his first epistle to the believers in Corinth, he says, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1Cor. 13:2, emphasis added).

Love is essential and its relevance to our Christian faith cannot be overemphasized. How would Paul with all the fantastic gifts to foretell the future and fathom all mysteries and all knowledge still say ‘he is nothing?’ What do you still want from a man than having faith that is strong enough to move mountains?

Paul said all these without love still amount to nothing. “…If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” Come on friend! Let us be real for a while.

Predicting the future with accuracy and fathoming all mysteries and all knowledge will earn you a great measure of honour and you become the choice of everyone.

Newspaper companies will need your attention, magazines will want your thought on their pages, television presenters will love to a moment of interaction with you, your name goes on air and journals are filled with your thoughts. What else do you need to make you somebody?

The world seeks men who could do the impossible like moving mountains and doing many unusual things. When they discover you have the capacity for such things, they run after you.

What else do you now want from life than those plaudits from men, fame and wealth? Yet, Paul the apostle insists that all that makes no meaning without love. They are nothing. They make him nothing without love, because God is that love and anyone who does not possess that love has no God.

Can you imagine a life without God? How miserable will such life be that is void of God? In addition, possessing all those gifts without love will end us nowhere than destruction.

Candidly, Paul has nothing against such gifts as prophecy and faith that can move mountains. I also do not have anything against such gifts. They are gifts from God Himself and they are given to the church for the edification of the believers. Nevertheless, we must understand that even those gifts are all motivated by the matchless love of God.

However, it is interesting to know that one can fake the gifts of the Spirit, but you rarely can fake the fruit of the Spirit, which includes love.

When I was a bit younger, I wanted to prove to my dad that I was doing the will of God by regularly going to the church services every now and then.

To prove that to him, I started praying to God for a car, so that when my dad sees God bless me with a car, he would cease casting aspersion on me and stop condemning my regular attendance at church. I prayed with all seriousness. I was specific and importunate. My prayers were filled with faith and confidence and I never cease thanking God for what He would do for me.

Having prayed for so long – only God knows how long – God told me that I would not have the car because I was only asking for the car to prove a point and not praying in love.

I knew that was true. I knew I only wanted to oppress my poor and ungodly friends in the street with the car. I knew I only wanted my father and the rest of my friends who would not go to church to regret not going to church and tell the world that I have it because I did what they could not do for God. Faith does not work that way.

The Bible affirms it that God is love. Everything about Him is love. Even His chastening is love motivated (1John 4:8; Heb.12:5-6).

Faith then must be combined with the love of God if it will ever be productive because God Himself is love. It is impossible for your faith to win God’s heart if it fails to recognize, acknowledge and submit itself to the moral and spiritual nature of God. Paul the Apostle says, “…If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (I Corinthians 13:2b).

FAITH REQUIRES PATIENCE

Faith is as a seed sowed in the earth that requires watering, waiting and nurturing to grow. At times, God gives us an instant result for the prayers of faith we offered to Him, and another time He gives us instant answers to our request, it is due to His perfect wisdom that the time we received the answer was the best time to have it. He may so wish that we wait a while for the answers to come, it is still due to His wisdom.

Maybe He knows we might not be able to handle the blessings at the time. Many times when we prayerfully trust God for something precious to us, He asks us wait patiently in order to test our maturity because patience is one of the fruits of maturity.

A story was told of a young man who went to his father that he wanted to get married, but his father asked him a very reasonable question: “Son, are you sure you are ready for marriage now?”“Why not father?” He answered excitingly.

His father responded sincerely. “Son, I don’t think you are ready for such.” What does it take to get married”? After all, I have a good job, I have a place to live and I am, well educated,” the young man said. His father replied, “That’s not all, my son. There is more to all these things.”

The young man insisted and the father said, ‘That’s okay,’ in order to avoid any further argument. He then requested that he do something for him. ‘What father?’ he asked. His father gave him a chick to rear for him. ‘A chick?’ that is not a problem, said the young man.

One day, having reared the chick to a certain level, he put the meal he had prepared for himself on the table at his back yard and quickly went in to get a cup of water to drink. Before he returned, the innocent hungry chick jumped on the table, ate his food and poured the rest on the table.

The young man became very furious that he kicked the chick away aggressively and in the process, the chick died because it ate his food.

The old man laughed and said, “Can you now see that you are not ready for marriage yet?” ‘How?’ the young man asked soberly. “Because your wife will inevitably hurt you even beyond this chick and you must be patient enough to handle such situation wisely and not kick her away like you kicked the chick,” the old man replied.

An old, popular proverb says, “A successful marriage requires a deaf husband and a blind wife”.

When God gives you a Word, you need to wait patiently for it without losing your faith because patience is part of the landscape of faith. Wait for the promise, haste often leads to waste. Do not waste the seed of your faith because of impatience. Remember, God rewards faith and He cherish patience.

“So, do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” (Hebrew 10:3)

BEWARE OF DOUBTERS

Beware of doubters because doubt is contagious. What you listen to, whom you hear and what you see will either build your faith or ruin it. When you stay among doubters and hardened pessimists, there is the possibility of you thinking like them. As a popular saying has it, “you are what you see, who you befriend and what you believe.” All these factors can determine whether you can receive from God or not.

For instance, Moses sent twelve men to spy the land to Canaan, each man representing his own tribe. They all went and explored the land for forty days. After the exploration for forty days, they returned each with a report as followed:

“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there” (Num.13vs.27-28). “But the men who had gone up with him (Caleb) said, “we can’t attack those people; they are strong than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are the great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to the” (Num.13:31-33).

Apart from Joshua and Caleb, the other ten spices gave a bad report, sold their doubts to the people and the people became terrified, doubtful and grumbled against God’s servants Moses and Aaron.

Consequently, the men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land, which returned and made the whole community grumble against God by spreading a bad report about it, were all struck down and died from a plague before the LORD. Everyone except Joshua, Caleb and the kids who believed the reports of these sceptics against God’s promises and their enemies defeated all of them.

Do not buy the doubtful reports of men who fail to believe what God says; it is cheap, yet very expensive.

CHAPTER 5

FAITH AND RESPONSIBILITY “Acts of the Apostles was written because the Apostles acted.” - Smith Wigglesworth

In the previous chapters, we have established the importance of faith in our Christian journey, and without any reason to doubt, faith works and it is still working. James, in his letter to the twelve tribes of Israel scattered among the nations writes: “If any of you lack wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of sea, blown and tossed by the wind. The man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:5-7, emphasis added).

No doubt, faith is the key to getting the miraculous. A strong force can move the hands of God. By faith, men of old conquered kingdoms and claimed territories. Through faith, God can relief you of the stress of going to the war front and fight your battles for you. Faith can dethrone all human ideas to establish God’s sovereignty.

Faith gives God’s kingdom the total right of operation on earth and allows God to have His way in everything. The kingdom of God is established where faith is established, and God will not have to look like an intruder or encroaches permission. a meddlesome old papa who abruptly

into other people’s affair without their

Faith is an invitation for the intervention of God in our situations. It is the acknowledgement of the boundless power of God to do all things.

Faith invites the kingdom of God to come in our present situations because if He must come at all, He will come through invitation. He is sovereign and omnipresent, yet He does not intrude.

Though the Psalmist declares it that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, yet He wants you to acknowledge and invite Him into your home before He comes in, and only faith will know when He is around because you don’t relate with God through feelings, you relate with Him by faith.

God is a God of faith and it takes faith even for the just to live because the Bible says, “the just shall live by his faith” (Hab.2:4). It takes faith to receive healing; it takes faith to see God’s glory; it takes faith to walk with God. What a great weapon faith is, in the hands of God’s children. It is a weapon which can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (Eph.6:16).

Faith can move mountains, divide the sea, and make the impossible become possible. “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matt.21:22). We must live our lives as Christians in faith because lack to it makes us a practicing atheist. God’s promises are fulfilled through faith and whatever that is not done in faith is sin (Rom.14:23).However, faith is just like your automobile.

It has the potential to move, run and take you to where you want to be, but it does not do all that until you get into it, check if there is fuel in it, check all that you have to check, get the key into the ignition and start moving. The same is faith. It is potentially powerful but it does not start working for you until you take the necessary steps.

Passivity makes faith lifeless. It makes faith look like a dead venture. Only active faith produces active result.

In one of his sermons, Bishop T.D Jakes says, “Faith does not work because you have it; faith works because you work it.”

Faith requires responsibility before it can yield its harvest. It is like a farmer who wants to plant a seed. He has harvest in mind before sowing the seed. He believes what he is about to do will bring forth result. Yet, he has the duty to get the seed ready for sowing, prepare the soil, cultivate the field, plant the seed, water it when necessary, protect it as much and possible from pests and spongers, then he can be sure of the harvest.

It is important to know that God will not play a human role along with His divine role. He expects us to play our own roles diligently as He plays His. Let us take our example from the Bible.

When God told Abraham that his wife, Sarah would have a child in the following year, God has settled His own part and He expected Abraham and Sarah to do their part too.

God would not descend from heaven to make love with or have sexual intercourse with Sarah. God has given His promises; it is settled, non-negotiable, but the way Abraham and Sarah would prove to God and the world they have faith is to have sexual intercourse together, and see God perform His word.

Their responsibility was to make love get ready for the baby to come, while they believe God for the fulfilment of His Word.

Faith without responsibility is an irresponsible faith

Do not make your faith turn to folly because of indolence. Faith works when we work, and faith is static when we are static.

YOU CAN SAY TO THIS MOUNTAIN….

In response to the question of His disciples on their inabilities to drive out demons, Jesus replied:

“Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move...” (Matt.17:20).

If you look intently into the above text, Jesus did not say if you have faith as small as a mustard seed only, the mountain will move. You have the faith. Where is the responsibility?

Jesus says, having got the faith, you still need to add the responsibility of saying to the mountain, ‘Move from here to there.’ Wait a minute! Without faith, you cannot say to the mountain ‘move from here to there’. It takes faith to do that. However, without saying to the mountain to move from here to there, your faith becomes a mere wish. You need the two – faith and responsibility – to get the desired result.

Applicable to us now, if you have been praying to God to provide a new shoe for you and God, because of your prayers ministered to your uncle to send some money into your bank account to get the shoe, who goes to the bank to withdraw the money, You or God?

You’ve prayed in faith, your uncle had just sent the money to your bank account, your responsibility is to go get the money from the bank, go to the shoe boutique, buy the type you want and wear the shoe for yourself. If you are waiting for faith to do all that for you, you are considered an idiot and a stupid scallywag.

The apostle of faith, Smith Wigglesworth of blessed memory once said, “Acts of the Apostles was written because the Apostles acted.”

It is not enough to have faith without backing it with adequate actions. Do not merely pray to lose weight; do exercise.

Do not merely pray for your husband to love you; be submissive. Do not merely pray for the salvation of your unbelieving neighbour, tell him also about Jesus. Faith requires action to function.

Therefore, you have to start getting responsible. Responsibility is a proof for liveliness. When you can no longer respond to the ability within you, you are as good as dead. Become an actor of faith and not its spectator. Prayer and faith are no substitute for responsibility.

THE WOMAN WITH HAEMORRHAGE

The second chapter of this book discusses the story of the woman with haemorrhage as the woman whose faith interrupted Jesus. Her story was the story of hopelessness turned into hope. The story of sorrow turned into joy, and a story full of mess turned into miracle and the gospel message. The question is how did she arrive at the shore of her solution? How did she walk her way through the valley of despair to the mountain of deliverance?

Mark 5:25-29 tells us how: “And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”

Looking intently into the above text, the journey to her miracle started with ‘hearing’. Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ (Rom.10:17). The woman positioned herself where she could hear the message. In order words, faith has its favourable environment. Faith needs the right environment to grow. She heard about Jesus.

Secondly, having heard about Jesus, she believed (faith) if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, her healing will come. At this stage, what she heard about Jesus had given birth to faith in her heart and her faith was translated into the decision to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. However, nothing happened at this stage. Do not get it wrong here. It was still faith that brought about her healing, but her faith at this point remained covert and dormant until she took the next step.

The third stage that ushered in her miracle was that, she took the responsibility of touching the hem of Jesus’ garment upon herself. She was not waiting for someone else to do it for her. She had to act upon what she believed before her healing came. She scurried through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment.

Again, she heard, she believed, she acted, and she received her healing. Her healing did not come at the stage of hearing. She was not healed merely because she believed. She was healed when she acted on what she believed, that is why it is important that you act on what you hear and believe in order to receive.

Faith is the covert expression of our conviction, while action (responsibility) added to faith is the overt expression of our faith. No one knew she had the faith that can lead to her healing until she took the responsibility of touching the hem of Jesus’ garment.

Has God promised to bless you? Then go get something doing that He can bless. Until you do that, your faith is not justified. Have you been praying for a job opportunity? Go hunt for vacancies around and get your résumé ready.

Are you dreaming of wining the Grammy Award, having prayed, prepare yourself properly, rehearse very well, avoid what can damper your performance and add extra to your ordinary.

Passivity causes men to make mockery of your faith and consequently, you are worst than an infidel who does not recognize his responsibility nor accept it.

However, it is important for you to understand that your responsibility is not to help God do what He has promised to do. Rather, it is to co-operate with Him. God is all-sufficient and He needs no human help to carry out any divine order or to bring His words to pass. Divine intervention and human involvement often work hand in hand.

Majority of God’s promises in the Scripture often come with some sort of conditions. Moses wrote: “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth” (Deut.28:1).

The responsibility of the Israelites for these promises to come to pass is to totally obey the LORD. The condition “If”, is not to help God to fulfil His promises but to collaborate with God through obedience. Therefore, do not fake your faith in God by failing to do what you ought to do. Rather, make your faith come alive by doing what you ought to do (responsibility).

CHAPTER 6

FAITH IS A RISK

Only the risk-takers gain global and historical recognition.

Only few people recognize the inevitability of risk taking in attaining the desired height. No one who is afraid of attempting or falling gets to the mountaintop. You cannot reach the peak of your career if you are not ready to take a measure of risk. If you cannot risk falling, then rising becomes a mere fantasy.

Every business venture involves a measure of risk, and no one lives if he cannot risk dying.

The present world could have remained in its primitive state if some men had not taken some risk. Many even risked their lives before they finally arrive at a creative invention.

Great geniuses and renowned inventors took the risk of being maligned before they arrived at their creative inventions.

Succinctly, nothing worthwhile in life escapes the route of risk. To talk is to risk being misunderstood. To love is to risk been taken for granted. To laugh is to risk being branded insane, and even to marry is to risk living and sleeping with an enemy.

However, if we try to exonerate ourselves from taking any risk at all, we become slaves to nature and a stranger to reality. Yet, one may take a wise or foolish risk.

It may be dangerous and not easily corrected when not taken wisely. At some times, taking risk may appear difficult but result oriented.

Risk can be either good or bad. It all depends on who takes the risk. Risk becomes good when it is well calculated and when its result does not contradict the desired result or mar an existing institution.

Life in its entirety is all about risk taking. Even faith is a risk. Faith is risking being a fool in the presence of sceptics and logical thinkers.

Faith people take the risk of believing an illusory, ghost master who will not physically appear in the office every morning, but only give commands and burden his followers with some set of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’.

He make empty promises to reward them in due times, compel them to go tell others to believe him even when the intellectuals of the age finds it hard to accept his reality and worst of all, promised them that he would someday appear physically in the sky.

Atheists and other sceptic groups consider such faith in the invisible divine being who claims to be the creator of the universe as mere misapprehension.

It makes no sense that someone will someday appear in the sky and make His followers to be caught up with Him also in the sky. With which wings will they fly? Why will they become so gullible that someone can easily deceive them to believing that such a thing as rapture will ever happen? Where then is the law of gravity?

These questions pass through the poor minds of the so-called intellectuals and sceptics. They do not believe what they could not relate with through their human senses.

No wonder many of them find it difficult to believe in the existence of a real, personal God who has not resigned from His divine duty, but is still very much involved in the affairs of men. Their god is their minds.

Whatever their falling minds cannot conceive they do not accept as real. However, the fact that a thing is invisible does not deny its existence. I may not be able to explain how all the things God had promised will be, but I believe all His promises will come through. I may not have the right words to explain in detail the reality of the second coming of Jesus, and how my rapture with other believers will look like, but I have no reason whatsoever to doubt the promises for once. I am only anticipating the day.

You are free to call me whatever you want to call me, give me any name you feel like, tell me that I’ve lost my mind, I don’t care. All I know and I am sure of is this: God is not a man that should lie.

The mysteries embedded in the knowledge of this great God are one of those mysteries with which I am satisfied to confess my ignorance.

God is real to me, and through this revelation, I can tell the world that He is real. I believe in the verbal inspiration of the scripture, I accept its authority and I believe all written in it.

The Danish Christian writer Soren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855) wrote, “Without risk, no faith.” Certainly, there is no faith without risk.

Faith is seeing reality in the unseen; it is standing all alone. It may cause friends and acquaintances to stand aloof when you insist on what you believe. Faith causes you to see a body of flowing stream where others see dry land.

Faith makes you see a broad high way where others see a gigantic ocean. Moreover, when faith people see a high way in the mighty ocean where others could not see anything different from the ocean, their faith is termed a mere hallucination.

To step out in faith like Abraham did when God asked him to leave his father’s house to the place He would show him, is to risk becoming a vagabond and a gullible old fool who have no idea of where he was heading.

Yet, taking the risk of faith in God will certainly bring one into a lifetime of miraculous experiences.

God demands such risk because He wouldn’t get His best across to us if we are not ready to go out of our ways and follow Him faithfully and confidently, even when His ways seem not to make any sense.

Faith is a profitable risk because it allows God to show forth His power in the lives of His people.

However, the greatest risk is the lack of willingness to risk anything. When we fail to risk believing the unseen creator of the universe, we lose the chance of becoming His children.

When we fail to risk trusting God, we lose the chance of getting the gift of salvation and justification by faith. When we fail to risk trusting God and waiting patiently on Him, we lose the chance of getting His best for our lives.

Let us take the story of Abraham again for an example. Abraham, perhaps had accepted his fate that Sarah his wife would no longer born a child for him, God told him his name would no longer be called ‘Abram’ but ‘Abraham’ meaning ‘Father of Nations’.

This was a man who had no child born for him by his legitimate wife, and who was already contemplating willing his properties to his servant. God told him he was no longer ‘Abram’, meaning ‘exalted father’, but ‘Abraham’, the father of many. He had no child by his legitimate wife, except for the son borne by Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant (Gen.17:1-7; 15:1-4; 6:1-11).

I can imagine Abraham in a friend’s house the following morning; getting there, his friend embraced him and called him his former name, ‘Abram’. ‘Point of correction friend, my name is no longer Abram but Abraham,’ Abraham replied.

His friend laughing and mockingly asked him, “When did you do a change of name and in which court did you swear the affidavit for the sudden change of name?” “It is God who gave me the name ‘Abraham’ as a proof that He has not forgotten His covenant,” Abraham replied convincingly. “Friend, you are just too gullible, and I guess your God must be funny,” said his friend.

He continued, “How can you, who only struggled to have a child, not even by your wife but your wife’s maidservant be daft enough to believe in a God who calls you the father of nations?” Abraham replied confidently again, “I don’t know how God will bring that to pass, but He promised me that Sarah [no longer Sarai] will bear me a child.” The whole story is sounding stupid and absurd to me, and I will advise you to share all these fallacies with no one else. Otherwise, you are risking being called an old fool and insane man,” Abraham‘s friend warned.

I guess you know the end of the story. Abraham’s risky faith resulted in righteousness, eternal glory, undeniable historical recognition, and a great name.

Can you risk appearing a fool for the sake of obeying God’s word? Can you take the risk of doing the ridiculous for God in order to get the miraculous? Can you risk being rejected because you want to follow the master?

Can you risk walking alone because you want to follow God alone? Can you accept the risk of being apprehended and cruelly

preaching the gospel to

mistreated for the sake of the unsaved in a hostile environment? What about being branded as naïve and ‘easy to fool’ because you have chosen to trust God?

Faith in God is worth all the risk. Its end is so glorious and hundred percent far from regret.

THE RISK I TOOK

When I was a bit younger and earning only N11,000 a month, God spoke to me one night, asking me to sow N5,000 when I receive my salary for the month. My father was interested in how I spent my money so that I can learn how to manage what I have.

My father therefore told me to go and save N5, 000 from the money I earned that month in the bank, and come back to show him my passbook.

However, God had told me earlier to sow the same amount and I was not ready to tell my father I was going to sow the N5, 000 as a seed because he would not believe God said it, and he might call me a fool. The day he asked me to show him my passbook was the same day I sowed the money.

I took the money to church early in the money, after praying, I put it in the offering box.

Here are the words of my prayer:

God, I have brought the money but I want my

money back in the next seven days, and it should be returned with an interest so that when my father starts asking me for what I did with the money, I may have something to say.

I believe God had pardoned my childish attitude because I was already twenty-one years old then, and I do not know the principles of seed sowing, until when I heard a man of God preach about it on the television that the next thing after sowing is not reaping but waiting.

Although that was funny, but the truth I want to bring out of the story is that, I was ready to risk being called a fool. I would not really mind what any other person would say about what I did because I knew God spoke to me.

I was only mindful of what my father would say, and that was the reason I prayed that prayer. I knew he would not believe me, but I was ready to give the money out as a seed, not considering what it could have added to me if I had it.

Time will fail me to start enumerating what God did for me after I sowed the seed.

THE RUGGED RISK TAKERS

In the movie titled “ The Covenant Church”, the founder and the former General Superintendent of The Redeemed Christian Church of God asked everyone to bring all that they had(money) to the church. That was a difficult thing to do.

However, Pastor Adeboye discussed it with his wife and they both agreed to close their bank account for the sake of the church. They withdrew all the money they had in the bank account and brought it to the church. No one complied with this difficult and risky instruction except this couple.

It was a risky and dangerous decision. I believe others might have been asking themselves, how they would survive the month if they dare sow all that they have.

Interestingly, this couple never minded but took the risk of going hungry for the sake of obedience to a spiritual leader. Guess what. Today, this couple is now one of the most celebrated individuals on the face of the earth. Their ministry have become a household name in Africa and in the world at large, the blessings of God over their lives are far beyond what fingers and calculator can count.

Faith in God is a risk in our perspective, but it is a profitable risk. Risk it today and be happy forever.

CHAPTER 7

THE FAITH-FIGHT

“Christianity is not a matter of faith only, but of faith triumphing in the presence of doubt.” - Watchman Nee

Jude urges every believer to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints (Jude 3). Paul, in his epistle to Timothy, his son in the faith, writes that he has fought the good fight of faith (2Tim.4:7).Jude urged believers in Christ to contend earnestly for the faith because he knew there would be numerous contests and challenges against our faith.

Chris, the only child of his parents just bagged his first degree in Business Administration. His father loves him so much and he often refer to him as his friend. His father had promised him to make him the head of his companies and put him in charge of all his properties, if he graduates with a first class degree from the University, which Chris did.

Unfortunately, Chris had lost his mother in an automobile accident eight years earlier and the only person he had left was his father. His father was already contemplating resigning as the CEO of his multimillion dollars company and planning to transfer the baton to his only son, Chris.

Chris had no concrete religious background because his father was an agnostic, but Chris met with Jesus when he was a sophomore in the University.

He became very committed to the service of God and he could not trade his faith in God for anything. Chris knew his father would go against his faith, so he decided to keep it to himself.

A night before Chris wrote his final exams at the University, God spoke to Chris in a vision that he would work for Him as a missionary to Africa and that the harvest is near. He had to go immediately after his graduation because he had been chosen for that purpose.

Chris was happy that God was sending him to Africa to preach the gospel, but on the other hand, Chris was troubled about what his father would say. He struggled every day and night reflecting on the situation. He actually loved to succeed his father but he preferred working for God.

Two months after his graduation, his father called him to his bedroom and told him his intention to resign and make him the CEO of the company. “Thank you dad, I am glad you are ready to fulfil your promise; but dad, I have something in mind to tell you, “Chris replied. “What is it that you have been keeping away from me, son?” his father asked.

Beads of perspiration stood on Chris’ forehead because he does not want to disappoint his father at all. “Why, are you looking this way, son?” His father asked. ‘N-n-n- nothing!’ Chris stuttered. “Come on son; tell me what the matter is. It is written clearly over you that something is wrong,” said his father. ‘It’s just that I’m in a dilemma, dad? ‘Dilemma?’ what do you mean? ‘Yes, dad,’ Chris replied. “I don’t know what to do. “Okay, just relax your mind and tell me what it is.” The father said very calmly.

‘Dad, God spoke to me a night before my final exams in school that he would send me to Africa to preach His Word; Chris reluctantly replied. “Which god are you talking about?’ His father queried. ‘God Almighty,’ replied Chris. ‘You must be stupid and out of your mind, when did you become so gullible that you can be so deceived that there is one God somewhere who speaks to men?’ Chris father quarried. ‘I have no interest in whatever you want to tell me about any god.” “This is my verdict! You must meet me in the office tomorrow for the proper introduction and the handing over ceremony,” his father commanded.

‘But Dad, I can’t afford to disobey God,’ Chris tried to convince his father but his father did not listen.

The struggle went on for more than two weeks and the father constantly threatened to freeze his account, seize his car, stop his weekly allowances and disown him if he insists on insists.

Chris tried severally to persuade his father to understanding him, but the more he tried, the more he became adamant and exasperated.

He started living like a stranger at home and felt very rejected and depressed because his father would not talk and relate with him as they use to.

He constantly cried to God to intervene, at least to prove Himself to his father that He did exists and he spoke to him, but the situation seem more intense and God seem to have gone on holidays.

Another week passed but nothing changed. Chris’ father not only disagreed with Chris’ trip to Africa but even with his faith that he commanded that Chris should denounce his faith. Chris became more confused and all hell seems to have broken loose. His Christian faith does not allow him to be arrogant and disobedient to his father, and he must as well continue to love the father no matter what.

Finally, Chris’ father froze his account, seized his car, stopped the weekly allowances and warned him never to pray in his house nor go to church. Chris could not believe all these would ever happen to him. He wept every night and silently prayed to God, read his Bible on his mobile phone expecting just a word of comfort from God, but God was not speaking. He has made up his mind for God.

When his father noticed he would not change his mind, he sent him out of the house. Chris cried bitterly and tried to persuade the father to commiserate with him but he refused. This was the toughest experience Chris has had to face in his entire life; nowhere to sleep; no food to eat; no place to take his bath and no penny to get even a bottle of Coca-Cola.

For two days, he slept in a Taxi park for two days before he saw a church vacancy looking for a gardener. Chris applied and got an employment. He was hardworking, diligent and smart at what he was doing. That was a breakthrough for him. After his daily duty as the gardener, Chris would go into the church to pray that God should touch his father, save him from hell and restore the love that is missing between them.

While working as a gardener, Chris enrolled in the church mission school, where he learned more about missions. Sometime later, he met someone from the part of Africa where God had told him he would be going to serve as missionary.

The man intimated him with vital information about the place, the likes and the dislikes of the people, their belief system, their customs and their religious beliefs.

Chris and his Africa friend would possess the place in prayer and every day, he never forgot to pray for his father’s salvation. It was not easy for him to survive outside the home he knew but the reason he for these experiences were not clear to him yet. “Is this what it means to be a Christian?” he asked his friend. “There is more to being a Christian than just having a religious identity. It is a journey that begins with faith, sustained by faith and ends with faith”, his friends replied. ‘However, faith itself is not just an expression of conviction; it is a lifestyle, a voyage and an experience. Many things contend with our faith, trying to get us out of the way, constantly engaging our faith in an endless fight and undermine our faith.

Circumstances, recession, striving vehemently to

poverty, and the likes fights bitterly with our faith, but we must be ready for the fight,” Chris’ friend admonished. “How do we fight back, and must we fight?’ Chris questioned his friend. “We must fight the fight of faith,’ his friend replied, ‘but however, our weapons are not human and if we refuse to fight the fight of faith, the enemies of our faith may get us out of the way.”

‘How,’ Chris asked because he still did not understand. ‘First, the fight must be a good fight of faith. Second, the weapons are in two categories. One is defensive and the other offensive.

The defensive ones includes: the belt of truth buckled around your waist, the breastplate of righteousness in place, the feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one and the helmet of salvation.

The offensive weapons are: the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God and prayer”.

Chris sighed deeply at his friend’s response.

“However, a good soldiers don’t embark on a battle without a strategy in place, otherwise, he sells himself cheaply to his enemies,’ Chris’ friend added after a brief silence.

At this point, Chris became very inquisitive to know what the strategy is and therefore asked, ‘what’s the strategy?” ‘Love,’ his friend replied. ‘You don’t fight the fight of faith with resentment, arrogance, bitterness or grief. You fight in love,” his friend responded. “Use the Word and prayer in the spiritual realm but love in the physical realm”.

His friend finally quoted 1Pet. 1:6-7 to Chris to buttress his points.

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith- of greater worth than gold, which perished even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

After the conversation, they both prayed together and separated. A year later, Chris felt the urge to go look for his father. When he got home, he thought the father may still be angry but the father embraced him and they both wept. ‘I have been waiting for you to come back home. I have also received Jesus and now understand why you would not give up.

Now, I am ready to support your mission trip to Africa, and my company will also support the trip financially.” Chris was very glad and it became clear to him what God did for him.

God sent him to where he could learn to lean only on Him; to where he learnt how to be a missionary, and to who could intimate him with the appropriate information he needed for his trip.

Finally, God met with the father and used him as the sponsor for the trip.

The faith-fight is a fight against Intellectualism, Rationalism and doubt itself. It is a fight against popular ideas and reigning philosophies.

Many times when believers set out in faith and hold on to their faith, the circumstances of life tries to fights them until they quit. Friends use the weapons of rationalism and intellectualism to combat our faith.

Everything around us keeps telling us it is ridiculous to hold on to our faith in God. This happens especially when what we believe does not make sense to them and when they could not answer the question, ‘How’ and ‘why?

At times, faith brings us to the face of storms and all efforts seem futile. Rationalism demands logical explanations and details about the reasons for our faith and what correlation has the faith we profess with the result we expect.

I want you to know however that, through faith you can get an answer to an equation without necessarily knowing the formula. You may not be able to enumerate how you get there. All you can say after several efforts and attempts is, finally, I am where the Lord has arranged for me to be.

The devil tries to fight our faith at times with fear, doubt, resentment by friends and family, delay, depression, sickness, poverty, divorce, misunderstanding by family members, discouragement, impatience, infidelity and all forms of spiritual attacks.

He tries to weigh our faith on the scale of intellectualism and rationalism. He tricks people to believing that faith in God must bow itself to intellectualism, empiricism and rationalism.

As he was almost tricking Mrs. Sarah Abraham to believe that medical intellectuals have the final say over her life and that through their exponentiations and postulations, it is concluded that she could not have a child again at her age, but God says that their conclusions is His commencement. ‘But with God all things are possible’ (Mark 10:27).

This is not to cast any aspersion on medical science or intellectualism. Rather, this is to warn us against the temptation of yielding ourselves to any human idea that may deny us of the chance of enjoying God’s power. Your faith will always be challenged and fought against because the ways of God makes no sense to man. 1 Cor. 1:18 – 19 reads:

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing (unbelievers, doubters, sceptics, etc), but to us (believers saved by grace through faith) who are saved it is the power of God. For it is written. “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent l will frustrate.” (Emphasis mine)

Our faith will surely be challenged and contested but we should not throw in the towel. We should contend with what contends with our faith, using the weapons enlisted in Ephesians 6:14-18 and with the strategy called ‘Love’ in the physical realm.

The devil must fight our faith, challenge our conviction and fault our faith applications. He might use the weapon of fear but the Bible says God has not given us the spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and of sound mind (2Tim.1:7).

He might want to fight your faith with the thoughts of condemnation. Resist him and tell him that the Bible says,

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death (Rom.8:1-2).

When he reminds you of your past, tell him of his future. He might want to fight your faith through bitterness, remember what the Bible says: Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (Eph. 4:31-32).

Perhaps he wants to use a thought for divorce to fight your faith, the Bible says, “l hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel, “and l hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith (Mal. 2:16).

Is he fighting your faith with immoral thoughts, Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well spring of life.” This is how to fight the faith fight. Use the weapon of the Word and prayer and the strategy of love that is born of the Spirit of God. The fight of faith is not an easy fight but it is necessary to fight.

BELIEVE IS CHEAP BUT FAITH IS EXPENSIVE

Believe is cheap because you may belief anything. Atheists believe in something but not in the existence of God. Likewise, anyone may believe anything, but when it comes to faith, it is a different issue.

When the fight begins in the battlefield of the mind and myriads of opponents face you on every side, remember you have the surest weapons and the best strategy and you do not give up until you have triumphed in the presence of doubt. That is the faith-fight.

However, since you know the fight is inevitable, you must then get your mind prepared for it through constant fellowship with God in Prayers and in the study of His Word because faith is the product of revelation and the degree of that revelation you have is the degree of your proximity to God.

Therefore, the depth of our faith in God is directly proportional to the depth of our revelation of God and His ways. The faith fight is real and inevitable. Fight the good fight of faith.

Note: The love spoken of as the strategy for fighting the faith fight is not a love towards the devil. We are not to love the devil or love evil but the people he uses to fight against our father because there is a spirit behind what they do. When your husband attacks your faith with infidelity, love him still but fight the spirit behind his conduct.

CHAPTER 8

GOD IS NOT A COMEDIAN “All your words are true; all you righteous laws are eternal.” – The Psalmist.

The entertainment industry of Nigeria had produced more brilliant and outstanding comedians in the last one decade than any time in the history of entertainment in Nigeria.

The television comedy shows had hosted many dignitaries in the society and their effect on people has been tremendous. Hundreds of people troop down to watch comedy shows in various halls week after week, even when all they hear are cheap talks.

The comedians make them laugh by telling them jokes or funny stories that may not make sense at all and many times such jokes sound insolent and sacrilegious. Yet, the fans of these comedians take no offense at what they say because they knew it is just a joke.

Comedy, though funny and most of the time unserious, yet, it is a form of emotional therapy. Medical science says that laughter releases an enzyme in your body that heals.

However, my intention in this chapter is not to advocate for comedy, neither is it my intention to promote comedians.

Rather, my point of emphasis is to focus our minds on some of the characteristics that make comedy what it is: wittiness, triviality and so forth. The fans of the comedians understand that the comedians are just jesting, trying to make them laugh and to entertain them through comic presentations. Everyone understands the difference between comedy and serious talks.

In the age where intellectual idolatry is already invading the nations of the world and Humanism, which adores human intelligence and perceptions to things, is becoming the order of the day, many people treat God and His Word as if he is a comedian.

The philosophical humanist believes that the highest authority is the human intelligence and his real god is the human mind.

Therefore, whatever he does not deem intelligent enough and does not agree with his perception should not be taken seriously. He considers God’s Word as a mere opium, only intended to give false satisfaction or compensation for the harsh conditions of the Christians.

He sees the Bible as another classic that narrates the history of the Jews and their God.

No wonder Paul says the message of the cross is foolishness to them (1Cor. 1:18), because they could not just reason it out.

Men who live in thick darkness see themselves as men who are enlightened and celebrate letters that kills but ignores the Spirit, who gives life.

They fail to realize that they are the real comedians in disguise because God laughs at them. They worship their intelligence and they stumble by what they worship. Their ideas are so feeble and their wisdom so corrupt.

The best of their ideas is but rubbish when compared to God’s revealed Word. As a famous British preacher said, “The best of an Aristotle is but the rubbish of an Adam….” Their words are cheap words, compared to the infallible Word of God.

Their words hold no water and no serious thing proceeds out of their mouths than the sticking vomit of their folly.

They conclude what the LORD has not concluded and they endorse what God has not given divine stamp. Their words are but brilliant jokes and they are in no way different from any common comedian whose words only make people laugh.

How dare the philosophers and the Humanists of this world query God’s wondrous acts and how dare they long to bring God down to their thought or thinking level.

Because they made predictions that did not happen, they conclude that no predictions could be trusted than theirs. Because they see words, promises, and acts that defy their postulations, they conclude they are not true.

Friend, God is real; His Word is dependable and reliable. God is not a comedian whose business is just to give a comic relief to reduce tension. He means His Words. He is serious about what he says. His Word is not cheap and His promises are not empty promises.

The Bible says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever.” (Isa.40:8).

The grass may wither when it is under a shade and it has no access to sun light, the flowers may fall when no one bothers to water it and no rain or sunlight, but the Word of our God stands forever.

Whether it rained or did not rain, the sun shined or did not, men attacked it or not, it stands firm and immovable.

The Bible says God is watching over His Word to see that His Word is fulfilled (Jer. 1:12).It does not matter how intelligent the arguments against the Word of God may be, it does not matter if the Word sounds foolish and does not appeal to our human minds, it may look eccentric and absurd yet God means what He says.

Just take Him at His Word, stay with the Word, do not let go of the Word, believe it, confess it, act it and see God perform it.

Its fulfilment may not come when we expected it, it may not look like how we viewed it, it may defy every explanation and many may not believe it. Just keep believing God for the fulfilment.

What matters is not men’s approval or disapproval, what matters is that God has spoken and He must do it. The Bible says, “What if some did not have faith [believe the Word]? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar…” (Rom.3:3-4, Emphasis mine).

When God told Abraham that Sarah would have a child, Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”

What God said sounded very funny and God was almost taken for a comedian, but I can hear God saying to Abraham, “wait and see if I will do it or not.

I am not joking friend, I mean it; I will do it; how it will be is not your business but mine.”

Stop measuring what God can do with your intellect and the general opinions of men. He can do what he says and He will do it. Science does not have the final say. Only God has the final say and His Word is as real as He is.

What has God promised you? Oh, you are trying to imagine how it will happen. That is not your business. On the other hand, you think you do not have what it takes to become what He said you would become. Have you forgotten that God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong? (1Cor.1:27b).

You think you are too old to have the child He promised you? Doctors said your womb has been perforated and you should not think of child bearing. They may be right, but they have no conclusion. The Bible says, “Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?” (Lam. 3:37).

If God had promised you a child and you have reached the menopause, remember Sarah and take that Word the way it sounds ‘menopause.’ It is not menostop; therefore, it can be played again.

God can make it menoplay instead of menopause. “God is not a man, that he should lie nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?” (Num. 23:19, NIV).

Trust His Word, He is serious and is not a comedian.

CHAPTER 9

ADD FAITHFULNESS TO YOUR FAITH God rewards faithfulness and honours faith; He does not ask us to do the former and excuse us from the latter. Add faith to faithful.

Faith and its necessity to our Christian life have been extensively discussed in the previous chapters, and there is no doubt at all that all transactions in the kingdom of God are made through the only acceptable legal tender in heaven – faith.

Faith is a powerful force that can bring God into action, pull down the mighty hands of God, interrupt the Almighty on His mission to Jairus’ house, send God to battle on our behalf, cause God to defy the laws of nature for a while to do the miraculous and it is the Victory that overcomes the world.

Faith can cast a gigantic mountain into the sea and can restart any given conclusion. Faith is strong, but not stronger than God is. Faith is a powerful force, but it does not force God to do what He is unwilling to do. Faith works, but it does not work like a magic. It is a means, not an end. It is an instrument to the end, not the end itself.

Faith is the only language God understands and He has promised to attend to the prayers of faith.

However, it is very expedient to get His truth down into our spirits that though faith is a powerful force that gets God’s attention, (Heb.4:2, James1:5-8). yet, faithfulness is not optional.

Faithlessness is disrespect to the mightiness of God and it also means lack of acknowledgement for the supremacy of God. God does not function where He is not acknowledged.

Faith is not all that you need to get a miracle. Even then, work alone does not bring miracles but you have to trust God for it while you work.

Obviously, in some pages of the scripture, Jesus would cast out demons from people without requesting their faith.

For example, when Jesus and His disciples sailed to the region of the Genesaret, which is across the lake from Galilee, He stepped ashore, and was met by a demon possessed man from the town.

According to the scripture, the man had not worn clothes or lived in a house for a long time. He lived in tombs.

He was not in his right state of mind and he could not make such decision to trust Jesus for his deliverance. He had no faith to be healed because his mind has been arrested. He has not the ability to have faith.

His will-power is under demonic control; his reasoning ability is damaged that he could not make the choice to believe or not to believe in Jesus for freedom. He has no knowledge of who Jesus is.

Yet, faith involves knowledge, reason, will, emotions, and every part of us. You cannot have faith in a person you do not know.

Faith is connected to our will power because faith’s expression is voluntary. Faith is beyond reason but not against reason.

Yet, this man with Legion of demons inside of him could not make the choice to believe or not He could not speak for himself. The demons in him spoke for him and through him.

He had no knowledge of who Jesus is, except for what the demons said through him. He had no faith, and didn’t have to believe yet he received his deliverance and healing (Luke8:26-33).

That is what God’s mercy can do. It gives you what you do not deserve. It gives you what you cannot pray or fast to get. It pays you better & beyond your wages.

However, we must understand that the man’s case was exceptional. Faith is the divine demand for a divine supply.

Matthew 13:58 says “And he (Jesus) did not do many miracles there (in his hometown) because of their lack of faith (Emphasis mine).

The case of the man narrated above may not be applicable to those of us who knows the way already and who have identified themselves with the saviour and Lord of all.

As believers and followers of Christ, we cannot afford to substitute faithfulness for faith. We cannot be unfaithful to God and expect Him to answer our prayers of faith.

Jesus says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7).

According to the words of Jesus, the conditions for receiving what you wish is, remain in Him and let His words remain in you.

Although, asking what you wish from God is a sort of faith that He hears and He can do what you are asking.

However, we do not receive what we wish in this context until we remain or abide in Him and His words abide in us.

To remain with someone is to stand for with him; to stay with, to remain loyal to, to cherish over others. Likewise, we are said to be faithful when we remain loyal to something or someone.

Therefore, you do not just receive what you wish if you will not keep the condition of remaining, abiding, staying faithfully to the Lord and allowing His words to fill your hearts, because prayers offered not in agreement with the Word of God will receive no answer from God.

When we pray in faith and we remain unfaithful to God and His Word, we are only deceiving ourselves. Faith does not cover up the sin of disobedience and indulgence in known sin.

Unfaithfulness is a sin against God. Be it unfaithfulness in business, marital unfaithfulness, or any form of unfaithfulness, they are all is a sin before God, and the Bible says, “if l had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened (Ps.66:18).

You cannot trust God for financial provisions if you are unfaithful in tithing (Mal. 3:8-10).Prayers of faith may be hindered when there is any form of unfaithfulness between husbands and wives (Mal.2:10-16, 1Pet.3:7).

Faithfulness is not an optional issue for believers in Christ and our faithfulness to Him must be total if we want to have our needs met. Proverbs 3:3-4 read, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and man.”

By faithfulness, it means we are accountable to God. God will someday ask us to account for our faithfulness to Him. Our faithfulness must be to both God and man.

We are expected to walk worthy of the faith we profess through total faithfulness to God and others.

You cannot be unfaithful to your business partners and expect God to hear your prayers of faith. It is an abomination unto God.

Your prayer will be hindered if you allow an unforgiving spirit to rule over you (Mat.5:22-24; 6:12).

However, faithfulness must be extended to all men. It must be extended to our places of work and business. It must be extended to our families and friends and our nation at large. You cannot be unfaithful at work and expect promotion as orchestrated by God.

Excellence is not achieved through the prayers of faith only, but through exploits and diligence, added to the prayers of faith.

Christians, faithfulness is a virtue we must all possess. We should not be faithful to the Church we worship and to our pastors and be unfaithful to our wives or husbands. It will still amount to unfaithfulness all the same.

We cannot be faithful in our ecclesiastical duties and we are unfaithful in our secular duties.

That is still unfaithfulness. There should not be any dichotomy in the life we live in the church and outside the church. Be faithful in all and be faithful to all. Then you can pray in faith to the only faithful God and you will have you requests granted. Add faithfulness to your faith and you will see God acting faster to your needs.

CHAPTER 10

IT IS ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH “…According to your faith will it be done to you.”

- Matthew 9 vs. 29

The New Testament’s books Mathew chapters eight and nine records some of the outstanding miracles performed by Jesus. The healing of the man with Leprosy, the healing of the centurion’s servant, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, casting out of demons, calming the storm, healing a paralytic, raising the dead, healing the woman with haemorrhage, healing the blind and the mute. It was a great feast of healings and miracles.

However, in three different occasions between the eight and the ninth chapters of Matthew, Jesus based His responds on the faith of the people.

Although, this has always been the trend, he would heal people because they believed He could, in these three occasions, Jesus specifically said to the invalids, “your healing will be according to you faith.” To the centurion He said, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” To the woman with haemorrhage He said, “Your faith has healed you” (Matt. 9:22).

To the blind in Matthew chapter 9 verse 29 He said , “According to your faith will it be done to you.” These three people received their miracles according to their faith.

The expression ‘according to’ means following or agreeing with something. It means it is going to be done for you, just as you desire it. It means I am going to give it to you or do it for you the way you want it to be. In other words, your faith determines your experience.

Jesus told them, “Just tell me what you want and l will agree with your desire.” It’s like a man who went to the grocery store to make some purchases and on getting there, the sales person asked him, “what can l do for you sir?”

He replied, “We’ll give you all you want according to your request. Just make an order for it. We’ll follow your order.” “If that’s the case, get me a packet of chocolate biscuits,” the man ordered. The sales person went in agreement to the man’s request and brought to him what he requested.

That is the picture of the phrase, “according to your faith.” I have no problem giving you what you want. Just tell me what you want and I will do it for you.

In the two chapters of our discussion (Matt. 8 and 9), it is obvious that Jesus is very much willing to get you out of your mess.

In the eight chapter of Matthew, verses one to three, the Bible records that a man with leprosy came to Jesus and said to Him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said.

God is willing today to get you out of your problem, heal your diseases, restore your broken marriage, get you out of that sick bed, but your faith is what will fuel His action.

If your faith says you can be healed, then you can. If your faith says you can still have a child, despite the doctor’s report and conclusion, then God can do it for you.

However, He will not do it if your faith says, it is impossible. It is according to your faith. Your faith is the voice that speaks for you before the supreme court of heaven.

Late Archbishop Benson Idahosa once titled one of his books as, “When your faith says Yes God can’t say No.” It is up to you to plunge beneath the flood of the miraculous or you remain invalid forever.

God is still in the business of doing the miraculous and He can reach out His hand to heal you, but it is going to be according to your faith.

Jesus is saying to you today “l agree with you if you say you can walk again. And if you say you can’t l still agree with you. I am like the sales person in the grocery store. Just tell me what you want and trust me to provide it for you. So far you have your money to buy it (faith is the currency for any transaction in the kingdom), you can get whatever you desire.

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:21-22).

DO NOT PITY GOD

When I was a little boy in the secondary school, I would not tell my dad all that l needed in school because of the financial state of the family. I would endure the pains of trekking a long distance to school, not having money to buy food or snacks during the break time, the scorching hot weather in the afternoon while trekking back home and getting home eating the meal I don’t even feel like eating at all. I endured all that because l took pity on my daddy.

He loved to give me the best satisfaction on earth, but he could not just do it because of financial incapability.

I sometimes took this attitude to pity before God and thinking what l wanted to request from Him will be too much for Him, until l understood that God is inexhaustible, all sufficient, magnanimous, and too wealthy to be poor.

Friends, there is no limit to what God can offer you. There is no limit to what He can do. Stop limiting Him and underestimating His power. You can get as much as you can see and you can reach as far as you can see (Gen.15:5).

The problem is not with God, the problem is your inability to see God beyond your problem. Enlarge the horizon of your faith now, and God will take you as far as you can see; even father because He can do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that you ask or imagine (Eph.3:20).

DOUBT HURTS GOD

The Bible says Jesus could not do many miracles in His hometown because of their lack of faith (Matt.13:58). When we doubt God’s Word and His promises, He withdraws His hand from our situations.

Our faithlessness can incapacitate Him because doubt projects the idea that we do not think God is capable of doing what He promised. It dishonours Him. Even though, it does not stop Him from being the Almighty, but it stops Him from showing His almightiness.

The Bible says, “It’s impossible to please God without faith.” (Heb.11:6).

In his book titled, The Three most important Things in your Life, Dr. Mike Murdock says, “God’s greatest need is to be believed. His greatest pain is to be doubted.”James affirmatively says, ‘he who doubts should not think he will receive anything from the Lord.” (James1:6-8).

Do not think what is difficult for you to solve is equally difficult for God; your doctors may not be able, God is well able; your bank account may be empty, God is inexhaustible; your problem may be big, God is bigger.

As disobedience hurts God, so doubt hurts Him because whatever is not done in faith is sin (Rom.14:22). Ask Him what you want now, and He will give it to you according to your faith.

CHAPTER 11

ADDICTED TO PRAYER

“Since the time of the founding of the church, there are watchmen. God does nothing on earth without the prayers of His children.”-Watchman Nee

Prayer is a common practice in every religion and it is an integral part of any spiritual devotion. Prayer is the ladder through which we move to the depth of our spiritual endeavours and lack of it will inevitably result in superficiality.

However, not all religions pray the same and all prayers are not offered to the same God. It is no doubt that not all religions have the same idea and perspective about God.

For instance, in philosophical Hinduism there is no personal god. Therefore, they do not pray to a personal god and prayer to them is a kind of meditation.

When Christians pray, they pray to the God who hears, sees, speaks and gives. Christians believe there is only one living God who is a triune being (Trinity) with personal distinctions.

“Buddhist Prayer” is more of a psychological exercise and Hindus offer prayer to appease god and to evade all trouble and dangers. The truth of the matter is, all pray, but do not pray the same way and not to the same God.

Prayer is not the exclusive right of the clerics, neither is it privilege for the rich and the highly placed personalities. It is a right given to everyone by God to pour out his/her mind to Him without any restriction or human protocol.

God is not a respecter of any man, race, ethnicity or tribe. He has given everyone the equal right to pray to Him without any geographical, cultural, and ethnical or language barrier.

God does not answer prayer because it is offered with a well-polished and constructive grammars or vocabularies.

God does not answer prayers because professors, politicians and or autocrats offer them. He does not deny the sincere prayers of the poor to answer the arrogant and selfish plea of the rich.

Prayer is one of the greatest opportunities the creator has given to man to present his case to Him.

Unfortunately, only few Christians maximise this opportunity and thousands of Christians do not even know what prayer is, or how to pray.

Even though prayer has no specific form or mode, it requires no special posture or formula. It is simply offered to God through Jesus Christ and by faith.

Freligh defines prayer as, “the communication...between man and the personal, eternal, infinite God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Prayer is the transmission of our desires and the expression of our heart to God with the readiness to receive a reliable response from Him. It is not a monologue. It is a dialogue of the soul with the Spirit of God.

Prayer is the verbal expression of our faith in God. Faith without prayer will make the faith impotent. Prayer is what fans our faith to flame. It amplifies our faith and causes God to attend to our needs.

Jesus makes it known to us that it is when we ask (in prayer) that we receive (Matt. 7:7-8). When we pray without faith, we do not receive, and when we have faith but fail to pray, our faith loses its potency. Faith and prayer works together to produce the desired result.

James 5:14-15 says, “Is anyone of you sick? He should call the elders of the church of pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the love. And the prayer offered in faith with make the sick person well, the Lord will raise him up….” (Emphasis added).

James addresses the two issues together: PRAYER and FAITH. Therefore, when we claim to have faith we must add prayers to it ceaselessly (1The.5:17).

In his book titled ‘ Prayer’, John Bunyan defines prayer as “a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to his word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.”

However, we must still recognize the God factor in prayer. He determines the ‘how’ and ‘when’ of our prayers.

According to Watchman Nee, “prayer is not an expression of our wishes for God to yield to our petitions and fill up our selfish desires. Prayer is the union of the believer’s thoughts with the will of God. It is simply the believer’s speaking out through his mouth the will of God”.

When we pray we must do so to God through the person of Jesus and with the attitude of dependence on

God. Prayer does not force God to do what He does not

want to do. It must be offered to God in faith and in

accordance to the will of God 1John 5:14 reads, “This is the

confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask

anything according to his will, he hears us” (emphasis

added).

Unfortunately, for many believers, they think there

should be procedure to follow before one prays. That there

are certain things you can tell God and there are certain

things He does not want to hear.

God is interested in every aspect of our lives and

you do not have to employ the best vocabulary to express

your mind to Him. There are no methods or special places

where he answers prayer.

There are no special times for God to answer

prayers, and it is not when you stand or sit or kneel or shout

that He hears your prayers. He wants to hear you anytime,

anywhere and anyhow.

Prayer is the communication of our minds, our

spirits, souls, emotions, wills, our joy, our anger, and

everything we ever want to say.

God wants to hear about your need for a new computer, for a new car, a new TV, your need for a new phone your need for that perfume, your need for that bicycle, your need for that Tommy Hilfiger T-shirt, your

need for new wristwatch, etc.

You can tell Him about the beautiful woman you

met in the restaurant; you can tell Him about that business

transaction; you can tell Him about that contract. There is

no limit to what you can tell the Father. Tell Him about the

person you want to date.

Tell Him about the inability of your husband to

satisfy you sexually. Tell Him about the insolent attitude

of your wife and ask Him to help you. God is willing and

ready to hear you. If nobody would, God will hear. It is a mistake to think that your prayers cannot be

answered until you get to church. No! You do not need to

get to church or come before the altar in the church before

He hears you.

God is omnipresent. He can hear you right in the

kitchen, He can hear you right in the gents, He can hear you

on your bed; He can hear you in the hotel room; He can

hear you in the taxi and He hears when you are happy or

sad.

Nevertheless, prayer is not only for relationship, it

is also for communication.

Prayer can also be the weapon you use to reach your

enemies, deal with bad habit, deal with the infidelity of

your husband or wife, deal with that porno-addicted child,

deal with that drug addiction etc.

Prayer and praise with faith can send God to battle

on your behalf and cause Him to kill all your enemies in

one night. Prayer and praise with faith can send God to a

jail as He did for Paul and Silas (Acts 16: 25-29). Prayer is the seed you sow to harvest the

miraculous. Prayer is the seed you sow to harvest souls in

their million and cause revival.

Men who really experienced the great move of God

were men who prayed and prayed until something

happened.

Men like John Hyde, Charles H. Spungeon, Smith

Wigglesworth, William J. Seymour, Charles G. Finney,

John Wesley and Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola were men

who prayed until there was an outbreak of revival in their

generation.

Men like Pastor E.A. Adeboye of The Redeemed

Christian Church of God, men like Pastor W.F. Kumuyi of

Deeper Life Bible church, men like Prophet S.K. Abiara

and others.

These men engaged themselves ceaselessly in

prayers until the mighty hand of God was brought down.

These men made prayer a habit. They were and are not just

men of faith; they are also prayer addicts.

A story was told of late Apostle Joseph, Ayo

Babalola of the Christ Apostolic Church. Joseph Ayo

Babalola was a great revivalist God greatly used for revival

in the body of Christ in the 1930s.

It was a great move of God in the body of Christ in

Nigeria and the history of revival in Nigeria is not complete

without mentioning this great General of God. Joseph Ayo

Babalola was on the mountain on a certain occasion,

praying to God and suddenly, a big snake crawled over him

and the sweat that came out from the man’s body touched

the snake and it died and dried up.

What about the great harvest of souls and countless

miracles that has been recorded though the ministries of

men like Pastor W.F. Kumuyi and Past E.A. Adeboye? These men made prayer their lifestyles. Even Jesus

Christ Himself, He did not start His public ministry until

He had prayed and fasted for forty days and night. The

Bible records that He would withdraw to a solitary place to pray to God. No, wonder His ministry touched the whole

world.

You cannot be weak in your prayer closet and be

strong in the public. Until you have travailed and prevailed

in the secret room of prayer, you cannot prevail in the

public.

Rev. John Hagee said his mother would tell him,

“little prayer, litter power, more prayer, more power, much

prayer, and much power”.

Men of faith never quit praying because the result

is not forth coming. They pray until God responds. They

pray until something happens. When you no longer pray,

your faith is fractured.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in

Thessalonica, “pray without ceasing” (1Thess. 5:17). In other words, prayer is not meant to be a sporadic,

occasional exercise. It is not what we should do only when

we are stuck in the wilderness. It should be a continuous

exercise.

We should get addicted to prayer. Pray anytime,

anywhere until it becomes a habit. You do not need a place

to kneel or a place to sit to do it. It is a communication of

the soul to God.

God is so close to you that He can discern your

deepest thought. He can hear what you whisper and hear

words not verbally uttered. Until you get addicted to

prayer, you cannot get addicted to God.

However, it is a pity that the twenty-first century

churches do more of talking than praying. We talk more

and pray less. We have few praying churches but many

talking churches.

No wonder there is the famine of revival and the

miraculous in the 21st Century church. No wonder the 21st

Century church is infiltrated with the Laodicea church

syndrome– we are neither cold nor hot (Rev. 3:14-19). Many people consider Prayer as an anachronism in

the 21st century church. People prefer to talk, dance, sing

and do anything else in the church than praying. Yet, those

who dare to pray are selfish in their prayers. When prayers

are not centred on their needs, they become reluctant and

they pray less.

The devil had succeeded in redirecting the focus of

our prayers from God consciousness. We only pray to seek

God’s hand and not His face. Why won’t there be false

prophesies and self-manufactured miracle in the 21st

century church, when all that the people came for it is to receive something from God rather than coming to

fellowship?

Why will the Pastor not want to please the people

and present himself more anointed than he is when all that

the people want is the hand of God and not His face? They do not have any personal relationship with

God. How will someone call himself a Christian without

spending, at least, twenty minutes with God in a day? God do not even hear the voice of some throughout

the day. When we do not pray even for ourselves, how then

can we intercede for others?

If God solely depend on your prayers and mine to

save the dying world, will the entire world not perish in

hell?

How will you feel when you get to heaven and

somebody suddenly comes to embrace you and say, “thank

you for praying for my salvation”.

How would you feel when you meet Jesus in glory

and He thanks you for praying for the unsaved in your

community? Yet God is looking for one who could stand in

the gap for the dying world (Ezekiel 22:30).

Wesley L. Duewel, in his book titled, “Measure

your life” wrote a citation he titled, Pray on:

How often do you bear a burden In intercession for the lost?

How deeply do you feel compassion? Or do you shun to pay the cost? Is prayer for you mere relaxation, A passing pleasure now and then? Or do you pray in intercession

With burdened heart for souls of men?

How often do you feel the hunger That cannot rest unsatisfied? That keeps you praying ever longer Until the answer is supplied?

How often are you lost in praying Until, forgotten, pass the hours,

Until you wrestle, not delaying,

And seize the vict’ry from hell’s powers.

How often do the tears unbidden,

Hot burning tears, course down your cheek As on you pray and bear the burden And for God’s promised answer seek? Tis then you go into the garden And share Christ the sweat of blood; Tis then you lead lost souls to pardon And bring joy to the heart of God

O saint of God, keep praying, pleading; Pray on, weep on, believe, and fast. Faint not nor fear, keep interceding; God’s hour of pow’r will come at last Souls save and Satan’s full defeat, Your long desire, with blessing freighted And trophies to lay at His feet.

Jesus prayed and interceded for the world and His disciples. Interestingly, He has not given up on interceding for the saints before the Father (Rom. 8:34).

How glorious is it to join Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the ministry of intercession.

Faith is not sufficient in itself without continuous prayers; let us keep praying until prayer becomes a habit. Become a prayer addict today and see God manifest Himself greatly in your life.

Yet, do not forget the need for faith, faithfulness and the God factor in prayer. Remember, the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much (James 5: 16 NKJV).

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandment, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden things, whether it is good or evil” (Eccl. 12:13-14).

Are you reading this book and have not yet given your life to Jesus? Perhaps you go to church but you still indulge in sins or you live a questionable life. This is an opportunity to get it right again with God. He still loves you and He is calling you to repentance now.

Perhaps you have been active serving God but due to the cares of this world, you stopped. Jesus is still interested in you. Just say the prayer below with me:

Lord Jesus, thank you for the opportunity to repent. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for dying for me so that I may be saved. Today, I, (mention your name), surrender my life to you and I confess you as my personal Saviour and Lord. I am very sorry for all my sins and shortcomings. Forgive me, have mercy on me, make me yours forever and fill me with your precious Holy Spirit. Help me to do your will for the rest of my days. Thank you Jesus, In Jesus Name I pray (Amen).

If you have said this prayer, then I say to you, congratulation! Just make sure you fellowship with other believers in any church where the Word of God is genuinely taught. Read your Bible and spend quality time with God always.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Ebenezer Afolabi is a Pastor, a sound teacher of God's word, a worship leader, songwriter, and a passionate defender of the Christian faith. His common slogan is, "God is still in the business of working miracles". This expression is based on his many experiences of the supernatural power of God in his life and ministry. He strongly believes that no situation is hopeless. The messages in his latest book titled "God can be funny" had blessed many souls, and his song titled "The unspeakable love" had also impacted countless numbers of people.

If this book has been a blessing to you or you need additional help, you can contact the author at the address below. Your personal comments and testimonies will be greatly appreciated.

POSTAL ADDRESS:

Foursquare Gospel Church

210, Ebute Ojora Street,

Ebute Road, Ibafo,

Ogun State, Nigeria.

Email: ebenezerafolabi54@gmail.com or

godcanbefunny@yahoo.com

Telephone Number: +2348160525695 or +2348096283183.