I will do something

By Odon Bulamba

Looking at your faces I can see the glory of God shining.  Many people today are trying to put their names down on the plastic surgery list believing they need a new nose and want to repair their face because they want to look attractive.  But to whom do they want to look attractive to whom? To God? I doubt it.  We want to look so attractive to human being so people can say wow and comment on how beautiful we look and that makes us feel so good. 

 

We just sang a song and the words said, “Let the weak I am strong”.  How often do you feel weak in your life?  Have you crossed a situation in your life where you feel weak? If yes, then this message is for you today.  The words of the song said, “Let the poor say I am rich”.  Do you sometimes feel poor in life, and you feel everybody possesses what they need except for you and you ask, “why only me God?”

 

In I Samuel 3:11, the Bible says, “then the lord said to Samuel, behold I will do something in Israel which will make both ears of everyone who hears about it tingle”.  God is saying, behold I will do something in Israel.  Wait a little bit, look, I will do something.  What is this something?  We don’t know what it is, it’s just something, something we don’t know or define but God knows what it is and God is going to do it, just wait and behold; look at it.

 

How did this story start?  Hannah was so beautiful and attractive that she didn’t need plastic surgery and was married to Elkanah who also didn’t need plastic surgery.  Hannah was working hard to please her husband, family and community.  People would say, “wow that man got the right woman”.  I believe Hannah fits in the Proverbs 31 description of a perfect wife as she had everything that we could say is perfect BUT she had an issue – she couldn’t give birth. 

 

Her husband knew she was so beautiful and worked so hard but because she couldn’t give him any children, he decided he would have to marry a second wife in order to have offspring of his own.  Imagine you offer everything you can but the person turns you down because you can’t offer exactly what they are looking for.  Imagine if someone tells you that you can have this job because you are perfect but you can’t have it because you are not capable of doing something so they turn you down.  Imagine if the reason for turning you down is because they require you work on Sundays but you can’t because you need to go to church.

 

So the husband picked up a second wife who gave birth to many children in a short period of time and while she was pregnant she would come next to Hannah talking about the pregnancy and Hannah will feel this it was so hard and say, “Lord why this?” and start to cry.  The second wife would mock her, “you believe you are someone but you are no one”.

 

Have you crossed that situation where you have loved someone but that person goes for someone else or something else?  For example, for some men money comes first before the wife.  Have you crossed a situation where you have been offering what you should offer but you are turned down because what they got from you wasn’t what they were expecting to get?  How will you feel to share what you believe belongs to you with someone else? 

 

Hannah was in pain every day.  Each time the second wife gave birth, Hannah would feel in her heart that she wished the baby was hers.

 

In your life satan has told you, “you can’t make it, you can’t change the situation, look this has been the Samuel way for the past ten years, how can you change it”.  You feel satan pressing you down and you are asking, “where are you God?” and God is just looking at you and you feel depressed for one situation in your life and you know what that situation is that kills you and you look around and no one else has that hard situation.  Sometimes your marriage, life, problems, job will mock you.  You complain to God but God says, yes that is the way I created you.

 

Hannah prayed while she was crying and telling God about her situation and the priest Eli saw her talking and believed she must be drunk.  Have you come across a situation where you are really crying and you need comforting and people say, “oh we know Odon, he cries over nothing, that is just him.”  While that person is crossing a serious situation which is killing their mind and heart and others are just mocking them…”oh she loves crying.”

 

Hannah knew she could never give birth but God answered her request and she found herself pregnant.  How did the second wife feel now?  How will people feel when they were mocking you yesterday and they see the answer to your problem on its way.  Hannah gave birth to Samuel and she said, God this child is yours and she took the child to the temple and gave him to the Samuel priest who believed that she was drunk: “When I was praying that time and you thought I was drunk, this is what I was after and this is what God gave me”.

 

The child (Samuel) was in the temple learning to be a servant of God and one night God came down and called him but he didn’t recognize the voice because he didn’t know God.  Even though he had been working in the church for years doing the rituals, he didn’t know God.  Many people around the world wear a cross and kiss it when they want to do something but they don’t know God.  Many people put verses on the walls of their houses and they take their Bibles in their bags when they have a job interview and people try to come on Sunday and work in the church like a routine but after the service they go home and they don’t know God. 

 

90% of people don’t enjoy the job they do.  If they were given another chance they would prefer to stay home but they are forced to go to work.  They have a routine which they now find hard to do but when they first got the job they praise God and were excited but after two weeks they feel it’s hard.  This is the Samuel with salvation, the day you were saved you jumped for joy and wanted to pray and read Bible and be with God every time but six months later you feel lazy to go to church or too busy and week after week you have excuses.  Satan tries hard to pull people out of church and no one forces them but they make a decision by saying, “I’m not coming today, I have a lunch” or “I’m meeting my friend today” and after a few times the person is dying and they lose their relationship with God completely and then become a Christian of ritual and not know why they are at church.

 

Samuel told Eli, “why did you call me?” but Eli said, “it wasn’t me go back and sleep”.  But after the third time Samuel came to Eli saying, “Why did you call me?”, Eli thought, mmm this person is God and told Samuel to go back to your place and give this answer, “speak to your servant who is listening”.  Are you at the right place every time when God calls you?  Where is the right place?  Sometimes a song takes you to the right place with God.  Sing for God and you will come next to him and feel the spirit of God filling you and that is the right place for you.  Sing that song for God that you know helps you come close to God and continue to praise Him and feel the tears coming from your eyes and feel the power coming from God and that is the best time to talk to God – that is the secret of God’s presence, the secret to get the power back and to hear from Him.

 

Some say when I read a verse from a Bible, that makes me feel God.  If you have a verse that makes you feel God’s presence then go to that verse.  You need to know the right place to meet with God and that is spiritual growth.  At first God’s people met Him on a mountain, then in a tent, then in a temple and now we are the temple, so you need to know where to go to meet with God.

 

Samuel came and told Eli, “the man called me and answered”.  Now God told Samuel, “behold, I’m going to do something”.  If God tells you that, how will you feel?  Scared?  Maybe you will wonder if God is going to destroy you or your family or whether God is going to rescue you.  God today is telling you that He going to do something, you have been mocked for so long and people have been making your life tough.  God wants to change things and He will do something and that result will be what you don’t expect.

 

Recently an elderly woman I know had an answer to prayer. She waited for more than 30 years for the answer. How long will you be patient?  God promised that woman all those years ago but many years passed and now something is being done.  When you are going through a hard situation and people might tell you there is no solution, it is impossible: God tells you that He will do something for you, so call on God and ask for Him to do something and tell Him, “because I can’t find solution but You are here.”  Your solution won’t come from anywhere else.

 

A friend of mine worked for many years volunteering for an organization and they were happy to use that man’s skills and experience and he was capable of changing situations but when he applied for paid jobs within the organization, they turned him down.  He felt they were just using him.  Maybe in your life you have also been used.  Your boss uses you and they take all the credit and you are given harsh words to prove you are useless and you feel pressure and you might even get sick and you ask God, “why this?  Is this really the job you chose for me, for how long will I live in this situation?  They mock me every time and you don’t intervene”.  You have been working for years but they prove you are nothing.

 

One time I had a very proud boss who knew nothing but she was always trying to prove to me that I was the one who knew nothing.  Sometimes your family doesn’t have knowledge of who you are.  You have a husband and you need support but he goes out with his friends to enjoy soccer practice and you cry, “oh God, where are you God, how can I look after these children on my own” while the husband gave promises on the day of marriage to be there for you.  Where are those commitments today? 

 

Finally, Hannah gave the child away to do the work of God and God started to use Samuel to transform the temple.  Every day you come to church and you pray and put chairs around and God says, “I’m sick of your rituals it’s now time for me to use you” in the same way that Samuel used to work for God in the temple, doing rituals but a time came when He decided to use Samuel to transform lives.

 

God wants to use you…He may fix all your problems, give you joy etc but are you ready to receive from him?  How many times last week did you quarrel with those you love?  You need the man to help you and he says, that is your job.  He comes home for food and you have to find him food.  Or you tell someone about your situation and they don’t care and you feel they are annoyed by you.  Have you crossed that, you need help but others tell you that you are the wrong one. 

 

For example, you go to your friend, and she says you that you are wrong.  People tell you that not because you are wrong but because they are more attached to that person than you and they make you feel very terrible and satan makes you kneel down and you have to go back and confess you are wrong and you put yourself in the net of satan and let people use you.  Many people believe they have wisdom from God but that wisdom is from satan in order to destroy the peace and joy in the lives of others.

 

For example, the wife comes home and she starts with the cat, ‘Husband, did you feed the cat?’ and he answers, ‘on no’.  The wife becomes annoyed, ‘but you should feed him’ and the husband says, “you haven’t asked if I’ve been fed” and a big quarrel starts from nowhere. 

 

God can fix your problems.  You don’t need plastic surgery to fix the problem, you don’t need to find a solution on your own.  For example, you might not be able to give birth so you think to yourself, “I’ll a adopt a child to please myself” but we should start by asking God to do something. 

 

Ask God to do something in your life this morning.  The something that has been troubling you, tell God you want Him to do something.  Tell God to help you so those that mock you will see an answer. 

 

Our problems will only be fixed when we discover who we are.  Ask God, “who am I?  What was your purpose God to create me?  Tell me God, why did you create me?  Is it to come through this mess or to live this type of life, is it to be mocked by the world or was it so that your name can be glorified as with the blind man?” 

 

Samuel discovered who he was because Hannah was praying for him.  Maybe you have been praying for your people and your prayers will change the world and have an answer.  I’m so happy to have women among us this morning.  God loves women so much.  When He created Adam He used mud but for women it was different.  He didn’t use mud to make something precious...he used a bone.  I’m sure the woman (Eve) looked so attractive because Adam said, “flesh of my flesh come here baby”.  He never said that to God although God created him in his image.

 

Women are special to God and that is evidenced by the fact that it is a woman who is able to become pregnant.  God puts the precious life of a human being and allows the women to protect it because He knew if He trusted man with that job, the man might not be careful enough.  When women pray according to Jeremiah, the prayer is every time responded  and something has to be done.  In general, when men pray, the prayers are not the same as women who kneel down and pray with power and satan feels, oh leave me alone.  Men in general worship with less fervor than women and are generally lazy to worship.  Men who really want to worship, they should look at women and discover how they are ready to worship without fear or pride. 

 

The church is the wife of Jesus Christ because if you understand the role of the women you will understand the role of the church.  Learn from women and your body (temple of Holy Spirit) because women know how to work hard while the man is resting and eats the most and after eating the women has to clean the house.  If I learn how to become a servant of my own life and soul, God will do something with me but we don’t do it, if we don’t cook for our souls how will we be able to cook for those souls that surround us.  Are you really a temple of God?  What is a church?  I’m the church.  So are you really the wife of JESUS?  What is the role of a wife and women?  The biggest shame is that most women don’t use what God has given them, they don’t like to pray, they don’t go to the meetings.  Satan brings small traps like being invited to lunch but don’t fall into that trap.

 

When God called Samuel and he didn’t have the right answer, God didn’t speak but when he gave the right answer, that is when God spoke.  God is the only solution.  People can discourage you in life but those people have arthritis in their brain because their brains can’t work properly…their job is to discourage.  For example, “Molly, I need your help, can you please talk to Heidi” and she refuses and says that is your fault without even knowing what is going on.  You ask someone to pray for you and they answer, you always have the same problems it’s your fault.  It wasn’t Samuel’s fault that he had to do all the rituals in the temple because he put his trust in  Eli.  Put your trust in God not the prophets or pastors.  Eli could not hear the voice of God while Samuel could hear but couldn’t understand it but praise God that Eli could give the right advice to Samuel.

 

What do you do when you hear the voice of God?

 

My dream last night: I was walking along the river and following a small ball and I was walking on water and then I saw a brief case in the water and it had Bible verses so I threw them in the river and when I picked them up they were transformed into bank notes and those that were sitting on the edge of the river started to collect money by swimming into the water.  Very often we think about the Word of God when we need money or support from God to fulfill our needs and we can pray and fast for something material to be given. 

 

As I was throwing money, many people came and they were happy and I was surrounded by a big crowd.  When do I use Gods’ word?  Is it only when I need something physical but never spiritual.  God is waiting to do something for you.  Are you ready to get it?  If yes, let’s pray and ask God to do something in my life, my family, my job, my studies, my neighbors, my problems, my weaknesses.  You have been waiting for years and crying everyday but tell God this morning that you want to see a change.  My mum says the mercy of God is enough.  Tell God that His mercy is enough for whatever your issue is and tell God to do something today.

SAMUEL ANOINTS THE WEAKEST SON DAVID - Part III

By Odon Bulamba

I Samuel 16

So this man Samuel prayed for David and David was anointed. Are we also elected by God? And if we are, are we anointed? And if not, why not? Because the Spirit was given to everybody, especially to those who were chosen, they are the anointed of God. If you don’t have your anointing, maybe you are still in a field outside of town. Maybe you are somewhere like David was, far from his family and today God is calling you, get closer so that you can find your anointing.

As you know David means “beloved” (my love). How many times do you call your husband or children my love and how many times do you call God my love? Many people call God my Father and that is good but God is also my love because He is love. And in your prayer He likes honour so you must give to Him what He likes. And the very first thing God gave to himself in order to gain glory was love. Because He loved us he gave us His son. So love is the first thing that God needs to receive from us. Do you also give your love to God? If yes, how many times a year/week? You kiss your children or your husband; this is a sign of love. How many times did you get close to God to kiss Him? How many times did you tell God, God get close to me so that I can kiss You? I want to feel your presence in me, I want to be very close to you, I want to feel the warmth of your love in me, how many times have you done it? Maybe you have never done it. Imagine you are far from your wife for five years or even two days, you will always say that you miss her a lot. How many times do you feel that God is not with you? How many times do you miss God? You might say none. So to be a hero in the Lord you have to first show your love to God. And don’t show it only with words but show it with actions by obeying the Word of God.

Jesse himself was very humble and he was there to serve God but when God’s servant came to choose, he was the first one to introduce his oldest son, because he thought that everything would come back to his oldest son. But God’s love wasn’t there; God’s love was with David. And David would love God a lot. He was the smallest in the family but God made him greater. You might be the smallest in your church or the youngest in your family, but God is able to raise you up to become more powerful. David was very small and young and weak but God did something with this young man because he would keep the sheep and from this he became a king.

II Sam 7:8

David wasn’t a farmer, he was simple and mere shepherd and looked after his sheep and from there he became a king. With your little faith, God is able to take you from there and raise you up. God is able to change your life and give you a glorious life. God is able to solve your little problems and you will become the solution for others. God is able to take your little weaknesses to transform you so that you will be the comfort of others. God might take your stupidness and give you eternal wisdom to lead others because everything is possible with God. The only condition is that you humiliate yourself and acknowledge where you are up to. If I have committed something, I have to admit it and God will raise me up. David was a shepherd and he had admitted he was a shepherd and God raised him up.

And because David was a shepherd he learnt to play the harp and the flute because during the night it was very cold and the only distraction to not fall asleep was to play the harp. And when you play the flute or harp the animals around will know that a man is there and they cannot attack the flock. Be careful when you play the flute because snakes can come (just remember that). So the way we live now we must learn something and this thing will help us later. If David didn’t play the flute he wouldn’t have been able to help Saul calm down. If David hadn’t played the harp, he wouldn’t have been able to write the psalms that we still read today. Many people use the psalms to glorify God today. And you what do you use today? What are you using now that will help people to glorify God later? Is it your prayer? Is it your exhortation, encouragement, advice, forgiveness, love?

I think that this is the second stage to enter spiritual maturity and we start by learning who David is, the good points he has, and we will try to see if we have them. After David, we will try to talk about another king and so on. So we must try our best as soon as we see there is something wrong or there is something for us when we hear a message please write it down and ask God to help you so for each message you will have something from it. If the Bible were not written we could not read it today and if you don’t write what you have learnt you might forget it. So let’s try so that God will call us beloved. Lets change our lifestyle and improve our behaviour, let’s open our eyes and not accept the wind to come. Don’t close our nose and mouth spiritually or we will lack oxygen. We must take out the hardening of our heart and put aside everything that hardens our heart because that is what stops oxygen for our souls.

SAMUEL ANOINTS THE WEAKEST SON DAVID - Part II

By Odon Bulamba

I Samuel 16

God said to Samuel, “that is not him, you man look at the outer appearance but I look at the heart”. Try to imagine what you look like. Here everybody is pretty but if we had someone really ugly among us, everybody would say, oh this person is really ugly. And I saw someone who was really ugly and kids would flee from this person. He had a big stomach and big ears and eyes. He was really black and when he walked you might think that he is a robot. And as he was walking around children would even cry and scream. One day I invited this man to church and because I was talking, I asked him to come to the front and as he was walking to the front, everybody was looking and nobody wanted to touch him.

In our church we had an old mum and I asked her (because I would joke with her a lot) Mum can you marry this man? And she said no, better to die single. And I said to this man, how do you feel about it? He said I feel really bad because everybody hates me. And I asked a young woman, I’ll give you about US$600 and we can bless your wedding with this money. She said, keep your money and keep your man too and she stood up to leave the church, she was furious. Why did she react like that? Because his appearance wasn’t good.

But God did something for this man and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he started to talk and to prophesy and he said to someone, “you, in ten minutes you will hear that your child is dead and God will show his hand on you. And you, the lady over there, in two days God will show you a miracle in your life and you will not be a refugee anymore. And anyone who wants prayer can contact me later”. And after this someone came to the first man to tell him that someone had died at home. And the man said, this is not possible, so pray for me because God promised and the big ugly man prayed and after 10 minutes someone came back to say that the child had come back to life. Two days later the woman also came in touch with the Australian immigration service and she could go. And after that a woman came to see this man, and said to this man, I have a financial problem and they prayed together and after praying the lady went and four hundred metres from home, someone met this woman and this person gave this lady maybe three times as much as this lady needed. And on Sunday these were testimonies in this church, praise the Lord.

So I said, so who wants to marry this man? Everybody looked around and smiled and I pointed out someone and she was a really pretty girl and she rubbed her hands and said, If God wants I can. And you old mum, who said no last time? She said, “I was just joking, but I can look after this man because I know that he is a Godly man. And through him God did miracles so I want this man”.

Why do I give this example? Because our way to see things is not God’s way to see things. We just look at the appearance but whoever wants to be a hero for God must also see man’s heart. And Samuel prayed for Jesse’s children and there was nobody. David had to come and when he came, God said, “this is him”. And how were David’s eyes? What does the Bible say? He had beautiful eyes but it was not only physical but on the inside his eyes were also beautiful. His eyes were always open and he could see clearly so that he could not be confused and whoever wants to serve God in every situation he must first see what God wants. If my eyes please God, so will my actions. Before doing everything think first spiritually and think first, what does the Bible say? And if you know what the Bible says, God will see your eyes as beautiful.

And the bible says that his face was also very pretty. For the Lord, his face was attractive. It’s not about wearing make up. When there is too much make up we become ugly. If you are black and put green blusher on your cheeks and red lipstick on your lips and orange eye-shadow on your eyelids, you become like a little devil. Whoever will see you will think that it is too much. God wants us to have beauty. So we must look after our souls so that they will be acceptable for God and it must not be an artificial beauty but a natural beauty. And how do we do that? What is the secret for becoming pretty for the Lord? There is only one thing and that is obedience. If you want to attract God to you, obey. There is nothing else. And what is obedience? Before doing anything, you think first what does the Word of God say and this is obedience. Before doing anything, observe and think what the Bible says.

SAMUEL ANOINTS THE WEAKEST SON DAVID - Part I

By Odon Bulamba (15 August 2003)

I Samuel 16

We thank God because He is good and He is always there and He is still leading us and protects us from all danger and He gives us everything we need and especially what is necessary. .

If you have a nose you need to breath and each person needs this breath so the body will function. God has put life in the wind and in the air and if there is no air anymore everybody will lose his life, so we must thank God for this oxygen. Imagine God has put life in the air, He didn’t put life in the sun or anything else but in the air around us and He said who ever will breath this air will live. To prove it I’ll ask every one of us to close your mouth and nose and we will try to see how many seconds we can hold our breath and you will feel how the body reacts. We will see that it is not easy, for a short time you will feel your body swell, you feel you want to explode. Sometimes we collapse, so we can’t even go 20 seconds without air.

Our souls also needs to breath and when we cut it off, our soul feels the same way the body feels. Our soul also feels it lacks oxygen, so imagine if you sin now and you stop the oxygen for your soul and you repent after three hours. Do you think you can stop breathing for three hours, I think it is impossible. Why do I say that? Because God is doing something for our souls and He asks us that our souls have life in abundance and God is not only our shepherd for our bodies but also for our souls. Dying animals don’t need a shepherd anymore. For example if you are a farmer and you wake up in the morning and you see that your sheep is dead, you will not look after this sheep anymore, you might throw it away. Every soul that goes far from life, it is a dying soul and God puts them aside. So whatever has no life for the Lord cannot live because the Lord is life himself.

I want to give you another example; I want to ask you to open your eyes wide and don’t move your eyelids. Open them wide and we’ll see what will happen. Blow in that persons eyes and see how they will react. You’ll see that because of the air the eyes move, whether you want to or not, your eyes will tend to close because a danger is coming. This is an invisible danger. And our souls too when they are attacked by the devil (if they are living souls) they always need to cover themselves and protect themselves. When the devil comes you can’t see him, he comes like the air but our souls must feel its presence.

Let’s say that I am dead and Colleen blows in my eyes, what will my eyes do? Nothing. They can’t move because there is no life in me. And a soul that doesn’t feel satan is like a dying body. Someone might sin and not even notice it and if you come to that stage you must know there is a danger. You might not see life in you. For God what counts is the soul. Whatever we do, for God the soul is essential. Do you know what is the height of a soul? It is different from the height of a body. God wants our soul to be alive because our soul needs life and if there is life then our souls will be able to protect ourselves against the devil. When we have life we become heroes for the Lord.

I Sam 16:6-13.

This is David’s story and many people know this story. David was a hero in the Lord because he would always obey the Lord and he would always have life in him. David was the youngest in his family and it seems like his dad didn’t like him very much. This is a family with eight boys and David was sent to be a shepherd. Maybe the dad asked first the oldest ones to look after the sheep but they refused so he forced David to go because he was the youngest and David couldn’t say anything. Maybe his brothers said something and maybe his dad said something or maybe because he was obedient. And as Christians we have two things on this earth, we are either intoxicated by our friends or family or number two we have obedience. In intoxication there is no life. Many people do things because of what others are doing. Many people do things because they are influenced by others and if you are not influenced by God but you are influenced by man, then you will get lost.

So this young man accepted to look after his Dad’s sheep although he was short and young. So after some time God visited Samuel and he said to Samuel, I want to give you someone who will rule over my people. Go there and I will anoint the one that I tell you. Samuel was a prophet and a servant of God and he would always listen to God’s voice and He respected Gods voice and went. But once he got to Jesses, I would say that life wasn’t in Samuel anymore because Samuel looked at all these children and when he saw the first-born, deep in his heart he thought, this must be the one. And God said, “no this is not the one”. Samuel was 100% sure that he was the one, so he was in confusion. Although he was a man of God, he also had human thoughts in his life. And many people today who serve God, because they are influenced by their surroundings or by appearance, these people make bad decisions.

Once when we were in Kenya and we had a big church with hundreds of people, there was a young man who had sinned. Everybody knew that he had sinned but what the others would do, no body could see. One man stood in front of everybody and said, “Look this man sinned and we must excommunicate him from the glory of God. We must put him aside because he doesn’t belong with us. We must not eat with him and we must not walk with him. There is no right for him to go to church, or to pray with us or to be beside us”. And I asked this man, if Jesus has forgiven us, why can’t we forgive this man? If you were forgiven for your sins and maybe you did worse than him, or maybe you hide your sins, why can’t you forgive this man? “Oh because this is the law.” So we opened the Bible to I Cor 5, it is written that if someone sins you will give the body to the devil but be careful with the soul because a soul has great value in God’s eyes. We had a big debate around this issue. In my other Bible I wrote the date and how things went. And in the end we found out that to excommunicate someone is not biblical and we could not find this word in the Bible. I had more than fifteen different versions and we couldn’t find this word. For our God there are no great sins or little sins so when you forgive you forgive, that is all. If someone killed your father, if it’s about forgiveness then you must forgive. If someone did something wrong to you then you must always be ready to forgive.

So Samuel used his thoughts instead of God’s thoughts and if Samuel made this mistake, who are we, will we be greater than Samuel? So we must be careful with our thoughts sometimes. Sometimes God can send us and when we get to the thing that God shows us, we put our thoughts first and they lead us astray. God said to Samuel, “that is not him, you man look at the outer appearance but I look at the heart”.