JOHN 4
By Odon Bulamba (20th June 2003)
While Jesus was waiting for his disciples a woman came with a jar and this woman was a Samaritan. This woman was surprised to see someone by the well but she didn’t want to say a word, she just wanted to get water and go back home. But there was a man there and this man had the courage to talk.
Imagine yourself, you go in front of the door of someone and the owner of the house comes, what will you say, you might say, ‘oh sorry’ and you might move out of the way so this person can come in but for Jesus, this was not the case, he didn’t leave the place he was but started talking. The time was around midday and as you know at midday the sun is really strong and for Jesus this was the right time to talk. As Christians we must also have a notion of time. What time can I do that? Will it be God’s time or not? If you don’t have the notion of time in your Christian life it will be hard for you to move. It’s very easy to have the notion of time in our every day life especially when you are looking for material interests but when it’s about spiritual life, the notion of time is often forgotten.
Jesus was at the well at 12pm and He said to the woman, ‘give me some water to drink’. There was no hello or what is your name, Jesus didn’t want to know all of this, he just said, ‘Woman give me some water to drink,’ that’s it. Imagine someone you meet on your way and that person asks you, ‘give me that’ using the imperative form, what will you say in the depth of your heart, maybe you will say, ‘oh this person is rude, this person doesn’t have a good education, he doesn’t say hello, I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me, what bravery’.
This woman didn’t answer, ‘I will give you or not’, her answer was, ‘you are a Jew’. How will you explain that? Jesus asks for water to drink and He is answered, ‘but you are a Jew’. Is the fact to be a Jew enough to quench the thirst? Does it mean that if you are a Jew you will be satisfied and never need water? Or to be a Jew, does it mean you don’t have the right to ask for water?
So let’s study something here, when you see someone, can you know if my brother is French, German or English or something else? When my brother sees me, does he know which country in Africa I am from? No, that is not easy. This woman answered precisely and if you read her answer, you can see she was 100% sure that Jesus was a Jew, but Jesus was not a Jew as you know. He was not as this woman thought that He was but this woman wanted to confirm that Jesus was from this nationality.
We also ask the wrong questions to the wrong person at times. Sometimes we ask the devil our rights. You will ask your body for example, give me time to pray but your body will say, but you forget that it is the time to eat now and you know you have to go somewhere to visit someone and you know that visitors are coming soon when you will say, give me my rights satan, satan will answer you in another way to show to you that you are guilty, to show you that you are not able to ask God what you are asking.
The first thing that satan plays with is the identity of a person, do you know you are a Christian but you don’t need to pray three times a day, you are a Methodist. A Methodist only follows Wesley’s sayings and He only prayed once a week so leave this for the Pentecostal. Once I was with a man here and I talked with him about the Gateway Church and I said in this church people praise and sing and he said this is a Pentecostal spirit, people who respect themselves can’t do what they do, that is why you see in the choir there are only young people there. It is like there are bad people there and that is why you have to be careful, look at their hair the way, they are wearing it and the way the dress themselves, they don’t even look like Christians and so for him the outlook was enough. But for us Methodists, each man has a tie and we respect each other in the church and that was the identity that he gave me. So for him Pentecostals don’t have the right to worship God the way they do so don’t speak about anything positive about the Pentecostals in front of the Methodists.
So because of that, this woman said, ‘you are a Jew so you don’t have the right to ask from me something to drink’. Jesus didn’t ask for water to wash Himself, He didn’t ask water to wash his clothes or his feet but he asked for water to drink because He was thirsty. And as for you, are you thirsty in your life and when you are thirsty what do you do? When you are thirsty and you drink juice are you satisfied, or beer are you satisfied? Some people might say yes and some might say no, but as for me, when I am thirsty, even if I drink two litres of fanta my body will still ask for water.
When you are thirsty your body needs water but if you are given (for example) fanta, you will start analysing this fanta, the chemicals are there and the amount of sugar, sucrose and so forth and you will think of your health and say, ‘this fanta will destroy my health one day.’ Because I have a tongue let me drink a little bit and if I drink only a little bit today it won’t destroy my health. But water, even if you drink 5L your health won’t be injured. Of course you can drink fanta today and tomorrow, and people will start offering and you will find out in 10 years you will need 10L of fanta but during that time the sucrose and the chemicals will work in your blood like a drug.
Sometimes a drug can stay in the head for 20 years.
When we have a spiritual thirst we must drink water, we must not drink the spiritual coke. This means we must not live an artificial life, pretending we are Christians when we are not, to accept the human solution instead of committing yourself to God’s hand to find God’s solutions.
A man wanted to be helped by God and his wife made him suffer a lot and this wife didn’t want to do a service that this man required and this man was in his house like the woman and the woman was like the husband. As you might know, in some cultures the man has a special place in the bed to sleep and the woman has a special place also and they say the man is always at the front and the woman is always at the back but this woman changed the order in the bedroom. The husband had to wake up very early in the morning to make tea and bring it back to the wife and this woman would say, ‘praise the Lord because I have found a husband of good quality.’ It wasn’t bad that the man would help but it got to the stage where the woman would order the husband to do what ever she wanted, ‘oh go and see the pan on the stove, oh Michael can’t you see what Nathanael is doing there, so get up and do that.’
It started to change their Christian lives. With their eyes people would think that this man would humiliate himself and love this wife very much but they weren’t living the Christian life but were living an artificial life, a life that would look Christian but was not any more and was controlled by the devil because they broke the law.
So when the woman said to Jesus, ‘you are a Jew’, He said, ‘if you knew the man who talks to you, and if you knew what God can give, if you give me water to drink I would give you also water to drink and you would not be thirsty anymore.’ If Jesus also had this water, why didn’t He drink His water Himself not to be thirsty anymore but He said to the woman, ‘and I will give you water and you will not be thirsty anymore’, when He Himself is thirsty. Can you imagine that? You are hungry and you ask for food and you say to the person, if you give me food, I will give you something to eat and you will not be hungry anymore in your life.
Jesus wanted to teach this woman something, He said you have something of little value but if you accept to give this thing to some one else you will find more than what you have. This woman was proud, this well has been given by our ancestor Jacob but Jesus said, ‘you talk about a well but as for me, I am the source of water. I produce water’.
Sometimes the well can be dry if the source cannot give water to this well and there are little things that Jesus asks for in our lives, He says give me these small things and in exchange I will give you the great things. ‘Oh God help me, I need money’, (for example) and God says, ‘you have 20c in your pocket, give this 20c’. How can I give this 20c just like that? How can I give 20c to this pastor, he is a thief and I don’t even know what he did with the money last month and there will be reasons. Jesus can say, ‘don’t give me 20c just give me two cents’, as this woman came with the jar, Jesus didn’t ask for the whole jar to drink, Jesus asked for a small quantity to drink, maybe it was a litre, maybe two litres at maximum if Jesus could drink a lot and the water would stay in the jar.
How many times as for us Christians when God asks for a little part of what we have, we resist to give. When God asks you for two minutes to pray you can’t find this time to pray when you can watch the rugby match for two hours. Here in NZ when the All Blacks win, you will see all the people excited, ‘today we have to watch the match’ and people will stand and watch it. There is an advertisement on tv where someone who wants to watch the rugby match but doesn’t have sky on his tv (cable) and he really wanted to find a tv and he could see people watching the match so he came in.
Before arriving there he suffered, and when he walked in, by mistake he tripped over the cord and the cord came out of the switch and the tv came down and the people who were there watching the match changed their attitude because he destroyed their program and everything that they wanted so this man had to run. At the end you can see that you need to enrol with sky to see also what others can see.
It happens sometimes when you touch human beings lives, people are against you because you destroyed their program and touched their interest. You cannot say when people are in the stadium there is no match anymore let’s pray. People will leave one after another and you might stay alone.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Jesus and the woman of Samaria
JOHN 4
By Odon Bulamba (20th June 2003)
We are going to get an exhortation on a very famous passage that is known by nearly every body and it is the story about the Samaritan woman. It is in the book of John chapter four. One day when Jesus was baptising people with his disciples, the Pharisees learned that Jesus was baptising more people than the number of those being baptised by the Pharisees. This created a spirit of hatred and distress in the heart of the Pharisees. The Pharisees started having thoughts to destroy Jesus’ life and because of that Jesus decided to leave Judea to go to Galilee because if he stayed there he might be stoned because the Pharisees would say, ‘how come this man gets all the souls for him, even John the Baptist didn’t baptise that many people’. Jealousy was there.
Jesus decided to leave Judea and he couldn’t go to Galilee without going through Samaria and there were no cars in those days and Jesus didn’t have a horse to walk with. In my country when a chief goes somewhere, people will carry him on their shoulders and the chief will sit on an arm chair and there will be a stick to carry him and he will be carried so the chief doesn’t have to walk. But Jesus was the king more than a chief and yet he walked on his feet where ever he went; what humility.
I think even here in NZ it’s not often we will see our prime minister going from Wellington to Hamilton by foot, even by car she might think she is wasting her time, maybe she thinks she will be very tired if she goes by car and she chooses to use a plane. Before going on the plane this plane must be checked very carefully and check that the pilot hasn’t drunk before starting. There is fear in their lives but in Jesus life there was no fear, especially the fear of death was not there. Maybe you will tell me that when Jesus was arrested and they wanted to throw Him somewhere that He feared, no He didn’t want to die at that time because He hadn’t fulfilled the mission that He had and when the time to die came, Peter tried to defend him and what was Jesus’ answer? ‘Go away satan’ and secondly he said, ‘if I need an army my father who is in Heaven will do something, there will be an army of angels down here. But because the time is here, I have to die and that is it’.
So when Jesus was on His way He arrived somewhere called Sychar and this place is in Samaria. Jesus was tired and he decided to sit by a well and a woman came to get some water and Jesus started talking to her, ‘woman give me water to drink.’ The woman said, ‘I don’t know you, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan, how can I give you water to drink that is not possible’.
When Jesus arrived in Samaria He left Judea and arrived in another atmosphere, or another climate that is different to Judea’s climate and while on His way He got tired which is normal. It’s like you and me as Christians, the day we were saved we had the courage to be Christians and to read the Bible and to pray and to go to church each time, and there were lots of success in our every day life and there were lots of transformations in different things.
We discovered the joy to be Christians but people around us started to criticise this life. The devil maybe said how come these people keep shaking my kingdom like that, I keep losing souls and they keep speaking about Jesus everywhere and all of a sudden the devil raised an army against you, laziness started coming, tiredness started attacking and we said it’s not good enough to stay a spiritual baby we have to carry on, we must leave Judea to go to Galilee but we cannot spare to go through Samaria.
Once arrived in Samaria we feel tired sometimes with Christian life and sometimes we are disappointed with circumstances and sometimes we ask ourselves does God exist or not because when we ask, we don’t get. We want God to move but it’s not time for God to move so we think it’s time to put this Bible aside and leave it. If God wants to kill me, He can kill me, so be it. It happened to Even with prophets. Jonah too went through that, Moses and others knew difficult situations in their life.
When you are at the end of your limit, this is the time that God moves. When our forces are finished, that is the time that God’s forces start. When our thoughts are limited, it is at that time that God’s thoughts start.
Jesus as God was tired and He was in Sychar. Some versions of the Bible speak about Sycham and it is the same thing. Sychar means liar or drunk and Jesus arrived at Sychar and that is where he will have a rest. Sychar which means liar and Jesus wants to have a rest there. Sychar which means drunk and Jesus wants to have a rest there. Jesus wants to stay there because there is something useful there; a well. If a well had not been there, Jesus could not have stopped at Sychar, He would have gone somewhere else and sometimes we live where the liars and the drunks live but we must look to see if there is a well in their lives or not. Is there a well in their house or not because when we live with drunkards and they need a drink can I give them water instead of beer when I’m there or not.
That is what Jesus wanted to teach us there, Jesus said there it is, I’m going to have a rest and you my disciples go and get something to eat. Jesus who could transform bread and multiply the fish sent the disciples to get food. Him whom the devil said, you can change a stone into bread and He really could do that, He doesn’t want to turn the stones into bread but asks the disciples to get bread. How many times do we send our children into the gospel? How many times do we send our brothers and friends into the gospel, my brother I have a problem, can you find a verse in the Bible that can help me with my problem and your friend will say, maybe you know the Bible better than me, but you encourage them to try to find something that is good for you. When you correct others, help them and advise them, do you send them to find a spiritual food? If you don’t do it, it is time to do it.
By Odon Bulamba (20th June 2003)
We are going to get an exhortation on a very famous passage that is known by nearly every body and it is the story about the Samaritan woman. It is in the book of John chapter four. One day when Jesus was baptising people with his disciples, the Pharisees learned that Jesus was baptising more people than the number of those being baptised by the Pharisees. This created a spirit of hatred and distress in the heart of the Pharisees. The Pharisees started having thoughts to destroy Jesus’ life and because of that Jesus decided to leave Judea to go to Galilee because if he stayed there he might be stoned because the Pharisees would say, ‘how come this man gets all the souls for him, even John the Baptist didn’t baptise that many people’. Jealousy was there.
Jesus decided to leave Judea and he couldn’t go to Galilee without going through Samaria and there were no cars in those days and Jesus didn’t have a horse to walk with. In my country when a chief goes somewhere, people will carry him on their shoulders and the chief will sit on an arm chair and there will be a stick to carry him and he will be carried so the chief doesn’t have to walk. But Jesus was the king more than a chief and yet he walked on his feet where ever he went; what humility.
I think even here in NZ it’s not often we will see our prime minister going from Wellington to Hamilton by foot, even by car she might think she is wasting her time, maybe she thinks she will be very tired if she goes by car and she chooses to use a plane. Before going on the plane this plane must be checked very carefully and check that the pilot hasn’t drunk before starting. There is fear in their lives but in Jesus life there was no fear, especially the fear of death was not there. Maybe you will tell me that when Jesus was arrested and they wanted to throw Him somewhere that He feared, no He didn’t want to die at that time because He hadn’t fulfilled the mission that He had and when the time to die came, Peter tried to defend him and what was Jesus’ answer? ‘Go away satan’ and secondly he said, ‘if I need an army my father who is in Heaven will do something, there will be an army of angels down here. But because the time is here, I have to die and that is it’.
So when Jesus was on His way He arrived somewhere called Sychar and this place is in Samaria. Jesus was tired and he decided to sit by a well and a woman came to get some water and Jesus started talking to her, ‘woman give me water to drink.’ The woman said, ‘I don’t know you, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan, how can I give you water to drink that is not possible’.
When Jesus arrived in Samaria He left Judea and arrived in another atmosphere, or another climate that is different to Judea’s climate and while on His way He got tired which is normal. It’s like you and me as Christians, the day we were saved we had the courage to be Christians and to read the Bible and to pray and to go to church each time, and there were lots of success in our every day life and there were lots of transformations in different things.
We discovered the joy to be Christians but people around us started to criticise this life. The devil maybe said how come these people keep shaking my kingdom like that, I keep losing souls and they keep speaking about Jesus everywhere and all of a sudden the devil raised an army against you, laziness started coming, tiredness started attacking and we said it’s not good enough to stay a spiritual baby we have to carry on, we must leave Judea to go to Galilee but we cannot spare to go through Samaria.
Once arrived in Samaria we feel tired sometimes with Christian life and sometimes we are disappointed with circumstances and sometimes we ask ourselves does God exist or not because when we ask, we don’t get. We want God to move but it’s not time for God to move so we think it’s time to put this Bible aside and leave it. If God wants to kill me, He can kill me, so be it. It happened to Even with prophets. Jonah too went through that, Moses and others knew difficult situations in their life.
When you are at the end of your limit, this is the time that God moves. When our forces are finished, that is the time that God’s forces start. When our thoughts are limited, it is at that time that God’s thoughts start.
Jesus as God was tired and He was in Sychar. Some versions of the Bible speak about Sycham and it is the same thing. Sychar means liar or drunk and Jesus arrived at Sychar and that is where he will have a rest. Sychar which means liar and Jesus wants to have a rest there. Sychar which means drunk and Jesus wants to have a rest there. Jesus wants to stay there because there is something useful there; a well. If a well had not been there, Jesus could not have stopped at Sychar, He would have gone somewhere else and sometimes we live where the liars and the drunks live but we must look to see if there is a well in their lives or not. Is there a well in their house or not because when we live with drunkards and they need a drink can I give them water instead of beer when I’m there or not.
That is what Jesus wanted to teach us there, Jesus said there it is, I’m going to have a rest and you my disciples go and get something to eat. Jesus who could transform bread and multiply the fish sent the disciples to get food. Him whom the devil said, you can change a stone into bread and He really could do that, He doesn’t want to turn the stones into bread but asks the disciples to get bread. How many times do we send our children into the gospel? How many times do we send our brothers and friends into the gospel, my brother I have a problem, can you find a verse in the Bible that can help me with my problem and your friend will say, maybe you know the Bible better than me, but you encourage them to try to find something that is good for you. When you correct others, help them and advise them, do you send them to find a spiritual food? If you don’t do it, it is time to do it.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
With God in the Secret Place
By Benedicte Bahjejuan
I/ Introduction questions
• What happens when we are in the secret place with God?
• How often should we go there?
• Why should we be in the secret place with God?
• Is it a physical place?
• What do we do in this place?
II/ Verses about the secret place
Psalm 139:15-16
“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”
Ps 91:1
“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
The secret place is a place where we are by ourselves with God is He is with us. Have you ever time with just you and your dad? A time when your dad took you fishing or eating out? That is what our special time with God is like. It is just you, his son or daughter and Him, and God loves that intimate time with you.
A secret place = is a place known by only a few number of people.
The opposite is a place many people know about.
III/ Thoughts about the secret place
Is it a physical place?
Yes and no. The secret place of the Most High is where you have a conversation with Him without anyone knowing about it, it is therefore in your heart but also in a physical place where nobody is around.
Is it important to spend time in secret with God?
To me, yes, because it is where I can talk freely to Him, pour out my heart to Him, tell Him of my joys and disappointments, ask Him for the things I need and hear His voice.
Time in the secret is for me a time of intimacy with God, a heart to heart talk with the Lord. My Father knows me and I get to know my Father when I spend time with Him. I believe that before we were born, we were with God and we find the same intimacy when we are alone with Him.
IV/ The examples of Jesus, John the Baptist and David
Luke 1:80
“And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”
John the Baptist was in the desert until he started preaching to God’s people. Some people calculated his age from the dates given in the Bible and found out that John started his ministry at 30 years old. (see explanation below).
Time of His Ministry. Only Luke tells us when John the Baptist started his ministry. He does not give us a calendar date but tells us that John began his ministry in the desert during the reigns of several individuals and at the time of two high priests.
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. (NASB) Luke 3:1-2
If we count fifteen years after the start of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, we discover that John’s ministry began in A.D. 29, since Tiberius Caesar ruled from A.D. 14 to A.D. 37. The reigns of Pontius Pilate, Herod Antipas, and Herod Philip all overlap A.D. 29. This helps us determine precisely the time when John started his ministry. Jesus’ ministry started some time later - maybe as late as A.D. 30.
(http://www.neverthirsty.org/pp/series/Life/LH016/LH01.html)
Some people said that John the Baptist spent much time in the wilderness fasting and praying. Hence he grew strong in spirit.
Luke 5:16
“So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.”
The wilderness was Jesus’ secret place with God, a place where nobody came to interrupt Him or asking Him for healing or questions about the kingdom of God.
These examples teach me about having a balanced life. Jesus had very busy days during His ministry on earth teaching in the synagogues, preaching in cities and villages, travelling from place to place, healing people, talking to them but He also had time outs, time alone with God.
Ecc 3:1 tells us that there is a time for everything, there is a time to be busy and a time to relax and rest in the Lord. Jesus went to His dad to find rest and comfort after busy and stressful days, to share His feelings and thoughts with Him, things that He couldn’t share with anyone else, because it was not the time or He just couldn’t tell them everything He had in His heart. We all have things we cannot share with others, but we can share them with God, because He knows our hearts and understands us. After spending some time in secret with God, Jesus felt restored and ready for another day of preaching, helping and healing people.
To find rest in the Lord, we need first to stop doing what we are doing, then we need to find a place where we will be by ourselves with God. We don’t have any deserts around Hamilton, but we have quiet places such as gardens, rivers, parks, where we can spend a short time talking to God.
David spent time in secret with the Lord, seeking His face:
Ps 63:1-2 “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.”
What promises does God give to those who seek Him?
• God will protect you (Ps 9:1)
• You will find joy (Ps 40:16)
• You will find Him (Deut 4:29)
• You will fully understand justice (Pr 28:5)
• You will live (Amos 5:6)
Conclusion
The secret place is a place of intimacy with God. It is where you pour out your heart to Him and only He hears and sees you. It is a special time between you and Him without distraction. In the presence of God we are restored and there is fullness of joy.
My favourite time to spend time with God is in the morning when everybody is still asleep. Find a time in your daily life when you spend time by yourself with your Father, you will see what blessing it is to spend time with Him.
Lyrics of song “Take Time to Be Holy” (2nd verse)
Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.
I/ Introduction questions
• What happens when we are in the secret place with God?
• How often should we go there?
• Why should we be in the secret place with God?
• Is it a physical place?
• What do we do in this place?
II/ Verses about the secret place
Psalm 139:15-16
“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”
Ps 91:1
“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
The secret place is a place where we are by ourselves with God is He is with us. Have you ever time with just you and your dad? A time when your dad took you fishing or eating out? That is what our special time with God is like. It is just you, his son or daughter and Him, and God loves that intimate time with you.
A secret place = is a place known by only a few number of people.
The opposite is a place many people know about.
III/ Thoughts about the secret place
Is it a physical place?
Yes and no. The secret place of the Most High is where you have a conversation with Him without anyone knowing about it, it is therefore in your heart but also in a physical place where nobody is around.
Is it important to spend time in secret with God?
To me, yes, because it is where I can talk freely to Him, pour out my heart to Him, tell Him of my joys and disappointments, ask Him for the things I need and hear His voice.
Time in the secret is for me a time of intimacy with God, a heart to heart talk with the Lord. My Father knows me and I get to know my Father when I spend time with Him. I believe that before we were born, we were with God and we find the same intimacy when we are alone with Him.
IV/ The examples of Jesus, John the Baptist and David
Luke 1:80
“And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”
John the Baptist was in the desert until he started preaching to God’s people. Some people calculated his age from the dates given in the Bible and found out that John started his ministry at 30 years old. (see explanation below).
Time of His Ministry. Only Luke tells us when John the Baptist started his ministry. He does not give us a calendar date but tells us that John began his ministry in the desert during the reigns of several individuals and at the time of two high priests.
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. (NASB) Luke 3:1-2
If we count fifteen years after the start of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, we discover that John’s ministry began in A.D. 29, since Tiberius Caesar ruled from A.D. 14 to A.D. 37. The reigns of Pontius Pilate, Herod Antipas, and Herod Philip all overlap A.D. 29. This helps us determine precisely the time when John started his ministry. Jesus’ ministry started some time later - maybe as late as A.D. 30.
(http://www.neverthirsty.org/pp/series/Life/LH016/LH01.html)
Some people said that John the Baptist spent much time in the wilderness fasting and praying. Hence he grew strong in spirit.
Luke 5:16
“So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.”
The wilderness was Jesus’ secret place with God, a place where nobody came to interrupt Him or asking Him for healing or questions about the kingdom of God.
These examples teach me about having a balanced life. Jesus had very busy days during His ministry on earth teaching in the synagogues, preaching in cities and villages, travelling from place to place, healing people, talking to them but He also had time outs, time alone with God.
Ecc 3:1 tells us that there is a time for everything, there is a time to be busy and a time to relax and rest in the Lord. Jesus went to His dad to find rest and comfort after busy and stressful days, to share His feelings and thoughts with Him, things that He couldn’t share with anyone else, because it was not the time or He just couldn’t tell them everything He had in His heart. We all have things we cannot share with others, but we can share them with God, because He knows our hearts and understands us. After spending some time in secret with God, Jesus felt restored and ready for another day of preaching, helping and healing people.
To find rest in the Lord, we need first to stop doing what we are doing, then we need to find a place where we will be by ourselves with God. We don’t have any deserts around Hamilton, but we have quiet places such as gardens, rivers, parks, where we can spend a short time talking to God.
David spent time in secret with the Lord, seeking His face:
Ps 63:1-2 “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.”
What promises does God give to those who seek Him?
• God will protect you (Ps 9:1)
• You will find joy (Ps 40:16)
• You will find Him (Deut 4:29)
• You will fully understand justice (Pr 28:5)
• You will live (Amos 5:6)
Conclusion
The secret place is a place of intimacy with God. It is where you pour out your heart to Him and only He hears and sees you. It is a special time between you and Him without distraction. In the presence of God we are restored and there is fullness of joy.
My favourite time to spend time with God is in the morning when everybody is still asleep. Find a time in your daily life when you spend time by yourself with your Father, you will see what blessing it is to spend time with Him.
Lyrics of song “Take Time to Be Holy” (2nd verse)
Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.
Monday, September 20, 2010
DEMONS How they work (Part II)
By Odon Bulamba (21st November 2003)
I’m going to use the example of a tie to teach us something. If I make the tie long like this and use the end to make a head, it gives the shape of a cobra snake. We know the cobra is extremely dangerous because when it bites you, there is death without any forgiveness.
Also, the tie has a hole inside it which hides something in the same way the skin of the snake can be shed and underneath that skin something is hidden (we might talk more about this next time.
So how do we do a tie? It is not easy to wear a tie, especially if you haven’t learnt and if you don’t know it, it will be a serious problem. There are calculations that must be done and everything must be done precisely and if you are not careful, the shape will not be nice. A tie has a front and a back.
What is in front always stays there but what allowed the tie to be taken off is the back part. The front part doesn’t know but what is behind is what makes action and that is the same with impure spirits. The impure spirit will give you a picture of a good man but inside the heart there is death.
There is a certain way to wear a tie. I have to open the buttons of my shirt before the tie accepts to come behind the collar and as for us Christians, we have the faith and this faith is sealed by the Holy Spirit which is represented by a small presence but when you refuse to seal this faith, the bad spirit comes in you and finds a place without problems. The bad spirit will make what is hidden behind your faith and everyone will think, ‘oh Odon is a good guy.’ But you don’t know Odon. Sylvie is good, but who told you that. Michelle is good but how did you know that. Steve is perfect but who told you that. That is why God gave us the spirit of discernment because many people will be lost in the last days through many people who talk with the name of Jesus.
Today we watch tv and we see everywhere woman preaching for example and the Bible says that a woman can’t do that but because there is a spirit of blindness many churches, Christians and non-christians accept women to preach. I don’t condemn these people because I am not allowed to but they may lead many people into mistake.
When a tie is made properly you can pull on one side and the neck part becomes tighter and this is the same with impure spirits; they also start to pull little by little. When the spirit comes into your life it is like that, it doesn’t tighten at first but lets you relax so you might not realise that a spirit has come into your life and the demon will start to tighten little by little.
Nobody can wear a tie on their hands it is always around the neck and the neck is a sensitive part of the body; life is there. When the tie is pulled around the neck tightly, the voice starts to change. When evil spirits are there, you’ll find that a Christian life is changing and the way you live changes, the way you talk will also start changing and people will realise that this person has changed in his or her life. Everything that will come out of you will reflect something from death.
When the tie is around the neck and a person pulls on the part that makes it tighter, the person wearing the tie is obliged to go in the direction that they are being pulled. You are obliged to follow. I can’t say no I want to go back because I fear death so I must follow. This is the way demons work, it starts little by little, they get there and start to make your life turn little by little and those who were 100% in the Lord, you’ll become a quarter or a third in the Lord.
It’s like the hand of crab, instead of walking like a man you walk like a crab and in the church there are many people living that way that is why the Bible said that in the last days (written in prophecies) the devil will have the first position in the church and us as Christians we have to fight, we must fight the devil, we must fight these spirits.
How to fight them? It must start with our own houses, it must start with our own lives. Many people have the courage to pray for sick people, they have courage to pray for the non-christians but they don’t have the courage to pray for their own faith. They don’t have the courage to ask God to give them strength to win over the devil and these spirits can see that.
Look at my shoes, they are black but if I take off these shoes do you know what is underneath? There are socks but how are they? Some socks are smelly and others are not. Maybe if I take off my shoes, everybody will be embarrassed but Colleen took off her shoes and everything is ok, isn’t that right. My socks maybe of good quality and have great value, they may have cost $100.00 but if I am not careful, they will smell, they will never be ashamed to smell.
Once I went to a country in Africa (Namibia) and when I arrived somewhere they told me it is here that you will stay and rest with us and there was a very respected man there. This person was very rich and when we were invited into the house of this man, everybody had to take off their shoes at the door. For me it was not easy because there were many people there. The first person had the courage to take off his shoes and come in and because I knew what I had under my shoes, my heart started beating differently because one of my socks had a window. My friend was beside me and he hadn’t cleaned his socks for six days and inside his heart he said also, who asked me to wear these socks.
Everybody took their shoes off and when it was my time I thought I will also take off my socks at the same time and leave them in my shoes. And someone told me no don’t take off your socks, come in with your socks. I said that it’s ok but he insisted. There was a little stool prepared and we had to put our feet on the stool because this was their culture. Imagine, what shall I do? I took my foot and started to hide it under the other one but it didn’t hold because I was tired. He asked me, are you alright? Yes I’m ok and everybody started laughing because I wanted to hide what is impossible to hide. Although I had a nice suit and a good shirt but my socks were a shame and it would be the same thing on the day of the Lord.
Many people have gifts but underneath somewhere there the demon has room and while he is there he doesn’t talk, while he dwells in you he doesn’t talk because he has a dwelling place. He doesn’t move because he knows that if he moves he will be asked to leave so he starts beating you up little by little.
My friend who had the smelly socks started to bother those around him and those people didn’t have peace anymore, they couldn’t talk but from their faces you could see that there was something wrong, they were really embarrassed and eventually the landlord asked my friend and me, ‘come, there are some good socks there for you.’ What shame, I had the money to buy socks but I neglected. Negligence is the worst thing in a Christian life. You will neglect a small thing but before God it will be a big thing and that is the way that demons work in a Christian’s life.
You can see the tie here, this tie has also a seam and the seam is always hidden. You don’t realise that there is a seam here when you look at the front part and that is why Jesus said that it would be impossible for you to do a seam with the Word of God to take an old fabric and sew it onto a new one. When you were a sinner this was your old life. You will never take your Christianity and sew it together with your old life. When you look inside a tie you’ll see that there are always two different fabrics sewn together. All the ties have this, unless there has been a change but this is the way since old times and the church of God walk this way, people today mix politics and the gospel. People mix up the worldly life and the gospel. Culture is mixed up with the gospel.
Can you mix water and oil together, no this cannot work but today we force the church to mix them up because impure spirits lead the church today and demons lead the church if Christians don’t do anything against that. Remember the victory Jesus gave you! You’ll cast out demons and why wouldn’t you cast out demons in yourself? Are waiting for someone else to do it? What do you wait for, cast them out yourself. Pray for others and pray for yourself so that you might be completely free.
Today there is a law on earth when you go and visit the authorities or people of great value you must wear a tie. When you go to a respectable place you must wear a tie. Can you take your Bible to these meetings? When you want to meet Helen Clark (prime minister of NZ) will you take your Bible with you to meet her? Few are the people who will do that. You will come into Helen’s place and say I have a problem and my problem is this and that, help me to find a solution. Few are the people who will take a Bible to tell Helen Clark that Jesus loves you and Jesus needs your soul. Few people would do that and it’s not only Helen Clark, we don’t even do that for our children and our friends.
The demons who work with Christians are the demons of shame. This demon is very strong. You will say hallelujah to a Christian or may the Lord be blessed to the person you know but if I meet a non-christian, I will hide praise the Lord. I might even be with a friend and if I meet Shari on the way, because I know that my friend is not a Christian, the stories of hallelujah and praise the Lord are going to be left in my pocket and when Shari will start talking about the Bible I will feel a little bit embarrassed, ‘ssshh, don’t, what are you saying I have a friend who doesn’t want these stories’ and this is life, this is the way demons work.
But don’t forget whoever will be ashamed of Jesus on earth, in the heaven He will be ashamed of them too. Put aside this demon of shame and give the gospel, talk and nobody will stop you because if you don’t talk, one day God will ask you, the mouth I gave you what did you do with it? You will never say I ate KFC and Mc Donald, that is the way I used my mouth. God will never accept that, God will say I gave you feet, what did you do with these feet? I ran everyday for my fitness. Why didn’t you run to give the gospel to others. We are going to have an account to give.
Since we are still alive, demons are still fighting against us to make us weaker and weaker. Don’t forget that you are a winner because you are not the one who fights, Jesus fought for us 2000 years ago and He promised everything has been finished. So why would we worry, we only have to remind demons what Jesus said on the cross, ‘everything is finished, you don’t have any part in my life you don’t have any power to lead me into wrong because everything has been fulfilled since 2000 years ago’.
It’s like the movies we see on the tv, these movies were made a long time ago even if you talk about new release the movie has been done a few months before. Maybe for you it is the first time to see it but the actors are at their places and they are eating and sleeping. We must remind the devil of this, don’t show us the present situation, remember what Jesus did at Golgotha, satan was defeated there. So everything you show us is not life, it happened a long time ago, so we don’t need you.
What does the shame do when the shame comes into the Christian family, I’m here with my son and he does something wrong; I look first to see what people will say. This child made me ashamed, ‘Odon look after your child’, ‘It’s alright I’m going to look after him at home’ but at home I won’t do anything and tomorrow and the next day and it’s a habit for me. The child will keep making you useless in front of others so we are called to teach the gospel to our children. We are called to help our children.
Women in the old time when they were pregnant, this was the time to commit the child to God, ‘Oh God help this child within me, make the child a good example, start teaching him/her while in my womb as you taught John the Baptist and Samson, as you taught Jesus in the womb of His mother’. The child will be blessed from inside and when the child will be born maybe the angels will sing because God’s glory is there. Remember what Jesus said we will do more than that, Jesus said have faith and you will do more than even me so if you get pregnant today make sure that your child will be able to work and perform miracles for God. Don’t be afraid to say that your child will be taught as an Asian or African or English or French or whatever, red or blue. No, say that my child will be taught with a heavenly education, I need divine teaching and God starts teaching that child and you will see how demons will flee far from this child.
I’m going to stop here, people always say that it’s not to have a big nose that will help you smell easily, it’s not because of your great big nose that you will breath all the air. Never! You might have a small nose and it might work better than a big nose, so don’t neglect what you are.
Let’s pray, we will pray that God might help us against the demonic forces so the devil might not bind us.
I’m going to use the example of a tie to teach us something. If I make the tie long like this and use the end to make a head, it gives the shape of a cobra snake. We know the cobra is extremely dangerous because when it bites you, there is death without any forgiveness.
Also, the tie has a hole inside it which hides something in the same way the skin of the snake can be shed and underneath that skin something is hidden (we might talk more about this next time.
So how do we do a tie? It is not easy to wear a tie, especially if you haven’t learnt and if you don’t know it, it will be a serious problem. There are calculations that must be done and everything must be done precisely and if you are not careful, the shape will not be nice. A tie has a front and a back.
What is in front always stays there but what allowed the tie to be taken off is the back part. The front part doesn’t know but what is behind is what makes action and that is the same with impure spirits. The impure spirit will give you a picture of a good man but inside the heart there is death.
There is a certain way to wear a tie. I have to open the buttons of my shirt before the tie accepts to come behind the collar and as for us Christians, we have the faith and this faith is sealed by the Holy Spirit which is represented by a small presence but when you refuse to seal this faith, the bad spirit comes in you and finds a place without problems. The bad spirit will make what is hidden behind your faith and everyone will think, ‘oh Odon is a good guy.’ But you don’t know Odon. Sylvie is good, but who told you that. Michelle is good but how did you know that. Steve is perfect but who told you that. That is why God gave us the spirit of discernment because many people will be lost in the last days through many people who talk with the name of Jesus.
Today we watch tv and we see everywhere woman preaching for example and the Bible says that a woman can’t do that but because there is a spirit of blindness many churches, Christians and non-christians accept women to preach. I don’t condemn these people because I am not allowed to but they may lead many people into mistake.
When a tie is made properly you can pull on one side and the neck part becomes tighter and this is the same with impure spirits; they also start to pull little by little. When the spirit comes into your life it is like that, it doesn’t tighten at first but lets you relax so you might not realise that a spirit has come into your life and the demon will start to tighten little by little.
Nobody can wear a tie on their hands it is always around the neck and the neck is a sensitive part of the body; life is there. When the tie is pulled around the neck tightly, the voice starts to change. When evil spirits are there, you’ll find that a Christian life is changing and the way you live changes, the way you talk will also start changing and people will realise that this person has changed in his or her life. Everything that will come out of you will reflect something from death.
When the tie is around the neck and a person pulls on the part that makes it tighter, the person wearing the tie is obliged to go in the direction that they are being pulled. You are obliged to follow. I can’t say no I want to go back because I fear death so I must follow. This is the way demons work, it starts little by little, they get there and start to make your life turn little by little and those who were 100% in the Lord, you’ll become a quarter or a third in the Lord.
It’s like the hand of crab, instead of walking like a man you walk like a crab and in the church there are many people living that way that is why the Bible said that in the last days (written in prophecies) the devil will have the first position in the church and us as Christians we have to fight, we must fight the devil, we must fight these spirits.
How to fight them? It must start with our own houses, it must start with our own lives. Many people have the courage to pray for sick people, they have courage to pray for the non-christians but they don’t have the courage to pray for their own faith. They don’t have the courage to ask God to give them strength to win over the devil and these spirits can see that.
Look at my shoes, they are black but if I take off these shoes do you know what is underneath? There are socks but how are they? Some socks are smelly and others are not. Maybe if I take off my shoes, everybody will be embarrassed but Colleen took off her shoes and everything is ok, isn’t that right. My socks maybe of good quality and have great value, they may have cost $100.00 but if I am not careful, they will smell, they will never be ashamed to smell.
Once I went to a country in Africa (Namibia) and when I arrived somewhere they told me it is here that you will stay and rest with us and there was a very respected man there. This person was very rich and when we were invited into the house of this man, everybody had to take off their shoes at the door. For me it was not easy because there were many people there. The first person had the courage to take off his shoes and come in and because I knew what I had under my shoes, my heart started beating differently because one of my socks had a window. My friend was beside me and he hadn’t cleaned his socks for six days and inside his heart he said also, who asked me to wear these socks.
Everybody took their shoes off and when it was my time I thought I will also take off my socks at the same time and leave them in my shoes. And someone told me no don’t take off your socks, come in with your socks. I said that it’s ok but he insisted. There was a little stool prepared and we had to put our feet on the stool because this was their culture. Imagine, what shall I do? I took my foot and started to hide it under the other one but it didn’t hold because I was tired. He asked me, are you alright? Yes I’m ok and everybody started laughing because I wanted to hide what is impossible to hide. Although I had a nice suit and a good shirt but my socks were a shame and it would be the same thing on the day of the Lord.
Many people have gifts but underneath somewhere there the demon has room and while he is there he doesn’t talk, while he dwells in you he doesn’t talk because he has a dwelling place. He doesn’t move because he knows that if he moves he will be asked to leave so he starts beating you up little by little.
My friend who had the smelly socks started to bother those around him and those people didn’t have peace anymore, they couldn’t talk but from their faces you could see that there was something wrong, they were really embarrassed and eventually the landlord asked my friend and me, ‘come, there are some good socks there for you.’ What shame, I had the money to buy socks but I neglected. Negligence is the worst thing in a Christian life. You will neglect a small thing but before God it will be a big thing and that is the way that demons work in a Christian’s life.
You can see the tie here, this tie has also a seam and the seam is always hidden. You don’t realise that there is a seam here when you look at the front part and that is why Jesus said that it would be impossible for you to do a seam with the Word of God to take an old fabric and sew it onto a new one. When you were a sinner this was your old life. You will never take your Christianity and sew it together with your old life. When you look inside a tie you’ll see that there are always two different fabrics sewn together. All the ties have this, unless there has been a change but this is the way since old times and the church of God walk this way, people today mix politics and the gospel. People mix up the worldly life and the gospel. Culture is mixed up with the gospel.
Can you mix water and oil together, no this cannot work but today we force the church to mix them up because impure spirits lead the church today and demons lead the church if Christians don’t do anything against that. Remember the victory Jesus gave you! You’ll cast out demons and why wouldn’t you cast out demons in yourself? Are waiting for someone else to do it? What do you wait for, cast them out yourself. Pray for others and pray for yourself so that you might be completely free.
Today there is a law on earth when you go and visit the authorities or people of great value you must wear a tie. When you go to a respectable place you must wear a tie. Can you take your Bible to these meetings? When you want to meet Helen Clark (prime minister of NZ) will you take your Bible with you to meet her? Few are the people who will do that. You will come into Helen’s place and say I have a problem and my problem is this and that, help me to find a solution. Few are the people who will take a Bible to tell Helen Clark that Jesus loves you and Jesus needs your soul. Few people would do that and it’s not only Helen Clark, we don’t even do that for our children and our friends.
The demons who work with Christians are the demons of shame. This demon is very strong. You will say hallelujah to a Christian or may the Lord be blessed to the person you know but if I meet a non-christian, I will hide praise the Lord. I might even be with a friend and if I meet Shari on the way, because I know that my friend is not a Christian, the stories of hallelujah and praise the Lord are going to be left in my pocket and when Shari will start talking about the Bible I will feel a little bit embarrassed, ‘ssshh, don’t, what are you saying I have a friend who doesn’t want these stories’ and this is life, this is the way demons work.
But don’t forget whoever will be ashamed of Jesus on earth, in the heaven He will be ashamed of them too. Put aside this demon of shame and give the gospel, talk and nobody will stop you because if you don’t talk, one day God will ask you, the mouth I gave you what did you do with it? You will never say I ate KFC and Mc Donald, that is the way I used my mouth. God will never accept that, God will say I gave you feet, what did you do with these feet? I ran everyday for my fitness. Why didn’t you run to give the gospel to others. We are going to have an account to give.
Since we are still alive, demons are still fighting against us to make us weaker and weaker. Don’t forget that you are a winner because you are not the one who fights, Jesus fought for us 2000 years ago and He promised everything has been finished. So why would we worry, we only have to remind demons what Jesus said on the cross, ‘everything is finished, you don’t have any part in my life you don’t have any power to lead me into wrong because everything has been fulfilled since 2000 years ago’.
It’s like the movies we see on the tv, these movies were made a long time ago even if you talk about new release the movie has been done a few months before. Maybe for you it is the first time to see it but the actors are at their places and they are eating and sleeping. We must remind the devil of this, don’t show us the present situation, remember what Jesus did at Golgotha, satan was defeated there. So everything you show us is not life, it happened a long time ago, so we don’t need you.
What does the shame do when the shame comes into the Christian family, I’m here with my son and he does something wrong; I look first to see what people will say. This child made me ashamed, ‘Odon look after your child’, ‘It’s alright I’m going to look after him at home’ but at home I won’t do anything and tomorrow and the next day and it’s a habit for me. The child will keep making you useless in front of others so we are called to teach the gospel to our children. We are called to help our children.
Women in the old time when they were pregnant, this was the time to commit the child to God, ‘Oh God help this child within me, make the child a good example, start teaching him/her while in my womb as you taught John the Baptist and Samson, as you taught Jesus in the womb of His mother’. The child will be blessed from inside and when the child will be born maybe the angels will sing because God’s glory is there. Remember what Jesus said we will do more than that, Jesus said have faith and you will do more than even me so if you get pregnant today make sure that your child will be able to work and perform miracles for God. Don’t be afraid to say that your child will be taught as an Asian or African or English or French or whatever, red or blue. No, say that my child will be taught with a heavenly education, I need divine teaching and God starts teaching that child and you will see how demons will flee far from this child.
I’m going to stop here, people always say that it’s not to have a big nose that will help you smell easily, it’s not because of your great big nose that you will breath all the air. Never! You might have a small nose and it might work better than a big nose, so don’t neglect what you are.
Let’s pray, we will pray that God might help us against the demonic forces so the devil might not bind us.
Friday, September 17, 2010
DEMONS How they work (Part I)
By Odon Bulamba (21st November 2003)
Thank you very much for being here tonight, it is true when we come together and meet together for God’s glory at that time the devil also gathers his own to glorify himself. The life we live on earth is a short life but sometimes we forget that our life is so very short and when you are alive you forget completely about death, when you feel sick you might have an idea sometimes about death and when you go through difficulties you will expect a solution that will be a good one and you always hope for tomorrow that the solution will be there.
But for demons it’s not the case, they knew from the beginning that they were condemned and they know that there is no more chance for them and that they have been condemned for eternity. They know that they will never know any solution for their problem and they know that they will never be forgiven because grace was limited, so for them they only live despair.
People who are desperate on this earth sometimes commit suicide, sometimes they become angry, sometimes they behave like animals and sometimes they don’t want any one around them because of their despair. You and me when we are in despair do we have joy or distress? Tell me, when you are in despair, does this distress sometimes lead to anger?
Devil has collected all the spirits and has told them, we have lost the battle so because you are all in anguish let’s make an army and this army will be called the army of darkness and we’ll keep fighting until the end. Because God won over us, the angel Michael won over us, it would be better now to fight against God’s creatures and they came together to know what they would fight against. An idea came, we must fight men because men have been created in God’s image, if we touch men, God also will be touched. That is how the devil made the decision to start the fight against men and this battle started to organise strategies to know who is a Christian and who is not a Christian and to fight.
Demons don’t have a choice, they don’t have forgiveness or pity so if you think the devil can’t do that to me, you are wrong. Make sure you are wrong. Imagine the courage of the devil who would tempt Jesus and he tempted Him three times. Although Jesus was holy and is God, he fought against Him three times to tempt Him. So why would satan not also tempt us human beings?
There was a man who had three children. At the end of the year, at New Year’s Eve he would always ask his children where they would go for holidays and they would say we are going to France and to Belgium and so forth. He would say, so book a hotel and choose where you are going to stay and the children would choose expensive hotels and he would give them lots of pocket money. One year, the last year before this man died he told his children, up until now I have always asked you what you wanted but today I’m going to tell you what I want and he had prepared three bags and these bags were like boxes with gold.
Then he called his first son and the first son saw the boxes appearance and the Dad said I’m going to give you a present that is really special, one that you have never had in your life. The child thought maybe its lots of money, the child may have thought there is diamond and gold inside. His Dad said, stay here and he called upon the other children and said the same thing. And he asked the first one to open his box and he did and found a sheet of paper and on this sheet was written, I give you all the blessings. The child was disappointed, why only blessings, others find money or clothes, you give them lots of things but for me you just give one word; blessings.
He said to the second one, open and the second one said, ‘oh man I think I’m going to go through the same thing’, and when the second one opened it said, I give you peace, so may peace be with you. ‘Am I going to eat this?’ Inside his heart he was not happy.
The third one, he asked him to open and he told him, I give you love. Daddy how are we going to go on holiday now? I’d planned to go to the States and you talk about peace, you speak about love, you speak about blessings, we don’t need them. The Dad was very disappointed, he said take it because it is a battle you are going to have and the father could see all the spirits roaming around the children. He knew that without love his children will never be winners, without joy and peace his children will never win and without blessings they will be unhappy.
The children didn’t accept that and the father brought his three children to the beach because his children were sulking and they didn’t want to talk to their father. He said let’s have a walk and one of children took one of his friends with him and while they were walking along the beach the father would talk to them, he said be proud of what your father gives because it is of real value. The oldest saw on the beach people who were half naked having a bathe and he said. ‘daddy I don’t have time to waste let me have a bathe it’s very hot’, and the father could see the spirit coming close to his child to draw him in and the father said, ‘my son listen to me, come back’. ‘Oh you with your stories, I don’t mind let me go, you are not able to pay my ticket to the states and you ask me to take a walk along the beach’.
When the first one went the two other brothers and the friend followed him and these children swam. They went a little bit too far and the wind came and the waves were very strong and the children started crying, ‘daddy, help, help. The father had with him a rope and looked at the four children in the ocean and wondered whom shall I not throw the rope. He had only two seconds to think because the waves were really strong and the father thought because my children know about Jesus and because I talked to them about peace, love and blessings and they didn’t listen to me and because their friend is there, I will throw the rope to their friend.
The father threw the rope to the children’s friend and this child was saved but all three of his own children died. Why do I talk about this? Sometimes God gives us peace and impure spirits show us that peace is somewhere else. You look for peace in your neighbour’s place, you try to find peace with a sorcerer, you try to find peace at the funeral, you call the police to find peace and I assure you that you will never find peace in anything else. The policemen too have these problems, even ministers have their problems.
Secondly God had talked to them about blessings and impure spirits show us that there are no blessings on earth and many Christians are confused about it. When they don’t find material things they don’t know they are blessed, for them blessing is to have many goods around them. When they cannot see material things they think that blessing is not there and that God doesn’t love them. I assure you my brother and sister to find salvation is a blessing and it is a great blessing and if you don’t consider your salvation seriously you will be like these three children.
We have a box before us today and this box is decorated very well but the devil is not far away he is just around and you know that spirits that always fight Christians are called darkness exterminators because they are determined to exterminate, that is there role. When they know you are a Christian, they attack until the end and if you don’t persevere in prayer, you might lose your salvation.
How do these demons act? They start first with your children; they attack first the children in your house. The children are more and more educated, they annoy you until the point you get angry, ‘my son don’t do that!’ The son will say, ‘you say that to me? Oh what are you going to do to me, try to touch me and I will call the police.’ The child knows that his peace is in the police but this is not the child but the demon around him. When you talk to him about the Word of God, ‘oh it’s boring’. But if you talk about stars or musicians, children are very happy.
This is how the spirits work in the Christian’s house, when you tell your children, let’s pray they say, oh daddy again and when you insist they will do everything so that you might fall into temptation and when you listen, the devil rubs his hands and calls others.
Thank you very much for being here tonight, it is true when we come together and meet together for God’s glory at that time the devil also gathers his own to glorify himself. The life we live on earth is a short life but sometimes we forget that our life is so very short and when you are alive you forget completely about death, when you feel sick you might have an idea sometimes about death and when you go through difficulties you will expect a solution that will be a good one and you always hope for tomorrow that the solution will be there.
But for demons it’s not the case, they knew from the beginning that they were condemned and they know that there is no more chance for them and that they have been condemned for eternity. They know that they will never know any solution for their problem and they know that they will never be forgiven because grace was limited, so for them they only live despair.
People who are desperate on this earth sometimes commit suicide, sometimes they become angry, sometimes they behave like animals and sometimes they don’t want any one around them because of their despair. You and me when we are in despair do we have joy or distress? Tell me, when you are in despair, does this distress sometimes lead to anger?
Devil has collected all the spirits and has told them, we have lost the battle so because you are all in anguish let’s make an army and this army will be called the army of darkness and we’ll keep fighting until the end. Because God won over us, the angel Michael won over us, it would be better now to fight against God’s creatures and they came together to know what they would fight against. An idea came, we must fight men because men have been created in God’s image, if we touch men, God also will be touched. That is how the devil made the decision to start the fight against men and this battle started to organise strategies to know who is a Christian and who is not a Christian and to fight.
Demons don’t have a choice, they don’t have forgiveness or pity so if you think the devil can’t do that to me, you are wrong. Make sure you are wrong. Imagine the courage of the devil who would tempt Jesus and he tempted Him three times. Although Jesus was holy and is God, he fought against Him three times to tempt Him. So why would satan not also tempt us human beings?
There was a man who had three children. At the end of the year, at New Year’s Eve he would always ask his children where they would go for holidays and they would say we are going to France and to Belgium and so forth. He would say, so book a hotel and choose where you are going to stay and the children would choose expensive hotels and he would give them lots of pocket money. One year, the last year before this man died he told his children, up until now I have always asked you what you wanted but today I’m going to tell you what I want and he had prepared three bags and these bags were like boxes with gold.
Then he called his first son and the first son saw the boxes appearance and the Dad said I’m going to give you a present that is really special, one that you have never had in your life. The child thought maybe its lots of money, the child may have thought there is diamond and gold inside. His Dad said, stay here and he called upon the other children and said the same thing. And he asked the first one to open his box and he did and found a sheet of paper and on this sheet was written, I give you all the blessings. The child was disappointed, why only blessings, others find money or clothes, you give them lots of things but for me you just give one word; blessings.
He said to the second one, open and the second one said, ‘oh man I think I’m going to go through the same thing’, and when the second one opened it said, I give you peace, so may peace be with you. ‘Am I going to eat this?’ Inside his heart he was not happy.
The third one, he asked him to open and he told him, I give you love. Daddy how are we going to go on holiday now? I’d planned to go to the States and you talk about peace, you speak about love, you speak about blessings, we don’t need them. The Dad was very disappointed, he said take it because it is a battle you are going to have and the father could see all the spirits roaming around the children. He knew that without love his children will never be winners, without joy and peace his children will never win and without blessings they will be unhappy.
The children didn’t accept that and the father brought his three children to the beach because his children were sulking and they didn’t want to talk to their father. He said let’s have a walk and one of children took one of his friends with him and while they were walking along the beach the father would talk to them, he said be proud of what your father gives because it is of real value. The oldest saw on the beach people who were half naked having a bathe and he said. ‘daddy I don’t have time to waste let me have a bathe it’s very hot’, and the father could see the spirit coming close to his child to draw him in and the father said, ‘my son listen to me, come back’. ‘Oh you with your stories, I don’t mind let me go, you are not able to pay my ticket to the states and you ask me to take a walk along the beach’.
When the first one went the two other brothers and the friend followed him and these children swam. They went a little bit too far and the wind came and the waves were very strong and the children started crying, ‘daddy, help, help. The father had with him a rope and looked at the four children in the ocean and wondered whom shall I not throw the rope. He had only two seconds to think because the waves were really strong and the father thought because my children know about Jesus and because I talked to them about peace, love and blessings and they didn’t listen to me and because their friend is there, I will throw the rope to their friend.
The father threw the rope to the children’s friend and this child was saved but all three of his own children died. Why do I talk about this? Sometimes God gives us peace and impure spirits show us that peace is somewhere else. You look for peace in your neighbour’s place, you try to find peace with a sorcerer, you try to find peace at the funeral, you call the police to find peace and I assure you that you will never find peace in anything else. The policemen too have these problems, even ministers have their problems.
Secondly God had talked to them about blessings and impure spirits show us that there are no blessings on earth and many Christians are confused about it. When they don’t find material things they don’t know they are blessed, for them blessing is to have many goods around them. When they cannot see material things they think that blessing is not there and that God doesn’t love them. I assure you my brother and sister to find salvation is a blessing and it is a great blessing and if you don’t consider your salvation seriously you will be like these three children.
We have a box before us today and this box is decorated very well but the devil is not far away he is just around and you know that spirits that always fight Christians are called darkness exterminators because they are determined to exterminate, that is there role. When they know you are a Christian, they attack until the end and if you don’t persevere in prayer, you might lose your salvation.
How do these demons act? They start first with your children; they attack first the children in your house. The children are more and more educated, they annoy you until the point you get angry, ‘my son don’t do that!’ The son will say, ‘you say that to me? Oh what are you going to do to me, try to touch me and I will call the police.’ The child knows that his peace is in the police but this is not the child but the demon around him. When you talk to him about the Word of God, ‘oh it’s boring’. But if you talk about stars or musicians, children are very happy.
This is how the spirits work in the Christian’s house, when you tell your children, let’s pray they say, oh daddy again and when you insist they will do everything so that you might fall into temptation and when you listen, the devil rubs his hands and calls others.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Slavery (part II)
By Odon Bulamba (23rd January 2004)
What is the effort we make to please God? Is it to hate our neighbours, is it to slander, is it to be proud, is it to be sufficient and to think that you are better than others, to think that you are more beautiful than others, to think that you are more intelligent than others, how do you please Your God?
To please God you don’t need to ask yourself one thousand questions, it is just a question to follow His will. Does God allow me to do that? What does God ask me to do? When you please God, your soul will also be pleased. When you do something against God, your soul will also be in distress. Imagine if Steve works for the New Zealand embassy in France and New Zealanders are mistreated in France. Where will the NZ government find out about the situation? Who will be the first person in France to find out about New Zealanders? It will be the ambassadors, it will be Steve. Whether Steve lives in Paris or Marseilles, this is not the problem of the NZ government. He might be in Stratford and something happens in Marseilles, he will be asked, you are in France, tell us what is happening? “I don’t know, you know I live in Marseilles, I don’t know what is happening in Paris”. Its country will say, you must know, you are on the field you must know, give us a report. And his report will be more important than others.
The souls that are in us are God’s ambassadors, these souls will be asked to give a report about all that you have done and if you look seriously on your soul you will have the eternal life but if you don’t care about your soul, you can forget about it. As I say always, your position in society will never give you a visa of heaven, your religion will never give you a visa, your personality will never give you a visa for heaven. We have only one visa, not two or three, only one and this visa is somewhere in people’s lives and this person must accept that this visa is given.
Before telling you what this visa is, I will give you an example. I’ll ask Marcia a question, “when did you leave NZ last time?” 1993. “Where did you go?” Holland. Marcia went to Holland in 1993. Do you remember the date, or the month that you left? April. Although it has been over ten years, Marcia does not forget. She knows that she travelled sometime and Marcia can remember who greeted her at the airport in Holland and she can remember where she spent her first night in Holland, she can even sometimes remember what she ate her first night in Holland, isn’t it true? Yes. It’s easy to remember all this and before leaving this country to go to Holland what did you do? She cried. Why did she cry? Because she left her family? Did she cry because she left her country or did she cry because there was a certain joy somewhere in Holland? Why did you cry Marcia? Because I was leaving my future husband. There was a reason and this reason was Steve. And if Marcia’s mum was beside Marcia, she could think my daughter cries because she is leaving me and she could say, ‘Marcia don’t cry’. And Marcia could think in her heart do you think that I cry over you, no it’s for Steve. This is a personal truth.
When people die on earth we cry, why do we cry? Do we cry because they leave us, do we cry because it is normal to cry or do we cry for our souls because also one day they will leave? Before doing Marcia’s travel I think she found a visa. Maybe New Zealanders don’t need a visa before going to Holland but normally you need a visa and this visa won’t be found on a table at home, you must fill in a form and send your passport and the visa will be placed inside the passport and if you don’t have a passport where will you put the visa?
Many people on earth don’t have an identity. It is like a citizen who doesn’t have a passport and they want to have a visa to go to heaven but where will God put this visa. Are you a citizen of the world, are you a citizen of heaven or are you a citizen of your religion; which passport will God put the visa?
In the past many people reject the passport from Zaire. If you wanted your visa to be rejected, you just had to show your visa from Zaire. You could be well clothed, you could be rich when you go to the embassy and say you need a visa and you show your passport, ‘o Zaire, no thank you’. If you insist they will take the passport and stamp something in it and this thing is in there and it will make you suffer. You know what it is? If you don’t have a visa what do you have?
Interdictions (to prohibit). They put the stamp on your passport to say that this person cannot enter our country. It is finished, it is forbidden and if you go to another embassy and you open your passport and they see interdiction, ‘o he was rejected there’ and they cannot accept because of another interdiction and you will find a passport filled with stamps and this is a negative visa. It means that visa will never allow you to enter into another country.
Us Christians we are called to have a certain identity and the identity we need is the Christian identity and this visa must be sealed by the Holy Spirit. Whoever wants to inherit the kingdom of God must find his identity and accept the Holy Spirit to lead them and if you don’t accept this spirit, woe to you because you will be given another visa and it will be the interdiction. The devil will also put the visa in your life or in your head and your identity will be useless.
I learned while working for the immigration that there are many people in this world today who don’t have a citizenship. They don’t have any nationality, if you ask them what is your citizenship they will say they don’t have any and if you ask them what is their country of origin, there is none. They were born and grew up but don’t have a country so how do they do their travelling? They have to steal passports and travel with them. They buy false passports to travel with them and they go through that way. But in heaven there won’t be any false passports, each one is called to start preparing for their travel and you will start thinking when I’m going to start to leave this earth will I cry for the children who are going to stay? Or will I cry for the joy that I will have to enter heaven.
Remember the story of Lazarus? Lazarus was against Abraham’s breast and behind there was a rich person and this rich person said to Lazarus, ask someone to go to see people from my family to talk about the gospel and they said, ‘no it’s not possible. There are people who are already preaching on the earth, it’s up to them to listen where they are. We cannot leave where we are anymore’.
If Peter would die today, what would we do? We would cry. Why will we cry? Because Peter has left us and we won’t see him anymore, we can feel that in our hearts. Nobody beat us or tortured us, but in our hearts there is something that hurts and it hurts a lot. But after crying, what will we do? We will pray. Yes we will pray but what will we tell God? When we pray are we going to say thank you God because you took Peter? Will it be Ang’s prayer. She might say, why only Peter, why not Steve? Why not Michael why my husband? People do that. People cry and judge God and find that God is unjust, ‘why always my family? Why do you always touch me? Why not elsewhere?
After the death of my father, I asked God, ‘Why didn’t you kill all the old people from my family? And left my father alive?’ One day when I talked to one of these old men, he said to me, ‘shut up, what did you say, don’t say that anymore’. Although he was old, he was not happy about that and I didn’t even kill him but because he was afraid of death, he didn’t want me to say, God take this person. So what will be the prayer that you will do if Peter dies? Forgive his sins. It will be too late to forgive his sins, the only prayer that will be there is to thank God.
One question be sincere, if death would come, if an angel would come and say your father is here and your husband is here, death will say I will take one of these two, choose one, who will be sacrificed? The Dad will go. Can you say that to your father? Never. Your father will say, I gave you life, I sent you to school, if you are what you are today it is thanks to me, remember when I looked after you, when you were a baby, you were sick and had problems but you sacrifice me today, why?
And tomorrow our children might say, ‘take our mum’ How will you feel? You will not be happy. That is the way we give our souls, when sins come I think instead of having my body humiliated, I would have the devil play with my soul, because my soul is not that important. It’s better that people think that I didn’t do the bad thing.
When death comes, a funeral will be there and when someone will be buried it is not a joke, it is serious. People don’t have time to waste, you go down there, they cover it and that is it, whether you cry or not, the body will stay there and the soul will be somewhere else to be judged by itself. So why do we give more value to this body that will stay under the ground and not give great value to our souls?
Many Christians today kill one another, there is such a great war in church today to the point that the church has been divided in one thousand parts and it is the same in the mosque. In each denomination or religious entity there is this history and we all forget the place of our soul but if we gather it is to feed our souls, it is find the visa to go to heaven. Let’s not meet together to fight against one another, where is Martin Luther King today, where is Wesley and others? Where is Mohamed and others? Their bodies are always buried and their souls are somewhere. They fought against one another and this stayed on earth and their souls went back to be judged.
Is your soul prepared to go back to God? When you pray in the morning, when you pray in the middle of the day or any time, do you pray for your souls or do you pray only for your physical life? Are you a coloniser or a colonised? It would be better to have our souls as colonisers and accept to have our bodies as colonised. Amen? Amen!
We are going to stop here and we will pray altogether and ask God to help us to have our souls as colonisers so that we would stop mistreating our souls and to ask God to give us strength to over come evil and find the good visa to go to Heaven. Let’s pray
What is the effort we make to please God? Is it to hate our neighbours, is it to slander, is it to be proud, is it to be sufficient and to think that you are better than others, to think that you are more beautiful than others, to think that you are more intelligent than others, how do you please Your God?
To please God you don’t need to ask yourself one thousand questions, it is just a question to follow His will. Does God allow me to do that? What does God ask me to do? When you please God, your soul will also be pleased. When you do something against God, your soul will also be in distress. Imagine if Steve works for the New Zealand embassy in France and New Zealanders are mistreated in France. Where will the NZ government find out about the situation? Who will be the first person in France to find out about New Zealanders? It will be the ambassadors, it will be Steve. Whether Steve lives in Paris or Marseilles, this is not the problem of the NZ government. He might be in Stratford and something happens in Marseilles, he will be asked, you are in France, tell us what is happening? “I don’t know, you know I live in Marseilles, I don’t know what is happening in Paris”. Its country will say, you must know, you are on the field you must know, give us a report. And his report will be more important than others.
The souls that are in us are God’s ambassadors, these souls will be asked to give a report about all that you have done and if you look seriously on your soul you will have the eternal life but if you don’t care about your soul, you can forget about it. As I say always, your position in society will never give you a visa of heaven, your religion will never give you a visa, your personality will never give you a visa for heaven. We have only one visa, not two or three, only one and this visa is somewhere in people’s lives and this person must accept that this visa is given.
Before telling you what this visa is, I will give you an example. I’ll ask Marcia a question, “when did you leave NZ last time?” 1993. “Where did you go?” Holland. Marcia went to Holland in 1993. Do you remember the date, or the month that you left? April. Although it has been over ten years, Marcia does not forget. She knows that she travelled sometime and Marcia can remember who greeted her at the airport in Holland and she can remember where she spent her first night in Holland, she can even sometimes remember what she ate her first night in Holland, isn’t it true? Yes. It’s easy to remember all this and before leaving this country to go to Holland what did you do? She cried. Why did she cry? Because she left her family? Did she cry because she left her country or did she cry because there was a certain joy somewhere in Holland? Why did you cry Marcia? Because I was leaving my future husband. There was a reason and this reason was Steve. And if Marcia’s mum was beside Marcia, she could think my daughter cries because she is leaving me and she could say, ‘Marcia don’t cry’. And Marcia could think in her heart do you think that I cry over you, no it’s for Steve. This is a personal truth.
When people die on earth we cry, why do we cry? Do we cry because they leave us, do we cry because it is normal to cry or do we cry for our souls because also one day they will leave? Before doing Marcia’s travel I think she found a visa. Maybe New Zealanders don’t need a visa before going to Holland but normally you need a visa and this visa won’t be found on a table at home, you must fill in a form and send your passport and the visa will be placed inside the passport and if you don’t have a passport where will you put the visa?
Many people on earth don’t have an identity. It is like a citizen who doesn’t have a passport and they want to have a visa to go to heaven but where will God put this visa. Are you a citizen of the world, are you a citizen of heaven or are you a citizen of your religion; which passport will God put the visa?
In the past many people reject the passport from Zaire. If you wanted your visa to be rejected, you just had to show your visa from Zaire. You could be well clothed, you could be rich when you go to the embassy and say you need a visa and you show your passport, ‘o Zaire, no thank you’. If you insist they will take the passport and stamp something in it and this thing is in there and it will make you suffer. You know what it is? If you don’t have a visa what do you have?
Interdictions (to prohibit). They put the stamp on your passport to say that this person cannot enter our country. It is finished, it is forbidden and if you go to another embassy and you open your passport and they see interdiction, ‘o he was rejected there’ and they cannot accept because of another interdiction and you will find a passport filled with stamps and this is a negative visa. It means that visa will never allow you to enter into another country.
Us Christians we are called to have a certain identity and the identity we need is the Christian identity and this visa must be sealed by the Holy Spirit. Whoever wants to inherit the kingdom of God must find his identity and accept the Holy Spirit to lead them and if you don’t accept this spirit, woe to you because you will be given another visa and it will be the interdiction. The devil will also put the visa in your life or in your head and your identity will be useless.
I learned while working for the immigration that there are many people in this world today who don’t have a citizenship. They don’t have any nationality, if you ask them what is your citizenship they will say they don’t have any and if you ask them what is their country of origin, there is none. They were born and grew up but don’t have a country so how do they do their travelling? They have to steal passports and travel with them. They buy false passports to travel with them and they go through that way. But in heaven there won’t be any false passports, each one is called to start preparing for their travel and you will start thinking when I’m going to start to leave this earth will I cry for the children who are going to stay? Or will I cry for the joy that I will have to enter heaven.
Remember the story of Lazarus? Lazarus was against Abraham’s breast and behind there was a rich person and this rich person said to Lazarus, ask someone to go to see people from my family to talk about the gospel and they said, ‘no it’s not possible. There are people who are already preaching on the earth, it’s up to them to listen where they are. We cannot leave where we are anymore’.
If Peter would die today, what would we do? We would cry. Why will we cry? Because Peter has left us and we won’t see him anymore, we can feel that in our hearts. Nobody beat us or tortured us, but in our hearts there is something that hurts and it hurts a lot. But after crying, what will we do? We will pray. Yes we will pray but what will we tell God? When we pray are we going to say thank you God because you took Peter? Will it be Ang’s prayer. She might say, why only Peter, why not Steve? Why not Michael why my husband? People do that. People cry and judge God and find that God is unjust, ‘why always my family? Why do you always touch me? Why not elsewhere?
After the death of my father, I asked God, ‘Why didn’t you kill all the old people from my family? And left my father alive?’ One day when I talked to one of these old men, he said to me, ‘shut up, what did you say, don’t say that anymore’. Although he was old, he was not happy about that and I didn’t even kill him but because he was afraid of death, he didn’t want me to say, God take this person. So what will be the prayer that you will do if Peter dies? Forgive his sins. It will be too late to forgive his sins, the only prayer that will be there is to thank God.
One question be sincere, if death would come, if an angel would come and say your father is here and your husband is here, death will say I will take one of these two, choose one, who will be sacrificed? The Dad will go. Can you say that to your father? Never. Your father will say, I gave you life, I sent you to school, if you are what you are today it is thanks to me, remember when I looked after you, when you were a baby, you were sick and had problems but you sacrifice me today, why?
And tomorrow our children might say, ‘take our mum’ How will you feel? You will not be happy. That is the way we give our souls, when sins come I think instead of having my body humiliated, I would have the devil play with my soul, because my soul is not that important. It’s better that people think that I didn’t do the bad thing.
When death comes, a funeral will be there and when someone will be buried it is not a joke, it is serious. People don’t have time to waste, you go down there, they cover it and that is it, whether you cry or not, the body will stay there and the soul will be somewhere else to be judged by itself. So why do we give more value to this body that will stay under the ground and not give great value to our souls?
Many Christians today kill one another, there is such a great war in church today to the point that the church has been divided in one thousand parts and it is the same in the mosque. In each denomination or religious entity there is this history and we all forget the place of our soul but if we gather it is to feed our souls, it is find the visa to go to heaven. Let’s not meet together to fight against one another, where is Martin Luther King today, where is Wesley and others? Where is Mohamed and others? Their bodies are always buried and their souls are somewhere. They fought against one another and this stayed on earth and their souls went back to be judged.
Is your soul prepared to go back to God? When you pray in the morning, when you pray in the middle of the day or any time, do you pray for your souls or do you pray only for your physical life? Are you a coloniser or a colonised? It would be better to have our souls as colonisers and accept to have our bodies as colonised. Amen? Amen!
We are going to stop here and we will pray altogether and ask God to help us to have our souls as colonisers so that we would stop mistreating our souls and to ask God to give us strength to over come evil and find the good visa to go to Heaven. Let’s pray
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