'But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you'. Matthew 6:33

Here, we find Jesus giving us an eternal secret. Many people seek after things instead of seeking after the THING – the kingdom of God.

Many lives are out of order because of a neglect of this divine order. They have found some of the ‘other things’ but without satisfaction, the pursuit becomes endless. Life becomes meaningless.

If you find the kingdom of God, you have found every other thing. Get your life back to order by following this simple rule. There is just one thing that attracts every other thing that you are looking for. Jesus says that it is the kingdom of God. Stop seeking for the additions, seek for the ATTRACTION and the additions will soon arrive.

Remember, ‘for ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God, ye may receive the promise.’ Hebrews 10:36

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A one-ended discussion is exhausting and when we speak to one who is not seen, we easily fall prey to distractions. No wonder some people pay prayer contractors to pray for them and guess what? God does not answer that kind of prayer because he is essentially a God of relationship. Living in the natural, it is very difficult to pray. Until there is a Spirit involvement, prayer will not cease to be considered burdensome. In Rom. 8:26, the word of God tells us “…likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities for we know not what to pray as we ought.” When the Spirit of the Lord is involved, this anomaly is quickly corrected. The Holy Spirit has to lead because He knows everything. Therefore he gives us a prayer language that does not necessarily make sense to our mind but ‘availeth much’ before God. It is called praying in the spirit or praying in tongues. “Building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost” – Jude 20. If You sincerely desire answered prayers, if you desire to pray the perfect will of the father with results in your daily life, then all you have to do is pray more in the Holy Spirit. He is the one to teach us all things and reveal to us the things to come. He is the New Testament believer’s greatest ally –a formidable one at that.

People speak in tongues without necessarily praying in the spirit. Some people speak to each other in tongues. This is not scriptural for it is clearly stated that “he that speaketh in tongues speaketh not unto man but unto God and no man understandeth him” One day, in a prayer meeting, someone spoke in tongues and someone was called to interpret. He interpreted the tongues that God was saying that brother A should marry sister B. That is definitely an error.

We are encouraged in 1Cor. 14:14 to pray in the spirit as well as praying in our understanding. The Scripture says in Luke 18:1, “ And he told them a parable to this end that men ought to pray and not faint.” This means that we ought to pray at all times. When we pray in the spirit, we are able to pray all the time. When we pray in tongues, our mind is unfruitful or in other words, not involved in the praying i.e we are not thinking about what we are praying about. Since our mind is not needed, it means we can engage our minds in productive everyday work as well as engaging our spirit man in divine communication. This is one easy way to pray even when you are involved in other things other than prayers. Right praying is very important and the Holy Spirit helps us at that. We need to be told what to pray about for we don’t know what it is we ought to pray for. It is important that we pray about what we need to pray about.

The Holy Spirit gives us strength when:

• We know we should pray
• We know we want to pray
• We don’t have the strength to pray.

Praying in the spirit helps us to still pray even when we are weak. Prayers offered later may not be effective or as effective as if offered at the present. For a believer, it should not be 'I will pray' or 'I shall Pray' or I could pray'. Hey, children of God, let’s get past the auxiliary verbs and just pray. We don’t need our understanding when it is discouraged and yet we still need to pray without ceasing.

The Holy Ghost communicates with us and to us because He also knows that a one-way conversation is very difficult. It takes a spirit to communicate with a spirit. We don’t understand the Spirit’s voice sometimes because we try to follow with our ears. But God’s spoken word to our spirit comes with a full understanding of the reality of such a truth in all its vast dimensions of application.

We need keen sensibilities in order to receive unhindered from God. The Spirit knows the times and seasons of the Father. He knows what the Father wants to do through His Son Jesus Christ, which has to be birthed on earth through us and he therefore installs an alarm clock in our spirit man that wakes up from every spiritual night and gives us a language that through the name of Jesus is guaranteed an answer.

Have A LOVELY Time In God’s Presence this week! May his peace be with you always. Visit LICC (Living Impact Christian Centre) this Sunday @ 9:00am Merit House Maitama, Abuja.

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We live in a world of power. Superior power will always bear rule and supremacy. When we are not yet translated from darkness into the kingdom of light, we fight from a disadvantaged position. We are engaged by forces and entities that we don’t see but they see us. Would it not be wise to partner with the all-seeing, all-powerful One in the battles of life? As Satan is described as the prince of the power of the air, it holds true that for us to engage him in spiritual contention for our heritage, we have to fight from above. It is written that ‘he that is from above is above all’. A believer is seated with Christ in heavenly places FAR ABOVE the princes of darkness of this age. Praise the LORD!

Prayer is one of the most important activities on earth. We need to learn effective communication with the one that matters the most to every existence. God alone is the critical success factor without whom we can do nothing. We all need what God has to give; all things to enjoy.
Prayerlessness is a heinous sin of pride and self-sufficiency in manifestation. Every motivational preaching or teaching that makes us feel we don’t need God is a cunningly devised fable that clips our spiritual wings… a lie from the father of lies.

But it is not enough to pray, we must have answers to our prayers. It is painful when there are some many requests that go unanswered. It makes many to think that God does not answer prayers again.

Reasons For Unanswered Prayers
One phenomenon of common occurrences in the body of Christ is the phenomenon of unanswered prayers. What could be the reason(s) for unanswered prayers.

Sin
The psalmist rightly put it thus: “if I regard iniquity in my heart, the lord will not hear me.” – Psalms 66:18. Could this explain the reason you have not been having answers to your prayers? check it out.

Wrong Prayers
James 3:4 says ‘you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts.’ Often the centre point of the majority of our prayer requests revolve around fleshly desires. If we seek the first things first… ‘thy kingdom come…’ all other things will be added unto us. We should seek to please the father first.

Lack of Mercy
The bible says in Proverbs 21:13 ‘whoso stopeth his ears at the cry of the poor; he also shall cry and not be heard.’ When we don’t take responsibility to care for the not-so-fortunate people that God brings around us, we hinder our self from benefiting from the natural laws that God put in place. Such laws include; ‘give and it shall come back to you’, ‘blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy’ etc.

Unbelief
let anyone who prays with doubt and a double mind not expect to receive anything from God for whosoever MUST come to God MUST believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of diligent seekers and searchers of His ways.
We don’t receive because we ask not: God gives liberally but we don’t ask. Jesus says to us every time we are in need of help that whatsoever we ask the Father in His name it will be done for us because God loves us and he wants our joys to be full.

Prayerlessness
Back to Luke11, Jesus Says when you pray –not if you pray. We receive not because we ask not. The parable in Luke 18:1, was given by Jesus to buttress the point that man out ALWAYS to pray and not faint. That means if we are not praying we will faint or be vulnerable at many junctions of life’s bumpy ride.

When you pray say…. (speak words)…. our Father…..(Relationship)
Hallowed be thy name… (Reverence)
Give us this day… (Request)
Forgive us our sins (Repentance).
Every believer has the privilege of answered prayers!
Enjoy your week full of unusual results as you pray!

An excerpt of the Sunday message of March 6, 2011.

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God wants you to forget the past. No matter how terrible the past was, God wants you to forget it! Even if it was very great, you still need to forget it. Many times the good past stands in the way of our better future. The past is really only useful as it helps us to understand the present and the future. Other than that, your future does not need to be a reflection of your past.

One of the questions people ask me many times is how possible it is to really forget the past. Well, forgetting the past does not mean the erasure of the past from our memories but ensuring that the ignoble past does not necessarily interfere with the glorious future.

If the past was good and desirable, it only shows that the future should be better. If all the necessary variables are in place, as one grows up, with time, experience and learning, maturity should increase. That really means that you can do better than your past!

Whenever you desire your past, it is because you have missed some steps in the present. Nature has created us to be forward looking and forward moving. Our eyes are always looking forward. You need to turn your whole body backwards to look at the past.

If your wife offended you in the past, let it be really in the past. If you had a child out of wedlock and you have made things right, let it really be in the past. Let the past be really past.

One of the greatest lessons you will ever learn in life is to let the past live in the past.

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In this information age, it is necessary to have a backup for all your data. However, it seems that sometimes we take this thought into our relationship with God. We make alternative arrangements in case prayer does not work. We have backup plans in case His promises do not come to pass. While it makes sense in the natural, this is the very basis for unbelief.

For Peter, he did not throw his net away. He merely kept it. We know this because later on in life, he brought it out when it looked like Christ was failing. What are your alternatives in case God fails?

It looks foolish to put all our eggs in the one basket of Jesus but that is the only way that works. Every other ground is sinking sound. Any other approach will make us miserable – losing from both worlds. You will notice that God’s demands are absolutes – you follow Him leaving all other loves.

What stands between giving YOUR ALL and YOUR GOD? 99% of our lives will never be enough. He wants all. The truth is He will have it – either now or later in eternity. Let us give our all to Him by submission so that He does not take it by collision.

Your song today and evermore should be, “Lord, I surrender all.”

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Last year, the Lord laid it on my heart that there is the need to raise people who love Him and will be useful in His hands for His glory.

Since then, I have started a couple of meetings where we share together God’s mind concerning this generation and the role of individual believers. As part of the mandate, the Lord has also been faithful in ensuring that diverse impartations are guaranteed during our meetings. People are raised to go and impact their worlds. I am sure that some people will arise out of these meetings that will turn around the fortunes of our nation Nigeria.

I have had different sessions in Port Harcourt and in Lagos. This time, it is the turn of Abuja in Nigeria.

Date: Saturday, April 17, 2010
Time: 9.00am
Venue: Harmonia hotels, Plot 896, Gimbiya Crescent, Garki II, Abuja, Nigeria.
Organizers: Crusaders of the Cross Ministry (www.crusadersofthecross.org)

Be a part of this move of God. Attend it if you can. Invite your friends to be a part of it.

I am sure that the meeting will leave you entirely transformed in Jesus name.

For more enquiries, you can call Sis. Uju on +2348033169652 or Bro. Emmanuel on +2348068531240.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

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I was tired when I got to Lagos because of the recent change in the schedule of the airline I took (Aerocontractors). As I got to the venue of the meeting, I just went straight to rest because from experience, I know that God works more through a rested body. Gone are the days when I use this body the way I like. Now I am wiser and know that the message that my spirit will deliver will pass through my body, so the body needs to be kept intact.

By around 2am, it was my turn to take over. The Lord took us till 5am.

I spoke on the topic of Spiritual Gifts (I will put the message down for you to read when I am chanced.)

When it was time to pray, God was so gracious to us. We had someone baptized in the Holy Spirit. Someone also testified of the healing of an ailment that she came with. Someone said he saw a ring placed in his hand and I told him that that was a signet of spiritual authority. A sister said she saw a hand beckoning her to cross over, that she had stayed too long on the same level. There were testimonies left, right and center. God’s presence was so awesome that we didn’t feel like leaving the place.

These same people will now go and impact their world for Jesus. I believe that this is what mentoring is all about – helping others to get to where they are going. They will not be ‘me’ – just who they were created to be. I try within my limited time to relate with people on personal effectiveness, skills development, technology, and of course spirituality. My desire is to see a people filled with God and their purpose. My passion is to see our nation become that place where Spirit-filled, faithful, qualified and people of integrity will be at corridors of power and making the right decisions.

I have never stopped getting thrilled when the Lord moves in glorious power. I just kept praising Him, ‘who alone does wondrous things.’

I will be in Lagos quarterly for this and will start these same sessions in Abuja soon (probably in March).

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Well, I hear this over and over again. Generally such conclusions come from those that do not count their blessings.

Our blessings don’t mean so much to us until we count them! If you remember the last time you really appreciated God on something, you would remember that it was because you recounted all that you have passed through and how His faithfulness was with you.

I have personally observed that I appreciate God more when I have to give a testimony about His goodness or I am praising Him in my privacy and I go one after the other, the things He has done in my life. I have seen that His interventions matter more to me in moments of reflection.

Find time to think about His doings and you will never have another reason to look for issues to praise God about.

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