Focus on Pleasing God

As believers we should focus on pleasing God even if it causes us to be disliked by men because it is not necessary to get people to like you as long as God is for you. Take Joseph. Pharaoh did not like Joseph. In fact, in Genesis 43:32 we read that “the waiters served Joseph at his own table, and his brothers were served at a separate table. The Egyptians who ate with Joseph sat at their own table, because Egyptians despise Hebrews and refuse to eat with them”. So, even where the Egyptians hated Joseph, he still had rule over them because without Joseph they could not survive the famine because God was with him. So, even where you are surrounded by your enemies, don’t give them attitude. Instead focus on pleasing God because God has promised to “prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”-Psalm 23:5. You see, “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him”-Proverbs 16:7.

Reno Omokri’s Comments in Appreciation of Pastor Ayo, Chairman of the Book Presentation of Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God.

I can never be ashamed of Jesus and I will never shy away from using any platform I have in projecting my faith in God through Jesus His Son. Let people tell me that it is unethical and unprofessional I don’t care. My ethics and professionalism are not sourced from the world’s standards but by the Word of God. And let me say that I am not ashamed of aligning with Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor in as much as he himself continues to align with Christ.

Pastor Ayo a man who models himself after the historical Jesus not after the religious Jesus. In Matthew 4:23, we see that Jesus spent His life doing three things, Preaching, Teaching and Healing, the very things that Pastor Ayo has spent his time in the ministry doing. Many people expect a docile CAN President. But Jesus was not docile. He was meek, but not docile. He stood up in Defence of God and God’s people.

In John 2:15, Jesus made a whip and chased out those who defiled the house of God. Some people attack Pastor Ayo when he speaks the truth and reproaches an ex dictator whose speech incites forgetting that Jesus spoke in the same manner to  Herod, another dictator  in reproach calling him in “that fox” in Luke 13:32.

Some people who have no knowledge of spiritual things but are so puffed up with their intellectual knowledge call Pastor Ayo ostentatious because he wears gold jewelry. You see, such people follow the religious Jesus and not the historical Jesus. If you read Matthew 2:11, the first gift given to Jesus was a gift of gold given him by the wise men from the East. So do these pseudo intellectuals think that they are more Godly than Jesus, the wise men and the Gospels? I don’t wear jewelry myself, but I admire Pastor Ayo.

And to those who attacked him because he accepted a gift of an airplane on the occasion of the celebration of his 40th year in the Lord’s vine yard and said it was not a mark of humility, I beg to differ with them. Pastor Ayo has been given a task of evangelizing. And in my opinion, the world needs knowledge of the word of God and anything that can enhance that work is a priority.

And he is a man if immense humility.  It is not humility when an intelligent person says he is not intelligent or when a beautiful person says she is ugly. It is dishonesty. Satan has instituted a stronghold in the world whereby he has people thinking that humility means valuing the gifts that God has given us less than they are. Notice that when God told Jesus in Matthew 3:17 that “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” Jesus did not blush and say oh no, I am not that. No. He accepted what God said about Him. And what does God say about you? He says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made every thing beautiful in its time”. True humility is accepting that you are a valuable and beautiful person with immense talents yet accepting that it was God that made you that way and not you. But denying and under valuing your talents is not humility.

So, Pastor Ayo, when they revile you in the press and in their inner rooms, don’t let it get to you. By virtue of Matthew 5:11, they are only blessing you because that verse says “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me”.

Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God is available in all Barnes and Noble Bookshops in the U.S. and at Waterstone’s in the U.K. and on amazon.com as well as in major book shops in the Americas and Europe.

Go for Collateral Blessings

Many people are depressed because they spend too much time thinking about the evil that men have done to them. If you count your grievances what do you expect if not more grievances? Forget your your grievances. If you must count anything, count your blessings. What you appreciate increases in value. For instance, if you have a house and you are told that it has appreciated that means the value of the house has increased. The problem with most people is that they appreciate their grievances more than their blessings and their grievances increase as a result. In the military, any damage that is above the targeted destruction is called a collateral damage. Why should you suffer from collateral damage by thinking about a grievance long after the injury has been done? Why not go for collateral blessings by thinking about your blessings long after you have been blessed?

The Fuse for God’s Power Surge

People sometimes ask, if it is true that the God of The Bible is the same yesterday today and forever, how come that in the Old Testament His judgment was immediate and lethal but in this day and age He has become slow to anger. The answer is that God has never and will never change. In the Old Testament, there was nothing to hold back His anger, so it manifested a lot. But in the New Testament, we have Jesus His Son who died as a propitiation for our sins. Jesus holds back the judgment of God. It’s rather like how old appliances behaved in the 70s and 80s. In those times manufactures hardly out fuses in appliances like TVs, Fridges and ACs. As such when there was a power surge the appliances were destroyed. But from the 90s, manufacturers started putting fuses in all devices, as such, even where there is a power surge the devices can withstand it. Jesus is the fuse that helps us withstand the power surge of God’s judgment. Thank God for Jesus!

Pick Up the Heavenly Accent

I had a friend who emigrated to England and after years of living with English people, he developed a British accent. I have another friend who is originally Nigerian but after years of living in the U.S. has developed an American accent. Both friends mentioned above could never have developed the accent they have by solitude. Over time, when you mix with people you begin to speak and act like them. This is why The Bible says in Hebrews 10:25 “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near”. God did not send Jesus to die so we can be stand alone Christians. He wanted us to have a heavenly accent and the only way to have a heavenly accent is to spend time with those who follow The One who came down from heaven to show us the way-Jesus. Pick up the heavenly accent by regularly meeting with other believers.

Choose Right Over Happy

There’s a tendency amongst people to justify their decisions on wether it makes them happy and not whether it is right. In Psalm 100:3 we read “the LORD he is God: it is he that has made us, and not we ourselves”. God made us for His pleasure and not for our pleasure “you have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created”-Revelations 4:11. Jesus did not feel happy when He went to Cross. Nevertheless, He went to the Cross because it delighted God. If we please ourselves we may be happy, but when we please God, He will make sure we have the senior brother of happy which is JOY. “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart”-Psalm 37:4

Click ‘I Agree’ to Enter This Kingdom

Many resist Christ because they think entry into the Kingdom of God by faith is too easy, too good to be true. But ever since Genesis 15:6 said “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness”, God has used belief as the yardstick for righteousness (having right standing with God). Let’s look at this intellectually. Many times we want to visit a secure website and we are asked to read the Terms and Agreement of the site. Nobody reads it. We simply scroll to the bottom and click ‘I Agree’ and once we click ‘I  Agree’ we are granted entry into the website. In the same vein, when we want to enter the Kingdom of God, God provides us His ‘Terms and Conditions’ in the form of Jesus “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”-John 3:16. If you believe you can enter a secure website by clicking ‘I Agree’ why can’t you enter God’s secure Kingdom by saying ‘I Agree’ to Jesus?

The Jesus Prayer Model

Every time Jesus prayed He never used officious and high falutin titles to refer to God. Jesus always called God ‘Father’. He called God ‘Eli’ meaning Father and in The Lord’s Prayer of Matthew 6:9 Jesus taught us how to pray and said we should call God Father. God longs for intimacy with us. Religion longs for distance with God. In Mark 14:36 Jesus called God “Abba Father”, showing intimacy. And God enjoyed that intimacy which is why in Matthew 3:17 The Father responded “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. In relating with God in Heaven, are you going to use the Jesus intimacy model and just say “Abba Father” or are you going to try to impress God by calling Him all kinds of titles and officious names when Jesus said “when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him”. Matthew 6:7-8.

Too many people in this world resist Jesus because Christian portray the religious Jesus rather than the authentic Jesus.

In Acts 15:5 we read that “some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses” which made Peter respond to the Pharisee in verse 10 “why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?”.

The church cannot be more Godly …than Jesus and forbid people to drink wine when Jesus Himself turned water to wine in John chapter 2 and told His disciples in Matthew 26:29 “I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom”. We cannot forbid people to wear gold when in Matthew 2:11 we read that the wise men “opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh”, the very thing that we forbid people to wear. Too many people in this world resist Jesus because Christian portray the religious Jesus rather than the authentic Jesus.

God wants to be first place in our lives at all times

God wants to be first place in our lives at all times. “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”. Do you realize that on earth, nothing apart from a human soul is more valuable than time? How we use time is more important than how we use money because we can make more money but we cannot make more time. In Romans 11:16 we read “if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy”. If giving God the first fruits of our money makes the rest of it holy, what happens to the rest of our time if we give the first of it to God everyday? The foundation is the first thing that we build in any endeavour. If we refuse to give God the first of of our time what are the consequences? “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”-Psalm 11:3. Pray every morning before you play or work. Read the bible before you read the news. Prioritize God and He will prioritize you.