Walk With Me #Deararn.

Lord, you have seen this; do not be silent. Do not be far from me, Lord.

(Psalms 35:22)

Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages.

(Psalms 50:3)

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

(Revelation 8:1)

Ada, Deyo and Timi were prayer buddies. They met in fellowship, and it was not long before their common zeal and love for God drew them to each other. Even though they were close, they were generations apart in terms of age. Deyo was in his sixties, and Ada and Timi were in their late twenties. They had similar reasons to want to seek God. Apart from their regular worship days, they got together once a week to fast and pray. The day set apart was so they could hear God and pray God's will. To them, hearing from God was vital.

This season of their lives, Ada and Timi needed life partners and to the time was running out ('Twas in the eighties, then girls married early). They did not want to be labelled "old maid" so they resolved to shake the gates of heaven until the answer came. Deyo had been married for almost thirty years, and the wine had since run out. Didn't they say that when you came to Christ, everything became new, including your marriage? Why was his needing help?

The prayers were fervent, the needs were huge, and the wait was endless, in their own eyes! "There was silence in heaven..." was an apt way of describing their situations. Heaven was just not about to budge. Years rolled by, nothing, nothing! Until, finally, Timi had a young man ask her hand in marriage. Miracle! Ada waited another five years.

Demi had been married 25 years, no child; not even a pseudopregnancy and medically, nothing was wrong. She had nothing to hold on to except promises from God's word, (many times she wondered if the words were for her or she was deluding herself). She knew they were God's words; she just was at a loss why they had no expression in her situation. Menopause was knocking, when will the child go to school, when will he/she grow, let alone marry? Was it so hard for God to give her a child? If only she knew.

Abram knew what it meant to wait. He was promised a child at 75. The child did not happen until 25 years later. In the process, Abram became old, made mistakes and just as he resigned himself, God made an appearance. Unbelievable! Laughable, yes, Sarah laughed. The long silence, broken, Abram became Abraham and Isaac came into the picture. Note the sequence, first a change of name/nature, then the promise personified.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. (Genesis 17:1-10)

Elizabeth and Zacharias were old. They were both God’s people, from priests’ lineage and were Godly. They were faithful and childless. Days ran into weeks, weeks into months and months into years....

PRAYER

…Someone also opined that Prayer is going to God and receiving instructions. More like soldiers reporting for duty and getting deployed to various duty posts depending on what the master wants accomplished. It is going to God to get battle orders. This presupposes that we realise that life itself is a battleground. Since we are limited in knowledge and ability, wisdom informs us that we need to engage a superior force or source of information, which is only obtainable in the place of Prayer. Hence, to be on top of one's game in this life, Prayer is crucial, so we must be willing to go to God, take instructions and act accordingly. To be effective in this, we must invest quality time.

We can also define Prayer as making requests of one higher than us and better equipped to do what we are looking to do. It is petitioning, imploring, questioning, making a plea. It is a recognition of our frailties and our dependence and or awe of one who is sovereign…

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STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

HEART MATTERS, LIFE MATTERS

They tell you to dream and you follow their advice and you discover that they never meant it.

Joseph’s birth separated him unto favour. He was the child of the favoured wife and a special baby at that. His father loved him, maybe because his mother Rachael did not stay around to take care of him.

His brothers who happened to be older could not stand him let alone his grandiose dreams, what do they do? Look for the right time to do away with him.

You cannot kill a dream that originated from heaven.

Nehemiah was special aide to the king in a foreign land. He was comfortable but his heart was with the people in Jerusalem. How can that pose a problem? But it did, for the ones who were profiting from the ruins that existed at the time. Sanballat and Tobias had influence but pitched against God’s counsel, their influence was mere noise.

David was the last and yes, least reckoned with yet the anointing to be king rested on Him.

He did not seek fame yet fame found him. What others struggled to achieve was piece of cake for him. The result, his life was battle ridden, such that even the king wanted him dead.

I knew my assignment and I went about it the best way I could but now and again, I found that there are folk who situate themselves in ones path just so they could find occasion to trip one up. There was an advert that ran on tv when we were younger. It had in it a phrase ?”there is no killing the beetle”

The bible tells us that many are the devices in a man’s heart but only the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.

My dear friend, in what way are you being distracted. What did they put as obstacles on your path? Someone said, if you cannot climb the mountain, go around it, ignore the nay sayers. Backbiters have to be behind you to do their job. Keep moving and in no time, you would be at the finish line.

Keep your focus, pray to God, let him lead you. Draw your strength from Him.

There is no stopping a man on a mission.

Prayer is heaven kissing the earth. Prayer is the Christians way of aligning with God’s will.

Prayer is the child beholding the face of the father, taking instructions, and taking delight in carrying them out. Prayer is the human spirit connecting with the spirit of God.

Do you want to wield God’s power on earth, Make effort to stay in the place of prayer. Do you want to be part of heaven’s agenda on earth? Learn to pray. Want your faith to remain active? Stay steady in prayer. Want to be in on God’s secrets? Wait on God, Pray my dear friend, pray.

Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. Mark 11:22-26

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Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph: and these are the names of his daughters; Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah. And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons. Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father. And Moses brought their cause before the LORD.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them. Numbers 27:1-7

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YOU WILL MARRY WELL

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WALK WITH ME IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS

STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

HEART MATTERS, LIFE MATTERS

True Worship Is From The Heart

You had to notice him every time he was in church. He sat in front, and he was always excited. He danced like crazy to every music and screamed back at the pastor every time. Many of those times, he was considered a distraction by many congregants. Did he not know that others had a right to worship too? As if he held them back from expressing their worship. Someone even argued that he might not be sane as it was not possible to be that excited week in week out.

I flowed with the judging crew until God cautioned me with Mary's story. Yes, she was notorious as a sinner, but hey she'd changed. She followed the Master as a believer. They remember her for her many sins as if they had none of their own. This blessed day, she not only was considered forward; she was deemed wasteful and showy. For Jesus to be allowing her to come near him and performing such acts, His purity was questioned. He certainly couldn't be all that He was deemed to be if He could not recognise this prostitute. Many had been with her under cover of night. Had he not heard?

True, Mary's been around. She's been there, done that but she'd become a different person. She had been cleansed but they would rather she was still filthy. Maybe they wished she were available to fulfil their lusts. The oil she brought to anoint the Master was hers. Did they not know that? If she got the money out of prostitution, at least she worked for it. How could that be hard to comprehend? Had Jesus not told them severally that He came to save the lost? What was their indignation about if not that her actions brought to fore their hypocrisy? Was this not a classic case of the pot calling kettle black? Simon the Pharisee dared to call someone a sinner!

How could worship be wrong when it came from the heart? Were we not supposed to worship in spirit and truth? Is 'kiss the Son...' not part of the Bible? How come they knew how much to spend on the Master? They claimed all that money could be better spent on the poor as if she stopped them from spending their own. See how they couch hypocrisy.

When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:36-50)

Can we safely conclude that some followed Him around, there was no soul in their worship ...

Esther’s heritage was of the tribe of Benjamin who happened to be the last son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham the father of the Israelite race. King Saul, first king of Israel, King Saul, was also a Benjaminite.

She was amongst the Jews who did not return to Jerusalem. It was not up to her, she was still under the guardianship of her older cousin, Mordecai.

Life threw her a curve ball early, she was still a little girl when her parents died, and it fell on him to adopt her. We do not have any record of other family members or why it had to be Mordecai that would take her in. as his We can assume that he was her only family, at least in Persia. He took her in and raised her as his own, became her guide through the various bends of her life.

They lived in Susa the capital city of the Persian empire. Biblical records tell us that the Israelites were in captivity for over seventy years, so, we can assume that Mordecai was born in Persia. The Jews tradition made sure that no matter where that found themselves, they retained their culture. They told their history and passed the same on to the next generation. So, let us imagine that Mordecai’s parents taught him the laws of the God of Israel and he in turn is taking pains to do same with Esther.

To believe that life for foreigners in Persia was easy would be to ignore the many glaring facts. This kingdom ruled over 127 others, surely, they did not get those kingdoms by round table talks, they must have done so by conquest and there would be measures in place to keep the conquered territories in subjection. It then stands to reason that foreigners were not likely to own the choice portions of land nor would they hold prominent positions except of course if providence decided to wade in.

King Ahasuerus, the ruler of over 127 provinces in the land of Persia was a very powerful king. We learnt that his kingdom was under threat by the Greek empire, but that did not take away from the might of his kingdom. He was also a very temperamental king who loved to party.

In the third year of his reign, he threw a banquet for his officials and the party lasted for 180 days. When he was done with that, he threw another one for an additional week, for the people in the capital city of Susa. There was a lavish display of wealth and the guests could eat and drink their fill. The royal gardens were beautifully decorated with all kinds of expensive fabric and jewelry. There was no expense spared as the guests were served with golden chalices. The King also ensured that there was no limit to what the guests could have.

Men and women lived in separate chambers in those days, so separate parties were held, As the king was wining and dining with his officials, the queen was also having her own ball in her quarters. The meals were spread, and the wine was royal. It was party like none other and the whole of Susa was merry.

Let us stop to ponder awhile. What kind of a people would spend half a whole year partying? What kind of a state indulges in wine and revelry for that long? What good can we expect from drunk and temperamental lawmakers and what hope for the people who are under subjection to their whims and caprices. Surely, the people cannot be living in peace as they never knew what new laws the next day would bring and how it would affect their everyday lives. Such was the state of affairs in the land of Persia. If it was not the threat of war, it would be the effects of wine.

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STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

HEART MATTERS, LIFE MATTERS

My name is Michal, the younger daughter of King Saul of Israel. There is this young man, my father, the King, just employed. The guy is very handsome. He is kind of cool and to think he even plays the harp! I think I like him. He is so cute only problem is, my father promised to give him my sister. Sometimes being the younger one is not fun. You get to be the last to choose.

Daddy's servants told me that he was working out the modalities of giving my sister Merab to the guy. What should I do? I am the one in love with the guy. This culture! Daddy asked David to give him some Philistine heads as bride price. The guy brought even more. He sure knows how to impress a woman. Boy, was I slain?

Some time passed; Daddy did not fulfil his promise to David. He gave Merab to another man. My father learnt that I kind of like David, and he offered to give me to him instead. My good fortune! (1 Samuel 18:19-30)

I thought something was fishy though; my father's consent to me hooking up with David was too quick. I later learnt that he thought to use me to trip the guy up. Does Daddy not know anything about love? When I noticed that my dad wanted to get rid of David because he was getting too popular, (and my dad cannot stand competition), I let David escape. Daddy was mad.

David was on the run, and daddy was not letting up on his plot to kill David. As soon as daddy realised that I could not be used to trap David, he gave me to another man to marry. Does he even know how I feel? What kind of culture treats women like objects?

But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

(1 Samuel 25:44)

And as for David, he did not even think to send for me. This whole thing made me bitter. It was as if I was just an object to be passed around men. After a while, David took me back, but he still did not have time for me. What I did not realise was that he was preoccupied with more significant issues. I took it personally. It became so bad that the day he was returning with the ark, I was disgusted with the way he carried himself. He did not behave like a king at all. He was dancing like a commoner.

Truth is the whole city was rejoicing, and I could not bring myself to be happy. I had missed my husband so much, and how is it that he could not see that? My place was right there by his side, and I was too pained to realise it. Bitterness is a very terrible thing. It blinded me to the fact that David was God's anointed. It made sure I could not understand that God had His hand on my husband. My senses were so dull; I could not recognise that God was restoring my country. All I could think about was my miserable life and how I had been life's victim.

This cost me my fruitfulness because, the man I abused was in the course of exalting his God, the God who replaced my father with a more worthy candidate. I was too blinded to see anything divine in what was going on around me—the result: barrenness.

As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

(2 Samuel 6:16)

When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honour.” And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death. (2 Samuel 6:20-23)

A wife of noble character who can find?

She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her

and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm,

all the days of her life. She selects wool and flax

and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships,

bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still night;

she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants.

She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable,

and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed;

she is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes. She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. (Proverbs 31:10-31)

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BOOKS BY Anne Ajadi:

YOU WILL MARRY WELL

GODS LADY IN WAITING

WALK WITH ME IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS

STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

HEART MATTERS, LIFE MATTERS

A wife of noble character who can find?

She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her

and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm,

all the days of her life. She selects wool and flax

and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships,

bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still night;

she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants.

She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable,

and her lamp does not go out at night. In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed;

she is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes. She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. (Proverbs 31:10-31)

amazon.com/anneajadi

anneajadinspirations.com

Instagram/arnajadi

Twitter/arnajadi

Facebook/anneajadi

Youtube/anneajadi

BOOKS BY Anne Ajadi:

YOU WILL MARRY WELL

GODS LADY IN WAITING

WALK WITH ME IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS

STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

HEART MATTERS, LIFE MATTERS