He shall hide me in his pavilion

S SEKOU ABODUNRIN

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. Ps 27:5

I want you to read and re-read the following until the truth of it sinks. In this short article we hope to touch some things that usually remain unsaid when covering the subject matter.

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. Mk 6:3

The above describes the response that the Lord Jesus got when he took his crusade team to his home town. I want you to take note of that fact – they were offended at Jesus. The issue of offense is of prime importance to you and to the Lord Jesus. As a result of their offense, the Lord was greatly hindered in blessing that crowd even though he had the anointing upon him there.

And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. Mk 3:5

I want you to watch that closely. We are told that Jesus looked at the Pharisees with anger. When it says that he looked at them with anger, it means that you could feel the anger in his stare. He did not stop there though he was also grieved because they were hard hearted. Grief by itself is a strong emotion, but when coupled with anger we are dealing with highly volatile emotions. In this passage the Lord combined anger with grief towards the Pharisees.

Jesus, in that same situation, turned to the man in need of a divine touch and gives a word of command that released the man's hand from whatever had held it bound up until that time. This was actually a creative miracle. The degree of healing power available was tremendous. Jesus was grieved and angry at the Pharisees but released compassion towards the oppressed man the anger did not diminish the flow of power. Listen closely.

But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Mt 16:23

The rebuke recorded above was spoken to Peter, and just like with the Pharisees, Peter was an offense unto Jesus. Peter was an occasional offense unto Jesus, while the Pharisees were perennial offenses unto Jesus.

I want you to notice that Jesus did say that people were an offense unto him, under certain circumstances, and he responded sometimes with grief and anger.

In Peter's case, it was because Peter wasn't sensitive to spiritual things. He could not savour the things of God, he was flesh ruled and this opened the door for him to be a good instrument that Satan could use to try upset Jesus. In the case of the Pharisees Jesus was grieved and angry because of their hard hearts. They were preventing the sick and oppressed from receiving the mercy of God. In either case Jesus was not neutral, he responded and took a stand. He took a stern stance at the Pharisees.

One of the signs of a healthy emotion is that it is expressed in a controlled and measured manner. Jesus was capable of getting angry and grieving as the cases above proved. We are even told that when he went to the temple and drove out the money changers the money changers deserted their tables and fled. That means that they left their money. Do you know what money means to a money-changer? Clearly there was something about Jesus that convinced the guys he wasn't to be messed with that day.

According to many people though, Jesus was wrong to have become angry, grieved or offended at Peter, the money changers or the Pharisees. It is widely accepted that if you have any of grief, offense or anger in your life God will turn his face away from you and block or suspend every answer to prayer.

If this were true, God should not have allowed Jesus perform a miracle while he was angry at the Pharisees and grieved at their hardness of heart. According to God's word Jesus went right ahead in that same atmosphere and worked a miracle.

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Mt 18:6,7

The warning above is not spoken to the little ones, but to those that cause them to get offended.

Now, I don't know if you have noticed it, it seems that the Lord Jesus takes it for granted that the little ones would get offended. He admits the fact that the children are offended and then goes ahead to give an unpopular verdict when he decides to give his judgement. He is silent on the offended children, but supremely clear on the responsibility of the one who caused the offense. In our day, we would come down heavy upon the one who is offended and say "You shouldn't be offended"– not so?

Usually the offended party would be told that he has put himself in a place where he cannot receive help from God until he clears away the offense that he feels. In other words we take the stand that the offended one, rather than the one that caused the offense, has hanged a millstone about his own neck and has effectively drowned himself!

Jesus takes a different stand. He comes down hard on the one causing offense. It is amazing how we concentrate all our judgement and “correction” on the one who is offended and then leave the initiator of the offense to stroll around calmly! Jesus says “woe unto the man by whom the offence cometh”, we say “woe unto him that is offended” - do you catch that?

The strange thing is that in our day many will assure Jesus that his approach with the money-changers was faulty, and that since he is angry and grieved he should calm down as the establishment was there before him and will be there long after he has gone. They will sort out his “anger” issues and leave the money-changers in tact.

The fact is that offences will come. People are bound to cause us to get offended and you have to realise that humans have a capacity to respond in such circumstances. There are situations in this messed up world that cause people much grief. We have multiplied instances of hearts that feel betrayed, hurt and violated. It does take time for the human soul to climb out of these dark holes.

In the spirit realm things happen instantaneously, but not so in the soul realm or in the physical. Climbing out from the hold of grief and offenses will take time.

And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me Mt 11:6

There is a blessedness that flows from not being offended at Jesus. You have to realise that there is a difference between being offended at others and being offended at Jesus. You do understand that I am neither an advocate nor a sponsor of getting offended at others, but the truth is that when the bible speaks about not getting offended it is in the majority of the cases talking about not getting offended at the Lord.

Satan's ultimate strategy is to get you offended at the Lord.

And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. Mk 4:17

When you take a word-stand it seems that all hell breaks loose around you. Satan tries to whip up affliction or persecution against you. His real aim is to get you to abandon your word-stand. When this happens Satan aims to steal away the revelation of the word. He uses two tools : afflictions and persecutions.

It is strange that when a Christian is going through emotionally draining relationships, that take them to the gates of hell so to speak, that fellow Christians say that if the troubled Christian has any offense God will not respond to him at all. There is an offense that a Christian must avoid at all cost and by all means, it is offense at Christ. This is the offense that the New Testament majors on.

As we increase our interactions with others we will face multiplied opportunities to get offended or angry at one another. There are situations in which the Lord Jesus got angry at people and even looked at them with anger. He was not violating the word when he did that!

If you find yourself getting angry over the same type of things that the Lord Jesus got angry and grieved over, you are in good company so I encourage you not to accept any condemnation. God did not forsake Jesus under those circumstances, neither will he forsake you. There is an image that man carries within his being that grieves and gets angry at the hardness of the religious hearts of the Pharisees of this world. God designed man that way.

Some people will tell you that if you get angry and grieved under any circumstance you are in offense and this blocks the flow of faith as a result of which they affirm that God will not hear you. That is tradition and not the word. In reality I would suppose that when you cannot respond in agreement with the emotions of Jesus in certain issues you are in need of help, very fast.

There are many people though, Christians, tongue talking and bible quoting folks who pass through emotional dark holes in life. These expose them to opportunities to get angry, grieving and a whole lot of other emotions. Often they will respond to these opportunities as they are already deflated, disappointed and consumed with a sense of loss. God does not forsake them.

If you have been friends with someone for 40 years and he betrays you, you will feel it hard. You might grieve a little or a lot, you might get offended but it is not the end of the world. God restores your soul as you submit it to him. It will take time, but you can rest in the fact that asides bearing our sin and sicknesses he bore the betrayals too.

The way we come down heavy on the one who is offended reminds of what the psalmist said - Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God.[Ps 3:2]

It wasn't a few people that said the above to David, there were many. Just imagine what they said to his soul. Now, our theology might cause us to forsake certain people when they need us the most, and it might even allow us tell them that there is no help in God. In truth there is always help in God.

... to be continued

Aggressive pursuit of His peace!

S. SEKOU ABODUNRIN

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Eph 2:3

Are you aware that all that most men will do in this life will be a fulfilment of the desires of the flesh and the mind? This is true both for believers and unbelievers. The origin of this is evidently Adam.

If language means anything, it implies that Adam was not acting out and fulfilling the desires of God. You see, Adam was the first to walk in the flesh. He gave birth to it. Then we are told that his mind was effectively dominated by the flesh, and then he fulfilled or acted on that which his mind and his flesh were agreed upon.

Adam was not deceived. It wasn’t something that Satan did to him, it was some deadly force, mightier that anything that the enemy could do. This force had seized control of the government of Adam’s life. Something had happened in Adam that made him eat of that tree in genesis. That is the origin of the flesh. Adam demonstrated a preference for the flesh, we can demonstrate a preference for the new nature.

I want you to see that the bible talks about the lusts or passions of the flesh and the desires of the mind. We are told that this is the effective summary of what the unbeliever calls life. Imagine what it means to have 80 or 90 years experience in the flesh. Paul is now writing to Christians and reminding them of this flesh walk. Majority of the men on earth today live all of their lives and die and never once walk away from the flesh!

Men effectively say “no” to the devil even when they were unbelievers, for it is evident that no sinner carries out all of the wild things that swim in his mind, yet according to the revelation conveyed through the apostle, no sinner has ever dominated the flesh in its passions, desirings and longings. In simple terms the flesh is a stronger opponent than the devil or the world.

The challenge mounted against your new nature in Christ Jesus will largely come from one or all of three sources: the world, the devil and the flesh. The greatest will directly come from the flesh. God has revealed in his word that both the devil and the world need the flesh in order to effectively challenge the new nature. In simple terms as I learn the secret of mounting an aggressive attack on my flesh, the devil’s foothold is reduced to zero.

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh        Gal 5:16

You are aware that Jesus has not killed our flesh. A fellow who participates in the new nature of God in his spirit still has to face the challenge that the flesh will throw at him. Sometimes this challenge is subtle, and at other times blatant, but make no mistake – the flesh is the greatest challenge that can make mockery of the wealth resident in your spirit man this very hour.

The flesh imposes its regiment upon your soul in the form of desires. It is this desire or longing that is referred to as lust. There are tendencies in your soul today that are as old as you are, you grew up knowing that characteristic as true of you. Nothing could be farther from the truth though. Much of what we call our personality today is actually flesh-inspired tendencies of moodiness, gloom, sadness, worry and the likes. You even hear some Christians confidently refer to themselves as gloomy or melancholic – beautiful language for the supremacy of the flesh over the powerful force we know as the human emotion. Your soul is a gift from God. It is designed to express your new nature, just like your body was designed to be the house and dwelling place of God through your spirit.

As you read this, perhaps your flesh is already staging a protest, you think that gloom or some "5 minutes of daily madness" describes you for you have known these to be true all of your life, but it is not you, it is a gift from Adam through the fall. Do not take your emotions and your mind for granted – your soul has the capacity to transform every aspect of your life to whatever it is that you expose it to continually! If you expose your soul to the flesh, you will transform to and fulfil the lusts of the flesh! Experience after experience will confirm to you that it is your personality at work, but it is a lie. You must learn to resist the flesh’s hold on your spirit. In your new nature there is calm and boldness - the type that abounds in God's very nature.

Paul tells us in Galatians that there is an answer to this Adamic dilemma called the flesh. The answer is to walk in our new nature. Your true personality is expressed through your new nature. This true personality will not showcase itself by some overpowering force whether you like it or not, no! you are required to cooperate by yielding to your new nature.

It tells us a profound truth – if I walk in the spirit, I will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. This truth also implies that if I walk in the flesh I will not fulfil the lusts of the spirit. You see, the word “lust” simply means intense desire. There are things that your new nature wants fulfilled in your world today, just like there are things that your flesh wants fulfilled. It is up to you, which you choose to walk in.

Flesh will inspire you to say “I am a moody person” or “I am depressive by nature” when you say that, you are acknowledging the flesh. Your tongue is being used as the bucket to draw out of the wrong river, and its water can be very very bitter!! It is actually the flesh at work because mood swings or depression are not listed amongst the fruit of the spirit in Gal 5:22.

Take back your emotion today! Dig your foot in the sands of life and refuse to allow the flesh dictate how you feel any longer. The flesh is contrary to the new nature in your spirit. You see, just like salvation for your spirit is a gift, there are feelings of wellness in the river within you. You must receive these also by faith. Feelings are powerful, do not submit it to the forces of nature around you, for that exposes you to fleshly manipulations that will strip your emotions bare and cut you down. The hostility has been raging for as long as you have been born again. Now you must recognise that there is a war, then boldly fight to win! You dig your foot by taking a stand in the word. Only the word of God contains the blue print of your true emotion and mind. The more you know of yourself through God’s word, the less effective the flesh’s aggression on your life becomes.

Do all things without murmurings and disputings:        Phil 2:14

Paul penned those lines with his hands and feet chained, treated like a common prisoner of Rome. He was standing waist deep in the fluid flow of the sewage system of Philippi! This man through whom God brought forth a large chunk of the New Testament was literally standing in dung. He wasn’t going to allow the flesh use this to seize the government of his emotions. He lifted his eyes and locked in on his new nature and wrote that all things can be done without murmuring! What a salvation we have in God.

I discovered in my own life that sadness and gloom have gradually lost their appeal to me. There used to be an intense war in keeping my soul away from gloom and sadness, but I have realised that the war is only as intense as the ignorance that my soul walks in. As the light of God’s word has shown me my true feelings and my true emotions, the intensity of the war has reduced! The flesh hasn’t given up, but the intensity is largely gone in this area. We can aggressively walk in the new nature taking territories of our emotion and mind back one stand at a time …..


…To be continued

Feeding your emotions with peace

S. SEKOU ABODUNRIN

6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Rom 8:6,7

We understand from the book of God, the bible that the only form of “death” that a believer can experience operates through the soul. Asides this soulish contact there is very little that gives us access into this participation in death. The soul consists of three parts, namely the mind, will and emotions. There are circumstances that we face day in and day out that make a pull on our soulish response.

We need to understand the implication of this fact. It is true that your spirit is participating in the life of God. It is also equally true that the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God. The expression of rebellion therefore manifests through the carnal mind. Since it is true that the carnal mind is enmity then we can safely say that we can trace every resistance that our spirit experiences to something that has been permitted through the soul. The thing to note is that consciously or unconsciously your soul is waging war [or mounting resistance] on your spirit this very minute. This war rages in your mind. You need to realise that there is an emotional response you have developed over the years – a certain bend or slant that determines the way your emotions will take sides in any circumstance. The trouble is that our emotions have been groomed in a different way than our spirit has been.

Your mind processes the information that your soul is constantly bombarded with whether this information is good or bad. The thing is that while your mind is powerful at processing these facts and can be depended upon to come up with some appropriate responses, it is not always the case, and this is because its processing is largely coloured by your emotional slant.
Left in its natural operation your emotions empower your mind to take decisions that are not necessarily based on any fact, just feeling.

The cares of life and the pull of the circumstances around you have a lot to do with the things you will be feeling. The effect of these cares of life is to force your emotions into a place of pressure. The pressure is usually transferred from your emotions straight to your mind overruling its logic and computation. The stronger the pressure that your emotions feel from the circumstances that it is exposed to, the more you feel the override that your emotion places upon your mind. You cannot afford then to leave your emotions unchecked, for left to roam it can unleash havoc within your mind and ultimately direct the flow of your responses in life.

This is how the emotions wage war on the spirit through the mind. While many people feel that the strongest member of the soul is the will, we can all relate to times and instances where we had “made up our mind” about certain things we would do should some sequence of events occur, then with amazement we watch ourselves respond in the very opposite way! Your will was intact all right, but your emotion had placed a override on your mind and caused your mind to send the “unexpected” response. In simple terms then, the most volatile member is the emotion.

Your spirit, full of the Zoë life of God seeks to express itself, but will not have the right of way as long as the emotion is left unchallenged. Your emotions will erect a war machine using your imaginations. The stronger these imaginations are, the greater the pressure measured out from your emotion into you mind, your mind will compute these strong images and produce actions that undermine your spirit’s effectiveness. You can relate to this – remember when you were in school, you are confidently sited working your way through a set of questions until you notice your class teacher walks up to you while you are trying to solve some equation you have been given. Left by yourself you are quite good with working out the answer within reasonable time. You notice to your horror that the teacher is heading your way and with every step taken closer to your desk, you discover that another force has taken over your mind! The very pen you have been holding all morning suddenly starts shaking clumsily in your hands! It is as though your mind goes on vacation and for the life of you; you cannot fathom what has hijacked your train of thought. That is a classic case of your emotions transferring pressure to your mind.

5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 2 Cor 10:5

The system of warfare described in that verse has a lot to do with what you have your emotions plugged into as its source of “inspiration”. Usually your emotions will feed directly upon external evidence and outcomes and effectively becomes the point through which strongholds are erected in your mind. These stronghold are automatic ways that your emotions have been trained to respond to situations. They often go unchallenged because you feel that it is your personality at work. You hear of people that describe themselves as touchy, introverted, given to depression or the likes. The thing is we accept these as our personality and routinely respond to situation from that which we believe to be true about ourselves.

Imagination is powerful. It captures all that you see. What you see is often what you’d keep seeing. Largely the true potential of who we are never comes out; for all that we see expressed through ourselves is that which we have conditioned ourselves to see. Every situation becomes an opportunity for us to confirm that which we have consciously or unconsciously accepted – this places an override on our mind depriving it of an opportunity to showcase it differently. The point is that until your emotions are under your control you are holding yourself hostage. No external power can release you from this hold for it is a stronghold. You must cast it down!

God’s way of reversing this situation is to use your spirit to heal your emotions. When this is allowed to go through, your emotions begin to empower the right thoughts when they show up in your mind. God’s system does not function through panic or pressure. When your emotion is submitted to your spirit, the peace that is in your spirit will be measured out to your emotions instead of the pressure that the world administers through worry. This peace becomes a new kind of pressure.

Another way of describing the warfare is this, when you leave your emotions unchecked your mind does not find “good news” exciting enough to spend much time processing it. Instead your emotions turn on the juice when the wrong type of information shows up in the mind. In simple terms the emotions wage war on your spirit through the mind by causing your mind to disregard the information that your spirit presents!

You are definitely involved in a battle. Like all battles, if I don’t understand what the war is about I fight ineffectively. The battle is basically releasing the government of your life into the hands of your spirit so that you turn the tide on your emotions such that it no longer empowers the mind to actively process “bad” information. The slant of your mind is determined by your emotions. The battle is swinging that slant to side in with your spirit.

Let me put it gently, your emotions have declared war on your spirit!

You think it is just the way you “feel”, but the consequences are dire when you consider that your emotions have such a strong grip on your life. When you consider that your emotions through your mind define your contact with death and your contact with life. The death flows through the system of the world while the life flows through the system of God in your spirit nature. Your spirit doesn’t function on pressures and cares but peace. Your emotions need this peace.

If language means anything the thing that MUST change is not so much my circumstances as it is my emotion. It is usual to think that the problem is with the “situation”, but in reality you are not warring against the situation, but against imaginations and strongholds that are fuelled by your emotions holding your mind captive from productive operation. There are decisions that you are capable of making, but might never make because the emotion has a slant that defeats your well-being. Your mind will embrace change faster than your emotions. You can think of the emotions as the last frontier where your spirit carries its program of change. You see if your emotions have been exercised in being moody and depression-prone, you will have learned how to transfer confusion to your mind. This processes more confused thinking which feeds the emotions with more pressure and then the emotion measure out more distress to your mind in effect starting a generator of gloom. Your spirit is relaxed and complete in Christ Jesus. You must hand over the government to your spirit, so peace can reign in your whole being. This has nothing to do with situations changing for peace is not the absence of dire situations. It is the presence released into your emotions from your spirit.

…to be continued