You Can Destroy Poverty, Lack and Drought

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Sin especially the sin of idolatry is usually the reason for poverty, lack and drought in the lives of individuals, families, communities and nations; and even institutions. Please read Judges Chapter 6 for the account of how Israel suffered lack because the y turned away from serving God. God handed them over to Midian and for seven years, Midian tortured Israel. The crops planted by the people of Israel were destroyed, their herds were carted away and Israel was greatly impoverished. Significantly, the Midianites had only one agenda – destroy whatever Israel had; crops planted and growing, herds being tended so that Israel would have nothing to live on. The oppression and affliction from Midian got so bad that Israel remembered God and they cried to God for deliverance.  God responded and sent a prophet to rebuke them of their sin before raising Gideon to deal the Midianite a great offensive blow.

Beloved, idolatry is a cause of poverty, lack and drought and when not dealt with through repentance towards God, poverty, lack and drought can become generational. Please read Deuteronomy Chapter 28 verses 14 to 68, Leviticus Chapter 26 verses 14 to 46, 1^st Kings Chapters 17 verse 1, 18 verses 1 to 46. Israel experienced drought and attendant famine for about three years because of the sin of the nation. Thereafter, God sent rain after the prophet Elijah led the people in national repentance, cleansing of the land; as well as repairing the altar of the Lord.

The Judeans experienced poverty, unexplained lack and drought because they kept on putting off the building of the temple even though the foundation had been laid. Fortunately for them, the great love of God for them was at work as God sent the prophet Haggai to rebuke them. God also explained to them through the prophet that He was the One behind the drought which was affecting all the labor of their hands. Again, the love of God was really at work as the people repented of their disobedience to God and promptly went to work on the temple.

God is indeed awesome, forgiving and kind to His own. Immediately hey commenced work, God promised to bless them even though they had not planted seed; and the fig tree, the pomegranate and olive trees had not yielded fruit. The blessings of God to them would overtake and exceed the harvests from planted seed and economic trees because they had obeyed God to work on the temple.

And quite significant and instructive is that they did not have to do anything extraordinary or anything that would involve huge monetary costs to build the temple. The message from God through the prophet was for them to go to the mountains and collect wood for the building of the temple. In essence, God was not looking for mansions, citadels and cathedrals. God wanted a temple where the people would worship Him, a temple He would take pleasure in and be glorified. Beloved, this is key and strategic. God wants you to create room in your heart, family, home, Church, community, nation, institution, business premises for Him so that He will take pleasure in you and be glorified. Also of great significance is the fact that God promised to fill this temple built of wood with His glory so that the glory of the temple built with wood would be much greater than the glory of the magnificent temple which Solomon built with cedar, stones from Lebanon, gold and other precious metals.

Healing Polluted Waters 2

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Possible Sources of Pollution

Backbiting and negative utterances about one another in a family, Church, community and nation can bring about barrenness and death in a family, Church, community and nation. This is because such actions hinder the spiritual, physical, numerical and economic growth of the family, Church, community and nation. The negative utterances about one another poison the minds of people against those who have been maligned by creating doubts, suspicion and fear. Please read Romans Chapters 12 verses 9 to 10, 17 to 19, 13 verses 8 to 14.

Covetousness can also create severe challenges in a family, Church, institution or nation. Some Biblical examples that should give caution include the examples of Achan in Joshua Chapter 7 verses 20 to 23,; the examples of Ahab and Naboth in 1^st Kings Chapter 21 and King David and Uriah in 2^nd Samuel Chapters 11, and 12 verse 14. Sadly both cases led to the death of innocent people. The Bible cautions against covetousness. Please read Ephesians Chapter 5 verses 1 to 8 and Acts Chapter 20 verses 33 to 36 as well as Nehemiah Chapter 5 verses 14 to 19.

Hatred in the hearts of members against the leadership or the leadership against members can also create barrenness and spiritual death as well as the attendant consequences of spiritual death in a family, Church, community and nation. This is because hatred is a precursor of strife and strife which always works in tandem with contention does not bear good fruits. The fruits of strife and contention are always destructive. Please read Genesis Chapters 13, 14, 26 verses 12 to 33. The people of Gerar envied Isaac on account of Isaac’s sporadic progress in their land. As the envy progressed to hatred, they sent Isaac away from their land. Isaac moved on, away from them yet the herdsmen of Gerar contested with Isaac the ownership of the wells of water dug up by Isaac’s servants. Isaac towed the path of peace and left the wells for them. Eventually God blessed Isaac with more wells and abundant material resources. The people of Gerar and the leadership then acknowledged that God was with Isaac and begged to make a covenant of peace with Isaac.

Healing Polluted Waters

 Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Polluted streams and water bodies generally make a land uninhabitable. This is because water is essential to life which perhaps explains why it is commonly said that water is life. If the water bodies in a land are polluted, the land gets impacted negatively – plants may not grow, animals cannot live there because when they drink the polluted water, it causes sickness and death; the same impact it will also have on humans. Unfortunately this was the case with Jericho. It was a city described as pleasant yet the water was bad and because the water was bad, the ground was barren.

Certain Churches, families, communities and nations are barren because the leadership of such institutions make negative pronouncements on the people and the negative pronouncements impact the people negatively. Consequently, there is no productivity. Rather than point accusing  fingers to the wrong sources, the leadership that is actually responsible for the problem through their negative pronouncements should stop cursing the people, stop making negative pronouncements that God will replace them, God will punish you, God will impoverish you, God will dethrone you, God will not bless and prosper you. The leadership should also stop speaking from a heart of bitterness, deep seated resentment and anger against the people. The leadership should also stop wishing the people evil and projecting ill will towards them as all of these are akin to the bad water of Jericho which was causing barrenness and death in Jericho. The question then is; is it possible for a pastor or the leadership of families, communities and nations to do this? Yes.

The source of cleansing and seasoning is the heart of the leadership – to turn their hearts to the mind of God for His people so that like Aaron and his sons whom God commanded to bless the children of Israel, they would bless the people of God worshiping and serving God in their Churches; actually the Church of God in the name of the Lord. Please read Numbers Chapter 6 verses 22 to 27. The continuous and continual pronouncements of the blessings of God on the people will cancel out the barrenness and death and bring in life and fruitfulness in the lives of the people of God.

A person can make his or her land unproductive, unfruitful and barren by the pronouncements he or she makes on the land God blesses him or her with. Please read Proverbs Chapters 12 verses 14, 18 to 19 (the truth of the word of God; 15 verses 1 to 2, 7 28 and 30; 17 verse 27; 18 verses 6 to 7. That probably explains why God asked the Priests to bless His people in His name. On a number of occasions, Moses blessed the people of God; he blessed the people after they completed the building of the tabernacle according to the pattern God gave them. It is good, it is great, it commands divine blessings when instructions are carried out, activities done, prophetic declarations made as instructed by God. Please read Exodus Chapter 39 verses 42 to 43.

King David also blessed the people in the name of the Lord. That was after the successful return of the Ark of the Lord to the tabernacle which David erected for the Ark in Jerusalem. Please read 2^nd Samuel Chapter 6 verses 12 to 20. He also blessed his household. Please see also in Psalm 115 verses 9 to 18 yet another instance of David pronouncing blessings on the people of God.

Godly Leadership and National Development

 Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

The Bible records in Acts Chapter 10 that the Biblical Centurion of Caesarea called Cornelius was a devout man who feared God alongside his entire household; he also gave alms generously (it is one thing to give alms and another to give it generously as one can give out of obligation but generous giving comes from the heart. Additionally, Cornelius had the wonderful habit of praying to God always.

A leader who prays to God always is simply saying by that singular action that s/he has no power of his or her own and that s/he is wholly dependent on God for everything – his or her trust, confidence, mental processes, decisions and actions are guided by God alone. While such leaders are rare gems, they are greatly desired and urgently required in any nation. This is because such leaders will not take laws into their hands; they will not act according to the dictates of their flesh like Ahab who coveted Naboth’s vineyard and assented to the murder of Naboth so he could own Naboth’s vineyard. They will not be like Nebuchadnezzar who ordered the immediate execution of the wise men in Babylon simply because they could not his dream and the interpretation, same Nebuchadnezzar who raised up a statue and called for human worship and when Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego defied him , he had them thrown into the fiery furnace which fortunately did harm them.

Beloved, there are other rulers in the Bible and history who did far worse than these two Kings. That is because they were not dependent on God and they were not dependent on God because they had no fear of God.

Averting Dangers 2

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Herod suddenly developed a new passion, albeit, an ungodly passion. It was the passion of killing believers, particularly the leadership of the Church. He had killed James the brother of John and when he discovered that the Jews were happy, he took a decision to also kill the Apostle Peter and had him locked up on death row; to be killed any moment. What a trying moment for the Church! James had recently been killed and Peter was next.

The Church was not prepared to suffer such losses more so when they realized that Herod’s actions were not the will of God for the Church. They took action and utilized one of the weapons of spiritual warfare – constant prayer, which is pray until you see the desired result. Significantly, the prayer sessions did not hold in the Church. They were held in the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark. Does God answer prayers? The fact that Peter was miraculously released from prison the night before he was to be killed in the morning is evidence, in point of fact great evidence that God answers prayers.

Keys to Averting Dangers

Total dependence and trust in God as in the cases of Jehoshaphat and the Judeans against the three allied armies of Moab, Ammon and Mount Seir recorded in 2^nd Chronicles Chapter 20; and Hezekiah and the Judeans against Sennecherib and his arrogant army. Please read Isaiah Chapters 36 to 38 for details.

Averting Dangers

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

God’s loving preventive measures have always helped the people of God to avert dangers in a timely manner. The Bible records a number of instances where God in His power and mercy prevented the evil designs of the devil upon the people of God.

Moses could have been killed as a child because a law had gone out in Egypt that all male babies of the children of Israel should be killed. Despite his law, God gave Jochebed unparallel wisdom to preserve the life of Moses. First, she successfully hid him away from prying eyes for three months. But when she could no longer do that, she tapped into the divine wisdom she was filled with and dropped the baby in the reeds by the river bank, significantly close to where Pharaoh’s daughter showered. Also, Jochebed kept Moses’ sister Miriam close by to stand watch over the baby.

When Pharaoh’s daughter came to shower in company of her maidens, she saw the ark Moses was put in among the reeds. Immediately, she sent her maid to get it. And this is where the great grace and love of God never ceases to amaze me. As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter opened the ark and saw the baby, the Bible records that the baby wept; thereby triggering off every maternal instinct in this great princess of Egypt. Again, and this is quite significant, the Bible records that she had compassion on baby Moses, noting that he must be one of the Hebrew children. And just then, Miriam who was tactically hiding in the background showed up when she saw the benevolent expression on the face of the princess.

Quickly and quite strategic, Miriam asked if she could go call a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for the princess. Of particular importance is that fact that Miriam requested that the nurse would care for the child for the princess. Miriam did not also mention that the proposed nurse was actually the baby’s mother. This is wisdom begetting tact and discretion for averting satanic disasters.

Moses’ mother showed up promptly and ironically was hired by Pharaoh’s daughter to nurse Moses. This is quite ironic because the princess is a daughter of the Pharaoh who decreed the death of all male Hebrew children born to the Israelites. Yet the person God would use to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land was raised in the palace of Pharaoh, cared for and nurtured like one of the princes of Egypt. Awesome God Who alone does great and wonderful things. Nothing indeed takes him by surprise.

God is With You

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

What makes a Church a Church is the Presence of God in the Church. It is not the physical size of the structure in which the people gather to worship. It is also not the economic power or social status of the people. It is not the large number of people. Rather it is the Presence of God in the Church and in the personal lives of the people. It is also the personal relationships the people have with God that dovetail into the indwelling Presence of God in the people. This is what makes a Church the Church of God. It is not the finesse of the pastor, leadership or the finery in terms of dress, furniture, etc. It is the wholesome, awesome, sanctifying Presence of God in the midst of the people or in the building that makes the place a Church.

In like manner, what makes an individual strong, a family or nation strong is the Presence of God in that individual, family or nation.

The Biblical Samson remained strong and unbeaten as long as God was with him. But the moment he got careless and made known the source of his strength, the Presence of God in his life through his Nazrite hair, he lost his super human strength and became a slave to the Philistines. His strength however returned when he repented and his hair grew afresh.

Severally, the nation of Israel was defeated by nations who they ordinarily overran. This was because the nation of Israel sinned against God and lost the critical and very important Presence of God in their personal and national lives. A case in point was the defeat they suffered from Ai, a small nation they could have defeated easily. Please read Joshua Chapter 7. But the moment there was national repentance, the Presence of God came on strong and they not only defeated Ai but went on to defeat several nations to possess the land of Canaan.