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| July 30, 2012 |
Super Soul Sunday – OWN TV: Review
Spirituality of Our Eternal God
I was happy when Oprah Winfrey on OWN declared Spirituality Sundays called "Super Soul Sunday." The first one included TD Jakes and Deepak Chopra. I was interested in the program because I wanted to know where Oprah was standing regarding spirituality. She has a very large audience. With the first program, I missed the first segment by the time I came out of church that Sunday July 1, 2012. By the time I turned on the TV, I was watching the show Oprah did years ago of a physician who talked about the scientific evidence that prayer works. I went on the Internet and saw where T.D Jakes was interviewed. I was shocked the program took place under my nose in St. Louis, and I was not aware of the time it took place. Nonetheless I watched the program and later Oprah’s interview with Deepak Chopra in India. These shows on Super Soul Sunday prompted me to want to set certain things straight about God’s spirituality different from human, or other forms of spirituality. The first thing I want to set straight is to let people know that spirituality did not start from people. Spirituality originated from God in the Garden of Eden. It is a process of communication, connection, and interaction between one entity and another of a living being. Today people get into things they confuse with God’s spirituality. They may be led into dangerous encounters at vulnerable times, and the risk of sudden death, especially in their sleep. Please be very careful! This article discusses important points about spirituality where people tend to make mistakes. I stress throughout this article for people to be very careful. Inherent dangers exist in spirituality away from God the Creator.
Name Can Either Curse or Bless Your Child
I strongly applaud Oprah Winfrey for airing the shows and the other show by a physician relating to the power of prayers. Immediately, I need to set certain issues straight regarding the "spirituality of Our Eternal God." Many people including Christians and preachers alike in the Western World tend to confuse true spirituality of God with other things. One day in the early 1980s, an African American told me she went to a church. She was so happy she enjoyed herself. When I asked her what church she attended, she could not tell me the name. Later she explained to me that she went with some Muslims to a church. I immediately corrected her, and explained to her that she did not go to a church; she went to a Mosque. There is a difference between a Mosque that is a prayer center for Muslims and a Church, that is a prayer center for Christians.
To some people not being able to tell the difference between a church and a mosque may sound hilarious. However, it is not unusual for some African American Christians, perhaps some Christian whites to name their children with Muslim names. Some of them have confused Arabic names with African names. For example, when I was growing up in Africa, you can easily tell a person’s religion and where he or she came from by looking at the names. In the U.S. some Christian parents will name their children Jamal, Muhammed, Ishmal, Moshood, Hammed, etc. The name a child carries has a spiritual attachment and meaning to it. The contextual meaning of that name is not as important as the current operating spirit attached to that name. Many times the demons of the person who used to bear that name may come upon children once they are named as such. Similarly, the blessing attached to a name may come upon a child if named as such. If you give your child the wrong name, at a time in the life of that child, curses start to manifest showing physical signs of illness, or other forms of disorder. The parents start to wonder where the curses come from. They do not understand that an ordinary name given to a child can either be a curse or a blessing. Consequently, Africans are asked to look into their family line of blessings before naming their children. You just don’t name your child anything because it sounds good. To be on the safer side, Christians tend to name their children after Bible heroes, or saints. Every name has either a blessing or a curse attached to it. The curse may not destroy the child, but the parents placed unnecessary spiritual burden on that child to thrive. In life, the child will learn to fight off the curse. Sometimes the child will wear the curse, and we see many negative manifestations in the life of that child even as an adult. We often wonder why. The same way the spirit mantle of Elijah dropped as he left the world and was captured by Elisha, the same way demonic spirits drop from a person once the person dies. After death the demons look for another person for attachment, somebody bearing that name becomes the next target of oppression or possession.
Significance of God Messengers’ Names
I notice something in the Bible, when a person’s birth was predicted; the name that person was usually given was always associated with the life mission of that person. In essence, a divine messenger was usually named in the Bible relative to the mission assignment and the Spirit mantle given. This is important because there is a spiritual mantle attached to each name of a designated messenger. When my last son was about to be born, I had another name in mind. However, while my wife was in the labor room, the Lord gave me another name. I remember my wife was arguing with me on the telephone that the child could be a girl. At that time we did not know the sex of the child. But God already told me the child was going to be a boy. I was not surprised after the baby was born to my wife’s surprise, he turned out to be a boy. God is the one who names his messengers, not us. So, I gave my son the spiritual name the Spirit of God instructed me to give him. That name will not only carry the anointing of God on the child, it is also attached to the mantle of his life’s mission and purpose. We therefore need to be careful about the spiritual implications of the names we give our children. Do not give your child the name of a serial killer, a gang-banger, or the names of idols from history. However the manifestation of the name is more important about a recent person who used to be called by that name. Once the person dies, his or her spirit will look for another person for attachment. That familiar spirit will go after the previous person who was called by that name. Remember when the life of John the Baptist was predicted. John was said to be coming in the spirit and power of Elijah. If you give your child the name of a serial killer, your child’s spirit may be attached with the operating demonic spirit of the previous person bearing that name. In John’s case, he was a good spirit from Elijah passed on to him. John received such spirit as a mantle. The demons tend to copy what the Spirit of God does. There is a difference between the human spirit inside of which is encased the human soul, and the operating spirit of attachment either of a mantle, or of demonic origin.
Understanding Demonic Shadow Over an Object
When I saw the programs on "Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday" the first thing that came to my mind was to clarify some issues of misunderstanding between true Christianity, other religions, and the worship of demons. Sometimes people in the Western World because of lack of understanding tend to confuse Christian spirituality with other spirituality, or the worship of idols. I remember the case of a Christian woman who went to Haiti and bought a necklace in the street. When she arrived in the U.S. she started to wear the necklace. As soon as she was wearing the necklace, she noticed she was having nightmares about murder, rape, and being chased in the woods by an axe in her sleep by demonic entities. She went to her pastor for help. The first thing her pastor did was to pray for her. God gave her pastor a vision to see this woman surrounded by dark spirits. Later she found out that the necklace she was wearing came from the shrine of satanic worship. Her pastor snatched the necklace from her neck at which time she felt a giant load was lifted from her. People need to be very careful about the power of the invisible world. This is the primary reason why Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit. The principle of spirit attachment is simple. No spirit can possess an inanimate object, but the spirit can attach to an object like a shadow. Once a person wears that object, that spirit comes upon the person and starts to do havoc. Similarly, any object used for murder, or to commit violent acts, or the gun of a serial killer or a rapist, can be attached the demonic spirit that was present at the time the violence was committed. You bring such an object to your house at your own risk. If you are a police officer, do not bring any object from a crime scene into your house, especially closer to your children.
What you Worship defines Your Religion
Many people call themselves Christians, but they are confused because they are worshipping other things besides the God of the Bible. What you worship whether intentionally, or inadvertently defines your religion, not the nametag you carry on your chest. There are many people who call themselves Christians, but they worship idols everyday. To identify what you worship, you need to identify what you spend most of your time doing during the day in meditation. For example, if you spend most of the day meditation on anger, you are worshiping anger. Anger is therefore your god. If you mediate on romance most of the time, romance becomes your god. If you spend most of your day meditating on despair, sadness, hate, bitterness, these negative emotions become your gods and you open the door of your soul to demonic influences. You may even be meditation on something positive like romance with your spouse, or planning to go on vacation, or your relentless desires to make money, or achieve success. Whatever you spend most of your time meditation on becomes your god. Regardless to what nametag you carry, you become an idol worshipper. This is why God warned us saying,
"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the sin of the parents on to the children from the third to fourth generation, of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations to those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20:3-4).
To prevent us from getting confused God gave us instructions to protect our minds from wondering in our meditation about other spirits, and leading us to idolatry.
"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shall meditate on it day and night, that thou may observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shall make thy way prosperous, and then thou shall have good success" (Joshua 1:8).
Even Jesus himself stressed the power of persistent prayer in the story of a widow in that city who wanted justice, and she persisted (St. Luke 18:1-8).
Jesus said, "Watch and pray always" (St. Luke 21:36).
One thing I have noticed in my lifetime, no matter what we meditate on in the physical world, we would eventually be removed from those things, or those things would be taken from us. The only thing that stays with us forever is to mediate on the Word of God through the Holy Spirit. This was what Jesus said in response to Martha’s complaint, "Martha, Martha, you worry and bothered about so many things; but one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (St. Luke 10:41).
What Mary chose was to listen to the Word of God directly from the mouth of Jesus. Jesus said it would never be taken away from her.
Many rich people who do not meditate on the Word of God tend to mediate on something else; they eventually suffer from the "Poverty of the Soul." This is one of the very painful diseases of the affluent people leading some of them to suicide despite their riches. No matter how comfortable their life may be, they cannot find true peace and serenity in the absence of God. Jesus said, "Peace I give on to you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give on to you. Let not your heart be troubled, and let it not be afraid" (St. John 14:27). You can worship Buddha all you want, and do yoga till your bones crack. He will never give you that eternal peace. Only Jesus can give you that divine and eternal peace everybody is searching for. Rich people who find Jesus stop worshipping their money and fame, they find true peace in Jesus.
Worship a Wrong Spirit at your Own Risk
Prayer is a form of meditation taking man’s spirit in ascension to the Spirit realm of God. The best thing we can do in the spirit during ascension is not praying and asking for things, but worshipping. Worship God in adoration. While we ascend in the Spirit, we can actually feel the opening of the Portals of Heaven before us. Our target is God Almighty. Think about it this way. We already have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as Christians. When the Holy Spirit takes up into the realm of the Spirit, he connects with the Spirit of Christ our mediator. That spirit complex takes man straight to the heart or the bosom of God the Father (St. John 14:20). We should therefore be careful which spirit we are connecting with. There are many spirits in the invisible realm. Christians should be connecting with no other spirit except the Holy Spirit. If we dare to connect to other spirits besides the Holy Spirit, we make mockery of Jesus by worshipping the spirit of other gods. This is very critical.
This year, I was talking to my brother at home in Nigeria. I asked him about different people we grew up with as Christians. He told me those who have died and those that are still alive. He then told me something that shocked me. For many years some Christians would practice what is referred to as syncretism. In that discussion he made me to understand that some of them despite being Christians went to join some of these cults for spiritual empowerment. But the empowerment they seek without God is the power from the spirit of mysticism of other gods in opposition to the God of the Bible. I was told that many of them who went from Christianity to seek the power of darkness, suffered sudden unexplained deaths. I became disturbed, and wondered why the sudden death. After thinking about such deaths I realized God was doing them a favor based on these Bible verses:
"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
------ To deliver such a person unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the soul may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (I Corinthians 5:1, 5).
In the verses from the First letter of Paul to the Corinthians, a case of sexual immorality was reported to Paul about a man bragging within the church of having sex with his mother-in-law. Paul defined this as physical fornication. He preferred such a person to die and ended up saving his soul from damnation of hell on the Day of Judgment. A friend told me he was lamenting over his father’s death until the Lord spoke to him. He told me the Lord said, "I took your father so early to prevent this world from corrupting his soul." From that day he told me he never lamented over his father’s death anymore. Consequently the Lord has taken some Christians out by killing their bodies before their souls were totally corrupted by the evil of this world. Based on what Paul said, I will be very careful as a Christian not to worship other gods. Such behavior is called spiritual fornication and God warned us against this type of sin. The result may be a sudden death. When we call ourselves Christians and we are worshipping or meditating in the spirit of other gods, we are rubbing the face of Jesus in the sewer.
"The righteous man perishes, and no man takes it to heart. And the devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from evil" (Isaiah 57:1).
For this reason and the risk of sudden death, I question the danger inherent in Christians doing Yoga, and practicing Hindu or Buddha rituals and dabbling in Eastern mysticism. What they think may be a harmless exercise may be a very dangerous practice. They do not have a clue the doors to demonic spirits they may be subjecting themselves and their family. In India and other Eastern countries, they use Yoga to communicate the invisible world of other gods. In the West, the intention is exercise to calm the body down, but the spirit we strive to communicate is the human spirit. This is the reason why more emphasis is placed on "Self and Human Emotions" instead of the reality of the Spirit of God. Sadly, in the process of this spiritual journey, people have opened and entered the realm of demonic spirits with very sudden tragic consequences. I cannot stress this enough for Christians. Yoga is a very dangerous exercise for those who claimed they love the Lord Jesus. Meditate ONLY on the WORD of GOD! Please! If you dared to place anything upon your forehead in Yoga rituals, you are inadvertently blaspheming God! Think about this. Your forehead is supposed to be reserved for imprint of God’s name. If you place anything in the location reserved for God’s name, you may as well have received the mark of the devil. The devil loves to invade a physical location reserved for God, even inside the church.
"And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads" (Revelation 22:4).
Different Spiritualities Can Seduce Christians Away from God
Whatever spirit we meditate or worship other than the Spirit of God remains a form of idolatry. God said, "Thou shall have no other god before me!" There are people who decided God is wrong or that he must have some kind of an ego problem. They want to do it their way. "Okay go for it, and pay the painful price later!" There is an old African proverb that says, "When the mother chicken is protecting her little children from going astray, her children complain because they do not realize that the mother chicken is trying to protect them from a predator." Similarly, those Christians who insist on doing it their way and worshipping idols do this to their own peril.
We must realize that the human soul is hungry to believe in something. In search for spiritual empowerment, our soul becomes very vulnerable. God wants to protect us from going astray, and putting ourselves in a vulnerable position. That was why he gave us these commandments to protect us from predators like the mother chicken trying to protect her children. Think about the parable of the lost sheep and that of the prodigal son Jesus gave for similar reasons. The Prodigal Son intentionally left his father’s home due to rebellious spirit. When he encountered pain in his life, he repented and went in search for his way back home to the father. He intentionally made the wrong choice, and he suffered the consequence. Nobody went searching for him. However, in the case of the lost sheep who wondered away because he did not know what he was doing, Jesus came looking for him. We must be careful when we allow rebellious spirit against God to take control of our soul and direction, and we ended up in tragic situations. People tend to worship anything they believe is higher than them even if it is against the desires of God. When people find themselves in the middle of a storm, they tend to reach out for powers that they believe can comfort them. Sometimes they reach out for the wrong spiritual power and start worshipping idols. What people do not realize is that every spirit has associated power of operation. If you enter the wrong spirit realm, you may tap into the power of darkness at your own risk.
We should recognize that there are many spirits in the spirit realm. Only the Spirit of God is the truth, the rest of them are based on deception having the tendency to lead people astray. There are system spirits including animal spirits, planetary spirits, ocean spirits, river spirits, location spirits and other spirits that run the entire system God created. God is the one who warned us never to worship these spirits. There are ancestral spirits and spirits attached to idols. Some spirits attached to idols may not necessarily be bad spirits, but they are spirits of those who lived before. Those who worship them believe they have attained the level of deity before God. People use these spirits either ancestral or the spirits of the dead to send messages through them to God, similar to the Catholic saints. Working with and worshipping ancestral spirits remain common practices among the Native Indians and in some of the developing countries. There are some negative spirits we need to be very careful with. This group include human perverted spirits of those that are still living, human spirits of the dead lost in transit, we refer to them as ghosts, spirits of the demons, spirits of fallen angels, hybrid spirit of "Nephilims" the giant offspring of fallen angels. Another group we are very familiar with include the human spirit, angel spirits, ministering spirits, and the God’s Spirit. Of course we know that the God’s Spirit is the Spirit of God that expresses himself in three heads; the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit – the Holy Trinity God’s head. The other one I do not want to mention is the unholy trinity of Satan, the false prophet, and the anti-Christ spirits. Possibly there may be another group, but I believe I have covered most of them. I have done this so people can be very careful and ask themselves what spirit are they worshipping beside the Spirit of God. Once we understand that there are many spirits out in the spirit realm, we need to be very careful.
Devil’s Deception
Something I want to discuss here may scare some people. This is the tendency to be abducted by a negative spirit or spirits camping outside the human spirit and controlling human perception. These spirits are very smart. Their primary action is to manipulate the human mind and speak lies to people’s perception. I have always wondered in my life why God gave such access to the devil. Perhaps, the devil himself is serving God’s purpose by being a tester. Therefore he has access to our minds. Regardless to whether a person is indwelling with the Holy Spirit, these negative spirits will attach to the outside of our human spirit bus and manipulate our thought process. If you are a Christian they can change your process of thinking about Jesus through deception. They can impregnate lies into your heart. This is why Jesus called the devil a liar and a father of it. The devil is a deceiver. I have heard people crying out and aggressively with tears running down their faces while voicing out the deceptive messages of the devil. Pray for such people under the yoke of the deception of the devil! They believe the lies of the devil because the devil has seduced their souls. Once they soul-tie with demonic spirits, they become the servants of the devil. They subject themselves to voluntary bondage of the enemy of God. Yet, they do not realize they are being deceived because their perception and souls are being manipulated by the devil. How can they believe strongly on the deception of the devil? It is because they make themselves vulnerable without realizing what they are doing. They open and soul-tie with demons by choice! Other times people will support mysticism because it justifies their immoral lifestyle. They want to call the shots! They do not want the Holy Spirit to direct them. In the process they make themselves vulnerable to false beliefs.
Today many successful people are being fooled by the devil everyday because they listen more to the devil than to the Spirit of God. As a result, these spirits can change what we believe is true about Jesus and replace it with lies. In this process of deception they will influence human cognitive perception by dominating the soul through the impregnation of false information. This is why Jesus said, "I am the truth!" The devil plants false information inside our cognitive mind all the time. He is a deceiver! Get it Christian folks! People tend to believe it is the way they are thinking. The devil plants demonic seeds in the hearts of people because he has access due to the demonic DNA he impregnated in human soul in the Garden of Eden. Those who are not well grounded in the Spirit of God become preys to the tricks of the enemy of God. This was exactly what happened when Jesus was on earth. The religious leaders and the nation of Israel waited for the Messiah. When he arrived on earth, the devil deceived them and planted lies in the hearts of people leading to Jesus crucifixion. Their hatred for Jesus eventually led to the fulfillment of God’s plan.
The sad thing about the devil’s deception is not so much because of the false information he planted in the minds of the people, but because of the worship he is receiving from people who meditate on his spirit. When you meditate on a spirit, you worship that spirit. The practice of Hinduism and Buddhism worship the spirits of other gods. Any Christian who gets involved with such practice now open himself or herself up to worshipping the devil. That is exactly what Satan wants. The devil wants worship; that was why he rebelled against God. Some Christians because of their lack of understanding are actually worshipping the devil when they go into meditation under the Hinduism or Buddhism rituals of worship. They are therefore rubbing the face of God in the sewer. Before you sit at the shrine of idols making mockery of God, and putting Christ to shame, ask yourself a question. Is Jesus good enough for you? Is Jesus enough! If Jesus is good enough for you, then the Bible must be sufficient for you. Read the Bible! Feed on the Bible and mediate on the Word! That’s all you need! Uncross your legs, get off from your yoga position, and go get your Bible and stop making a fool of yourself! And rub that ugly red mark off your forehead so Jesus can place the mark of his blood on you to save your wretched soul. Goodness gracious! What’s wrong with people for goodness sake! How far have we fallen! True peace and serenity only come from God through the Lord Jesus Christ. You can always tell which celebrity is worshipping idols compared to the ones dedicated to worshipping God? Celebrity worshipping idols never have true peace in their life and they are always having problems with their weight because they lack the serenity of God. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you will not eat that much food in the earthly realm. The more I’m filled with the Holy Spirit, the less I want to eat physical food, because Jesus feeds me with more delicious spiritual food. With people who binge on food, their flesh becomes their god and the Holy Spirit remains as a residential alien to them if they used to be Christians. These people tend to allow familiar spirits (demons) to camp around their homes and sometimes perform miracles for them. This is how some people continue to worship idols. Sooner or later, the devil destroys whatever vessels he contains. Enjoy his company at your own risk!
I find it very difficult to watch that movie "The Passion of Christ" by Mel Gibson the second time. One time was just enough for me. How could I have seen the suffering this man took for me, and turn around and worship idols? How could I have the audacity to make mockery of the suffering and resurrection of Christ because some fast talking guru is telling a big lie and I believe him over Jesus? Helps me Jesus! There is no spirituality that leads to the truth except that of God through Jesus. Human spirituality can place man on the throne, but cannot lead us to God. The only messenger that is designed to lead us to Christ is the Holy Spirit.
Modern Witchcraft Practice
Witchcraft is not just about casting spell on people. That’s the easy part. The process of witchcraft is the efforts to control a person through their human spirit by using another more powerful spirit to change their directions. This was what happened to King Saul. He disobeyed God because he listened to the voices of the people instead of the voice of God. His sin was therefore considered a sin of rebellion like the sin of witchcraft. There are many levels of practicing witchcraft. The ultimate goal is to manipulate a person into doing your will through the spirit realm. Other times they can actually place a demon spirit on an animal and send that animal to hurt somebody. They can also place that demonic spirit on your pet to torment you. Spirit manipulators can capture human weak spirits and use that spirit to achieve ungodly purposes. If a Christian allows himself or herself to be manipulated by non-Christians, that person allows his or her soul to fall inside the web of the manipulator’s witchcraft. Once you’re under the spell-web control of a person or people, you will never find true peace of God. They tend to control your mind through manipulations, just like Jim Jones supposed to be a Christian preacher led close to a thousand people to their death. Human mind is very vulnerable. You can be very sincere about what you believe, and you can be sincerely dead wrong! This was the more reason why God warned us about worshipping anything other than the God of the Bible. Your heart is going to be troubled by the negative spirits you allow to camp around your dwelling place. You will have a lot of nightmares. You will never find true peace regardless to your life’s achievements. To get rid of these negative spirits, you have to put up a fight and seek the power of the commander in chief of all the armed forces of Heaven – Angel Holy Michael to help you. You need constant prayers of deliverance. He will help you fight off the devil, and the Holy Spirit will bring you peace and serenity. If you enjoy the company of demons, you can allow them to camp around you for a while. Just remember, at the time you do not expect, they will try to take your life, and destroy your physical body. In St. Louis, a man used to have a pet python snake. One day, he went to sleep, the snake wrapped around his body and squeezed, killing him. The devil does exactly the same way at the time you do not expect.
Many Christians have opened the door for demons to torment them because they do not know what they are doing when they get themselves into some mysticism rituals. Many times, the demons may not torment them, but live with them. At some point in time, the devil is going to come and claim the person’s soul. In the process, a fight will take place. The devil is going to fail. He may succeed in killing the physical body with sudden death, but he will never be able to claim the soul of that person. However, once the physical body dies, the soul comes out of that body. The soul belongs to God. If the person has accepted Jesus, he goes home and be with the Lord. If he has not, he goes straight to the prison beneath the earth and wait for the Day of Judgment. Everybody has to make a choice. You either go with Jesus, or you go with the devil and face the consequences.
Finding Your Purpose of Life
If anybody tells you that living your dream is a way to find serenity in life, the person is telling you a big lie. The only true peace you find is from the serenity of Christ through his love from God. I find it difficult to believe that God placed a celebrity preacher before the nation, and speaking to a possible non-Christian audience, instead of talking about the Bible he was busy talking about the philosophy of personal fulfillment in the topic, "How to Use Your Time Effectively and Purposefully." I find this trend among some preachers today very disturbing. This is one of the reasons why some people are running away from Christianity. As preachers, Jesus asked us to preach his gospel messages to all nations. He did not ask us to preach philosophy, psychology or sociology. Which is more important, your celebrity image or the messages of Christ? A couple of years ago and was also confirmed this year, a fellow reporter told me to stop listening to celebrity preachers. I was told they were out only for themselves. I was also told that these preachers care more about the rich and famous while they brag about their celebrity image. Jesus is a tool they use to make money, just like a sidekick. I do not know if I agree with all that, but it makes you wonder when we choose to preach about psychology instead of preaching about the Word of God.
Regarding personal fulfillment and how effective to utilize your time, human life is not a mystery as some people want to think. Everybody in this life no matter who has two journeys. One is always shorter than the other. The first journey God allows is this journey about personal fulfillment in life. This is the first journey most people tend to embark upon early in lifetime. God allows us to jungle through the wilderness of life for a while in search for personal success. Many people tend to confuse this with their purpose in life. A journey of personal fulfillment is the goal we set for ourselves in life to achieve. Most of these goals tend to be associated with our financial success in life. Many of us become successful going to college and earning degrees and qualifications that help us in our life’s journey. But, this in most cases is not necessarily your purpose in life. Your purpose in life may and may not be tied to your financial success. The majority of the artists whose paintings are being sold for millions of dollars today died in poverty! Yet, somebody benefited from their works.
Our second journey is the purpose that God placed before each and every person on earth to achieve for him. No matter how much money we make or how much fame we attain in life, those personal achievements may never define our purpose in life. It is a mistake to believe that all those serving God’s purpose are inside the church. God is using some people for his purpose that are not even inside the church, yet they believe in both the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. God can use anybody for his purpose even atheists. Our purpose in life is the assignment God gave to us to help contribute to the betterment of society. You do not need a college degree to achieve your purpose in life, however it may help. Once God gives you an assignment, he also gives you the anointing to achieve the purpose in the absence of a college degree. Jesus qualification to teach was, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." Jesus did not say he had to go to anybody’s college. He actually went to his Father’s college in Heaven. If we study very carefully those people who have contributed greatly to life’s improvement, they are not necessarily college graduates. Some of them were college dropouts, but God gave them the gift of creativity through anointing.
Sadly, many people waste their time in life chasing the dreams of other people without figuring out personal assignments God has given them. I have known people who went to college and spent years studying in a major they eventually abandoned because they were not interested in the subject. I met a young man who graduated from medical school in the early 1980s. After his graduation, he said he did not want to practice medicine. He went to medical school because his father was a physician, and his mother wanted him to be like his father. This young man later went to a business school and refused to practice medicine. The best way for a person to waste time in life is to chase after the dreams of others. Ask yourself this question, "Are you designed for such a journey in life?" We spend so much time following the dreams of other people and we ended missing our own purpose in life as ordained by God. God said, "I placed before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and your offspring may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Are you wasting your time chasing after the dreams of others? The point being, no matter what we achieve while in search for personal fulfillment it will not give us peace. The only way we achieve joy and the peace of God is by fulfilling God’s purpose for us on earth. Many people have achieved greatness in life, and later to crash and burn. There are many well to do millionaires that are suffering daily from sadness, despair, or depression. In 2009, a 74-year-old Adolf Merckle a German billionaire committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a running train. From this incident, I knew that no amount of money can bring a person inner peace. Even though he lost money in the Wall Street, he still got a lot of money left. Yet the numerous millions he had did not prevent him from depression. He committed suicide. Ernest Hemingway despite his success as a successful writer and a millionaire, ended his life with a shotgun blast. He was said to have been suffering from depression. We should be very careful when we are only searching for personal fulfillment that may end up in tragedy without the peace of God through the Holy Spirit. I personally feel sorry for celebrities who dabble in mysticism of Eastern religion and ended up opening the door for demons. A search for personal fulfillment may make your life comfortable, but will NEVER bring true peace.
If you are reading this article, please pray with me that all these celebrities who are either into the New Age, occultism, or any religion against the will of God will repent and come back home to God. The devil is a deceiver. I used to live in a country where people mixed Christianity with other form of religions. But, in my generation God introduced the Holy Spirit to me before I was ten years old. The Holy Spirit made me to understand that Jesus is the only way to the Father in Heaven. I may not be rich and successful like some people, but the Lord has given me his Eternal Peace through the Holy Spirit. I wake up every morning praising God and giving my Lord the glory. I try to spend more time in meditation on the WORD of GOD. I noticed lately that Jesus visitations to me are subtler than before. Jesus wants to spend some quality time with us to enjoy our company. Sometimes the energy of the visitation may be very intense. Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and open the door, I will come inside and dine with him and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). You cannot open the door for Jesus when you are dabbling in the Eastern religion of mysticism. In the same way God used to visit with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Jesus loves to visit with us and enjoy our company. I have had many of these experiences before I realized what was going on. During his visitation, he gives me this great joy, peace and serenity beyond anything this wretched world can offer. Lately, I’m learning to ride the glory cloud of God. If people know that the greatest high is in the Spirit of God, they will throw all their drugs away and follow Jesus. God, is my witness! I’m a witness to the joyous power of his divine grace through the Holy Spirit. Amen! Amen! You can only find your true deliverance ONLY through Jesus Christ.
"He was wounded for my transgressions, he was bruised for my iniquities, the chastisement for my peace was upon him. With his stripes, I’m healed" (Isaiah 53:5).
Article by Yinka Vidal, author, Closer Walk With Jesus.
