Built To Build 8

Kgotsong! Greetings To You In The Ever Extraordinary Name Of The Master and Lord of all...Jesus Christ!

It's good to be alive and well by His Grace. Is it just me or is this year just moving so quickly?! Yoh! We are already going into April...gosch. It feels like just last week that we were celebrating the end of 2014.

Anyway, I hope you are lovely wherever you are as we continue this blessed series.

Oswald is a very good friend of mine whom I have known all my life really. This guy is chronically a business man and his ambitions are just out there. He loves people and wants so bad to expand his economical territory and footprint so that he can be 'blessed to be a blessing', he always says.

We had this conversation recently...

Oswald, "Gabe, how're doing my brother?"

Gabriel, "I'm rocking ekse my authi, Jehovah is Awesome!"

Oswald, "Yeah I hear you there, but I don't think He likes me all that much anymore."

Gabriel, "What are you on about morena?"

Oswald, "Dude, you remember back in 2006 when I was praying all year about what He called me on earth to do right?"

Gabriel, "Very well mfan'..."

Oswald, "Yeah and He told me about business among other things. I was like, 'cool God, let's do this thing. Where do we start?' you know..."

Gabriel, "I do know. You have been trying to break through a lot of things business wise...I know what you're talking about."

Oswald, "I have been doing exactly that. I mean I see God's Favor as He allows to meet some powerful contacts bra! I mean people who are high up in the presidency and in different departments that are financial institutions that can set me up at a single go. Let's not even talk about the trucking contracts that come my way time and time again."

Gabriel, "Yes indeed...wait what happened to that Kendal Mine Contract that you spoke about late last year?"

Oswald, "Flip! The same thing that happens to every bloody endeavor I get into...things were going well until the day of the signing of the contract with everything in place. He never showed up! Gabe! I get to start things and take them off the ground but towards the end when we just need to put the ink to the paper...something just goes wrong!!! What the hell man?! why would He point me in the direction of business if He won't let me succeed in it so that I can fund The Kingdom of God and be used of Him to bless other people?! It's really starting to drive me up the wall!"

Gabriel, "You sound pretty upset my authi...and I'm sorry about that...let me tell you this..."

To be continued...

Can you relate to what my bro Oswald is going through? What do you do in this kind of situation when you are trying to follow God's Voice and nothing seems to just come together and if they do, they fall apart at the end? Don't miss the next post.

Ready?

Many of us face troubles that cause us to question God's involvement in our matters and in most cases we want to call this 'Trusting God Thing' quits and just do our own thing...right? I feel you and the most important thing is to remember one critical thing...(on the next post)

Coming next...

Gabriel's Advice To Oswald, Continuing In Relentless Decision

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TGBTG!

The Messenger

Stay Blessed, Be Multiplied

Built To Build 7

Hey There Reader! How Are You Doing?!!!!

The weather down here in Tshwane, South Africa is a little overcast and scattered showers here and there. It's a lovely day nonetheless and I hope you have woken up to another good day wherever you are.

I don't know about you, but this series has been awesome for me and its effect has been notable. A quick recap of the Building Blocks so far? Yep:

• FAITH
• CONFESSION
• PERSPECTIVE (or View)

I hope you've also been following as we continue to Build. 

I bought a DVD some years ago and it was a Message by Bishop T.D. Jakes, titled - Relentless. He partners the great Bishop Noel Jones on it and that Message is simply timeless. He introduced the Message by speaking of a time when he was driven by a young gentleman in his early years of ministry and he asked Bishop Jakes a question that went along the lines of, "In one word, what does one need, to be to be successful in ministry?" 

The Man of God replied, "You need to be, Relentless"

A powerful Building Block that needs to be Built into us is one I would like to call Relentless Decision. If there is one decision that is attacked mercilessly in this world, it's the one to follow Jesus Christ and live according to his Word and His Spirit.

We need to be Relentless in our pursuit to stand strong in our decision to Know The Lord Our Builder. He is Building us to be unstoppable by any force that is against Him and this is not a two week training session...Oh no! It's continuous and if I wanting to stop or derail you in this regard...I would only have to sway your decision through my own opinion. Ain't that the truth?

We'll see as we will explore the stories of a few friends in the coming post to expand on this as we push on through this series.

Ready?

We must be aware of how powerful our decision to be a child of God is and how much opposition we will get, designed to stop us from growing more and more in the Knowledge of The Master which is full of Authority for us here on earth and beyond. Yes I said it, here and beyond. Let's stand strong on this decision as it is Simply The Best Decision We Will EVER Make!

Coming next...

We Visit A Few Friends To Discuss This Relentless Decision Matter

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TGBTG!

The Messenger

Stay Blessed, Be Multiplied

Built To Build 6

A Wie. Na Fede? Na fe nu te!

Oh yeah! I thought we should take a turn to Liberia. That's Greetings. How Are You? and I'm Fine in Grebo, which is spoken in the Northern side of that part of the world. I love learning new languages... I do hope you are doing lovely by His Grace of course and we should get right into it neh?

Cool. We have thus far been dealing with an understanding of what it means to be Built To Build. Matshidiso and her friend Sarah have illustrated just how pivotal it is to be careful with our words and what we believe as a result.

Sarah's cousin, Pontsho lives in Hammanskraal and she gives her a call while looking out of her second floor bedroom window. Her husband Trevor is sitting on the bed in the room.

Pontsho, "Sarah o kae my sister?"

Sarah, "Hai I'm doing fine wena Pontsho...what about you?"

Pontsho, "Aag ke sharp really. I'm just bothered by this neighbor of mine, Tlholo. Every morning I wake up and find her clothes hanging on the line neh?"

Sarah, "Jah and...?"

Pontsho, "And they are always somewhat dirty choma. Like, they have blotches and spots of dirt and I just wonder how she can't wash them clean. I'm so disappointed in her and she seems so proud of herself all the time."

Sarah, "So her clothes are a little dirty and yet she hangs them on the line like that?"

Pontsho, "Yes hle. I just wonder how her man deals with all this. I am looking at them now again and I'm just stoned..."

While she is talking she sees the husband who had left the bedroom push a step ladder right up against the wall nearest to the window, get on it and use a wet cloth to clean their bedroom window outside.

Sarah, "Hauw, Pontsho, why are you so silent now? Are you ok?"

Pontsho stays mum until Trevor cleans the entire window and another look at Tlholo's washing leaves her without words as they are sparkling clean.

Well I do wonder what Pontsho will tell Sarah next but for you and I, the point should be clear. What we say generally speaks of how we see things. Sometimes, it may be our very own perspective that shields us from the actual truth. We can see many things as dirty and wrong not necessarily because they are, but that our own 'window' is what is actually dirty and wrong.

Check this out: Ephesians 5:25-27 says, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."

Christ was and is all about washing His Bride, The Church, being us, with The Word so that our perspective can be as His is. Then, what and how we see, will inform what we believe, alter what we say and shape our reality. 

Ready?

We need to make sure that our 'window' which speaks of our perspective, reflects that which is of God. That is achieved by reading and meditating on The Word more and more, allowing it to cause us to see things the way Jehovah sees them. Then Faith and Speech become aligned correctly and we can do what is right in His Sight.

Coming next...

More Building Blocks From The Master

Don't Miss It!

TGBTG!

The Messenger

Stay Blessed, Be Multiplied

Built To Build 5

Salama! Hu Jambo! Habari Gani?!

U huh...that's Swahili for Greetings! and How Are You?!

A bit of a Swahili touch this beautiful day neh? Lol...I hope you are doing quite well wherever you are. I also pray that this BTB series is as beneficial to you as it is to me, if not a whole lot more.

Let's keep moving. So we have come to understand (as per the last post) that where we choose to place our Faith, we take time to engage therein and ultimately Speak it out. We have also learned that what we Speak out can become our very reality due to the Power that is in our tongue.

Interesting hey...

Now, we are still on the matter of being Built To Build for The Kingdom of The Almighty. The Building Blocks that we have explored include Faith and Confession. I want to stretch this a little bit by giving some observations to clarify these two 'Bricks' if you will.

Matshidiso and Sarah are two best friends and have been, since primary school. In Grade 10, they were having a loud and jolly conversation about marriage and business as part of a group of school mates, numbering eight. 

At break time they were talking about how marriage in this day and age is no longer valid, how weak and unfruitful this institution is and how its significance ended with their mothers.

Sarah, "I mean really guys...look at the guys that we have today. All they want is to bed you and then keep moving to the next prize. They can't hold a conversation for a minute without being distracted by our breasts and thighs and just want to touch them and all. I'm not interested in getting married at all. In fact, I am going to be the kind of woman that earns a 6 figure salary and has everything I want. And if I want to have my needs met, I will just call in a horny man and tell him to check out the next morning."

Matshidiso, "Hai Sars you can't keep saying that. Words are powerful phela and that could actually happen. You need to be wholesome and enjoy life with someone that you can grow old with."

Sarah, "Oh please, get real Tshidi. In this generation, it's all about me, me and me."

Matshidiso met the man of his dreams some six years later and emailed her friend Sarah who lived in London to come to their wedding which would happen soon. She flew over on her private jet and came to see her old friend.

On the night they scheduled dinner to catch up, Sarah's phone wasn't going through and she wasn't answering any messages. Matshidiso, having a bad feeling, raced to her hotel room to find her on the ground with pills around her. It seemed like an attempted suicide and feeling her pulse, she called the ambulance that came and took her to hospital. 

Having pumped all the pills out of her stomach, she woke up to find Matshidiso sitting beside her and a man with her.

Matshidiso, "Hey Sarah...how're you feeling?"

Disappointed that she isn't dead, she replied, "Why aren't I in heaven?!"

Matshidiso, "Haibo why mara Sars? I'm glad you're ok..."

Sarah, "I'm not. I hate my life. Every man I meet and fall in love with just ends up using me and I just don't understand why they won't stay. I have everything to offer and even let them be the man. But still, they just won't stick around...damn it!"

Matshidiso, "That's what you wanted though Sars..."

Sarah, "What?!! Who on earth wants to be used and treated like a second hand car to be sold off after they're tired of it?!"

Matshidiso, "Don't you remember back in high school when we talked about marriage and stuff and you said that you just wanted men for your needs and that you will not get married? You also said you will be pretty rich...and well you are."

Sarah, "What?! Are you telling me that I did this to myself?!"

Matshidiso nods her head and reminds her of the many times she told her about how powerful words are.

Needless to say, right there and then, she changed her confession, which, as we know, would change what she believes and soon enough, her reality entirely.

Ready?

What we give our time and effort to having Faith in, giving our attention to, thinking about and eventually speaking out all the time, will at some point, come to pass. Let's rather read The Word of God, speak THAT out and let THAT be our reality. It's a whole lot safer than doing our own thing without God. These are critical in the Building Process.

Coming next...

The Building Continues

Don't Miss It!

TGBTG!

The Messenger

Stay Blessed, Be Multiplied

Built To Build 4

It Is Well! 

One pastor greeted me with the above words some time back. I thought it was pretty cool, so there you go! It Is Well...

In a tough situation, those words are hard to believe or speak out right? Yeah, I know. That is why we need Faith for them to become a reality in our lives. Remember the first Building Block we spoke about in the last post? Well it applies here as we move on to the next one...Confession.

Once Faith is a steady brick in our building process, we soon pick up that it is tied to the most powerful, natural weapon we possess - our speech. Really Gab? Yep, let's check this out:

"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?"

"and how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written,

How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!"

And I'm sure you all know this one very well...

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."

These three 'witnesses' come from Romans10:14, 10:15 and Proverbs 18:21 respectively.

These days we have a lovely thing called 'Just Say It' or 'Just Speak Your Mind', the power of 'Freedom of Expression'. There's nothing wrong with it until we start speaking things that end up becoming our very lives. 

Eg. "This food is killing me..", "I'm going to die after I drive this car..."; "I'm telling you, if I get married, I won't even last 5 years" or even, "I don't want to live past the age of 35 because there is not fun in getting old"

I've heard such things and a lot more, and I suppose these can be taken as jokes or just sayings right? Imagine if they actually happen, where someone actually dies because of the food they ate, or never last past five years in marriage, or truly die after driving a particular car or just drop dead with no medical explanation on their 35th birthday?" No ways?

Well Romans 10:17 say, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Faith in God comes by hearing the Word of God. Faith in other things comes by hearing those things. So what we engage our ears in, listen to and eventually make part of our thinking processes, develops faith in us automatically. Oh yeah! If the power of life and death is in our tongue, you best believe, it happens!

Ready?

Once our Faith chooses to go after God, we need to cause our mouths to speak that which is Godly. We achieve this by understanding that Faith COMES by hearing and we need to choose to listen to things that will cause our minds to harbor things pertaining to God and speak those things out. This will become our reality.

Coming next...

The Building Blocks Continue

Don't Miss It!

TGBTG!

The Messenger

Stay Blessed, Be Multiplied

Built To Build 3

Hi There! A Blessed and Glorious day to you my beloved reader!

I look forward to a wonderful day and I pray yours is much the same if not better...

We are on a pretty lovely series and we continue with it swiftly.

On the last post, we got to understand that being Built To Build has an important prerequisite of studying to be approved for the purpose of being trusted with much in future. We understood that God Himself needs to trust us with little and then more as we taking one step after another to reach the destiny He has for us.

Now, let's go back to basics in this regard. I'm sure you have all heard the scripture, Hebrews 11:6;

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

What does this actually mean? Many people think that others don't have faith and therefore can't be Christians. Well I need to tell you that every single person on earth has faith...it's what they have faith in that sets us apart from each other.

"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."

We all have a measure of faith and so how does Heb 11:6 serve the message here? Well in the second sentence, it says, "...for he that cometh to God must believe is and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

As you can see, whatever or whoever we believe in, be it money, our own strength and intelligence, be it the company we work for, be it our business, our spouses, boyfriend or girlfriend, school maybe, or even our church...wherever we place our faith, we invest so much in it, him/her.

We are diligent in engaging, we place our heart there, we expect many a reward from there, we go there with invested intent of benefiting without fail...don't we?

Well then, this is how we are to approach the matter of Faith. This needs to be Built into us and we do that by deciding to Seek Him and find help with this matter from those who have walked with Him. Don't hesitate to ask me as well, I am here to serve.

Ready?

Faith is a decision to believe in God, reading His Word with the diligent intention of getting to know Him in the dimension of The Spirit. We need to be sure about this decision and let nothing derail us as we aim to benefit entirely from this Relationship with Him. This is Lesson 1, completely fundamental!

Coming next...

We Continue With The Next Building Block

Don't Miss It!

TGBTG!

The Messenger

Stay Blessed, Be Multiplied