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[maanospeaks]

You Will Rise Again

Ezekiel 37:3 - 6 And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know... that I am the Lord.”

The bones were dry. In fact they were too dry that there seems no chance at all for them to live again. I like the response of the Prophet when God asked him if they could still live. He answered God and says you know. Ezekiel knew one thing, that there is nothing impossible with God. By saying to Him "You Know" he simply told God that he trusted Him.

His response to God was an indication that he has submitted his knowledge under God who is the creator of all things. This is why it was simple for God to come in and direct him what he can do. Ezekiel was acknowledging that there is nothing he could do except that which God has allowed. God who uses His children to do things gave him the word to speak for the bones to be alive.

It does not matter what kind of challenge you are sitting with. You may be sitting with the death of a dream you so wanted to achieve. You may be sitting with a challenge you desperately want to change. God is simply speaking to you this mornng that the solution is in your mouth. That word which you will utter for the challenge to move out of your way is in your mouth. All you need to do is speak that word. But look at this, it will need som patience from you. For the bones to live, sinews must first grow in order to connect the bones together and then the flesh must grow on them so that the process of life can be fully realized. Speak the WORD, Be PATIENT and watch GOD at play in our life.

[maanospeaks]

This is my first ever radio interview with my friend Joe Manciya from Channel Africa way back in 2014. Thanks Joe for listening to the Holy Spirit and allowing yourself to be used as a channel of goodwill by God Himself. Look at what your obedience has done!

[maanospeaks]

The Essence Of God's Time Part 1

There are two definitions of time which in their reference one points to the short term while the other points to long term.

The first refers to the point of time as measured in minutes, hours past midnight or noon. This time is for short term and every midnight signals the end of day and the beginning of the other. The other one refers to an indefinite continued progress of existence ad events in the past present and future which are regarded as a whole. Here we are taking about your schooling time which in most cases will range between twelve to sixteen years or beyond depending on how long you took to study.

All this two versions of time were created by God at different times. The first of the minutes and times was created in Genesis 1:14, while the other of events was created from Genesis 1:3 to 31 when He finished the creation.

These two times work together and complement each other to compose the bigger time which is called your lifespan. Your lifespan is a compilation of time periods when you lacked knowledge and when you were enlightened, when you thought you knew and when you really knew certain things, when you struggled and when you succeeded, when you failed and when you passed, when you walked and when you drove and many other scenarios similar.

Your lifespan time eventually testifies on the different time periods that you have gone through. For other people these time periods will be shorter while for the others these periods will be longer. The reasons for these variations have everything to do with the will of God in our lives. Yes, it has everything to do with he WILL of God in your life. It depends on what kind of lessons God wants you to learn and these lessons you must embrace and appreciate because they are the lessons of your life well connected with how God is going to use you to executer plan.

Don't fall into the trap of the evil one who will come and dangle a fruit in your eyes so you can take your focus away from God. Ecclesiastes 9:11 sheds more light to this "I returned and saw under the sun that”: The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favour to men of skill; But TIME and CHANCE happen to them all. The chance referred here is an opportunity, which happens to them all. The NLT of the same verse puts it like this in the last sentence; "It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.

When you are in GOD and with GOD you are at the right place and surely the right time will come, don't despair and hand your life over to scoundrels and vultures who will shift you away from the right place so that you can miss the RIGHT TIME.   

In Daniel 2:20 -21 Daniel answered and said: Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, For wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding.

Your TIME AND SEASON is upon you, because this is the essence of God's TIME. GOD BLESS YOU while you are waiting for Him (IN HIS PRESENCE) to move you to your next destination.

[maanospeaks]

Two Things That Bring You Closer To God.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

I am sure you are familiar with the above verse. Many times during my talks I come across very intelligent people who seem to be very confused by simple things. You can hear from their speeches that these people are either educated or have some form of knowledge with regards to many worldly topics. But they seem very lost when it comes to the understanding of the themselves.

One who does not know himself, has not had an encounter with God. An encounter with God brings about a revelation of oneself which no amount of research and thesis work can produce. To know oneself, there is a great need of understanding that needs to be done. Many and at some point I was one of those, I thought I knew God and how he operates. Damn, how wrong I was!

There are two things that will make you know God. They look simple and yet they are profound. There are:

SUBMISSION: For many submission has been introduced as that between a husband and wife. It is more than that. Submission is the surrendering of oneself and one's consciousness of self in exchange of the other which may not be known at a particular moment. A case on point is on Mat 4:18-20 when Jesus called the brothers, Simon and Andrew. These fishermen who had their own business submitted their business, dreams, visions to the vision of Christ which could not be proven or authenticated at that time.  The brothers trusted one who was a stranger to them but who had something that sounded exciting compared to the tried and tested nets they were accustomed to.

In Christianity, submission is the trading of ONE'S WILL in acceptance of GOD'S WILL. Human nature always has its will which in most cases collides with God's will. Human will is influenced by many factors including personal gratification. This always manifests in our lives as material things and or human praise, among others. Without the general ability to submit to any human authority, in the home or in the workplace, it is difficult to submit to God. Many people miss opportunities in crusades and revivals to get connected to God because of this simple yet challenging issue of submission. They look at themselves and the pride sinks in and they easily let the opportunity pass them by.

Secondly, the issue of:

OBEDIENCE: In Genesis 12:1, God gives Abram an instruction to get out of his country and from his relatives to the land that He will show him. No details given of what the land looked like of how far it was. The only thing provided was a promise to a seventy five years old pensioner of being made a great nation. The pensioner Abram obeyed.  In John 9:7, a blind man's eyes were anointed with clay and was sent to the pool of Siloam to wash them. This was an act which resulted in his healing of the condition of blindness. This is very unconventional, It had never been done. Under normal circumstances, it would not make sense, but the blind man went to the pool and washed his eyes and came back seeing.

Many people want to be practical with God, and they miss opportunities because when God speaks to them it does not make sense. They want to see things in the way of the flesh for them to believe. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, we walk by faith, not by sight. FAITH triggers obedience, because with faith, you do not have to see it to believe it. You just have to trust Him in order for you to act. Many have failed this test because God spoke to them about things that did not make sense, yet it was in his will that it should happen in that way. But they opted to walk by sight and allowed that window of opportunity to close before them.

These two, are inter related and that is why they are the most powerful tools that any person can use to get closer to God and to access His supernatural provision. You can never be able to obey the instruction of one you do not submit to. Even children who want to be in good standing with their parents obey their instructions to show submission to their fatherhood.

What are you battling to do in your Christian life? If you introspect very well, you will realize that most of your challenges stem directly or indirectly from the two. Submit to the voice of God, and obey His instructions, and see the manifestation of 1 Corinthians 2:9 in your life. Stay blessed and keep looking out for the next article.

[maanospeaks]

The Essence Of God's Time Part 2

When I was still working at a piggery farm in Hekpoort, there are lessons that I learnt about time. One of my responsibilities was to take case of three pens of soars which only came to during their final stages of maternity so they can give birth and later on be discharged back to their normal pens. This was a certain time period in the lives of those soars.

This specific time period normally would be followed by short rest, which included specific feeding regime and medication to get them ready for another season of mating. You will realize that we as employees of the farm on behalf of the owner, we decided when this time period should start. Of course these animals some would be taken through an artificial insemination while others would be taken to the boars for a much normal mating process. But all of them in the end will bear piglets which will e taken to the market or be raised for a specific purpose.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 tells is that: "To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;" This means that God in his own wisdom, he had everything planned to happen at a specific time. Like we did with those animals, whose journeys were different, God planned it the same way. Some people will be born by young parents and others will be born by older people. Others will dies early while others will die young. Different farmers will plant at different times and they will also pluck at different times. It would be unfair for the farmer who planted a month ago to expect the harvest in the after a month or so.

Allow me to take you back to Exodus 13:17-18. Let me quote this verse so you can follow what I am talking about : "Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt."

I am positive that, if the children of Israel had known what God, The Father and The Creator of all was doing with them, many would not have died along the way. Many would have endured hopefully in anticipation of what they have heard from their ancestors. Unfortunately, they did not and they perished along the way.

God had a purpose for the children of Israel and he still has a purpose for you and me. You and I are fortunate because we have been let into the secret of God's training of patience by revealing the real essence of time for us. The suffering events of our lives would always result in the outcome that many including ourselves have never anticipated. It was God himself who said if He was to let the children of Israel through the Philistine land, they would have retreated back to Egypt because they were not yet ready for war. The same time periods happen in our lives day in and day out. Many succumb to the challenges and that is why we sit with lots  of suicides taking place in the world.

This impatience with life is as a result of one thing in particular which I have noted:

Undiscovered Purpose: undiscovered purpose is a THIEF. It is tool that the devil uses to steal your TIME. He knows that if you discover the real purpose of your life, you will not be worried about how long it takes to achieve. But if he keeps you blinded to that fact, you will wander around aimlessly and eventually you will give in and be like many who are wandering in the streets of our townships and villages. It is important to invest your time in the short term to discover your purpose for live so that the events of time will do the necessary to sharpen your patience and pruning period of your life so that your purpose can be presented to all humbly and Glorifying God.

Think about the man who was waiting at the pool of Bethesda. The bible tells us that this man had been sick for 38 years. We are also told that Jesus lived only for 33 years. Which means that this man had been sick for the entire lifetime of Jesus. Surely this man tried all means possible and necessary to get healing, to no avail. This man had to wait for the greatest physician before he was born. If God was to reveal to him that the doctor you are waiting for has not been born, this man would have died either of heart attack or by suicide. This would have been because of not understanding his purpose. There must have been something that kept this man standing with this sickness for 38 years. He knew what his purpose was and that is why he had the staying power.

Unfortunately the bible does not reveal to us what he did after he received his healing.

#When you know your purpose, you have something to live for.

#When know the essence of time, you know that there is a bigger picture of God for your life.

#When you know the essence of time, you know that even the pain you are suffering from today, will be heal at some point when God permits.

I know some of you may be looking at 2017 as one of those years you did not do well, academically businesswise just generally in life. Be encouraged, there is time for everything, and there is time for each of us. If you have not found your purpose yet, don't panic, utilize this time to search for it so that your waiting time will be focussed. If you have, take this time to rework you come back while developing your patience which will make you last longer depending on what God has planned for your journey.

May God bless you as you find locate yourself in your own time. Read this post together with part one posted a few days ago. Check out my website www.maanospeaks.co.za