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ОглавлениеWINDOWS TO THE HEART OF PEOPLE OF FAITH
By
Chris Anianwu
Copyright 2013 Chris Anianwu,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-1570-3
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
DEDICATED TO
ANITA
&
MILLICENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to acknowledge Moira Allen of Writing World whose articles encouraged me over the years. My sincere gratitude also goes to Mark Edwards who took it upon himself to proofread most of my Children’s books. I won’t fail to thank Bo Bennett of eBookIt for the favor he did to me in the effort to help me publish my works. My ultimate regards go to Ikenna of Chitob & Olive Associates who helped me take the first step in the wonderful adventure of writing.
INTRODUCTION
In every area of life, talent is essential but talent alone cannot take us to the pinnacle of our ability. There is always that extra-factor: where you were born, who you know, your trainer, your exposure, places you have been to and others. Above all, you need a mentor. It can be a mentor in your mind or a real life mentor. This brings alive the aim of this book.
You have refused to do most of the “fun” things your friends and mates do because of who and what you are in God. Yet sometimes, when you get home – to your spiritual base, they try to castigate you or call you names because you made some mistakes here or there. Worse than that, sometimes, you ask God for some fundamental needs, He does not answer or it takes Him forever to do so. For these reasons and more, every living soul would be forced to ask one day, “Does it worth it?” Does it really, really worth it?!?! How did the great people of God we read about and feel elated manage to climb to the height we see and smile with envy?
You have done your part. You have repented of your sins. You have accepted Jesus Christ in your life as your Lord and Savior. You live by His grace. You eschew evil in all its ramifications and you speak against them. You have left your problems to Him but you are still encumbered with loads of care. You left them with Him for ages but nothing seems to be working out right. What exactly does He want from you?? You do the little you can among the brethren yet, no way. You must ask and answer these questions and more in practical terms to know exactly where you are headed, the next step to take and where you stand in the Lord’s great graph. You must know whether you are moving forward or backwards. When sitting in a swinging chair, we may think that we are moving until the pendulum comes to rest. Yes, once we were up there but now we are living below poverty line. This may not be true with you financially but what is happening in the spirit realm that makes things go up and down? What we believe or do not believe don’t seem to make much difference in this matter.
What drives the fate of humans that nothing seems to be steady? Yesterday we had it all, today we are sitting among the beggars; yesterday it was all fun and drums but today it’s all doom and gloomy; yesterday we were young and strong but today we can’t lift a bat … There must be something in the spirit arena which inadvertently drives the physical? Yet some people have been able to prove that we can ride the storms of life in our own terms. They proved that we can dictate the pace of what goes on around us. They did show that we can weather any hurricane with unprecedented equanimity and absolute peace. These are the people of faith.
People of faith have one big heart. That heart is what we wish to explore. Windows into the heart of people of faith tries to answer some of the questions that create a lot of controversies in our hearts. Sure, we may not mention some of the questions brewing within us before the brethren because we may be tagged reprobates or something worse but there keep hovering around our mind. Many times we do not share such questions with any living soul. God hears and knows all of them and He does not condemn us for them. That is what matters. He has seen and heard worse. The problem is that if we fail to answer these questions sincerely, we may run into a few hitches along the way. Because of our unwillingness to address such problematic questions, some people have made a shipwreck of their faith.
Every child of God can wait for God but when the wait turns into a drag, it changes their psych and pulls their resolve ten miles down the hill. Every child of God has faith but when their faith is allowed to falter, they become shadows of whom they are supposed to be. Pretences may set in and hypocrisy becomes a second name.
We shall seek solutions to all these and more by looking at a few people who have seen it all yet they made it to the finish line with honors. There is nothing we see that many brethren who have been here before us have not seen - ten times over. There is nothing we go through that people have not passed through and emerged with flying colors but it was never easy for any of them.
Some of the points we make may be repeated for emphasis and because some of the topics overlap. The main thing is for our analyses to achieve what they are meant to achieve – to take us where we ought to be in our God.
Some of the captions are challenging and may sound too strong for some of us but don’t jump conclusions. Don’t even try defend God. Gideon would tell us that God can always fight for Himself. Any god that cannot fight for itself is ready to go defunct. The purpose of this book is to awaken some of us to some of the realities and challenges of our faith and to brace up for the fight ahead. By dong that, we can muster the spiritual energy we need to either fly or crawl to the end. On the other hand, it can help others answer a few questions that have been bugging them over the years because iron sharpens iron. It can also help some people who have been nursing grudges against God for shortchanging them to dust themselves off and finish the task set before them because God owes nobody an apology. God has a blueprint for each of us. He is following the original plan. Whatever we are passing through that seems strange to us is only a part of the package as long as we remain in Him. However, the equation may change it we default. The important thing is for us to be sure that we are still in Him. As long as we remain in God, nothing is out of place! Nothing!!
The trial of our faith and the things we go through in our lives and ministries are common to people of faith - present and past. To revolt against them says we do not belong there. Revolt denied Lucifer his precious place in Heaven because rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft if not worse. God can take our frustrations; He can take our questions but He is not comfortable with our fears and doubts. He does not take our rebellious spirit lying low because it questions the essence of whom God is. It challenges His authority.
After Job had swam through the fire of hell by reason of what was happening to him, God did not go to him with a shipload of “Sorry, son.” God simply continued with Him as if nothing had happened. Indeed, he blessed Job with a small puzzle. He asked Job to tell Him where he, Job, was when the world was created. That was because Job was arranging some nice questions he would ask God when their met. Job Knew that by and by, he was going to meet Him some day. However, God does what He wants to do for reasons best known to Him and in His own time, in His own way - all for our good. When a woman is in the ‘labor-room’ pushing, it is never easy for her. When the child arrives, the mother looks at him or her and says, ‘Cute’ even if the child is not cute at all. The truth is that every child is cute to the mother. Sure, we may not see the ‘’why” now but when it is all said and done, we shall see it shining bright.
By and by, when this battle is over, when the morning comes and all the saints stand with their accolades, we will know why we went through all we went through – we shall rejoice with them because we shall understand their language.
When we follow God sincerely and worship Him with unalloyed, undiluted dedication, He proves Himself to us beyond every split of doubt. He does it in different ways depending on our individual walks with Him. It seems as if He has a blueprint for each of His children.
After you are grounded in Him, He begins to lead you into deeper things of the spirit. That is when you begin to see delays, rejections, disappointments and more. All of them are aimed at developing your faith muscles for the journey that will take you to greater heights in your God. We are sorry to say that it may not work out the way you planned it for you are not the Master Architect. No, you are not. Be informed that there are hills to climb; there are mountains to scale through and stormy seas to swim. All these and more take you to your land of promise, where you ought to be in Him.
The three Hebrew children said they would not worship any other God even if God refused or failed to save them. They did make their point but as they were led towards the furnace, no person knew what was going on in their mind. Any intelligent person would have asked, “Are these guys insane? Are they daft?? Why should they choose to die and die for nothing?!? What’s there in bowing down to these sticks and stones? … This is where many of us fail woefully. One could argue, “They could have bowed down to the idol and save their lives. Latter, they could continue with whatever they believed. There was nothing in it,’ such people would argue. ‘They knew what they believed. They could go ahead and serve their God in their secret places ….” This reasoning sounds great, doesn’t it? Sure, it does but this is the logic that has spelt the demise of many would-have-been great people of God: ‘Do it. There is nothing there.’ Brother, that is your defining moment; Sister, everything is in it. Blow to it and you may never have a second chance. Stand your ground and you might have written your name in solid gold among the people of faith.
