Author: Jojo Agot

Pastor at Victory. Faculty and adviser at Every Nation Leadership Institute (ENLI). MA in Theology and Mission at Every Nation Seminary.

Quietness Before God

“People today are afraid to be alone. This fear is a dominant mark of our society. Many now ceaselessly sit in the cinema or read novels about other people’s lives or watch dramas. Why? Simply to avoid having to face their own existence…

No one seems to want (and no one can find) a place of quiet — because, when you are quiet, you have to face reality. But many in the present generation dare not do this because on their own basis reality leads them to meaninglessness; so they fill their lives with entertainment, even if it is only noise…

The Christian is supposed to be very opposite: There is a place for proper entertainment, but we are not to be caught up in ceaseless motion which prevents us from ever being quiet. Rather we are to put everything second so we can be alive to the voice of God and allow it to speak to us and confront us.”

Source: Francis Schaeffer, “Walking through the mud,”  in No Little People (Downers Grove, 1974), pages 86-87, as posted by Ray Ortlund in The Gospel Coalition website.

I have calmed and quieted my soul. Psalm 131:2

No Longer Dormant

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you… 1 John 2: 27

The anointing remains, now matter how long has it been since you literally felt that power in your life. You may have forgotten your skill, you may have forgotten your giftings, you may have forgotten that you were made for something greater than what you are right now. It doesn’t matter. The God who placed that anointing in your life has not forgotten.

He remembers His promises, and He has visited you again today to remind you that it is time to wake up from your self-induced slumber. The Lord is here now. He has come to fulfill the promise He has spoken to you many years ago. “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” [Gen. 28: 15]

It is time to rise up. Your period of dormancy is over. Your time of mourning is at its end. It is time to open your eyes again. Look around you. God has made everything new. He has recreated your world. Forget the former things. Forget the shame of your youth. Your time is here. Again.

Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;
You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them,
And will make the hills like chaff. [Isaiah 41: 15]

This time around, the magnitude of the impact of your life will increase tenfold. You will speak blessings to thousands, influence countless people to make decisions for Christ, reach a segment of the society you were not able to reach before.

This time, you will begin to understand why things never worked out in the past.

Honor

Never forget the people who invested in your life. Honor the ones who labour for your growth. Be grateful for the people who touched you in big or small ways. After all, you are who you are and where you are today because of their obedience and sacrifice. May the young generation learn to be grateful for the ones who have gone ahead of them.

—Ram Canes, New Life Tacloban

The Secret to Answered Prayers

Anyone can verbalize their problems to God and think they are praying. Effective prayer is when you remind God of His promises and you appropriate those promises into your life.

I know I’ve heard this many times before but just this morning, the Lord refreshed this in my heart like I was hearing it for the first time. Prayer, the preacher said, is not so much about giving God a blow by blow account of your problems. Rather, prayer is when you remind God of His promises and ask Him to fulfill those promises to your specific situations.

To some people, this is like splitting hairs over some technical definitions of prayer. It’s not. The truth is that how you approach your prayers actually spells the difference whether they’re going to be answered or not.

Continue reading The Secret to Answered Prayers

The Problem With Being Bookish

Today’s evangelical church has discarded the discipleship model in favor of an academic model. Instead of discipling people, we teach them. We put people in classrooms and present them with Bible knowledge. We offer a weekly lecture (sermon) from an educated person with a seminary degree. As for laymen, the more you know, the more accurate your doctrine, the more God is pleased. Christianity is something that happens inside your mind.

Why is this academic approach to faith so discouraging to men? Simple. Men are less comfortable in a classroom.

We cannot expect men to come to maturity in Christ in a classroom environment. Although reading, study, sermons, and classes can help, these academic exercises cannot penetrate to the hidden places in a man’s heart. But discipleship can, because it’s teaching by example. Christ didn’t hand out a study guide; He demonstrated a life pleasing to God. His example, even more than His words, produced eleven men who shook the world. That is why a man who has sat in church for thirty years without much life change will be suddenly transformed after going on a mission trip. Men are changed by what they experience, not necessarily by what they are told.

Excerpt from David Murrow’s WHY MEN HATE GOING TO CHURCH.