By Zethu Zwane
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This time I’m sharing with you my evening Bible reading because as you know my schedule recently changed meaning I couldn’t read my Bible in the mornings like I’ve been doing for the past year. However, your faithfulness to read the bible is still important. Even as your schedule changes and you find yourself in a new schedule, always make time for God.
You’ll recall that starting my own business made me realise I had a mediocre prayer life. This reminded me of a Bible verse that also explains why my prayer life was mediocre. The Bible verse says the rich think they don’t need God because they have all they need. Yet look, God responds saying they’re naked! This is similar to the children’s story about the king who was lied to believing the invisible robe would cover him.
Similarly, to God that’s how he views the affluent. Yet I also said in another blog that when you’re employed, you’re living in a kind of comfort that blurs just how much you need God. Without realising it, your job becomes a tool for busyness. As you know, this is a type of idol taking you away from God. Then again your self will and actions move you from God. This is why we should celebrate seasons of lack, the wilderness or the valley.
Taking a detox from paradoxes and idols of this world
Now I’m not against making money; I know that every entrepreneur struggles with the paradox of making money and becoming financially successful. However God makes it clear that if you can’t worship God and money. That’s why I’m grateful for this passage. Actually I need to remind myself every day to be grateful because of the mounting uncertainties that each day brings.
Still God calls you to be grateful because being joyful magnifies the Lord God and reduces or eliminates your life problems. Like yourself, I neded this reminder when I first started my business. Reason being you’ll hear a lot of people encouraging you to work till death. This is not God’s plan, but ideas from Babel. Consequently, the first part of your journey is realizing how many worldy idols exist in your life.
Contrast this with God who will solve everything in your life. In order to ahive this, you need to submit your life to God’s full authority. This means worshipping and following Him alone. Leave behind false practices like affirmations that become a snare. All of these reasons and more is why I enjoy reading the bible. I also enjoy reading the bible because I realised that God speaks to you every day. Just like manna in the desert, God has a word for you each day you read the bible.
My road to obedience started with letting go of self-centeredness
And I love seeing that year by year God is working in me a new creation. Can I be honest; in previous years I read the bible only seeking what would serve me. Yet all glory to God because this wilderness season has transformed how I see and receive the Word of God. Eveb before the wilderness season. It took experiences loss and theft to change the posture of my heart. I’m not going to judge myself because God doesn’t speak harshly to me or you.
Instead the more you read the bible and pray, the more you’ll see a difference in yourself. This again answers all those times people asked me; “how do I know God answered my prayers,” look at how you see the bible. If you’re still seeking the bible as a way to help yourself, continue reading the bible every day.
Jehovah is faithful and patient in your transformation. Stay reading the bible even when the world doesn’t make sense and it feels dark. This is how you’ll see God’s power and authority. I’m so grateful to God for taking me through deep waters, and irs why I loveHim like a circle! I’ve come to accept that you’ll struggle with certain emotions. I struggled from depression and anxiety, but Praise God His Righteousness and Faithfulness is not dependent on a season of sadness.
However, today I’m continuing on the path God has set before me. Never saw these verses before, but this season God has been speaking about obedience. Every time I read the bible faithfully and at the same time, God’s word is covering obedience. And there’s a lot to learn from it because I’m confident it means I’m at the stage where God commands obedience over my sins, feelings, or any peer pressures.
Going through deep waters that strengthened my hope in Christ Jesus
There comes a time when God takes you through certain situations, so you can learn about His nature and character. I struggled with feeling loved because people always rejected me from superficial reasons. That’s why God always comfortedme with the song; I’m a child of God! He needed to speak this over me due to where He’s taking me. Similarly God had the Isrealites fight wars during the Wilderness to teach them how to be a nation.
Then the toughest deep waters I went through was after following afformations. I experienced the worst spiritual warfare for 3 years. Even before my spiritual attacks, I asked God why didn’t He stop me from following affirmations. Very immature right, and yes I can say it now because no one forces you to keave God. Instead people have become like Judges, Deuteronomy 13 or Samuel. They do as they please even after countless warnings.
Praise God again because He saved me, allowing me spiritual victory on January 2023! God put an end to the spiritual attacks, but I gained more spiritual knowledge. Firstly I learned never to magnify the enemy, and I live in a space that does exactly that. People can tell you of all 20 dons in this land, but never a verse to demolish all strongholds. I was reminded by someone that all they need is Mark where Jesus rebuked all demonic attacks.
Warnings against doing as you please
Knowing that there’s someone who’s reading this and still following affirmations, read the story of King Ahab. King Ahab loved doing as he pleased thinking that he was correct. Then read my morning Bible reading on Judges. All those people thought what they were doing is Enright. Yet God doesn’t need a counsel. God doesn’t need supernatural secrets like afformations to transform your life. He’s the most High God.
What saddened me is people don’t realise afformation is an attack on God’s kingdom. It’s selling this universal god, which is a counterfeit. And it’s an arrogant attack that’s misleading millions. For 1 I never experienced this type of spiritual attacks until instarted doing affirmations.
And trying to make them biblical only blurs the likes between tarot cards and Christinity. When did we become related to witches? As Christians we’re meant to be leading the way in preparing for God. Yet following affirmations becomes a snare. How do you stand your ground and pull on the full Armour of God, if bible verses evade you? That’s why even if another century passes don’t “update your prayer ways,” because you might end up mirroring the bleach praying person I met.
Warnings against doing as you please
Nonetheless, thinking about false teachings makes me grieve. That’s because disobedience is misleading millions who follow affirmations. Before you read my 7 series on affirmations, just watch a documentary. I watched one where a guy recited over 100 affirmations a day, but invite him to submit to Jesus Christ and it’s a fight.
Others end up exalting themselves, forgetting they overcame that situation because of God’s power and voice. His voice led them. I noted this about the 23 year old who wanted the priest to proclaim his name before he sat down in church. Then I also mentioned this after meeting someone who prays with bleach and sugar. Seeing all these lost souls is why I warn you about False teachings and doing as you please.
The more you learn about the truth of the Gospel, the more you’ll be grateful for those deep waters
Doesn’t this demonstrate God’s love, Righteousness, Faithfulness , Power and Authority. Wow the glory of God! God will never leave you to be stupid, instead He equips you along the way. Now like most of you, I’m sure it’s terrifying, and you probably want to cry once a week! Okay I did. Yet never loose hope, and keep believing in God’s power. However this power comes with simple commands from God.
Now to the most annoying part of my evening reading. May I vent for 2 seconds? No seriously I’m annoyed and I need to vent before returning to a heartfelt conversation with you. Is that okay? Who was that prophet in the 1st Kings chapter 13! Wow how my annoyance toward him burned. What’s the purpose of him lying? And then the prophet says it’s the Man of God’s fault. I had to pause for a moment to prevent my eyes from rolling back.
Okay now that I’ve vented and I hope you’re understanding, but truth is this season I’ve been seeing something new in the Bible. The importance of Obedience will even defy the most important people in your life. And I understand this so deeply because I had a successful business person tell me I’ll fail because I wasn’t born to write.
Forget what people say! Stay in Christ and obey His commands
Many people will have opinions on what you should be doing. Yet this entrepreneur doesn’t know I did 3 fasts asking God for confirmation on what He said. God had told me to blog and clean the home. Still people keep pressuring me to quit my dreams saying they’re unrealistic.
Truthfully, many people want money now as opposed to waiting through years to build what God has for you. I’ve also seen other Christian bloggers saying that if you keep questioning God about something, it means you don’t trust God.
In my personal opinion, if you don’t trust God then be prepared to have a longer wait because you don’t want to destroy what God intends for a lifetime. I’m grateful God took away all grandiose tasks and left me with what I deemed mediocre because it exposed my idols and desires. This is what the business person was missing. They couldn’t see what God had commanded, nor do they have the power to edit what God has commanded.
Listening to people will sometimes bring trouble, yet God’s path is always purposeful
Likewise, this story infuriates me because it’s so familiar. As a christian, how many times have you listened to someone only to end up with a R178,000 loss? We won’t even count friends who are always chasing after money. I believe any Christian can build wealth, but worshippig wealth is a problem. Well I know I did lose R178,000, and this evening Bible reading was a reminder to me the importance of why God said; fear Him and you’ll live a long life under His care.
By the way the prophet was genuine. He wasn’t a false prophet, but he lied! Yet the issue with focusing on the prophet is that it takes away your actions in being disobedient. Remember I’ve been writing about owning your actions because blaming God becomes a snare for the enemy to continue distancing yourself away from God. And I know how some of you might feel.
In the beginning it’s okay because you’ve got faith like a child. I remember the trauma of losing so much money. The E72,000 loss really hit me hard because of the visceral response. The person didn’t hide the fact they were a wolf in sheepskin. Instead they threatened me. I was so alarmed that I became defeated. I prayed about it for 2 weeks, then continued to make loss after loss after loss.
Many of your human losses will be spiritual lessons on God’s nature helping you grow in strength and courage
Humanly, I’ve experienced many losses, to the point where you ask, is God punishing me? Has God designed me to be a loser on this earth? Before you sink into this stench smelling pit, remember these words are a snare for the enemy. Before I was excited; I had faith like a child. You know how children are. They scream for one moment and forget t like it never happened.
Reason why I use children is because I was with a 2 year old and we were laughing. Literally, it felt like rainbows and ponies until she erupted into fits of screaming. She threw her entire body back crying, and at this point I was already traumatised by babies. While I was panicking because I didn’t know what to do, her 5 year old brother picked her up and put her to sleep. I also wanted to cry; “Why! Why did she have to cry just to sleep?”
Don’t even get me started, when I went to bed, all I could hear was her screaming because I wanted to know what I’d done wrong. Why couldn’t I tell what kind of screaming is this? Anyway the point is before I left her, she went back to rainbows and ponies kind-of-feeling while I was left registering babies for my 40th birthday!
At the start of your Christian journey, you’ll have faith like a hold until this
That’s not the point. The point is when you first start out as a Christian, you’re full of faith and confidence. You’re proud that God speaks to you. You’re happy that God actually speaks! Like He speaks. Wow, when did that happen? You’re filled with all kinds of ambition and purpose. You finally understand your purpose for existing.
Even when the enemy attacks and you hear God’s voice, you’ll remain full of joy, ambition and purpose. That’s until endurance kicks in. Endurance to me is similar to when your boss or sports coach gives you a really out of touch assignment and after months or years of research and late nights, you fail. Did you know I was a national swimmer?
Oddly I was fat coming in first place. Then from 2005, I went down to 8th place. Many people asked me what happened. This is when shame kicks in, and it infects all of us. Anyone in life will give through this, even business people and housewives. That’s because you’ve been sacrificing sleep to achieve 1st place again. Then you’ve been eating right, and not indulging in your favourite comfort foods.
All endurance will test, strengthen you, test again and mold your faith and courage.
You had to evolve through research, trial and error to try perfecting your skill. Yet there’s another fail. What’s more you can’t pay your bills and your anxiety begins to flare. It’s these moments where you’ll no longer be like the 2 year old toddler who bounces back to rainbows and ponies kind-of-feeling. All endurance strips you of all your strength till you realise you need God’s strength to achieve all things.
Before you even rejoice that this is the end, there’s perseverance. It took me from 2005-2009 before I even started breaking my personal best. I was still coming in 4th place or 5th place. It’s so easy to lose yourself when you can’t see a way out of losing. “God, did You design me to lose in life,” Are thoughts you’ll have when endurance turns to perseverance. Yet absolutely not because if I didn’t put in the effort through trial and error, I wouldn’t be able to share my testimonies with you.
If you don’t go through the wilderness, you won’t know why or how to obey God. This brings me to my Bible reading today. Did you notice that God reprimanded those who’ve gone through the wilderness with Him? There’s many people in the bible that I scream back; “wait God, why didn’t You punish this person,” before throwing the my head back. I know I make my morning reading a tad theatrical.
Obedience is commanded by all and more especially to those He calls to do something
Anyway the point is those who’ve been called by God have a different set of expectations than those who are new to their faith. If you’re a backsliding Christian then you have some time, which only becomes delays. This is nothing to celebrate because it means you’re not fully livin in your purpose. You’re too cold, so how can God trust you to commit to His kingdom when you’re undecided.
Likewise those God called immediately and without suggestions, you’ll have different types of grace and you’ll be more reprimanded by God. That’s because, out of His authority and power, God has picked you to accomplish or speak something. Unlike those you’ve seen in the Bible who’s sins are covered by grace, God won’t allow you to get away with this sin. This is true to business owners who act like Pharaoh. Take how God removed Saul from His kinship as an example.
Disobedience must be killed immediately in those God has called. In reality it takes countless seasons like the ones I’ve shared with you to realize you lived under God’s grace. Yet today is not the day to expect grace for known disobedience. This is what I saw about the Man of God from Judah.
Whatever God has said to you whether it’s mediocre in your eyes, you must obey. The man from Judah was told not to turn to the left or to the right, or go back. This was God’s command. That means in your private time, what has God spoken to you that’s being tested?
Do not turn to the right or to the left of suggestions when God commands you
Do not turn to the left or to the right. In the end, you’ll have to bear the consequences of our actions. I know I did when I quit what God commanded me to do. And all glory to His grace, because I didn’t receive all the punishment that I deserved. God forgave me and gave me the opportunity to help the people. Now Contrast this with persistent reading of the bible and receiving revelations from God.
Isn’t it fair that God punish you, so that you don’t go back into disobeying? When God reprimands you, it’s a demonstration of His love, holy authority and power over all heaven and earth. Count it as a blessing because it shows that God cares for you, and doesn’t want you to continue down the path of death. That’s because disobedience leads to death; where you’re away from God.
I’d take a loving Father like that any day than those people who left me with half a braid (story here). God punishes those He loves. And in the case of the man who died, God has to demonstrate His glory and power. I’m assuming by now that this person knows God. He knows that God holds all the power and glory in the heavens and on earth.
God is slow to anger and patient, but this doesn’t stop His judgement against your disobedience
Since God holds all the power and authority in the heavens and on this earth, I’m sure this man should have known by now. He’s walked a certain path where He’s seen God’s glory. Likewise when I lost R72,000, I won many spiritual victories. That’s because God spoke to me saying certain people will say that your truth is a lie, and their lies are the truth. I watched this over and over again, and witnessed first hand God’s judgement.
Contrast this when you’ve seen God’s judgement only to disobey. I know for a fact after going over how God moved before judgement , I became scared. I was scared because so far I had witnessed Good God. The loving Abba Father. Even when I was experiencing Adornai for the first time, I had never seen how great God’s power is. And trust me when I say the blow God inflicted was great.
It was rich with lessons. Jehovah Nissi proved that when wicked people begin planning He begins counter measures. Yet out of grace and His righteousness, God sends countless warnings. I’m confident that this man of God should have known this. When you’re called by God, you’ll see a deeper and more intimate part of God that gives you wisdom. It’s this wisdom that should stop you from disobeying.
God is slow to anger and patient, but this doesn’t stop His judgement against your disobedience
Again before you oppose deepening your faith in God, let me tell you why I love God like a circle. God doesn’t punish or kill mindlessly. To kill my fears, I had to remind myself of all the spiritual warnings God allowed me to witness. Even as I write this, I can’t help but be in awe of His glory. The people cheating were warned coutnltess times. Similarly I was warned against afformations for an entire 2 years before the attacks started. The same power and authority He declared over those who did wrong, this is the same power that protects you.
Today you might feel need that power more than ever, because working on a business is hard work. Having a family is disciplijed work. Having harsh coworkers requires forgiveness. All these demand discipline from you, especially when God has commanded you to go 1 direction. I feel this man of God from Judah knew this power. And if he knew this power, it means he had some understanding of how God works. To the point that you should fear God’s word far more than your priest. Actually what the prophet said reminds me of John 10:11.
In John 10:11, God says the helpers are not like Him. Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who won’t grow tired of looking after you. He also says the help will run away when wolves show up. Then another verse says God is not like man who lies, and look didn’t the prophet lie! Above all else, fearing God is having respect for God. Don’t be so scared that you refuse to live for God.
During a brief season of suffering, you’ll still gain more about God’s character and authority
Absolutely not what I’m trying to say. When I kept losing more money, God shielded me more and more. That’s because thieves don’t like to be reminded that they owe you money. There were many attempts to throw me out of the project, but I stayed because of God’s power. The same power and authority shielded me from slander. And you know gossipers, slanderers and thrives think the same way.
Slanderers and thieves think you’ll also steal from them and ruin their names, yet I remained faithful to God and forgave. Honestly that’s how I made it in those days. It was believing in God’s power that helped me forgive and to sincerely be nice to those who hurt me. Whenever you’re faithful to God, not knowing will He heal you, but He’ll strengthen you. That’s because I’ve met more people like that, yet I’m not afraid.
I’ve come to learn that the more you trust and obey God, the more God will give you. That’s because I firmly believe God will leave you to be stupid. Would you rather learn that there are scammers who’ll steal R1,million of your stock, or is it better to have R1,00 stolen now and you learn from it? In other times, better you read bible verses like Deuteronomy 13, and see you avoided punishment.
Take today as a chance to reposition your heart tonobey The Lord God Almighty
You escaped punishment by not following false teachers. Finally, isn’t it better that you’re still working on your projects without success, because you’re building perseverance and character? That’s because quick success doesn’t lead to God’s approval. Look at Saul when he sacrificed those animals after God commanded him not to. If this is your season to obey God regardless of whatever human losses, keep obeying.
Finally please don’t allow people to make edits to what God commanded. You have a special and intimate relationship with God, which gives you privileged information. This information will be hidden from you and God’s helpers. I believe that this story is a reminder to trust God with all Your heart, mind and strength. Then fearing the Lord is Acknowledging His power and authority above all men. Why allow people to edit God’s command! Now go and live a life of spiritual breakthrough.
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