Someone tells you what will happen tomorrow, and immediately you call him a prophet. But have you ever stopped to ask what makes a person a prophet? Is it simply the ability to see?
We must understand that prophets speak; seers see. What comes to my mind first is Saul first encounter with Samuel; he was looking for a seer 1Samuel 9.

 Understanding their assignments helps us recognise what God has committed to each and what we should receive through their ministries.

A seer receives sight through dreams and visions. God can show such a person things concerning people, circumstances, and events ahead. This ability is not evil. God gives seers, and their operations have a place. However, seeing what will happen tomorrow does not, by itself, define a prophet's assignment.

Isaiah 30:10 says, “Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things.”

Notice the distinction: seers are addressed concerning their seeing, while prophets are addressed concerning their speaking.

A prophet brings the mind, counsel, and commandment of God concerning God and humanity. His assignment centres on revealing God’s eternal purpose: that God will dwell among men, and that men will be conformed to the image of His Son.

A prophet is a preacher who brings the revelation of God’s mysteries. His speaking gives direction into God’s intention. He communicates what is in God’s heart so that people can believe, respond, and journey towards its fulfilment.

This is why Revelation 19:10 declares, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

The spirit of prophecy testifies of Jesus Christ: God manifest in the flesh. Its concern is God’s habitation among men and the fulfilment of His purpose in humanity. We must understand prophecy from this centre if we are to understand the ministry of a prophet.

Prophets speak God’s thoughts ahead of their fulfilment. They keep speaking because faith comes by hearing. Through their speaking, the spirit of prophecy is released to accomplish God’s intention. What they proclaim may extend beyond their own lifetime, yet God continues working towards its fulfilment. You remember Prophet Isaiah talking about a virgin conceiving, and it never happened in his days or even in the next generation; the prophecy was fulfilled 600 to 700 years after ( between 739 BC and 681 BC).

Therefore, prophetic ministry cannot be measured by dramatic expressions, clothing, or the repeated declaration, “Thus saith the Lord.” Neither should we assume that someone knows God’s purpose simply because he can disclose hidden information.

The question we must ask is: What is this ministry revealing about God and His Son? Is it showing us God’s vision and how humanity connects to it? Is it preparing our hearts to become His habitation?

A person may be both a seer and a prophet; note that in the life of Balaam. Nevertheless, the assignments must be understood.

Today’s prophets must expound what God has already committed to His prophets and apostles. Their ministry should reveal the Son and serve the fulfilment of God’s vision.

We must therefore pay attention to what our hearing is producing. Are our hearts receiving God’s impressions? Are our lives being raised? Are we learning God and becoming responsive to His eternal purpose?

 Of all the words Jesus spoke, few offend the modern mind like these: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 Not a way. The way. In a world that celebrates many paths and many truths, this sounds narrow. Intolerant, even. Why would there be only one door? But consider where the controversy began. There is a battlefield in Eden. When man reached for glory without God, the way back was shut. “He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Genesis 3:24 From that day, man has tried to climb back. Through philosophy. Through religion. Through morality. Through the brilliance of his own mind. Every tower of Babel is the same attempt: man building upward, hoping to reach heaven on his own terms. But the gap was never a distance man could cross. It was a death man could not pay. So God did what no religion could. He came down. The Word became flesh. The Creator stepped into His own creation. And the One who was the way walked the road to a cross to open what Eden had closed. That is why the claim is exclusive. Not because God is narrow, but because the price was singular. If man could save himself, Christ died for nothing. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5 Here is the paradox. The door is narrow, but it is open to all. Every tribe, every tongue, every profession, every sinner. No pedigree required. No intellect required. Only a heart that stops claiming to be its own source and receives. The real offence of the gospel is not that it excludes people. It is that it excludes pride. It tells the scholar his brain cannot reach God. It tells the moralist his goodness cannot buy God. It tells every self-made man that he was made. And that is exactly why it is good news. Many roads lead to religion. Only one leads back to the Father. The flaming sword in Eden turned every way. At Calvary, it turned on Him. 
#Faith #Jesus #Truth #Gospel

Lydia's purple was cloth. Expensive, rare, the colour of kings. But yours might be your degree. Your title. Your company. Your bank balance. Your talent. Your name in the room.

Purple is whatever makes us feel royal on this earth.

And the question the gospel asks every one of us is simple: will you lay it down?

Because heaven does not dress in purple. Heaven dresses in white.

"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Isaiah 1:18

Think about this. On the day of His crucifixion, the soldiers mocked Jesus by putting a purple robe on Him (Mark 15:17). The King of kings wore earth's fake royalty so we could wear heaven's true one. He took our purple. He gave us white.

Lydia understood the trade. She sold purple, but when the Lord opened her heart, she laid her purple at His feet. Her house, her wealth, her influence all came under a new Owner.

Then there was the Ethiopian eunuch. A man "of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure." Acts 8:27

He managed a queen's treasury. Yet he travelled hundreds of miles, and on his way home he was reading Isaiah. With all of Candace's wealth under his hand, he still knew something was missing. He found it in Christ and went on his way rejoicing.

Earthly royalty couldnt satisfy him. Heaven's royalty did.

Now, I'm not saying dont work. We all chase our daily needs. We build, we hustle, we serve clients, we pay bills. That is not the problem.

The problem is the barn.

Jesus told of a rich man whose ground brought forth plenty. His only plan was to pull down his barns and build bigger ones. Then God said, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." Luke 12:20

Look closely. He wasnt foolish because he was rich. He was foolish because there was no room for God in his plans. Every thought was barn, barn, barn.

That is exactly what Psalm 14:1 means: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."

It's not always a verbal statement. Many fools go to church. It is a state of mind. A life where God is simply not retained in the thinking (Romans 1:28). Planning, building, expanding, and God never enters the equation.

Paul gave the rich a different charge. Be "rich in good works, ready to distribute… laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." 1 Timothy 6:18-19

Your purple can purchase eternal treasure. Your resources can build something that outlives you.

We all have a part to play. The doctor, the developer, the trader, the banker, the teacher. Nobody is exempt.

So what is your purple?

Lay it down. Trade it for white.

Because earthly royalty fades. Heavens royalty never does.

#Faith #Kingdom #Purpose #Eternity

An idol is a doll of the eyes.
 It sits where the light should be,
 a small thing you dress in a large thing,
 until you cannot see.

It does not shout. It does not force.
 It only asks you look,
 and looking long, the eye grows dull,
 and dull is how you're took.

"They have eyes, but they see not,"
 the Psalmist sang of stone,
 "they that make them are like unto them."
 We become what we enthrone.

Now hear me. I am not against the world.
 I build in it. I trade.
 I code, I earn, I pay my bills,
 I use what God has made.

Paul said to use this world
 "as not abusing it."
 The trouble was never the thing in the hand.
 The trouble is where it sits.

A thing in the hand is a tool.
 A thing in the eye is a god.
 And the difference between the two
 is never found in the thing, but the nod.

The nod of the head that bows.
 The nod of the heart that says
 "without you I am nothing,"
 to something that will not stay.

Money is a servant with a good resume
 and a terrible appetite.
 Give it a desk and it works.
 Give it your eyes and it blinds your sight.

So how do you use and not worship?
 How do you hold and not kneel?
 The answer is older than every market
 and quieter than any deal.

Build your house with high doors
 and meekness cannot come in.
 Pride needs the ceiling raised.
 Glory needs room to begin.

But the new and living way
 was never through a high door.
 It was through a torn veil,
 and the only way through is low.

Low is where the water runs.
 Low is where the seed is sown.
 Low is where the Master knelt
 to wash the feet of His own.

The eye that is dull from gazing
 must be anointed to see,
 and He still sells eyesalve to the poor
 who have nothing but need.

So I keep my purple in my hands,
 never in my eyes.
 I let the earth serve the heaven,
 not heaven serve the lies.

The idol asks: look at me.
 The Lord says: look through.
 One makes the eye a doll's eye.
 The other makes it new.

Hold what you hold loosely.
 Stand where you stand low.
 The high door keeps out meekness.
 The low line lets glory through.

#Faith #Poetry #Idolatry #Kingdom

John 20:30–31
"And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."

A miracle can be a sign pointing to Christ, but the life is in Christ, not in the sign.

Do you know that, the experience of miracles does not necessarily transform a man's heart

Don't forget, the Israelites witnessed manifestations of divine power that very few generations in Scripture ever experienced.

They saw the plagues in Egypt, the dividing of the Red Sea, the pillar of fire, manna from heaven, and water from the rock.

Yet Hebrews 3:16–19 tells us that many of those who witnessed these works rebelled against God and could not enter His rest because of unbelief.

Psalm 78:32 (KJV)
"For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works."
Let's check this out: For all this they sinned still. Outward miracles are not an instrument of soul conversion.

Pharaoh is another example. He repeatedly encountered demonstrations of God's authority, yet hardened his heart (Exodus 8:15; 9:34).

Miracles can awaken faith, provoke repentance, and lead people toward Christ. John 11:45 records that many believed on Jesus after witnessing the raising of Lazarus. But a miracle does not, by itself, does not do the word of engrafting the word of truth.

Miracles have a place in the Church, but they must never displace the place of teaching Jesus in our churches, not teaching Jesus as a Bible character but unveiling what made him up.

A Church can legitimately pray for healing, experience deliverance, and witness extraordinary demonstrations of God's power. But these experiences must not become substitutes for knowing the Person of Jesus, obeying His Word, and growing into His likeness.

If you grew up in Nigeria in the late 90s and early 2000s, you remember the water crusades. Bottles lifted in the air by the thousands. Buckets, sachets, kegs. Rivers where people queued at dawn. Testimonies the following Sunday.

To be honest, those years made me question a lot. Not God. Us. Something in me couldn't settle. Why water? Why this particular water? What exactly were we holding up?

Then the book I'm reading listed who else has holy water. Hinduism. Sikhism. Buddhism. Shinto. Judaism. Rome. The Orthodox. The Lakota, the Maya, the Māori, the Yorùbá, the Akan.

Everybody has magic water.

And that was when something clicked. The water was never the point. It was a confession. Every bowl at every shrine is a people saying, "we are thirsty for something we cannot name."

Coming back to the scriptures with that question, I noticed a pattern that runs through the whole Bible: men latch on to a symbol faster than they seek the reality the symbol points to.

Moses lifted a bronze serpent and the people were healed. Seven hundred years later Hezekiah had to smash it, because Israel was burning incense to it. 2 Kings 18:4. The sign had become the god.

That is the core of religion. And it is the core of idolatry. Not that we worship nothing, but that we stop at the pointer and never follow it home.

Then I saw John 7.

The Feast of Tabernacles. For seven days a priest carried water from the Pool of Siloam and poured it beside the altar while the crowd sang, "with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." Seven days of holy water. A prayer for the Spirit the prophets promised.

And on the last and greatest day, at the ritual's climax, a carpenter from Nazareth stood up and cried out:

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, rivers of living water will flow from within him." John 7:37-38

He waited until the water was being poured. Then He said: everything this has pointed at for centuries is standing in front of you.

"A shadow of the things to come; the reality is found in Christ." Colossians 2:17

A shadow can tell you something is coming. It cannot quench your thirst.

And notice what He promised. Not water carried from someone else's well and poured on you at a crusade. A spring. From within. "By this He meant the Spirit." John 7:39

So the question for all of us, whatever bottle we once lifted:

Have you been sprinkled, or have you been filled?

Holy water can't heal this. He can.

Come to the Fountain, not the shadow of it.

#BeyondWorldReligions #Faith #Jesus #LivingWater

I've been thinking about lineage.

The Lord does not plant individuals. He plants lineages.

He never introduced Himself as the God of Abraham alone. He said, "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Three generations in one name. A promise is not proven in the one who receives it. It is proven in the one who inherits it.

Moses parted the sea, but Joshua crossed the Jordan. Elijah called down fire, but Elisha did twice the miracles. David built the kingdom, but Solomon built the house. Paul planted everywhere, yet wrote to Timothy, "my dearly beloved son," because what outlives an apostle is a son who caught the spirit.

This is not only a Bible pattern. It is how creation moves forward.

Humphry Davy was already a great chemist when a bookbinder's apprentice named Michael Faraday wrote asking for a job. Davy took him on. Asked later what his greatest discovery was, Davy is said to have answered: "Michael Faraday."

Johan Cruyff coached a skinny midfielder named Pep Guardiola. Cruyff is gone, but his football is still playing.

Fatherhood was never only biological. It is a transfer of spirit.

And the design does not end here. Even in the forever there are canopy levels. "One star differeth from another star in glory." 1 Corinthians 15:41. Heaven is layered, not flat. God is not against height. He is against height without lineage.

So life needs two kinds of relationships.

Horizontal: brothers and sisters, iron sharpening iron.

Vertical: someone above you whose voice carries weight, and someone below you into whom you are pouring. A man with only horizontal relationships is a plateau. A man with only vertical ones is a pole. God builds trees.

"Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers." 1 Corinthians 4:15. Instructors are plentiful. Fathers are rare.

That is why I fear what my industry is doing right now. Companies are quietly deleting junior roles. Let the tools do the junior work, keep the seniors. It sounds efficient. It is a lineage ending in one generation.

Because the son does not only need the father. The father needs the son. Nobody becomes a father with no one to father. Cut the bottom of the tree and you have not saved the tree. You have dated its death.

The future is only secured where progeny is sustained.

That is the gospel in one line. The Father sent the Son. The Son, "the firstborn among many brethren," brings sons and daughters to glory and is "not ashamed to call them brethren." Hebrews 2:11

Find someone to learn from. Find someone to pour into. Be a son. Become a father.

Whatever you build, build it with a successor in the room.

#Faith #Leadership #Mentorship #Lineage

This breath is inspired by the post on "THE INHERITANCE" BY @Abbie   
1 Thessalonians 5:2-4
There are several verses of the scriptures that has either been interpreted wrongly or taken in isolation and for me the bible passage above takes the lead (esp verse 2) because, I believe this has gotten many of our brethren in the faith running really fast on the wrong lane. I think we should all just register it first of all in our minds that the Lord's coming is not a physical event, Yes! it is an event but it's not a one-off event. Even the first event of his coming is still a doubt for some till date, and the reason for his coming which is of more importance is still not known to many, and this is to say that the Scriptures and the center theme which is Jesus Christ the son of God is a spiritual nomenclature.  1John: 5:20 The reason for the Lord's coming is to give us an understanding of whom the Son of God is and the reason for his coming: to know the true God and eternal life. John 17:3 

Back to 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4, 
Many people still quote IN ISOLATION, the coming of the lord is like a thief in the night Verse 2 of 1 Thessalonians 5, Yes true but to them that are in the dark verse 4 says " but ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief, 5 says "ye are all children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness" 6 " therefore let us not sleep..." hmm sleep!!! God will not allow us to sleep unto Death o (ifykyk)
I trust my egbons @everyone will strengthen this thought and give clarity wherever is confusing or not laid well.
IRE ooooooo

WHO FOLLOW JESUS WEY HIM LIFE BAD?
This statement was made by Pastor Akazue Alfred G. on Sunday at Real Men's Summit 2026. The word keeps resounding in my heart as an answer to many thoughts. 

The Hunger that Unveils the Son - Pst. Dickson Akinlolu
https://fmeli.org/the-hunger-that-unveils-the-son-pst-dickson-akinlolu/

The Coming of Faith - Pst. Akazue-Alfred G.
https://fmeli.org/the-coming-of-faith-pst-akazue-alfred-g/

The Help that Man Needs - Rev. Busuyi Olabode
https://fmeli.org/the-help-that-man-needs-rev-busuyi-olabode/

Oh Lord I need strength to trust in you and not in whatever endowment you've bestowed on me, help me lord to rest more on your word. Help me Lord to find peace in my creator and not his creatures or creations. 

Nobody falls suddenly. They are supplied.

James laid out the production line two thousand years ago. "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:14-15

Read it like a process diagram.

Desire. Then bait. Then conception. Then birth. Then death.

Five stages. The act of sin is stage four. By the time you commit it, the industry has already done eighty percent of its work, quietly, in the dark, while you were not watching your diet.

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝘀

"Drawn away of his own lust." Not the devil's. His own. The raw material of every fall is already inside the man. The enemy supplies nothing but the bait.

Which means the question is never "how do I resist at stage four?" You will lose at stage four. Everyone does. The question is what you are feeding at stage one.

"They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh." Romans 8:5. Mind is a diet word. Whatever your mind grazes on, your desire grows toward. Feed the flesh for six days and ask the Spirit to win on the seventh. It will not.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲

Paul adds a word James doesn't. "Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." Romans 13:14

Provision. Stocking the pantry in advance. The phone in the bedroom. The account not deleted. The friendship you know is a door. The "just to see." Nobody sins at the moment of provision. That is what makes it lethal. You feel innocent while you are arranging the fall.

A man who makes provision has already decided. He is just waiting for his body to catch up.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗵 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗲𝗱

Here is the part religion refuses to accept. "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Romans 8:7

Cannot. Paul does not say the flesh is weak or unruly. He says it is incapable. You cannot train it, discipline it into holiness, or shame it into submission. It has no mode in which it obeys God.

So God did not reform it. He crucified it. "Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." Romans 6:6

Your job is not to improve the old man. It is to stop feeding a corpse. "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin." Romans 6:11. Reckon. Count it so. Daily. Not because you feel dead but because He said it is finished.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻

There is a second production line, and it runs on the same logic.

Feed the Spirit. Then mind the Spirit. Then walk in the Spirit. Then "ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." Galatians 5:16

Notice the order. Walking in the Spirit is not what you do after beating the flesh. It is how the flesh gets beaten. The victory is a by-product of the diet.

"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength… to still the enemy." Psalm 8:2. The strength is in the one still feeding. Nobody graduates from the breast. The day you think you have, the first supply chain resumes.

𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻

Starve stage one. Guard your mind's diet.
 Refuse stage two. Make no provision. Delete, close, leave.
 Reckon daily. The old man is dead; stop feeding him.
 Feed the other chain. Word, prayer, fellowship, every day, especially the days you feel clean.

A fall is never an event. It is a supply chain that was allowed to run.

Cut the supply.

#Faith #Holiness #Romans #SpiritualDiscipline

Psalm 127:2 names a bread most of us are eating and have never identified.

"It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows."

Bread of sorrows. Not bread that causes sorrow. Bread made of it. Bread whose ingredient is anxiety, whose oven is the arm of flesh, whose baker is the man who believes that if he does not provide for himself, nobody will.

𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗵.

"Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm… he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh." Jeremiah 17:5-6. That is the diet of the self-made. He gets the bread. He never gets the satisfaction. He is eating in a desert and cannot see good even when it arrives.

Because here is the law of that bread: 𝗶𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗳𝗶𝗲𝘀. "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" Isaiah 55:2. You can earn it, hoard it, multiply it, and the hunger comes back by morning. Nothing in this world was built to fill a man. It was built to point him somewhere.

𝗘𝘀𝗮𝘂 𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝘁.

He came in from the field exhausted and said, "feed me… for I am faint." Genesis 25:30. One bowl of lentils for a birthright. He got the bread. Scripture's verdict: "he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright." He was full for an hour and robbed for eternity. And later, "he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Hebrews 12:17. Bread of sorrow. Eaten quickly. Wept over for life.

𝗚𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘇𝗶 𝗿𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘁.

Naaman, healed of leprosy, offered Elisha silver and garments. Elisha refused. The prophet would not let a Syrian general think the grace of God had a price. But his servant Gehazi watched the gift walk away and could not bear it. He ran after the chariot, lied, and collected two talents of silver and two changes of raiment. 2 Kings 5:20-27

He got the bread. He also got the leprosy. "The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever." The thing the master refused became the servant's inheritance, with the disease attached. That is what the arm of flesh always delivers: the gift, and the curse under it.

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Deuteronomy 8:3. Jesus quoted it to the devil while starving. Not "bread is bad." Bread alone. A man who depends totally on bread will die a man of sorrow, because bread was never designed to carry the weight of a soul.

Then He said the thing that ended the argument forever. "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." John 6:51

Living bread. The bread of sorrow is dead the moment it is baked; it decays, it is spent, it is gone by tomorrow. His body is living. It feeds and keeps feeding. Israel ate manna in the wilderness and died. "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die." John 6:50

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵.

Israel Houghton sang it in "Your Presence Is Heaven": the whole song is one confession, that His presence is the thing, that nothing else on earth was ever going to be enough. That is not a lyric. It is Psalm 16:11 in a melody. "In thy presence is fulness of joy." Fulness. The one word the bread of sorrow can never deliver.

So the audit is short.

What bread are you rising early to bake?
 Is the thing you're exhausted for something He already promised to give His beloved in their sleep?
 Have you, like Esau, traded something eternal for something warm?
 Are you, like Gehazi, running after a gift your Master already refused?

"He giveth his beloved sleep." Psalm 127:2. The beloved do not bake at midnight. They are fed.

Put down the bread of sorrow.

Come and eat.

#Faith #BreadOfLife #Presence #Rest

Paul, who wrote half the New Testament, said something most of us would never say about ourselves.
"I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 1 Corinthians 9:27
Keep under. The Greek is a boxing word, to strike beneath the eye. Paul disciplined his body like an athlete in training, and his reason was not fitness. It was finishing. He was afraid of preaching to others and being disqualified himself.
The body is not neutral. It has appetites, and appetites vote. Hunger, sleep, comfort, pleasure, ease. Left ungoverned they do not stay in their lane. They become the lane. "Whose God is their belly." Philippians 3:19
𝗔 𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻.
That is why fasting exists. Not to earn anything. To remind the body who is in charge. A man who cannot say no to a meal will struggle to say no to anything.
History agrees. John Wesley rode roughly a quarter of a million miles on horseback and preached into his late eighties, and he was precise about his sleep, his food and his hours, because he knew the body was the horse that carried the message. Daniel's diet in Babylon was discipline before it was devotion.
Now the balance. This is not vanity and it is not punishment. Paul also said "bodily exercise profiteth little" compared to godliness. 1 Timothy 4:8. Little, not nothing. The body is the servant, not the master, and also not the enemy. You govern it the way a good king governs a province: firmly, kindly, for the sake of the whole kingdom.
𝗦𝗼, 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆.
Move it. Walk, lift, run, something, most days. A sedentary body dulls a praying mind.
Feed it like it belongs to Someone else. Because it does.
Fast sometimes. Let the body hear "no" from you before it hears it from a doctor.
Rest it. We covered sleep. It still applies.
The goal is not a body you can show. It is a body that will carry you to the finish line without becoming the reason you fall off before it.
Bring it under. Then run.(I am guilty of a few and my heart is pricked just like yours might be) 
#TheWholeMan #Faith #Discipline #Health