#DIE #LIVE #REST #neighbor #neighbour #relationship #divorce #marriage #storms #stories
For God’s Sake, God, Please God, Get REAL! HOW on Earth can I FULFILL the CALL to DIE and to LIVE at the same TIME in these 12 situations? Three True Stories for life application
– Day 15 of 40 Prayer and Fasting for church and leadership – Pray to THRUST OUT Labourers into the harvest
Sunday 31st of March 2024
For God’s Sake, God, Please God, Get REAL! HOW on Earth can I FULFILL the CALL to DIE and to LIVE at the same TIME in these 12 Situations? Three True Stories for life application
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Today’s scriptures for reading, meditating and Contemplating:
Luke 9:23
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
23 And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].
Luke 22:41-43
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed,
42 Saying, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but [always] Yours be done.
43 And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him in spirit.
Matthew 27:14
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
14 But He made no reply to him, not even to a single accusation, so that the governor marveled greatly.
Hebrews 12:1-3
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
12 Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,
2 Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.
Isaiah 40:28-31
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding.
29 He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound].
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted;
31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.
Isaiah 30:15
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning [to Me] and resting [in Me] you shall be saved; in quietness and in [trusting] confidence shall be your strength. But you would not,
Matthew 7:13-14
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
13 Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it.
14 But the gate is narrow (contracted [a]by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it.
Happy Easter Friends
My complains to God:
For God’s Sake, God, Please God, Get REAL! HOW on Earth can I FULFILL the CALL to DIE and to LIVE at the same TIME in these 12 situations?
Dear God, yes I can understand loving You with all my heart, soul and mind and strength. I got that – You created me and for that, I am super grateful! I can love you easy Lord. But the second part of the commandment to love my neighbor as myself? That is another matter altogether. How I wish You were on earth to experience the neighbors for yourself. You will certainly understand me for not obeying that command COMPLETELY as I should. The neighbors that treat me well, I treat them well and we are even. But for the others, it’s hard!
Tell me God, how on earth can I love my neighbor as myself when the following has been happening and you never said a word? Check these out and tell me if You can stand this rubbish:
1) My neighbor is taking advantage of my generosity
2) My neighbor wants me dead or alive
3) My neighbor is spreading false rumours about me.
4) My neighbor has stolen from me
5) My neighbor hates me.
6) My neighbor does not help me when I am in trouble despite my helping them when they are in a situation
7) My neighbor rejoices over my downfall to my face!
8) My neighbor is planning evil against me
9) My neighbor doesn’t believe in You and says, “You do not exist.” so, why should I consider such a neighbor for a love affair as You have instructed?
10) My neighbor manipulates me and has deprived me of my rights and privileges.
11) My neighbor is beating the hell out of me and you don’t want me to react?
12) Worst of all, I see this neighbor every day, every night sometimes. He is my husband, she is my wife, my brother, my sister, my near and extended relations, my pastor, my manager, my coworkers, my mother and father, my nieces, nephews, my employer and employees. In fact, the people I meet everyday! It is sickening!!!
Combine the above 12 situations God, with mounting debt, deaths, joblessness, hopelessness and despair, inflation, storms of kinds, relationship storms, how can one be in REST when everything around me is collapsing at the seams? Tell me God, Tell me.
God’s Response: I know it is not easy. Hence, the reason I sent my Son to You so that by His example in living and dying, you will live and die also until you come back to me victorious just like He was victorious and sitting at my right side right now. Learn from His example My daughters and My sons. There is a reward for any of my children who overcomes. Before I tell you the story of my Son, let me tell you two stories from my two daughters Michelle and Brie: My daughter, Michelle Lindsey back in December 2, 2020. She had questions similar to yours. Here is her story, I hope you learn from these two
The first is titled –
“WHY DOES LIFE HAVE TO BE SO HARD? I Start to Question God’s Wisdom in All of This. I Struggle.”
I’m catching on to the fact that life is hard.
In fact, it is so difficult at times, I start to question God’s wisdom in all of this.
I mean, come on. Here we are, running around on this earth, trying our best not to get devastated by some awful thing. You may say you don’t fear, and I say if that is you, you may be in denial.
People are afraid.
And they want to know what they are supposed to do with all of the stress and turmoil. They want to know how they can possibly find any hope as they look around at the loneliness and despair. They try to find solace in their marriage, or children or hobbies, but mostly, they distract themselves from the thought that at any moment the rug could get ripped out from under them. At any moment their world can turn upside down and their lives can shatter into a million pieces at the blink of an eye.
I struggle.
I have friends who are struggling. Huge, devastating things are looming. And there seems to be no end in sight.
It makes me angry. Don’t tell me to think positive or give me answers that are only meant to smooth over my fears. False hope. Because none of it makes sense.
Why does life have to be so hard?
WHY? And then I cry bitter tears because I hear no answer. And nothing changes for the better. And all I hear is silence—and I save the sobs caught in my throat.
The other day, my adult son told me he felt afraid.
The air was instantly sucked out of me. I felt so sad. I wanted to minimize his feelings because the thought of my child, the child I brought into this world, facing their future with trepidation, made me want to weep. This is the child, who for the most part has had more happy days than sad, and whose smile lights up a room. And now he is fearful and without find peace?
I asked myself, “What did I do, bringing my son into this dark place?”
Then I thought of God. My God. The One who is a Father, and who loves purer and deeper and truer than me. In fact, He is the definition of love. And I wondered how He was able to bring His Son to this wretched place?
And then I told myself the things I know
I don’t worship some far away God who is far removed from my pain. I don’t worship a concept, an ideology, or a human leader.
I try not to worship anything more than Him, and that includes my children, my marriage, or myself. I worship a God who is near. He didn’t just drop me on this planet to suffer and struggle and walk away. He didn’t put me here to be “good” or “amazing” or “well behaved.” He planned me, and He had my rescue in mind before I was even born. Before I ever messed up and made a disaster of my life. He made a way.
I am His daughter, and He cares about my pain.
He listens when I cry in the shower while I tell Him I don’t understand tragedy, cancer, and divorce. I don’t know why things have to feel so random and cruel. I hate death. It is a breaking of love. I don’t want my family taken from me. It isn’t the “circle of life.” It sucks and I hate it. It feels terrible.
But He knows cruel.
He knows tragedy.
He hears me and intercedes for me.
And He hates death so much, He killed it.
He defeated that nasty beast so we don’t have to be afraid of it.
God the Father, saw this dark world and send His Son straight into it. He knew what His child would go through, and He sent His precious child anyway. That child was born in a lowly, unsafe place, to parents who had little to offer by the world’s standards. He grew into a man, and he watched his friends and his family suffer. He wrapped his arms around humanity in their worst moments. The sick, the lonely, the rejected. He looked into their eyes and He spoke kindness and truth.
I tend to forget He had a mother.
And what excruciating pain took place the day He left her? She must have looked so frightened as she clung to her boy…but He endured it for us, and if anyone can understand our pain, He can. So when I grieve when I see my children hurt, I know He also walked that road. There is really nothing I experience that He can’t understand.
If He hadn’t suffered so greatly, I would be too angry to even cope.
I might just freak out and give up. But I have never walked the painful road He walked, and I never will. So we can keep going towards the joy set before us. Yes, there is still silence and unanswered prayers. And many things make no sense to me. But I can’t help but rest knowing He is right here with us.
He didn’t stay far away. He gave us Himself so we could touch him, feast with Him, be held by Him, and we will one day rejoice with Him on the other side of this dark world.
Let me share with you the second story from my daughter, Brie Gowen back in November 19, 2021.
The title of her story was –
“I Don’t Want to Be Married Anymore”: Husband Blindsides Wife With Divorce, Pushes Her Into God’s Greater Plan
Here is here story in detail:
I was a few months away from my thirtieth birthday when my life fell apart. I had a beautiful home, new vehicles shining in the double garage, and the financial stability to add to the rooms of my house pretty much anything my heart desired. Four bedrooms, but basically silent halls. I had a wonderful 9-5, good friends, and who can forget the double shelves of alphabetized DVDs. Life was good. Or as good as life got, anyway. Right?!
I can remember the heartache like no other. My throat was raw with it. The deep pain in my chest rose with bile and acid up my esophagus, and the tears just kept falling. They had not stopped since the night before, and glancing at my red-rimmed eyes in my new car’s mirror made me glad I had not reported to my job site that morning. They would have known immediately.
“What’s wrong with me?!” I wondered.
I drove along an unknown roadway. Despite having tossed and turned most of the night, and regardless of the six-pack I had numbly swallowed to help usher in the sandman, I had managed to leave my happy (looking) home early to get to work on time. My promotion had brought along new training, and it seemed the best bit of luck that this particular day would be one spent commuting over an hour to work, alongside strangers who wouldn’t question my melancholy. This was back when I believed in things like luck or coincidence.
“Why am I so unlovable?!” I questioned the pristine interior of my vehicle.
I was almost thirty years old, and I felt like I should be thinking about starting a family. Not this. My mind traveled back to the prior week, how my primary care doctor had questioned my desire for children in light of the birth control prescription she was writing. I didn’t know when she asked why we hadn’t started a family yet. We both wanted children. But in the silence of the rubber meeting the roadway that morning, I knew. I finally understood.
“What did I do wrong?!” I cried.
I racked my brain in the dim, morning light. I tried to be a good wife. I didn’t nag. I kept fit and trim. I had even fixed that flat chest situation. Thank you, Mr. Surgeon. I was a good cook, a complimentary companion, and always quick to concede in an argument. So why did he not want me?
“I don’t want to be married anymore,” he had said the night before.
He had asked me to take a seat, then had spoken the words matter-of-factly, like turning off love and ending a marriage was as easy as changing the color pattern of the living room. Perhaps easier.
“Help me, God!” I cried into the silent car, as I replayed the night before my marriage ended.
God. I still believed in Him. I had never stopped, really. I just hadn’t spoken to Him in a while. In fact, the last time I remembered hearing His voice was before I had gotten married. As things began to heat up in our relationship, some six years prior, I remember the whisper of the Holy Spirit reminding me of something I had learned as a young woman at a discipleship training school overseas. The speaker had cautioned the room full of us young adults about the dangers of “missionary-dating.” You might be familiar with the Bible’s instruction about being unequally yoked, and this was the caution the Lord brought to my mind.
So, over a table full of empty beer bottles, in a smoky bar, I had asked my soon-to-be spouse if he believed in Jesus.
“Of course! I’m Catholic,” he answered with a laugh, and that had been the extent of my prayerful consideration of our relationship.
I don’t want to paint the object of my (then) affection and ex-husband in a bad light. I certainly was no saint, and the point of this story is me. I had ignored the voice of God, His guidance, His Spirit, and relationship with Him for over six years. Yet in the midst of my utter failure and pain, He was the One I cried out to for help.
“Help me, God,” I had cried, and calling for His assistance came as naturally as if I had been doing it all along.
And there, in my pain, He met me. There in my brokenness, He spoke to my heart. The words I heard from the Lord at that moment were like a lightning bolt, yet also, simultaneously, like the whisper of a trusted friend placing their hand on my sagging shoulder and speaking the advice I needed. It’s not important what He said to me in that moment, but I can tell you it rang as one of the truest things that has ever been spoken into my life. It was exactly what I needed in that moment, where I felt so unworthy and unloved, but also what I needed to pick myself up from the mess I was in, and move on from a broken situation I could not control or mend.
I arrived at the alternate job site carrying some things I did not expect to find. Hope for the future, and peace for my current situation. I had been feeling a hurt and pain I couldn’t make my way through, but as I put my car in park in an unfamiliar lot, I knew I could make it with God carrying me. Somehow, and for some reason, He had met me in the midst of my pain. I didn’t deserve an answer. In fact, I had given Him the silent treatment for years. Yet when I cried out in my hurt, my Father answered. I still don’t think I deserved that, but thankfully He is a good, good Father. Compassionate, kind, and unending in mercy.
Life has never been the same since I encountered God in the middle of a lonely highway over thirteen years ago. It didn’t immediately become a pathway of roses, but I do know it began to look up from there. He pulled me from my pit, and I have kept in constant communication with Him ever since. I mean, a God who answers a wayward child who is reaping what she sowed… that is a relationship I could never turn my back on again.
The Lord not only pulled me from my pit, but He filled me with a new song. He gave me a new life, a wonderful husband, beautiful children, a path with purpose, forgiveness, redemption, and all the blessings that are promised in His Word. I haven’t written about my divorce in a long time, but this story has been on my mind lately. Although the circumstances are sad and broken, the healing and restoration is something I never want to forget. I’m so grateful we can serve a God of redemption, who writes us a new story, even when we’ve ripped the pages. He truly makes all things new. This story, while my personal account, is also the story of all mankind. We are all the broken pieces, who had searched for fulfillment in all the wrong places, yet aren’t left on our own. All we have to do is call for help, and He will hear. Even if we haven’t spoken in years. He hears, and He rescues the fallen.
Let us now return to the story of My Son, Jesus Christ.
How did He do it? He had an unbroken relationship with me. He loved Me and I loved Him. Just as I have instructed you to love Me wholeheartedly. If you love Me, you will obey My commands. We will then both come to make our home in you. The commandments are not grievous. There is a way to obey in REST. Watch Jesus.
Jesus died spiritually speaking in Gethsemane, in the secret place and died physically on the cross in the public. That was why He was silent, calm, cool and calculated – He was at REST in Me. That was why He did not respond or react to provocation, insults, beating and eventual death because it was dealt with in the secret place of communion with Me. Infact, He died so quickly that they didn’t need to break his born like they did to the thieves.
Today, He is alive in REST because He is sitting at my right hand, until I make His Enemies His footstool:
Check these scriptures out to give you more insights:
Matthew 22:43-45
Amplified Bible
43 Jesus asked them, “How is it then that David by the inspiration of the Spirit, calls Him ‘Lord,’ saying,
44 ‘The Lord (the Father) said to my Lord (the Son, the Messiah),“Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies under Your feet”’?
45 So then, if David calls Him (the Son, the Messiah) ‘Lord,’ [a]how is He David’s son?”
Psalm 110:1-2
Amplified Bible
The Lord Gives Dominion to the King.
A Psalm of David.
110 The Lord (Father) says to my Lord (the Messiah, His Son),
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet [subjugating them into complete submission].”
2
The Lord will send the scepter of Your strength from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”
Look at the manifestation of that scripture in
Mark 16:19-20
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
19 So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and He sat down at the right hand of God.
20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord kept working with them and confirming the message by the attesting signs and miracles that closely accompanied [it]. Amen (so be it).
He went through the crucification in REST because He got it settled in the secret place with Me, the Father.
Just like Jesus died spiritually and physically, we must also follow in his pattern. We must die in the secret place with God, find REST there before we can die physically before the world.
Get into the secret place with Me for there, you will find REST for your restless soul in this restless world.
The need to die daily can be found by Jesus statement in
Luke 9:23
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
23 And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].
Paul expounded on this in the following text:
Colossians 2:18-20
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
18 Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,
19 And not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world’s crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? [Why do you submit to rules and regulations?—such as]
This is more vivid as it relates to the 12 questions you raised above in this text: read on
Colossians 3:1-17
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
3 If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.
3 For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, Who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in [the splendor of His] glory.
5 So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God).
6 It is on account of these [very sins] that the [holy] anger of God is ever coming upon the sons of disobedience (those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will),
7 Among whom you also once walked, when you were living in and addicted to [such practices].
8 But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips!
9 Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old (unregenerate) self with its evil practices,
10 And have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process of being] renewed and remolded into [fuller and more perfect knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him Who created it.
11 [In this new creation all distinctions vanish.] There is no room for and there can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, [nor difference between nations whether alien] barbarians or Scythians [[d]who are the most savage of all], nor slave or free man; but Christ is all and in all [[e]everything and everywhere, to all men, without distinction of person].
12 Clothe yourselves therefore, as God’s own chosen ones (His own picked representatives), [who are] purified and holy and well-beloved [by God Himself, by putting on behavior marked by] tenderhearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, [and] patience [which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper].
13 Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has [freely] forgiven you, so must you also [forgive].
14 And above all these [put on] love and enfold yourselves with the bond of perfectness [which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony].
15 And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body you were also called [to live]. And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always].
16 Let the word [spoken by] Christ (the Messiah) have its home [in your hearts and minds] and dwell in you in [all its] richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom [in spiritual things, and as you sing] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with [His] grace in your hearts.
17 And whatever you do [no matter what it is] in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in [dependence upon] His Person, giving praise to God the Father through Him.
Let’s take it further to your restless world:
How do you find and be in a state of REST when everything and everyone in the world can’t seem to find REST?
You wait in Me, You wait on Me and you wait with Me just like Jesus did in Gethsemane and every time He went out to seek me alone because those you love, you want to hang around and I want you around Me if you say you love Me. That way, I can transfer my image and likeness to you as planned according to original intent in Genesis 1:27.
Check out below the results you derive in waiting in RESTFUL STATE?
Isaiah 40:31
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.
Come into the secret place with Me today and daily and you will find REST for your restless souls.
I hope this response have given you some clarity on why my commands are not grievous
Conclusion:
Jesus calls us to die daily in REST and alive daily in REST which can be found only in the secret place of relationship with Him and the Father. Make a commitment today to seek REST and not RESTLESSNESS.
Prayer:
Father, You have shown us by a living example of Your Son, Jesus Christ that in the vicissitudes of life, the ups and downs, the storms, the upheaval, the offenses, the Persecutions, the humbling experiences, the deaths , the confusion that He found REST, and through His example, we can find REST in death and REST in Resurrection power if only we can run to You and not to men, not to systems and not to self-help solutions. Grant us this grace of REST to stay in You and with You as labourers in the vast field of harvest You have assigned to us. Only in REST can we fulfill the purpose, the original intent for our lives. Thank You Lord for granting us this REST today and thrusting us out in REST today and always towards the goal of the high calling of God for our lives ( Phil 3:14) in Jesus name, Amen
Question for you!
The information shared today, does it make sense to you? if so, give further insights.
Going forward, what would you do differently? Make commitment to start immediately!
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Shalom!
Ambassador Monday O. OGBE
God’s Eagle Ministries
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