In Times of Great Challenge

by | Oct 23, 2014 | Articles

Passage : 1 Sam 17:32

Pastor Yahya Okit (BM Dept)

“Then David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with the Philistine.”
I believe that there is no individual who is strong to face every challenge that comes upon his / her life.  In challenging times, we would normally feel anxious, afraid and wanting to give up.

When the Israelites face Goliath, King Saul was afraid and wanted to give up and retreat his army against the Philistines.   However, there was a brave young man named David.  He seeks to continue the fight against the Philistine and in the end, brought the Israelites to experience victory over the Philistines.   The church of God need to face the national challenges the way David did.

What made David different?  His perspective of who God is in his life.  There are three lessons that we can draw from David’s extraordinary victory over Goliath:

(a) Do not give up
–    “Giving up” is one of the reasons why many people failed to achieve victory in their lives today. The sense of giving up destroys many individual’s life’s destiny and potential.
–    We can give up in a sin that we struggle with, however, we cannot give up in fulfilling the will of God in our life.
–    Do not give up in our service / ministry that God has entrusted us with today. Stay faithful and preserver till we gain victory ground.

(b) Continue to fight
–    When David saw Goliath, who is three times bigger than him, he did not think of retreating but to face the giant and fight.
–    Keeping our tenacity in times of challenges is the key to fruitfulness. He who began a good work in you will bring into completion.
–    There are many battles that we as a nation is contending with, i.e.the Allah issue, nation seeking for TRANSFORMATION etc.  As we have seen how God was in the battle between David and Goliath, He will do the same for us as we contend in the different challenges of this nation through prayer.

(c) Victory is ours
–    David did not stop giving up until he obtains victory over Goliath. This is the same with the Church of God that we should pray without ceasing for our nation till we obtain victory over the issues that the nation is contending with.
–    I believe that there is no easy way to achieve victory. Just as David faced the giant Goliath, as Moses parted the Red Sea, as Abraham took the step of faith and obedience to sacrifice his only son, Isaac and many more other Biblical examples that we can glean from.
–    Our focus is to gain victory.  There is a price to be paid. David put his life on the line when he faced Goliath.
–    Proverbs 24:6 “Get good advice before you start a war. To win, you must have many good advisors.” (ERV)

God Commands Repentance

by | Feb 2, 2012 | Articles

God Commands Repentance!

Jonah 3:4-10
Jonah preached the judgment of God:

“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

I think many of our preachers are watering down the gospel instead of preaching the judgment of a holy God on all who refuse to repent of their wicked ways. We mostly promote the benefits of salvation like peace, joy and in some cases, even of financial freedom or prosperity.

In the book of Acts, Paul preached that “in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:30) Look at the verse again. God commands … He does not invite! People can and must be commanded to repent. Preaching the fear of God is very biblical. Maybe human preachers may “invite” people to faith in Christ but God Himself commands. Since we speak on God’s behalf, let’s command people to repent. Eternal destinies are at stake!

Repentance involves a change of heart. But it is not enough just to “repent in the heart.” Jesus says: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Luke 3:8) When Jonah warned the people of impending judgment, they repented. They expressed their repentance by serious fasting and even their king joined in by issuing a decree that all, including their livestock, must fast. They were really fearful of God’s wrath and prayed that perhaps by their fasting God may relent from destroying them.

The king and people of Nineveh must have been really sincere because Scripture tells us: “Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.” God saw their works. People aren’t saved by works but by the grace of God. Yet it says that God saw their works. God saw their works of repentance. The people of Nineveh produced the fruit in keeping with repentance. God saw their works of repentance and did not destroy them.

Preacher, command your hearers to repent in order to avoid God’s judgment! Ask them to show the fruit of their repentance. Then, and only then, dare we hope that God will relent and not destroy us all.