Category: The Overcoming Believer

“The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed.”
‭‭John‬ ‭4‬:‭49‬-‭50‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Hello Family. Welcome to a new week. I hope we are all doing okay? For those of us who are in the lion’s den , hearing the lions growl and snarl, and it seems as if they will open their mouths and eat you up. Paralysed with fear and anxiety. I want to say to you, fear not and do not be dismayed. The Lord your God is faithful to take you out of there! Soon! Hold on! We are still discussing miracles.

Jesus performed plenty of miracles. Of course, many of the things that Jesus did could not have been recorded in such short works. John freely admits, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book…Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 20:30 and 21:25). The different gospels record the miracles from slightly a different perspective but we are looking at the gospel of John.

In this story , we meet a desperate father. A man whose child is at the brink of death this means the situation was out of his control. Many times we need miracles for situations we cannot control. Maybe after trying for so long, we exhaust every possible option to help resolve the problem. I don’t doubt that this man had tried many doctors, different medicines, he might have gone from city to city, desperately seeking for remedies to save his beloved son. When he finally met Jesus, Jesus was addressing the unbelief of the crowd. “Unless you see miracles you won’t believe.” We have such people even in the church who want God to prove Himself first before they can fully believe. Miracles don’t exist in the lives of faithless people. As a matter of fact, Faith triggers the miracle. Without faith, expect to keep seeing miracles in the lives of others.

The royal official asked Jesus to come with him and heal His son. He didn’t ask if Jesus “could” do it. That was his first act of faith. He approached Jesus knowing He can do it. Isn’t that what the Bible teaches? Those who approach God must FIRST believe that He is! Before the reward, believe that HE IS. Jesus responds with words. He doesn’t tag along. Most of us think we can just come and drag Jesus wherever we want to do whatever we want. He may have been a royal official but Jesus is the Master. He released a Word and as the man believed, the miracle took place. What do we learn? The word of God mixed with faith creates miracles.

The royal official had instantaneous faith. “He started on his way.” His faith was in action. The man took Jesus at His word. There was no hesitation. He surrendered completely and immediately to the word of Jesus.

“While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.”
‭‭John‬ ‭4‬:‭51‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This miracle teaches us of the importance of faith. Do you believe? After being disappointed by many medicines , the royal official still believed. “I don’t believe I will get married, many people have disappointed me.” Or “I don’t think I will ever make it. I’ve failed so many times.” We cannot receive what we do not expect. Expectation is a virtue of faith. If God released a word today and said ,”Go apply for the job, you’ll get it.” Will you argue? If the answer is yes then you’re part of the people Jesus was addressing. Unless you see, you’ll never believe…. By the time the official got home, his boy was in perfect health! Imagine how joyful he was!

The truth is, to see , you must believe.

Have a great day!❤️

Even Mary and Martha had no idea that, that very day they would hear their brother’s voice again.

Vanessa

For a long time l have had no choice but to be strong and by no choice l mean, either I’m strong or I’m strong. Often times we are afraid of crying because it may look like we don’t have faith. We put on our best clothes, to “not look like our problems” which is a great thing by the way – I applaud you if you do that! Many times people grow up thinking they need to muster up more strength to press on. More strength. More strength. We encourage ourselves from within. More strength! We are told to dry our tears, tie our leather belts, pull up our shoe straps and move beyond the heartache of the moment. “You cannot afford to break down, you’re a man. Men don’t cry.” Or “Be a strong girl. Tears won’t help you with anything.” But John 11:35 tells us a different story …

“Then tears streamed down Jesus’ face.”
‭‭John‬ ‭11‬:‭35‬ ‭TPT‬‬

You may be reading this and you’re not facing any problems, read anyways. You may be reading this and are actually drowning with your hand lifted up to whoever cares enough to pull you out. I am reminded of the disciples in the boat. They were terrified . Justifiably so. If you were in the boat and you could hear the sound of mighty waves, you feel the coldness of the water on your feet, everyone’s shouting out in fear and there is Jesus … sleeping. How would you feel? They felt like He doesn’t care at all.

“So they shook him awake, saying, “Teacher, don’t you even care that we are all about to die!”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭4‬:‭39‬a ‭TPT‬‬

Wait up … I got a little package for you …

When we get too used to self sufficiency and survival mode based on our own strength we can barely hear God gently telling us to unflinch our jaws, let the tears flow and not move a muscle. How many times has He said Be Still and we quote the scripture, post it, while not being still. We’re actually at our busiest trying to fix things while we keep saying , “Be still.”

So what are we doing today? We are choosing to lean on God. We are reflecting on the results of our own work and the proven credible results of God’s work. You know what? I’m actually choosing to be still. Keep praying? Yes. Stress while praying? No. Hand it over . I love how Apostle Paul puts it;

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. II Corinthians 12:8-10(ESV)

He says l begged for a change of story, three times. Have you been begging for God to change something and you wake up and the situation is the same. By the end of the day you probably feel exhausted from all the anxiety you felt all day. Have you been crying and pleading with God to take away the pain? Then you got up and chose your own strength which doesn’t even get you to the end of the day? If Paul tried to figure things out himself and leaned on his own ability, he would have forfeited the opportunity to experience the power of God. I’m gonna ask you a couple of questions, answer truthfully:

1. How are you? Think before you answer
2. Do you feel like crying? Go ahead. Drop those shoulders and just let it out.
3. Does it feel too heavy? Pretend you’re lifting something off your shoulders, focus, now lift it up and then place it down and say ,”Lord , it belongs to you now.”
   

Today, there’s one thing you don’t have to do – You don’t have to be strong. “But I have no choice, I need a door to open urgently. Fees, bills, medical expenses. I can’t not do something, you don’t understand, I have a lot on my plate.” If you had a chance to choose another “plate” would you take it? Here’s the chance then. Choose the plate that says ,”Father, you can be trusted.

Don’t overthink. Don’t panic.

And one more thing …

Good morning family. We are going to be discussing the miracles, then we will move to signs and wonders. There’s a difference between the three. I know many of us are familiar with the story in John chapter 2. I highlighted it yesterday. Some use it to argue about whether alcohol is biblical or not. Some use it as a debate on whether this wine was alcoholic or not. Others who are not saved and don’t know the Lord Jesus use it to defend drunkenness. It’s amazing how many people who are not filled with the Holy Spirit are trying to interpret scripture. It’s impossible. The Bible is a Spirit book and cannot be interpreted in the flesh. It must also be understood spiritually because it is not flesh food, it feeds the spirit. Anyhooo, let’s go!

Imagine that at your wedding (because you’ll get married soon) you have killed 3 fat cows and people are braaing and stewing and roasting and all. Then as you’re busy dancing with your beloved , someone comes and says. “People need more meat but we have run out. All the pots are empty but people are still asking for more.” My response would be , ”They must go home, we can’t buy another cow, kill it , cook it and serve it. The time does not allow. I’ve married my husband now they can go home and rest .” 😂 I bet you’d say the same too not because you’re stingy but considering the process – it is not possible. The supply is time sensitive.

At that time the aunties start coming to you to tell you the same thing the catering team just told you. You and your beloved are starting to worry because when the aunties get involved – you know the aunties that run the family 😂 you know you need to make a plan and fast! You think of the closest butchery, the money you’d have to pay the catering team to cook fast, the clock is ticking! I’m just trying to paint a picture that we might understand. Then suddenly you hear the MC saying ,”Our beloved guests, not to worry anymore about the meat. We have six big pots filled with heavy duty stew. Carry your plate and go enjoy.”

The question would be , ”From where? Was the meat there all along and someone hid it? Where did they get the cow? Who cooked? Is it takeaway? How is this even possible?” I have a friend who cooks heavy duty stew. I’ve never tasted it but from the looks of it, yeah. The stew is made in 1hr 30mins. Stew guys not soup. Not the one you just fry onion and you’re done. You know the one where you just do anyhow. Okay back to the story; now imagine you start hearing people talk about how very tasty this stew is. You and your beloved are so stunned you want to taste it as well and you discover that it’s one of the best you’ve ever tasted. But where did it come from? Who saved the day? A miracle.

This is what happened at Cana. When you study the process of making wine, you will find out that you don’t just squeeze wine out of grapes. If that was the case people would have lots of grapefruit trees in their compounds and every day you’ll find them by the tree chewing their destinies away. There is a process. The wine that had finished had been processed. The couple may have placed an order weeks before the wedding. A miracle is a system put by God to deal with time sensitive situations.

“Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so,”
‭‭John‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The bible says Jesus was a guest at this wedding. He was not MC , he was not part of the catering team. He just came to celebrate others. Let me just say, learn to celebrate others, there’s usually an atmosphere of miracles there. The servants were given an unusual instruction. These were grown people who knew how wine was made but they followed his instructions, although they were probably wondering why they were serving plain water. He didn’t say “serve the wine” , he said ,”draw some out,” meaning the water and “take it to the master of banquet” .. the miracle happened in a moment. He didn’t shake the jars or do anything dramatic like how people do “miracles” now. If you don’t shake it’s not happening 😂 He didn’t do weird things that people do nowadays in the name of “I’m about to do a miracle” because many many times, miracles happen in silent moments. You cannot really pick when it happened! Or HOW!

Miracles are awe-inducing in the moment but often fade from our thoughts when they are over. There were a lot of guests at the wedding at Cana. Some probably didn’t even notice the wine had run out. Human nature can vary extremely. The ones who love wine were astonished at the sudden reappearance of wine. They got their cups and headed straight to the servants. “Let’s go for a refill!”
Then there’s the family gossips who come to the wedding to gather information to gossip about , these ones were probably cynical and thought that there was a secret stash of wine. “They’re such a stingy couple. I think his wife is the problem. She is controlling the money.” Some saw a miracle. “Wow! How did something like this happen?! This is a miracle! Wine that must be processed has suddenly appeared instantly!”
Some probably didn’t pay attention. “Oh there’s wine. That’s nice. I’m going home now.”
Which one are you? Do you notice the miracles?

Let’s continue tomorrow. Have a miracle filled day! Remember, it happens in a moment! Live expectantly! Have faith in every moment. Even right now as you’re reading this, a miracle could be taking place. No drama. Just the workings of the spirit! Bye now 🩷