Categories
The Overcoming Believer

Fear of the enemy

Hey beautiful family. My apologies for posting late today. I want to start off by wishing the daddies a Happy Belated Father’s Day. You’re amazing ! You’re honoured. You’re celebrated. I lost my Dad years ago but by God’s grace the gap was filled by honourable Fathers that God gave me. The world is harsh to the fatherless. This is why God has always addressed the orphans in the Bible. Please care for your children ; it’s beyond “money” . The relationship; the investment of time; the small things matter too ( Do give them money if you can lol) Dear Fathers; society will crash and burn without you. You are pillars. We love you!

Click on the link to learn more about Fatherhood according to God’s plan. Click here

As we continue on our topic of Overcoming Fear; this week we are looking at The Fear Of The Enemy. The Bible acknowledges that there are spirits forces of evil that oppose and fight the believers in Christ but it also teaches that we can overcome them through the power of God. Every one who is of age to understand , Christian or not, is aware of demonic spirits and their various activities. In African society people fear witchcraft the most. As a matter of fact; in every family, there has been a witch of two in the lineage. It can be quite scary for those who have not yet grown in the things of God to discover such truths. Evil is real. The devil is real. Demons are real. Witches and wizards are real. AND SO IS GOD!

In the accounts of the synoptic gospels; Jesus delivered many people from demonic oppression. The most famous being the mad man in the country of the Gerasenes who lived in the cemetery and had become so violent to himself and others. We are then able to understand that even violence is from demonic oppression but that’s not our topic today. I want us to understand that the devil is very active in every country. This side or the other side. Even if you run to UK or Kenya or wherever, he has his minions planted there to execute evil. We are not to be ignorant of this. Many people run from learning these things because of fear. “If l discover I will fear more,” no my darling. The truth sets us free even from the spirit of fear. So learn about it. All your 5 years a believer – you need to be groomed for warfare.

I have had encounters with demonic spirits both spiritually and physically. I dare not lie to you that the enemy cannot intensify at battle. I dare not mislead you to live in a bubble of fantasy that he will not pursue the believer. The devil has a purpose just like you and l . This is his purpose and what wakes him up in the morning;

A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy.
‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭10‬a ‭TPT‬‬

Satan has no business befriending you. He is not seeking for your affection just your attention. He has no care about your pool tears or your weariness. “I will kill myself” he doesn’t care. In fact you make the job easy for him. Without you he has one less problem to deal with. He has only one thing in mind. Unlike the believer, Satan is very serious about his purpose. He is very intentional about his mission. He is driven by his desire to steal , kill and destroy while we are driven by almost everything. An unfocused man cannot fight the devil. Your mind is already unstable. That’s the first fight the devil wins over you. The thief will come ; oh he surely will; but God says you have already overcome. How?

“You see, every child of God overcomes the world, for our faith is the victorious power that triumphs over the world. So who are the world conquerors, defeating its power? Those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭5‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭TPT‬‬

Other versions say Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world! Are you born again? Then you have overcome the world. Once you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour you become more powerful than David with his sling and stone. More powerful than Goliath. More powerful than witches. If these truths are hard to believe – it is your faith that is glitching. The signal is not connecting well. You need to believe this otherwise you will keep handing over your sword to the devil. What you’re afraid of is afraid of you. Dear David; Saul is afraid of you.

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭4‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Let’s continue tomorrow on how to win battles against the devil. May the Lord deliver you from the fear of the devil. Imagine a policeman who is afraid of one thief from somewhere who doesn’t even have a gun. That’s you being afraid of the devil. Now imagine Herod being afraid of baby Jesus – that’s how much the devil fears you. Read this article again until you understand. I love you.

Categories
Yielding the mind

Reflection Friday

How are you? The truthful answer now, how are you?

How has the week been for you? How’s your heart? What testimony have you received and what are you most grateful for? Don’t just read; it’s important that you answer . It’s important that you do all the exercises here; we want to grow don’t we? Let’s look into the mirror 🪞.

I’ve come to realise that man is ignorant to his own faults but actively participates in other people’s business. Jesus addresses this in the gospels by saying “

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭42‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus is saying , your first mission is to address you. Self introspection is not something you do after you’ve corrected others NO! You start by checking yourself out first! Unless we have done so, we have no right to be correcting others – not even unbelievers. “They’re prostitutes” while we’re still dealing with “masturbation” in the church of God! No! Jesus wants us to see that our first job is to deal with our own problems, sins, weaknesses, mistakes, inconsistencies, wrong motives. Many people can’t confront themselves but they have paragraphs upon paragraph confronting others. Jesus says we cannot do that. So here we are again, before the mirror . To see ourselves for who we truly are.

I was reading a scripture and it really confronted my heart. I realised , there’s someone I am actually still mad at. I’m like ohh the word of God will really have you on the surgery table. Now, I can’t go and teach about grudges when l myself have to deal with that. I’ve dealt with it though; spoke to the person. Jesus is not saying never preach about it , He says, first deal with your own heart condition. Ever met ladies who will say “oh your make up is not sitting well” but you look at them and their brows can pass as door handles? LOL (let me be serious). Okay okay back to the issue – self introspection. What are we doing about the bitterness?

Your growth is not in putting down others, it is in looking at your reflection. A fault is a fault, whoever it belongs to, and we should judge ourselves and others by the same rule. We are to fix our thoughts on it; careful consideration; meditate; deliberate on these things. So no, nothing justifies yelling. Nothing justifies wrong behaviour. Nothing justifies treating people like nothing even if in your past you were treated likewise. I know this is a bit harsh but even your past trauma doesn’t justify you traumatising others. If a man broke your heart; that doesn’t justify you breaking other people’s hearts. You need healing first so that you can have a healthy perspective on relationships. We are called to be godly not godly with a side salad of the world. It’s a journey but we will definitely win if we don’t shrink back. It’s all up to us – you and l.

3 ways to self reflect

  • Through the lenses of scripture . Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal you to you. And when He does, don’t argue with Him.
  • Journaling . As you meditate, write down what you need to work on and add a date to it then come back to it after sometime to note down progress or victory.
  • Ask your friends. “Tell me about what you think of me”. Now this is something you want to do with friends whose hearts you trust to be loving towards you. People whose answers will edify. They should tell you the truth and you should be able to take the truth no matter how hard or angering it is. Remember even God corrects those He loves. There is love in correction.

Many people keep failing the self introspection test because they hate “truth”. Truth threatens their peace and they have been running from it since they knew what it was. The truth sets you free. We remain caged if we can’t swallow truth. If your friends point out a trait in you that is bad don’t say “who are you to tell me this and that. I’m cutting you off. You too are like this and that,” it’s not a competition of who’s better. It’s surgery. Humility is needed when we go through this journey.

And remember this includes honesty about how you feel, your anger management journey, the healing process, everything. Don’t microwave healing . Don’t microwave success. Take it as it comes and finally, you become like a butterfly. Beautiful, free, admirable!

It’s time to consider our ways . Truth be told , are you who the world thinks you are or are you the person the mirror is showing? Let’s get to work!

My darling, until we actually become intentional about self introspection we may never rise to our full potential .. in the end , you will be the one suffering from the results of being too casual about this.

I love you! Have a beautiful weekend! Remember, Abba is on your side! ❤️

Categories
Yielding the mind

Chilled Thursday

Hey YIELDED FAMILY!

Yes. Grab some 🍿. If you’re fasting my dhiye just grab water before you take this as a sign to break your fast. You know believers like to say “confirmation” even those who never heard anything that needs “confirmation” . It’s become Christianese. Someone can read “grab popcorn” and break their fast because “It’s confirmation, l knew I wasn’t supposed to fast.” Guys please, okay? Ok.

Before I post the link for our movie, I’d like to first; remind you to follow Yielded TV on Instagram. Soon we will have our chilled Thursday links from that channel. Two, I need people who will make short videos for Yielded TV . On the video share how yielded has helped you, whatever you may have learnt ; it doesn’t have to be long. I will need your name, where you reside and the video should be less than 30 seconds. Help me with that please? You can send me the video on Instagram directly at yielded tv dm or to my personal account @vanessa_moonkie. Remember I will post it on the TV page so lol you can’t wear crop top my dhiye. This will also serve as me meeting my readers. Yha one day we will be a whole Christian Netflix as Yielded and you’ll get a free subscription for 3 months LOL! (Screenshot and remind me then) Thanks in advance guys. ❤️

Horyt! Let’s get to it! Simply click on the link to watch ! I know that this will really inspire and bless you! I love youse!

If you are uniquely gifted in your work, you will rise and be promoted. You won’t be held back— you’ll stand before kings!”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭29‬ ‭TPT‬‬

Categories
The Overcoming Believer

Worship Wednesday

GOOD NEWS!!! Before I share it with you guys , I wanna give you the background of yielded. In December l was so frustrated by the fact that l had four books written and ready to be published and had no funds to do it. The calculations of how much one book would cost me messed me up – yes (oh Vanessa of little faith). I had spent nights upon nights writing my books both for Christian children and the matured believer. Man I gave it my all, diligently studying the Word – so you can imagine how frustrated I was having done all that to end up before the Red Sea, no way back and seemingly no way forward. Like Israel l began to cry. And Instead waking up to a million – l woke up to yielded.

I was busy googling platforms to use my talent because what l was determined to not allow my setback to cause me to bury the talent on the ground. You guys read this blog daily – I’m not one of the best writers (YET) but I love writing. I didn’t want stop stirring up the gift and be called an unfaithful servant by the Master. God then ushered me here. I now understand the setback. My vision was only “books” Gods vision was “blogs, books, tv, etcetera”. If I had gotten that money in December I’d have never started a blog. I’d have sat on that forever. The redirection to start yielded was not God saying l will never publish my books, No! That was God saying there’s more platforms – as l commit to stirring up the gift – l will not only stop books but to international platforms. Yielded blog has readers from across the world and tbh I really don’t know many of the people. God called them. He uses those who keep reposting the link to say “Come and read!”. I check my readers statistics and I’m like “Who do l know in such and such a country?” How come they’re here? God has shown me His faithfulness through you. This journey has been life changing for me as it may be for you. I am learning to trust God with the vision He gave me and that has brought me unexpected and unexplainable results and opportunities.

Now the GOOD news is God has given us another vision. Well, two! If you scroll down you’ll notice that there’s free prayer and counselling slots from Yielded Counselling Center. Soon we will have a properly set up website ( please pray for that) that way all our features will be available and accessible from here as opposed to waiting for me to post what’s happening. Our new baby is the Yielded TV!! If you’ve known me for a long time you’ll know that back then I used to write fictional novels. Had lots of readers online and so now I’m using that gift to create Christian movies. All this is coming from one instruction to start a blog. Our Instagram page is https://www.instagram.com/yieldedtv?igsh=MWZ3bHJod2N5b3V3bw== click to follow and let’s get ready for what God is gonna do! I’d love to hear your reviews on what we post there. Very soon we will have our Yielded T-shirts that you’ll be able to purchase via this website.

You see? Just that one song that God says release can open many doors of opportunity. I believe that this year my books will be released. The Lord just had me take another route which was for my good. I did not even need money for all that I’m doing now. I couldn’t have guessed when I was crying to God saying “I’ve laboured to write, why don’t l have the funds to do this” – that one day I’d understand the plan of God. There’s more! One more thing : commit to the vision God gives you. One leg in and one leg out people cannot grow and they don’t have the capacity to grow a vision. Be a full participant of your vision. I read yielded blogs. I also consistently join MPG prayer calls. I fully participate because those who follow or believe in your vision must first see you commit to it.Christ is committed to the church – we have a template. The double mindedness you have about your vision is why you haven’t started building and you see slow progress. Get your whole being into the vision and let’s move!

I’m super excited because I found some power packed worship session by Minister Abbey Ojomu. As promised on the MPG live yesterday I also have powerful praise session for you. Here are the links below; please do praise God with me! (You’re gonna have to be reading the meaning of the Nigerian lyrics on the praise song but it’s PHAWAFOO)

PRAISE | WORSHIP

“So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭28‬ ‭TPT‬‬

The Holy Bible
Categories
The Overcoming Believer

The fear of man (2)

Hey family!
To continue on yesterday’s topic I’d like us to study the life of John the Baptist. He was Jesus’ cousin, born to prepare the way for the Lord as prophecied by Isaiah. The bible says that his lifestyle was not like the normal suit and tie, pizza and coke, or whatever they ate or wore that time. He loved differently. By living apart from the culture John was able to speak with great passion and clarity for the people of that day. He was part of the community but not part of the culture.

Let’s pause for a minute… Is it possible that we are afraid to speak up about the truth of the gospel because we are consumed by the culture of the communities we live in therefore we can’t speak against what we also partake in. A thief can’t call out another thief. The culture, the beliefs, the traditions, the day to day of the world cannot be the same as ours who are saved. Many of us are silenced because we also drink what they drink, smoke what they smoke, worship the gods they worship, do what they do – and if it happened in the past it is okay but now that you’re John The Baptiser, your lifestyle should be consistent to the values of the kingdom.

Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.””
‭‭Mark‬ ‭7‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

John’s teachings were just raw. By raw I mean he never sugar coated anything. He had no fear of man.He didn’t live for the opinions of others, but lived with compassion to see others brought to repentance towards Christ. John was not afraid of the religious or political leaders of his day. He saw beyond their robes and titles into the deeper heart. He spoke the truth with clarity and passion, he didn’t live to people-please, simply to preach the need for forgiveness of sin. He called out the Pharisees and Sadducees, for what they truly were. He even died for speaking the truth to Herod! We are afraid to tell our friends “this is wrong” so how will we ever speak up against wrong laws made in our countries. If you can’t tell your friend , how will you tell the strangers? We are afraid. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom I assume the fear of man is the beginning of foolishness.

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭NIV‬ | Luke‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Today’s believer fears man. We fear that they’ll put us in prison. How many people in the bible were imprisoned for speaking the truth? MANY! Am l terrified at the thought of being imprisoned yes! But how come we say we want to be like Jesus? He too was imprisoned for the truth – He was and is the King of the Jews. I’m saying to you, if you were to be in that position for the gospel would you change your testimony? Stephen would you say “no l was joking” . Apostles would you deny like Peter? “I don’t know him” because we are afraid of the people? How many times have we denied Christ and what we claim to believe because Herod will imprison us? Because our families will cut us off? Because we have an image to protect? If the extreme came and you had to die for speaking the truth – would you still stand for the truth? (I need to also sit and meditate on this one) How far are we willing to go to make sure nations are saved? The truth is we can’t go anywhere if we are afraid of man.

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭1‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How you speak – are you a people pleaser? What you do at work? How you carry yourself as a believer, whose approval do you seek? We fear that society will reject us for choosing Jesus, the cute lady will reject you for being a man of God so you hide that you speak in tongues. Your colleagues will not accept you because you don’t drink alcohol so you take it realise you kissed someone you don’t even know. Fear that our parents will disown us so we keep attending their ceremonies of ancestral worship. Fear that we will come across as “too serious” about God , so we go on social media and tone down the gospel. Other men died for this gospel, others were imprisoned , others suffered , what are we willing to sacrifice ? Can we sacrifice the approval of man for the kingdom of God?

The fear of man silences the believer. Hey, it’s okay to be different. We are not of the world . I trust that this teaching will help you to be bold about Christ wherever you are and wherever you go! I need to re-read as many times as possible so that I can also live what I’m teaching. Be a John the Baptist in a world of Peter’s by the fire. The overcoming believer must first overcome the fear of man – replace it with the fear of God.

Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26‬:‭69‬-‭70‬ ‭NIV‬‬