ADMINISTERED JUSTICE ⚖️

The old testament documents halorts and their ways a couple of times and yesterday these two harlots had me on hook.

These ones were not just in the same 'proffesion" , they were economically mindful to even share a house.

 

To them, individual privacy didn't seem like a thing they prized , they were bare with each other;so much so that they had access to each others children.

Then one day , there's death in their house . 

Now they are facing both a legal fight on whose child is alive and an enemity.

A separation that would alter their coexistence.

Thing with harlotry especially if conception happens is, the uncertainty of fatherhood. In such case ,the woman knows she'll have to solely shoulder the parental responsibility . 

So let's unpack a few thoughts that sat heavy on me yesternight.

1️⃣Both babies were safe at their mother's breasts. 

Then one mother turned and laid her whole body on their baby ,it died . 

Imagine a mother waking up to find her own flesh was the instrument that killed her baby😭😭well,that's what our own righteousness and strivings of the flesh produced ,death, so God called it filthy rags .

Paul records in Ephesians 6 that to be able to withstand in the evil day ,one of the armoury you will need to put on is the breastplate of righteousness. 

It is the positional stand in Sonship. And it is imputed to us . We wouldn't have gotten it any other way .

Gal 4:6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts... crying Abba father

The breastplate of righteousness guarantees our security in Him as sons .

When your breastplate is on , how you are "sleeping" is not on you but on your father ,Unlike the harlot who wanted to clear her mess using trickery .

2️⃣Another thing to look into is the sharp sword Solomon asked for .That was what he needed to use to effect justice to the two warring mother's .

Now , Paul echoes again about the sword ⚔️ take the Sword of the spirit which is the Word of God . The Word of God is living,it is active , it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." See how quickly the King established who the mother to the living child was.The sword will always come to cast down every argument that tries to exalt itself against the knowledge of God.

 

3️⃣Another thing to look into is that fact the baby died on day three .

The same number of days that changes rather reversed the trajectory of a man's history's. 

First,this case was the GRAND REVEAL of the kings wisdom.

So when Paul is saying Christ became to us the wisdom of God,the grand display of it was in the execution of our redemption from the kingdom of darkeness , translating us into the kingdom of the son of His love . 

All this in 3 days of his death , resurrection, ascension and glorification. 

 Day three,came with the fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied "Gods pleasure would prosper in His hands. God's will had now found one who fully satisfied it.

We were now justified and at peace with God.

4️⃣Another factor to look into is ,when the baby was being swapped , his mom was sound asleep , she heard nothing , until when she woke up to realise no,this is not mine child.

The king would have condemned her for oversleeping and not keeping an eye on her baby but he treated her as one who was awake the whole time by offering her an instantaneous verdict in her favour . 

5️⃣Another factor to consider is Boldness .The audacity and courage the true mom had when she woke up to go face the king seeking justice ,you and me can boldly come to the throne of Grace , there we find grace and mercy to help us in time if need . Infact the King tells us to fear not, there's a table laid out for us 

6️⃣Finally, let's look at the same mom back at home .

 She had a guarantee that as long as she in the house, it was her baby who's there with her .The justice executed gave her a guarantee and security.

Because where the word of a king is there is power . 

Here's the best thing about this story,that we have the Holy spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance,like the woman left the kings chambers with a surerity that this is my son 

. 

Jude 1:1 reminds us that we have been preserved in Christ .

🤎In Christ. 🤎 in Him we no longer need to shoulder the weight and bear the cost of the seed 'conceived' in harlotry.

🤎In Christ🤎is where we are kept. Not by vigilance. Not by performance. Not by staying awake through the night .

🤎In Christ🤎 where our treasure is .

✨no thief can steal 

✨no rust or moth can destroy 

We began when they were in an abode , we end by telling you Christ is our abode .

WATCHFUL SHEPHERD

Yesterday our pastor highlighted this verse 

Hebrews 13:17

Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. 

Pastor said that the instruction to obey presupposes you  already have a shepherd . 🙌

But this morning I have also read👇

"They watch out for your souls " 

Watching over the soul isn't surveillance and being a monitoring spirit 😃it's shepherding until Christ be formed in us .

A shepherd is not just watching what you are becoming but also what you are consuming because they have an accountability to God to steward the souls of His flock faithfully.

See,the Lord being a good shepherd ,He makes us lie in green pastures and leads beside still waters because that is where the soul is restored. 

Your soul is the faculty that receives knowledge ,the ear it is given to matters because that determines it's transformation or lack of it. 

Jesus after restoring Peter assigned him to feed His lambs ,He knew Peter had the right food for His lambs 

Watching out for the soul is not just in watching what the soul is changing into but what the soul is feeding on , how wholesome you are is purely dependent on the diet you are on.

Now they that labour in word and doctirne are worthy of double honour , not just obedience but double honour ,because if they watch over you poorly ,it's a fail to the soul .

Honour the shepherd that feeds you well because a soul without knowledge is not good ✨

WHAT ARE YOU YOKED TO?

Brethren God was not done,apart from mixed fabrics and mixed seeds ,. He also got into plowing 🤣 

But wanaisraeli pia had it rough ;

Deuteronomy 22:10

You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

Plowing is not just turning soil in and out , it is also carefully weeding out what doesn't need to be in the field while evenly preparing the land for sowing.

 

God was not just interested in having the land plowed but also how it was done ,what animals they used to prepare the land .

An ox and a donkey can be yoked together. Both are strong. Both can pull. But they are not of the same kind and that difference matters more than the task at hand.

 Their strides are different. Their strengths are also unequal. Their responses to pressure are not the same. So what happens when you yoke them? 

One animal suffers,one animal compromises its being and the very ground that is supposed to receive good seed comes out uneven 

Plowing needs to be done yes, but it matters how it is done ,to even out the land ..

Ephesians 5 introduces a bride sanctified and cleansed with the washing of water by the Word ready to be presented without spot or wrinkle , Spots and wrinkles would be an indicator that there was uneven cleaning , and that's not how Christ wants His bride.

Christ wants His bride conformed to His image .

His warning against use of two animals which are not of the same kind was because of the mismatched nature ,the compromise that would have to tag along and the inconsistentcy which the land would be left in.

Writing to the Corinthians Paul warns them of this;

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? 

Before using this scripture for marriage and relationships, consider your union with Christ , do you yoke His tools and those of the enemy , because that will ultimately produce a very uneven ground , which will not be fit for the seed of the Word and conformity to His image will be stained and strained.

God is not asking you to stop plowing but to stay cautious of what you are yoked to because the condition of the ground depends on it .

DailyWell -Peace ✨

DISPOSE YOUR NEEDLE

Yesterday I was here talking about God warning Israel not to mix seeds lest they corrupt their vineyards .

Today let's look at the fabrics too because this is where I am sure I'd have been rejected 🤣🤣 I can't wear silk alone ,how? 

Deuteronomy 22:11

You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.

He didn't say don't wear he just said your garment must be of the same kind

Why perhaps? 

Well ,  initially Adam and wifey were naked and unashamed?

 Clothes didn't have meaning,but upon eating the fruit ,they realised they needed to cover up so they made figs to cover themselves.

Fig leaves dry easily , crack and fall ,it was an emblem of their works ,effort which was not sustainable .

Then God slaughters an animal to make them skin which was better as a their covering though it cost an animal it's life.

Fast forward to the tabernacle,tphe priestly and Levitical garments were not fashion , they were function. God specified every detail 

He didn't want anyone wearing anything without his precise instruction.

Garments speak of covering,they speak of righteousness .

Garments cover our nakedness,our shame .

God didn't originally give Adam and Eve clothes,because they didn't need them , Adam was a son of God . His nature was righteousness.

Then sin came, and introduced a mixture of garment ,humanity wore a garment stained with sin and had to use effort, Sacrifices upon sacrifices,ritual upon ritual to cover up.

Isaiah considers and describes our best 'stitchings' and calls it filthy rags. Not rags,filthy ones ,there's a difference.

A different garment was introduced by sin . A garment so heavy it took a lamb being slain to get us a different one.

God is presently saying;

Galatians 3:26-27

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

You've been reclothed .

Don't take your own righteousness and stitch it along Christs' ,dispose your needle 😃 your fit is perfect .

THE VINEYARD

I have days I really thank God I wasn't around in the days of Moses because aaah — I was not going to make it. 🥺🥺 

Because why is God saying we shouldn't wear mixed fabrics? 

Why was God interested in farming logistics and seed regulations? 

 Deuteronomy 22:9

You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled. (Deuteronomy 22:9)

Corruption of the vineyard would only happen when a different seed is introduced and in turn that would defile the fruit.

Because the thing with a seed is it subjects itself to death so that it can birth more than itself.. And that is exactly how a corrupt seed begins to circulate. 

To avoid the corruption, God says let the vineyard stay pure. Sow one kind of seed. No mixture.

Then Jesus comes and says the Word is the seed, He is the Vine Dresser, and my friend, your heart is the vineyard.

The seed of the Word must remain purely in it. Because if you mix the Word with something else, what you birth is a defiled fruit.

It is only the entrance of the Word that produces light.

Now here is the detail that quietly undid me. The vineyard doesn't choose its seed. The owner does. 🤦🏽‍♀️ to tell me that the guarding of my heart with all diligence is not the vineyard defending itself ,it is the owner deciding what gets entry. 

Stay away from being unequally yoked with that which will birth corruption.

Look at the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:19 ,they are not called corrupt because their deeds were bad ,in fact they are commended for their works, love, service, and endurance .But on the other side, they also tolerated Jezebel , permitted her to teach and lure the servants of God into sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. 

They kept the Word and also gave jezebel a seat at their table .

That is something quieter and far more dangerous. This is addition. The vineyard still looked active. The fruit was still coming. But a different seed had been planted alongside the right one, and it was circulating.

Compromise is not abandonment. It is addition.

Guarding the heart will then look like preventing philosophies, ideologies,doctrines of demons, the voice of a stranger from making entry because what enters will eventually bear fruit. And you will eat of it.

But here is where grace arrives.

To thyatira He says repent, return the vineyard to the owners original intent.

Tend the garden by removing what I didn't permit .

The Vine Dresser has not left the vineyard,but he wants the right kind of seed in it .

He prunes. He cleanses. Where mixture happened

The Word that once ruled can re-establish its purity. 

Grace is not only for the barren fields. It is for the compromised ones too.

DailyWell — Peace✨

THE RACE

I was maybe 9years old when our teacher told us about Dr. Ben Carson while holding a copy of his book 'Gifted Hands '

The boy from Detroit who was called the dumbest in his class. The boy who endured, who pushed, who became one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons in history. The doctor who separated conjoined twins when the whole medical world said it could not be done.

I remember sitting in that classroom in absolute awe and all I was entrenched in was the beauty of becoming a neurosurgeon to help other conjoined twins in the future😃and give them a chance in life to live separately.😃

Then,as I grew up I kept learning that I cannot stand the sight of blood 🤣wounds or even basic injection, I slowly began realising the medical field is not a 'race I want to run' but there's a race set before me that I must run with endurance.

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

The writer of Hebrews opens this verse with a therefore meaning everything that follows is built on everything that came before. Chapter 11 has just introduced us to the hall of faith. Men and women who believed God in impossible circumstances and whose lives became testimonies.

Their stories are the 'crowd' of those who've gone ahead and their endurance is the 'witness'

And the invitation is this 'let their lives embolden you to finish yours'.

But here is what I also want you to notice;

The crowd is not running for you your race .

The witnesses watch. They inspire. They testify. But the stripping , that is yours.

 The running , that is yours.

 The endurance , that is yours. Ben Carson's story moved me deeply. It still does. But his race was not my race. No matter how inspiring it was.

The verse mentions weights separately from sin. A weight is not always something wicked. Sometimes ,a weight could simply be the wrong race. An expectation you inherited. A dream that belongs to someone else's life. A lane you stepped into because it looked glamourus from the outside not because God placed you in it.

Running someone else's race will exhaust you,it's weighty.

Not because you are weak. But because you were not built for it.

The grace to endure is only available on the road God set for you. You will not find staying power in a borrowed assignment. You will find pressure, performance anxiety, and burnout and you will wonder why God feels distant when really you are just running in the wrong direction.

The crowd of witnesses is not cheering you toward their finish lines. They are cheering you toward yours.

Ben Carson ran his race with everything he had,and I am here, writing to you — not in an operating theatre🤣 but at this Daily Well .

Friend ,find your race. Strip everything that will weigh you down ,run with Endurance. Stay in your lane, undistracted, focused, unbothered by the glamour of lanes that were never yours.

The race God set for you is for you.. run faithfully.

DailyWell-Peace ✨

Atrophying? Exercise.

Being that we learn daily, a couple of days ago I learned a new word: atrophy.

Atrophy is the wasting away of something through disuse. A muscle that is not exercised weakens. A skill that is not practiced diminishes. Nothing stays static. Growth demands stewardship 

Think about this proverb; Iron sharpens iron and during sharpening three things happen ,

✨Friction is involved.

✨Pressure is involved.

✨Sometimes sparks are involved

Yet the purpose is not damage but improvement.

If a blade is not sharpened it will overtime become dull and rusty .

Hebrews 5:14

"But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

When we break that down ,we see that ;

✨Strong meat — requires ability to 'chew' and that is capacity 

✨Full age — speaks of maturity.

✨By reason of use have their senses exercised to discern — speaks of stewardship.

The transition from milk to meat is not because you have outgrown milk. Rather, milk has accomplished its purpose: it has formed in you what is necessary to support the eating of meat. It has brought you to a place where you now possess the capacity to handle deeper things because you have come of age in the knowledge of Christ.

But maturity is not the destination ,it forms in us a steward.

The writer of Hebrews does not say they discern because they heard, studied, or memorized. He says they discern by reason of use. What they received, they practiced. What they learned, they exercised the more they exercised the more they discerned what was good and what was evil .

And that is where many things either grow or atrophy.

Truth unused becomes truth forgotten. Discernment unused becomes discernment dulled. 

Maturity forms a steward in us and in stewardship it's required that we be found faithful.

The things God gives us are not merely to be possessed; they are to be exercised and the more the we exercise,the more we keep Atrophy at bay

 DailyWell- Peace