Givers and Takers

“Don’t ever be one of those who take advantage

of other people’s problems, desperation and ignorance.

You are to offer advantage, not to take it

The kingdom mandate on you depends on it”

He woke up and couldn’t get to sleep again afterwards

Once in a while he hears the voice of the Holy Spirit

“Loud and clear”

He was almost always asleep when it happens

The first time it was a “Don’t go to the event you have from the office tomorrow warning”

The warning was so strong that it continued to echo in his ears long after he startled awake from sleep

He didn’t go to work the following day

He was at the time working as the production officer of the outfit

They shot skits, adverts, commercials and short videos

They had scouted the location for months

It was located in the heart of the city

He wrote the script of the production himself

Prominent actors and secondary school students were invited to be a part of it

The students auditioned

He was part of the panel that selected the final eight students

Based on merit only

They got a professional director

They got the equipment

They began to shoot the docu-drama

They had gotten into the thick of the production

When the voice came to him early that morning

He wasn’t scared in any way

He dressed up and set off for the venue he was warned not to go to

His car tyre suddenly went flat halfway to the destination

He parked

He wanted to quickly change the tyre

He brought down the extra tyre

It was equally flat

He got a vulcanizer

The tyres got fixed

He got in the car to drive on

The car wouldn’t start

After hours of stressing himself

He placed a call to the production manager

“Sir, this is the situation of things, can you guys proceed without me?”

The production manager’s reply was very shocking

He said “Sir, thank God you couldn’t make it! Fire gutted the warehouse we planned to use to shoot that Furniture maker’s scene from earlier today. We thank God nobody was injured among our cast and crew but we cannot shoot again today sir”

He was dumbfounded

He never took the voice for granted again

He knew his safety depended on his walk with the Holy Spirit

One day without him and one could find himself or herself out of sync and out of purpose in life

Several times after that day, the voice would speak to him

Or while he was praying and thanking God for his goodness and mercy, he would suddenly sense a reluctance to pray about certain things

His reluctance to pray about those things in the presence of the one with whom he kept no secret is an indication that the holy spirit doesn’t want him to be a party to such

He had tasted and tested these methods in making strong life decisions

The methods have never failed him

That night was the very first time the Holy Spirit would expressly warn him not to take advantage of people.

He wrote the warning down on in his jotter

He had never taken advantage of anybody in the name of the gospel or otherwise before

That afternoon a man came looking for him

Man: Good afternoon sir

He: Good afternoon sir

Man: I wanted to talk to you about my family, sir. I know you are a man of God and the whole world testifies of the consistency of your walk with the Holy Spirit

He: Please go-ahead sir

The man told his story

He had been in Turkey for many years and was introduced to the carpet business by his Turkish girlfriend. The business favoured him and he made a lot of money. After some years abroad, he returned home to establish the same business!

The business took kindly to his country also

He had no regret

His Turkish girlfriend, now wife, had a dream

In that dream she saw the Lord Jesus!

Jesus told her that he loves them and he would like them to surrender their lives to him

The man felt it was unnecessary!

Jesus is for the poor people. People who are aspiring to live a better life! People who desire to have a brighter tomorrow! Like an opium for the masses to allow the rich and noble sleep at night. It wasn’t as if they were terrible people

He prefers his household to be irreligious!

Religion destroys everything!

Half of the war, genocide, hate, terrorist attacks, intolerance, bigotry, and other evils in the world are caused by religion

It didn’t matter which religion

Religion is bad

The man concluded by saying “I will like you to come and convince my wife that religion is not good for us and that Jesus really didn’t speak to her. It was just a dream or a figment of her imagination. She had been behaving somehow since the day she had that dream. She had withdrawn into herself, she prays a lot (You have to understand she was born and bred to practice another religion entirely and half of the time she doesn’t understand what she was saying or doing! She kept crying and calling on the name of Jesus!) I want this madness to stop! I have invited a psychiatrist to talk to her, but the lady couldn’t reach her. I was told you are educated and you are not a religious man. Could you please come and talk to her?

Wow!

He told the man to give him his address and phone number and expect him soon

The man left!

That night he slept early

He woke up at 3am and began to worship the Lord

He knew God had a great plan

The plan was unfolding

The Holy Spirit had given him no clue as to what he should expect

Sometimes the Holy Spirit will show him ahead what he should do in certain situations

Sometimes he would have to act in faith

This was one of the "act in faith" situations

At 5am, he made the call

It was as if the man had been waiting by the phone

He told the man he would be at his house by 8am

The man was happy

He dressed up and drove to Banana Island

He got to the man’s house by 7am

He stayed in the car and prayed for one hour

He had only one opportunity to get it right!

It had to be a display of power! Total and absolute power

Like the type the Household of Cornelius experienced when Peter paid them a visit

If the Holy Ghost broke out in that household

Arguments and discussions would become irrelevant

He had experienced the Holy Spirit do that several times

But he had never requested for it to be done

Whenever it happened, it caught him by surprise as much as he caught the people it happened to by surprise also

This was the first time he really desired that the Holy Spirit would move in that dimension

He prayed in the spirit and spoke forth the reality

At 8am

He rang the bell

The security man was expecting him

He was ushered in

The man was waiting for him in the reception of his mansion

They shook hands

Nothing happened!

The man did not fall under the anointing

The man did not start screaming and jumping about

The fire did not "Kaboom!"

As he had seen in other cases and hoped for in this case

He was slightly thrown off balance

“Holy Spirit", he prayed! "Please don’t let me have to discuss the difference between religion and Christianity in this household. I hate clumsy discussions and clarifications, please do this by your power!”

Nothing!

He felt nothing!

The man was still talking, asking him how the drive down was and making small talk in general.

Eventually the man excused himself and left to bring his wife

Few minutes later, they emerged

The man’s arm was draped over the shoulder of his wife as they walked in

Their children, three of them, also walked into the reception with them

He was sitting down, praying silently in the spirit

As soon as the wife saw him

It happened!

She screamed so loud! The whole house shook

Her husband and children all fell under the anointing!

Kayabasa!

He started clapping

The Holy Spirit sure knew how to make a grand entry

Hayaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

The woman started speaking in tongues

He joined her

Glossolalia!

The more he prayed

The deeper she got

Like the cantor and the choir

The Hazzan and the worshipper

They prayed until the room and indeed the house was taken over by the unusual!

For one hour, two strangers were united in the worship of the spirit

Heaven came down!

When they were done

She introduced herself to him and thanked him for coming

She said she had felt like a coiled spring was in her heart and the spring kept pulling her in

But the moment she saw her

The spring sprang and power surged right through her body

Her husband and children were just too close to the explosion

He told her to lay hands on her husband

She did

He started praying in tongues, right there on the beautiful Turkish carpet in the center of the room

She laid hands on her children too

They started praying in the spirit too

They joined them, pulling them to their feet one by one

He had experienced it several times

People coming under the power of the Holy Spirit so strongly that they start praying in the spirit even before they gave their lives to Christ!

It lasted for another thirty minutes

He led the family to Christ

They all became born again

The man cried heavily thereafter

The wife and children huddled around him

Love broke out afresh in their home

He asked them if they would like to be baptized

They said yes

He told them to fill a bath tub with water

He baptized them

He told them to start reading the Bible from the book of John

He instructed them to join a church around them where the doctrines of the new testament are being practiced

He told them never to become churchy or religious

“You have been called into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, keep that fellowship individually, as a family, as members of his body (by joining a church), and as members of your community by living the word and becoming Christ ambassadors indeed”

He was done in the house by 1pm

He took his leave

The next day, early in the morning, the man was at his door with four of his friends

The man introduced his friends and after they had all settled down, the man spoke…

The man: I was brought a Christian devotional yesterday evening and I saw in it that some things were required of me to do. I want to pay my first fruit, I want to do redemption of the first born and I want to pay my tithe. I have brought everything sir. 2 million is my tithe, I don’t know the cost for the redemption of the first born yet, I read in the devotional it can be calculated (I also want to pay for the redemption of my wife and children), then the first fruit should come at the end of next month. We are in December now but I will like to know how to calculate it because I own several businesses!

He understood at that moment why the Holy Spirit said he should never take advantage of people.

He sat the man down and explained to him

1. Jesus is the firstborn of the Born Again Christian (Psalm 89:27), (Colossians 1:15), (Colossians 1:17), (Colossians 1:18), (Revelations 1:5), (Romans 8:29), (Hebrews 12:23)

If Jesus is the firstborn and we are his brethren, we have no right to call ourselves “firstborns” and “redeem ourselves” because he had redeemed us fully from the curse of the law

On tithing, he opened the man’s eyes to the scriptures and explained why it is necessary to pay such to the church he and his family will be attending to support the work of the gospel

2. TITHING TO MELCHIZEDEK (HEB. 7:1–2)

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.

The author of Hebrews argues that, although the tithe was supposed to be paid to the Levites, Abraham gave a tenth of his spoils to the priest Melchizedek. And that, through this act, the Levites also metaphorically tithed to Melchizedek. Not only did the priest take a tithe from Abraham, he blessed him. Hebrew’s author says, “It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. (v. 7)” The whole chapter compares the priesthood of Christ to this mysterious Old Testament character.

It’s only appropriate that the last place the tithe is mentioned it’s being used to point to Christ’s preeminence.

3. On first fruit he told the man it is not required to be paid under any scriptural law. “Walk with the Holy Spirit for some time, read your Bible and get to recognize his voice”. He will tell you the things to do and the things not to do. You are no longer in a blind relationship with an unreal God. He is real and living right inside of you. Please listen to him and obey him

If he asked you to pay first fruit, do so with joy but do not make a law out of it. He leads us all individually and “he knows our frame”.

We do nothing under compulsion in Christ!

We have been called to liberty

He that gives to the kingdom of Christ is guaranteed his reward in this world and in the world to come

Such a person must be cheerful, knowledgeable and willing to give from the heart

All that had to be paid for salvation in cash and kind had been paid by Jesus on the cross! Nothing else is required of any man to pay either to be saved or be blessed by God.

The man was surprised the brother in Jeans and T-shirt didn’t jump at the money.

The man: I was telling my friends about what happened in my house yesterday. I wanted them to come and see you but they agreed only on one condition. They wanted me to show I am serious about my conversion by putting my money where my mouth is. One of them brought me the devotional! He said if I will be willing to pay all the money to you in their presence, they will know I am serious and consider my suggestion that they meet with you and become Christians too. That was why we all came here together

The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt smiled

The man and his friends’ faces were already shinning

The word he shared with them on the topic they brought had kindled the light of the gospel in them

He asked the man to pray

As soon as the man said “In Jesus name”

All his friends fell on their knees and started praying in the spirit!

Four more souls met with the Holy Spirit that morning

Ps: Nothing is as free to understand as the gospel

It gets complicated when we mix legalism and the law with it for our selfish advantages

Nothing is required of a believer under the law! The law, all the laws had been abolished!!!

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law!

All things are ours in Christ!

Let nothing be done out of compulsion or herd mentality

I will do as the spirit leads me

Kindly do as the spirit leads you

Let us not compare notes

The spirit does not compare us by performance

“To whom much is given, much is expected” but not by law

Nobody should put in bondage those who Christ died to set free

“Happy “First Fruit” season”