PUSH BUTTONS
3 Destiny Lessons as the Year Ends
My very first article on Push Buttons in this year 2022 was titled 3 Destiny Lessons for the New Year. Considering this is most likely my final article this year, I have decided to close out in a similar fashion, hence my title.
I suffered a major disappointment in the year 2013 that could have paralysed my faith and rendered me an atheist had I not processed it correctly. I had listened to sermons, studied tons of scriptures and was sufficiently armed with evidences of what I knew was mine and would materialize at the end of my faith project. Confident in the outcome, I did not expect the shocker that came to me in the form of a resounding rejection, a development that shook me to the core but ultimately formed and shaped the quality of my relationship with God and the beginning of my adventures on the faith lane.
The lessons I learned have carried me on course of my Christian experience, and today I’d like to spotlight three of them.
1. Results Don’t Prove God’s Faithfulness — There is a part of our humanity that tends to see God solely as Problem Solver, Solution Provider and Way Maker, and, in light of this, approach Him only for our Needs, Wants, and Desires. When everything falls flat, we brand God Unfaithful and pursue other worldly methods and means to advance our cause. But God is more and wants to be more than an “ATM” that spues out cash at the press of some buttons (prayers). God wants the results you get to be a function of your relationship with Him, not just a pursuit to quench your desire. God wants your needs met, but He wants your heart first.
When relationship is put before results, Peace and Joy which are fruits of faith are not hinged on sight but on God and are thus more potent. Every single Patriarch in scripture had to learn this. Not that God could not outrightly, instantly and overwhelmingly meet their needs, but the journey of faith is a journey of relationship where God’s prime goal is the forging and the fashioning of a relationship with you that will define your entire Christian experience.
In our walk with God, we have to, without fail, judge God faithful regardless of what we see in the present. Sarah had to learn this (Hebrews 11:11). Faithfulness is not tied to results but relationship. God will still produce the desired results but He wants you to see His faithfulness first in your personal fellowship and communion with Him. He wants to show up in the Word in your heart (internal) and then you judge Him faithful for that before He shows up in the world (external) which will be a manifestation of the internal. This week and forever, judge God faithful even in that pain and despondency.
2. Understand both the Acts and Ways of God — On the backdrop of a real and rich relationship with God is the unfolding and unveiling of the acts and ways of God, elements required for the exploits you will wroth in the earth. The children of Isreal knew His acts, but Moses knew His ways (Psalms 103:7). As Believers, we are expected to know both.
Acts point Ways, Ways Explain Acts; Acts are Miracles, Ways are Methods; Acts are Proofs, Ways are Principles. In your journey of faith, testimonies in scripture and from other believers encourage you but should never be the basis of your faith. That God did it for someone a particular way does not mean He’d use the same method for you. Don’t stop at the level of acts. Press into knowing the ways of God. The ways of God speak to the mind of God about a matter, the Spirit behind the result that you see, and the source code of all realities. When God shows you His ways, He takes you to the inner court. At the outer court are acts; in the inner court is where you engage with the ways of God. That’s where you begin to see that there are more than a thousand and one ways for Him to answer that prayer point. This is where you begin to see beyond sight, and also begin to see the heart of God. Acts-driven Christians are fickle and feeble, but Ways-driven Christians are strong and stout in their convictions. If your life is deficient of the knowledge of the ways of God, how He answers prayers, how He brings about results, and how He commands the cosmos in your favour, then you’ll continue to be destitute of what produces real results. This week and forever, seek to know both His Acts and His Ways!
3. Work from a Place of Rest — This is perhaps the greatest lesson I have learned on the faith lane. There is nothing that will happen in your future that is not already finished and completed in another realm. Faith speaks forth and draws down what is already created and perfected in another world — the spirit realm. Knowledge of this powers confidence and rest; you’ll be at peace that it is not your gymnastics in the place of prayer that achieves results if faith is lacking in your heart. Faith is a rest. If you’re in faith, your heart is at peace about the outcome. There is no fret, worry anxiety and fear that can unsettle and unnerve you from what you know is yours.
You know, there is a way the poor socio-economic realities and indices of a country can force even Believers to begin to think and behave like ‘hustlers’, accepting that struggling and striving are part of life. God has not called you to strive, but to thrive. Even when Scriptures say that, “the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent must take it by force” (Matthew 11:12) it balances this by saying that “all things are yours” (1 Corinthians 3:21) and that you should “labour to enter into rest.” (Hebrews 4:11). The Salvation Package brokered every single thing you need for Life and Godliness, causing you to sit together with Christ in heavenly places, far above principalities and powers. Knowledge of this should plunge you into rest. If, however, you fail to meditate on this reality, you run the risk of jumping into or looking up to the next big thing that can save and rescue you outside of God.
In my personal life, I don’t rest from work; I work from rest. Two scriptures that have tremendously helped me in this regard are below:
In returning and in rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength — Isaiah 30:15
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. — Psalm 127:2
This is why I don’t joke with my sleep. Lol. This is also why I rarely get frustrated or flustered about an outcome and this is why you can’t catch me depressed!
Rest is possible, friends! You can trust God that your future is Signed, Sealed and Delivered. If there is a knowledge gap for you in this area, address it through meditation. You are not created to toil. You are created to fight but from a vantage point of victory!! And as you do, you’ll Possess your Possessions, you’ll Scale High Walls, you’ll Fulfil Your Destiny, and you’ll Prevail.
Do have a Victorious Week and a Supernatural end to the Year 2022!
God bless you!!
Peace Bamidele
@askpeace_
Push Buttons is a weekly devotional of The Powerpoint Tribe.
