A WOMAN’S PLACE 5 (Know your neighbor)

A Woman who will find her place in God’s grand scheme of things must know her neighbor. Each one of us was born alone, we will die alone but we are not meant to live alone in this world. We are living in a world populated by other human beings like ourselves. We need to love and care for others around us. We need to understand that our fellow human being irrespective of tribe or tongue or status is a person of honor and dignity created in the image and likeness of The Almighty God Himself. We need to understand that our neighbor is one of those Jesus came to seek and to save. Therefore a woman who desires to find her place must love and treasure her neighbor with agape love(the unconditional love of God). This is the love that loves not because the object of this love is worthy of it, but because this love is a commandment from the creator Himself. The creation therefore must obey the creator because obedience to the creator is the only pathway to greatness for the creation. Knowing how much God Himself loves her neighbor the woman who wants to please God must love unconditionally. It is written in the book of Mark 12:30-31 “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” In the parable of the Good Samaritan(Luke 10:30-37), The Lord, Jesus Christ made it clear that our neighbor is whoever we come in contact with irrespective of race, tribe, color or religious persuasion. Our neighbor is whoever we can positively impact with our life. Our neighbor is whoever we can help or assist in anyway to make life better and more comfortable for. Our neighbors are extensions of ourselves as we have the same creator. A woman who will find her place will not see her neighbor anymore, she will only see God in him or her. Love is not a feeling,it is obedience. You love the unlovable because you have been commanded to love by Him who created you. He will not demand from you that which He has not graced you to do. You have within you the ability to love as God loves, you only need to draw on that ability. A woman who will find her place cannot be selfish, self centered and self absorbed, she must be God centered therefore Christ centered. In the book of John 13:34-35 Jesus said our Christ like love will show others that we truly are His(belonging to Christ). A woman’s place is in Christ Jesus, she must be rooted and grounded in Christ. This is what will shield her from the many storms of life. This is what will keep her focused and persevering. This is what will help her metamorphoses into the life of faith, which is a life of exploits.A woman cannot occupy her place in Christ effectively and productively except she knows herself, her source and her neighbor. It is her correct knowledge of these that will bring wholeness into her life and secure her eternity. The word of God is His manual for our life. The word is what reveals ourselves to us, it reveals our creator to us and our neighbor to us also. The word of God teaches us how to find our place as women and occupy it. The word of God equips and empowers us to occupy the place we have been destined by The Almighty God as women to occupy. When we as women do not make the word of God our primary concern we cheat ourselves, our creator and our neighbor. The word of God teaches, equips and empowers us to reach inwards, upwards and outwards. I want you as a woman to update your life today, your past is gone, the present is here now and your future is before you. No matter what your past has been like, you can change it today. No matter what you have been through you are still here. Today is crucial to your glorious future. Make the choice today to get into the word of God and make it work for you. The word of God is light, it is life, it is spirit and truth. It delivers maximally to you all that is yours by Divine right. Without accurate knowledge of the word of God, you stand the risk of suffering through ignorance. The word of God teaches, equips and empowers you to live as opposed to merely existing. Choose to live the life you were born to live today. A glorious life, an enviable life, a productive and prosperous life. GET INTO THE WORD TODAY AND MAKE TIME FOR THE WORD EVERY DAY.
The Lord give you perfect understanding in Jesus’Name Amen.

SHALOM (Busola Olotu)

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A WOMAN’S PLACE 4

KNOW YOUR SOURCE
(YOUR CREATOR)

Jeremiah 9 v 23-24 “Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”
you as a woman must understand and know your source. May I ask “Do you understand and know your source?” “Do you understand and know the Almighty God as your creator and source?” if you do “Do you understand and know this ‘God’ whose name is The Almighty?” Since the fall of man in the garden, men everywhere have created their own concept of God. (See Romans 1 v 18-25, Acts 17 v 16-23), you as a woman who desires to find her place in the scheme of things must not be like them. Knowing God as your creator, your source moves you from obscurity to relevance. Understanding Him moves you from instability to stability. For the woman who will find her place, everything must start with God and end with God. For the avoidance of any doubt I am talking of the Almighty God as revealed on the pages of the Holy Bible from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelations. A woman who will find and occupy her place in the scheme of things must know: –
1. God as her creator and she His creation — Genesis 1 v 1, 26-27, 2 v 18, 21-22.
2. God as her Redeemer and she the redeemed of the Lord her God — Revelations 5 v 9, Isaiah 49 v 24-26,51 v 11, 60 v 16, 3 v 13-14, Galatians 3 v 13-14,1 Peter 1 v 18-19, 2 Corinthians 5 v 19 (AMP)
3. God as her Shepherd and she as His sheep — Psalm 23, John 10 v 11-14,29
4. God as her Potter and she as a piece of clay in His hands, (She is a vessel in the making.) — Jeremiah 18 v 6, Isaiah 64 v 8.
5. God as the vine and she as a branch in the vine, if she is plucked off; she can no longer receive any nourishment and she will wither and die — John 15 v 1-7.
6. God in Christ Jesus as her bridegroom and she as His Bride. She must obey Him in all things and be fully submitted to Him in all things — Matthew 25 v 1-13, John 3 v 29, Isaiah 62 v 5, Revelations 19 v 6 -10
7. God as her heavenly Father, who loves her very much and cares about her passionately — (The Lord Jesus came to reveal The Almighty God to us as our heavenly Father.) See the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Also the Lord Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father who is in heaven…”
(Matthew 6 v 9, Luke 11 v 2.)
A woman who will find her place in the scheme of things must understand and know all these different dimensions of her relationship with her source.
SHALOM — (Busola Olotu)

TO BE CONTINUED…

Scriptures for meditation
All the scriptural references in this article call for a deep reflection and meditation.

 

A WOMAN’S PLACE 3

So how do you as a woman discover your place in the scheme of things and by discovering your place enter into your glorious destiny and divine purpose?

There are three things as women that we must dedicate ourselves to knowing.
1. Knowing ourselves
2. Knowing our source i.e. our creator. (After all we just didn’t drop from heaven.)
3. Knowing our neighbour. (After all we are not alone on planet earth.)

KNOW YOURSELF

It is dangerous to allow others to define you. It is dangerous not to know who you are. For instance you cannot even love yourself, if you don’t know yourself. Some don’t love themselves, they want to change themselves, they want to be like everyone else but themselves. Please note I am not against change but you must know and understand what you are permitted to change and what you cannot change. If you do not know yourself how do you love who you do not know? The Psalmist recognized and appreciated the truth that he was made by the ultimate creator and rejoiced in this by celebrating the one who formed and fashioned him. He used two words to describe how he was made i.e. fearfully and wonderfully. The Psalmist was saying in effect that anyone beholding him would marvel at the awesomeness of God’s investment in His (God’s) creature. He was saying in effect that he was a creature showing forth the greatness of Elohim his creator. Manifesting the beauty of He whose image and likeness he bore. The Message Bible Translation of Psalm 139 v 14 reads “Body and soul, I am marvelously made, I worship in adoration – what a creation!” You need to know yourself, this is critical to your fulfilling purpose. You need to know and understand that you were made by no less a personality than the Almighty God Himself. (See Genesis 1 v 26-27). Somebody reading this might consider this as elementary knowledge but I am persuaded that it might be elementary knowledge (This of course is debatable) but it has not yet become revelational knowledge to a lot of people, Christians inclusive. Also it might appear very elementary but it is actually fundamental to your understanding of purpose and destiny. If you as a woman comes to a genuine and clear understanding of who made you then you will definitely understand and take your place in the scheme of things. You cannot know the answer to ‘who’ and not add it to the question ‘why’? Once you as woman appreciates the fact that you didn’t make or create yourself then the realization must come to you that since you didn’t ‘make’ or ‘create’ then the sovereign right to determine your place and your purpose in the scheme of things belongs to the one who made and created you. So your life is lent to you as a gift you don’t own it. If you don’t own it, it follows therefore that your life must be lived in accordance to the dictates of He who gave your life to you in the first place.
Simple really! But so many people, women inclusive miss it. Since God made you and lent you the breath of life woman, even though you are a creature of choice, your choices at every point in time must reflect the desires of Him to whom you belong.

Acts 13 v 36 (AMP) “For David after he had served God’s will and purpose and counsel in his own generation fell asleep in death…” Woman to find your place in the scheme of things you must understand and know yourself, that you were made to serve the will, purpose and counsel of the Almighty God who created and made you. You will never find your place if you are independent of God or rebellious towards Him. To find your place you must first come to an acute awareness that God is God, not you. According to Psalm 46 v 10a, you need to be still and know that He is God not you. The original sin of idolatry is putting your self in the place of God. Yes God created you a ‘god’ in relation to the world, elements, satan and his demons etc. but in relation to the Almighty God He is God and you are a ‘god’ still subject to His sovereign will and purpose because the thing created cannot be bigger, stronger or greater than the one who created it. A woman who will find her place must be acutely aware of the depths of her spiritual need, spiritual destitution and bankruptcy without the Almighty God. She must deny self, renounce self and therefore train herself to disregard self.
SHALOM – (Busola Olotu)
TO BE CONTINED…

Scriptures for meditation
Genesis 1 v 1, Jeremiah 1 v 5, Psalm 46 v 10a, Psalm 40 v 7-8, Acts 13 v 36, Psalm 139 v 14, Acts 17 v 23-31.

A WOMAN’S PLACE 2

We also have the voice of the church, some denominations ban women from preaching the
Gospel believing God has not endowed a woman with any of the five fold ministry gifts. They opinion that according to scripture a woman cannot occupy a position of authority in the Church and they find scriptures to back the position they have taken. These denominations conveniently forget Galatians 3 v 28 which says “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female:for ye are all one in Christ Jesus”. We are all one in Christ Jesus and according to the book of Joel 2 v 28-29 in these last days The Almighty God is pouring His Spirit out upon both men and women. In the book of Genesis 1 v 27-28 both male and female were created in the image and likeness of God and both were given the dominion mandate, i.e authority and ruler ship of Planet Earth. The Almighty God never intended for a woman to be a second class citizen this is why it is written in the book of Genesis 5 v 2 that in the day God created man, i.e male and female, He called their name “Adam”,(one name for both of them). Thus signifying that in His sight, they were one and the same. Please note that woman was taken out of man’s ribs signifying an equal relationship, a partnership, so that side by side together both
Will be empowered to accomplish and fulfill their Divine destiny to the glory of God and shame of the devil. It is only in the marriage institution that a woman(i.e wife) willingly in obedience to God’s Divine instruction submits herself unto her own husband as unto the Lord. When it comes to gifts and calling, scripturally, The Almighty God calls both men and women and uses them to do exploits in His Name and for the extension of His kingdom here on earth. He called Deborah in the book of Judges, she was the only female Judge among the male Judges. He called Miriam along side Moses and Aaron. He called the prophetess Huldah who revealed God’s secret message to National leaders. In the New Testament we are told of the four(4) daughters of Evangelist Philip who were all prophetesses. In they upper room in the book of Acts chapters 1and 2 both men and women received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and undoubtedly must have received some of the gifts of the Spirit. Woman of destiny, you have the Bible, go through it and see how The Almighty God used women like you for His own purpose. Be informed and don’t be deformed, do not allow any of these voices to limit your potentials in Christ and subvert or out rightly abort your divine destiny in Christ Jesus. The Almighty God’s first call and summons over the life of a woman was a all to dominion, a call to authority, a call to ruler ship alongside the man(i.e her husband). This dominion mandate was in respect of the governance of planet earth and the three spheres of existence, the air, the sea and the earth. Woman of destiny, understand that until you truly discover yourself, your destiny, your glorious destiny, your colorful destiny is at a risk. The Almighty God is a God of purpose and He created everything (including you) for a specific purpose. You as a woman were created by Him on purpose and by purpose. The devaluing of a woman prevents her from living in the fullness of God’s purpose for her. The pertinent question therefore is “how do you as a woman discover your place in life and by discovering your place enter into purpose and your divine destiny? Understand woman that you don’t determine your purpose, you are only called to discover your purpose. Your manufacturer, The Almighty God alone determines your purpose.(see Jeremiah 1v5). SHALOM (Busola Olotu)
(To be continued)