“If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” Genesis 4:7.
King Ahab was a great warrior and had great success in his life “but was sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up” 1 Kings 21:25. Success made him greedy and he coveted the vineyard of Naboth to make it a vegetable garden. We read in the Scripture that Naboth inherited the vineyard as he says to King Ahab in 1 Kings 21:3, “The Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!” The King was a very rich man as we see in 1 Kings 22:39 that he possessed an ivory palace. But he coveted the vineyard as it was adjacent to Ahab’s palace. God does not want your vineyard to be made into a vegetable garden. See for yourself which is more valuable; the vineyard or the vegetable garden? He wants you to enjoy it and that is why he has given it to you. Do not give away your inheritance to others even if somebody prophesies over it. Seek God’s answer before you do anything.
As believers, we must be very careful in our day to day lives because we might not be aware when sin creeps in as covetousness or in any form. I have seen this nature in men of God. It is so sad to say that such men are beyond correction. While working for a great ministry, I was sent to a neighbour to resolve an issue for my employer which made him angry. The neighbour was so furious that he asked me, “How dare you step into my property?” I talked to him very softly and he asked me a question which still lingers in my mind and it was,” Is the verse “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 19:19) missing from the man of God’s (name of my employer) Bible?” He was perfectly right. God taught me something which I should be careful of when I handled this incident. Let me tell you, love overtook his anger and over the years we became good friends and we still we are.
Covetousness can be in any form. By being born again, baptized and again baptized with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit is of no use unless we are circumcised within. The circumcision should happen within our heart to keep away from such temptations.
In 2 Samuel 11 we find King David who was supposed to be at the battle remained in
We know what happened to King Ahab as the Lord prophesied through Prophet Elijah as we read in 1 Kings 22:34 – 35. King David, on the other hand repented when God sent Nathan to convey His words.
Dear readers, as you go through this message are you in the shoes of Naboth or King Ahab or King David? If you represent Naboth, make sure you do not give away your inheritance which the Lord has entrusted in you. If you represent King Ahab or King David it is high time to repent. As we read in Psalm 30:5, “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life.”
Be Blessed!
Today's posting actually restored something I thought I lost, Praise God for that. This is my story- I firmly believe God had given me the talent of praying in a group, I just could open my mouth, and words I never knew filled my mouth it was from the Holy Spirit and people were comforted they used to tell me-it was really God’s work through me not my ability, but it had been a few months- I really couldn't pray that well in public or a group, something was not right somewhere, I would pray, but I could feel in my spirit it was not effective, there was no working of the Holy Spirit, but yesterday I was just walking to work and I prayed like this "Lord every area I let Satan take possession in my life, I give into your control" and I also rebuked the devil and told him he had no power over me, later that night I went to a prayer and worship night and we were asked to pray in groups, I started praying, Oh Praise God, what an amazement, I felt the movement of the Holy Spirit and prayed so well and people were touched ! Amen! After reading this posting on the blog I realized God was speaking to me- he showed me how Satan had subtly come to steal my talent-the reason was this- I used to pray with a person I know from church- she used to pray with me, and whenever I prayed she would overpower me with her voice, just saying Praise the Lord-this distracted me and I stopped praying whenever she was there in a group- hence here I was trading my vineyard(allowing the Holy Spirit to move through my prayer) to a vegetable garden ( fear of getting overpowered by someone) I would have lost it to Satan but it was God given and God never takes away what he gives, but God restored it back to me in an amazing way-Thank you for this posting, do keep writing I'm blessed by your ministry - God bless you !
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