GREAT JOY!

“And there was great joy in that city.” (Act 8:8)
There are no two ways to it; when there is joy in a city, it cannot be hidden as it bears directly on the inhabitants and even a stranger just coming into the city can touch it in the air. A man filled with joy cannot be stopped from expressing it as it radiates out of him automatically.

This by prophetic agenda is your season of great joy, a time of unexplainable joy.
“…though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:” (1Pet 1:8b)

Every great joy is preceded by great sacrifices and to partake of this great joy God has promised us this year and beyond, we must be willing to offer unto the Lord unusual sacrifices that our rejoicing may overflow.

“Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.” (1Ch 29:9)

This is a joy provoked by Him, which only Him can sustain and rejoice over.

Great joy is visible; it’s like a great light. This joy is made by God and it is contagious; can as well be seen and heard even from afar. In this season, your joy shall be heard from afar from afar in Jesus name.

“Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.” (Neh 12:43)
This joy God is speaking of here in this season turns the heart of kings to favour you.

“And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.” (Ezr 6:22)

In this season, kings, men in high places and your enemies will favour you for good in Jesus name. it was this joy that made Modeccai not to bow down to the oppressor called Hamman, the enemy of the Jews who for the joy God has placed on Modeccai, Hamman his enemy was made to hurriedly decorate Modeccai to the throne and even sound the trumpet trumpet of his arrival.

“Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.” (Est 6:10-11)

Your joy will not be aborted in Jesus name. This is your season of joy.
“The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.” (Est 8:16-17)

Joy attracts people to you, through you; many shall become Jews (Christians) in Jesus’ name. From today, your months and years are turned from sorrow into joy forever in Jesus name.

“As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.” (Est 9:22)

There are things/people you see that gives you great joy, joy unspeakable.
“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” (Matt 2:10)
In this season, you will see and meet people that will give you joy, great joy.

There are people you meet and they steal joy out of your life, they are joy killers; from henceforth, joy killers shall be far from you in Jesus name. God will surround you with joy, exceeding joy. This joy makes you sensitive to God and well tuned; your spirit is free from undue and negative thoughts and burden, you are free and transparent to Him so you can hear His voice.

When your joy shall appear every eye will see it and they will gather to celebrate with you.

“Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.” (Neh 12:43)


Apostle Lawrence Achudume
The General Overseer of Victory Life Bible Church Int'l
With branches spread across the globe
Can be reached on victory2life@yahoo.com
This message can be reproduced but must be duely credited.

I’M AFRAID TO LOVE!

There are chances of experiencing some deep hurts in love, this is because love gives the other person access to the very fragile, tender and sensitive part of you. The founder of Campus for Christ, one of the father of Pentecostal Christianity, C.S Lewis says ‘To love at all is to be vulnerable.’
But, because of fear of being hurt again, many shrink back into their shell and keep to themselves. If Joseph had said he will not interpret the dream of his fellow prisoner because it was the dream he had that took him to prison and his dream would not have been interpreted too and he would have stayed longer in prison if ever he comes out. Gen. 37:19-20; Gen 40: 12-18

Do not fail to love because you were hurt before, to love is for your good. Remember, that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself and the other person the right to be human; to make mistakes and make amendments can paradoxical make you a far more happier and more productive person. Perfect love damns the consequences of hurt. Love is our access link to constant victory and the thorns in love are there to deter those who are not ready for true success and enduring relationships. If you are not ready to be hurt, you can’t breakthrough in life.
Perfect love does not see hurts he sees beyond, he sees the glory and the beauty ahead.

I John 4:18

“There is no fear in love – dread does not exist; but full-grown love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love-is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection.”

Do not let your fear choose your destiny. The fear of loving has destroyed many destinies; remember you can’t have a rose plant without thorns. The same plant that brought the rose flower has thorns with it.
“Love is like a precious plant, you can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You have to really look after it and nurture it” John Lenon

Love is a heart activity and as such, there will be actions or responses you may never be able to fully explain and some feelings you may never be able to put into words. What the Lord has not given to you to know, you will never know. Deut 29:29
To really love, we must crucify suspicion, trust blindly and go ahead in believing all things. Alexander Dumas (1802-1870) says, “pure love and suspicion cannot dwell together, at the door where the latter enters, the former makes it exit.”
I feel strongly that, the thorns or the hurts we experience in love are meant to deter us from destiny. Jesus in John 14:15
“If you love me you will keep My commands”
It takes love for God and Christ to obey His commandment and obeying His commandment is what determines our success or failure in life (Deut. 28,.John 1:5-9). The enemy does not want us to love knowing the importance of love to our soul and destiny. The answer you need may be in the hands of someone hatred had separated you from – church its time to love.

Apostle Lawrence Achudume
The General Overseer of Victory Life Bible Church Int'l
With branches spread across the globe
Can be reached on victory2life@yahoo.com
This message can be reproduced but must be duely credited.

THE OTHER SIDE OF LOVE II

In this world of make believe, make easy, robots, the synthetic or artificial, imitating this and that and of recent the hybrid etc. we may raise a generation of people who may never know that a natural rose comes with thorns, and that means they will not be aware of the other side of rose (love).
Rather than seek God to understand why He designed the rose with thorns and gave man such a universal acceptance of it as a symbol of love. Some of us even try to justify our parochial view and ignorantly debase this precious gift – love.

Rose plant, from where we get rose flower has thorns, even though I have never seen thorns in the roses love birds carry, the point is that, if rose plants do not have thorns on it, it is only a resemblance and not a rose plant. This other side of love is what makes it durable, strong and real. If all we know is the good side of love, we will continue to throe it out of the window any day it shows up its other side. Love is like the truth, sometimes it soothes, and sometimes it hurts. Love is sacrificial but also pleasing to God.

The other side of love is the one that always require some spoonful of foolishness, brief blindness and choosing to be trampled upon. Lord Dewar says ‘love is an ocean of emotion entirely surrounded by expenses.’ It is in the other side of love, we find the price tag and this is very expensive. If we will get the best of love, we must know how to handle the other side. If you are waiting to love a perfect person, you will always be wounded and disappointed. Sam Keen said, ‘ you come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.’

The popular side of love is the giving side, true love gives, the other side of love is the forgiving, the one that accepts the other person in his/her mess, the one that says sorry even when he is right, the one that endures, accept insult and bear been misunderstood. We can measure the amount of love you have for a person by how readily you can forgive the person, the more the love the easier it is to forgive. It takes love to cover multitude of offence or evil, men will do to you.

“Hatred stirs up contentions, but love covers all transgressions.” (Proverbs 10:12)
And
“Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one anther, for love covers a multitude of sins-forgives and disregards the offences of others.” (1 Peter 4:8)
Where love is thick, faults are thin. “Love doesn’t makes the world go round, it is what makes the ride worthwhile.” Franklin P.Jones
Love is a sacrifice that is well pleasing to God but because of the thorns many are scared, that is not to deny the fact that many have been hurt. Bear in mind that Christ did not die for us while we were saints but while we were yet in sin. Don’t love the saints only, love the sinner but hate his sin.

“Well then, are we superior and better of than they? No, not at all. We have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin- held down by and subjected to its power and control. As it is written, none is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one. No one understands-no one intelligently discerns or comprehends; no one seeks out God. All have turn aside; together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless; no one does right, not even one! Their throat is a yawning grave; they use their tongues to deceive-to mislead and to deal treacherously. The venom of asps is beneath their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery mark their ways. And they have no experience of the way of peace-they know nothing about peace, for a peaceful way they do not even recognize. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:9-18)

Apostle Lawrence Achudume
The General Overseer of Victory Life Bible Church Int'l
With branches spread across the globe
Can be reached on victory2life@yahoo.com
This message can be reproduced but must be duely credited.

THE OTHER SIDE OF LOVE I

“Do not forget or neglect to do kindness and good, to be generous and distribute and contribute to the needy, [of the church as embodiment and proof of fellowship] for such sacrifices are well pleasing to God.” Hebrew.13: 16

“Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so.” David Grayson.

In life we are presented with two sides of an issue or things, ups and down, good or bad, etc. The human tendency is to want the only good or the pleasant side of an issue and which often is not the case because, that’s not the way the creator of the Universe designed it. Amazingly, the some of the conditions we least desire are the ones that are most needful for our system to be balanced.

Love is one factor that most of us don’t seem to prefer the other side, but we cannot stop nor change the other side of love. It is better therefore to quit the cycle of frustration that comes with wanting to change things we cannot. I believe, it is because of the other side of love that people seem not to enjoy the ministry of love. But if people have a better understanding of this other side of love, they will be positively disposed to accommodating and enjoying it. Man is created with an instinct that craves for love, therefore it is a legitimate and holy appetite that makes our human nature unique. The Yearning for attention, recognition and appreciation we all experience from time to time is basically a craving for love.
When we desire and seek to be understood, accommodated, allowed and permitted to ‘Be’ we are simply exercising a very pure and natural instinct called love.

Because not much has been said about the other side of love, the enemy has been capitalizing on this preponderance of ignorance to mess up many relationships. The analogy that readily comes to mind is that of the rose plant. Love like roses exist with many thorns (i.e. certain unpleasant and unattractive occurrences). The path to true happiness lies in learning to manage the thorns, while enjoying the rose. It is in knowing the other side of love we get to realise that love is expensive. It cost more to love than to do any other thing else. Though love is a product every one need, we find it difficult to differentiate between true love and deceit. Lust in many cases at first, dress itself as love, every strong emotional passion tends to be labeled as love and that is why we have a lot of people emerging from certain experiences saying ‘ I was deceived’, ‘I thought she really love me’ only very few end up saying ‘ I am not disappointed, I know he really loved me’.

Apostle Lawrence Achudume
The General Overseer of Victory Life Bible Church Int'l
With branches spread across the globe
Can be reached on victory2life@yahoo.com
This message can be reproduced but must be duely credited.

LOVE – THE SECRET TO SUCCESS PART IV

It pays to love there is a great dividend in loving, there is no evil done to you that love cannot erase (forgive) For love covers multitude (not few) of evil (prov….)
If you will succeed and enjoys victory in life, you must love. A man that loves is a man of joy, a man of peace. He will be focused; he is a man of vision, clear vision.
“ Better is a little that the righteous man has, than the abundance of many who are wrong and wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken; but the Lord upholds the righteous.” (Psalm 37:16-17)

He is not a man given to fear, his conscience is clear. “They shall not be put to shame in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as fat of lambs, and as the glory of the pastures. They shall vanish; like smoke shall they consume away.” (Psalm 37:19 – 20)

Beloved, love is the key to real success in life as your steps are directed and ordered by God (psalm 37:23)
Agape love (the God kind of love) is the power that moves the world; it makes you the master of every situation. As long as you walk in love, you cannot be hurt and you cannot fail. All that God needed to conquer the devil and its agents was to submit to love. The psalmist said in psalms 37:25 “ I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread.”

To love is to build a future, a guaranteed future for your descendants. No one has the power to hurt you or your feelings because you are not governed by feelings but by God’s love. E.W Kenyon tagged this Agape love “a new kind of selfishness”; you no longer seek your own success, yet your success is guaranteed this love is revolutionary. If we fully understood the great return from living God’s love, we’d probably be competing with each other, each of us trying to love one another the more and everyone will emerge as a winner!
For love is truly the only sure secret to our success.

Apostle Lawrence Achudume
The General Overseer of Victory Life Bible Church Int'l
With branches spread across the globe
Can be reached on victory2life@yahoo.com
This message can be reproduced but must be duely credited.

LOVE – THE SECRET TO SUCCESS PART III

“Love never fails – never fades out or become obsolete or comes to an end. As for prophecy, it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
(1 Corinthians 13:8)

“You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.” Sam Keen

Love is the most powerful force on earth, the most powerful positive force known to man. The bible says it as strong as death and that many waters cannot quench love. Songs .Of. Solomon 8vs 6. Françoise Mocuriac said “ No love, no friendship can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever.”
Love is the bedrock of our faith – faith that works by love (Gal 5:6) “For if we are in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love.”
Love never fails, nothing works without it and there is no failure with love so when you live by love, you cannot fail. When you practice love by faith and refuse to seek your own, you put the Father into action on your behalf because He will allow no man to do you wrong I chronicles 16vs22.

As long as you stay in love, God seeks your own, He sees to it that you never fail,
“The steps of a good man are directed and established of the Lord, when He delights in His way [and He busies Himself with his every step]. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord grasp his hand in support and upholds him.” (Psalm 37: 23 – 24)

Walking in love is to your own advantage and that of your children. The wicked plots against the righteous man – the upright in right standing with God; he gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at [the wicked]; for He sees that their own day [of defeat] is coming. . (Psalm 37:12-13)

The evidence of your Christianity is the love you show and may I say people need your love the most when they least deserve it. Loving is an eternal investment, the one that loves enjoys peace, is at peace and fears no evil. The bible enjoins us to depart from evil and love.
“Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for ever [securely].” (Psalm 37:27)


The Lord does not forsake nor abandon a man of love in the hand of his oppressor – Ps. 37:33. Even though verse 32 “The wicked lies in wait for the righteous, and seek to put him to death.” yet verse 29, and “his steps shall never slide” verse 31.


Apostle Lawrence Achudume
The General Overseer of Victory Life Bible Church Int'l
With branches spread across the globe
Can be reached on victory2life@yahoo.com
This message can be reproduced but must be duely credited.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LOVE

Vs 4 “Love endures long and it is patient and kind ;love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy; is not boastful or vainglorious , does not display itself haughtily.”
Vs 5 “It is not conceited – arrogant and inflated with pride; it is not rude (unmannerly), and does not act unbecomingly. Love does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it – pays no attention to a suffered wrong.”
Vs 6 “ It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.”
Vs 7 “Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening].”
Vs 8 “Love never fails – never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end. As for prophecy, Holy Father, keep in your name them whom you have given Me, that they away.”
(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Beloved, we are love creatures, created in the image of love. He has sent His love Spirit to live in you to teach you how to love as He loves. You can live the love life – it is far better than a borrowed life of hatred, strife, unhealthy competition, malice, jealousy, fighting etc. Be love conscious. Man of God, don’t you think it is difficult to love? Yes, it is a sacrifice that is worth the price but let me warn you, there would be times when you would rather do anything than allow love to rule, there will be times it will look as if it is better to get mad and blow it than to love, to seek your own and retaliate.
“Do not forget or neglect to do kindness and good, to be generous and distribute and contribute to the needy, [of the church as embodiment and proof of fellowship] for such sacrifices are well pleasing to God.” Hebrew.13:16


Note that, Love is directly opposed to the senses. Human sense have been trained to put itself and its desires above everything else (flesh), It has been trained to selfishly seek its own way. But love does not seek its own way. To walk in love, you must demand that your senses (flesh) be subjected to the word. Make a definite decision and commit yourself to God’s love now, so that when temptation comes you will remember the decision you have made to obey love. I choose to love and I have discovered that atimes, those to be loved least deserve it.

I end by quoting David Grayson “looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I love, I did not say so”.

Every thing may fail but love never fails. If you do not want to fail you must love, keep loving and you must begin now.

Watch out for part II of love – The Secret of Success (The other side of Love)

(All scriptures quoted are from the Amplified Bible)

Apostle Lawrence Achudume
The General Overseer of Victory Life Bible Church Int'l
With branches spread across the globe
Can be reached on victory2life@yahoo.com
This message can be reproduced but must be duely credited.