Tag: In His Presence

Read: MARK 4:35-41

Meditation verse:

“On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over  to the other side.” (Mark 4:35).

Jesus had informed His disciples that they were crossing to the other side of the  sea. On their way, a storm arose and threatened to overturn the boat.  Meanwhile, Jesus was sleeping soundly on a cushion on the lower deck of the  boat, obviously undisturbed by what was going on. Jesus hadn’t given them any  details about their journey. He only informed them there were going over to the  other side and then went off to sleep. When the disciples woke Him up in their  fright, He said to them: “why are you afraid, do you still have no faith?”. He was  saying, irrespective of what was encountered on the journey, getting to the  other side was guaranteed. He had given them His word and it was settled. 

Psalm 119:89 states: “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven”. If God  has spoken, it is as good as done. What has God promised you in life that looks  like it will never happen? Irrespective of the tossing or tempest going on around  you, do not doubt the faithfulness or ability of God to bring it to pass. Even  though God seems so far away, be rest assured that you will get to other side.  

Here’s God’s promise to you this day: 

O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I  will lay your stones with colorful gems, and lay your foundations with  sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, and  all your walls of precious stones. All your children shall be taught by the  Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you  shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not  fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. Indeed, they shall  surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you  shall fall for your sake… No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and  every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is  from Me,” says the Lord. –Isaiah 54:11-17 

You are a child of God. Be rest assured, what He has promised is as good as done.

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Pst (Mrs) Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

For Prayers and Counseling email rockteachingministry@gmail.com

For more enquiries, visit: www.rockteachingministry.org.

Read: Hebrews 5:12-14

Meditation verse:

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a  child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Corinthians  13:11).

The transition to middle life is a major season that throws up a lot of emotional  challenges. It is a rude awakening for many people. It is a period of transition  when either or some of three things are happening in your life: you are either struggling with the challenges of the present changes which could be physical  and emotional, or you are bogged down with regrets or mistakes of your past,  or you are discouraged or excited about the prospects of the future. Most  people do a life audit at this phase of their lives. Some do a self-evaluation and feel they are not where they should be. Many begin to question their past  choices. They find themselves looking back at the past with feelings of  inadequacy and regret. Some people may even begin to feel they have wasted  their life.  

Midlife is the period of human adulthood that immediately precedes the onset  of old age, generally between the ages of 40 and 60. Men and women alike tend  to experience a crisis at this phase, but it is more challenging for women,  because of the many challenges of balancing her many roles. So, some roles  would have suffered, leaving regrets in its trail. Whatever your experiences were  in your younger years, you need to forgive and make peace with your younger  self. You may have taken some wrong decisions, made some mistakes or took  some wrong turns in life all of which you now regret because you are suffering  the consequences in your middle years. If truth be told, you did not know better. 

Your forty-five- or fifty-year-old self is much wiser, more thoughtful, stable,  experienced, and knowledgeable than your twenty-five-year-old self. You are  now much more aware of who you are as well as the consequences of your  decisions than you were years ago. The bible puts it aptly “I was a child, I spoke  as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man,  I put away childish things” (1 Corinthians 13:11).

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Pst (Mrs) Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

For Prayers and Counseling email rockteachingministry@gmail.com

For more enquiries, visit: www.rockteachingministry.org.

Read: Romans 12:1-21

Meditation verse:

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new  person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which  is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

Romans 12 offers instructive guidelines on how to live the life we were called and saved to  live: 

Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves,  measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So, if God has given  you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is  serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage  others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability,  take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it  gladly. 

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what  is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other. 

Never be lazy but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident  hope. Be patient in trouble and keep on praying.  

When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice  hospitality. 

Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy  with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.  

Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people.  And don’t think you know it all! 

Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are  honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. 

Never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will  take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. Instead, if your enemies are hungry, feed  them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. 

In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads. 

Lastly, don’t let evil conquer you but conquer evil by doing good.

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Pst (Mrs) Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

For Prayers and Counseling email rockteachingministry@gmail.com

For more enquiries, visit: www.rockteachingministry.org.

Read: ROMANS 8:1-11

Meditation verse:

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who  raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His  Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

Focus on changing one specific habit or behavior at a time. Trying to change multiple habits at once is setting yourself up for failure. Successful habit change  involves focusing on something highly specific and measurable that can be done  and repeated over a period.

One of the difficulties in changing a habit is making it stick, as the existing neural  pattern must be replaced with a stronger alternative. This replacement happens through repetition, rehearsal, and reinforcement of the new behavior pattern.  Otherwise, you are likely to go back to the old one. Habits are created mostly  through repetition. Research shows that it takes twenty-one days to start  forming a new habit and up to sixty-six days for these to become embedded as  new neural networks; that is become automatic. You would need to practice  that new habit every day for the next twenty-one days.

Choose a partner who would hold you accountable. The bible says: “Confess  your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be  healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James  5:16).

Finally, realize that lasting change can only be found in Christ. The apostle Paul  said: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7: 24-25). It is the law of  the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that can make you free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). If you have not trusted Jesus for your salvation, you are  still a sinner in need of grace. Your attempts at change would be futile. Lasting  change begins with accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. “Therefore,  if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (Romans 8:36).

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Pst (Mrs) Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

For Prayers and Counseling email rockteachingministry@gmail.com

For more enquiries, visit: www.rockteachingministry.org.

Read: ROMANS 7:13-25

Meditation verse:

“For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I  practice” (Romans 7:19).

There are perhaps two main reasons why changing a habit is difficult for many  of us. Firstly, we do not truly see why we need to change. Secondly, we do not  know how to change. The process of going about that change is ambiguous or  unclear. The apostle Paul said that he could not practice what he desired; but  rather found himself doing what he hated. Behavioral habits are usually  unconscious and automatic. that’s why when you say to someone who is  shouting: “stop shouting”, he or she shouts even louder and says, “am I shouting”? Similarly, the lazy person might believe he or she is hard working.  

The first step to changing an undesirable habit is therefore becoming aware of  it and desiring to change it. Whether it is a habit, lifestyle or thought pattern.  You cannot change it if you are in self-denial. You must accept and call it what it  is. Standing in front of a mirror several years ago at a size 22, accepting that I  was overweight and needed to do something about it helped me take steps to  lose the weight. I had to get past the thought that ‘it was okay to be overweight  since I had given birth to 4 children’. So, accept that you are spending too much  time on your phone, you are overeating or that you procrastinate. Until you do,  you cannot begin the process of change. 

You must see the benefit of making that change, else you won’t sustain the  motivation. Every behavior pattern is backed up by an underlying attitude. The  person who lies and exaggerates is likely to be an insecure person. So, challenge  the attitude. Start by asking: ‘why am I this way?’. ‘Is this really helpful?’ “How  is this undermining my life”? One major factor that helped me overcome  shyness, was reflecting on all the opportunities I had missed in life by being shy. 

Replace the unhelpful habit with a new and positive one. For instance, instead  of being critical of your spouse, practice showing compassion and  complimenting them. Rather than spending hours in front of the television,  practice going out more often for a walk.

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Pst (Mrs) Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

For Prayers and Counseling email rockteachingministry@gmail.com

For more enquiries, visit: www.rockteachingministry.org.

Read: 1 peter 1:5-11

Meditation verse:

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a  child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Cor 13:11).

You are not yet perfected. You are a work in progress. Your confession and  acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Saviour is just the beginning of your walk with  the Lord. You must grow unto maturity. There are things that pertain to life and  godliness that God has made available to you, but you need to obtain and utilise  them. You were saved by grace through faith, but faith without works is dead.  

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only,  but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and  trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good  pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13). Working out your salvation is very different from  working for your salvation. The wonderful gift of salvation is inside of you, you  need to live out the character traits and attributes of your salvation by faith.  That is what it means to grow unto maturity. You need to work out your  salvation and ‘the working’ is a continuous process.  

So how do you grow unto maturity? “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of  the word that you may grow thereby” (1 peter 2:2). You need to spend time in  God’s presence praying and studying His word. “But also, for this very reason,  giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge  self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness  brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours  and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our  Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is short sighted, even to  blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins” (2 Peter 1:5- 9). The more time you spend in God’s presence, the more your life exhibits the  virtues of godliness, perseverance, and self-control.  

Going through and enduring trying times also helps you grow unto maturity. “For  our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more  exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Pst (Mrs) Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

For Prayers and Counseling email rockteachingministry@gmail.com

For more enquiries, visit: www.rockteachingministry.org.

Read: John 5:1-8

Meditation verse:

“For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water;  then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of  whatever disease he had” (John 5:4).

Your heart is a pool of ideas and dreams. There are visions that need to be  birthed, businesses that need to be created, books that need to be written as  well as souls that need to be saved. Every now and then, the Holy Spirit will  cause a stirring within you which could be in the form of an uneasy feeling, a  restlessness that you cannot explain, a strong impulse or a deep desire and  longing for or towards a particular direction. It may be to begin a project, speak  to someone, start a business or go somewhere. What you do after the stirring is  important. An activity on your part must immediately follow the stirring for you  to accomplish whatever it is that God designed the stirring for.  

“Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew,  Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind,  lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down  at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped  in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he  had” (John 5:2-4). There had to be an activity immediately after the stirring of  the pool for the miracle of healing to take place. Someone had to quickly jump  into the water. The emphasis was on the immediacy of the action. The Holy Spirit  is a gentle spirit who will not force His will on us. When he stirs our hearts and  we fail to respond, He leaves us alone and the loss is always ours, not His.  

I recall with regret certain instances where God had tugged my heart to  commence certain projects and I had hesitated out of fear, doubt or lack of faith  in the success of it. I am the wiser now as I have learnt to act immediately after  any stirring. Towards what do you feel God’s pull this day? Why not jump into  the pool immediately. And as you do, may you receive wholeness in that area of  your life where you need it most.

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Pst (Mrs) Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

For Prayers and Counseling email rockteachingministry@gmail.com

For more enquiries, visit: www.rockteachingministry.org.

Read: 1 Kings 10:14-11:1-25

Meditation verse:

“But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of  Pharoah: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and  Hittites” (1 Kings 11:1).

King Solomon had great wisdom and wealth. “All his drinking vessels were gold,  and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one  was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. For the king  had merchant[e] ships at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the  merchant ships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys. So, King  Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. Now all the  earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in  his heart. Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments,  Armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year” (1 Kings 10:21-25).  

But King Solomon loved many foreign women. He clung to them in love and  when he was old, they turned his heart after other gods; “and his heart was not  loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David” (1 Kings 11:4).  Solomon’s lineage suffered severe consequences because of this, God tore the  kingdom out of the hand of his son. He also raised up adversaries against  Solomon.  

Each one of us has a “but” that we must deal with. Do you know yours? It is  foolishness to cover up or ignore your weaknesses. The first step in dealing with  it is to be true to yourself and acknowledge it as a struggle. No matter the height  you have attained in life, it will take just a little folly on your part to bring you  down. Some people are struggling with lust, others can’t say no to alcohol. For some it is anger, unforgiveness or a hot temper. Sexual immorality, lust, pride,  ego, alcoholism, drug addiction or anger are some of the many evils with great  potential to destroy you and everything you have built, in a matter of seconds.  Several great men have sacrificed their greatness on the laps of strange women.  Refuse to be numbered amongst the lot.  

If there is a ‘but’ you are currently struggling with, rather than denying its  existence, own up to God and let Him help you deal with it before it destroys  you. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put  to death the deeds of the body, you will live”. (Romans 8:13).

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Pst (Mrs) Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

For Prayers and Counseling email rockteachingministry@gmail.com

For more enquiries, visit: www.rockteachingministry.org.

Read: ISAIAH 43: 18-21

Meditation verse:

“Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I  will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19).

“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece  pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine  into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled,  and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins”  (Mark 2: 21-22). 

To receive the new, you must get rid of the old. Before God announced to the  nation of Israel that He would do a new thing, He first instructed them to forget  the former things. You cannot open a new chapter of your life if you keep reliving  the previous one. Do you desire a new experience in an area of your life? How  are you preparing for it?  

You must adopt a new mindset to enter a new realm. You should identify and  get rid of the former mindset that limited you. Some people are limited by fear,  others by self-doubt, or the need to be approved by others. Many are limited by  pride or ego. You cannot receive a new experience with an old attitude or  mindset. New wine ought to be put in new wine skin.  

Prepare yourself and get ready for the new experience that you desire. Isaiah  54:2 says: “Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch out the curtains  of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. Enhance your capacity in the relevant areas. Sharpen your skills, develop your  character, and get rid of destructive habits. It is often said that success occurs  when opportunity meets preparedness.  

Position yourself for it. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill  cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a  lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine  before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in  heaven” (Mathew 5: 14-16). Lastly, earnestly anticipate and expect it. What you  do not expect, you may not receive as you will not notice when it comes.

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Pst (Mrs) Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

For Prayers and Counseling email rockteachingministry@gmail.com

For more enquiries, visit: www.rockteachingministry.org.