FAITH AND I

FAITH AND I

One thing about writing these articles is that I’m really describing my heart’s convictions as I stride in the garden of life, it is like a walk in a park. One observes and mentally notes some things, some are noted as irrelevant and others subjects of great interest, I commit them to paper with the hope that someone might benefit from the thoughts of a young man. Below are my fresh thoughts on the subject of Faith.

1.       Faith is not Christian, neither is it Hebrew

2.       It comes by hearing the word of God and God speaks to heathens too

3.       Faith is a visible posture, attitude or action brought about by one’s belief in God’s word in his or her heart (the invisible).

Rahab the Harlot, the widow of Zeraphath, The centurion of Great faith and the woman from Canaan who asked for the crumbs from the master’s table were all recorded to have been people of immense faith. They all were however not partakers of the commonwealth of Israel.

The Bill Gates of this world and the Zuckerbergs of our time did what many of us in Africa have refused to do; they believed the testimony of their hearts (most of us will never hear the thunder of God’s voice but every day we hear His inward witness). Another misfortune is that we are quick to limit these witnesses to “spiritual” realities. I’ve found God’s directions to be amply variegated, especially in enterprise development and innovation; He is the source of immense innovation. (He is the eternal novelty).

The word Of God is not limited to the written scriptures, it includes the voice that told Paul that a certain man was ready to be healed (Acts 14:9); He saw the man’s faith! Really the Word of God often comes as pictures in our hearts, like knowings in the spirit (see my last note on “The Conscience, the Mind and the Arena”. There are 4 postures to this word:

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER: SEASON 8 OF LUKE THE PHYSICIANS TALE

1.       Lack of understanding (ep¹ 12): wayside word, because it wasn’t mixed with Faith²

2.       Lack of depth (ep¹ 13): it takes a strong conviction to go with the word and a major source of low-level conviction is low level personal mental dedication to the truths/value of God’s word. it takes independence of will to follow God’s word (break ties).

3.       Cares of these word/deceitfulness of riches (ep¹ 14): “what shall I eat?”, “I don’t have the means”, Inability to defer gratifications. Note that the thorns were there before the word came.

4.       A noble, good and patient heart (ep¹ 15): The good soil. The Word has a way of requiring patience and a kingly mannerism. Strife will not achieve it.

THE TREASURE AND THE GATE

In His letter, Mr. Peter Simon the ex small scale fishing entrepreneur called the Word; “exceedingly great and precious promises”³ . Bill Gates thought them precious enough to leave Harvard. If it is a treasure then the Heart needs a lock! Guarding the heart is our greatest challenge as our world is pretty noisy. It is easy to fill it up with irrelevant issues and miss the treasure. In the Kingdom the ministry of internal affairs is the greatest ministry. Learn to study silence (of the heart and mind).

PROCESSING THE WORD

The seed is not fast food! Its speed is very variable, it is a function of the nature of the seed and the condition of the soil. However it will change you, it certainly changed me and a lot of other folks.

1.       It will make you a stranger⁴, please stay that way.

2.       It makes God’s people priests and Kings⁵

In everything I do, I’m beginning to learn not to believe the system and I urge you not to do the same. Don’t be quick to line up with general consensus on any issue and please don’t believe the lie about Africa and Nigeria (Madiba didn’t), don’t believe the business models (it is failing and W.Buffet didn’t either). You can even be skeptical about our educational system (R. Kiyosaki has changed that forever), judge everything by the Word and the judge the Word in your spirit by the written one for they must cohere.

“Now, the parable is this, The seed is the Word of God.” Luke 8:11

Thanks

Okwonna Nelson

nnamdiokwonna@yahoo.com

¹ episode, ²Hebrew 4:2, ³2^nd Peter 1:4, ⁴ Hebrews 11:13, ⁵ Rev 1:6, 1Peter 2:9.