I recently felt like Elijah in the bible when I was threatened by an impending loss of about 2.4 million naira. If you don’t know the story, let me give you an abridged version: Elijah fled to the wilderness to whimper at threat of Queen Jezebel; this was a paradoxical situation because Elijah has already proven the distinct power of God by killing 450 prophets of Baal, despising the King and causing draught in the land.
How can a man who appeared so invincible be scared of a threat by a queen? He was so scared that he prayed for death from God instead of death from the queen. This is a mysterious situation and so many explanations can be proposed for this reaction but one thing I am sure of is the way humans are blind by the power they possess. Impending situations or threats keeps us so uncomfortable that we fail to see the power we possess.
Power is the ability to consciously and deliberately create the world around you; you become the victim of your environment or situation when your power is weak and cultivate a life of your own choosing when your power is strong. It is albeit important to know where this power comes from. I derive my power from God Almighty and I am not ashamed of His gospel because inherent in the gospel is the power to salvage all humans that come in contact with it.
I remember vividly speaking to a group of students from various universities in Nigeria and I was introduced to speak. I had sent my profile to the organizers earlier and the first sentence in my profile was; “I am the son of God through Jesus Christ”. The organizers of the program removed that part from the introduction and focused on my achievements. Immediately, I got to the stage, I took time to correct their notions:
I am nothing without Christ. All the achievements you heard from the MC is nothing compared to my relationship to Jesus Christ. I am simply a moon that reflects the rays of the sun on earth; I possess no inherent power. All that I have was given to me graciously by the Almighty God who looked at me through the lens of Jesus Christ. All Knowledge I have acquired from humans that are effective always pass the testing of the word of Jesus Christ.
There are countless of events that have proven the power of God in my life so it is useless to be ashamed of it. You only get ashamed of something that does not produce result. Recently, I was invited for a consultancy gig by some Norwegians and was asked to send my profile of 100 words; my first sentence as usual was; “I am the son of God through Jesus Christ”. This was a corporate business gig but I chose to tell them my root. I chose to tell them that the reason they felt I was so fascinating was because of the Holy Spirit.
They were not even bothered about that. If they were bothered about it, it will not matter to me because the word of God is the righteousness of God which is potent to salvage any given task or situation. Denying your power makes you vulnerable to outside influence. Your mind denies the power and registers a different presupposed dominant power. This is the way it works!
Another way you can deny this power subconsciously like Elijah did when he was threatened by Queen Jezebel is to overstretch your physical being. You must learn to balance your physical being or be burnt out. The activities Elijah did prior to the threat were too stretching for one man; he spoke to a huge crowd, did all the manual labor himself by proving the power of his God, and killed all the 450 prophets. He was too exhausted to rationalize things so he allowed a dominant power to overshadow his God.
I could feel Elijah on that level because I knew how afraid I was when I was faced with the threat of losing 2.4 million naira. I forgot that the power inherent in the money could not be compared to the power in me. The funny part of it is that it is a threat not a reality and just like threat of Elijah’s life, it may never happen. Then I wonder why we focus too much on situation instead of reviving the power within us.
This brings me to the concept of Baal and the whole existence of an impotent god. Why do people worship Baal so much and what they hope to achieve by worshipping Baal? Baal is a god that is associated with soil fertility and domestic animals which represent economic leanings of any nation. Baal is not just one god but a collection of gods which provides economic benefit to you.
In contemporary times, your job can be Baal; your business can be Baal; your farm can be Baal: Any group of system that produces economic benefit is regarded as Baal. You can understand why there is a huge traffic gravitating towards Baal especially during King Ahab’s rule when there was drought and deep hunger in the land. Queen Jezebel controlled the system and wielded her brand as such.
When Elijah felt cocky about not bowing to Baal; God corrected him by telling him that there are 7000 people who have not bowed to Baal apart from himself. Baal wields its influence in our world and most people have no choice but to worship Baal in order to succeed or what I call in order to be happy. Baal just like the matrix is in control of our existence and there are few people that are inert to its effect.
The replacement of Baal with Almighty God is a common phenomenal; I got to run to work, I do not have time to pray; no time to go to church; God will definitely not understand this part of my life; I need that 2007 Lexus badly so I cannot afford to tithe this month; everything is so hard, I really need to help myself with this deal even if it affects my fellow neighbor, etc.
Baal has eaten so badly into the world that the 90% of exchange markets all over the world are crashing; there are so many churches in the nook and cranny in Nigeria but the country is corrupt; Most African leaders’ refusal to leave office; ladies who have sexual relations with their bosses to keep their jobs and the list goes on. My call today is to align ourselves to our purpose because for every single time we deny our purpose for money, we worship Baal. This is why we need to cultivate the power within us to produce results instead of constantly depending on outside influence. For all outside influence will not help you when you need it.
TO BE CONTINUED!
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11 comments
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October 21, 2008 at 11:43 am (UTC 1)
Phew! U alwayz leave me speechless n thinking. If i may ask can humans be truely perfect?
October 21, 2008 at 1:28 pm (UTC 1)
A master piece indeed-thought provoking and courage boosting-totally agree with ya . You insights into the Word is simply amazing.
May God give us the courage to say no to “baal worship” and be able to fully harness our inner power to recreate our world.
Spot on on this:
“Denying your power makes you vulnerable to outside influence. Your mind denies the power and registers a different presupposed dominant power. This is the way it works”.
@Mitchell
Yea, humans can truly be perfect and that is what we all strive to attain- a life of purity which is christian perfection.
However, no human can attain perfection in knowledge, reasoning and hence judgement and this invariably leads to mistakes.
Luv U!
October 21, 2008 at 2:11 pm (UTC 1)
Greetings to everyone….
Dipo i must you’ve been Missing In Action. Many Thanks for your newest article.
Living a purposeless life will result in continious frustration. God’s our maker and it’s good to constantly communicate with Him, and in the process He’ll be revealing things to us that the ordinary man can’t know or comprehend.
No one can go far without God. I FEAR GOD.
October 21, 2008 at 4:50 pm (UTC 1)
thanks dipo for reminding us that we are nothing without CHRIST and should forever remember to thank him for everything. i recently read this story in the word for today by bob gass and it appeared rather astonishing that prophets of old were human afterall.
awaiting part 2.
balogun olukayode
October 21, 2008 at 8:51 pm (UTC 1)
@ royal_prince
hi bro!i’ve been outta action for sometime now,exams,project and all.glad i’m graduating from the university.how bodi?
@ all
think i’ve acted more drama than elijah did..chasing money,burning out myself doing so many church activities(more of a chore,seem to lose its essence instead of building my spirit man),reading for exams&working on my final year project(hardly pray or mutter something that looks like one),planning on what to do before nysc(leaving God outta the plan),no intimacy with the Father because i’ve got issues to deal with(God understands,doesnt He?) and it goes on and on..i’m so burnt out,lost weight&anxious.guess i’ve been acting superman thinking i can do it all by myself (my human limitations pales into insignificance when compared to my “i-got-to-have-this-and now-mentality”).situations beyond my control stare in my face and i realize that i’ve been foolish all along-should have put God first but my greed and selfishness blinded me.
we all have limitations-there’s little that we can do but those that put their trust in God will not be put to shame.
guess the rock we made up of determines our response,aint it?digital or analogue?trust is of higher and stronger commitment than believing!u can believe but dont trust!trusting God all the way means no matter what may come my way,i’ll stick to Him even if it means losing everything even my life!
@ dipo
“My call today is to align ourselves to our purpose because for every single time we deny our purpose for money, we worship Baal. This is why we need to cultivate the power within us to produce results instead of constantly depending on outside influence. For all outside influence will not help you when you need it”-that says it all,cant agree with you more.word for the season!
may God help us!
October 23, 2008 at 2:16 pm (UTC 1)
Lovely contents and I quite appreciate the good work and the efforts you ve put in this your blogg
October 25, 2008 at 10:05 pm (UTC 1)
I appreciate ur comment dat u sent to me via website.I am a graduate seeking for job.l study mechanical engineering.pls i wil be looking out for your urgent reply.thanks
October 27, 2008 at 1:44 pm (UTC 1)
dipo had to go over baal factor again.
looking forward to part 2 but it’s taking forever.
balogun
October 27, 2008 at 3:07 pm (UTC 1)
Thanks Dipo. Being able to discover one’s self is important in life. Most of us have surrendered to different types of Baall in an attempt to survive. A friend of mine recently had accommodation difficulty in the school. She decided to stay with some friends of hers. Late in the night, she discovered that her 6 friends were lesbians. “Big girls”, students living fine with cars. She was encouraged to join, she refused and was sent out of the room that late night. The world is gradually coming to an end. The Bible warns, “when you see these signs know that the coming of the Lord is at hand”.
October 28, 2008 at 1:02 pm (UTC 1)
@ ogu
may God help us!
February 17, 2009 at 10:27 pm (UTC 1)
Unbelief or faithlessness is that thing in our heart that tends to shift our focus from the Great I AM to the ephemeral things, God help our unbelief in His infinite mercies.