The Father of Mercies

The father of mercies!

These words strike a chord in memory, a recall of something to do with boasting. Bear with me for I will thus explain. The father of mercies tickle in me the vision of someone presented to all as having mercy. This question was asked: Is there anyone merciful in this hateful world of quick judgment? A Being steps out to answer:

"I am!"

As spectators behold the one who dares to claim such a rare status, another one speaks within the crowd: "what about the father?"

Many concerned folks, weary of great longings of mercy, thirsty of ages past of such rare glory, turn to behold the one who defies such a moment.

A commoner, just like any other, steps out into the open - nothing of sight to reckon with but eyes full of a greater depth that comes with knowing. 'Tis a knowing that signifies experience and not words

The commoner speaks again:

"If you claim to bear mercy, what about the ocean that overflows in abundance of it? If you dare to deceive with a show of pity, what about the rivers of rare glory that flows from the source of mercy?

You speak with words to show. I speak of a place to go! Come! Let me show all where to drink from; a fullness provided for all and not for some! Follow into the throne of grace and stand before the mercy father face to face."

After all said and done, only one step it took for all to quench their longings that whelmed for ages, for we all, shortly after, lay by the ocean of grace provided by the father of mercies!

The I am that I am; the One who stretches hands of empathy to feel what we feel and stare with eyes heavy of love at us –

I acknowledge the Father of us all!!!

What Is It To You

What is it to you?

When anything of value loses its substance

When the winds fail to make one tree dance

What is it to you?

When the one you love does not reciprocate

When you'd rather punish than emancipate

What is it to you?

When the wicked prosper and I hold out on judgment

When my name is continuously defied and I do not comment

What is it to you?

When evil becometh of the land and justice comes not

When the path to rightness is not sought

What is it to you?

When I justify where I must condemn

Let a repented sinner into heaven

What is it to you?

I am God and there is none other

When you and me even I cannot sunder

What is it to you

THE BURDEN OF THE WORD

Burden is such a word I can identify with

It's quite ironic that the Word bears a burden forthwith

Course through the breeze whistling by and do wonder if there is such a burden

For the word is as the breeze, if not lighter

But those who have been bruised, lifted by the word;

Those who have been abdicated, crowned by more than this two-edged sword

Can testify; raise their hands to signify their concord –

There is such a burden in word!

Unfortunately, the consensus reveals the norm in the abundance of our hearts;

Our lips are rarely opened before words of conceit, anger, hate, and evil are voiced.

Commanded myself to stop for the list is endless of heavy burdens – milestones they are – that leave our mouths only to hang over another and drown them in the wiles of life!

So if you know nothing of a burden, you know that of any word!

Before thou cling so easily to the heaviness of ours, challenge thy open-mindedness for another word that holds light is blowing through!

Though its lightness is a burden but be comforted, its yoke is easy and its burden is indeed light!

Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I shall give you rest!

This is the burden of Christ:

Believe and be redeemed!

Be saved once and for all!

So simple!

So easy!

Yet a burden –

THE BURDEN OF THE WORD

 

 

 

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

The LORD possessed me in
the beginning
of his way, before his works of old.

If you ask me, all I know about ‘the beginning’ is that God created the heavens and the earth…

If you tell me otherwise, all I have to say is I totally respect your volition to have, and to hold, such a notion, whatever it may be.

If you ask me about possession, all I’ll say is I often respond to such a word with caution and a little fright of the unknown taking my known.

If you ask me of works of old, all I’ll say is David speaks of being young and later old, yet have not seen the righteous forsaken. He definitely knows about the works of old but me, the more I know is the more I need to know.

So let’s revisit that marvelous scripture, put the pieces together.

Hmm!

What do we have here?

With great caution and fright of the unknown inhabiting my known; the unknown that created the majesty of the heavens and the earth, though, I be young, and knowest nothing, his works of old was attested by King David…and one affirmation from the one after God’s own heart is enough to let go of all my inhibitions and take in the one who defies my bounds with His boundlessness, erupts my confines with his vastness, reveals the sweet joy in fearlessness…

So let Him possess me in my beginning
(the same way He must have in Jesus’ case),
and open my eyes to my destiny before my form took shape in the hourglass of time.

Profound?
You have no idea!

Incredulous?
Wait and See!

You ask me if it’s possible...If it’s true?
Well….So let’s….

MY OFFICIAL WEBSITE IS OUT

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Hi Everyone,

I am extremely grateful for the encouragement and support that you have given, even by merely reading my postings and responding to it as deemed fit. My official website is

www.sovereignbooks.com

You can click on the wings of the wind and read more about the description and also the excerpt. Afterwards, you can go ahead to purchase your copy. For readers in Nigeria, I'm working out a way to get the books available for you guys. It's going to take a little while but God if faithful.
New postings will be simultaneously posted on here and on my new website as I gradually move all my writings to sovereignbooks.com.
Great things are bound to happen to those who live by faith, and not by sight.

Grace and Peace,
Olushile Akintade

Wings of the Wind

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Do listen to the whispers of faded time

As it courses through – running past us

You hear it!

You feel it!

You see it!

It overtakes without aiding…

But oh Beloved….do listen!

Thou knowest not the Source…

Where it goest…Where it comest from!

Certainly, it comes!

It waits not for your bid.

You don't have to compel!

It comes.

Surely, it does!

You know why? The reason is simple! It carries Someone! The water suddenly ripples up waves. The peace of the clouds is disrupted!

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind!!!

The Lord Jehovah! Behold Him! He comes!

Sorry I haven't updated my website recently.
Guess what?- I just finished my first book. Its fiction rapped around historical setting. The name is

The Lion of Africa I: Wings of the Wind.

You can actually read an excerpt about it online to see if it stirs your interest and its only $18.69 online. Can you pls read the description and excerpt online for me? Not to blow my horn but it is a wonderful book cos it took a lot from me and I feel a part of me slumbers within its confines.
Click here: Lion of Africa I: Wings of the Wind

I will really appreciate your criticism and views and will look forward to hearing from you soon.

Understanding the Mysteries

If you could understand the complexities of life, the woundings of circumstances, the inexplicables of life's occurrences, would you still be human?

If you could choose the soul of a god for yourself and hold the power to will the scepter of control or trudge on the hot sands as mortal, weak and contemptible, what would it be?

If you could afford lavishes of liberty and merry in the pool of improvidence or be subjective to the Unseen and acknowledge incompleteness, what would you buy?

What callest thou a man who claims godhood?

What callest thou a god who bears manhood?

Why do legends and myths claim the insatiable constancies of gods mingling with men? Is it a tale of endless desires or soul-cries of man to have gods inhabit their world?

If divinity is clothed in mortality, and mortality now bears the DNA traces of divinity, then what are we-gods on earth?

If…only if….

If you're capable of impossibilities and have been fed with ordinaries, aren't you a little bit curious to explore and unlock those potentials?

If the Creator, with the power to destroy and re-create chooses to love and save, would you be glad you got a chance to live?

If you could be shown and still retain the power to choose, would you agree?

Pictures, frames, stories, proofs, wonders, beauties, are all I offer!!!

Let's walk through the twenty-second Psalm and behold the understandings of the mysteries…

My resolve…My purpose!!!

Why have thou forsaken me?

Why is there pain where there should be strength?

It's high time I made a decision.

Mourning may indeed endure for the night but joy comes in the morning!

In my opinion, its about time those words become more than words.

People want reality not words.

However reality isn't variably independent.

It is a by-product of something else.

Nothing becomes real unless we make it to be.

Nothing can be more real than what we perceive or make ourselves see.

So I blind myself to the negativities that surround me without excluding them from consideration.

Thick scales rooted in the Word block my sight and all I see is what I see.

All that's real to me is the Word.

And if I dare say, Christ is the Word.

Nothing matters more. Nothing drives close to home than this: Christ and Him Crucified!

So when I face adversity, my strength is not in me but in Him.

When troubles come my way, my hope lies not in this world but in the Holy Spirit.

Do you care to know what I say to the impossible and the seemingly unreal? Have you any idea to second guess my conditioned response to the uncontrollable stimuli that fills this worldly sphere? Will you dare underrate my dreams as mere figments of imaginations?

Well you can try, and try you will.

This is my resolve. Though my eyes are red and my heart, milestone-heavy of pain and sorrow, I choose to believe, and believe I shall. God hasn't seen any like this. A broken-down, death-trodden infant who holds on to Him when many would have called it quits.

Jesus I believe!

Help my unbelief!

New Beginnings!

Told me once not to despise new beginnings

Why should I hope in what always is recurring?

If I ever be counted as a righteous man who falls

Though I be not one, duty calls

At the road side where my step is lost

To go to the start is such a dreadful cost

At the spot on the wayside where I failed

There I must continue be I frailed

Beginnings may be essential and vital

Continuance is indispensable; the without is lethal!

THE JOY OF HIS COMING!!!

Mr. No-Change looks like everybody else: a large barrel containing something, or sometimes, nothing. Mr. No-Change fits perfectly in the first category, which is of those who contain something. He is always full of something and seems to enjoy whatever fills him at various points in time. Whenever its time to uncork the tap and let go for a refill of something else, Mr. No-Change reveals his true form and cleaves on without letting go.
I approached him one day and asked him do you believe in Christ? He said Yes, of course I do. I asked him do you feel content with this world and how things are? He answered me and said as long as he gets his fill then the world is a perfect place to be.
In the other side of the city lives Mr. Passing-By. He's regarded as the dumbest fool of the city. Whenever you need anything, just go to Mr. Passing-By and ask him. As long as it is within his possession he will gladly give it to you. Remember what I said earlier, about everyone being a barrel? Well, he also is filled with something all the time. The only difference is that he gladly turns the tap and let go to fill other's needs. The weirdest thing I've ever heard is that no matter how much you take from him, he seems to have his barrel full in the next instant.
I asked him one day how is it that you let go of things so easily? He said that since he has no home and travels a lot, he might as well lighten his load as he moves from city to city. My brows ruffled up as I looked at him puzzled. He went on to explain that his refill comes every second and the earlier he lets go the better. When he turned to refill some opportunist I asked him will he be travelling soon. He said he's been travelling his whole life and has no intent to stop. His home isn't here and will move on to another city very soon.
So tell me who will be ready to let go of his skin and get a new one when Jesus comes? Who will be more than happy at His return?
Which one describes you exactly?
Oops! I forgot to tell you.
Mr. Passing-By is also a christian just like Mr. No-Change.



IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS

You Can Try

Smother me

Or let me be.

Numb my senses

Sure try lowering my fences.

You could try to beat it

But you can never win it.

Shatter my defense

And behold a new offense.

Dare to make me starve

There's something you'll never have.

Cause me to sin.

I have another chance to begin.

Forever.

It is such a beautiful word.

So profound and yet so simple.

You don't need an education to know what it means. It can be proven, if you dare to know, that even the individual who has never had any form of education has in his or her finite mind a concept of forever.

Isn't it weird that you could define a word and still be thrown overboard by its exploration? How peaceful we feel when we keep words as transient as it shouldn't and then move on without taking a break to dig deeper. I remember a scripture that even the atheist knows yet it has caused dissension amongst the body of Christ believers.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

You see everyone is fine until they get to the last two words:

EVERLASTING LIFE.

If you've ever appraised and embraced what these two words mean then I'll stop my weary hands and rest my caring mind from helping you see what forever means.

To understand everlasting life is to understand forever.

So if you want to keep it simple so will I.

If you rather not go deeper, out of the fear of making things more confusing and avoid arguments then I'll take this walk with you.

Simple truth: You may never have fully understood what John 3:16 is until you take forever as simple and as powerful it is.

So you say forever means to last always.

Alright then.

John 3:16 says if you believe in Christ then you'll live for always.

Simple and Guaranteed.

Eternal life. Everlasting. Forever.

Do you want to keep things simple and avoid strife,

then occasionally dwell on God's words cos there's none better;

believe in Christ and have eternal life,

then dwell in the House of the Lord FOREVER!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

…IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD…

If you have been lost in the whirls of the busy city and no longer know what it feels like to be refreshed; maybe you feet are worn by the long walks it takes day in and day out; or your senses dulled by the noises that clog your system, then it may be somewhat difficult if not impossible to relate with times of refreshing. I mean after a certain period of time the body tends to acclimatize to its surrounding and thereby becomes alien or defensive to a new sense. I'm sure it's easy to understand the strangeness of a new horizon that brings a peculiar form of weather, in this case the temperate kind, when, as an organism, symbiosis has been established with the tropical.

But hold on…
You can feel it again.
I speak of the times of refreshing.
They are not coming FYI!
They are here!
You are seated right in front of me. In this place you can sense again. There might be a thousand excuses to why you no longer have time for the common; why you no longer indulge in the simplicities of life; why anything less than complex isn't real and cannot hold any form of truth; why the gospel of Christ Himself, as simple and profound, seems incredulous and ludicrous to your liberated mind.
But hold the phone….
If you won't converse with another, and welcome others' opinions then hear what is real as it passes by. Listen to what hovers around; though seemingly transient, yet real. You know it's there though you can't see it. It's the breathe from it that you rely on to live on. Since you're seated then you can, for a brief moment, suffer it to wash you over.
Drown the echoes from your wisdom head. Put off the thought that bears you away to the unreal and for one time, in this lifetime, relax and appraise.
The seconds turn to minutes and for once you feel like you just rested for the first time in eternity. Its like needing a massage so bad that once you get it you drift off in slumber and only stir when something foreign rudely intrudes.
Open your eyes now.
You felt it didn't you?
You touched it isn't that true?
You saw it face to face but for some reason, just like me, you can't explain or describe it. it's beyond words and astounds you so terribly.
It's the wind bearing witness to what is invisible yet existent; what walks on the wings of the wind.
The times of refreshing are here!
If you want to relax again and go through this marvelous experience then come again to this House: God's House, where you thought He didn't exist and let the silence that abhors time teach your proud self that it can be refreshed from the outside.
Imagine if it were always from and in the inside.
Come again I beseech you into the House of the Lord for the times of refreshing wait for no one and yet, is for everyone.

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

The prisoner of Christ

AND I SHALL DWELL

"To dwell in happiness!"

I love this phrase!
Sometimes, there are words we say that are judged by our hearers based on the triviality that beds it or the seriousness that ushers it. It is good to listen to the heart when, in passing, it voices that, "I would love nothing more but to dwell in happiness." Wouldn't it be nice to be at a place in life and love every minute of it. Remember the saying that "when change is avoidable, not to change is inevitable!" Conversely, there is a part of life that is not susceptible to change. A part that cannot be corrupted by the irresistible influences the world enforces. There is a place, remote and real. Therein lays peace. When the strong winds blow, and the tempest visits; when the storms rage and age rises; when time is lost in continuous motion and blissful moments sublime; there is still a place.

Do you hunger for it? I may have said it in passing, like many of us who voice out the truth in casual conversations. Our shoulders shrug as we laugh off what truly matters to us and holds heavy in our hearts. Do you recall the scriptures saying, "Avoid jestings…?"

Why?

The truth is we have missed the truths confined in words of playfulness and hurt another when we never got to know what is truly being said. You might think you know someone when you can quote, word for word, what was said. Unfortunately, we say more without words than we should.

But listen to this again.

…And I shall dwell …

When said in passing, this phrase still is profound. Powerful. Beautiful. Wonderful.

I shall dwell!

When David proclaimed this he declared it for himself. "I," he said.

When David declared this he was sure of it. "I shall," he said.

When David was sure of it he meant to stay for good. "I shall dwell," he said.

When you hear others say a word or two, and you don't know or truly can decipher, amidst many mystifying words, what is being said, listen again to what is not said.

After sin possessed man, from God's side, we fell

After healing, from Christ's sacrifice, made us well

If there is no other thing I know, this I can tell

That always, in the Spirit's bosom, I shall dwell!

The Prisoner of Christ

All the days of My Life

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITON OF GOD' WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS

    To hear the words above said by teenagers would literally mean a time period they would hasten to arrive if they have the chance or should I say choice to make the change. If it were to be said by the aged, it would mean probably mean a whisper that ordinarily lets itself out if not willed, or a vapor, caught by the eye for a moment, only to disappear into the air.

What about if it were to be heard from the lips of the proud who would only bask in the idiocy of personal gain in order to ride over the weak? What if it grazed the mouth of the self-pitied in search for more pity to justify personal failures?

But listen closer.

Feel the power stemming from the simplicity of such everyday words. This time these words were said by the least expected of the mass. If anyone were to utter a word, you wouldn't have thought of this individual. It came from the lips of a man whose heart resembled that of a teen; a man whose beard definitely matched the aged. Here spoke a man whose life's conquest calls for his every word to be edged with pride; a man who could have trodden the path of the self-pitied in search for God's own heart.

Yet, if you read closely, and listen deeper, as deep calls to deep, the first thing that strikes you in this passage is humility.

All the days of my life!

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."

I don't know if you can see that in the phrase. It echoes powerfully a humbled man who knows his days are not in his hands but in the hands of the Giver of Life.

So, here it is! The lips of the least expected have declared it! The humbled have spoken the same words but yet it sounds different!

You may owe your life's work and all that you are to yourself, and I have to tell you, what a load of work you must have put into it, but David knew different. He owed his life to someone else. With his eyes looking up in worship, and his hands outstretched in complete surrender, we have a model to emulate. Remember we were commanded to look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith! Why not follow the footsteps of a man after God's own heart?!

Therefore, when you seem to have it all, and know it all, and overcame, unlike any other, whatever stress and strife; 

Do take a step back and give honor to the one who gives honor, and gaze at the one who exalts the humbled, by pledging allegiance to Him, 

all the days of your life. 

…Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…

 

The Prisoner of Christ!

…Shall Follow Me...

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITON OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS

It would have been easy if I were to ignore the true significance of the word "shall" in the phrase above but my heart wouldn't let me. A word that bears no typical meaning in our generation and barely used even by the scholastic of us still strives to exist and proclaim its significance and utmost relevance if, by chance, we leisurely look up its root and uncover the dirt to reveal the gold in its profound rarity.

To express determination that instantly obligates us to what has proceeded from our lips or from another strikes us like a bolt from the blue in the present day world.

Yet, the scripture retains it. It marks not only one, but many pages of the wisdom-filled, unflipped pages of our bible. Do you remember when you found the strength to do what you have declared without a promise said? When did the heart of man need a backup word called "promise" before belief is born within to accept what has been said? Do you know there was a time in history when words spoken are automatically, deeds promised?

Though it might sound ludicrous yet those times did exist.

And they still do!

…Goodness and Mercy shall follow me…

We may need to go further in order to find some form of meaning to these phrase but take a step back from your fast-paced, crazed world and see the abundance of blessings contained and still retained in that phrase.

Tis' is to say that God has spoken!

God's words are obligations!

God's words are sureties!

Tis'to say that no matter the poverty that afflicts our over-resourced world, goodness and mercy will come to me. If it be I alone, and truly this is not to be found illed with folly, goodness and mercy shall follow me!

Why?

Simple!

It was said!

It was done!

So don't let the situations that clamor your ears from hearing what the Spirit has said to the churches, be your lasting convictions and the last hanging ropes of existence. The Spirit is not speaking on the outside with the noises we breathe as needed air into our lungs.

The Spirit is speaking within!

The testimony is sure and true!

Look at the promise which is yours-already due!

Why worry about what is going to be-

When the Word says "Goodness and mercy shall follow me?

The Prisoner of Christ

Surely Goodness and Mercy

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

Let me ask:

Have you ever waited for a prayer to be answered?
Did you persevere till the dawn of the morn for some form of response from the throne of Grace?
I remember saying once: “If you ain’t gonna answer my prayer, at least acknowledge my existence.”
Nay!
I must have said that more than once!
For those whom the journey through life has been anything but rosy; the hearts of likings who identify with my cry, definitely know what I speak of.

Maybe your dilemma is as paramount as the terrible wars fought in the past. I’m sure your shoulder must have slumped once before, from the weighty burdens of pain. Do you know what it feels like for a few to stand against many? Can I press you to recall, and if you can’t, then fantasize about what it is to withstand when at the verge of Babylon’s flames?

Can I speak my mind, or do you think I impose my willful thoughts on thee?
Can I share a story, or do you think it best to avoid truth and then, flee?
Will you spare a moment, or would you prefer to voice out: “Let me be?
Will you listen for a second, or do you know, from life’s experience, you don’t have the key?

Come.
Stand with me.
We are about to be cast into Babylon’s flames.

Come.
This you must see.
The three Hebrew brothers have declared we embrace the flames.

Behold.
We have cried all night long. The dawn has come and still we’ve heard nothing from the hills were comest our help. It is time. The wait has been long. The stress has been draining; the perseverance, now long-suffering.

The man after God’s heart now speaks:
“Surely goodness and mercy.”
The evil man belonging under God’s feet proclaims:
“Will you bow down and worship me?”

King David said there is still a certainty. King Nebuchadnezzar said there is no place for importunity.
The three Hebrew brothers are still standing. That is surely consistency!
King David is still singing. What continuity!
The Angels are still praising. The sounds, so heavenly!
The night has come and gone. Nebuchadnezzar declares worship. What mutiny!
I urge you still. Let us defy the earthly and hold on to divinity!
We may be struck down or be in the face of death as we speak but there is one portion meant for us! Just one path mapped out in destiny:
That despite the pain, the sorrow or tears life brings us, our hearts are still resounding, and our hands will remain steady. Our legs are still standing and our voices are always declaring:

Surely Goodness and Mercy.

The prisoner of Christ

…My Cup Runneth Over…

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

I have seen Oliver Twist once.
Nay! It must be twice or thrice.
When I find myself take a walk down memory lane, I realize many instances where I’ve been the least deserving of anything unlike hungry Oliver.

Oliver was still able to ask for more.
I had always known, by my actions, my penance was to be erectly poor.
Oliver’s fear crumbled while his belly grumbled for food worth asking for.
My heart knew the truth not to display defiance when shown the door.

If it be that I go hungry or full, I know what I deserve. Sometimes, popularity seems to denote fame and tend to send little spidery feelings of importance down one’s spine. We are consumed with anything media, and idolize, if not purposefully, then subconsciously, the icons paparazzi struggle to proclaim and/or reclaim. I’m sure the lust to be known dwindles when the reason of knowledge is not to praise but to disdain. When many shoulders rise higher in the flashes of camera lights, you might shrink and wish that the floors would swallow no one but you in the ambience of travesty.


Have you ever been in a situation where the exit was sealed?
Have you had your cup stretched out with sorrow-filled?
Do you know how the daily poor feel when they ask for a piece but, in return, get crumbs?
Do you know the heart’s pace of the fearful, when asked to face a crowd, sounding like jungle drums?

At life’s limit, you venture not to ask anymore. Drained of all hope, you stop to watch the favored ones drench themselves in stupor. Withered of all faith, tears come as the wise bask in their fill of knowledge. Robbed of all love, Tis comely to expect the pass of the richest wine, served first to the most blessed, and then to the rest.

Will you approach the table of cups to get served if it was customary that you and I, the chiefs of sinners, partake also? Everyone took a cup. Will you take only one? Did you reach the table at a time when the finest cups were in possession, leaving you with the only rugged, wooden cup? Hands stretch out for cups to be filled with wine; could you barely raise yours?


The cold wind matched in from the silent sea in the distance running a chill down the rich and the poor.
He came in to only put a coat upon you as cover.
He ushered you to His table, like David welcomed the lame son of Jonathan to dine at his table for ever.
You might wonder who it was that paid the price to be your lover.
T’was the same one who anointed you with oil before; how could you forget the Father?
Others may judge and walk away in disgust but His Spirit didn’t just come to hover;
But now resides in you and me; as we delight in the feast before us…I dare say…am the most blessed for my cup runneth over!!!


The prisoner of Christ!!!

Thou Anointed My HeadWith Oil

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!

The crowds gathered.
Both the wretched and the rich; the Gentiles and the Jews.
Everyone was waiting for the anointing.
Stories have been told, before I was born, about the God of the land pouring forth His precious oil on His chosen ones. It was to be a grand occasion. The whole universe waited in anticipation of such grandeur.
You could see the distinction of places occupied by the rich to the poor.

The former took the high grounds paved with gold while the latter, of which I belonged to from forever, garbaged the low grounds, soaked in filth as the mud seeped in slowly into our bare feets.

“He approached,” cried someone from the crowd.
I tried to get a closer look but as always, got shoved to the back.
There was silence as footsteps were heard.
Something was definitely wrong.
The rich should be celebrating by now. There should be the usual banters thrown at us from the high grounds but the silence announced something else. Crashing of gold glasses must be cutting across the air as the rich were meant to celeberate but this signal, I tried to pick up with my ears.
The seconds stretched on endlessly as I scratched off ticks from biting off what was left of me.

“Oh no!”
“This cannot be,” declared another rich folk.
“He walks towards the low grounds.”
“Tis betrayal holds no bounds.”
“Our God has forsaken us,” announced the most opulent of them.
“He goes to those whose lips do nothing but curse.”

Again I tried to see what my ears heard but which my heart couldn’t perceive.
Murmurings grew in the low grounds as I heard the footsteps now. It wasn’t loud but yet it was! The grounds didn’t shake but our hearts did! We couldn’t speak, yet our very souls were already reverberating from impounding echoes!
Truly He approached the weak. The low. Defiled. Depraved and the Wretched.
I didn’t know when my head dropped low in fear and did obeisance, for my God approacheth.

My Christ is here! My precious Holy Spirit Divine has come!

The crowds in the low grounds parted as He came into and through us.
The footsteps were getting closer.
I could feel them within myself as I tried to fight from being drowned by my heartbeat.
He’s coming closer.
My eyes closed as tears flowed down my mudded cheeks.
He’s standing in front of me.
I knew from that moment how condemned I was. I knew that there was no other reason for my God to stand in front of me but to judge me and send me to the uppermost darkness for all time.

My knees buckled under and knelt before the King of Kings.
The Lord of Lords.
The Ancient of Days.
Tears were flowing uncontrollably now.
I couldn’t apologize for the sins so many.
I couldn’t stand ‘cos my burdens so heavy.

Then I felt something touch my head. It felt like a drop at first but then I could feel calmness introduced into my blood veins as the liquid ran through my head. I was shaken from having cried a bucket. I had bathed in the rain many times just to be a little clean but this liquid did more than the rain.
The itch on my head was no more.
I watched as it ran down my hands and for the first time, in a long time, I saw the true colors of my skin.
The burdens in my heart felt lifted and when I dared to look up to my King, there was no condemnation in His eyes.

YOU CLEANED MY HEART FROM THE SPOIL
YOU LAID MY SOUL OUT LIKE A FOIL
YOU DIDN’T WELL UP IN A VIOLENT BROIL
YOU ANOINTED MY HEAD WITH OIL

WHEN THE RICH SHOULD BE THE ONE
WHEN, AS A PEASANT, I WAS DONE
WHEN I’D GONE TOO FAR TO RETURN
AND MY HEART ALWAYS DID MOURN

WHEN I THOUGHT YOUR ANGER OVER ME WOULD BOIL
WHEN MY GUTS, AT MY DISGUST, DID RECOIL
WHEN MY BURDENS HELD ME TO THE SOIL
THOU ANOINTEST MY HEAD WITH OIL

….so go on and bear your heart out to the One who chose you out of the low grounds
...you don’t need to labor for grace or toil, for God, hast anointed your head with oil

The prisoner of Christ

IN THE PRESENCE OF MY ENEMIES

IN AN ENDLESS TRADITION OF GOD'S WORD AND THE MIRACULOUS!!!


You have seen their faces.
You know how they look like.
Creatures you would have denied were not formed by the same God that formed you.
There eyes sparkle with hate and evil. Their lips darkened by the smoking cigars of darkness.
You must know those I speak of.
To call them enemies would be too kind of us. You know the many names that cross your mind when you see them. Should I be so bold to speak? Could it be that I’ve found the courage to be true and real with how I feel?
They sometimes approach in horde, coming for the kill. These ugly, vile, wicked, inhuman humans, possessed by principalities to cause harm and pain to your innocent self, have become somewhat of a familiar encounter with you.
You can pinpoint their exact location, and tell when and where next they’ll strike in a heartbeat. How you’ve survived for these years still remains a mystery once you find it in yourself to reminisce. There are seasons of war and seasons of peace where you can find some time, if it will, to relax and listen to the calming silence.
What if, if I may ask, you find, within the silence, characters of Brutus and Cassius, as friends? What if, to your bewilderment, you find enemies amidst those you call loved ones? When will you see that greater harm can come from those close to you than those afar? When will you come to find peace in knowing your enemies by heart and not by face?
In horror and deep-seated anguish, you must have cried. The earth must have been shaken by the grief that escapes your lips to claim the air. The birds must have ceased, if it be for a moment, not to venture into the skies because of the terrible winds of mourning that blows out from your lungs.
“Father, why am I encamped around by such great evil? Why is it that in the world there is so much tribulation? Why does it seem that there be no more seasons of rest and why have my solace being intruded by the world rulers of this present darkness?”

(silence…a still small voice whispers…)

YOUR BLESSINGS AND CHASTISEMENTS ARE SET ON A HILL FOR ALL TO SEE;
YOUR STRENGTH AND SUFFICIENCY COMES FROM NO ONE BUT ME.
BLESSINGS, THAT YOUR ENEMIES MAY SEE THAT I DO NOT LEAVE MY CHILDREN BEHIND;
THAT THEY MAY NOT GO FAR WHEN THEY’RE PUZZLED ABOUT YOUR SOURCE, AND SEEK TO FIND.
CHASTISEMENTS, LEST YOU BE EXALTED ABOVE MEASURE AND STUMBLE;
ENEMIES ARE GIVEN AS THORNS IN YOUR FLESH FOR YOU TO STAY HUMBLE.
SO NOW BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS AND SEE THE BOUNTIES I HAVE PREPARED FOR YOU;
REMEMBER YOU WILL NEVER BE FOUND WORTHY BY WHAT YOU HAVE OR DO.


“Oh sweet, precious HolySpirit, I shall ever be grateful for what you’ve done for me and I now fall on my knees,

For you have prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies!!!


The prisoner of Christ