When My Neighbor’s Wall is Breached

“_{Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”
Isaiah 58:112}

Like Rahab the former prostitute who eventually became Mrs. Caleb the priest, my house is on the wall of our estate (not city 😁). Well not exactly on the wall, but about ten meters from it. I rarely look at it, except when birds perch on it. Just realized now, just before I wrote this, that it is symbolic of my own spiritual call and posturing. Thats a story for another day. Let’s get back to this one. So am right next to the wall.

Last Monday, as I was sitting down on my desk which faces the window and the said wall, I noticed a security guard standing at the wall of a neighboring institution. It did not occur to me that it was a strange place for one to be standing, and that I now had a view right through. We just come from a traumatic and yet paradoxically, victorious weekend. The rains, floods, the WM meeting, and that I had been called on to minister at a fellowship in Kariobangi that Sunday. In Kiswahili. (To mitigate my afore mentioned challenges in preaching in this language, I have gone ahead and acquired a Kiswahili as well as a Luo Bible. I have a tendency of confusing these two languages drastically and catastrophically when speaking in public…and well…enough is enough. I am working on my public and more efficient utilization of both languages by reading the scriptures I am studying in all three languages. I now need a French one…AND… as we are on Bibles now, I need donations of these for members of the congregations I am called to sit with in Githurai, in Kariobangi and of cause in Embakasi where I live. In English and Kiswahili…ahem and in Ki-Luhyia.)

Between Saturday night and Sunday morning, in the heavy rains, we had to rush Gio to hospital…a fever gone awry. I have an amazing neighbor (thanks Aphlyne), two or three of these, and a praying kingdom community around me. Thank You LORD for this. God calmed this storm or I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to go teach on Sunday. If you know my relationship with my grandson…you understand this. Whenever he gets sick, I get, covertly, FAR worse off than he is… he actually knows this and reaches out to comfort me. COVERTLY AS WELL. May God turn around the incidences of these. The sickness attacks I mean. Anyway, so come Monday. And the wall. Then Friday. This time I took note. My neighbor’s wall had been a casualty of the floods. Gio confirmed it for me. “Dani, it fell down when you were taking me to the Oskitol.” I thought about a snake that had been killed around that time in our estate Court. I looked at the wilderness the toppled wall exposed and thought to myself that that was probably where it had come from, and that its parents and relatives probably lived in there. See where my thoughts FIRST took me. Eyishhhh. There was also a crowd of youth just hanging out there…in a…’discomfort inducing’ way. I did what I could. I took a picture of the wall, and settled down to pray and ask God if He wanted me to do anything about it. To speak to our Court about it. Silence.

“Help of the Helpless O Abide with me…”

Today, my friend Judy woke me up to talk about the floods. How these were affecting Nairobi. About doing something for the survivors. Let me just confess here, that I have not been aloof to what was happening around me. Personal concerns aside, I have been broken by the media being circulated on the same: people sleeping on roofs, people having their lives…reset…and not knowing how to take that first step, people dying, a father carrying the body of his dead child on his shoulders going…I have no idea where, cars with people in them being washed away…my concern for the children…the school year…how we do this one. For our leaders…that in making their decisions, they tune in to The Mind and Heart of God for His people in this region and beyond. We are not yet done with the survivors of the big blast at Embakasi’s Mradi…and then there is this crisis. And its hitting home…some of the warriors that stood for Mradi have been directly hit. And affected. Badly. I was thinking…that all I had to give, had been given. BEFORE the flood. That I needed to do something, but also needed something done for me, so I could. So, we did what I know to do, we prayed and asked God for the way forward. They did not need to articulate their requests…I needed to ask God what to do…when my neighbor had no wall about them anymore. The fact that yours fell off a long time ago, is no excuse for you to ignore their plight, when you can do something about it. I need help to help mine.

What about you, how is your neighbor doing? How is their wall? What can you do to help? God is brooding over the waters…as in The beginning. May He speak His Excellence in your neighborhood, as in mine.

_{“In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void or a waste and emptiness, and darkness was upon the face of the deep [primeval ocean that covered the unformed earth]. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters.”
Genesis 1:1-2 AMP}

#AlphaadOmega #DoItAgainELOHIM #InHisPresence

BROKEN HEELS AND MORTALLY WOUNDED HEADS

Where do broken hearts and lives go? To whom will they belong?

So… you are out and abouting...and you see this other human being. Splendid looking. Seemingly DELICIOUS, provocative, alluring….You look, you see, you want, you desire, you crave…but even with those big bells banging in your skull you ALREADY KNOW that its not for forever that this desire had assaulted you …just to rub, to scratch an itch…for a moment. And after a moment or two, you imagine to yourself, that you would do anything to get that scratch…to be rid of that itch. Tell lies. Tell partial truths. Be kind. Be cruel. Buy gifts. Deny gifts – for the majority… Write poetry. Borrow other peoples’ songs to dedicate if you are not lyrically endowed…. Hang out with those you wouldn’t otherwise stand…smile at them even…face the elders and ancestors, argue your case even when it’s obvious – to even yourself – that you have none. Marry them because the itching does not go any other way in some cases. Even if you can only marry them verbally… If you are of a more base conviction, you club them over the head, or subdue them with potent substances…scratch and flee leaving them to deal with whatever you deposited in or on them…and whatever other consequences they have to deal with to pay, sometimes for a lifetime, for the fact that they temporarily assuaged your even more temporary discomfort. Discomfiture. Poh!!!!!

Let me start with some background. Earlier this week, I was talking to a friend of mine, a spiritual friend…I ended up having the same conversation with three other spiritual friends…broaching this subject from three of the four poles. But let me start even earlier so you understand the picture attached to this post. A few years, I was out and abouting myself…on heels. Suddenly one of them got caught between the cracks of a street pavement…and when I tugged…it broke. I had to make a decision – would I walk on and complete my errands barefoot, or balance the other foot to the level of the still heeled one, walk through my day as though I was comfortable and then deal with the consequences as I rubbed my feet at home…in the evening? I opted for the latter. You can’t just be obvious all the time – right? I hope you are understanding this situation from at least three poles…right? A word is sufficient for the wise. I took a picture of my shoes when I got home…and that’s what that…down there…is. My former, or rather, ex-shoes.

So, then this week happened. I was in a situation, reviewing a previous rejection by an association due to a recently concluded relationship. In plain English, my heart was broken, my body and spirit beaten, I could not hold in anything that went in, or keep what was there before. Aside from this, I was mourning the death of one dear one that I had known all my life…and then went through a sharply articulated eviction from a status I was born into, but realized that I would probably have to walk the rest of my life with, only as a memory. Understood? Have you been there? If not, please, I pray you never do. Unless it’s for your good, and The Glory of God. For me…I shed excess weight…drastically, which came with wardrobe challenges for both outer and inner wear 😁😇. If you know, you know. I bowed over and mourned with my entire life, emitting life, it was coming out of all my pores…there is a picture I took late last year…that was…scary…more than one photo from that season…that I was vehemently commanded to unplug from my social media…because I looked dead, or like ‘something’ that was. I WAS…dying. And I knew it. There was nothing I could do about it. But God. He…has ways…Yes He does.

So, I go to this interview…and not really because I trust, but because I find it easier to say the truth and deal with the consequences rather than take time out of what is left of my life trying to remember and defend lies…efforts in futility…I poured out my heart. Are you married? And the floodgates opened. I couldn’t cry anymore, because…I was basically dehydrated…of anything liquid in me. Anything that could flow. My interviewer listened…trying to hide her horror at my story. I could tell what she was thinking. I could NEVER belong. I understood her completely. If I was in her place, I would PROBABLY be in her shoes. Walking her way. Then God caught up with her as she ‘fled the scene’, and she remembered possibly, LOVE. Saw my battle wounds. Saw beyond my ‘dehydration’ that I still believed…that God COULD. So. she passed the rejection to a more vigilant warrior to effect it…to bury me alive if possible. And I went…’to my own funeral’… walked in, sat through the next interview…fought valiantly…clung to God and His instructions when He sent me into this situation…I STILL BELIEVED. And even though the one with the itch had turned their back, even though I was ‘out of status’, even though technically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, I was standing before about eight open graves, I held on. They were beloved of God…and were holding on to what they knew too. From their perspective, they were destroying a bug, me, and doing their best to wipe out the smudge. I was too dehydrated to cry…so I leaned…leaned heavily on God…and on the ones He sent me to Love. Because even here, Loving still made sense. I don’t know if you have ever been here…

They said no to me. And it seemed to me, were offended that I did not die. And I say that in the nicest way I can. You see, they sincerely believed, still do, that I had sinned. That I had rebelled. Was an offensive outsider, an enemy. And that the mercy of Christ could never cover one like me. I on the other hand, knew, that I had been sent. The consequences were none of my business, obedience was. So, I obeyed. And loved. And the scratches became little pen-knife nicks, then were emboldened into stabs. I cried out as I obeyed. I had no one, nowhere, except this place. But God. He carried me through. One day, I couldn’t anymore, so I pleaded with Him, to let me go. The pain was killing me…I was still wounded from the eight open graves…and living in a ninth…alive…waiting for them to shovel in the sludge…so I could be…not even a memory. I began to claw out of that grave…and He, God helped me. I carried guilt for quitting…for letting God down by quitting…but I remembered who was not ready for the next day, if I was to die on that one. And on the other side of the grave, He met me and embraced me and strengthened me and widened the scope of His Love through me. And many times, my eyes would meet those of the most ardent warrior…and I could tell he was thinking that I was doing this to win his approval…and acceptance into association. I could tell also, that he was determined NEVER TO ALLOW IT as long as he was in that privileged position. But I was loving…for The Lover…Love Himself. God Himself. Without Whom I was, am, nothing. No one. No ones…

A leadership crisis and I became a leader in that association, without membership…and it was time again to show me how unlovable I was to God. And to His people. So, I made the appointment…so I could hear him out. And he ploughed at me. Scripture after scripture. God could not love me. But it was different this time. I had been through so much stripping…and had learnt to be strong without cloths, without props, without underwear. They had fallen off me like King Saul’s armor may have off a little shepherd boy named David as he walked in on behalf of a nation to cut off the head of a giant that had troubled them. Like the other Saul, the Apostle a.k.a. Paul, neither the bite nor the poison ‘took’.

That woman from last year IS DEAD. Perhaps they did shovel her and seal her in after all. But this version of her…has her head in and with God. She sees more than you would want her to…and will not react outside of God’s prompting. So, he reeled out how those wounded by family relationships, could not serve as leaders…and I asked if we were not playing into the enemy’s hands. An enemy that would strike the leaders, knowing that their colleagues, their Aarons and Hurs, would drop their hands in a second and use their own swords to gut them where they stood holding up God’s Kingdom should it become evident that their flesh not conform to the standards of their own understandings. And that the flocks would wander off…disappointed, dejected, doubting God, doubting the value of Life and Godliness, choosing Despair, Destruction and finally Death. Where was the place for restorative Love? Why were we using valuable artillery against our own gravely wounded and dying warriors? Warriors called out BY GOD to lead the battles, to lead us into victory…because someone used them as a scratcher…and then got tired and moved on to find more elaborate scratchers. Because their children do not look like the others that belong to the association…So, we not only turn our backs to their pain and to them – we also have our own issues to deal with – moreover we pursue them for learning to live without us…to steal what God would still have them retain, not even to use because the instruction Manual is The Living God Himself AND He HASN’T DECIDED TO TRANSFER OWNERSHIP OF WHAT we STOLE TO us, then, we decide to kill them in myriad ways… Do we really know this God that we have refused to get intimate with, and block others from His redemptive embrace?…Sighhhhhh…. Where are the brokenhearted going to around you? Do you care? Or are they casting a blight on your narrative by being hurt, being hurt in ways unlike ours, and for longer than WE WOULD ALLOW THEM TO BE? Where are the broken-hearted around you, that walk in the embrace of God…and He is strengthening to destroy the serpents that would be aiming at your heels in your own future?

Back to you from the beginning. The one with the itch. So, today is Friday. And you may have that itch again…first of all, avoid me. I am actually dead…and alive to another realm… I am done balancing heels that do not exist for He to Whom I belong, has fitted me with those that CANNOT wear out. And warriors have been activated to defend my course in God AND me, that if you saw with your naked eyes would lead to your own dehydration of both inner and outer wear. If therefore you are looking to complicate someone else’ like – Avoid me. Second, if you do go out and use the image and likeness of God for a scratcher to ‘get your hair in place’ know that for them, it never really ends there. Even if they seem Game. Sometimes…they live with the death you projected their way…several lifetimes over. So please remember my many words… take a brisk walk or run around your hood, then GO HOME, to your habitat and take a cold shower, warm cocoa, put on some fiery worship music and pray for yourself and for your intended victim/s that God would keep them from the snares those, like you formerly were, had dug out for them. Many times, our games deny those we didn’t think we were hurting that much, their very lives and destinies. Be responsible.

Shalom.

vipslit@yahoo.ca / vipadhiambo@gmail.com

“Then one of the elders [of the heavenly Sanhedrin] said to me, Stop weeping! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root (Source) of David, has won (has overcome and conquered)! He can open the scroll and break its seven seals!

And there between the throne and the four living creatures (beings) and among the elders [of the heavenly Sanhedrin] I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God [the sevenfold Holy Spirit] Who have been sent [on duty far and wide] into all the earth.

He then went and took the scroll from the right hand of Him Who sat on the throne.

And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders [of the heavenly Sanhedrin] prostrated themselves before The Lamb. Each was holding a harp (lute or guitar), and they had golden bowls full of incense (fragrant spices and gums for burning), which are the prayers of God’s people (the saints)…

Saying in a loud voice, Deserving is The Lamb, Who was sacrificed, to receive all the power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and majesty (glory, splendor) and blessing!”
Revelations 5:5-12

AMPC

My Ringed Fingers

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?“
Jesus Christ in Mark 8:36-37

This evening, I was distractedly looking at my fingers contemplating the two rings that I wear very rarely these days. Gold. Yes. I have two golden rings. One a broken circle with four stones on my ‘wedding finger’, the other on my ‘God finger’ – same finger on my right hand – a beautiful delicate piece graced with a heart at its center. I once tried to sell them…during dire times, but the lady who I had been told buys gold would not buy them. She said what she could give me for them would not be worth the effort. Besides. she had already gone over her limit for buying used jewelry for the day. I was looking at those rings today, or rather last night, against the very soft light at Southfield Mall and just thinking how beautiful they were – in this light.

My thoughts wandered off, and I remembered some really valuable loops I once owned. Gold. Pure gold. Very high quality. One of the only two pairs of real gold earrings I have ever owned. My favorite – the other pair broke where it cannot be worn again, and a piece of it got lost during the myriad house evictions my household has lived through. I wore them all the time, everywhere, so much that I forget how valuable they were, and how dangerous wearing some of those things in some of ‘these places’ could be. So, one day, I was on the way to a place that I had never been, for the wedding of one of my brothers in Love. I think that was the day I tried to sell my rings. I dont know what happened to me when I left that shop but I was not as alert as I usually am while walking. I notice EVERYTHING without lifting my head or seeming to look around. My friend and current walk partner Ps. Anne likes to joke about me, that I should be FBI or some high-level spy. I laugh nervously when she says that…I actually see more than most people would be comfortable with my noticing. But thankfully, I forget quickly…or to be more accurate, forgive with alacrity. Life is too short to carry EVERYTHING you find with you all the way. But…back to what I was really saying. I got a little distracted after leaving that lady’s shop. I wanted to sell the rings so I could get a present for my in-law, as well as transport to and from the wedding and still feed my household when I got home. So, when I found I could not, I tucked them into my handbag and walked about a really densely populated portion of Kenya, praying for a miracle.

Suddenly, it felt as though a friend was hugging me from behind while tugging playfully at my ears. Then there was a sudden release and in the two or so seconds it took me to turn around, I saw a young boy, about 10 years old at most running away from me. I realized that he had been tugging at my earrings and had managed to get one off and that it was in his hands. I thought about screaming for help from the public…but at the same time I remembered my own very difficult pregnancy journeys, and my own pain in the labor wards. I looked at his fleeing back and wondered if I would ever wear that earring, if I had to pick it up from a pool of his blood after the public had dealt with him. I wondered about his mother…and her own labor pains. So, I stood and watched him run from death, from danger, from consequences, from me – his victim. I absentmindedly took off the other earring and a witness who had been standing near me as though he had NOT noticed the whole thing, stepped up to me and informed me that there were shops near there that bought gold to melt and resell. He suspected that that was where the young lad was headed, and I could try to trace his steps and buy my earring back before it was melted. My feet followed his advice. I forgot that even if I found that earring, I had no money to buy it back. I did not even have money at that time to get back home. At the end of my footsteps, I managed to sell my remaining loop for about 3,000/. Kenya shillings. Almost a hundred times less than it was worth in cash and incomparably less than it meant to me overall.

I am thinking about this today because it just occurred to me how much we take for granted what is truly precious, because it’s always there for us, with us. Until the day we loose a portion of it, and have to negotiate with God in public, over the cost of getting it back versus letting it belong to someone else. Someone to whom it may not mean much beyond a few thrills, and who would discard what was attached to your life for a set of pebbles…in less than a heartbeat. What’s your story so far in this regard. Let’s not loose anymore…what we will still mourn over, decades later. Look at who/what you have in the soft and True Light of Who God is. Perhaps, and I hope, He will birth in you a renewed appreciation of what He has given you, that is RIGHTLY UNLIKE WHAT HE HAS GIVEN ANOTHER.

Shalom. Do have a blessed week.

vipslit@yahoo.ca / vipadhiambo@gmail.com

Battle at the Gate by ‘the litmus arrow’

I had been up for about three hours or more earlier today. I was reading, thinking, praying as I also waited subconsciously for a text from Leroy to confirm that God had granted him another safe trip to his now daily destination. Suddenly I it occurred to me that I had not heard the usual morning sounds of one member of my household. Aunty Njoki should have been in about half an hour ago. I dialed her number hoping that all was well, and that she was simply running late.

She answered warmly and then her voice got frantic as she explained to me that the guards at the gate were adamant that she would not get in today. My phone disconnected and I looked at it frustrated. I didn’t have any more credit etc. I seethed quietly as I contemplated what was ‘really happening’…the ‘real story’. She had been coming to this house daily for over a year…and no one had ever demanded her particulars after her first month. Somehow, as I found out much later, her ID card had slipped out of her bag in the kitchen just yesterday. She called me back and asked me to speak to the guard who was initially rude. I firmly but gently asked him what the real issue was. The phone disconnected again, adding fuel to my fires. I got up and marched in ‘full combat’ (i.e. a lesso (a wrapper), house dress, hair bonnet and phone) all the way to the main estate gate. I was livid. I could hear though, the soft gentle Voice of The Holy Spirit counsel me above the fires of rage and calmed down before I run into Aunty Njoki on her way home. We greeted each other warmly and I asked pointedly if the guards had asked her for a bribe. She said no and I calmed down. Sufficiently to have a cohesive conversation a.k.a. do battle with the hostile at the gate.

Back home, much later – (oh I did get to the gate and have that conversation with the guards which effectively calmed both parties. I am not one that leaves my battles un-fought. If am still quiet – I am probably just bidding my time and gathering arsenal 😁🙂😉) I thought about the incident and something a friend of God and I were chatting about yesterday. When he referred to Daddy a.k.a. Baba Vip as an elder at the gates of Gem Ahono, my mind’s eye saw my father dressed as a warrior with a quiver full of arrows strapped to his back. In this vision, he reached back and removed all five of his and fiercely unleashed them at intruders at the gate of our rural home. It took my breath away, that vision. Then ‘the warrior was escalated’, and we were being launched from the quiver of none other than The Almighty God, El Gibor Himself. Oh…my entire being, bowed in worship at this beautiful vision.

I thought about being an arrow. That at the gate, my father and Father did not stand unarmed because they had us. For my earthly father we would either be his weapons of offence or defense. I smiled as a cheeky thought came to me; ‘no wonder I have had so many bumps and bruises in life – I am his first arrow. The litmus.’ The smile receded as I thought of the seriousness of my role, the role of Daddy’s children…it was imperative that we ensure, no hostile passed through that gate…and if they did, that we be the cause of their emphatic retreat. Or extinction. I stopped then and prayed. My Daddy had sired arrow-heads designed by God for the battles he would face at that gate. We needed to submit to the aim and hit the mark for his Good. Because I was also of The Hosts of YHWH, there was a special codding there that ensured that I not only honored Daddy as I flew free towards the enemies, but my True Maker Himself. I recommitted myself to that role. For, I am after all, a soldier in The Army of The LORD. Come what may.

“Behold, children are a heritage from The LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.”

Psalm 127:3-5 NKJV

Shalom.

vipadhiambo@gmail.com

ULITUMIWA NA NANI?

Am not sure if what am asking is what I am meaning…what I mean. I mean to ask: WHO SENT YOU?

So whether it is ‘Aliye kutuma ni nani?‘ or ‘Nani alikutuma?‘ or even ‘WEUWE!!! Nani litumia wewe?‘…my thoughts have troubled me lately. Been concerned about the wars we sent ourselves into without consulting our Commander. Especially these [kujituma kibinafsi]…and then there is the issue of WHEN GOD SENDS US. Why He does? Let me try share…

You see, there is a scripture about stealing prophecies that pursues me. [Jeremiah 23:30 ‘“Therefore behold,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words they attribute to Me.”] A prophesy by the way, in my understanding, is a declaration, prediction i.e. a spoken word. So, when we speak things, in The Name of God, think things and then articulate them with the hope of achieving…many times to be honest – MAYHEM…or let’s be calm and gracious about this…an expected end: and you did not do so from within the counsel of God, and you seek to compel me and others to live by that word… Anyway, am getting ahead of myself. But understand me…these are my thoughts in process.

A CONSENCRATED ARROW OF GOD: I was thinking about the scriptures, and a pattern I noticed among the ones sent out by God to speak out His words especially when they pertained to judgment. I noticed that there was often a sense of reluctance initially on the part of the one being sent out. I wondered why. I realized that when we TRULY stand before God’s Presence, there is a sense of AUTHENTIC NAKEDNESS by which we are seen as we are…and WE IN TURN SEE OURSELVES AS WE ARE. And what we see, is not usually pretty. OFTEN IS NOT.

So, God chooses me, or even better YOU, to go tell someone that they have offended Him, are offending Him and from the looks of things will continue to stand or remain fallen as repugnant offenses before Him – and the first thought should be _{‘HOW CAN YOU SEND ME KNOWING ALL YOU KNOW ABOUT ME?’} And with that comes a true humility. A realization, that should NEVER LEAVE US, that He chooses us BECAUSE OF HIS GRACE. So Kingdom Giants faint and stay fainted or perhaps in a stroke for days…or they get hot coals…from a divine fire…like no earthly fire…from God Who is Himself The Consuming Fire…to sanitize their own tongues first before they go. We are given instructions that speak of our being launched from the posture of receiving His Word to deliver it and a boomerang without engaging in civilian affairs to The Commander of Heaven’s Hosts. Let me just ask us, you and I, have we been processed for this mission we are undertaking? Sanctified for it?

The DELIBERATE RICHOCHET: Been thinking a lot about how intentional God is. There is another pattern. A pattern through which He sends out a people with whom He has a score to settle, to deal with someone who He desires to redeem. O…this second lot, are full of themselves. They preen, prance, gloat…think the world of themselves. ‘EIYSHHH OF CAUSE HE COULD NOT HAVE MADE A BETTER CHOICE THAN ME, MYSELF AND I.’ O they rush at those God tends to discipline with an often reckless and gleeful abundance to swiftly, thoroughly, pressed down-shaken together-to the overflow kind of words and actions that eventually – they imagine – would scratch out their itch against a fallen nation or individual. They conveniently forget that God has and does sometimes send out exceedingly wicked people to deal with wickedness in His own camp. Akin to the broken branches by which our parents and teachers caned us – once upon a time – that were themselves shredded to smithereens…eventually…after dealing with us. Remember how we were left with welts, weeping, repentant and changed by that beating, but the cane could not say as much for itself? It was destroyed by our beating.Hmmmm….

ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN: And then there is the other lot. These are simply ‘jesi la saiytan‘ – ‘satan’s hosts.‘. We used to call them ‘sneak babies’ in the days when we were younger. These are the ones who gleefully enjoy watching, partaking of, even cheering you on in your wickedness. Some of the higher-ranking ones will even show you how to do bad, or suggest it to you…they are the catalysts. But you should see them complain, present a case to prosecute you before God’s Throne. The performance…there is no award on earth yet even entered the mind of man for this degree of skill. They are of The Accuser of the Brethren. They are vile, vile, vile, themselves, but because they have reputations, something others need, etc…they have a platform…they will articulate your sin as though to convince God that you are beyond Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, and should serve them eternally in the pit. But God. He is Wisdom embodied.

I have not yet reached my conclusion, but I am leaning towards thinking that in order to point out for sure, in echo of God’s counsel what is a Cult, I need to first of all ensure that I individually, am not an occultist…living in flagrant and unabashed disobedience to God’s instructions to me – even when these differ directly from His to the one I seek to disqualify from The Race. Am I truly living as He would have me live? Are you? I am off to submit myself to the fire of His Holiness, for I don’t really like the answers I get when I look into His Word – His Presence…about my own state. Come with me first, will you? It will be good for us all. I want us to say in answer to the heading question ‘WHO IS USING YOU?’ ‘WHO HAS SENT YOU?’ that I, we, have been truly sent out by YHWH.

Shalom.

“Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”

Jesus Christ in Matthew 7:3-5

“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Jesus Christ in Mathey 12:36-37

#ThereisMercyStill#LORDGodHaveMercyonUs#LoginMyEye#BecauseGodIsIntentional

vipadhiambo@gmail.com

Why Doesn’t God Do Something? The Power of Covenant

‘Why, O LORD, do You stand far off? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?‘ Psalm 10:1

“There is only one answer to our title question – GOD DOES NOT WORK OUR WAY. His power is not coercion but constraint. Never does He violate the personalities He has made. It would be easy for Him to intervene, but another purpose is at work – the purpose of constraining love. Hard though it may be, we must have patience with The Patience of God.”

Selywne Hughes in ‘TIME WITH GOD’

This post from about ten years ago, really answers some of the thoughts that ‘troubled’ me last week as I read through Genesis 16.

Why slavery exists…yes, still; why God would allow those already victimized to be re-victimized by others (Hagar was a slave already – bad enough, to use her as a ‘gadget’ to console the visions of an extremely old man was additional abuse…); why its common when we are abusing another – or being ourselves abused – to imagine that we retain the right to dictate how the victim responds/reacts/etc (Hagar’s mistreatment of Sarah when she found out that she could have her mistress’ husband’s child where her mistress couldn’t was probably her finally finding a way to vent the sorrow of her state); why when in need we tend to objectify/dehumanize those ‘who would replace God as Source’ -and justify both sins; why God would have us remain/go back to and continue to endure situations that were inhumane to say the least in the hope a future that was better; and finally why none of the three was condemned, at least not in scripture, for this plan… I think I grieve for every woman and child that was listed in the Bible that endured abuse because it was culturally acceptable. Then.

I wondered also why God would bring a child in this situation. All three people in this mix were wounded…broken…why trust them with a child. It brought me to the power of covenant – agreement and to the words of Jesus Christ later – “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about ANYTHING you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.’ MATHEW 18:19.

I found out that I cannot out-righteous God. God will not violate covenant, not because He is powerless to do so, but because He cannot go against Himself. In His Time. WHATEVER WE AGREE ON. These three agreed that they would have a baby…and God honored this. BUT THERE WERE CONSEQUENCES, EXTREMELY PAINFUL FOR ALL THREE. And to us in this age.

It’s important to watch what you say ‘Amen’ to [Jeremiah 27:14-15]. I am learning that God punishes, yes that word, PUNISHES, those that walk in agreement to false prophesies/scandals/stories etc. When He says He is going to do something for me, for us, a certain way, a certain time and we go ahead and try help Him by saying or doing something OUTSIDE HIS COUNSEL, there are consequences. Consequences which sometimes seem unrelated to the issue…but are intrinsic to it. It is important to guard what you listen to…especially that- WHAT. Many godly associations, dreams, projects, etc. have been destroyed because we listen, and agree to covenant towards a certain direction. To associate or disassociate. To leave God out of the plan. But as my friend Anne Gichina reminded me earlier today ‘GOD IS IN THE DETAILS’. We imagine Him absent then cry later when He allows us to experience what it would be like if He COULD BE absent…by the way He CANNOT be absent ANYWHERE we go. And we ask ourselves ‘WHY WONT GOD DO SOMETHING TO WORK THIS OUT MY/OUR WAY?’ He remains THE WAY we discarded for this one…

May His Mercy find us in this place.

Shalom.

“Do not listen to and believe the words of the [false] prophets who are saying to you, you shall not serve the king of Babylon, for it is a lie that they prophesy to you. For I have not sent them, says The LORD; but they are prophesying falsely in My Name. [It will only end when] I will drive you out to perish together with the [false] prophets who prophesy to you.“

Jeremiah 27:14-15

vipadhiambo@gmail.com

Circling Your Stubborn Enemies with Focused Worship

_{This is a post I shared on one of my Facebook pages ‘Homes and Nations – House of Prayer’ over ten years ago. I just realized I didn’t share it here. God continues to amaze me by how He uses lessons He taught me years ago, to move me forward in the present. This has also helped me when I read prophecies that at the point in which He spoke them to me, seemed time specific, but actually speak to my now. His Mind is not like ours. May ours rise to become like His. Be blessed as you partake with me.}

First written on March 13, 2012

About two years ago, I visited a church with my friend Roselyn and her mom. I quickly got involved in the worship and God began to minister to me through a vision. [I think I have shared this on my personal profile as Vip Ogola, but God has been speaking new things about that incident.] Let me tell you about the vision.

‘I was standing before a woman, beautiful, though her face was not too clear. Her hair was braided or in dreadlocks, and she seemed kind of elevated, in flowing red robs that constantly seemed to be blowing. I cant remember feeling any wind but it seemed windy just by looking at her. [i know…I am using the word ‘seemed’ a lot here but bear with me]. It seemed to me that she was standing on my pathway…in the way to my destiny. She had this hue of gold around her that seemed to emanate from within her. And that though she seemed fragile even, there was a silently strong power within her that controlled my ability to move forward. I began to declare the Word of God against her, frantically. A fear and pain knotted scratchily within my heart and belly. And I shouted more, she stood confidently and calm on my path. Smiling at me through eyes that seemed gentle but reminded me of a lizard, crocodile or a snake. Dark, loathing. As though she knew that there was nothing I could do to move her. Suddenly I felt in the physical, a pressure in the palm of my hand. A weight almost 2 kilos, and this weight began to lift my hands. My heart lifted beyond my vision of her, and began to worship God. And just like that, she disappeared. My path was clear again.’

I have on several occasions shared this and each time I do, a new revelation is placed, for the season am in. Even now, God is speaking a new thing…connecting this with something that happened in the past but I cannot share until I have His words to do so. Well, this week, my children Leroy and Shukri and I were having our devotions and God led us to the book of Joshua. Which is the theme of this week’s fasting prayer for our homes and nations. Joshua 2: 8-16, 4:1, 5:1 and 6 have been particularly significant. 40 years ago, Israel had opted to die in the desert rather than trust God with regard to conquering the land. They feared the occupants of the land and the land itself, believing themselves to be too small in their eyes. Rahab, and the kings in Canaan however give us a different story; they had heard about God’s exploits in the desert on behalf of His chosen race and it terrified them that this extremely large nation was headed their way. The Israelites, the warriors that had been liberated from Egypt wasted away in a wilderness for 40 years, and it was only after God had ridded His people of the evidence of doubt in Him [which am learning is extremely repugnant to Him] could He now begin again with a new generation – save for the remnant: Joshua and Caleb.

So God again causes His priests to stand in the gap and let Israel pass by. Here I need to say that those few of us, 12 perhaps who will stand in faith of The Living God, and believe Him for the healing and deliverance of our homes and nations would be enough to hold up the waves headed our way to destroy us and keep us from inheriting that which God has lovingly extended our way. Is there anyone who would risk they all to stand in the gap on behalf of your land? On behalf of your home? As I prayed through this passage, the crossing of the Jordan River, I believed that everything, every issue that I had been praying about that concerned others would cross over from slavery to freedom and have a fighting chance to this inheritance if those it concerned would themselves step out in faith.

Then there was the circumcision – the decision to allow ourselves to be indelibly marked by God as His own…before we head to chapter 6 and the saga of Jericho. I don’t know if like me, it looks like God has made you vulnerable in the eyes of your enemies who seemed so safe in their high towers? I am speaking to those of us who have prayed, trusted and yet find themselves again somewhat disadvantaged, having to go through re-consecration, and feeling like this would give the enemy unfair advantage over them? Do not worry, God blesses your choice to obey Him even when you do not understand it. His particular strategy. The kings were in hiding even though Israel did not know it. Do not be afraid – this trial/temptation/discomfort is of God. He is in control even though it seems nothing like it. Many have sent messages to me this week about not being able to pray, and asking me to pray with them. I have been non-committal, because of what God was saying to me about the situation. That we must all bear the circumcision, That we must all re-ally ourselves to Him. That it is He Who has held the stone flint knife against our innermost and most intimate and protected parts. And that He will keep us there for the four days it takes to heal us. Remember Zacharias the friend of Jesus who remained in the tomb four days till all hope was gone? You and I must remain within the will of God, even when it seems to hurt us because He will come, sometimes weeping, but healing and resurrection is within His Nature. He is coming. Just submit to the knife. His Hand is the Hand of the Surgeon not the murderer.

Then I asked Him…what was it about going around Jericho those 7 times…the first 6 silently? I needed a word for the place am in. A word to share with my children, Leroy and Shukri, and the ones who call me Mami about this place…this tall order. We are healed. We are restored to Him. But what He is saying to us belongs to us, is still a big deal. We have been firmly shut out. And the hostility and animosity within the place He has sworn is ours is fact. Yet He says to us, go to that place…and then just begin to circle it. Don’t take a battle stance yet, just blow the vuvuzela/trumpets/shofar and lift up the evidence of your testimony and go round it. One lap. Then go home and rest. Then tomorrow do the same. and the four days after tomorrow. Just obey me. I asked God, what was that about. Nothing changed those six days. The hostile, fearful, deadly enemies were still above us as we took a stroll around them; declaring Whose we are and worshiping Him for Who He is. He said to me. “There are things that still need to be broken in you that are broken only in such circumstances. Your dependence on your intellect. Your pride at what God has done just for you :). Your crowns, victories won. Your knowledge of the enemy, his powers and tactics and how useless yours is against his. Your tendency to rebel against Me when you are afraid, when you have evaluated a situation through your knowledge, experience and the experience of others. Your distrust for My Word and Instruction and your tendency to go to the devil for his opinion of what I have said to you.” God reminded me that I am not focused if there was no internal and external challenge to try it. I would know that the battle is won, when I learnt to focus on worshiping Him, on His revealed nature. By keeping my enemies aware that I had them circled in my worship of Him

I guess by the end of day 6 the worship did not even feel adequate to Israel. They could do it all in one day for the freedom it gave them. Nothing had changed but everything had. They had laid down every earthly shackle that kept them from true worship and had received from God the ability to soar above the challenges that had kept them in submission. And when they worshiped Him in Spirit and in Truth and lifted their voices in victory, they found that the walls, high towers, and the ‘powerful enemies’ had been an illusion before The Truth of the Might of The Almighty God.

This week my counsel to myself and all those seeking prayer is to circle their inheritance with worship. What has God promised you? What has He said is yours? Stop focusing on the hindrance, focus on Your God and worship Him without addressing the issue but calling Him by the Name that covers your need. e.g. Do you need healing – His Name is Jehovah Jireh. Also remember with thankfulness the works He has done in your life before. Sincerely. There are no guarantees [remember Joshua 5:13-14]…except that You will be closer to Him then than you feel now, because you would have pleased God. That alone is a major victory. And that whoever tries to restore in you that which God has destroyed will pay a hefty price for it. Joshua 6:26

s/he who has ears….

shalom.

vipadhiambo@gmail.com

He Spoke But Its Not Showing

Perhaps God spoke over that issue – to you – quite some time ago. You were minding your business, examining the skies, your prospects and HE CAME TO YOU. HIMSELF or sent someone. YOU HAVE EVEN been anointed for it. And TIME, TESTING TROUBLE and TALK has happened on it, but you cannot just let it go. You KNOW GOD SPOKE TO YOU – but there is a little challenge; THERE IS NO EVIDENCE, IMPACT, VISIBLE OUTCOME. No one else heard it. Others claim to have heard or know different. And God has not made manifest what He said over you. And you are now both THE EPITOME OF ‘Suspicious’ and a ‘Suspect’: Targeted for grave harm. It might help a little, to know that YOU ARE IN GREAT COMPANY. Ask Abraham. Ask Noah. Ask Joseph. Ask King David. Ask the Prophets. Ask the Apostles. Ask Jeremiah….ask Jeremiah.

““From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, THIS IS THE TWENTY-THIRD YEAR IN WHICH THE WORD OF THE LORD HAS COME TO ME; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened.”

Jeremiah 23:3

The thing is… YOU are responsible for that word. To live it out. To deliver it exactly as you receive it. Not the edited or abridged version. To live it. You won’t go back to God and tell Him that you let go because someone who was not there pushed you greatly to let it go. Live THE WORD. Its BATTLE. And yes, sometimes great harm comes to you because of it. BUT IT IS MORE COSTLY, MUCH MORE, TO SHUN AND DISREGARD WHAT GOD SAID TO YOU, BECAUSE IT WAS NOT WELL RECIEVED BY OTHERS – EVEN THE ONES FOR WHICH IT WAS INTENDED. Remember, GOD IS NOT NERVOUS ABOUT SILENCE – HE DOES NOT JUST SPEAK FOR THE SAKE OF IT. HE IS NOT an idle chatter. HE SPEAKS VERBS (ACTIONS, STATES, OCCURENCES – i.e. Doing Words). In the MEANWHILE, you may just have to take COMFORT IN THE FACT THAT – HE TRUSTED YOU WITH THAT WORD.

P.S. And its VERY NORMAL for others NOT ACCEPT what God has said to you – and MARK YOU AS FOOLISH OR WORSE FOR DOING SO.

Shalom

” But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Jesus Christ in Luke 11:28

#March2023#comeandsee#InHisPresence#BeholdIAmComingSoon

vipadhiambo@gmail.com

Come and See

vipadhiambo@gmail.com

Minding The Kingdom of God

When you are busy, furtively, in your extensively futile #sidehustle of developing a marking scheme to…errrrr…’weigh’ towards disqualifying …anyone and everyone who doesn’t meet YOUR CRITERIA AND UNDERSTANDING OF BELONGING TO GOD…from their called-out position and God uses just one verse to tell you to mind your own business and let Him handle His children:

“Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” John 21:22

#EnterHisRest#RestFromFutility

And then He adds, just in case I did not fully understand the above – which He knows I did

“‘This is what The LORD says –

the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:

concerning things to come,

do you question me about my children,

or give me orders about the work of my hands?

It is I who made the earth

and created mankind on it.

My own hands stretched out the heavens;

I marshalled their starry hosts.

I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:

I will make all his ways straight.

He will rebuild my city

and set my exiles free,

but not for a price or reward,

says The LORD Almighty.’”

Isaiah 45:11-13

Ahem…let me just go this way and seek His Mind and Heart about how to be ABSOLUTELY yielded as I follow Him today…and mind my OWN business as He defines it. I rest .

Shalom

#NimepewaShuguliz

vipslit@yahoo.ca