Brain Bursting Slander

So… something happened this morning . Or rather last night, but I did not find out till this morning. God kept me in perfect peace as I tried to resolve it, and scripts went around and round my head over who was to blame…I suspected malice. And there is that feeling when you have been ‘_maliced_’ that just wants to pay back. It’s a ‘sweet’ feeling…tickling somewhere in your core, but promising extreme bitterness and torture if you don’t just…exhale, vent and destroy someone else as you do. It came…that feeling…and I tried to resist it as I spoke to our court guards…etc…it was a security matter of a domestic nature . Social justice matter. I held down as long as I could…made about ten phone calls…then I heard my mouth open noisily like an ancient heavy and rusted metal door…and even more noisily emit ‘hot Lavea’ from ‘the center of the earth’. Hell itself. Akiiii Almighty God and Father of mine, please forgive me. Am so sorry. Noteworthy though, is that my plight seemed to make little impact on my audience while the words were gentle, but when the pong escaped my soul…now EVERYONE WAS INTERESTED…IN THE SIDE STORY . They gladly swallowed the defilement, when they could have initially helped me by drinking and proffering fresh waters my way.

Image by <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/…/hand-drawn-head-exploding…“>Freepik</a>

I remembered last night’s Bible Study. How Isaiah 6:1-7 had caught my heart and mind. That same-same core that was being tickled incessantly this morning. A few hours later. How God showed me that when I am truly in His Presence, He shows me things about myself…things that He doesn’t like…but does not leave me that way. He sent searing help to me quick-quick. For Isaiah and for me this morning…I needed to be purged with coal from Heaven’s altars, applied to my tongue. Oh LORD God, The Living One, The Eternal Commander of Heaven’s hosts – please forgive me. I thought my head would burst if I didn’t say something nasty about this…but I realize that I have risked more than that in even speaking about it as I did. I broke Your Heart, and Your trust in me with this, that was actually going to be a platform for Your Glory…if I left it all unspoken. I repent.

Shalom.

vipslit@yahoo.ca / vipadhiambo@gmail.com

“”In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw The LORD sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is The LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His Glory!”

And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

So I said:

“WOE IS ME, FOR I AM UNDONE!

BECAUSE I AM A [WO]MAN OF UNCLEAN LIPS,

AND I DWELL IN THE MIDST OF A PEOPLE OF UNCLEAN LIPS;

FOR MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE KING,

THE LORD OF HOSTS.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said:

“Behold, this has touched your lips;

Your iniquity is taken away,

And your sin purged.””

Isaiah 6:1-7 NKJV

Dissent at The Point of Labor

I saw this picture though, and just smiled to myself. If you know, you know. But the knowing goes beyond physical maternal health; to the spiritual and just about every realm in which we have labored hard, painfully, and too long. Or even shortly, vigorously, with maddening intensity. Our journeys differ. I viewed it with sad humor…both intense – the sadness and the humor. I remembered being in labor after several months of pregnancy…each with its own story for another day. Each a miracle, just to get to that point of birthing, because science had emphasized that I would never be able to have children. Twice. (And… are currently trying again to prevent it from ever happening again, because of ‘matters arising’ and the miracle of a cycle that has refused to submit to the natural wear and tear of some decades and a half 😇😉🙃)

But…I will handle this from a spiritual perspective. We carry a divine conception…first that we could be chosen to be Family with The Living God…His Bride, His Children, His Brothers…IS in itself miraculous. [ok…here…I ‘dissolve myself’ in ululations directed at The Throne and The ETERNAL Occupant.] Oh that always is a thrill for me. Then that…HE COULD TRUST YOU AND ME…knowing how we are…could trust us with ANYTHING Kingdom… BUT THAT HE DOES. AMAZING STUFF. So incredulous that the ‘company of witnesses’ that know us well, or think they do from the bits and pieces of us they have been witness to, vigorously fight the call. NO. NO. NO. This CANNOT BE GOD – they say…etc. etc. And when we sit back sometimes and think of it, for what it costs us, where The Wind that is God blows us sometimes…to land in excruciating, perplexing places…we concur, a little bit, with the chorus of the unbelieving.

We are on delivery beds – our feet strapped us to enforce a stillness that would allow for God now to be God. To proclaim Life or Death. And we wiggle free, seeking the comfort we knew before the conception…seeking to be free…unencumbered…because we fast forget at such times…how the burdensome the journey before this time was….

We try to pack our bags…but we forget that the company of those we knew previously are now faded from the spotlight…and in their stead, according to The Wisdom of The Commander of Heaven’s hosts, are a faithful heavenly Maternal Health Support group, including Himself – our ETERNAL BABY DADDY…ready to help you through and past this final push. They bring us, sometimes not so gently, back to that place of stillness. Our feet strapped up, and what we hide from everyone else, open to all witnesses – ONLY in this place of birthing. A select group of witnesses. Active witnesses. Mostly positive witnesses. What are trying to run from, because it is suddenly too uncomfortable to step forward. Yield and hang up your feet to The Hands of God. We will get through this.

Shalom.

“But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.” BUT WE ARE NOT OF THOSE WHO SHRINK BACK AND ARE DESTROYED, BUT OF THOSE WHO HAVE FAITH AND PRESERVE THEIR SOULS.“
Hebrews 10:38-39

*No rights to this picture btw.

vipslit@yahoo.ca / vipadhiambo@gmail.com

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

EX ME

I hear a lot about narcissism referring to OTHER PEOPLE. (Let’s be honest – sometimes it’s simply a case of the initial/stronger/louder/more regular narrator of the tale owning the narrative – but am learning that there are many sides to a story. Even the ones I like to tell.) It could be true ALL THE TIME…and that what they put you through is unforgivable. But when I personally get to this place, I ask myself (mostly after wailing, raving and ranting) who the nicest person I know is…and if I have ALWAYS treated HIM as He deserves. What would God say about ME if He had to FACTUALLY share the story of US.

Ahem…I am an ex to MANY people. Ex-relative, ex-colleague, ex-friend, ex-classmate, ex-student, ex-congregant, ex-tenant, ex-neighbor, ex-roomie which sometimes embraces the more scandalous – ex-lover…many times over. Numerically and situationally (I don’t take endings and signs of these without a proper war). Some, I have forgotten, but hopefully not the good and bad lessons I learnt while entering, living or exiting these.

We try, and sometimes our authenticity or fear of the same, brings out the worst in those we really love…or really want to Love. Forgive. Sometimes, many times over, what we need is beyond the ability of the other person to provide. They need divine armory – fully loaded but are not yielded enough to even know what to do with what’s available. It’s ok. They will grow. Sometimes ELSEWHERE. FAR AWAY FROM WHERE YOU ARE PROBABLY.

God remembers daily that He created me from the rib of a dust-man (who…ahem…is probably yet to wake up to find me either sprawled or well arranged -soft, perfumed, ‘properly toned and curved’ – by his side ). His Grace is Reset daily for me – and that’s the standard that He calls me to set up for those He entrusts in relationship with me. My enemies, my ex’s and my currents…there is fruit He expects to find when He comes inspecting (for peksen). Let Him find in me a Hybrid of Love and Forgiveness…to His Standards. Unabashedly. Am moving on, forgetting the former things…and embracing…BIGGER, without yesterday’s baggage.

I am not God’s ex – thankfully – but what really is His Story of us? Ahem.

#Reset#LivingInHisPresence

vipslit@yahoo.ca

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

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

The Ancient Chewing Herbivorous Pardoned, Redeemed and Empowered

It’s February 2023 ! And you and I made it! EBENEZER!!! I don’t know what the giant or mountain or valley in your path was or has been; but am so glad you are here this day. God is Faithful.

I was talking to a friend of mine a few minutes ago. An exceptional person, a brilliant writer among her myriad areas of giftedness. She was passing on an opportunity to me and I sought to know if she had attempted it. Anyway, one thing led to another and during this conversation, God reminded me of Joshua…and the validity of his call, and God’s command to him to lead Israel across the Jordan, on the 5th or even 29th of the 40 years after they rebelled in fear of Giants. They had defined themselves as roaches…but God, Joshua and Caleb KNEW that EVEN IF THIS WAS AN APT DEFINITION OF THEM, they had one thing the other guys did not have: They had on their side the VERY MANUFACTURER OF GIANTS. Anyway, my thoughts were about Joshua, not Israel in this. And about my friend, and mostly about me.

All those things we think about ourselves may be FACTUAL. I mean, you have tried…and tried…and spoken…and declared…and even believed God…but that barrier on your path has stayed put. You have considered and become convinced of the possibility that you would NEVER CROSS OVER to the other side – that of FAVOR. We are a company of many on that spot…from time to time. Those that beat laps around other places that they have not been led to, fearing the short sprint across to where they are supposed to be. Were supposed to be decades ago. For those gatekeepers that they would find there, and their antics and shenanigans…and how this would reveal you – to the world – for the ancient chewing herbivorous that you ‘have always known you are’. The unending disgrace and possibly worse. BUT GOD.

Have you considered The Living God? There is NONE like He Who calls you forth. Who tells you that it can be done – and that YOU ARE HIS CHOICE FOR THIS. The CHOICE OF THE ETERNAL AND LIVING GOD. Who has had centuries of experience being God over….EVERYONE that has EVER BEEN CREATED. Not just you. He made them…ALL OF THEM. Even the ones around you that seem better endowed. But although they have their own paths in Him – glorious no less – His Eyes are on you for this one. ‘Warts and all’. So, tear down those garments that previously defined you as incapable and pour ashes on the repulsive glow of reproach by which the forces of darkness identify you as a push-over and take on The Mantle of Christ – The Eternal Conqueror. Go forth in the Strength that you have – The Might of God Himself and conquer.

This February, my prayer for all of us ‘beating laps’, is that we enter into The Presence of God, and look upon Him, KNOW HIM, and within that place of INTIMACY, to HEAR HIM, and THEN without leaving His Presence, just go BE where/who He would have you be. Even if it’s been decades since your call, there was a minute when the floods of Jordan created a path for a whole nation to BECOME. There was an army whose ancestors ‘WERE human GRASSHOPPERS’, but who, when they dared believe that they were who God said they were, INDOMITABLE, they stepped forth, and in doing so, they shook their world. Their God then, is YOUR GOD NOW. There is a loud rattling of the bones of dead armies being spoken into life – and making nothing of the things that stood in relentless defiance of the Word and Might of The Eternal God. You are IN that army. You ARE THAT army.

Have a triumphant month beloved of God.

Shalom.

#InHisPresence#HisPresenceMyPleasure#Overcomers#Conquerors#ArmiesofTheLivingGod#ElGibor#YHWHSaabbaoth#DeadWomanAlive

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

FOCUSING ON GOD’S POWER

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His Right Hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.”

Ephesians 1:18-23

Ok… I could live on the AMAZEMENT of Ephesians 1, but let me focus. God’s Power. The Power of The Living God that He HAS SET ASIDE/APART/IN TRUST/FOR US BECAUSE WE DARE BELIEVE HIM . And that POWER makes POWERLESS any other power or conglomerations of powers that try to come against The imprint of His in us.

From the very beginning and constantly through Scripture, and in His direct relationship with those that were caught up in Faith in Him, even for a moment, The Almighty God – do we even understand what that Name of His implies – ALL POWER IS HIS. EVERYTHING ELSE THAT PARADES ITSELF AS POWER IS A SHAM IN COMPARISON, BECAUSE THERE IS NO COMPARISON #HALLELUJAH .

Ok back to the thought I was on…The Almighty God, from the beginning, has promised and given those that believed, elevated them into dominion over every thing that’s sets itself up to mock His power in them. Even when they don’t know that this Power is available to them. The demonic trick is to disable your ability to connect with GOD’S POWER SO THAT YOU ALWAYS SUBMIT TO THAT WHICH IS INFERIOR and live a life that is mediocre in that it isn’t what God created you to live.

Another is to EQUATE GOD’S POWER WITH OTHER POWERS SO IT MANIFESTS AS A CONTINUAM OF OTHERS NOT AS A SEPARATE INCOMPARABLE PHENOMENA. And that’s where we are often trapped… power manifests for someone a certain way, and suddenly that’s the ONLY way we think God can operate for us. And everyone else. I can think of several examples but one or two that people use within their own dictionaries is ‘what do you have in your hand/house?’ ‘those who don’t work should starve to death’ – while defining work as something akin to their hustle, or that of anyone else’s that is in conformity to theirs. i.e. what God called the ones who believe Him to do is not work but errrr…a hobby, entertainment… So what happens to the ones without hands and houses? Is God limited to creating something from ONLY that which is already in existence? And WHO GETS TO LIMIT HIM TO THAT? Me? You? Bosses? Kings? Others? God forbid!!!!

He has done things that way before, may be doing things that way and will probably do so in the future, but that’s NOT HIS ONLY WAY. He remains UNCHANGEABLY ALPHA AND OMEGA – THE BEGINNING AND THE END. MEANING, what He did in the beginning, speak order and excellence into that which was dark and formless, He HAS NOT LOST THE ABILITY TO DO NOW… IN ANY PLACE WHERE DARKNESS, FORMLESSNESS AND DISORDER EXISTS. And beyond these boundaries.

Back to the scripture quoted above – am asking myself this question this morning, what/who of mine, is in hell literally and symbolically today? What battle have I lost to darkness, that seems sealed and settled there? God, in His Fullness, in that Might/Power that He makes available to you WHEN YOU BELIEVE – not when you dare Him , we are not His equals/superiors to dare Him – is able, and had already removed someone from Hell to Heaven. Oh as I write this I hear in my spirit a rumbling that terrifies and yet comforts and settles. #HalleluJah .

What of yours is in Hell that you can believe Him to relocate to Himself? Oh God forbid that you and I would then go back to thinking that anyone/anything else could determine anything over us in Faith. Don’t go back into perdition – let’s march into our salvation.

Shalom

“God has spoken once,

Twice I have heard this:

That POWER belongs to God.”

Psalm 62:11

vipslit@yahoo.ca