Message for Sunday the 2nd August 2015

Theme: Refreshing from the effects of heat
Topic: Identifying the Enemy’s heat and dealing with it
Minister: Alero Nanna
When a person experiences symptoms of infirmity, on his or her visit to a doctor, the first thing the doctor does is to identify the underlying cause of the person’s medical problems because failing to do so can lead to a misdiagnosis and therefore a wrong treatment that could be fatal in some cases. This same situation is true with life generally. Most of the time for instance people point at others as the source of their particular problems without bothering to identify what role they may have played in bringing themselves under the heat of the enemy. This is so because the enemy can only get as far as we permit him. However, sometimes your situation may be as a result of the trial of your faith but before the enemy can get the go ahead, you must have let him mostly by your fears, ignorance or personal utterances. See Job 3:25-26, Hosea 4:6, Prov.18:21 and Matthew 12:37.
In light of the foregoing, let us see some situations that point at the heat of the enemy. Let me say here that whatever the cause of heat, beginning this month, you shall recover and you shall be ready to bounce back to life in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Recurring troubles especially when they follow each other closely. Job’s testimony is a very good example as we see in the book of Job.1-2. In Job’s case, he was made vulnerable by his fears. However, the adversary did not come at him because of his sin but because he was righteous. His claims was that Job did not truly love God but loved all the blessings he received from God but God knew Job and was willing to take a bet on Him and as usual, God was right and Satan was wrong. At the end, God gave Job double for his troubles. This month, you shall begin to receive double for your troubles.
Unexplainable demonstrations of animosity from envious neighbours, friends and family. A good example of this was the testimony of Joseph in Genesis 37-41.
Persistent sicknesses without real explanation especially when such sicknesses are tagged terminal like the case of Job. However, God terminated his sickness. In the case of the lepers who encountered Jesus also, their plagues were terminated. Also, in the case of Jairus’ daughter the Lord terminated by raising her from the dead.
Persecutions from different people even when they do not know you just because of your faith. This was the story of Apostle Paul in 2Cor.4. All the early Church fathers were persecuted for their faith and most of them were even killed for believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you try to plant good seeds of love in the life of others and another person comes to sow evil seeds in their lives to make your efforts vain. See the example of the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13.
You can personally identify many more symptoms of the enemy shooting arrows at you in your life. When we see these things, what do we need to do to deal with them?
First, we must identify any access we have given the enemy into our lives like sin, fear, ignorance etc and repent of those accesses and get back on course with God. While repentance would result in instant forgiveness, the process of recovery from the effect of the heat may not be instant depending on what the consequence of our error was. However, your recovery is sure if your repentance is genuine. See the story of David in 2Samuel and see Hosea 4:6
Second, we have to draw nearer to God for His presence to envelope use bringing us the much needed refreshing from the effects of heat. See Ps.16:11 and Acts 3:19. This is so even when there is no known cause of the heat you are experiencing.
Third, you must seek to fill your life with the word of God especially as taught by the Holy Spirit and anointed teachers. The entrance of God’s word would bring the much needed light that would change your status forever. See Ps.119:130; Isa.28:9-12; 30:20-21; 1Tim.4:13-16 and John 6:63
Fourth, pray in the Spirit without ceasing. See 1Cor.14:14-15, Ephe.4:18, 1Thess.5:17 and Luke 18:1.
Finally, change your language and general lifestyles to conform to the ways of God. See Isa.55:8, Deu.19:30, Rom.12:2, Jas.1:22-25, Matthew 7:24-27 etc.

WELCOME TO AUGUST 2015: OUR MONTH OF REFRESHING

Acts 3:19, Isa.28:9-12 and Ps.16:11
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;” KJV.

Refreshing is defined as reviving or reanimating. It is to impart vitality and energy.
As a ministry so far, we have had to do so much in a short while of just six months. God has enabled us to commence a kind of foundation laying exercise in accordance with his next move and this has been tasking and attracted so much attention from our adversary. In spite of all the shots of their archers, we have been helped by the Lord to accomplish all that He set out to accomplish through us so far this year and for that we are very grateful.
This month, God has graciously chosen to revive us after the heats. In fact, our text scripture above in the Amplified Bible Translation is rendered thus:
“So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord;”
From our text it is evident that refreshing happens to three categories of people. They are those who were lost and meet the requirement of the gospel when they hear it preached, those who were saved but living carelessly not bothering about fulfilling their covenant obligations to God and those who are actively fulfilling their obligations and are as a result experiencing heats born out of overcoming conflicts with our enemies. See Ephesians 6:10-12.
To whichever of these categories you belong, I have good news for you. God has come to terminate your heat beginning from this month. He has come to grant us rest for all our stress.
To this end, this month, we shall be looking at “Refreshing from the effects of heat”. We will learn when to identify that you are passing through the heat of the enemy and what to do to overcome it. Then we shall be looking at what we benefit from refreshing and how we can maintain a lifestyle that will guarantee that we are constantly receiving refreshing from the Lord.
Like we have noted above, the first category of people who must be refreshed are those who have not yet made their acquaintance with the Lord even though they have heard the gospel preached several times. Trust me, your struggles will continue as long as you choose to stay away from the Lord. Why would you not rather enter into His rest than keep struggling with sin, fear, sickness and disease, lack and want, poverty and all that goes with it? If you want to take this bold step today, please say the following prayer out loud and you will be saved and commence a journey you will live to be eternally grateful to God for:
Heavenly Father,
Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name!
Amen.
Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewell-beingcentre.  
Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!