Breaking News: The Lord's Chosen Pastor's First son marries on low key

Probably the biggest story this year. The son of the Pastor of the fastest growing church in Africa and arguably the world, Pastor Joshua Muoka gets married today at the International Head quarters of the church in Lagos Nigeria... Pastor Lazarus Muoka is the senior pastor of The Lord's Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries and his son, Pastor Joshua Muoka is the Pastor of the London branch and one of the heads of the church's International missions.

The wedding which held today 26th January comes as a surprise to all who were expecting the wedding to be made public.

It's no small news that the son of the General Overseer of arguably the fastest growing church in the world tied the knot with his heartthrob today in a rather not too noisy setting at the International Head Quarters of The Lord's Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries, Ijesha, Lagos.

Pastor Lazarus Muoka and Sis. Joy Muoka who celebrated their church 16th anniversary in December were seen smiling and giggling at their new extended family during the event that held at the multi-purpose conference hall of the church.

Pastor Joshua Muoka who is also the Lead Pastor of the London branch of the church and International Missions, Europe, is a graduate of Law from a prestigious university in the UK and has since then based in London. His wife however, Sis. Ifunanya Ikefuama is also a graduate of the University of Ibadan.

Today will go down memorable lane in the history of the church as the news has made the rounds that it was a divine union and a dream come true for the founder of the church who has grown in children in the fear of God.

The wedding was modest and simple as you will find in the pictures below.

We celebrate with the couple and the church at large!

See pictures below...

Pastor Muoka Jnr & Sis. Ifunanya

From R-L Mother of the bride Mrs. Ikefuama, Sis. Joy Muoka,
Pst. Muoka, Bride & Groom, Father of bride amongst others

ISOLATION

To be alone; separated from others; far from the chaos outside; withdrawn from the norms; completely unaware of what is happening outside - Totally on your own.

Sometimes in our lives we just want to be alone and far from the crowd, just maybe we could be able to make sense of our environment or the things that shrouds us; maybe we could escape from reality to fantasy for a moment and just feel nothing.

Isolation is good. Once in a while we just take the time off everything and just stay with ourselves, put a few pieces together and see what we can make of it. I believe that God put that feeling in us to get some free air. Jesus did it when he was led to the wilderness. Men have locked themselves up for days trying to get one or more knowledge, find out the secrets to certain things and while some came out with great revelations, some died in Isolation. Why did some die and some live? The motive was the reason. Those who went into isolation to escape reality died but those who went into isolation to grasp reality came out alive.

In the multitude of counsel they say there is safety. When we despise counsel, we move behind that wall of ISOLATION that our minds build for us as a defense against those who might want to play with our imaginations or tamper with our choices. We fail to understand that when we take counsel we do not seem or appear weak but we gather strength from other people’s strength and weakness and make it into a mighty fortress. Those who give us counsel might be strong men and women but some of their counsel show the little weaknesses that they try to overcome that’s where choice comes in, we either choose to take their counsel or we discard them.

In taking counsel, the quality of your counselors can never be overemphasized or underrated. Good counsel can make you a defensed city and bad counsel can make you a heap of ruins. In ISOLATION we have the choice to sieve through all the words we have heard and make do of the best of the best under the influence of choice, will, and purpose. Choice because it’s our lives; Will because it’s our strength and defining ability; Purpose because we have an end and our end should tell of who we really were meant and made to be.

In the order of things, choice comes last, why? because if you have a purpose then there is a will from within to drive your choices.

ISOLATION is a great tool two powers that drive the earth use to make men yield positive or negative results. Whilst one power wants you to come to a full manifestation of your purpose, the other power will not as much as give you the chance to discover your purpose speak less of manifesting it.

Good and Evil exist. In a desperate battle for supremacy, they both live us with just one choice; choose Good and live, choose Evil and lose. Because of the world we live in, Evil rules and thrives more than Good. It seems Good is weaker than Evil but the truth is Evil is in a desperate hurry to end all forms of life while Good is so patient that it is ready to wait years and years just to prove to all that Evil is evil. Evil in itself doesn’t come directly as Evil but takes the form of Good to make it attractive. Why then would Evil use this tactics rather than go straight to the point and be the Evil it knows it is? You want an answer? Here it is, “You don’t like Evil. In fact, you were created to hate Evil”. And since Evil knows you won’t pick him by direct choice, He comes with subtlety, takes your desire and climaxes it like an orgasm and immediately without further thought you jump into Evil with your eyes closed and your mind fixed. Evil promises you what it would take Good years to give you and makes you salivate over a taste of the original package without letting you in on the full package – He won’t give you everything but would only give you a taste of it. Good would let you wait till the right time to give you everything you could ever ask for – He wants you to learn patience and value. Evil doesn’t teach you morals, He makes you amoral and finally immoral – the point when you become a walking destruction.

Evil thrives more when He gets you isolated. Far from reality. Far from rationale. Far from purpose and destructively far from God.

We are the product of our choices. Our lives paint a picture of who we are inside. Our words betray our intentions (those who have gained mastery of evil don’t allow their words to betray their intentions, they have become masters of deceit). Evil doesn’t walk in obvious sight but walks in men who come as friends – unfriendly friends, whose intention is to kill steal and destroy! Sometimes we know and see the signs but our hearts have been bought over by the truthful lies they tell us and we fall like a pack of cards.

We are all faced with a choice to make every single day, down to hour, minute, second and breath-time.

Evil will never attack you when you are with people who want to make the best out of you – Destiny Helpers. He uses the ISOLATION tactics to get you out of the pack that hinders Him from entering. In animal planet, animals that hunt other animals don’t attack a fold. They have a particular target and they do all they can to separate the pack from their target using subtlety, and unaware to the target that he has been isolated, the predator strikes a deathly blow and there goes the once secured target. The prey was insensitive to the signs and it loses its life to the predator and its mates.

This same analogy describes what Evil does to men. He takes you away from others, makes you feel you are the boss of your life, distracts you with the illusion of green pastures and when you have gone deep into self, He strikes and that with no mercy. His aim is to steal, kill and destroy. He steals you away from the presence of God and God’s family on earth and kills your communion with God and His people. Once this is done he has no further thing for you other than to destroy you. Such is the case of men and women who have been driven by their own lusts, their own head knowledge, their own self. Men have pierced themselves with many sorrows. Women have been drawn to damnation because of lust – comfort, pleasure and self-gratification. It’s not wrong to seek these things but when they become your obsession, Evil knows how to make them your path to destruction.

I had a friend who was obsessed with marriage and in her obsession she isolated all forms of counsel and criticism, (criticism is good. If used properly it is a tool, it is so strong a power that you would never know people were giving you – a push to be better). She felt all hated her and wanted nothing good for her. She blocked off all communication with as they call it now, “negative energies”. In the end, it cost her her life and her sun went down before it could even rise. A typical example of sunset at noon day. When her colors were about to be appreciated and treasured she lost it. The tactic was ISOLATION.

Fellowship is not to be toyed with especially in this season. No one can survive in ISOLATION. The body in its intricate form, all parts, nerves, veins, and all that, work for the good of every part of the body – none can do without the other. ISOLATION of one part is the death of that part and subsequently the death of the entire body.

If you wish to be alone for any reason, don’t stay away from others – at least not for long. You might say that this or that person offends you, these or those people make you feel bad, true as it maybe, you must first of all know where you truly belong. In society not everyone is worth associating with and ISOLATION is not the answer. Give no room for Evil to toy with your mind. Get the right company. Get the right fellowship. Get into a relationship with God and walk with those who will brush you up, teach you, reach out to you, stand by you, feel you and help you. ISOLATION is good but for a season to get renewal from God who is your source of life and purpose. Take out time to be alone with God but never skip fellowship with the brethren.

I love you and I pray to be with you forever because we were meant to be ONE even as God the Father is ONE with God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

PRINCE HENRY CHIZOBA CHUKWUNYELUBA
31ST AUG. 2018

WHY DID I GET MARRRIED 2

Marriage is a beautiful thing. There are couples you see and you just love them. Their union can spark up something in you to want to get married. I guess maybe this is why most people want to get married. There's more to marriage than meets the eyes, so if your reason for getting married is because you see some couple appearing like they have everything going for them, I'm sorry, but that is too shortsighted, by now you should have known (if you are married), that there is much more to it.

Marriage is a beautiful thing. My cousin has been in many relationships - of course this is normal for young people; May be we are trying out which is which; who suits me; who can be the other part of me that I crave for; who understands me; who can love me unconditionally; etc. These are possible questions we might ask during relationships. In as much as not every relationship leads to marriage, every relationship should be defined. My cousin at some point would come on SM (social media) and lament how his heart was broken and how his love was trampled. Personally, I felt for him, he's blood you know? Well, it went on till one day he met someone who changed him for good. The first time, I saw them together was at his sister's traditional wedding. Prior to this time he had boasted so much about how she met his emotional needs, (this could be or is another reason for getting married). I saw his glow whenever they were together. She really filled a space deep inside of him.

The better part of this experience is the fact that they met on social media and it is one beautiful story as it is one of the very few places people never believe people could meet and talk about marriage and actually get it done. Most people meet on SM for what it is, social activities but this one has a touch of divinity on it. On the 10th of February, they sealed their union. My cousin danced like he had won a lottery! Oh the joy on his face! No wonder the scriptures said, "he that finds a wife, finds a good thing". I saw it in this relationship. The other phase of this union is just started you know? They have moved from close friends to lovers and then to "man and woman". The real deal is now.

To everyone out there, whatever your reason maybe for getting married or planning or wanting to get married, always take cognizance of the fact that marriage is a beautiful thing. Remember also that marriage requires proper preparation before getting involved. Are you ready to give up yourself for him or her? Are you going to be the one to lay down your pride to curtail certain hidden excesses? Before you get married next Saturday, ask yourself, "Why do I want to get married?" so that you will have a well-defined marriage. I'm no marriage counselor but from me to you, getting your head ready by asking the right questions while in the relationship before you get married is very vital. Because, when you finally get into the marriage ship asking those questions you failed to ask will be too late to ask in the marriage. The marriage ship is one ship that will never dock at any shore except at death's port.

HAPPY MARRIED LIFE NONSO & UGO

I dedicate this blog to everyone who has had his or her heart broken and feels there no one to love them the way they are, most especially the guys who lose good girls because they were broke and to the girls who would not lose their virginity or pride because the man wants to test you. Broh, you will have money and meet the lady who doesn't care about your financial status before saying "I do". And Darling you will met the man who will wait till the wedding night to uncover your hidden treasure in earthen vessels.

 From me to you, I LOVE YOU!

God bless you!

31

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34

               Before I go on to talk about what has been laid in my heart, I would like to share this; I used to grow up liking the name Jeremiah. Back in late primary school and through my secondary school days, I would add Jeremiah to my names. Frankly, I didn’t really know why but it was always so. As I grew, I didn’t see much meanings to the name but for every time I opened my bible to glance a read, it would be Jeremiah. Somehow, I knew there was something about me and the name, so I wrote my name ‘Chizoba’ just beneath the book in my bible.

               Asides the regular and popular lines of the book like, Jere. 1:5, 19; 29:11, 20:9 and more as you know, the entire book gives me the shivers when I read it, why? “It virtually addresses everything about me”; my fears, my doubts, my pains, my present, my past, my future and not just about me but addresses my immediate society/environment. I will tell this story of one of the nights in 2017 when I was lost and in need of direction, I cried sore, I wept bitterly and it was so heavy on me that I could barely speak in prayers. I took my bible and immediately the voice said, Jeremiah, at the mention of Jeremiah, I began to cry more. The voice lead me from scripture to scripture, meeting and tackling each question I asked, one at a time. I left that moment refreshed and renewed.

               When the Spirit of the Lord moves in a man, He gives him purpose and direction. If there is one thing I have pressed for, it is for a mind that is after Jesus and His ways. When I came in contact with the above scriptures, I pitched my tent and prayers on them. There is a season coming and that is the season where God’s Spirit and Word is on the lips of everyone; not in falsity but in sincerity. A season of true manifestation of God’s kingdom. Indeed, God is moving in this generation but my soul, deep within craves for more as though it is yet to start. Deep calls into deep. God is moving, yes, He is doing more. He is raising an army unto Himself. A people totally dedicated to God and not church or denomination. A people who are set to take kingdoms by force and manifest God’s Kingdom here on earth.

Isaiah prophesied it, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel and all the prophets of old spoke of that season. In the New Testament, Jesus brought it to earth and the apostles received it and passed it on till it got to our generation. Jeremiah 31 describes a season in Israel that would not just be for a season but forever! It is coming! I hear the sound of it. Recent news has it that the capital of Israel is moving to Jerusalem! Hallelujah! This is all part of the fulfillment of the Words of God’s prophets for Israel. I being a gentile but now engrafted into the family of God by faith, rejoice that this season has started!

31, today’s date is a special day cos it’s my birthday and more so, it is in line with this scripture and it goes to show that God really has something for us all. It is the end of the year but it is the beginning of a new dawn. My father in the Lord, Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith church, themed Shiloh 2017, A NEW DAWN. To close the year, another father, Pastor Kumuyi themed the December retreat this same year, THE DAWN OF A NEW BEGINNING. It’s not a coincidence, it is divine providence. God is working!

God is putting His spirit in us all, He is revealing Himself to us all, and He is impressing His will for us all on our hearts. In Jeremiah 31, God paints a picture through prophesy of a unique people that would call on God as their father, would not need to be afraid of anything, lack nothing and expand throughout the earth unhindered simply because He has willed to be the God of all the families of Israel. The part that gets me excited is the part where God says, “There will be no need for anyone to teach his neighbor or brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know ME.” In this season, God is building a one-on-one relationship with everyone. We will be so connected that our connectivity level will be at the highest frequency! God will be walking with man and man with God! Further down the scripture He (God) now makes a vow saying, if the ordinances of heaven (sun, moon, seas and its wave), can change or will cease to be then and only then will His words not come to pass!

I have so much conviction of this whenever I write or speak about this prophesy. Why? Because God has spoken it and so shall it be! Nothing would make me happier than when this comes to pass. “GOD ON EVERY LIPS”. Not just the name of God, but a divine knowledge of God in addition to it!

I wish I could give a full description of my feeling right now. I am super-excited that God will do this and it has begun! Thy KINGDOM COME!

EXTRAVAGANT GRACE

Grace is God’s extension of His undeserved goodness to man, a form of amnesty without conditions except that of acceptance of His Son as your Lord and Saviour. Our redemption by His Blood spilled on the cross sets us up for this unmerited favour. His Grace is beyond the sparse of time and unlimited from age to age, timeless and enduring as long as man breathes and Jesus tarries. We don’t qualify for His Goodness but we get that goodness because someone paid the price for it – Jesus.

By rights we are deserved of death but in His Sovereignty and magnanimity He lowered himself to be of no pulchritude so that He could once and for all time give us that which belongs to us by His Divine Exchange where He gave us His Beauty for ashes. One cannot grasp the depth of this Grace. The concise dictionary can only give a human limited meaning to it but it takes a man who has been Graced (Experienced Grace) to tell what it truly means – Grace is undefined to the unrefined.

The Lord Our God, true and just would have judged, in fact has judged and found us guilty but Grace stepped in and said, “There is a remedy.” When all of hell had its grip over all of man, all of God took the form of all of man – Jesus and paid the price once and for all for all men and brought the sacrifice – a worthy and acceptable fragrance before God and said, “IT IS FINISHED!” that was the victory won for all men!

A thousand poems and rhymes will never be fit enough to describe the awesome sacrifice that saw God’s love spread on the cross, redeeming man, turning a woeful sinner to a joyful believer, bridging the gap between the condemned and the Father, breaking the chains and bonds over the neck of men and giving them His liberty wherein He can cry Abba Father! Love so strong that the ancient gates of hell could not stop the rising from the grave of the embodiment of Love – Jesus.

EXTRAVAGANT GRACE,the sound that we want to hear at all times so long as we have breath in us. Boundless Grace. Extreme Grace. Unrestrained Grace. These adjectives can only magnify the term GRACE but the POWER of this GRACE can never be understood. It can never be explained in its totality. If you can explain God, then you can explain GRACE. To know Jesus is to know Grace; not knowledge by study or reading but knowledge by fellowship and communion with Him who has made this Unmerited Goodness available to all of mankind.

The people of God in times past – under the clouds, met with Grace but never lived in Grace. Only a few after the heart of God obtained a limited measure of it but we in this time because of Jesus have met with UNLIMITED GRACE – EXTRAVAGANT GRACE! We have been GRACED! God has broken us with the power of love and our brokenness did not hurt us because it was done with GRACE. We were GRACEFULLY BROKEN! We were then GRACED – adorned with power! The Power of SONSHIP and we can no longer come to His Presence afraid but we come to His Presence with Boldness because OUR HIGH PRIEST and CAPTAIN OF OUR SALVATION has made a way with His Blood spilled for us!

Can we ever cease to tell of His Grace? The adulterer experienced it. The woman at the well drank from it. Zacchaeus got a hold of it. The thief at the cross witnessed it. The devil felt it when Jesus went down to the depths of hell and set the captives free. Saul turned Paul couldn’t resist it. Today we live it. We feel it. We dwell in it. We abound in it. We talk of it. We preach it. We have received it and therefore it has made us, revived us, rescued us, freed us and lifted us from the pit where we could never have come out of into HIS GLORIOUS LIGHT!

I mourn for those who have never had it. I feel for those who have rejected it. I am grieved deep within for those who walked away from it. I pity those who have lost sight of it. I cry for those who have misused it. For those who have trampled and trodden underfoot this MATCHLESS GRACE, oh what sorer punishment awaits you! I compel you today to come receive this GRACE while you may. It is still free as ever. It is still available. It is still unlimited. Come and Experience that GRACE that transformed men from PRODIGAL SONS to MANIFESTING SONS. Come and get a load of the GOODNESS of GOD and THE GLORIOUS RICHES IN CHRIST that endures for all eternity. Come for all things are now ready! No matter who you are! No matter what you’ve done! No matter where you’ve been! No matter what they’ve said! No matter the weight of that sin! No matter the voice of condemnation that keeps ringing in your ears! No matter! No matter!! No matter!!! No matter WHAT!!! COME!!!

COME RECEIVE EXTRAVAGANT GRACE!!!

PERSPECTIVE

"...Who sinned; this man or his parents?" the disciples asked.

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should he revealed/manifest in him." Jesus replied.

(John 9:2-3)

One too many times we as humans and even Christians view things with a perspective that displays how limited we can be over certain things. In the above text from scriptures, the story goes of a man born blind. As at the time, there was practically no other reason why one should he born blind except that there was sin somewhere along the line that lead to the Man being born blind. Medical science hadn't been advanced as at the time to give their long explanations as to why one could be born blind so that was the only explanation.

Our friends in the story; the Disciples had just one thing as a reason for blindness and so did others of their time believe, and that was sin. Now the question they asked Jesus could be out of compassion or curiousity. Compassion in the sense that says, 'what did he do to deserve this?' Curiousity on the other hand to know what exactly went wrong; to either justify the belief that it was sin that lead to it and probably try to know what can be done in order not to allow their sins get to the point where blindness or worse would be the ultimate punishment. (At least they acknowledged the fact that sin had devastating effects). Their question falls into either one of these lines of thought.

What was Jesus's reply?

This is not a matter of who sinned and who didn't. It's not a matter to be deliberated over. It's a matter of divine purpose. There's no earthly justification for his blindness. He was born for this day. He was born for the purpose of manifesting God's power. He was born blind so that through the miracle of his sight being restored fully, the people can believe that there is still God and He has the power to reverse adverse situations and more so that He sent me (Jesus). This blindness is an instrument the Lord wants to use prove a point!

That's PERSPECTIVE!

It takes a divine nature for one to see past human perspective. Jesus was divine and what he saw was not what they saw. What they were seeing was the condemnation but Jesus was seeing solution. They were seeing a problem and failure, Jesus was seeing healing and glory. They were seeing sympathy and justification of the power of sin, Jesus was seeing deliverance from the power of sin. They wanted to give glory to human errors but Jesus was out-rightly rewriting the errors.

The same is amongst us today as Christians. We see a situation and the first thing that comes to us is, "sin". It must be a sin that has caused this to fall upon us. True as it may be, this line of thought is not for those who have been engrafted into the bloodline of Jesus through acceptance of His forgiveness and love. No child of God who has had his mind renewed by the water and the word can see a situation and begin to count his sins (already confessed and forsaken, forgiven and forgotten). Rather, he would see another chance to glorify God. This is the mind of Christ.

Push forward years later after Jesus had died and resurrected, after He had breathed upon them and they had received the Holy Spirit. Peter and John saw a man at the Beautiful gate and instead of deliberating over who sinned and who did not, with all authority Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have I give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk". (Acts 3:6)

How about that for a renewed mind!

The reason why things look the way they look is because we've got our minds still stuck in the old way if thinking. We still think within human limitations. We still carry the old man around and claim we're Christians. Yet at the slightest provocation or situation, we are quick to glorify Satan, sin or that problem. We exalt it so much that even when Jesus steps in to take charge he wouldn't find a space to take glory.

From now onwards God wants you to stop being negative. Stop doubting. Stop fretting. Stop giving Satan glory. Start being positive. Start believing and keep believing. Start loving. Start giving God glory. Jesus is our typical example. The sisters of Lazarus saw death but Jesus saw an opportunity to give God glory. He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God... Father, I thank you this day..." (John 11:4 &41). On so many occasions where one would expect panic, He simply comes out and says, "Thank you Father" or "Father glorify your son, that your son may glorify you". He was always positive even at the point of death. At the cross in pains, He was still positive, giving hope to a dying man who was dying alongside with Him!

The mind of Christ!

I come to a close with this; for everything you see, rather than whine and complain or try to trace your problems to this or that sin, begin to speak positively. Hence you are in the right with God and He is your father, keep the right frame of mind. Never let negativity cast a shadow all over you. “If then you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Set your heart/mind on things above not on things on earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:1-2). Renew your mind. (Rom. 12:2). Remember, when the disciples hadn't received the Holy Ghost they saw things carnally but as soon as they were breathed upon and received the Holy Ghost, their mentality changed. They'd rather heal than look for sin. Forgive rather than retaliate. Die rather than live to fight another day. They became the exact opposite of who they were when they were carnal and began to command such positivity to the point that Peter's shadow began to heal the sick!

Now, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, RECIEVE THE HOLY GHOST!!!

Onyeoma

WE can never cease to tell of his sacrifice on the cross for our Redemption. Jesus paid the Price once and for all time that we may live the life He never lived on earth. Jesus loves you... All He asks for is your heart and your love in return in exchange for eternal life.



Keep The Faith!