‘For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault  with them, he saith,Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when 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 when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not,  saith the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people’ (Hebrews 8:7-10). If you have a problem with something and then you hire people to get the things done, yet it is not working, surely there is something that is not been done right. When things are not working out and you confess the Word of God, God starts to show you hidden things. Paul says in the scripture “…I find then a law,that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin’ (Romans 7:21-25). How did he get out of this struggle? Especially as it was with the mind he was going to serve God. Paul discovered therefore that there was a way he could use his mind. The difference in men has never been a function of what is on the outside rather it has always been the quality of the individual’s mind. For a person to fulfill their potential, he must realize the tool that God has given for His power to be made manifest. The tool God has given to us is our mind and the mind should never be blinded. You may think that you may not have the chance of becoming all you want to become and it maybe the way you are trained,for an instance been the family structure you come out of.The Jews have something they tell their children when they talk to them about their history. They do not just tell the stories, they talk to them in a way that stimulates them to think in a particular manner and be solution driven. This is because there is always away out of challenges so they are engrained early in life  the notion that God will work through their minds. We learn that we are products of whatever beliefs we give mind to. There is a joke that goes thus: When God announced that in eight days the flood was coming a catholic priest came and announced “come and confess your sins so you would die and go to heaven” The Buddhist said the flood is coming in eight days; we should meditate and purify our souls in other to make heaven …”The Jew came and made the same     announcement but with a twist. He said “God is good, He has given us a least eight days to find out how to live on water” meaning in the situation other people saw death looming, the Jew saw a new way of using his mind; They tell their children ‘when any challenge comes, it is God giving you the opportunity to learn a new way’. For a person to fulfill that, there needs to be a development in character, changes in behavioral pattern, which he unhesistantly throws himself upon using the tool of his mind so as to assume a dominant attitude. What does it really mean to use the mind? The bible says in Proverbs 13:23 “Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is he that is destroyed for want of judgment” When you find yourself in a precarious situation, instead  of saying the wrong things, go to God in heartfelt prayer like the bible says “Jesus in the days of his flesh cried unto Him that was able to save Him from death” (Hebrews 5:7) and God will save you. Do not put up a front before God, rather pray from your  heart that ‘God, without you, there is no way out here, save me from this situation’.

In praying also ask God to open your eyes, like when Paul prayed that ‘God might give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened’ as He prayed it for the church at Ephesus, because he knew that was the key to power. Once you get the eyes “opened”, then resurrection power is going to work. Finally, understand also when you pray that you do not know what God will do until He shows you; do not pre-empt Him because you initially went with your our ideas and it did not work. This means you do not know or have a way out, so just ‘acknowledge Him in all your ways and do not lean on your own understanding’ but pray for a supply of the Spirit of wisdom  that will come into your heart.

‘Pastor Poju Oyemade