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| Former Eyptian President Hosni Mubarak |
By
EvangelistBee
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Twitter@evangelistbee
It all started on the 25th January 2011. Everyone thought it was a joke. This cannot be happening here too. It just happened in Tunisia. It was harmless. It was small. It looks like a child’s play. However, it took a life of its own. In a week it became something else. I took more notice, the day Anderson Cooper, the CNN’s wonder journalist was attacked at Tahir’s square. After that day, CNN relocated him. He has been everywhere and his hair distinguishes him and makes him visible. He was in Haiti when the earthquake struck. He was in Louisiana when the oil spill got to gargantuan proportion. However this was tough for him too and we saw more of Hala Gorani after. Once it got to that level I knew there would be no going back. This scenario played out in Egypt when the populace – the youths started protesting for change. They were asking for the past to move. The past wanted to stay. This thing called thePAST confuses me at times. When is the past truly the past? How do you know when to move on?
King Belshazzar in the book of Daniel saw an handwriting on the wall – in broad day light. He could not decipher it until Daniel showed up to interpret it. What was written summarizes my fears about the PAST and when to stay and fight or to move on.
Dan 5:25-28(CEV) The words written there are mene, which means "numbered," tekel, which means "weighed," and parsin, which means "divided." God has numbered the days of your kingdom and has brought it to an end. He has weighed you on his balance scales, and you fall short of what it takes to be king. So God has divided your kingdom between the Medes and the Persians.
May we not fall short by God’s standard!
Egypt and Mubarak’s story got me thinking deeply. It humbled me. I pick inspiration from the most unlikely places. I have tried all my adult life to feed on information. A man who do not know cannot plough. A man without data – current and fresh will become dated very soon. I asked questions. Why? Why did it get to this level before Mubarak left? This is a model we can all learn from. Why did he not see it coming? Thirty years is enough to know that the past has gone and that the generation has changed yet he did not see it. What do you see? I did not say what are you looking at? I mean what are we really seeing even when we look? You can look and not see? God help us.
Mar 8:24 And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.
Jesus prayed for a blind man who saw men walking as trees. He had to give him a second dose of the Unction so he can see well!
Mar 8:25 After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.
You will see clearly this year in Jesus Name.
Whatever it is that was behind Mubarak’s thinking and the veil that covered his sight from seeing the need for change before it came is the same thing that affects all of us? That same veil, that same mental block causes us not to know that it is time. The time to change the way we should do business, relate with our spouses, handle our kids. I remember those days with nostalgia that I can command my kids anyhow. Now that they are teenagers, I now have to negotiate even though firmly but the style has to change. We have to stop living in the past with the way we handle our spiritual life. It has stop! Or else the past will catch up with us. The prodigal son left it late! I pray it will not be too late for you.
Luk 15:14 He had spent everything, when a bad famine spread through that whole land. Soon he had nothing to eat.
Yesterday is in the tomb, tomorrow is in the womb, today is what we have. Yesterday is gone. Today is almost gone but it’s what you have now. Maximize it! Reset your bearing from the past to the future. Mubarak’s responses when the crisis started confirmed classical symptoms of people who still live in the past for us to learn from. The main symptom of people who do not know that the time for change has come is that they live in denial. Denial causes premature death. Denial causes unplanned exit. Exit is not the problem-not planning for it is the dilemma. Denial is a weight with a rope tied to a man in the sea of life – He will sink as far as the weight stays. Denial causes a blind spot. Denial makes a man sees only what he wants to see not what he needs to see. However, the secret of great men is to see all scenarios objectively and take rational divinely inspired decisions. The height (the depth might be a better word actually) of Mubarak’s denial was manifested in his statements. The scripture says,
Luk 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
He said that if He resigns, there will be chaos in Egypt. What chaos? Chaos was there already. He did not see it. He could not see it. His software was running on MS-DOS which was available in the early eighties when he took over power. Everybody around him now uses Windows 7. He can’t even handle windows 7 because his hard drive is 128MB when his youths are using 850GB. He was blindsided with Power- with control and affluence. Just like Lot’s wife. She was so “into” life in Sodom and Gommorah that she cannot imagine another life. She froze up and became a mini factory of salt. Jesus cried out on this issue centuries after she left the sin when he said - Remember Lot's wife- Luk 17:32. When its time to leave the past you must follow instructions –
“And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.” Gen 19:17
If you cannot see it, you cannot respond to it. Classic denial makes you use the data and facts of ten years ago as if they just gave it to you. We are not contending with you. We are not arguing with you. We know ten to twenty years ago you were a super stud. In the days of Ignorance (some call it “smartness” ) when you were in your twenties anything and anyone in skirt flocks to you and you celebrate it but now that God has given you a faithful wife and wonderful home and you have a calling to serve God, is it not time to let the past be in the past ? Is it not time to take a new leaf?
“God has overlooked the times when people did not know him, but now he commands all of them everywhere to turn away from their evil ways.” Act 17:30
I have met couples that denial never made them enjoy themselves. I once counseled a wonderful woman of God. The mistake we made is that men and women of God are also what they are – MEN AND WOMEN. She was already married for well over fifteen years as at that time but she never enjoyed one single day of intimacy with her husband. It was a chore! A big deal and another checklist item on the agenda. She dreads that time. Why? She carried her experiences and dealings from pre–marriage years into marriage. It’s like the way you carry a high school syllabus into the university. Do you expect to use it to pass University examinations? Some fell in deep love with someone but unfortunately never married them due to realistic and unrealistic reasons at the time. However they still carry them in their minds for years and its affects the way they relate to their spouses.
EvangelistBee
facebook-evangelistbee
Twitter@evangelistbee
It all started on the 25th January 2011. Everyone thought it was a joke. This cannot be happening here too. It just happened in Tunisia. It was harmless. It was small. It looks like a child’s play. However, it took a life of its own. In a week it became something else. I took more notice, the day Anderson Cooper, the CNN’s wonder journalist was attacked at Tahir’s square. After that day, CNN relocated him. He has been everywhere and his hair distinguishes him and makes him visible. He was in Haiti when the earthquake struck. He was in Louisiana when the oil spill got to gargantuan proportion. However this was tough for him too and we saw more of Hala Gorani after. Once it got to that level I knew there would be no going back. This scenario played out in Egypt when the populace – the youths started protesting for change. They were asking for the past to move. The past wanted to stay. This thing called thePAST confuses me at times. When is the past truly the past? How do you know when to move on?
King Belshazzar in the book of Daniel saw an handwriting on the wall – in broad day light. He could not decipher it until Daniel showed up to interpret it. What was written summarizes my fears about the PAST and when to stay and fight or to move on.
Dan 5:25-28(CEV) The words written there are mene, which means "numbered," tekel, which means "weighed," and parsin, which means "divided." God has numbered the days of your kingdom and has brought it to an end. He has weighed you on his balance scales, and you fall short of what it takes to be king. So God has divided your kingdom between the Medes and the Persians.
May we not fall short by God’s standard!
Egypt and Mubarak’s story got me thinking deeply. It humbled me. I pick inspiration from the most unlikely places. I have tried all my adult life to feed on information. A man who do not know cannot plough. A man without data – current and fresh will become dated very soon. I asked questions. Why? Why did it get to this level before Mubarak left? This is a model we can all learn from. Why did he not see it coming? Thirty years is enough to know that the past has gone and that the generation has changed yet he did not see it. What do you see? I did not say what are you looking at? I mean what are we really seeing even when we look? You can look and not see? God help us.
Mar 8:24 And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.
Jesus prayed for a blind man who saw men walking as trees. He had to give him a second dose of the Unction so he can see well!
Mar 8:25 After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.
You will see clearly this year in Jesus Name.
Whatever it is that was behind Mubarak’s thinking and the veil that covered his sight from seeing the need for change before it came is the same thing that affects all of us? That same veil, that same mental block causes us not to know that it is time. The time to change the way we should do business, relate with our spouses, handle our kids. I remember those days with nostalgia that I can command my kids anyhow. Now that they are teenagers, I now have to negotiate even though firmly but the style has to change. We have to stop living in the past with the way we handle our spiritual life. It has stop! Or else the past will catch up with us. The prodigal son left it late! I pray it will not be too late for you.
Luk 15:14 He had spent everything, when a bad famine spread through that whole land. Soon he had nothing to eat.
Yesterday is in the tomb, tomorrow is in the womb, today is what we have. Yesterday is gone. Today is almost gone but it’s what you have now. Maximize it! Reset your bearing from the past to the future. Mubarak’s responses when the crisis started confirmed classical symptoms of people who still live in the past for us to learn from. The main symptom of people who do not know that the time for change has come is that they live in denial. Denial causes premature death. Denial causes unplanned exit. Exit is not the problem-not planning for it is the dilemma. Denial is a weight with a rope tied to a man in the sea of life – He will sink as far as the weight stays. Denial causes a blind spot. Denial makes a man sees only what he wants to see not what he needs to see. However, the secret of great men is to see all scenarios objectively and take rational divinely inspired decisions. The height (the depth might be a better word actually) of Mubarak’s denial was manifested in his statements. The scripture says,
Luk 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
He said that if He resigns, there will be chaos in Egypt. What chaos? Chaos was there already. He did not see it. He could not see it. His software was running on MS-DOS which was available in the early eighties when he took over power. Everybody around him now uses Windows 7. He can’t even handle windows 7 because his hard drive is 128MB when his youths are using 850GB. He was blindsided with Power- with control and affluence. Just like Lot’s wife. She was so “into” life in Sodom and Gommorah that she cannot imagine another life. She froze up and became a mini factory of salt. Jesus cried out on this issue centuries after she left the sin when he said - Remember Lot's wife- Luk 17:32. When its time to leave the past you must follow instructions –
“And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.” Gen 19:17
If you cannot see it, you cannot respond to it. Classic denial makes you use the data and facts of ten years ago as if they just gave it to you. We are not contending with you. We are not arguing with you. We know ten to twenty years ago you were a super stud. In the days of Ignorance (some call it “smartness” ) when you were in your twenties anything and anyone in skirt flocks to you and you celebrate it but now that God has given you a faithful wife and wonderful home and you have a calling to serve God, is it not time to let the past be in the past ? Is it not time to take a new leaf?
“God has overlooked the times when people did not know him, but now he commands all of them everywhere to turn away from their evil ways.” Act 17:30
I have met couples that denial never made them enjoy themselves. I once counseled a wonderful woman of God. The mistake we made is that men and women of God are also what they are – MEN AND WOMEN. She was already married for well over fifteen years as at that time but she never enjoyed one single day of intimacy with her husband. It was a chore! A big deal and another checklist item on the agenda. She dreads that time. Why? She carried her experiences and dealings from pre–marriage years into marriage. It’s like the way you carry a high school syllabus into the university. Do you expect to use it to pass University examinations? Some fell in deep love with someone but unfortunately never married them due to realistic and unrealistic reasons at the time. However they still carry them in their minds for years and its affects the way they relate to their spouses.
The past has to stay where it belongs – the past. Stop denying. It’s there somewhere in you. Pray – ask the Lord to help you. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you uproot the tentacles of denial. Life has been designed to provide for healing if we are ready to give it a chance. No matter how deep you have been hurt, there is a balm in Gilead that heals.
“Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” Jer 8:22
God can mend your heart if you will just be bold to let go of the Past - He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. (Psa 147:3)
I ask that God will uproot the stronghold of denial in our lives. That He will give us power to confront the reality and the grace to do that which is right in Jesus Name. Amen.
EVANGELIST BEE.
No. 120 – 19th February 2010
“Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” Jer 8:22
God can mend your heart if you will just be bold to let go of the Past - He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. (Psa 147:3)
I ask that God will uproot the stronghold of denial in our lives. That He will give us power to confront the reality and the grace to do that which is right in Jesus Name. Amen.
EVANGELIST BEE.
No. 120 – 19th February 2010
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12 comments:
Sir
This is another wonderful and apt reminder that we can learn from practical events around us - God bless you.
Alabi
Thank you sir. May God continually give us the grace to learn and apply.
Thanks for the encouragement
EVB
DENIAL- EVB, it's extremely destructive. It's amazing how the enemy uses it to destroy humans including a lot of believers as well. We know the facts, we know the truth but we choose to believe what we want to believe not by faith but rather as a result our selfish ambitions.
Today Ghadafi's son made one of the most irrational statements I've heard. It just shows how much the devil has eaten into the hearts of men and all they can think about is how to dominate others. Pure wickedness and denial.
Bee,
God bless you for that observation that People walk in denial out of selfish reasons - of course its against themselves on the long run. Heaven help us to confront and do something before its too late
EVB
Wow…I finally understand what God has been trying to tell me about “Crying may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” The past may have hurt you but your future is brighter with God. Most of us dwell in the past so much that we hang on to it. We have fears of facing our future which hinders us from gaining the joy that comes in the morning. We indirectly tell God we don’t trust him with our future when we hold on to the past. God has given us a new chapter with him, so have faith and trust that all will be well!
"The past may have hurt you but your future is brighter with God. Most of us dwell in the past so much that we hang on to it."
Good one Doja. May God help us to let go of these Past and move on in God.
Thanks for chipping in
Banji
Thanks for the post. This is something every human being needs to know- "Dont let your past determine the future". God even said in the bible-"Old things have past away, behold all things have become new". We need to "let go and let God".
Nice piece Pastor, sometimes it bothers me why people do not learn from history.I have been reading exodus recently and one of the questions that pops up in my mind is why was it difficult for Pharaoh to learn early despite all that he saw in the hands of Moses, watching Ghadafi on TV at this moment shows the same pattern.may God give us wisdom to know when to move on,and leave the past.
Femi
The first time I raised this issue on the imminent fall of Mubarak despite his denial on my facebook page someone pointed to the fact that He is behaving like Pharaoh - Hard heart - stubborness on modern English. May God deliver us from every spirit of Pharaoh in Jesus Name AMen
EVB
Oladoyin,
" we need to let go and Let God"
Spot on. though it may be difficult - we need to let go!
EVB
EVB Sir, God bless you for this eye-opening and spirit lifting piece. I came to realize that most believers finds it difficult to accept the interval(wilderness experience -Today) between Egypt(Isreal's past) and Canaan (Isreal's future) in their day to day activities and this makes them wants to choose to stay on in Egypt (Past-supposed comfort zone) instead of forging on. May He teach us to number our days that we might apply our hearts to wisdom (Amen). Ps 90:12
Olu,
Waiting can be painful. I agree with you that its better to wait and to be aware of what you are waiting for. Having expectation and waiting on the Lord to move and move once He confirms and while waiting - Leaving the past to be where its supposed to be - THE PAST.
Bless you Bro
EVB
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