'CHOICES, DECISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES'

In a world when we are faced with many choices(both good and bad)how do we fail-proof our decisions? Read this eye-opening excerpt on 'CHOICES, DECISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES' (By Joke Olukuade- Weds, Nov 14,2012) Enjoy!!! TEXT : Deut 30:15-19 , NIV 15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live..." The Bible says we should choose life. Decisions affect our assignment 2012 is our Year Of Apostolic Assignment. This means we recognize we are on an assignment. In executing apostolic assignment you have to make decisions. You must be deliberate about what you do and those decisions have consequences. We need to know that there is a war that is going on over your life as someone on assignment. In this season we need to make good decisions out of the many choices we are faced with. The word Choice in the Hebrew is the word ‘Bahchar’ and it means a delicacy, choice, elect, selecting something, determining a particular piece of something from a basket of options. What is the difference between a choice and a decision ? -Choice you are selecting out of many ways presented while decision is selecting one of the choices. Gen 12:2 – God said to Abraham I will make you a great nation. Abraham did not do anything to warrant this .God just chose (barchar) him. 1 Kings 11: 34 –When God chose (Barchar) David . God looked at the whole clan of Israel and chose David. The same word (Barchar) held when God chose Moses. It was Barcha in operation when He chose you and I before the foundation of the world. Eph 1:4 . Chosen us in Him before even the Garden of Eden. This should be at the forefront of our minds that He chose us out of the multitude of people just like one son writer said. The word means He has tested us ; knowing we would stand pressure.That is God sees in us more than meets the eye. The word Barchar is revealed and better understood through the following ways in which God chooses people: 1. God chose us from the furnaces of affliction. Is 48:10. 2. God approved of us and selected us as the best. Josh 24:15,God chooses out of the multitude. Why does He chose people out of the multitude. God sees people great destiny.He sees something in us and chose us. We also need to see what God saw in us. 3. God chose us because He desired us - Ex 14:7. Talking about God choosing us because of desire was like what Lot did in Gen 13:11,when he chose the place of Jordan cause it was desirable to him. In the same way we are desirable to God and He chose us. The Lord put the tree in the Garden of Eden yet commanded man never to eat of the fruit of it.Gen 2:16,17. The question remained ‘why did n’t God just fence the tree off Adam?’. It is because the power of Choice is so powerful. God wanted Adam to choose to obey Him willfully and as a free moral agent. The greatest gift that God gave to man was the power of Choice! This might be the reason why God didn’t cage up the tree in Eden.He will never force man to obey Him under duress.He loves for men to make their own decision to obey Him. When we say that we don’t have a choice, its not true because the choice had actually been made way back. We have no choice in our prevailing marriage situations because we already made a choice way back when we chose to marry that individual. Technically,through our decision of past years, we actually signed up for all that we getting now. HANDLING CHOICES. Ever heard people say ‘I have choice things in front of me?’.The word is Heb. Yakach(pronounced Yawkahh)meaning to be right,correct. If you want to make a decision , you look at all the information that you have and then make the decision. Gen 37:14 -15 – Joseph was informed about where his brothers were. He had the right information so he found them. The Lesson here is: Progress is impossible without the right information. Note that Joseph was seeking (vs 16). The word seeking is not just an happenstance. The word here means Bakash to search until the object of search is located. The same word ‘seek’ here is the same word Bakash as also used in Ps 27:8. God calls us to a purposeful search. We will find Him only when we search for Him with all our hearts. When we seek God out and find Him there is always so much joy in our heart. God desire seekers. When we fail to seek God as we should we make wrong decisions or go our own ways.Here are some uses of the word ‘Way’ Pro.14: 12,14; Pro 1:31; Pro 12:15. When we seek God we exempt ourselves from folly because our decision are now informed. The word ‘Way’ here in Pro 12;15 is the Hebrew word ‘Derekh.’ It means the way we order our lives ;our manner of life , etc. Every day of our lives represents an option. Everyday we are presented with options and there are forces contending for our lives to make the wrong decisions whether we like it or not. Most times in our decision making process, we choose the part of least resistance. Pro 1:31 says we will eat of the fruits of our own way Pro 12:15 - Our choices always lead us somewhere. Our choices of course are informed by several things. For instance,who to marry and how many kids to have are all decisions. Things don’t just jump on us rather we make those decisionby ourselves . The word ‘right’ as used here in pro 12;15 means Straight just like in Matt 12:13,14. There is a limit to what we carry in our intelligence there is a way that seems right or straight to us. Our decisions fail in as much as we make them in consideration ONLY in the light of the volume physical information available to us. However things are not always what it seems. There are forces unseen behind everything. This is the Supernatural dimension to making decisions. In every decision we make we need to see the unseen.! In the New Testament, we are told that the things that we see are temporal and not permanent. Everything that we can see, touch, smell , are a manifestation of something from the spirit realm .e.g before I was born,I had existed in God’s mind. Everything that we see is a manifestation of what has gone on in the spirit realm. According to Pro 14:12; Rom 12:16. The advices are : 1. Do not be wise in your own opinion. 2. Don’ t think that you know it all. One of the word translated wise in Gk is the word Phronimus which actually means the way we think.It means to claim to know it all. That is why scripture enjoins “ don’t be wise in your own eyes.” Being wise in our own eyes and thinking that we know it all was why the First Adam fell. In Gen 3:6 – Eve saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes. Here Eve was trying to show herself wise. That she knows it all. Note that the fruit did not make her wise(no fruit can make that happen) but it was in her thinking. She thought ‘Ah now at last we would not need God anymore !!!’.She thought in her intellect. However, what we need is to have a certain wisdom which when acted upon brings us success. This is the type of wisdom that Joseph had. The point here is that : It takes wisdom (and not intelligence) to make the right decision. HOW TO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS. 1. Open up yourself to His nature 2. Open up yourself to His power. Gen.39: 1-10. In verse 9,we saw that Joseph was not as concerned about sinning against Potiphar or his wife but God. 2 Tim 2:19- - If any man cleanses himself from the latter…”The decision is ours to make. Though the Lord has positioned us in sanctification but we need to make decisions to keep ourself . We should seek to consecrate ourself to God and be holy unto Him -Lev 20:7,8 Rom 8:13- If we live according to the flesh we shall die but if we make decisions informed by the Spirit of God we shall live. Making spirit-informed decision must be our goal always as we strive to make decisions that will positively impact on our lives, families, cities and communities !

2012 : Year of Apostolic Assignment!

Welcome to the decisive year 2012.!

It is decisive because of the peculiarity of the year to provide new foundations for all you shall be doing the rest of your life .It is an apostolic year .
Do you know that true kingdom foundations are laid when the apostolic character of the 5-fold Christ Anointing comes into play? Eph 2:20.

For our church it’s a Year of Apostolic Assignment! It is the Year of the ‘12’ !

The No 12 is the key factor to consider in 2012.
According to the Holy Scriptures,'12' is the no of the Apostolic.

The PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NO ‘12’: What It is :
It is the Completion Of God’s Government.
It is the Completion of Glory.
It is the no of Apostolic Purpose.

DECLARATIONS.
i.We declare that this shall be to us the completion of God’s government in our lives.
ii.We declare that this shall be to us the perfection of God’s glory in our lives.

HERE ARE SOME BIBLICAL INSIGHTS ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ‘12’ :
i.The chosen natural nation of Israel was 12 tribes having been born 12 sons of the patriarch Jacob .This is the foundation of God’s chosen people even till tomorrow. We recognize that as the church , we are Spiritual Israel.
ii. Elim the place of rest for the Israelites was a place of 12 springs of water and 70 palms (Ex 15:27;Num 33:9)
iii.There were to be 12 stones in the High priest’s breast-piece.- Ex 28:21
iv.Aaron chose 12(twelve) leaders -Num.1: 44
v. All gifts for the dedication of the altar were in Twelves -Num 7:84.87
vi. ‘12’(Twelve) stones were carried out of the midst of Jordan in memorial of the miracle of the parted river -Jos 4:3,8
vii.Solomon the leadership template for apostolic wisdom had ‘12’ district Governors over all Israel who provided food for him all year round-1 Kings 4:7
viii. The Sea (God's purification plan for the priest)rested on ‘12’ bulls – 1 Kg 7:25
ix. Elijah took ‘12’twelve stones – 1 Kgs 18:31
x. Elisha was plowing with ‘12’twelve yoke of oxen when God called him.
xi.The Altar of the temple was divisible of ‘12’ – Ex 43:16.
xii. Jesus had ‘12’ disciples Mark 3:16
xiii. Jesus promised us that those who believe in Him will at the end of the age,sit as judge on the ‘12’(twelve) thrones – Matt 19:28.

WHAT WE SHALL DO AS A PEOPLE…

1. Community - We will sustain covenant relationships and the build stronger kingdom
Communities .We will do these through:
i. Honouring commitments to our natural families (spouse ,children)
ii. Honouring commitments to our Church family (through the Tree of Life Community Centres)

2. Wisdom .We need this to build a predictable future out of a deliberate architecture.

3. Accuracy .We will walk in total obedience to the Lord in agreement with our discovered prophetic destiny and blueprint.

4. Focusing on the finish (through Constant Prayer, a Consecrated life , etc ).We will show our true dedication to the Lord in our monthly 3-day fasting and corporate prayer.

5. Evangelism and Church Planting .We will intensify our soul winning drive and increase our ‘Tree of Life’ Centers from 10 to 100 by Sept 2012)


Our Year 2012 Promise is found in the book of:
Psalms 107:23-30 (King James Version)which reads thus:

"23 They that go down to the sea in ships,that do business in great waters;

24 These see the works of the Lord,and his wonders in the deep.

25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,which lifteth up the waves thereof.

26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths:their soul is melted because of trouble.

27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,and are at their wits 'end.

28 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

29 He maketh the storm a calm,so that the waves thereof are still.

30 Then are they glad because they be quiet;so he bringeth them unto their desired haven."

I urge you to join us online every day in our 366 Days of Glory Devotionals journey through Facebook, twitter , and website(www.thecapstoneonline.com) to download apostolic prayer resources for your daily use for a victorious life!.

May your life be fruitful and may all your purposes be fulfilled to the glory of God this year.

I declare that, for you, this leap year 2012 shall be a Year of the Quantum Leap in Jesus’ Name!



Yours truly,


Tokunbo Beulah Johnson
Senior Elder/Pastor,The Capstone Yaba

www.beulahtoks.blogspot.com
www.thecapstoneonline.com