Sexual Purity And Faithfulness Can Be Achieved. Here is how:

Science Proves Premarital Sex Rewires the Brain- Jeremy Wiles(JEREMY WILES/CONQUERSERIES.COM)
(A material Culled from Charisma News)

There’s a reason why breaking up from a sexual relationship is much more emotionally painful and much harder to forget than one that didn’t involve sex. There are several neurochemical processes that occur during sex, which are the “glue” to human bonding.

Sex is a powerful brain stimulant. When someone is involved sexually, it makes him or her want to repeat that act. Their brain produces lots of dopamine—a powerful chemical, which is compared to heroin on the brain. Dopamine is your internal pleasure/reward system. When dopamine is involved, it changes how we remember.

The other part is oxytocin, which is designed to mainly help us forget what is painful. Oxytocin is a hormone produced primarily in women’s bodies. When a woman has a child and she is breastfeeding, she produces lots of oxytocin, which bonds her to her child. For this reason, mothers will die for their child, because they’ve become emotionally bonded due to the oxytocin that is released when they’re skin-to-skin with their child.

The same phenomenon occurs when a woman is intimate with a man. Oxytocin is released, and this makes her bond to him emotionally. Have you wondered sometimes why a woman will stay with a man who’s abusing her? We know now that it’s because she bonded to him emotionally because of the oxytocin released during sex.

Men produce vasopressin, which is also referred to as the “monogamy hormone,” and it has the same effect as oxytocin has on a woman. It bonds a man to a woman.

These “bonding” agents narrow our selection to one person. That is wonderful in a marriage relationship but really bad in a dating relationship because you lose your objectivity when you’re searching for your potential lifemate.

Impaired Judgment

According to neuropsychologist Dr. Tim Jennings, “When you have premarital sex, your reward circuitry is bonded to them now, and it will be much deeper and hurtful. Oftentimes, in breakups of people who’ve been sexually active, they can’t tolerate the sense of emptiness, so they rush into another relationship. The neuro circuits did not have time to reset, and so they’re impaired in their ability to bond with the next person, and they may become sexually active with them. This is just a repetitive cycle, and there are real impairments in bonding going on.”

Becoming Bonded With Porn

These same neurochemicals are present when viewing pornography. A man will become bonded with whatever he is engaged in during the moment these chemicals are released. When your relationship is being carried on with an image, you become bonded to whatever you’re viewing.

Dr. Doug Weiss, a marriage counselor, advises men to have eye contact with their wives during sex because they become bonded with that person. By doing this, he explains that, over time, individuals will decrease the “neural pathway to pornography and sexually inappropriate thoughts and believes and glue to healthy sexuality to [their] wife. When your brain thinks sex, it thinks, ‘Where’s my wife?’ And that is a great way to fight this battle."

Discovering how our minds were designed to operate by a magnificent Creator reveals truth in the way we are to live.

Cycle of Sexual Sin

For someone viewing porn, one of the functions of oxytocin is to separate the experience and the excitement from the intensity of the shame. According to neuropsychologist Dr. Jes Montgomery, “Usually by the time they turn the computer off, they are already sinking into a sense of failure and shame, and the function of oxytocin is to tell the brain, 'Wait a minute. You don’t want to remember that. You want to hold on to this excitement and this amazing magic that you just experienced.'”

Knowing how these neurochemicals interact and change the brain help us understand why sex is meant to be kept within the boundaries of marriage. You see the overtones here about God’s design for His pure temple. This is another reason why the devil attacks our sexuality so much—because in attacking human sexuality, it actually interferes with human bonding.

So, for those practicing sex outside of marriage, they are creating a bond with their partner, thus inhibiting their discernment of whether they should remain in that relationship. God wired and designed our brains for a specific purpose: to bond ourselves with the person we marry.

Jennings, Weiss and Montgomery are just several of the many experts featured in the Conquer series 6-disk DVD set who provide amazing insight that help set men free from sexual sin, while providing practical steps to live in purity.

Jeremy Wiles is the executive producer and director of the Conquer series. For the original article, please visit conquerseries.com.

7 Ways to Stop the Adultery Epidemic

Why is there an epidemic of moral failure in the church? Because holiness has become a foreign concept.

It happened again. For the third time in six months, the pastor of a large church in my hometown of Orlando, Fla., has resigned from his pulpit because of adultery. I’m sad. I’m sick. I’m sorry for the pastors, and sorrier for the congregations that are having to deal with the fallout caused by bad choices.

I’m also cringing because an increasingly hostile public sees these train wrecks as evidence that Christians are hypocrites who preach one thing and live another. We stand for biblical marriage between one man and one woman, but in many cases those marriages are failing. No wonder the gay community hates our flimsy platitudes.

Why are we witnessing this epidemic of moral failure? Many factors could be cited (easy access to pornography, sex-saturated entertainment, the devil and his demons, etc.)—but I don’t think we need a list of excuses today. I’m tired of excuses. The devil does not make us do this. It is totally possible for Christian men and women to live in holiness today. The power of His grace is not affected by social trends or hell’s attacks.

Maybe we’ve made this too complicated. Let’s go back to some basic ways we can stay pure:

1. Practice regular “fire drills.” Paul told Timothy to “flee” from youthful lusts (2 Tim. 2:22). But you can’t flee a burning building if you don’t know where the exits are. If you don’t map out your plan of escape, you won’t run when you are confronted with a lustful glance, an X-rated website or a brazen proposition. When faced with temptation, don’t play with it, talk to it, stroke it, analyze it or revisit it in an hour. Just bolt for the door!

2. Don’t live in isolation. Many people are vulnerable to moral compromise because they spend so much time alone. God designed us to live in community. If King David had not left his brothers on the battlefield and returned home, he would not have seen Bathsheba skinny-dipping on the roof. You are less likely to succumb to temptation if you are surrounded by family or Christian friends.

3. Stay faithful in spiritual disciplines. Nothing makes the heart colder than a lack of quiet time with God. Charles Spurgeon said, “Prayer will make you leave off sinning, or sinning will make you leave off praying.” If you have spent time with Jesus in the morning, you are not going to invite Delilah to cut your hair off that evening. If you are too busy with your work to pray and read the Bible, you are already headed for a spiritual train wreck.

4. Be ruthless with temptation. Today’s wimpish Christian culture encourages us to be soft toward sin. Yet the apostle Paul used athletic imagery when he taught about the strenuous effort of resisting sin. He wrote, “I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27, NASB). If you can’t resist looking at a pornographic website, you are a spiritual baby. If you can’t run when Potiphar’s wife turns on her charm, you need to get your jellyfish spine in shape. Grow up and quit making excuses for your weak morals.

5. Confess your sins regularly. Last weekend during a men’s conference in Philadelphia, one brave brother shared openly how he had been molested as a child—and how the trauma of abuse led him into a pattern of fornication. After he shared his weakness, dozens of men felt the freedom to come to the altar and confess their sexual sins. Transparency is the path to sexual purity. You cannot expect to be pure if your inner life is a cesspool of ugly secrets. Tell somebody. Get the monkey off your back.

6. Keep the home fires burning. I’ve met many Christian men who struggle with all kinds of sexual temptation. But after talking with them, I learn that they have no regular intimacy with their wives. The apostle Paul taught that husbands and wives have an equal responsibility to fulfill each other sexually (1 Cor. 7:3). If the fires have gone out in your marriage, find a counselor or enroll in a marriage course in your church. God can rekindle romance and repair your communication breakdown before your chilly marriage freezes beyond repair.

7. Get regular spiritual checkups. Adults are supposed to see a doctor annually to prevent heart ailments, cancer and other problems. Yet many of us never open our lives to input from pastors or mentors. (And many pastors have no one to examine them!) Learn to ask for prayer and counsel. Share your struggles and weaknesses. If you detect a weak spot in your armor, don’t wait until the devil blows you out of the water to ask someone for help.

J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma and the director of the Mordecai Project (themordecaiproject.org). You can follow him on Twitter at @leegrady. He is the author of Fearless Daughters of the Bible and other books.

2013: YEAR OF THE MIRACULOUS! Jesus Power at work for your advantage!

No wonder Apostle Peter proclaimed in Acts 2:22
"Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 

Common get up.Its time to raise your expectations on the LORD for His Miracles ! Signs ! Wonders!

Its raining on you already or what do you see?

2013: Year Of The Miraculous! You will receive...

@–VANGELISM : Reaching the ‘10/40 window’

I can hear someone asking ‘Windows 7 or Windows 8?’! No,Its none of what you think it is. This is is not any of Microsoft operating systems but a labeling.
The 10/40 Window concept highlights these three elements: an area of the world with great poverty and low quality of life, combined with lack of access to Christian resources.
According to Wikipedia,it is a term coined by Christian missionary strategist Luis Bush in 1990 to refer to those regions of the eastern hemisphere located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, a general area that in 1990 was purported to have the highest level of socioeconomic challenges and least access to the Christian message and Christian resources on the planet.
The window forms a band encompassing Saharan and Northern Africa, as well as almost all of Asia (West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia and much of Southeast Asia). Roughly two-thirds of the world population lives in the 10/40 Window.
10/40 Window is populated by people who are predominantly Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Animist,Jewish or Atheist. Many governments in the 10/40 Window are formally or informally opposed to Christian work of any kind within their borders.
Yet these vast fields of human life are still groaning for the manifest presence of God through the church . Human population in these nations is ever-increasing and so is the number of souls waiting to be reached for Christ. Indeed the fields are already white for harvest and now, the Lord of the harvest is already creating room through the instrumentation of technology ; especially the social network platforms!
A current report from cyberschuulnews ,an internet newsletter claimed “with the proliferation of internet particularly broadband provision in emerging economies, a study has revealed that user numbers [in these economies] are overtaking Western Europe and North America. “Of these group,internet users in the Middle East and China (the main 10/40 window population) are the busiest and most enthusiastic.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China emerged as global leaders with around 55% of the sample populations found to be highly engaged in the internet, compared with only 42% in the UK and the US. It showed how much time people in this region spend online and their attitudes to technology.These people have been seen to spend more time on social networking than e-mail. Also with increased mobile access these people are more likely to post [and view] blogs, photos and videos online and value internet access.A study also found that 61% of people with internet access used it daily. That provides a good percentage of these people waiting to be reached via twitter, face book ,d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s , and what have you. If we fail to reach out to them, someone else [a bad one, at that] will.
It may interest you to know that, of these people group, China’s internet population of more than 400 million and by far the world’s largest online population, usage is mainly driven by entertainment features - instant messaging and online music, videos and games .
This should bring us to the question of ’how do we reach this lost people-group with the principles of Christ?’. Surely its high time we rode on the wave of technology by designing entertainment contents: Music ,Videos,Computer and Video games to spread the timeless gospel through the vehicle of entertainment! Free distribution of Bibles may be disallowed and even banned but we can redesign our gospel advance approach; infiltrate their rank and file with the timeless truth ; using technology.
Now may the marketable prophets of God arise with animations ,computer games and various web skills to take this mountain for the Lord. Or better still with alacrity,seek to acquire the requisite skills in this regard wherever any is wanting.Let music prophets,animation apostles and all believers with creative and iT competences rise and take their places to reap the already ripe harvest fields of the earth.
This great window of harvest must never be left to close! We must enter in…! And like he did Isaiah,the Spirit of God still asks this generation of believers, “Who will go for us?”…

Is Christ Jesus Truly The Only Way? Tokunbo Beulah Johnson

Heb 7:25 (NIV) Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Acts 17:30-32 (NIV) 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." So Is Christ Jesus the only Way? This is one of the knotty questions that begs for answer in this age of spiritual indifference and multiple options. People are fast concluding that probably Jesus couldn't be the only way to God; that a fair God would give people more options. This error of thinking holds strong also among Christ followers who in their bid to be politically correct and socially accepted are quiet or out-rightly denying that Jesus Christ alone is the only way. The consequence of this thinking then shows a growing number of church goers in the nations who have never accepted the truth of Jesus alone being the only cure to sin problem. Many congregation have tried different means to win followers to their fold without a fervent mention of what Christ did on the Cross (He died to take away the sins of the world)and without demanding from the followers that the same sacrifice that Christ made is a sine qua non for discipleship. Didn’t Jesus say all Christ followers would carry their own cross and follow Him? Matt 16:24 (NIV) “Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Church pews remain filled every Sunday but by religious and scripturally ignorant people who have only come to have their wish-list attended to by a ‘Santa Claus’ God that is so giving and expects nothing in return. That's not the God of the Hebrews that told them to journey into the wilderness to seek Him. He is the One true God who demands that people remove their garment of self-righteousness of good works so they can be clothed in His righteousness when they humbly come to Him through the shed blood of the Son of His own choosing: Christ Jesus. Rom 5:21 (NIV) “…so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” So let the church think again, change her mind and adjust her theology. For its through Christ Jeus alone that our sins are washed away and only though Him is forgiveness of sins appropriated for personal salvation. No man can come to the God, the Father except as they accept Jesus as Saviour , Lord, Master and King. He is even the One chosen and accredited by the Father to judge all men after all is said and done! 2 Tim 4:1-2 (NIV) “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead,…” What I am saying in essence is that it takes a cleansing of man's conscience by the Blood of Christ alone for man’s sins to be totally removed so he can serve God in the right way. (Heb.9: 11-14). For man, Sin is the problem and Christ, is the cure!

PRESENT TRUTHS: FULL RESTORATION INTO SONSHIP

Paul's last instruction to the Corinthian church in 2 Cor.13:11(NIV) was for them to "aim for perfection..." Today,new truths about our sonship and the revelation of perfection are being restored ; the Body of Christ through the revealed truths is gradually making her way towards what Paul,the Apostle called "the fullness of the stature of the measure of Christ" Eph 4:13. Secondly,God is also restoring the full function of the governmental gifts of the church otherwise known as five-fold ministry gifts of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist,Pastor and Teacher.These ministry gifts will play a midwife role in bringing believers into maturity through accurate doctrines of Christ that build the nature of the Bridegroom into His Bride! With the restoration of these new truths,greater enlightenment and reality is brought concerning old truths.Nothing is lost but everything is enhanced. Jesus did not come to destroy the truths of the Old Testament but to demonstrate them and fulfill all the types and shadows contained in them.All scriptures right from Genesis to Malachi ; Matthew to Revelation all testified of Him. All members of the Body of Christ today need to seek to move up and grow up much more than she is concerned about going up to heaven.The former must precede the latter. Let the church heed God's truth that there is no going up without first a growing up into a fully restored state of being which is obtained only in the Christ anointing ! However, like it was in the days of Martin Luther(when the unscripturally educated and the spiritually unstable went into extremism and fanaticism), every restoration move has had and will have its extremes when the pendulum of new truth began to swing and mark a new time of advancement for the Church.Hence,we must endeavor to maintain a balance by the grace,wisdom,and maturity of the Head of the Church Himself,Jesus Christ our Lord. Tokunbo Beulah Johnson (Teaching Apostle)

'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

MY INDIAN BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER

 

THE JOURNEY

 

HOW TO GROW YOUR MINISTRY USING THE NEW MEDIA
- Tokunbo Beulah Johnson

Social Networks have become a very viable part of the New Media.With over 500 million subscribers worldwide on FaceBook alone,it has become a growing culture; one that promises to be a very long-lasting part of world culture that will not go away in a hurry. So we might as well jump in too!

1. An analysis of our Official Website (www.thecapstoneonline.com) by Google Analytics monitored between July 1 2010 and Feb 20,2011(7 months) showed :
- 1215 visits from 55 countries around the world as against that visited physically
- 3761 page views.
- Average time spent by visitors on the site 3:59 seconds.
This means people are following us online from farther places than we can ever know!
So we must try to:
• Make members grow deeper (by Discipleship)
• Make our church larger (by Attendance)
• Make our church have a wider net to accommodate for Diversities- Racial , Economic ,etc)
• Help people to get more connected by fellowship and network.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA
Using social media is very essential for:
i. Church like ours that has the global vision without limit. We need to be virtual in the people’s face.
ii. Church in a very cosmopolitan and busy city like Lagos requires this tool.
iii. Reaching the youths (75% of Nigeria’s population is youth).
iv. An aggressive Evangelism tool,we should have a phenomenal social media plan (Twitters , FaceBook ,MySpace, etc.).An aggressive and commendable user of this media is Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Christ Embassy.’Pastorchrislive’ on Twitter (as at Feb 2011,had well over 1 million followers.
iv. Great Pastoral Counseling tool.

However, it should be noted that Social media ONLY COMPLEMENTS excellent people ministry (Sermons, Services , Parking ,Children’s Ministry, etc)

MYTHS
1. Social networks are for the teenagers or young demographies.
2. BlackBerry is too expensive. No they aren’t!!! (They cost like N20,000 now with about N1000 /month internet package. All for soul-winning. Really,how much is soul worth ?!

WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Tweet about your services and ministry.
This will work better if key leaders in your church actually use them.
Key decision-makers like you need to use it…
2. Small groups (meeting n homes) and Fellowships like Women Prayer Group, Men , Youths ,Worship Team ,etc should have their own FB Groups.

ADVANTAGES
i. People who are new in your church can engage with the other people on FB on a more personal basis.
ii. Everything on FB is Free!

I would like for us to examine two of the famous social media that we have around here:

(A) FACEBOOK : http://www.facebook.com/
-We need to double down on FaceBook . As church leaders,we must be investing on Facebook.75% of the people that learnt about a certain church: the Courageous Church, Atlanta , did so on FaceBook. People will bump unto your church on FB.

Truths:
i. Most of the people who attend our church are already on FB or have someone they know who is on FB. So we only need to tell them how to use it for our church’s advantage.
ii. Even those who do not attend our church, FB is already a part of their life. About 500 million worldwide people presently use FB on their iphone , BB , ipad , Computers. It is going to be a very long-lasting part of world culture that will not go away in a hurry. So we might as well jump in too!

THE DIFFERENT PLATFORMS on FB.
(i) FB ads-( http://www.facebook.com/advertising/)
See this screenshot of a xtian ad ‘WishPray’

It appears on the right side of the Home Page or Profile page
Its cost effective. For instance, ‘Courageous Church, Atlanta’ got 7.6 million FB ads appearances for just $1200 and 13018 people clicked on it within that period of time.
You pay only when the people click on it to view your ad. So it may even cost much less.

It can be used for the followings:
i. Advertising for a new teaching series that we are about to start(e.g Wednesday or Sunday services).

3 Words That Will Make People Click on FB Ads.
i. ‘Free’. e.g Skill Empowerment For Entertainment Wanna-Be. Admission is FREE.
ii. ‘Church’ - ‘Wouldn’t You Rather Be In Church This Sunday?’
iii. ‘Prayer’ – ‘Operation P-U-S-H’ . Pray Until Something Happens!

FaceBook STATISTICS
1. An estimated 8140 people on FB who live in Nigeria and aged 18 years and older like the word ‘Church’.
2. An estimated 2,768,080 people who live in Nigeria and aged 18 yrs and above are on Facebook in Nigeria alone!
3.There are an estimated 2,374,860 people who are aged 18 , and above who live in Nigeria and speak American English (Source: FB campaign ad creator-http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/?campaign_id=368901427978&placement=advf2&extra_1=0).

iii. An estimated 7100 people aged 18 years and above who live in Nigeria have ‘Pray’ or ‘Prayers ‘as an area of interest.
The statistics of all this FB users is collated automatically through mapping of the IP addresses of people’s in Nigeria using personal computers on FB).

LOWEST RATE PER CLICK is (0.33 USD per click)
You can spend as little as 0.33 USD a day for the ads and it gives you the default option of running for 1 whole month daily! Between the hours of your choice.

You can do your ad based on demographics depending on who you are targeting.

2. FB for SMALL GROUPS – Just create a page, get someone to manage it and off you go.

3. EVENT.
(This appears in the right hand corner of the Home page or Profile page on FB.)
You can create a FB event (sermon series, Musical Concert , Outreach ,Xmas ,etc)for every event you are having. Helps you to invite everybody that you know or have as your FB friends.

Simply invite all members on your friends list and tell them to invite all the people on their FB address. This will generate a web-string of people connected to your event.

You can also run an ad for the FB event.
There just might be someone who is looking for a place to belong because people are looking for community and connections. People are looking for churches . People are lonely.

4.USING PEOPLES’ BIRTHDAYS (I still remember a wish on FB at my last year birthday from someone I have never met even till date).
Birthday Links appear in the Top Right-hand corner of the Home page on FB.
Though you don’t know them yet just go on and wish them a hapi bday on their FB wall.You wouldn’t believe the effect of this ! Simply write :
‘Hapi bday … you are great person and this year shall be great for you.God bless You ...’


(B) TWITTER : https://twitter.com/
-Go to twitter.com . Sign in and start tweeting about the aspects of the service that has inspired you or that can inspire other people.(The Message,the Speaker,the Music, the cool atmosphere, etc

-Using the Advanced feature - Twitter.com/advance
Allows you to connect with people in your city/neighbourhood who might need spiritual help. You can do the followings:
i. Search ‘pray’ or ‘looking for a church’
ii. Look for people who have these needs and tweet them. Send a pray to them.

URGENT TASK.
-Create a twitter account for your church.
-Create another separate account called ‘news’ for regular updates on goings-on in the church (e.g coming events, etc)

All of these are free!

-Search for the name of your church ( https://twitter.com) and text all the people who have been in your church and tweeted about you. They are always amazed that you could get back to them.

(C) YouTube : http://www.youtube.com.
-Create your own YouTube account.
-Use your BlackBerry or any other smart phone to record clips of our services and broadcast it on YouTube. Yes, on your own YouTube account that you have created!

(D) BLOGS :
For your articles , thots etc that you can contribute to the development of mankind.

Frequently Asked Question (FAQ):
Q: How Much Time Should i Dedicate To Social Media.
A: May be an hour a week.

RE-ENGINEER YOURSELF.
This will happen only if you recognize the following:
1. That our world is fast changing and at an alarming rate.
2. That unless you re-engineer yourself as leaders in the 21st Century,you will expire and become totally irrelevant!

CONCLUSION
What in the world can you cluster using the New Media (Blogs,Website,Social Media)just to make people crowd up your church till you are running around looking for seats to accommodate them .

I am available to help just reach me on:
www.megaliosit.blogspot.com.
www.beulahtoks.blogspot.com,
www.twitter.com/beulahtoks,
www.thecapstoneonline.com.

For prayer and counselling email:
helpdesk@thecapstoneonline.com ; capstone_c@yahoo.com
Tel: +234 8023182030