Daily Devotionals

It is a simple idea. If there are problems and challenges around you that you cannot seem to stop thinking about, you should do something about it. You might not think you have the means to do so and you would not be wrong, however there is something you are overlooking. We tend to underestimate what we are truly capable of if we put our minds into it. So, you might not have the means to do something about the problems and challenges around you, but you can grow into the person that can do something about it. You should lean in towards those problems you cannot stop thinking about. Start praying about them and then swing into action.

The people who make a difference with their work, their businesses, or non-profit organisations are people who decided to do something about the ideas in their head. It is a leap of faith. I have read many stories about people who identified problems in their world and then set out to do something about it. They set out even though they did not have the resources to get it done. They saw a gap in their society and realised that if a certain kind of organisation existed, it would close those gaps. God gives grace and you begin to attract resources, patronage and support over time as you step out in faith.

If all you have is the problem awareness and there is no clarity around what you could do. Your immediate task would be to pray about those problems. Do not stop at prayers. You should develop your mind and understand how to design change initiatives that seek to solve social and economic challenges in your world. Please think of an idea for a change initiative that you would like to implement in your world. It does not have to be a non-profit. In fact, you should not start a non-profit. Dream up and build out a business that solves the problems you have identified in a way that is sustainable and profitable.

We have been unable to define the limits of human potential. It has been impossible to clearly articulate what is possible and what seems impossible for people to achieve. It doesn’t matter whatever accomplishments a person has already achieved, the answer to the question: “can we do better?” is always a yes. When you reflect upon your life and think about where you are in life right now, you might be tempted into thinking you have tried your best. However, you can do much more than you are thinking. If you will fully unlock your potential, you are going to need the power of God to work within you. 

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us

(Ephesians 3:20 ESV)

When you think about the people that have changed the world forever, think of people like Isaac Newton and his work in physics. Think about Frederick Douglass, a slave who became a prominent leader in the abolitionist movement, which sought to end the practice of slavery in America. You would realize that they are ordinary, might even say flawed people that did extraordinary things. There is a core out there from where we can draw grace, strength and inspiration to tackle anything and handle anything. You do not have to be perfect or awesome. You just need to acknowledge and get trained in the knowledge of God.

You could double, triple or even increase your productivity by a factor of ten and there would still be room for growth. It baffles me that even though we know God is powerful, and that God will always channel his power through people. We are reluctant to accept the call and allow the power of God to work within us for the greater good of the community. This is not a matter of religion or chasing clout. We all can find expressions for the power of God. We all can take up a watch somewhere. We all can play a role in whatever God is doing during our days on the earth.

You have heard it a thousand times: what God cannot do does not exist. God can do far more than you could ever imagine or guess in your wildest dreams! God can do much more than we are even bold enough to request. However, there is another side to this God-can-do-it-all business, the idea that God acts by working within us.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us

(Ephesians 3:20 ESV)

God does not only work externally; splitting rocks and parting the waters. God also empowers you internally with the courage you need to face mountains and decide to part the waters. The idea that God is out there doing it all is not a complete picture. He is deep at work within you. God at work within us is the foundation of some of the greatest human achievements of all time. From Noah to Abraham and Moses to Samuel, you see God moulding the hearts of people and making them mighty. God is out there doing it all by working deep within you.

If you are serious about changing the world or serving as the salt and light of the world, you need to realise the need for a consistent prayer practice. You have to simultaneously pray as you seek out and implement the rational processes required for fulfilment of the goal. Your true goal is to humble yourself enough and allow God to guide you internally towards the most optimised way to accomplish your tasks. It is baffling that even though we know that God is all-powerful, we are reluctant and struggle with the idea of submitting ourselves to his complete influence. You cannot beat a river into submission; you have to surrender fully to God and that way, you channel his power fully towards greater exploits.

Why do we fail to accomplish that which we have set out to do in the world? This is a question that has baffled people over the ages. One of the issues here is that most people fail to balance the spiritual and the intellectual. There is an intuitive (spiritual) side of things which is responsible for developing a vision and pushing the frontiers. The intuitive and spiritual aspect of the vision is not enough, you must also work out the rational processes required to get the job done. You will succeed to the extent to which you are able to fuse the spiritual with the intellectual. As you pray for a better world, you must also reason it out.

We should stop over simplifying miracles, just because God gave you an assignment to save the world does not mean you just build a boat and dump the animals inside. Noah needed to figure out a lot of things! It is not as simple and straightforward as most people seem to think it is. Just because God is backing you up does not mean you can just build a boat and dump in some animals and food and expect everything to be in order. A man like Noah must be really meticulous and pay attention to detail. Noah was a Scientist, Inventor, Engineer, Botanist, Biologist, Geologist, Mathematician and Physicist rolled into one. 

We must never forget to acknowledge that Noah did not just worship God and pray for things to get done. His mind was so powerful that God could use him to build the ark. This is a great example of a man that understood how to fuse the intuitive and the rational. They don’t have to conflict, and we can enjoy the best of both worlds. The brilliant dude wants to hold meetings and brainstorm with experts about how to get the project started as soon as possible. He is discussing funds, resources and available manpower, without regards for available Godpower. Ignoring the spiritual aspect of things is not a smart move.

A lot of the things we want to do are in reality beyond our capacity. Your physical and intellectual powers are limited. Much of the world and universe is (and will remain) outside our understanding and control. That is where GOD comes in. If you are serious about changing the world, please understand that there are just too many variables and factors to be considered. You will need to understand how to pray effectively. The best kinds of prayers shape your activities while helping to make things outside your control work for you as well. 

When you read through the biographies of famous world changers, you will always see how some external factors worked to their advantage. There is always some government decision or some natural occurrence going their way. This is the reason religious people ascribe their success to God. The non-religious person attributes it to luck. Bottom-line, the road to success is not a straightforward path, there are just too many parties and factors to consider. This is why the serious watchman never jokes with prayer. They understand that their efforts will only give them a shot at desired results. To really succeed, things outside your control need to go your way, and prayer helps. 

The reason brainy people look down upon prayer is that they are too arrogant to attempt to understand what it means to pray. Prayer is not about asking some magical beings to make all your problems go away. Real prayers offered up to God are not about absorbing yourself of all responsibility. When a watchman prays, it is about maximizing their productivity and drawing spiritual energy to drive the changes they want. Prayer helps you reflect and understand the best use of your time, while trusting that situations you have no control over will favour you. You learn to do what you can and increasingly depend upon God to do what only he can do.

It is rational to accept that the “spirit realm” exists. For one, science is unable to explain everything we can observe in the physical and psychological aspects of reality. Our understanding of the universe is increasing, but there are still a lot of gaps in our understanding. There are so many things that have been accomplished by means that are “unscientific”. We cannot ignore and refuse to engage spiritually. The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us. It is our job to search out the principles that work and put it to use. If we want to drive massive changes in the world around us, we must engage spiritually, intellectually and physically.

A watchman must be ready to destroy spiritual strongholds. Destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. This is something that makes no sense “scientifically”, but has been observed to actually work. In a lot of cases, a previous generation might have done the spiritual work already and the current generation executes on the intellectual aspect. Even so, it is in the best interests of everyone for every generation to fully understand these things. The battle for the dominant ideas and frameworks that shape a society are first spiritual. We have to win the spiritual battle first, before we can begin to win the psychological battles.

If you desire to change the world, you have to identify the exact change you want to make. You will then have to identify and develop the problem statement. We can observe this in the life of Jesus when we consider Matthew 4:17, John 3:16 – 17, John 10:10 and other similar passages where he explains the exact changes he is driving. The problem statement must be well explained. This will help to identify strongholds and modes of thinking that drives the current situation we want to change. This will help you pray in a more effective manner because there is better clarity around the kind of results you want.

There is literally nothing a prayer offered up in faith cannot accomplish. Apostle James reminds us about this and points out that Elijah was a man like us, “…and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.” A watchman must believe that they can shape society, influence national economies and steer us towards a better future by faith. However, there is a need to understand the spiritual landscape and wage a war accordingly. This matter goes beyond discussions, debates and “impact projects”, a watchman must wage a spiritual war. 

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

(2 Corinthians 10:3‭-‬6 ESV)

The key idea here is to understand that everything we can see physically is driven by things we cannot see. There are spiritual forces that shape the society, strongholds and arguments that must be destroyed spiritually before progress can be made on the physical front. 

A watchman must carefully identify strongholds, arguments and thoughts that have captured the hearts and minds of the people and destroy them with prayers. This is the first step to real change. For example, if you want to tackle poverty under your watch, your first impact project would be to prayerfully combat the spirit of poverty. Then you have to identify the hellish ideas and frameworks driving the conversation and pray against that as well. Those evil thoughts running riot must be captured spiritually before you would see them disappear from the conversation. Your businesses and projects will not have the desired effect unless you win the spiritual battle first.

The primary message of Jesus was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. It is important to note that this particular message was first preached by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:1-2). Jesus preached and taught a lot about this concept of the kingdom of heaven. However, there is a debate about the exact meaning of this phrase. Nevertheless, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” is not the same thing as saying “stop sinning, it is time to die and go to heaven”. It is not the same thing, yet that is more or less the interpretation adopted within certain Christian communities…

Bible experts have continually debated the meaning of that phrase “kingdom of heaven”. However, we can trace the origins of that phrase to Prophet Daniel (Daniel 2). Daniel 2 talks about the Kingdom of heaven as a kind of earthly kingdom (in modern English, this is best thought about as a socio-economic system). The kingdom of heaven in modern language is best communicated as God’s system operating on the earth. A kind of socio-economic framework that is fair to all concerned and empowers everyone to do their best work that glorifies God. 

“Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.””

(Luke 17:20‭-‬21 ESV)

When we study and reflect upon most of the parables of Jesus that centre upon the kingdom of heaven, you see that they are not about dying and going to heaven. It is deeper than that. The “kingdom of heaven” and “heaven” could not possibly be referring to the same thing. The parables of Jesus do not primarily describe the kingdom of heaven as a destination. This is rather a charge to change your perceptions and understanding and turn your focus to God. Once you focus on God, you will be transformed inside-out and become a vehicle for the grace of God to flow through our dark world.

I think it is obvious that a watchman must be willing to dominate the system of the world by providing guidance and leadership. The world is clueless and cannot lead itself towards a better future. Life does not just get better, there are powerful forces that sway the world towards where they want it to go. We have to understand that most people simply live out their lives according to the course of their world. The dominant ideas in your society matters, and a watchman must see it as their responsibility to shape the culture. We must pursue change at a systematic level. 

The grace of God, the wisdom and power of God wielded by Christians should be put to work right here on earth. There are no problems to tackle in heaven. You do not need to heal the sick or design better economic models in heaven, they all exist solely on this plane of existence. The Bible makes it clear that human beings possess dominion over the earth, while heaven is the domain of God. You need to realize that within your spirit lies the power to make a positive difference in the world. This goes beyond your personal success and betterment, you can effect changes upon the course of this world. 

We need to do better than helping a few people to somehow rise above the odds and escape the mediocrity and underachievement inherent in their world. We have what it takes to make a rich and satisfactory life the normal course of our world. We can mould a world where people are more likely to lead a purposeful life than a mundane life. The system matters, and unless the system is dominated by what we refer to collectively as kingdom values, nothing will get done. By the grace of God within your spirit, you can make societal changes. 

Slave trade, communism, and hundreds of anti-biblical practices were ended by Christians that understood that they had the power and responsibility to change the course of their world. Now that it is your turn, what would you do?

Free will is very real. Every human being is free to do whatever they like, however, you never get to choose the consequences of your actions. This is a very simple thing to understand. Every result or effect you want will be determined by what you do. This is where it gets interesting; you do not get to do your best and demand the results you want. You must do whatever is required for the results you want. Stop doing your best and decide to fulfil the requirements for the results you want. 

There are requirements for any achievement one aspires to. And it is your duty to find out the requirements and then find a way to go about fulfilling them. It is like seeking an admission into a prestigious academic institution, there will always be a list of certain conditions that must be met. This does not mean that people that fail to meet such conditions are not good people or well-intentioned. It simply means that they are not qualified; they have not done enough work for the results they want. A student that fails to earn enough credits to graduate does not get to insist that they have done their best and must be graduated. 

Many people live their lives like a student that failed to earn enough credits for graduation and begins to throw a tantrum. Life does not care about your noble intentions and well nurtured heart. It is your actions that count. You have to do the kind of work that will bring you the kind of results you desire. Never become so focused on wealth that you forget that wealth is an effect driven by certain causes. The world operates on principles, and you have got to find the principles that govern the results you want. You are not wrong when you water-down principles and do whatever you like. However, you must remember to live with whatever results your compromise of discipline and principles bring.