Almost Saved

You will do well to read all of Genesis 19 but we will take our emphasis from 16-17.

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!" Gen 19:16-17NIV

Remember Lot's wife! Luke 17:32NIV

The account of Lot’s wife is one of those parts of scripture I don’t like to look at more than once. Similar to this is the account of Samson and Delilah. I look at these scriptures with trepidation and always hear my heart pounding as I move from verse to verse.

This woman’s story is one terrible example of wasted opportunities and privileges.

1. Her husband was reported as a righteous man. No matter what was happening in Sodom, the presence of a godly husband covered her, hence the angelic visitors.

2. She prepared food which heavenly visitors ate and this I see as a great honor. Just like those of us who serve in prominent offices in churches.

3. She obviously shared in the food and had such close proximity with those angels. Many would give anything for such experience; to host and feast with angels

4. She witnessed raw manifestation of the power of God as those angels struck the violent men that were pressing in to break down her door with blindness and she heard them groping about as they bemoaned their misfortune. Just like those of us who have met and served under anointed servants of God

5. It was in her company that her husband left those heavenly visitors as he went out to seek other souls. In his own view, she was safe and counted as confirmed candidate for heaven

6. The angels laid holy heavenly hands on her and brought her beyond the scourge of flames of divine anger. 

7. I mean that they touched her; angels touched her hands and made sure that she was safe

8. She was not the only person so saved but her entire family; there was nothing close to her left in those cursed cities. Just like those of us from godly homes where everyone serves the Lord

9. Age was on her side to have reasoned better because her two daughters were younger. Yes, it was her place to caution her daughters to heed the instruction of the angels but she was the one that failed to listen

10. The instruction was not one hard thing to do; it was simple, DON’T LOOK BACK. God has secured everything; just keep moving forward

The Lord Jesus Christ chose to use this woman’s story to warn the Church about what the end of the age will be like. REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE

I want to state here that many people in the day of destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah did not know about the visit of the angels until fire fell from heaven. Yet, my lamentation is for the woman who had all the privileges and for whom all opportunities abounded, yet she did not make it at last. She was not destroyed with the fire from heaven but met her doom alone. Permit me to say further that her family might not have known that somebody was missing in their company until they arrived in the safe abode. 

May it not be that we will only know that you have looked back when the rest of us arrive in heaven. You are still with us and you even preach with us but….

Wasn’t the punishment too severe?

As it is, unlike us, she was not told the nature of the punishment for those who looked back; there was no bible and there was no story for them to learn from. Yet, the punishment was instant and too harsh, but then, that was the punishment and that was how she ended up. God is the one to detect, not us.

What excuse then shall we give, if we continued to live in disobedience to the commands of God?

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? Heb 10:26-29NIV

You man or woman in the church and yet you deliberately do the things that the Lord has commanded us not to do; what shall you give as excuse?

You Christian that have repeatedly argued that God is too kind to send His beloved children to hellfire, pause and REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE.

She was not a prostitute, she was not a murderer, she was not a kidnapper nor did she do any of those horrible things we scream against every day.

She only LOOKED BACK!

Yet, that sin was enough to doom her. It was just simple disobedience and it was not disobedience in a great matter.

She just moved her neck and looked back.

She was almost saved but then…..

Can you please bow your head in prayer and cry …

Lord, HELP ME!

Emma your brother emmanjnwosu@pnurnigeria.org

Holy Spirit, your heart and anointed atmosphere

 The Holy Spirit, Your heart and Anointed Atmosphere.

As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul's heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day.  When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their prophesying. When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, "What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?" 1 Sam 10:9-11NIV

It was a wonderful sight the first day I witnessed somebody filled in the Holy Spirit in my crusade. It was at Oforola, Owerri West Local Government Area, Imo State of Nigeria. Pastor Reginald Opara was the initiator of that crusade with all the churches in that community. It was a two days program but Pastor Reginald had suffered an attack that made him incapable to remain in the crusade ground. He invited me to the corner he was kept and, while struggling to breathe, he passionately asked me not to allow the crusade to fail. I was the guest speaker and much depended on me.

The territorial spiritual powers were not ready to yield their place to another and so they put up a hard fight. In the process of opening the crusade crickets filled the crusade ground and were perching on almost all the workers, from the moderator to the worship team and since the people eat crickets, children went wild running after the crickets. Pastor Silas of the Holiness Evangelical Mission, Oforola was the moderator for that first day. He was really confused as to how to face the challenge. He turned in my direction with a gaze that says, “Sir, do we just shut down for today?”

I rather signaled to him to introduce me and let me take over. One of the miracles that happened that day was that none of those crickets came close to me as I took the stage. In less than ten minutes of my message, there was not one cricket left in the crusade ground. I did not pray about them but focused on my message. I cannot remember the title of my message but at the end of my message, I made altar call for those who would want to surrender their life to Christ and more than fifty persons came forward. After leading them to Christ, I started to pray for them and there was this wonderful thing I love to observe; the Holy Spirit descended beautifully on this young woman and she slumped so beautifully to the ground and I could only watch as she lay still for a brief moment. Then, here it goes, she started very gently like some gas was leaking from a cylinder in here stomach and it started to ooze out, then it increased in momentum and then it increased and then it increased and then…….. it was an explosion. She began to pray in the Spirit with Tongue of Angels. It was a wonderful sight to behold.

I saw a similar thing at Zumbalo Ministries with Apostle Job Agyo. 

Port Harcourt to Zing in Taraba State of Nigeria was quite a far distance and the reasonable thing to do was to travel a day ahead. But constrained by the Holy Spirit, I canceled my booking by Fair Plus Transport Company in Port Harcourt. The manager was a Muslim and when I went to the park to travel the next day he called attention of people around shouting, “Come and see this man of God”. I was told that the vehicle I was to travel with had an accident and the passenger on the side of the front seat I was booked to sit was in a very bad state. Stanley was PNUR partner and was the driver that took my wife and I on the trip the next day. When we arrived Jalingo by 6pm, the army man at the check point of the city gate to enter Taraba State parked our driver and accused him of dangerous driving. The fact is that it was not scientifically possible to have arrived at Jalingo by 8pm by road. I explained to him that it was not the driver’s problem but that God had given us a miracle. When we arrived at Apostle Job Agyo’s Center, he already started preaching because he concluded that we will obviously arrive late. The gentleman he is; he handed me the microphone and I started preaching immediately.

The Lord did it again; I saw people filled again with Holy Spirit with manifestation of speaking in Tongues and it was beautiful sight to behold. A woman later testified that she was healed of AIDS that night.  

This is what I asked from the Lord, I want to be Pentecost Carrier and glory to His name, He granted my request.

What we saw in our main text was an account of how Saul, the first king of Israel was baptized with the Holy Spirit. Atmosphere matters a lot and that is why one of things I do to get people filled in the Holy Spirit is to ask those who are already filled to gather around those who want to be filled and start to pray loudly in Tongues. The result has been the same, many people were filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time. 

Atmosphere is very powerful and influential; some people’s life would have been much more resourceful if not for the negative atmosphere that they have exposed themselves to. Yet, there are those, whose life would have amounted to nothing if they had not changed the unclean atmosphere they always go to. Atmosphere remains the reason of the recurring sicknesses in some lives and overflowing healthy living of others. Children raised in healthy peaceful atmosphere have been known to achieve more than those raised under atmosphere of strife.

Even though Saul had met with, eaten with and was anointed by a respected holy man of God, he was told that his encounter with an anointed atmosphere was necessary to activate all that God has for him. 

"After that you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you 1 Sam 10:5-7NIV

If Saul chose to avoid the anointed atmosphere and go to drunkards and any of such negative places, they would have polluted what God had for him

It is important now that your check your atmosphere.

There is also another side of this thing; the state of heart and motive of those who enter anointed atmosphere matters too.

I have a covenant of NO CASUALTY with the Holy Spirit and that means that no matter how people fall under anointing in my meetings, they never get hurt. Yet there are these two instances where two women got seriously wounded.

One case was at Ada Palm Farm Settlement in Imo State; a woman fell several times and went outside and started rubbing her face in the grass. We later discovered that she was an agent of satan who came to challenge the power of God. Another one was in Door of Hope Christian Center Port Harcourt; the Holy Spirit struck this woman’s head to the wall several times and she left bleeding; we later learned that she had lied against her pastor and caused serious problem in his family. Then she moved over to join my church. She did not know that the God at work in my ministry, is the God of her pastor.

We saw in our main text how Saul was blessed by the anointed atmosphere when his heart was right with God. But later on in his ministry, 

So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even upon him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. He stripped off his robes and also prophesied in Samuel's presence. He lay that way all that day and night. This is why people say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" 1 Sam 19:23-24NIV

This time the anointed atmosphere disgraced and rubbished him, so that he lay there naked in public view. It was the same Holy Spirit but the difference was his heart attitude.

If you are not been blessed by anointed atmosphere, don’t accuse God, check your heart. On this last day of our seven days fast captioned, OH LORD I NEED YOUR POWER, please check your heart because the atmosphere of divine power is locating you now.

Please, cry out -

“Oh Lord, I need your power!”

Emma your brother pnurnigeria@gmail.com