To delay is to put something off that could have happened now. To stop progress. To postpone.

You could be in kenya right now, but was supposed to go overseas 5 years ago.
While progress is mostly hindered by demonic forces, there are times you will be hindered by God, as we will find out.

Many believers’ are going through hardships as a result of slowed down lifestyles.

Types of Delay

1. Divine Delay
God deliberately causes you not to progress.
It is brought about by God for one to gain spiritual maturity. God deliberately slows you down from getting to your destiny so that you can be moulded into what He desires.
God wants to demonstrate His power in our lives and also build our faith.

He wants to glorify Himself through our situations, eg the situation with Lazarus in John 11: 5- 6, Jesus heard of Lazarus’ illness but stayed two more days in the place where He was.

He only went to see Lazarus when he was already dead. For the reason that He loved Lazarus, it was expected that He would rush and heal him, only for Him to visit Lazarus’ family when Lazarus was dead and in the tomb.

God glorified Himself by raising Lazarus from the dead three days later.

2. Personal Delay
It is largely brought about by sins (Isaish 59:2) and spiritual laziness.

Also brought about by actions, mistakes and eras made by individuals in their personal lives that slow them down.
For instance in decision making, one could choose a situation over another that has delayed consequences.

3. Programmed Delay
It is demonic. It is brought about by the devil.
Satanic delay is a state of slowing down.
It is a weapon of the enemy used to tear down one’s glory.

Some believers are very smart. This means it should reflect in their physical lives since intelligence is God given to enable men in the physical.
Satanic delay brings struggle, shutters a man’s dreams, and binds one’s life.

Dreams to Indicate Delay
1. Running in slow motion
Most prevalent dream in this case. Running in slow motion indicates a slowed down life.
2. Snails.

Snails move at a slow pace. If you see them in dreams, the spirit of delay is evident.

3. Dreams where you see a bus leaving you behind just when you are about to board.

4. Dreams where the scholl bell rings before you are done with your exam.

5. Driving a car that gets stuck in mud.
6. Dreams where you go on a journey but get lost before arriving at your destination.

Delay can be defeated and it is all in God’s Word.

The Psalmist cries to God in these two scriptures. He asks God to incline His ear to him.
Psalms 31: 2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
Psalms 102:2 “Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.”

There are incurable wounds and injuries beyond healing according to Jer 30: 12.
The Almighty God, however, promises to restore your health and heal your wounds (verse 17.)

According to Matt 18:18, whatever we bind on earth will be bound in Heaven. Whatever we loose on earth, will be loosed in Heaven.

Diversion is the change of direction or rather taking an alternative route.
Diversion can also be defined as taking away attention from a main course/path.

You could be living a life of challenges, hoping that you will overcome some day. What you dont know is that an exchange happened,and your course was diverted.
A relative could be living the life you were meant to live.
This goes even for the marital life. It is possible for your right partner to be exchanged for a wrong one.
The story of two prostitute women in 1 Kings 3:16-20, serves as a good case study for diversion. These two women had gone to King Solomon with a dispute. One woman had exchanged her dead child with the other woman’s child. This is a good example of exchanged blessings.

Types of Diversion

Godly Diversion
God can change your course to protect you, or rather so that you can move in the direction He wants for your destiny/career/ministry.
According to Acts 16:6, Paul and his companions were diverted by the Holy Spirit. He kept them from preaching in the province of Asia.

Personal Diversion
This occurs when you fail to listen to advice/counsel. You will finally end up where you were not meant to.
Jonah, in the scriptures had his course diverted. God sent him to warn the people of Nineveh.

He boarded a ship to Tarshish instead.
He made a decision to change the path he was supposed to tread on.

Satanic Diversion
This type of diversion is programmed by demons and the kingdom of darkness.
In the realms of the spirit, one’s destiny can be seen when they are young. It is possible to discern that someone is meant for greatness.
No wonder you will hear people talk of ‘stolen stars.’

A child could be meant to be a great man of God. The devil manipulates/exchanges their destiny for another course, so that they won’t live up to their rightful purpose.

Inherited Diversion
This kind of diversion is inherited from your parents, grand parents, and people in your lineage.
Your course could have been diverted at a particular point in your life, same case as your mother’s.

If you notice certain repetitive pattterns in your family, diversion could be evident.
It is not a coincidence that you failed at something the same way your parent failed and in the same age bracket.

Transferred Evil Diversion
To transfer is to move someone or something from one place to another.
For instance, you could be planning to buy a car after saving up for a while.

An urgent need will arise from nowhere, say a relative’s illness, forcing you to spend the money on it.
This type of Diversion is also demonic. It is not in God’s will for your money to go into unplanned needs.

In Genesis 48, a transfer/exchange of blessings happened between Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph.
Ephraim who was younger, acquired the first born’s blessing.

Jacob, the grandfather, crossed his hands on the brothers, as he was blessing them, to divert Manasseh’s blessing. Joseph intervened but Jacob confirmed that he knew exactly what he was doing. This is a classic example of transferred blessing.

Change of direction renders one’s life wasted and without purpose. However, a destiny can be recovered in Christ Jesus.

By Pastor Gitahi Daniel, Christian Foundation Fellowship (CFF) Donholm Kenya.

Joel 2:28 “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

Visions accompany gifts. When it comes to gifts, God can use visions, to show you where He is taking you in ministry or even in your personal life.

Unlike dreams,spiritual visions are clear and precise. You will see animals, people, nature etc in dreams where the meaning is hidden and requires interpretation.
In a vision, the image will be obvious and it will not carry any hidden meanings.

There are three (3) types of visions:

1. Vision of the mind

This vision clearly flashes in the mind in an instance. You will see an image of someone or something go through your mind quickly probably to communicate something.

2. Open vision

A kind of vision where you see something openly. A person experiences the vision as a physical reality.
In Acts 12, Peter experienced an open vision in which an angel of the Lord set him free from where he had been bound in prison. For a moment, Peter thought that he was dreaming.
Sometimes you will do something that feels really familiar.

You will realise that you had done the thing before somewhere. This is because you had had an open vision of the activity before.
In Acts 10: 3- 7, Cornelius experienced an open vision in which an angel of the Lord spoke to him about Peter.

3. Trance Vision.

In Acts 10: 9 -17, the Bible narrates of how Peter fell into a trance.
He had gone up to the roof to pray. He saw Heaven open and a large sheet containing four- footed animals, reptiles and birds being let down to earth. A voice told him to get up, kill and eat the animals to which he objected.

In a trance, the reality of your physical surroundings disappears and you become fully conscious of the spiritual realm.

Continue reading “THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF VISIONS.”

By Pastor Gitahi Daniel, Christian Foundation Fellowship (CFF) Donholm, Kenya.

Inorder to access the spiritual realm fully, we must be full of the Holy Spirit.
Speaking in tongues is not an indication that one is filled with the Holy Spirit.

As a Christian, the Holy Spirit will get in you to be with you and upon you.

The Holy Spirit in you;
You receive the Holy Spirit after getting born again and becoming a new being.

The Holy Spirit with you;
This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit (deep immersion)
At this point, a Christian becomes fiery.

The Holy Spirit upon you;
When He is upon you, you are enabled to serve in the Kingdom of God. (Isaiah 61:1)
You receive annointing for God’s work.

Why do we need the Holy Spirit of God then?

THE WORKS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

1. The Holy Spirit dwells in us all the time.

He is very delicate and easily departs when offended.

Jesus, on the other hand, is not as delicate and serves us multi faceted grace.
God, the Father, is full of love and it is because of His love for us that He even gives us chances when we mess up.

The feeling of guilt that engulfs you as a believer when you do something wrong is all as a result of the fellowship you have with the Holy Spirit.

We are filled with the Holy Spirit on a daily basis and we grow from one level to another; the infilling of the Spirit of God.
He is omnipresent and therefore able to dwell in all of us as believers.

John 14:17 “the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

You cannot really know the truth of God if you don’t have His Spirit of truth.
The Holy Spirit does not force Himself on people.
The only way to receive Him is by allowing Him into your life.

The people of the world:
Cannot Receive Him
Do not see Him
Do not know Him.

Those who know Him are the ones in whom He DWELLS.
Rich is he who has the Holy Spirit.

1 Cor 6:19 says that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who IS IN US, WHOM WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM GOD.

2. The Holy Spirit guards our salvation.

He comes as a witness to confirm with certainty the truth of what we received. Rom 8:16 ‘The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

2 Cor 1: 22 says that God has set His seal of ownership on us and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come, 2 Cor 5:5 says the same.

3. Holy Spirit gives us hope and peace during difficult times.

As believers, we ought to hear the voice of God in regard to whatever situations we could be in.

According to Romans 14:17, the Kingdom of God is a matter of Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Spirit but not a matter of eating and drinking.

Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

4. The Holy Spirit gives us strength and endurance during trials.

A believer will encounter difficult people and difficult moments in their spiritual journey.

Jesus at Gethsemane was whipped at the High priest’s house by difficult people. For us, it is during such moments that the Holy Spirit gives us strength and endurance to overcome the trials.

Eph 3:16 says that it is from God’s riches in glory that we gain strength in Him.
God will give you strength and peace in whatever situations you could be in.

5. THE HOLY SPIRIT brings conviction.

He keeps us as believers on our toes on the areas of our lives that we need to check on and change.
The conscience that cautions you with power against certain habits or wrongdoings is the voice of the Holy Spirit.

John 16: 8 says that the Holy Spirit will convict the people of sin, of righteousness and of judgement.
The Gospel also comes with power and conviction of the Spirit and not simply with words (1 Thes 1:5)

He tells us of sins and their repercussions, of righteousness and how to be right with God and of judgement to come against sin.
Do not ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit by justifying your actions against His conviction.

6. He Provides power over temptations.

Gal 5:16 says that we should walk by the spirit and in that way, we will never gratify the desires of the flesh.

The Holy Spirit is not at work where a believer easily lies, falls into temptations etc.
When the Holy Spirit is at work in us, He gives us power to overcome as long as we allow Him to dwell in us.

When He takes charge over us and takes full control;

a. We are spiritual creations.
When the Spirit of God takes control over a believer they become spiritual creations that cannot be swayed easily.
b. We are new creatures.
c. He dwells in us.
d. We are led by the Spirit (Rom 8:14)

Those that are led by the Spirit of God are the children/sons of God. This means that this is the criteria for discerning God’s child/son.

John 1:12
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

e. We walk by the Spirit (Gal 5: 16)

f. We are empowered.

7. The HOLY SPIRIT grows us into Holiness

1 Peter 1: 2 says that we were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

We are purified by the Spirit of God so that we can obey the Master Jesus Christ. We are purified by the blood of Jesus so that we can have fellowship with God. Without the Holy Spirit, we will not obey God. Speaking in tongues is not an indication that we are Spirit-filled.

Those that are Spirit- filled are obedient to God’s laws and statues. It is the Holy Spirit that cautions us through sanctification against bad habits as tithe eating, lying, being easily angered etc therefore enabling us to grow in holiness.

By Pastor Gitahi Daniel, Christian Foundation Fellowship (CFF) Donholm Kenya.

WEIGHT OF THE SPIRIT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE BURDEN OF THE SPIRIT.

The spirit of heaviness i.e weight of the spirit is demonic and it targets at afflicting a behaviour.
On the other hand, the burden of the spirit is where as a believer, you feel an overwhelming desire to do God’s work.
The devil has, unfortunately, exchanged the burden of the Spirit for the weight of the spirit for most believers.

HOW CAN YOU DEAL WITH THE WEIGHT OF THE SPIRIT?

1. Put aside sinful behaviour.

Whatever wrongs you do open doors for demonic affliction.
Do not allow yourself to sin.
In Heb 12:1, the scriptures say that we should lay aside every sin that easily entangles.

2. Deal with strongholds in your mind.

2 Cor 10: 4 – 6
There are things you find yourself in and realise that you have changed from the person you were in the past.
In this case, it means there is a stronghold in your mind.

You find that you’re being forced to seek and serve God as opposed to the past where you really had the burden of the same.

3. Have Faith in God.

Jer 32:27 “I am the Lord , the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?
2 Tim 4: 18 “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Nothing is too hard for God as long as we have faith. When going through hardships, He will make a way out.

4. Don’t believe anything negative.

It is all about you, who believes in God not about everyone else in your family or lineage and what reports they have received over time.
Your current circumstances do not and shouldn’t determine your destiny.

5. Focus on God

Phil 3:13 insinuates that the one important thing for us is; forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead.

Do not drool over your circumstances and situations. Look at what is ahead and what God wants you to achieve.
1 Peter 5:7 says that we ought to cast all our anxiety on Him because He cares for us.

Psalms 42:5 “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.”

FOUR DS IN GIFTS

By Pastor Gitahi Daniel, Christian Foundation Fellowship (CFF) Donholm Kenya.

A gift is like a baby. Just like an infant grows slowly but sure, so should spiritual gifts. There are 4 things you need to know when it comes to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We are all called to be something in the Body of Christ and for that, there are gifts deposited in us which enable us to serve more powerfully and with backing from Heaven.

1. Desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 14:1)

“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.”

The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. Without these gifts, we’ll just serve powerlessly. The Holy Spirit distributes them as He wishes and as we desire.

2. Be determined to know the gift of the Spirit.

You must determine your rightful gift.
There are people who do not know what their gifts are, others are placed wrongly in service.

– Pray to God to determine you right gift and place in the Kingdom of God.
If you are not comfortable with where you are serving, it means you are spiritually misplaced.

– Talk to people who know you especially the saved brothers and sisters. They are in a better position to tell what is in you and what it is that you are able to do.

– Seek out Spiritual mentors. Your spiritual mentor could be that Man of God in your life. In any case we all need to be mentored spiritually to grow in service to God and others.

Ask the spiritually mature people in your life where they think you would fall in service in the Body of Christ.

– Observe the areas of your life where you feel inspired to serve God.
What is that one thing that attracts you in the Kingdom? Some people are really gifted when it comes to telling others to repent and give their lives to Christ. It means they can evangelise.

Others do well in encouraging people in distress. Whatever area of your life you are inspired to serve is your rightful place of service.

3. Develop Spiritual gifts.

There are no former servers in the Body of Christ. If you find yourself reminiscing on how much you used to serve in the past, it means you are sitting on your spiritual gift.

Pray for opportunities and do not be afraid to try. Let your spiritual gift grow

4. Do/ Use your Spiritual Gift.

Dont just warm seats in Church. Spiritual gifts are meant to be put into meaningful use. On discovering yours, be on your best gear to serve diligently, faithfully and persistently.

A gift comes with power, if it is not put into use it consumes. Some people will even get sick over unused gifts.

Continue reading “GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.”

By Pastor Gitahi Daniel, Christian Foundation Fellowship (CFF) Donholm Kenya.

We are called to intercessory as believers. A prayerless believer is a powerless believer. Other than praying for ourselves, we ought to pray for others close to us and even those that are not.

The following illustration is meant to help us always remember how to stand in the gap with the help of the Holy Spirit. We call it the five – finger prayer mainly because we use the five fingers to illustrate.

Always remember these five areas you ought to intercede for.

THE FIVE – FINGER PRAYER

1. The thumb.
Whenever you see the very first finger and probably the biggest, remember to always pray for those who are close to you. Stand in the gap for those you love, care about and are basically close with. This includes family members and relatives.

Pray for your siblings and those you basically consider family. Friends also fall under this category.

2. The Index finger.
Pray for those who teach, guide, counsel and instruct you. Your Pastor i.e the Man if God in your life is the very first person you should remember while praying for people in thus group.

Pray for the Sevants of God that you know, hear and learn from.

3. The Middle Finger.
Pray for your leaders and all those who are in authority. The middle finger is probably the longest and therefore serves as a constant reminder that the people that govern us are always in need of our prayers. When a nation’s leaders stand, the nation does too.

Stand in the gap for the President, the Administration and all those in power.

4. The Ring Finger.
Remember to always pray for the needy. The sick, the weak, the poor and all those going through difficult situations all fall in here.

5. The Pinky Finger.
The smallest and the last finger on the hand. As an intercessor, you will probably remember yourself last.

It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take time praying for yourself. The idea here is to always put other people’s needs before God first and allow their needs to take preference over your personal needs.

A believer should live a life of prayer. Intercessory is not limited to the points above. Praying constantly and daily helps us fellowship with the Holy Spirit as He guides us into what we ought to pray for.

By Pastor Gitahi Daniel, Christian Foundation Fellowship (CFF) Donholm Kenya.

In the old covenant, it was “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” type of engagement.
However, when Jesus came to reunite us with the Father a lot changed.

In Matt 26: 51-53, Peter chops off the ear of the High Priest’s servant in resistance with what they were putting Jesus through.
Jesus contradicted Peter’s action and said this to him “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” Verse 53.

Jesus was indicating that our battles would never again be physical but spiritual.

Angels are involved in our spiritual battles.
There are forces of heaven that protect us and when we fight spiritual battles, our prayers provoke a release of these mighty forces in our favour; to engage the powers of darkness that are against us. Archangel Michael is in charge of the forces of Heaven tasked with war.

We dont worship angels or pray to them, they are servants.
When you get born again, you become entitled to privileges such as angelic service as long as you remain right with God.

Remember that one of the key reasons why Jesus came was to destroy the works of the devil.
This shows the power that the believer was given.

We are surrounded by an invisible reality, a host of angels and of demons engage in battles and victories. Here is how different Angels are from demons.

Angels are different from demons:

1. Angels can appear as humans while demons inhabit humans.
Abraham was visited by just random men whom he thought were visiting the area. He welcomed them and showed hospitality. The angels left blessings in Abraham’s household in return.
Be careful to be kind. You could be showing hospitality to angels.

2. Angels, in their activities glorify and worship the name of the Lord. (Isaiah 6:3)
Demons shiver and scream in fear when the name of the Lord is mentioned. (Mark 3:11)

3. Angels celebrate the salvation of brethren. (Luke 15:10) There is a celebration in heaven when a sinner repents.

Demons obstruct/are against our salvation (Mark 9: 25) Salvation means that the Kingdom of darkness has lost a soul.

4. The holy Angels protect those that fear the Lord (Psalms 91:11) Demons attack believers. (Matt 12: 43-45)

A well born again believer is an enemy of the Kingdom of darkness.

5. Angels seek to unite us with God. (Rom 8:37-39)
Demons seek to separate us from God.
Remember that demons are not in favour of any of us Christians.

6. The Angels inhabit the Church to worship. They come to worship with brethren. They take reports to Heaven of the Churches they are incharge of. On the other hand, Demons inhabit the Church to distract the service.
Luke 4:33-35. Some believers fall asleep during service as a result of the demonic distraction.

7. Angels point us to God. Demons kill our fellowship with God. Angels are servants who delight when we stand right with God. Demons take their pleasure in damaging Godly fellowship.

Angels are servants. We are therefore not supposed to worship them or pray to them. In Heaven, all they do is worship God because He alone deserves worship by all beings.

By Pastor Gitahi Daniel, Christian Foundation Fellowship (CFF) Donholm Kenya.

God already knows the days of your life and He has planned good things for you. When our faith is tested, as believers, we become desperate.

The feeding of the five thousand is a story we are all conversant with but have you ever realised how the characters in the story are a good illustration of what kind of believers there are in our Churches today?

The hungry multitude, Philip, Andrew and even Simon Peter- although not really mentioned in the script but was with Jesus- are classic examples of how different belivers are when it comes to believing in God’s power.

1. THE HUNGRY MULTITUDE

Some of these people followed Jesus because they were spiritually hungry while others were there for personal benefits.

In our Churches, some believers are there to genuinely seek God while others are there for other reasons.

The latter will leave Churches when they are ejected from leadership positions.

The hungry multitude follow the miracles of God but not the God of miracles.

These people actually followed Jesus the following day for the reason that they had seen food multiply the previous day. Would you believe that?

We should stop going to God only for miracles. Why not hunger for this God and not His miracles? Why can’t we fast to worship God and for intimacy and not to ask for anything?
Many believers are after God’s hand (miracles) and not His face (presence) These kind of believers seek food but not the provider – Jehovah Jireh.
The hungry multitude dont make commitments to the Bread of Life.

2. THE PHILIP KIND (John 6:5-7)

To Philip, one of the disciples, Jesus enquired about where they would get food. The Word says that He only asked him to test him.
Philip calculated what it would cost them to feed the multitude.

John 6:7 “Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

The Philips, do their calculations according to what they earn, where they come from, their pasts, the circumstances that surround them etc, and not what the Lord is saying to them.
It was the same Philip that asked Jesus to show him and the disciples the Father even after being with Jesus and witnessing His deeds for three years (John 14: 8-9)

3. THE ANDREW KIND (John 6: 8-9)

Another disciple, Andrew, spoke up and told Jesus that there was a boy with 5 small loaves of bread and 2 fish.
His concern however, was the fact that the boy’s food was never going to feed the huge crowd. He was being logical.

The Andrews, today, follow Christ but are always questioning how it is going to be done. However hard they pray, their perspective is physical and based on logical reasoning.

Andrews way of believing was/is very limited. They see the size of the problem more than the power of God.
They forget that the King of Kings, the Lord Almighty is the one they look up to.
We need to see things the same way Christ does.

4. THE SIMON – PETER KIND.

Jesus asks Simon Peter to let the nets down for a catch in the deep waters (Luke 5: 2 -7) This was after they had worked all night and caught nothing.

In verse 5, Simon Peter acknowledges the power of God and specifically says “but because you say so, I’ll cast down the nets.”

After obeying, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. They had to signal their partners in the other boat to come and help them.

The Simon Peters recognise that they have no power of their own and the fact that they could be limited but God’s power is not.
They don’t doubt what God can do.
It is also noticeable that when Jesus was enquiring about what they would feed the multitude, the scriptures dont record Simon Peter saying anything yet he was very vocal – as we know from the scriptures.

Be a Simon Peter type of believer. At God’s divine Word, everything changes.

Eph 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.