Day 1
Joshua 1
8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful
Success should be in every area of live. You are not a success if only do well in one aspect of life. Are you spiritually successful? Are you financially successful? Are you socially successful?
For example, in spiritual success a lot of us may not regard ourselves as backslidden because backsliding is regarded as that sister who got pregnant but you, you are not pregnant, we can see that. So, you are not backslidden? Or that brother who impregnated her. Those are the people we call backsliders.
But let me tell you something, If I am walking forward, I am making steps forwards, I am moving, if you in turn are just marking time, anybody else behind you will catch up with you and keep going ahead of you. I may have started doing on the first line, but if I stop and start marking time, I will be second line, the third line, at the end I will be in last line. I am backsliding without backsliding. Are you getting the point? That backsliding is not turning and running backwards, you can be facing forward, but because you have reduced your speed, you are actually going back to the back of the group.
And so, this discussion is also for such people who have not turned back, they are not going backwards, they seem to be going with us but they have slowed down. So, they are going back and back without moving back.
And you need to ask yourself whether the Lord is finding you at such a position, where when we look at you we ourselves cannot notice any difference. You are a good sister, you praise the Lord, you have not done anything wrong, but from the way you are in your relationship with God, something is not the way it was yesterday. So that although we don’t call you a backslider, the Lord knows you are backsliding because you are marking time. You are not growing. You are the way you were the last year. That’s the same way you are now. You are not growing. And when you don’t grow, you are marking time.
And I thought I need to mention for myself and for you that a time of revival is a time to jerk yourself up.?Those of us who are a little older will remember the lorries would refuse to move and they would need a hydraulic jerk to start. People below fifty have no idea what I am talking about but if you are above that you understand what I am talking about. We used to do swing it and the lorry engine would start. And this discussion is for jerking so that you restart the process. So that you can start moving at the speed the Lord wanted you to move.
And my prayer is that for you and me so that God will touch us so that we go back to our original speed. You know the bible actually says so in the book of Revelation. It says you used to be hot but you are no longer hot. So, something has happened. And you need to ask yourself, between now and the time you got saved, are you better, equal to or worse. If you are worse you are backsliding, if you are equal to you are marking time. The intention of God is that we all will move forward. That is spiritual success.
Day 2
1 chronicles 21
24 But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
The bible also says that if you stay without being hot, if you are lukewarm Jesus will spit you out of His mouth. You know, the way God puts it is rather interesting because in our own estimation we don’t work like that. He wants all people in the church to be hot. Then He also now mentions in the same portion of scripture there is also another two categories of people. Church does not just have hot people, it also has another two categories. Some are lukewarm and others are cold. Those three are in any church meeting.
Some of us are hot, some are lukewarm and some are cold.Success is being and remaining hot.
Let me ask you, if you are not hot, which do you prefer, lukewarm or cold? Assuming you are not hot, which will you prefer, lukewarm or cold? Many say Lukewarm. But you know, that is the way we argue as human beings. That from hot you come down to lukewarm and finally go to cold. Let’s now go back to Revelation. God has already chosen the hot, He is now left with another two groups to deal with. Some are lukewarm and some are cold. Which one does God prefer? Cold. Have you read that in the bible? He says, okay, you should be hot. Now you are left with these other two categories, He says in the church He would rather have the cold people than the lukewarm ones.
And you know many of us reading this may be lukewarm. We say, although I am not hot, at least I am not the temperature of sister so and so who is very cold. The word of God is saying He is preferring sister so and so who is cold rather than you.
Please understand lukewarm people are very dangerous because if you are lukewarm, we cannot even pray for you. We don’t see anything wrong with you. You know cold people, it is that one who has already gotten pregnant. Everybody is praying, oh sister you have really let us down. We really pray for you. But if you are lukewarm, you look okay, praise the Lord sister, nobody prays for you. Can you see why God does not want you lukewarm? Because if you are lukewarm nobody prays for you.
Number two, if you are lukewarm, nobody will preach to you. In fact, they even come for you to pray for them. Pray for me sister, not knowing you need more prayers than she. Because you see you are not cold. But the cold people are the ones who are so bad, they are trouble in the church. So, the whole church even has keshas just to pray for the cold.
Is it any surprising that cold people will end up in heaven and lukewarms will not. Because once you are lukewarm, you can be totally backslidden, we cannot tell. You may be completely forgotten because as you keep going backwards, in the final entry you will not be in the group that reaches destination.
Day 3
“When I came to the spring today, I said, ‘Lord, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come.
My sister, my brother, this discussion is to tell you God prefers that cold rather than lukewarm. So, if you are not hot, please backslide properly. Don’t backslide a little because the Lord is saying, He would rather have the cold. Because if you backslide properly, then we will concentrate on trying to help you. If you are lukewarm, we will leave you there.
So, where are you? The Lord is specifically talking to the lukewarm. By the way I know when we start talking lukewarm you say, but I am not in that category. That one Brother Ng’ang’a is talking about? It is not mine. let’s for example assume that some three brothers of mine are three different products. Remember we were told we need to be hot. Hot is the boiling point, isn’t it? Because if you say water is hot, it is lukewarm until it starts boiling. When it is boiling we call it hot. Do you know unfortunately we are not all made of the same substance? God has created us very different. He could easily call one thing hot at a lower temperature than another.
For example, the thing we normally do in the kitchen, we cook porridge, isn’t it? So I will call one brother porridge. We also do milk, so will call you brother milk. We also do water, isn’t it? So welcome brother porridge and brother milk and brother water. I know water boils at hundred degrees celsius but I am not very sure what the others boil at. Which one boils at a lower temperature? Milk or porridge? Milk. Milk with a little heat, it starts boiling. Let’s give it fifty degrees. Porridge requires more heat than even water. So, chances are it will not boil until it is a hundred and twenty.
So, let me ask you something. When water is at eighty and milk is at fifty, which one is lukewarm? Water at eighty, is much hotter than milk, God is looking at it and says, you are lukewarm. I will spit you out of my mouth! Water says, but wait a minute God! You are not being fair. Look at milk, it is at fifty. Me I am at eighty. Can’t you see God it is unfair for you to be looking at as lukewarm? Please go and help milk first. He says, I have no problem with milk, I created milk to boil at fifty and it is already at fifty. But I created you to boil at a hundred and you are eighty. I will spit you out of my mouth.
And you know that’s the problem of spiritual comparisons in church because sometimes you are not aware you were created to boil at a hundred. So, when you see yourself at ninety, the hottest sister this church knows, you think you are wonderful, not realizing you are lukewarm. You are the hottest but God is just about to spit you out of mouth because although you are at ninety you are not at a hundred.
Day 4
The Lord detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.
Let me give you a good example. May be the Lord has gifted me in the area of evangelism, He expects me to bring ten people to the Lord every week but I am bringing eight. And at eight, nobody in my church can come near my level because others on average are winning one or two. When you bring two people you fee like excited but me I am bringing eight. So, I don’t even feel like doing any more. I am hot, the hottest evangelist my church has. Not realizing God created me to bring ten per week and then He created you to bring three per week. You are already bringing your three, which is too low for me, I am bringing eight which is too low for God. Are you getting the point? So that at three, God is happy with you. At eight, He wants to spit me out of his mouth. Are you getting the point?
It is critical to understand you comparing yourself with other sisters is waste of time. You need to go to God yourself. And even if people think, you are great ignore it. The pastor says, we are so grateful for sister evangelist. I don’t know what this church could do without this sister so and so.
I agree you are such a blessing but the pastor is not the measure, God is the measure. You need to start asking, that although the committee of the church are so happy with me, is God happy with me? Success spiritually is pleasing the Lord. Because He is the one who is saying, even if you are the hottest here, God needs you to be hotter, you are still lukewarm because hot is boiling point. If you are not yet boiling, you are lukewarm and God is saying I will spit you out of my mouth.
So that’s something that you need to ask yourself as we discuss success. Are you at the temperature God wants you to be spiritually speaking?
The topic, succeeding in every area including the work place …. home and social environment etc. In other words, God is expecting you to be acting well, not just in church but even at work. So that success is not success until you succeed in all the areas the Lord has called you.
And some of you may have read my book, A Leader Source of Influence. I give seven areas that you must be a success in if you are to call yourself a success. You can get the books if somebody is interested from bookshops or from amazon.
I will talk about four areas. I will not go to all the seven areas. And I am saying four areas in which if you are going to be a success, because they all are important in God’s word. And if you are not doing well in them, then obviously there is something wrong with you. You are marking time or backsliding. Success means you are a success in all of them, not just one.
Day 5
Psalms 69
30 I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.31 This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hooves.
I want to take a moment just emphasize on that point, that success is not success unless you are succeeding in all the areas the bible requires. Let me repeat again, success is not success until you are succeeding in all areas. Let me give you an example, most of us have done exams, and let’s say you go to do an exam and there are five questions, each twenty marks. The first question you see it is your favourite. You enjoy it. You are given three hours to do exam. You are so good in that particular question that you take two hours and fifty minutes. It is only when it is ten minutes to time you remember, haiya, there were other questions! So, in ten minutes you now try to do the other four questions in ten minutes. Let me ask you, can you predict the results of the exam? Is that person likely to pass? No. Because when the results finally came out, what happened? The guy got a hundred percent of twenty marks because the first question he did so well, he got a full mark but he got one or two marks for the other questions. So, when you added it together, he had an E for the paper. Are you getting the point?
What happened? He succeeded in one area without passing in the other areas, and since the overall mark is for all of them, he was a failure. Not because he was not succeeding in one area but because he was not balanced. And that’s the message I want you to get. That many of us are picking one area and doing very very well in it, ignoring all the other areas. When the Lord finally wants to give us the mark for the paper, the mark for our lives, He will admit that my son, on this particular area, how you treated your wife, you really were good, I am very grateful to you. But on this area of ministry, you got a zero. Zero plus twenty equals, twenty. So, you are a failure. Not because He is not recognizing what you did, but because a paper has more questions than one.
The message the Lord has given me for myself and for you on this topic of succeeding in all areas is that many of us, our problem is that we are succeeding in some things and ignoring other areas. And it will be important that if you truly want to be regarded a success by God, to start looking at those other areas. Others are happy with your contribution
Unfortunately, the way we are measured by God is so totally different from the way we are measured by the world. For example, there is young man, he is doing very well in the high school exams. He goes to the university he does well, he gets a job, he is still doing well, the whole village is happy about hat man because of the way he is really professionally improving. Within no time he is the first young man from the village church youth group to drive a car, when he packs it outside the church we say, haiya, how successful.In fact when the pastor is talking, he says young people can’t you be like Brother Kokoko. Surely nobody is as good as Brother Kokoko. Because the pastor is so proud of the boy, the first boy from the youth group to drive a car and park it outside every Sunday. And once in a while he is sent by the pastor to various places.
But this same seemingly successful boy when you check his quiet time, he has not time for it. He has no time for quiet time with the Lord because he is too busy doing professional exams, too busy trying to pay the loan back for his car. He thus has not time for God. The whole church is happy with him because for sure he is good on one area, but the Lord is saying, to me and to you, if you pass in one area and fail in the others, the average mark is failure.
And that’s what you need to ask yourself. Are there areas in your life where you have to admit that you are not doing well yet you are doing well in other areas. I still remember a woman in a church somewhere, who was the chairman of the women ministry. And she was so good, the church really enjoyed her. But in her own home, she was bad news. The husband had nothing to do with church because he said, if to be church is to be like you, I want nothing to do with it. The pastor was rather disturbed by husband’s attitude because, the sister is such a blessing in the church, who can we be like this?
So, the pastor decided to specifically pray for the drunkard husband of this lady in the church. And he started looking for opportunities to talk to him. But the only way you would find him is to go to the bar. The pastor had to go to the bar and said, I would like to talk to you. Where? But I would like to talk to you at home not here in the bar. He said, you really want to talk to me about getting saved? Yes. Okay, I will agree we go home but please I am normally in karumaindo bar up to about ten o’clock. So, don’t come to me earlier than ten. Come through here at ten o’clock and we can go home together. And that’s what he did. He was picked by the pastor at around ten and they drove home.
The pastor was told, when we near the house keep quiet, don’t talk unless I allow you. So, they got near the house, they knocked. Remember the pastor is told not to talk, only the owner of the house can talk. So, he knocked, nobody answered. Knocked again. it is around now towards eleven o’clock in the night. He knocked again, nobody answered. He shouted, mama watoto! Nobody answered. Finally, after knocking for a long time, the church women leader finally talked and started saying, is this the time you want to /. Satan’s time. You are Satan yourself. Basically, the wife, this dear sister in the Lord called her husband the devil who comes at night. The one who is hopeless. Any name a man can be called was in the vocabulary of the chairlady.
After she had insulted him and she was tired, she finally opened the door, only to find the pastor and the husband at the same time. You think the pastor can preach to the lady? What subject would you do? So, she said, come in. then the lady said, surely pastor Why would you choose to visit when the devil is around. Are you getting the point? That was the end of witnessing of the pastor because he didn’t know where to begin witnessing to the man. Because the man started saying, okay, you want me to be insulting others like this? Is that what you want me to do?
You came all the way to tell me to be like my wife? That’s what you have been telling me in the bar. That your wife is so good, that you want me to be like her. Is that what you want? The pastor by that time was sweating wondering what to do. He said, can we talk another day? So, the pastor ran away. Are you getting the point?
Day 6
I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord.
How many of us are like that? Where you are so successful in one area, but hopeless in another areas. The final result for any one of us who are teachers know that even if you do well in question one, that if you don’t attempt the other four questions, the final result is fail. And that’s what the Lord wants us to discuss on this issue.
Let’s start with the issue of quiet time. And it is a very important thing, I would like you to read Joshua 1:8,
8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
But I would also have wanted us to read Mark 3, it is where Jesus appoints the disciples, the twelve of them.
13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve[a] that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons
The bible says that He went up to the hill to pray then He came down and He called to himself, and then the apostles are named. Then in verse twelve of Mark 3 He says what they were to do. He says, He called them
that they might be with him
and that
He might send them out to preach.
But the first reason God calls us is so that we might be with him. Later He might send you to preach but preaching is not the priority. When Jesus calls you to himself is not so that you can preach to others, it is to be with him.
In Joshua 1:8, we get the Joshua formula of success. Remember our topic is succeeding. Joshua says, if you want to be a success, this book of the law must not depart out of your mouth. And then he says, you must meditate on it every evening? Is that what the bible says? Is that what you read? What did it say? Day and night. So, you need to understand that if you want to be a success you cannot be regarded as an overall success if your quiet time is a question mark. You must begin with it. Are you having a personal time with the Lord?
Day 7
Living to Please God
As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.
And I am not referring just to the family altar. I discovered when I got married in 1979, that’s the first thing I struggled with because as a young man, born again, I had a consistent quiet time between me and God. Then I got a wife that is called Rebecca. Once she came home, I realized there was no private place. You know I was sharing my house with other, we had been in the university together. I was the chairman of the University Christian Union in 1975. The CU secretary and me got jobs in Nairobi, then we were sharing a house. So, we were really praying.
But after group prayers, in the evening you would go to your room. The house had three rooms, so you go to your room. But when she came, there was no such a room because now if I went to the toilet, if I went to the bathroom it is also her bathroom, if I go to the bedroom it is also her bedroom. Can you see now you have a problem with personal time with God. But we were praying together as the new family. But slowly I discovered my personal time with God has been interfered with by our personal time with God. Can you see the difference? I mean, my wife and I, were very excited wanting to pray, and we were praying together. But I have no time between me and God.
Until I realized if I want to continue with the Lord, I must still have family altar, but I must have also a Ng’ang’a altar. John must pray alone, even after praying together with and Rebecca.
And you need to understand that. You know like when our children were finally born, we now needed another family altar. I bought a book which was bible in picture because my children had not gone to school yet. So, we can’t say they read the bible. I would open a picture about Moses discuss it then we pray together. We have always had our family altar.
But If that’s the only thing my sister you have, that’s baby stuff and baby food is good for babies. But it is important to look for adult food. And it is important to ask yourself, as a family, are you being satisfied with baby stuff? So that after you have prayed as a family, you as the mother of the family never has one on one with God, you as the father of the family has no one on one with God?
Remember our topic is success. It will not be success until you learn although you are praying as a family, you must have a personal time with God.In fact somebody calls it systematic daily personal quiet time. You must have a systematic daily time. But we call it quiet., let me start with the requirement that it is quiet, because it means you talk to God and God talks to you without others. Morning glory, which is now very popular in Nairobi is also a good time but it is not a quiet time, it is a noise time. It can still bless you, but even after morning glory, you still need a quiet time because quiet time means you are listening to God alone.
But you know we have a generation I am calling the power house generation. Many people who are forty years and below do not really understand a time with God because these meetings have become so popular meetings. People are waking up very early to go to morning glory. And you ask them, do you ever meet God alone?
Do you know such people if they are posted in Somalia they can’t pray? Because they only know God hears noise. So, when you pray and nobody is making some noise, you feel like God is not there, because for God to be there you must make some noise and once you all have noise God is hearing. It will be important that you have that noisy time but also have a quiet time.