What Is Your Offer?

"For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finist it?" (Luke 14:28)

You can experience a positive or negative change. Change could also take a downward or upward turn. Irrespective of the direction it follows, change can be quite costly. For istance to move from being a certificate holder to being a university graduate is a change for the better but it comes with some price. To move from being a spinster to being a mother requires some price. To move from being a bench warming church member to a pastor is also at some cost. In the same vein, to move from being an ordinary minister into some outstanding one operating in the miraculous takes some great price. If you are not prepared to pay the price attached to a desired change it will keep eluding you. At best you can only wish you had that desired end.

Building castles in the air without a commensurate step in faith will not bring your dreams into reality. Some people have been having big dreams from their childhood but because they were not ready to pay the price for their actualisation they remained dreamers and died with their dreams unrealised. Do you have a dream? If no, then you do not even have a destination or a future. Your dream gives you reason to live. If you have no dream, you have no future. If you have a dream for your life, do you know the price you are required to pay? Can you pay it?

Sometimes you may misconstrue the price tag attached to a desired positive change. For instance, while Naaman was stepping out in his quest for healing, he came with lots of money (2nd Kings 5:9-13). He was prepared to pay money worth the equivalent of millions of today currency. But God required something else - not money. His change cost him his pride. He was reduced to nothing. He was sent to wash in the dirty waters of River Jordan unaccompanied by the prophet. What are you prepared to pay for your change? Does it agree with what God wants from you? If it does not tally, then your desired change may never come. Some people are ready to give God money but God is asking for their time. Some offer God only their intellect, whereas God wants them to give Him everything - time, money, intellect, and even their lives. Are you sure your sacrifice is adequate?

ACTION: If your offer is not commensurate with Heaven's demands, your desire from heaven may not be granted.

Moving Upward or Downward?

Just as a change can be for better or for worse, so also can it bring about an increase or a decrease. In the parable for the talents recorded in Mathew 25:24-30, a man started trading with five talents and ended with 10 talents. That is a change in increase. On the other hand, another man started his business with one talent but at the end, it was taken away from him. He was reduced  to nothing: that was  a change of decrease. 

The Lord made a shocking statement on this in verse 29: "For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken  away even that which he hath". In other words, if you do not have and do not intend to change that situation, you will continue to decline to lose even the little you think you have. Here, God is saying the rich can grow richer and the poor poorer. If you lack the anointing and you are nonchalant about it, before you would realize it, you could even loose the salvation you thought was safely in your custody. What the Lord is saying is that you must always position yourself for an increasing change. Not doing anything at all automatically positions you for a decrease. What are you doing to change your life for good? In any way you have contributed to the present decline you are facing, terminate it by doing something positive about it. 

In 1st Samuel 3:19-21, we are told of how young Samuel kept growing in the things of God to the extent of becoming an established prophet in Israel. He benefited from an upward change. On the other hand, the sons of Eli who could have succeeded their father continued to go from bad to worse until they were completely replaced in Gods plan. By your deeds,   you determine whether you will experience an upward or a downward change. Any time you violate God’s Word or go out of God’s Will, your change moves downwards and towards a negative outcome. If you want to experience an upward movement on a progressive basis, abide in Christ. Let Him be your residence. Dwell in Him and let him dwell in you. Shut up every loophole in your life. You will move forward from today.

ACTION: Make JESUS your ally and your change will be upwards.