'...The Kingdom of God is at hand...'           

 

At Last!

I broke free. Praise the Lord! What a struggle it has been. The enemy has done all within his power to stop me from doing what I know the Lord has asked me to do. How he (the devil) has failed woefully. He could only delay, but not stop it. As a matter of fact, a number of my friends who received the ‘HEFFO’ series have asked what has happened to my newsletters. Many said they enjoyed them very much and found them edifying. The truth is that those newsletters probably blessed me more than they did any other person.

 

Well, dear friends, it’s great to be back again. Like Daniel, the Prince of Persia has had a long wrestle with me along the way to fulfilling this mission. But praise the Lord, he has lost yet again, and will continue to lose, in Jesus’ Name. My newsletter is back; this time not as ‘HEFFO’, but as the ‘Millennium Echo’. This is not suggesting that the issues that were examined in the  ‘HEFFO’ series – Holiness, Excellence, Focus, Favour and Open heavens have ceased to be relevant. Rather, it is because the Lord wants to take us higher into the things that are very dear to His heart – the souls of men. How can we feel the heart of God on this matter if these attributes do not manifest in our lives?

 

Beloved, I never want to do anything without receiving the ‘go ahead’ from the Lord. It was

 

during one of those intimate sessions of prayer and meditation with My Father as we were approaching the Millennium, that I inquired about whether He would want me to continue with my letters of exhortation, and what He would wish them called. After seeking His face for a while, the Lord gave me a name – ‘Millennium Echo’. Dear friends, we have a mission from God to preach the gospel of the kingdom and to prepare the way for His return, for ‘the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand …’ (Mark 1:15). It is my prayer that you would be richly blessed with each issue of the ‘Millennium Echo’ that you would receive, in Jesus’ Name. Amen!

 

Millennium Celebration

How did you celebrate the ‘Millennium’? Aren’t we a privileged generation to be alive to witness the unique event of a new Millennium, something that happens once every thousand years? I think we are. However, the privilege itself carries with it an onerous responsibility as far as the kingdom of God is concerned. For, God has winked at our days of ignorance and now calls ALL men to repentance.

 

Isn’t it amazing that we hardly hear much about the Millennium 

these days. Only some months back, there was so much talk about ‘The Year 2000’, and ‘The Millennium Bug’. Some even predicted that the world would come to an end. However, we

 

praise God, that “it is not for (us) to know the times and the seasons which the father has

put in His own authority” (Acts

1:7). But as we have received power, the Lord expects us to be “witnesses to (Him) in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

 

The ‘Year 2000’ has since been with us, and as for the ‘Millennium Bug’, it was but a ‘scare crow’. Rather than come as a ‘bug’ to infect our computers, the ‘bug’ chose to manifest in the form of the ‘flu bug’ that swept across many parts of Europe and America. Many including myself were unfortunate victims of the bug. This is one of the reasons this ‘Millennium Echo’ is being released much later than it would otherwise have been.

 

It was rather strange and humbling to find myself in the ‘Accident and Emergency Department’ of the Sunderland Royal Hospital on 1 January 2000, whilst the rest of the world (except others in the same predicament as myself) were celebrating the ‘New Millennium’. Nevertheless, I did not lose hope because I have always prayed that the Lord would turn around what appear to be negative situations in my life and cause them to work together for my good. Hence Romans 8:28 is one of my favourite verses in the Bible. Therefore, I have great faith and assurance that this year will be significant and special for my family and I.  Praise God, it is already happening !!! I’m sure it is the same for you too. Amen!

Lord of the Millennium

It is true that we do not hear much about ‘the Millennium’ as it was some months back, yet nothing has changed. This Millennium is all about Jesus.

 

2000 years ago, a Baby was born of a virgin in an obscure Middle Eastern town of Bethlehem. Time has since been measured from his birth. It would be incredulous to think of the Millennium outside of Jesus. I recently stumbled across a little tract that I had first read in the early 1970s, ‘One Solitary Life’, written by an anonymous author:

 

“He was born  in an obscure village,

The child of a peasant woman.

He grew up in yet another village,

Where He worked in a carpenter’s shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

 

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a big house. He didn’t go to college. He never travelled more than 200 miles from the place where He was born. He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

 

He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, his executioners gambled for His clothing, the only property He had on earth.

 

Nineteen centuries have come and gone and today He is the central figure of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as that one solitary life”.

 

Jesus is the Lord of the Millennium, and this Millennium presents us with a unique opportunity to witness about His saving grace.

 

The Great Commission

If there is something that is very dear to the heart of God, it is this wish – THAT NO ONE SHOULD PERISH, but that ALL should come to repentance and be saved.

 

I believe we are living in rather peculiar and exciting times. God has chosen this period to prepare His Church for what He is about to do. The Great Commission has not changed – the command is that we ‘go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature’. Unfortunately, this is an area where MANY in the Body of Christ need deliverance. Rather than obey the command to ‘GO’, it appears that many of us wait (or are waiting) for the world to come to us.

 

Test of Obedience

Beloved, if we love Him; if we declare that He is the Lord of our lives, why are we not obeying His command? Jesus Himself said, ‘why do you call me “Lord, Lord. And do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46; Matthew 7:21-23). Those of us who are parents know how we feel when our children disobey us. We walk in constant disobedience every time we fail to preach the gospel whenever we have the opportunity to do so. Imagine the Apostle Paul crying ‘woe is me if I preach not the gospel’.

 

How Wise are You?

Interestingly, Proverbs 11:30 says, ‘he who wins souls is wise’. Therefore, going by mathematical inference, the reverse is also true - ‘he that does not win souls is unwise’.

 

Don’t Assume they Know

This reminds me of an incident that took place some time in the mid 1980s when a friend of mine met me at our University car park. As our conversation progressed, she said, “Ngozi, so this is the treasure you people have been enjoying all these years. I am now a born-again Christian”. She queried that I had never really explained to her how to become a born-again Christian, but that I only ASSUMED that she knew about it all. Personally, I thought I had told her (we had been friends many years back). Besides, her twin sister had also been a believer for a number of years. This then prompted me to say to her, “even if I did not explain how to be saved to you, I’m sure your sister, Leah did”. She replied that her sister had never really told her how to become a Christian, but that she too MUST HAVE ASSUMED that she knew. These replies were a real shock and a personal challenge. I then inquired how she eventually got converted. She said a Christian sister from a certain Church just gave her the ‘Simple Therapy for Salvation’, and that was it. She gave her life to Christ, and she’s had such joy ever since.

 

In my friend’s case she had the opportunity to be told the simple message of salvation. I thank God she did not have to point an accusing finger at my face before God’s judgement throne. Many of us are in this position today, and this is probably one of the reasons why members of our families and some of our friends are still unsaved. They know we are born-again; they know we do not take part in many of their ungodly activities. But can you sincerely say you have with great compassion in your heart prayed and given them the ‘simple therapy for salvation’?    Think about this!