wintanzsimi

An idol is a doll of the eyes.
 It sits where the light should be,
 a small thing you dress in a large thing,
 until you cannot see.

It does not shout. It does not force.
 It only asks you look,
 and looking long, the eye grows dull,
 and dull is how you're took.

"They have eyes, but they see not,"
 the Psalmist sang of stone,
 "they that make them are like unto them."
 We become what we enthrone.

Now hear me. I am not against the world.
 I build in it. I trade.
 I code, I earn, I pay my bills,
 I use what God has made.

Paul said to use this world
 "as not abusing it."
 The trouble was never the thing in the hand.
 The trouble is where it sits.

A thing in the hand is a tool.
 A thing in the eye is a god.
 And the difference between the two
 is never found in the thing, but the nod.

The nod of the head that bows.
 The nod of the heart that says
 "without you I am nothing,"
 to something that will not stay.

Money is a servant with a good resume
 and a terrible appetite.
 Give it a desk and it works.
 Give it your eyes and it blinds your sight.

So how do you use and not worship?
 How do you hold and not kneel?
 The answer is older than every market
 and quieter than any deal.

Build your house with high doors
 and meekness cannot come in.
 Pride needs the ceiling raised.
 Glory needs room to begin.

But the new and living way
 was never through a high door.
 It was through a torn veil,
 and the only way through is low.

Low is where the water runs.
 Low is where the seed is sown.
 Low is where the Master knelt
 to wash the feet of His own.

The eye that is dull from gazing
 must be anointed to see,
 and He still sells eyesalve to the poor
 who have nothing but need.

So I keep my purple in my hands,
 never in my eyes.
 I let the earth serve the heaven,
 not heaven serve the lies.

The idol asks: look at me.
 The Lord says: look through.
 One makes the eye a doll's eye.
 The other makes it new.

Hold what you hold loosely.
 Stand where you stand low.
 The high door keeps out meekness.
 The low line lets glory through.

#Faith #Poetry #Idolatry #Kingdom

Someone tells you what will happen tomorrow, and immediately you call him a prophet. But have you ever stopped to ask what makes a person a prophet? Is it simply the ability to see?
We must understand that prophets speak; seers see. What comes to my mind first is Saul first encounter with Samuel; he was looking for a seer 1Samuel 9.

 Understanding their assignments helps us recognise what God has committed to each and what we should receive through their ministries.

A seer receives sight through dreams and visions. God can show such a person things concerning people, circumstances, and events ahead. This ability is not evil. God gives seers, and their operations have a place. However, seeing what will happen tomorrow does not, by itself, define a prophet's assignment.

Isaiah 30:10 says, “Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things.”

Notice the distinction: seers are addressed concerning their seeing, while prophets are addressed concerning their speaking.

A prophet brings the mind, counsel, and commandment of God concerning God and humanity. His assignment centres on revealing God’s eternal purpose: that God will dwell among men, and that men will be conformed to the image of His Son.

A prophet is a preacher who brings the revelation of God’s mysteries. His speaking gives direction into God’s intention. He communicates what is in God’s heart so that people can believe, respond, and journey towards its fulfilment.

This is why Revelation 19:10 declares, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

The spirit of prophecy testifies of Jesus Christ: God manifest in the flesh. Its concern is God’s habitation among men and the fulfilment of His purpose in humanity. We must understand prophecy from this centre if we are to understand the ministry of a prophet.

Prophets speak God’s thoughts ahead of their fulfilment. They keep speaking because faith comes by hearing. Through their speaking, the spirit of prophecy is released to accomplish God’s intention. What they proclaim may extend beyond their own lifetime, yet God continues working towards its fulfilment. You remember Prophet Isaiah talking about a virgin conceiving, and it never happened in his days or even in the next generation; the prophecy was fulfilled 600 to 700 years after ( between 739 BC and 681 BC).

Therefore, prophetic ministry cannot be measured by dramatic expressions, clothing, or the repeated declaration, “Thus saith the Lord.” Neither should we assume that someone knows God’s purpose simply because he can disclose hidden information.

The question we must ask is: What is this ministry revealing about God and His Son? Is it showing us God’s vision and how humanity connects to it? Is it preparing our hearts to become His habitation?

A person may be both a seer and a prophet; note that in the life of Balaam. Nevertheless, the assignments must be understood.

Today’s prophets must expound what God has already committed to His prophets and apostles. Their ministry should reveal the Son and serve the fulfilment of God’s vision.

We must therefore pay attention to what our hearing is producing. Are our hearts receiving God’s impressions? Are our lives being raised? Are we learning God and becoming responsive to His eternal purpose?

Lydia's purple was cloth. Expensive, rare, the colour of kings. But yours might be your degree. Your title. Your company. Your bank balance. Your talent. Your name in the room.

Purple is whatever makes us feel royal on this earth.

And the question the gospel asks every one of us is simple: will you lay it down?

Because heaven does not dress in purple. Heaven dresses in white.

"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Isaiah 1:18

Think about this. On the day of His crucifixion, the soldiers mocked Jesus by putting a purple robe on Him (Mark 15:17). The King of kings wore earth's fake royalty so we could wear heaven's true one. He took our purple. He gave us white.

Lydia understood the trade. She sold purple, but when the Lord opened her heart, she laid her purple at His feet. Her house, her wealth, her influence all came under a new Owner.

Then there was the Ethiopian eunuch. A man "of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure." Acts 8:27

He managed a queen's treasury. Yet he travelled hundreds of miles, and on his way home he was reading Isaiah. With all of Candace's wealth under his hand, he still knew something was missing. He found it in Christ and went on his way rejoicing.

Earthly royalty couldnt satisfy him. Heaven's royalty did.

Now, I'm not saying dont work. We all chase our daily needs. We build, we hustle, we serve clients, we pay bills. That is not the problem.

The problem is the barn.

Jesus told of a rich man whose ground brought forth plenty. His only plan was to pull down his barns and build bigger ones. Then God said, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." Luke 12:20

Look closely. He wasnt foolish because he was rich. He was foolish because there was no room for God in his plans. Every thought was barn, barn, barn.

That is exactly what Psalm 14:1 means: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."

It's not always a verbal statement. Many fools go to church. It is a state of mind. A life where God is simply not retained in the thinking (Romans 1:28). Planning, building, expanding, and God never enters the equation.

Paul gave the rich a different charge. Be "rich in good works, ready to distribute… laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." 1 Timothy 6:18-19

Your purple can purchase eternal treasure. Your resources can build something that outlives you.

We all have a part to play. The doctor, the developer, the trader, the banker, the teacher. Nobody is exempt.

So what is your purple?

Lay it down. Trade it for white.

Because earthly royalty fades. Heavens royalty never does.

#Faith #Kingdom #Purpose #Eternity

Salvation was fully purchased at the cross, but purchase is only the foundation. A remedy sitting in a medicine cabinet cannot heal until it is taken. In the exact same way, a purchased salvation is of no practical effect in our daily lives unless it is continually received, applied, and walked out.

Purchased at Calvary, Administered from the Throne

On the cross, Jesus declared, "It is finished" (John 19:30). The total price for human redemption was paid once and for all. However, His work did not end when He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. Today, Jesus sits at the right hand of God, actively carrying out His present continuous ministry as our High Priest, Mediator, and the Living Teacher of the New Covenant.

While the legal work of salvation was finished at the cross, the active administration of that salvation continues daily. Jesus did not leave us to figure out the Christian life on our own. He is alive right now, continually ministering His life, His Spirit, and His Word into our hearts so that what He bought for us on Calvary becomes our real, daily experience.

Beyond the New Birth: Salvation as a Living Curriculum

Many believers treat salvation as a one-time event—a prayer prayed, a decision made, or an altar call attended. The new birth is indeed the essential gateway where our dead human spirit is quickened to life by God. But the new birth is just the beginning of the journey.

Salvation is also a living curriculum of doctrine, divine commandments, and daily instructions for life.

The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 5:10, "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Notice the phrasing: we were reconciled by His death, but we shall be saved by His life. That is an ongoing, continuous process.

Jesus gave us specific teachings, light, and wisdom to guide our steps. When we hear His Word, yield to His Spirit, and obey His instructions, His salvation moves from being a theological concept outside of us to an internal reality within us. Obedience is how divine truth is woven into the very fabric of our souls.

The Diligent Process: Building Upon Faith

Because salvation is a daily administration, it requires our active cooperation and spiritual diligence. The Apostle Peter explicitly describes this deliberate process in 2 Peter 1:5–10:

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Peter does not say, "You have faith, so sit back and wait for heaven." He says to give all diligence to add virtue, knowledge, self-control, and love to that faith. Salvation is a progressive development. As we obey the daily promptings and instructions of the Holy Spirit, these virtues are internalized, accounted unto us, and built into our character.

A Perpetual Reception Into Fullness

Scripture reveals that salvation operates in three continuous dimensions:

We have been saved from the penalty of sin through the sacrifice of Jesus at the new birth.

We are being saved from the power and influence of sin as we yield to His daily doctrine, word, and discipline.

We will be saved from the very presence of sin into the final, glorious redemption of our bodies when He returns.

If we stop receiving His daily instruction, we stall in the curriculum. Jesus is actively standing as the Great Shepherd and High Priest of our souls, continually purifying us, correcting our alignment, and revealing the Father's heart. Receiving salvation is not a single gesture made years ago; it is a daily, perpetual surrender to the living voice and authority of Jesus Christ until we come into the full measure of His stature.