Evans Akpo

According to the interesting story told by Bennet, a man returned home one night to a dark house. He needed light and began to pray. “Oh great Electric Company, please give me light. All of my neighbors have light, and I know that it’s your will that I have light. Please give me light.” No light. The darkness continued.

Bennet went further to explain that the man made a decision to engage in a fast, and fasted in the dark for several hours. The issue was there was no light. The man got offended at the Electric Company. “Why does the Electric Company give light to others but not to me?” The man decided to visit a neighbor and share his frustration. The neighbor listened calmly and finally asked, “did you flip the light switch?” The man looked uncomfortable and replied, “I don’t believe in works. I believe the Electric Company should know I need light when I need it.” The neighbor replied, “flipping the switch is not work, it is a response to what is available. Your lights are waiting on you to flip the switch.”

The moral of the story highlights a cardinal point. Isn’t that how we sometimes engage in prayers on issues especially in areas we should take steps on. The best job has an application process. The best education requires some steps, so the earlier we engage and activate those steps which is an act of faith, the better we realize it.

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. (Mk. 11:22-23)

Bennet’s post conclusively highlights the beauty which is that our faith-filled words are the switch that releases God’s provision in our life. It’s time to stop complaining and start activating God’s grace. If the question is asked, Can there be light? The answer would be, Yes, just put on the switch.

In the word of God, there was no account of sickness until after the fall of Man in Genesis. However, reading the Bible we noticed in Matthew 14:14 : “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.”

Barry Bennet would make it clear in his teaching that “God does not afflict His children with sickness. If a natural father were to do such a thing he would be arrested for child abuse and thrown in jail. For some reason, there are those who think that God makes His children sick or allows them to be sick and it should be called a blessing. No.”

God’s will and God’s heart can be seen in Jesus who healed all who came to Him. There is no account of Jesus ever making someone sick in the New Testament “for His glory.” There is no account of Jesus ever leaving someone sick to teach them something. There is no account of Jesus ever refusing to heal someone who came to Him. Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy (1 Jn. 3:8) and went about healing all who were oppressed of the devil for God was with Him (Acts 10:38).

Jesus never received glory from sickness, only from healing. Every sickness is an opportunity for healing to bring glory to God.

God does not need sickness to perfect His children. He placed all sickness on Jesus. It would be unjust for Him to place it on you. God perfects us through His Word and the Spirit. If sickness and loss are your teachers, you’re in the wrong kingdom! He no more uses sickness to perfect us than He would use sin. He went to the cross to deliver us from both sin and sickness. Culled from Barry Bennet’s work.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases. (Psalm 103:2-3)

Barry Bennet on his post raised a profound question that captures what most people have been thinking. He asked; “Did God Allow It?”

According to Barry Bennett, “the predominant theology of Christians today, when faced with life-changing circumstances, is that “God allowed it.” After all, “God is in control” and “in everything, there is a purpose.” Sadly, none of this is accurate and has left the Body of Christ paralyzed, misrepresenting God to others, and cooperating with the work of the enemy.”

He further pointed out that today we are hearing that God “allowed” a virus to attack the world for some mysterious reason. Some say that the virus is meant to bring men to repentance. This begs the question, why does it say that Jesus sent the church into the world with the Good News? Why doesn’t it say that He sent viruses into the world?

Researchers have argued that globalization is one of the reasons the current pandemic has spread so fast. Globalization compresses the time and space aspect of social relations. Globalization, according to experts, involves the intensification and acceleration of social exchanges and activities. The internet relays distant information in mere seconds, and satellites provide consumers with real-time pictures of remote events (Steger, 2003). The intensification of worldwide social relations means that local happenings are shaped by events occurring far away, and vice versa. The big questions most people seem to ask is where and how does God come into play in all of these. Is it not through the hand of God that all of these intensifications are designed?

The plans of God have always been consistent for humans in the face of the latest technology. Even in an intensified world that has altered human relations, we may be able to provide a physical explanation of the spread of the virus. One thing we should have in mind is that God is a good God. In John 10:11 we read: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd would die so that he can save his sheep.”

God’s plan for our lives is never to send sickness and diseases to afflict his children. In Ex. 15:26. For I am the Lord that healeth thee. His plans are to heal and not afflict his children. His nature is to provide wellbeing for his people.

Most people that claim that God is behind this plague because of the lessons they learn from it seem very divided when the argument gets push further, arguments like shouldn’t you want to contact COVID-19 to learn a lesson? The answer is usually “NO.”

At these challenging times, I want you to understand that God’s plan is to heal and not to destroy. He is a good God.  The being behind this destruction is the devil. Psalm 103:3 states this about God “he healeth all thy diseases.”

Several questions have emerged in the last few days over the coronavirus. Some have hastily argued that Covid-19 was designed to teach Americans humility. Others hold a different opinion that suggests the virus came from God.

Before we jump into any hasty conclusion, it will be pertinent to examine the character of a good God. Just because plagues and viruses are predicted in Scripture does not mean they are from God, nor does it mean we are in the last days of the last days. Jesus called such things “the beginning of sorrows.”

According to Bennet, God is telling us to go into the world to preach the Goodnews. He is not trying to kill everyone before we get there. Most importantly, the heart of God for humanity has not changed. Consider the following: The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10). 

Again, from the character of God, we can tell, that he judges no one….(John 5:22). He was in Christ deeply involved in the ministry of reconciliation, he is reconciling the world to HIMSELF, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19).  God is not using the disease to teach us a lesson as some promote.

A virus is not the work of God. There is a devil at work, he has some destruction works, those works are worthy of destruction, and Jesus came to destroy them.

You see, changes, and even deaths, are simply endings, which are all a necessary part of living. And all endings are necessary for beauty, too—otherwise it’s impossible to appreciate someone or something, because they are unlimited. Limits illuminate beauty—they are reminders that we need to be aware of this beautiful person or situation, and appreciate this beautiful thing called life. Every ending is also a beginning, because while we have lost someone or something special, this ending, like every loss, is a moment of reinvention. Although heartbreaking, it forces us to reinvent our lives, and in this reinvention is an opportunity to experience beauty in new, unseen ways and places. And, of course, every ending is an opportunity to celebrate the beautiful, ever-changing journey we’re on, and to be grateful for what it has showed us and taught us along the way.

Getting to this point of understanding—changing your thinking—again, is far from easy. But it’s honestly worth every bit of effort you can muster.

We all need a healthy reminder like this sometimes—that if we want to be happier, we need to do the hard things, to face the unexpected losses and painful life changes that we’re going to encounter no matter how much we try to avoid them. We need a reminder to face down our pain and negative thinking and leverage it to take the next step. And, sometimes, we just need a reminder that we’re not done yet—that today is worth fighting for.

You may not be responsible for everything that happened to you in the past, or everything that’s happening to you right now, but you need to be responsible for standing strong and undoing the thinking patterns these circumstances create.

Stop believing you should feel more confident before you take the next step.

Taking the next step is what builds your confidence. Meditate of that for a moment, and then force yourself forward.

You don’t need to have everything you want to achieve mapped out.

And you know what “next step” I’m referring to—that important one you’re just not quite “ready” to take yet… the one you keep waiting for the “right” time to take.

Well, it’s time! It’s time to allow yourself to be a beginner. Because no one starts off being great. And no one is perfect every step of the way.

We all learn the way on the way. So, do the best you can until you know better. Once you know better, do better.

Seriously, learn to start every day before you feel ready, and I promise you will learn how to succeed, step by step, before you even realize you’re good enough.

Ask any parent if they felt 100% ready for the arrival of their first child (or their first day as the parent of a 3-year-old, a 13-year-old, or a 23-year-old ). The answer will always be “no.” They just do the best they can to take the next step, and then they figure it out from there.
No matter what it is, you just need to get started—to make “starting” a daily ritual.

Because standing still, you have no momentum. Momentum and progress are what build confidence and erode apprehension.

Rituals put you in motion without having to think (and over-think) about the next move. You decided long before you acted—now you just act. And you act intentionally.

And when you act in this way, you make the most rewarding progress imaginable, every single day.

Busyness isn’t a virtue, nor is it something to respect. Though we all have seasons of crazy schedules, very few of us have a legitimate need to be busy ALL the time. We simply don’t know how to live within our means, prioritize properly, and say no when we should.

Being busy rarely equates to productivity these days. Just take a quick look around. Busy people outnumber productive people by a wide margin. Busy people are rushing all over the place, and running late half of the time. They’re heading to work, conferences, meetings, social engagements, etc. They barely have enough free time for family get-togethers and they rarely get enough sleep. Yet, emails are shooting out of their smart phones like machine gun bullets, and their day planners are jammed to the brim with obligations. Their busy schedule gives them an elevated sense of importance. But it’s all an illusion. They’re like hamsters running on a wheel.

Though being busy can make us feel more alive than anything else for a moment, the sensation is not sustainable long term. We will inevitably, whether tomorrow or on our deathbed, come to wish that we spent less time in the buzz of busyness and more time actually living a purposeful life.

The key is to realize that no matter what happens, you can choose your attitude and inner dialog, which dictates pretty much everything that happens next. Truly, the greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another – to train our minds to see the good in what we’ve got, even when it’s far less than we expected.

It’s about choosing: Will I allow this to upset me? Will I choose to make this bad or good? Will I choose to stay or walk away? Will I choose to yell or whisper? Will I choose to react or take the time to respond?

The mind is indeed your battleground! Because it has so many little weaknesses. It becomes forgetful and insensible when it’s stressed. And the only way to conquer these weaknesses is to practice conquering them—to practice thinking better.

What you need to remember is that the mind operates like a muscle, and just like every muscle in the human body, it needs to be exercised to gain and maintain strength. It needs to be trained daily to grow and develop gradually over time. If you haven’t pushed the mind in lots of little, positive ways over the course of time, of course it’ll crumble on the inevitable days that get overwhelmingly stressful.

The most significant hidden benefit of exercising your mind and THINKING BETTER?

Renewing your trust in yourself, so you can LIVE BETTER.