Thread by @harrydaniyan

SACRIFICE
Psalm 50:5

My intercom rang.
I picked up.
"Sir, you have a visitor."
It was the receptionist.
I asked her to let him in.
I was the in-house architect in a construction company.
My friend, an architect colleague Timothy came visiting.
We'd been friends for a decade...

He came in, we talked, shared scriptures & prayed.
About an hour later, Timothy took his leave.
I saw him off to the car park.

"Tim, where's your car?" I asked.
"I came with a cab", he replied.
"Ah! Car issues! I guess it's at the mechanic's...."
Timothy's response stunned me:

"Naaa. I gave it away."
You WHAT??
"I gave it away. We invited a pastor to come preach in church last week.
The Holy Spirit asked me to give him the car."
It was a BMW.
Tim left in a cab.

I went back to my office, my mind in shock.
It took a while to process what I just heard...

We were both single young architects, just starting out life.
I wondered if the Holy Spirit asked me to give away my car, I would.
It would be very inconvenient not to be mobile in Lagos!
Imagine you have a date?
Which lady would want to date you if you ride cabs & buses about?

These were my concerns.
But my friend, Tim gave out his one & only car- just because the Holy Spirit told him to!
I knew inside me I wasn't broken to that level.
But I was challenged & provoked!
That day, my spirit shifted.

I later read a book by @drmikemurdock where he wrote:

"Whatever you can walk away from, you have mastered for life."
Timothy walked away from his car.
That area of his life was permanently settled.

This happened over 20 years ago.
Timothy & his family are in Canada now.
We spoke last nights & I brought up that incident with him...

The irony is, in these 20 years Timothy had given out loads of cars.
It became a tradition for him to be giving out a few cars every year:

He'd buy cars in Canada, freight them to Nigeria and give them away to people as led by the Spirit.
He has become a free car-giver...

This morning, I read Psalms 41-50.
Verse 5 of chapter 50 struck me: "Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."

Here, God spoke of His SAINTS.
Then He went ahead to give a detailed description of those He identified as SAINTS:

Those who have made a covenant with Him by SACRIFICE!

Not those who mount the pulpit to preach.

Not those who wear religious robes & carry religious titles.

Not church workers.

Those who have made a covenant with God by SACRIFICE.

Let me ask: what can YOU walk away from...?

Do you have possessions, or possessions have you?
Can you walk away from them?

Jesus once asked a rich guy to go sell all he had & come follow him.
Scripture records the guy went away, sad.

He was possessed by his possessions.
(Matthew 19:16-22)

Many of us are like this guy...

I learned very significant lessons from Timothy that day:
Don't hold on to anything tightly.
See everything you possess as temporary.
Be willing to give away anything- my life is not dependent on them.
A man's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions.

Today, there's nothing I hold so dear I cannot walk away from.
I don't place much value on any of the material things I possess.
A Job submitted, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, naked I depart."

May our possessions not possess us in Jesus' Name.
Amen.

Shalom.
😇

PS: I wote that thread yesterday.
For some reason, the Holy Spirit asked me not to post it yet.
So I refrained.

This morning, I woke up to read Psalms 51-60:
Psalm 51:17- "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken & a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

I realised why the Holy Spirit asked me not to post.
This verse is key.
The only thing God requires of us is BROKENNESS.
Timothy could give out his car because he was BROKEN.
I saw it as a big deal, a challenge- I was concerned about jumping buses & cabs because I wasn't BROKEN.

In Jonah chapter 1, Jonah was like me.
He was not broken. So, when God gave him an instruction, he refused to do it.
in chapter 3, he was broken: God gave him same instruction, he did as he was told.

Chapter 2 broke him.

May we be broken in Jesus' Name.
Amen.

Shalom.
😇