CURE FOR BACKSLIDING - Pastor E.A. Adeboye

Backsliding is such a terrible condition that any child of God who backslides must quickly seek for restoration. The danger with backsliding is that a backslider may perish with his or her enemies like Samson did, or lose all he or she had gained in God like Judas Iscariot (Judges 16:30, Acts 1:16-20). The good news is that God has provided a remedy for backsliding. In today’s Bible reading, we see the loving God calling and inviting backsliding Israel back to Himself. This is a pointer to the fact that God wants to restore all backsliders.

“Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every tree and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:” Jeremiah 3:13-14

The above verses of scripture contain the cure for backsliding. Restoration for the backslider starts with an acknowledgment of sins and a contrite return to God. In other words, the cure to backsliding lies in genuine repentance. Repentance is a complete turnaround from one’s sins with a determination never to return to those sins any more. This was what Samson failed to do throughout his twenty years of being judge over Israel. To make matters worse, he always ascribed his victory and achievement to his strength. Hear what he said after one of his victories in Judges 15:16

“….With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.”

There is no record of him giving glory to God even once. When he should have prayed for mercy, he prayed a wrong prayer, asking God to strengthen him one more time, so that he could avenge his eyes! Due to the mercy of God, and because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, God still granted him his request, and he died with his enemies (Romans 11:29, Judges 16:28-30). In Acts 3:19, we see some of the great benefits of repentance. These included forgiveness, the blotting out of sins and the experience of a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Beloved, are you in a backslidden state? I encourage you to return to God through the Lord Jesus Christ today. Read 1^st John 2:1-2 for a better understanding of your heritage in Christ. As you do these, the joy of salvation and the victory over sin will be restored to you.    

Action Point:  Pray for restoration if you are a backslider. If by His grace you are still standing, pray that you will not backslide, and also pray for all backsliders in the Body of Christ that you know.

Pastor E.A Adeboye  (Open Heavens Daily Devotional, Friday April 21^st, 2017)

http://www.openheavensdaily.net/2017/04/21-april-2017-open-heavens-daily-cure.html

LivingScience Foundation hosted 2nd National Conference on Environment and Health

To the glory of the almighty God, the second National Conference on Environment and Health organized by the LivingScience Foundation, Ile-Ife (a professional outreach of Church Arise! LivingWater Ministries) successfully held at the Redeemer’s University, Ede between 4^th – 5^th April, 2017.  The conference was a follow-up to the maiden one held between 17^th-18^th May 2016 at the same venue.  The general vision for the conference is the provision of a Platform where relevant key stakeholders would come together to exchange information and ideas, as well as brainstorm on customized creative solutions that would ensure sustainable development in Nigeria. 

Formal registration had to be stopped when all the 250 Conference materials prepared became exhausted, with dozens still attempting to participate!  The quality of the presentations, both invited and contributed were exceptionally high.  A major highlight was the launching of the Scientific peer-review technical journal on the subject of Environment-Health, the Nigerian Journal of Environment and Health, floated by the LivingScience Foundation (see www.lsfnigeria.org/NJEH/).

The Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh (OFR) sent in an address through the  Osun State Director of the Ministry, Mr Joseph Adeniyi Ogunwale.  Prof Lawrence Ezemonye, National President of the Nigerian Environmental Society, from the University of Benin, delivered the keynote address.  Other dignitaries present included Prof Abiodun Oluwole, doyen of Environmental Sciences in Nigeria, and Prof Zachariah Adeyewa, the Vice Chancellor of the Redeemer’s University, gracious co-host of the Conference.

Please see pictures, audios, and videos of proceedings at the Conference, as well as download technical presentations and Conference Communique at the website of LivingScience Foundation (www.lsfnigeria.org).

Trump Defunds UN Population Fund Tied to Forced Abortions; Satanists intensify open spiritual war

Donald Trump has decided to end America’s financial support for the United Nations Population Fund Agency (UNPFA), specifically because that UN entity actively promotes abortion.  One of the sore points affects China, where state policy requires all pregnancies by women who already have 2 children to be aborted. See the touching story of a Chinese woman who was required to choose between aborting an 8-month pregnancy or losing her job at http://www.christianpost.com/news/chinese-woman-forced-have-abortion-8-months-husband-loses-job-167368/

              By the Trump decision, according to Bloomberg, the UNPFAwill be losing $32.5 million from the 2017 budget.  The funds will now be shifted to "similar programs at the U.S. Agency for International Development." http://www.christianpost.com/news/trump-defunds-un-population-fund-tied-to-forced-abortions-pro-lifers-elated-179463/

          In the meantime, witches, exorcists, Satanists, and occultists all over the United States (and their allies elsewhere) are fed up with Donald Trump’s unrelenting assaults on their values.  They have therefore declared open warfare.  According to information posted on their facebook page, the new agers have decided on having monthly “mass spells” designed to ‘bind Donald Trump and all who abet him.’ http://www.wnd.com/2017/03/witches-to-cast-spell-on-trump-again/.  Operating under the hashtag #BindTrump the group vowed to keep on repeating their satanic activities every month  “until Donald Trump is removed from office.”

Those participating in the spell are asked to burn a picture of Trump and visualize him “blowing apart into dust or ash.” The spell also requires an unflattering photo of Trump, a tarot card, a tiny stub of an orange candle, a pin or small nail, water, salt, a feather and an ashtray and to calls on spirits to ensure President Trump will “fail utterly.”

It’s not as if the Satanists have been cuddling the Donald all along though.  Even during his electioneering campaign and eventual meteoric rise to the White House, Satanists over and over called for curses, hex, and spells to be placed on him, to get him to commit blunders and be generally disfavoured by the voting public.  The perennial failure of these new agers to influence Trump notwithstanding, several evangelical leaders in the US are requesting for special prayer cover to provide “prayerful and magical resistance” for the  president.  Such special prayers will be fixed for especially during the crescent moons, when the occult activities are expected to be pronounced. In the US, the next crescent moons are to take place April 24 and May 23.

WND quotes Jan Markel of Olive Tree Ministries as surmising that the development “ shows that the level of hatred against Donald Trump is generated by Satan himself.”  According to Jan, “Donald Trump is not a perfect man. But he is trying to stop the runaway freight train of evil that has existed for eight years emanating out of Washington and the Democratic Party.”  Speaking in a similar vein, another prominent evangelical leader, Gallups concluded: “It’s obvious that the demonic realm is stirred by [Trump’s] presence. It’s also obvious that the antichrist agenda of the globalist community is going berserk over a Trump presidency (http://www.wnd.com/2016/10/is-globalism-actually-demonic/).