Dear Beloved,
Welcome to our December Newsletter, the last one for the year 2016. It is such a treat to get in touch with you. Our hearts are filled with gratitude as we look over all the Lord has done this year. He really has done over and above what we could imagine. We thank God for lives that have been changed, for transformed hearts, for recovered destinies, for healing and so much more. As we end this year, we pray that Father God will send His Angels into the new year( 2017). He will make your paths straight, and will prosper all that He has ordained for you to walk in. Have fun reading our Newsletter.
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Oh so great a love as this.....
Love is one of those words that means so many things to so many people. The world only understands certain aspects of it and has lots of ideas about what it means depending on convenience, culture and context. Songwriters have composed so many songs telling us of their experience or understanding of it. Poets have revealed the depths of it from what they understand. Whatever perspective you look at 'Love' from, you sense that the world is struggling with this word and does not understand it enough to operate out of its fullness.
I hurry here to say that I don't have full understanding either, but would like to encourage us all in our quest to seek fuller understanding and deeper revelation, as it has the highest priority on Our Heavenly Father's Heart at this time. The first commandment God gave to mankind through Moses instructs us to love God with all our heart, mind, strength and soul (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Our inability to understand love and walk in it, is not going to make God change His commandment. Indeed there is no alternative, rather we will be held accountable, so we ought to address this. Again, in the New Testament, the pages contain much more on our ability to love God in the way He has asked us to, so we need a deeper understanding of love as He sees it. (Mark 12:28-30) In the gospel of Mark, Jesus quotes God's words to Moses and also elaborates by saying the highest priority is to love God. If this is priority for God, it definitely has to be the highest priority for us, His children.
Our Father, in His quest to help us understand love, and how He wants to be loved, decided to send His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ into the world. This is the reason for this season where we are all celebrating the beautiful birth of Jesus Christ.
I hasten to add here that God didn't just send Jesus, He gave Him to us, for each one of us to accept as our Saviour or not accept...! Jesus then reveals God, His nature, His character and His love individually to us. God wrote us individually into the greatest love story of all time; His story of love for mankind in a world that He created. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him, should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
I always advocate going to the source for a deeper understanding as it's only the Creator that knows what and why He created love. Love is terminology that seems to come with so much responsibility and heart engagement causing many to try to avoid engaging with it. Christianity is the only religion that not only emphasises love but provides lots of instructions about it, teaching us that it was love that drove Jesus to suffer and die on the cross and also offering us help in understanding what His Father had in mind (1 John 4:7-21).
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 describes Paul's letter where he says that love is the greatest thing in life and advises that our ability to walk in love should be our main focus. This ability is expressed in being able to love one another. Only as we receive and express God's love, can we then love others. Paul, understanding how important it is for us to experience God's love, prayed in his letter to the Ephesians (3:17-19) that they would understand the width, length, depth and height of God's love for them, and be grounded in it. I suggest we also pray this extremely important prayer daily so we receive a greater revelation of God's love, such that we begin to think, speak and act from a place in our heart of love.
Our Father tells us that love conquers all. (1John 4:18). This implies that the greatest weapon in our arsenal is not revenge, hatred, intelligence or anything else we had thought we could use. The most important weapon for use in His Kingdom is love. This seems typical of the upside-down Kingdom Jesus has called us into. If you want to be first, you must be last of all and servant of all (Mark 9:35). It's more blessed to give, than to receive. Alternatively, the world says you need to see first, and then believe. This may be the reason that we do not get the victory we often desire, as only when we use God's methods do we achieve God's result.
Love can be expressed in very different ways, and is one of the fruit of the Spirit. A common thread as taught by Our Father, is that Love always " gives". God gave His only begotten Son to the world (John 3:16) to reconcile the world back to Him, and to reveal Himself to the world again. God's intention in giving us the first commandment is not only to help transform our hearts as we receive His love, and learn to walk in love, but also to be a conduit through which His love enters into this world that needs it desperately. He is "God of love" and His love for us informs everything that He does for us. If we know and believe this, it will sort out a lot of distrust issues we have with our Father, removing unbelief and doubt. Since the days of Adam and Eve, unbelief and doubt have not only opened the door to sin in our lives, but it has also eroded our ability to enter into the fullness and power that the Holy Spirit desires to make available for us.
Bob Jones was a renowned prophet who the Lord sent back from death in 1975 with the message to the Body of Christ: " Did you learn to love?" His wife Bonnie Jones reminded the Body of Christ of this word recently in an article from "The Elijah List" dated 16 December, 2016. It was titled Prophecy from Bob Jones -The Lord says,
"It's time for the Rose of Sharon to bloom" (=>
https://goo.gl/Y1zWkp )
. The Rose of Sharon refers to the Body of Christ, in Song of Solomon 2:1. The Lord told Bob that He would release the anointing for us to walk in the first commandment if we want. He explained that the Holy Spirit will restore and establish the first commandment worldwide to the weak and broken people. He explained that it takes the power of God to love God. It is bigger than us. The passage in Song of Solomon 8:6 "Set me as a seal upon your heart" implies the fiery passion of God's love and power which will align the Body of Christ with the Government of God and together usher in the greatest harvest.
It's perhaps no wonder that the Lord is sending Leif Hetland as one of our Guest Speakers for the Kingdom Revival conference to be held in Lagos on 24th and 25th March and the Kingdom Foundations in Abuja on 27th and 28th March in 2017. He is referred to as 'Ambassador of Love' in Pakistan, and carries an extraordinarily anointing for supernatural love. I urge us all to prepare to take days off work to attend these events, as this opportunity to host them is purely God's abundant favour on you all. I strongly feel that not only should we all attend to prioritise learning to love God, but we should receive the impartation that the Lord is making available so that we can also go forth to release this supernatural love in other places that our Father sends us to. The harvest is ripe, and our Father has quickened the pace of His work. Join us as we equip ourselves and others for work ahead.
Mina x
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May the Lord continue to uphold and preserve us all.
God's blessings,
Femi and Mina Bajomo
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- Holy Spirit direction and favour in the new year.
- Deeper revelation of the love of God for us all.
- God's mighty favour on every aspect of preparation for the March conference in Lagos and Abuja.
- Return of the remaining Chibok girls.
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1 John 4:7-11
7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
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Lapis Lazuli Ministries
Contact Details
Email
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Address
3rd Floor Maku House,
109 Awolowo Road,
South West Ikoyi,
Lagos, Nigeria.
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The Power Of The Holy Spirit
by Randy Clark
When Heaven Invades Earth
by Bill Johnson
Seeing Through Heaven's Eyes
by Leif Hetland
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Copyright © 2016 Lapis Lazuli Ministries
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