Category: Trials & Wilderness

The Fool: He who does not learn the lessons from his trials

~ Mr. Streetz ~ 1 Comment

A few months back, a friend of mine went through a shocking injury experience. One time we were pondering why this could have happened, so we ended up studying Deuteronomy 8:2-5 (AMP). There are so many lessons to take away from these verses, that I encourage you to meditate on them. For this post, there’s a segment that I want to double click on i.e. “to know what was in your heart (mind), whether you would keep His commandments or not”. In essence, God allowing us to go through a challenging experience is partly because He’s interested in knowing how you would respond: 1) during the crisis, but also importantly, 2) after the crisis. I also explore why your tests are not random, but specially curated for you, whilst also exploring the link between how we respond to life’s trials and the fate of our lives.

“Great Faith” – Lessons From The Canaanite / Gentile Woman

~ Mr. Streetz ~ 1 Comment

You’re believing God for something but you haven’t gotten an answer or the answer you desire. How do you respond? Do you give up and walk away or do you persevere, confidently trusting that God will come through for you? There are only two people that I’ve come across in the New Testament that Jesus said had “great faith”. Both were gentiles. Great Faith is something that Jesus wants us to have. Most, if not all the people that Jesus described as having “no or little faith”, were either His disciples, His followers, or people who were very familiar with Him, including those He grew up with in Nazareth and the Pharisees. The people who were ‘closest’ to Christ were often the ones who exhibited the least faith and this is unfortunately still the case today, even in the Churches. This post focuses on the great faith of one who was far from Christ (and the Jews), a Canaanite/gentile woman, and the lessons we can all learn from her. God bless and keep the faith!

On the verge of your breakthrough, beware… (Part 2)

~ Mr. Streetz ~ 3 Comments

Today, I was privileged to have the opportunity to share the word with a group of 11 friends. This is a light-hearted post based on our experience in the woods and watching some of us give up just before we got to the finish line. This post is just to remind you that whatever you may be going through, to persevere to the end. God bless you.

Testimony – The Sabbath and the testing of my faith

~ Mr. Streetz ~ 4 Comments

If you were unemployed, spent a year waiting to get a job and finally got your first offer, would you do anything that could jeopardize that offer, assuming everything about the offer seemed perfectly fine? Well, that's exactly what I did. I took a step of faith by raising the issue of keeping the Sabbath just before I signed, and the offer was pulled. The testimony is in what happened next. God bless you.

Anxious thoughts and strongholds – The lies and how to overcome them

~ Mr. Streetz ~ 1 Comment

The Bible tells us not to be anxious. This seven letter word, what does it really mean? Some equate it to worry or fretting. Some equate it to fear or doubt. It could be something that robs you of peace; something that halts you in your tracks and prevents you from moving forward or taking the next step(s). For faith to exist, there must initially be an element of uncertainty or doubt. Anxiety could then be the feelings you have when you’re unable to control the outcome of a situation or when you struggle to exercise complete faith in God. Anxiety starts in the mind and could exist for legitimate or illegitimate reasons. Whatever it may mean to you, I believe we can at least agree that anxiety is a stronghold, a powerful attack on the human mind that is so negative that God tells us in Philipians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious or worried about anything…” In this post, I look at the roots of anxiety and how they can become strongholds in our lives, how to take those thoughts captive, how to permanently destroy those thoughts/strongholds, and look at six Bible characters who had anxious thoughts and the lessons we can learn from how they overcame them. Happy reading!

Testimony – Don’t put God in a box

~ Mr. Streetz ~ 4 Comments

Don't put God in a box. Why? Because He's God. That means His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. But as human beings, can we put Him in a box? Yes. In this post, I share a testimony abut when I was putting God in a box because I assumed that because He moved in a particular way in the past, He would move in a similar way in future. Happy reading!

An ‘ode’ to a wife – Job’s wife

~ Mr. Streetz ~ 4 Comments

Rarely is she mentioned in the pages but mostly maligned in human memories, yet she 'lives' on. That single emotionally-charged interaction with her husband, down in the depths of his life's hells, in Job 2:9-10, has mostly defined what we think of her: a bad wife, making mockery of her husband's tragic station in life. One can posit that this serves a generational warning about the importance of choosing a godly wife, who will stand by you through life's sunny and gloomy days; afterall, that's what till death do us part means. But I want us to have a re-think about Job's wife. Is she really deserving of this infamy? Was she really a bad wife? Is there more in the Bible that we can learn about who she was and what may ultimately have happened to her? I think there is. I've been pondering this for the past fortnight and having discussed my thoughts about her possible lived experience with some friends last night, I'm finally putting down some of my thoughts. 🤓

God wants you to diligently seek (search for) Him

~ Mr. Streetz ~ 5 Comments

Paul says in Acts 17:27 ERV that "God wanted people to look for him, and perhaps in searching all around for him, they would find him. But he is not far from any of us." Since the day I read this verse a few weeks back, I've been eager to write about all the findings from my study as this idea of God wanting to be sought out was quite intriguing. I mean why does He want to be actively searched for? Is he playing hide and seek with us or what? What I do in this post is try to answer five pre-emptive questions that you the reader may naturally have on the topic: 1) Why does God want us to seek (search for) Him?; 2) Is He far? So far that He cannot be found?; 3) What are the rewards of seeking God, if any?; 4) How are we to seek God?; and 5) When are we to seek God?

On the verge of breakthrough, beware of satan’s overtime

~ Mr. Streetz ~ Leave a comment

Of recent, I've been observing different themes and patterns while studying my Bible. One such pattern is how the devil seems to work overtime when we are on the verge of our breakthrough, and if we are not mindful of his wiles, we may find ourselves stuck in a rut for longer than we should be. In this post, I look closely at how after 40 years of wandering, the Israelites sinned right on the border of entering the promised land, despite God preventing Balak's persistent attempts to curse them. What the devil couldn't achieve by sorcery (juju/jazz/spiritualism), he achieved with sex, food, and by distracting the people from prioritizing God (idol worship). I also highlight other instances of the devil's overtime when God's children were on the verge of receiving their breakthrough. I therefore urge you, particularly in these last days, to be sober and vigilant, because our adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Like Moses, God wants to speak directly to you

~ Mr. Streetz ~ 1 Comment

Why did God speak directly to Moses i.e. face to face and not through dreams; plainly and not in dark sayings? Numbers 12:6-9 tells us that this is because Moses was "faithful in all His house." Sounds deep right? But what does this mean?