You can never know people until you chat with them. You can never know your spouse until you speak with them, and you can never know God until you spend time with Him.
These were Pastor Muyiwa Mapayega’s words at the November 3, 2022, Thursday Showers service held at the Fountain of Life Church (TFOLC) headquarters in Ilupeju.
Reading from the Book of Joshua 2:1-19, the clergyman noted that having a relationship with God is the foundation in which anyone can find safety in Him. Then, to validate his point, he drew various lessons from the story of Rahab and the two spies, as recorded in the scripture above.
“If you do not give God the right to watch over your life, He will not watch over you. So, when most of us pray Psalm 91, we pray to God to watch over us. The people of Jericho were trying to protect themselves, but they were trying to protect themselves against God, which would not work. God cannot be stopped,” he said.
Pastor Muyiwa Mapayega further stated that when people pray to God, they want God to rubber-stamp what they want, just as he stressed that God does not operate that way.
“It’s not about you or me; it’s about Him. When we have dreams, we don’t expect the Lord to rubber-stamp. You need to find out from the Lord what He wants you to pursue,” he said.
The cleric buttressed this by explaining that the two spies sent out by Joshua were pursuing God’s plans, so God put His presence over them so that they found favour when they showed up at Rahab’s house.
He also noted that believers must represent God the way He is and not the way they think He should be.
“It’s important that we live holy lives just as He is holy. God expects us to walk in obedience even in these tough times. We cannot bend the rules,” he posited.
The preacher explained that when Rahab started her conversation with the two spies, she began from the place of testimony.
“There is nothing in the kingdom of God that doesn’t start from a place of testimony because it is a testimony of Jesus,” the cleric added.
He also pointed out that Rahab saw an imminent threat to her country and family, so she sought mercy from the spies and even went further to ask that they cut a covenant with her to spare her family. This, he said, is how believers ought to be before God.
“When we start from a place of testimony, we must not be shy to tell God what threats we face and seek His intervention to deliver us from same,” he noted.
The clergyman admonished believers to always take their worries and fears to the right place – God, just as Rahab did when she took her concern to the spies. Though a pagan, she had a relationship with God and knew that the spies were God’s chosen ones and a better source of help, the Pastor said.
The cleric further noted that only those in covenant with God can enjoy a place of safety. According to Pastor Muyiwa, this can be seen in the covenant between Rahab and the two spies. After the spies entered a covenant of protection and safety with her via the red scarlet thread hanging from her window, he added that her house automatically became a safe place for anyone in that house.
The man of God then posed a question worth pondering to his listeners: “As children of God, where is your safe place? Are humans your safe place? Is it money you have put away? Life is full of storms, and everyone needs a safe place to shelter from the storm.
“Until you learn to hold on to God continually, it’s going to be very difficult for you to go through the storm.”
