THE PROBLEMS GOD WOULD NOT REMOVE

 And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city,

behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on [his]

face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou

canst make me clean.  And he put forth [his] hand,

and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And

immediately the leprosy departed from him. Luke 5:12

Problems are part of man’s experience in his journey on earth. Leprosy is one major disasee (problem) that  the earthman has encountered. It no doubt represents  sin nature or weaknesses and problems of life rooted in sin  which continually cleaves to man. God has a way of escape for a man in problem and most times by the way of prayer and faith in his words. Many life examples as in the passage above abounds of instances where Man in response to God's invitation and promise called upon God and the living God in his characteristic faithfulness gave answers  to Man, and the problem immediately or afterwards vanished. This is  a daily experience of many and we will clasify this category of problems as ' Problems that God answers"  maily beacuse we have asked according to his will .both in terms of the condition of our heart, the nature of the request  and the substance of prayer or faith in our heart

Howver, there  is another   category  of problems  that will not be removed by God until we make certain adjustment that is required  of God. This category of problem does not respond to prayer only  but to specific adjustment in our heart and a consequential adjustment in a particular aspect of our lifestyle. This is true of personal prayer as it is true of corporate prayer. God declared to the Children of Israel that he will hear their prayer if they humbly turn from their wicked ways and cry to God.

This simple truth is lost to many today as many  think that we can continue to regard sin in our hearts and God will continue to hear our prayer. Indeed, his ears are not deaf and his hands are not short but our iiniquities are the root problems which we must address before the symptoms.

The  third category of problems are problems that are needed to keep us in check and  in a condition necessary for abounding grace. Instead of removing this problems, God releases  grace for us to prevail in the mist of the problem and  notwithstanding them thereby making their negative contribution  nil.

The General Problem of Sin

And she shall bring forth

a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save

his people from their sins. Mat 1:21

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon

thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an

end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to

bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision

and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Dan (;24

But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put

away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Heb 9;26

From the passages above, we can clearly understand that the appearance of Jesus is to deliver us from the Sin nature and give us power to live above the  sin nature through his cross beginning with the access he has given us to become new creations and the continuous opportunity to feed on the life of Christ and grow in that life until the power of Sin is destroyed and swallowed up by life. Our commitment then should be to draw life daily from him and build up our Spirit by meditating on his word day and night so that we can be the tree of rightousness planted by the rivers of God.

Death is a problem with a solution.

 The last enemy

[that] shall be destroyed [is] death.  For he hath put

all things under his feet. I Cor 15;24-27

But is now made manifest

by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath

abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to

light through the gospel:2 Tim 1:10

With the  exit of SIN, the reign of life and immortality is imminent and this is the ultimate that Christ has come to offer . The book of Psalm has given us the access code to become a tree of endless life planted by the rivers of water with leaves  that are incorruptible and fruits coming out in their seasons. The secret is to feed, meditate and receive the revelation of Christ into our inner man day and night. As we are washed through the cleansing of the water of the word, Revelation 22 , verse comes to pass . This is the good news. This is the Gospel. That we are called to know the power of his resurrection and to live  and not die, Alleluyah.  The endless riches and treasures of live available in Christ is available to us only if we seek him

Blessed [are] they that do his

commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life,

and may enter in through the gates into the city.

For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers,

and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and

makes a lie. Revelation 22;14

I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee:

for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly

therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power

of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take

pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in

persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am

weak, then am I strong. 2 Cor12:9 -12

We must therefore be wise. We must be discerning and we must know therefore that all things work together for our good. God indeed takes us through water problems or fire problems in line with his will and processing wisdom and we must be willing to say like Jesus  "Father, if it be thy will, let this cup of problems pass over me but not my will but your will should be done"  What we named problems can be the processing cross designed by God's infinite wisdom to crucify the evils of our flesh and make us what we should be