The Plateau State House of Assembly (PLHA) has relocated its plenary sessions to the Old Government House, Rayfield. This according to the Speaker Rt. Hon. Moses Thomas Sule, is to allow it carry out renovation work at the assembly complex. Another reason for the relocation is to avoid all forms of distractions and disruptions, due to the ongoing strike by the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN).

During the first plenary held at the temporary venue, a notice of motion was moved by Hon. Danjuma Azi who is the member representing Jos North West constituency, calling on the Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JED) to as a matter of necessity resolve all issues leading to power surge and explosion of transformers.

You would recall that a couple of weeks ago, Kabong community around Gada Biu area of Jos North West witnessed a power surge and explosion which led to the loss of many lives. The explosion which happened at the early hours of the morning, caught the residents unaware as nothing could be done to stop the inferno.

The lawmaker who is also the House  Committee Chairman on Appropriation is also not resting on his oars towards ensuring that members of his constituency enjoyed uninterrupted power supply. For the past seven months, residents of Angwan Lagos, Tudun Wada have been thrown into total darkness following the theft of a part of the transformer.

In an effort to see that the problem is addressed and power supply restored to the area, Azi has been on the forefront as he has even visited the Chief Operations Officer of JED Jos, Engr. Mammanlafia Umar. In connection to the visit, the lingering issue of fixing the 500KVA transformer behind Tudun Wada Police post was also resolved, with the promise that work will commence on it immediately.

Also at plenary, the bill for a law to provide for the creation and administration of the Plateau electricity market, establish a commercial and technical regulatory framework for the Plateau electricity market; to ensure reliable and universal access to electricity for all residents of Plateau State, to establish the Plateau State Electrification Agency and the Plateau State Electrification Fund for the delivery of reliable electricity supply to the unserved and underserved areas of the state; and for connected purposes scaled through second reading.

The bill is being sponsored by Hon. Ishaku Maren who is also the House Majority Leader and member representing Bokkos constituency. Scaling through second reading is ‘A Bill for a Law to Repeal and Re-enact the Plateau State Energy Corporation Law, 2019 still under Hon. Maren.

Last but not the least for second reading was ‘A Bill for a Law to Establish the Plateau State House of Assembly Service Commission and for Related Matters, 2023. The bill is sponsored by Hon. Ishaku Maren, representing Bokkos constituency, Rt. Hon. Gwottson Fom Dalyop, Jos South constituency, Hon. Bala J. Fwangje Mangu South constituency, Hon. Adamu Aliyu Jos North North constituency, Hon. Joseph Bukar Shendam constituency, Hon. Gabriel Dewan Kudengbena Pankshin North constituency and Hon. Ibrahim A. Agbalak representing Rukuba/Irigwe constituency.

Meanwhile, the Plateau State House of Assembly has approved and passed the appropriation bill of N314. 8bn for the 2024 fiscal year. This followed the presentation of a proposed budget estimate of the sum of N295,434,568,464.00bn by the state Executive Governor, Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang before the floor of the House for consideration on Tuesday, 7th October.

The 2024 budget ragged “A Budget of New Beginning’ is aimed at laying a solid foundation for the peace and prosperity of the state, with emphasis on security, agriculture, human capital development, public health, and industrialization and aggressive revenue generation.

The state assembly also approved the sum of N27,000,000,000.00bn only as supplementary budget for the 2023 fiscal year. This according to the state Governor Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang was in consideration of the fact that the budget already adopted, was inherited by his administration upon assumption of office in May, 2023 and not a reflection of his administration’s agenda.

Four major hindrances to receiving from God (22)

WE have been talking on four things that the Lord quickened in my spirit which I believe hinder us from receiving from God. Now, like I have said a number of times, this is not an exhaustive list but I believe that for this season of our lives, knowing this list is enough to get us going and seeing victories.

By way of recap, these four hindrances are fear, doubt, unbelief and strife. We dealt first of all with the hindrance of fear, then the second, doubt, which we spoke exhaustively on. All these hindrances are things that Satan brings to our lives through our minds. Satan is primarily a deceiver. He does not have any say over a believer but his greatest weapon is his ability to deceive, plant thoughts, ideas and suggestions in the mind of believers.

Today, I want to deal with the third major hindrance to receiving from God which is the hindrance of unbelief. We have talked about fear; we have talked about doubt, now we will talk about “unbelief’. Keep dealing with fear, keep dealing with doubt, and keep dealing with unbelief. These are the things that pollute the action of God’s power and hinder it from flowing in your life.

Satan is the same old devil he has always been but thank God, God is the same old God He has always been too. So, no matter how complicated the human society becomes the principles that power human lives are still the same.

Mark 6:1&2 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

Isn’t it amazing how sometimes in life, you find people who do not want to admit what God has done in your life and how that you have moved on? Some people just want to keep you in the image of your past.

Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

Mar 6:4-6 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

Jesus could not do all that He intended to do because of their “unbelief”. Some people have this idea that God is God and so He can do whatever He wants to do, whenever He wants to do it. But God is not insane, He operates according to order; after all He is the one that said let things be done decently and in order.

I have been some places where I heard the preacher say things like “the anointing is so heavy here in this church today and so whether you like it or not, you will be blessed”. That is just the preacher’s talk not God’s because that is not scriptural.

Some people say things like “I tell you, God will do whatever He is going to do. If God has purposed that you are going to become this in life, you will become it in life”. But the truth is that there are many people that God has purposed many things about, yet they have not become it.

It does not happen automatically; there is order to everything God does. 1 Cor. 14:40 says, Let all things be done decently and in order. How many of you know that when Jesus was on earth, even though He stripped Himself of the privileges of being divine, He was still God? He was God in the flesh upon the face of the earth yet the Bible said he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.

Something happened that totally hindered God from moving. It hindered Jesus from moving. The Bible says He could do no mighty work. That means that in some places Jesus got more results than in other places. That means that in some places, He got more outstanding healings. In some places, the anointing upon Him functioned to a greater degree than in other places.

Why Was this? Well, at least in this case from Mark 6 we know that it had to do with unbelief borne of familiarity. Familiarity had trapped the anointing. They looked at Him and acknowledged the work but they said, is he not the boy that grew up in our midst? Is this not the carpenter we know? What they failed to realize was that after He went into the wilderness and came back, He was not just the carpenter’s son, He was the anointed one.

Familiarity which tends to lead to dishonor and devaluation hinders the anointing from operating. This is true because it is what you place value on that you draw virtue from. These things are laws of the Spirit.

So it is said here, He could do no mighty works. Save that He laid His hand upon a few folk and healed them; this is, He could only heal a few with minor ailments. Think on this, in some places He could raise the dead while in other places; He could only heal tiny headaches, not even stubborn migraines. Just tiny headaches that Panadol could solve or your grandmother’s local prescriptions could solve.

He could there do no mighty work, save that He laid His hands upon few sick folk, and healed them. And the Bible said He marveled; do you know what that means? Jesus was in shock. He marveled because men just stopped the anointing. They hindered the anointing from working.

An anointed man can come into a meeting yet because of the sort of crowd in that meeting it will be as though he was not anointed. This is because there are laws that govern the anointing and one of those laws is that the anointing must be respected and of course you cannot respect the anointing without respecting the vessel that carries it.

The people in Mark 6 had low regard for Jesus and so He could do no mighty work in their midst and the scripture said He marveled because of their unbelief. He was in shock because, here He was, anointed to bless them but nothing could come out of Him and the Bible explicitly tells us that this was because of their unbelief.

They said among themselves, look at this guy who grew up in our midst, we know him, right down to his root and because of that, they could not get the full benefit of His ministry.

What I am trying to point out to us in this whole matter is the word unbelief. I want us to clearly see and realize that unbelief stops the movement of the power of God. Unbelief totally hinders the power of God from working in our lives. When the anointing of God is flowing and it meets unbelief, it cannot work.

If we know and understand this truth, then what you must do is to locate unbelief and get it out of your life,

To be continued…