Divine Fellowship Ministries

31/10/2022

25/11/2020

KNOWING GOD 1
(Daniel 11:32) Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.

-A. Jewish history
-The Jewish people have experienced some fierce persecutions through the centuries, but none worse than under Epiphanes, the Syrian king.
-All odds were against the Jews under this king.
-He made them do all that the Jews knew was against the law.
-He changed their worship, prohibited the observance of the sabbath and the circumcision of children,he ordered all copies of Scripture destroyed, set up idolatrous altars, commanded the Jews to offer unclean sacrifices, and insisted that they eat swine’s meat. Anyone who disobeyed his edicts was sentenced to death.

B. People who know their God
-In a time like that, people needed to know their God.
-It is usually in times of crisis that people would questions the credibility of God.
E.g. (1)When tsunami killed over 200,000 people in December 26, 2004,people asked where was God.
(2) In 2010 Haiti earthquake an estimated 250,000 people died. At least another 300,000 people were injured. People asked, how could God allow this, is He still loving and faithful?
(3) Coved-19 has left many in doubt about the ability and power of God. Faithful Christians have lost lives and the question is was their lives worth believing in this God?
-This are undeniable facts that can shake the faith of many people.
-Remember the wife of Job.
-But the people who know their God shall be strong.(e.g.Job)
-People who truly know God have the courage to oppose wickedness, endure persecution and suffering,and acquire strength to accomplish great things for God’s glory.

-In the political spectrum your success depends on who you know, who you are connected to.
-But your eternal destiny is not depending on that, but on the fact that you know God.
-This kind of knowledge is more than intellectual, is more than I heard so,is a knowledge that is deeply rooted in the heart.
-It is a knowledge gained through experience.
-It is a knowledge that will make you sing a song "it is well with my soul," when everything is not well.
-It is a knowledge that will make you confess "I know my redeemer lives," when you are tested positive with corona.
-A person who knows God will not question His credibility in times of crisis.
(Psalms 77:2) In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; My soul refused to be comforted.

C.
-Is it possible to be a Christian and not really know God? John 14:8-9 tells us that Phillip, after following Jesus for a number of years, says to Him, "Lord, show us the Father." And Jesus replied, "I have been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me?"
-Many people have been in a church but they still don't know their God.
-Phillip was exposed to the miracles, to the anointing and teachings, but Jesus said,"yet you have not come to know me."
-When the Bible talks about knowing God, it’s not referring to a merely intellectual exercise.
-Knowing God does not mean knowing facts about God.
-To know God is not just reciting His biblical resume or hearing testimony of what He has done in someone else’s life.
-Knowing God involves encountering Him and finding out that He is who He says He is.

D.
Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
-It might seem surprising that Paul says he wants to know God.
-From all his intense training in the Law, Paul met all the religious qualifications of the day, and he was at the apex of Jewish leadership.
-Paul knew all about God, but Paul did not know God until he had an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.
-Paul’s life changed because God revealed Himself to him, not because Paul had all the right answers.

E. How to know Him
Genesis 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived...
-This knowledge is very personal and intimate. It is more than knowing about someone, hearing about someone,reading about someone, but knowing someone.
-You have known a God who can speak only through so and so, it is time you know a God who can speak to directly to you.
-You have known a God who manifest His presence in the church, it is time you know His presence is not confined to a building.
-You have known a God who hears the prayer and uses so and so, it time you know a God who is no respecter of person.
-You don't have to wait for a church to open. Start simply by spending time with Him in prayer and reading of His word.

23/05/2020

ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN OR A BORN AGAIN?
-This is a perplexing question to many, and failure in understanding the tow words has brought confusion and deceived many.

-People identifies Christianity with what is not christian.
-They think Christianity is going to a church that has a bible and a sign of a cross. However, those are just covering mask of a religion that its life is no different from the world.
-If we identifying Christianity with people whose lives are indistinguishable from the world,who sin as much as the world, who embrace injustice as readily as the world, and covet things as greedily as the world, then we will be making a profound mistake.
-Being classified as a christian is not dependent upon church or denominational affiliation or involvement.
-It is easy for people to profess that they are christians and not born again. Such professing Christians are indeed not radically changed into new creation and they do admit to themselves that they are not changed.

Example-Paul
(Galatians 1:13-15) For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased
-Paul was rigorously religious person. He thought he was serving God, and through his efforts God will reward him. It was until he had a revelation of Jesus that he saw his religion as a waste of time and said in 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

(Acts 11:26)
and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
-The termination -iani means belonging to the party of; e.g. Caesariani means belonging to Caesar's party.
-Christian means: "These Christ-folks". It was a contemptuous/ scornful nickname; but the Christians by their lives made it a name not of contempt but of respect and admiration to all the world.
Christianity is not a religion, but a personal experience of a new life of God indwelling an individual.
To be continued....

11/05/2020

MOTHER 'S INFLUENCE
By Pastor: Lucky Motlhabane

-Life is a mysterious journey that all who are born into it take part to its celebrations and mourning, to its joy and sorrow, and to its accomplishments and its loses.
-Today is the day of celebration and appreciation to our mothers, whereas to some is a day they can only reflect on the years gone by.
-However we all have one thing in common, we were born by a mother.
-Some of this mothers have raised children as single moms.
-As a single mom, you may feel the odds are against you. But with the the help of God, you can raise up the next generation for Christ

Article:
I've been a single mother for 15 years. I used to think I was alone in my endeavor to raise my daughter without a husband, but I've learned there are many other women who are trusting God to be a "father to the fatherless" (Ps. 68:5). According to the U. S. Census Bureau, in the year 2000 there were 10 million single moms in America, many of whom were born-again believers.

-There are many reasons why many women find themselves as single moms:
-Some have endured the pain of divorce, the death of a spouse or they were tricked into having a child outside marriage. Others are still married but separated from their mates.
-Whatever the reason, one thing is certain: God's faithfulness to single moms can be seen in Scripture and is evident in the lives of mothers and their children today.

A Biblical Example
(Genesis 21:14)
So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food and a container of water, and put them on Hagar’s shoulders. Then he sent her away with their son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba.

(The scripture tells the story of a tumultuous family problem involving Isaac, the son God promised to Abraham in his old age, and Ishmael, his son born to Hagar.
Though Abraham's wife, Sarah, was the one who originally suggested that her husband have a child with her maid, she later insisted that this son and his mother be "cast out" of their home. As a result, Hagar became the first single mother mentioned in the Bible.)

-Early in the morning, Hagar left the place she and her son had called home for many years. It was a difficult departure. Nevertheless, she gathered up her belongings, took the boy and left.

(Vs.14) says Abraham placed the strap of the water bottle on Hagar's shoulders. The Greek word for shoulder is shek-em', which means "place of burden." Hagar was left with the overwhelming responsibility of raising a child alone without the provision and protection of a father.

-Imagine Hagar wandering in the wilderness of Beersheba. With no water to drink and no well to draw from, death seemed imminent for the boy and his mother—until God intervened.

(Gen. 21:18)"Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation," God said to her .
-Today, God is still reaching out to single mothers. He's offering to be a never-ending source of love, strength and provision as you face the challenge of being a mom.
NB: It was never His intention for single moms to go through life alone, however during your wilderness experiences such as Hagar had, God desires to draw close to you.

(2Timothy.3:14-15) "But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus"
-Before Timothy ever met the Apostle Paul, his life was already full of blessings.
-Paul knew who were the first teachers of Timothy. Paul wrote earlier in this same epistle, "I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also" (1:5).
-These two women, Timothy's mother and grandmother, had raised him, not only in the faith but also in the study the Holy scriptures.
-It was the early study from home that grounded the soul of young Timothy and prepared him to become the bishop of Ephesus.

23/01/2020

LIVING ON THE WORD
Complement on the new year.
It is a good thing to be optimistic about a new year.
-It is a good thing to make new resolutions, and to set new goals in a new year.
-We come to church with high hopes in a new year.
-At church we hear good and motivating messages that makes us feel like we are ready to take a new year.
-We are overjoyed and embrace a new year with such energy we never felt through out the year.
-We want to distance and forget about the misfortune, the failures and disappointment of last year.
-A new year is labeled with different names, a year of breakthrough, a year of prosperity.

NB: In all this experiences what is new? Are these not a repeat of the story of our lives year in and year out??
-We have done this before, every beginning of each year we do this.
-Why the experiences of a new year are short lived?
-The optimism, church attendance, and resolutions seems to disappear the next day.
-And our lives just cycles back to what it has always been?

A new year comes with many opportunities and promises to change the story of your life.
Your story can change.
You don't need a new year for your story to change.
You don't need a full year for your story to change, you only need a day, one day.
(Hebrews 4:7) God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
-How much of God 's sword have you heard and did not obey it.
-You can not afford to walk with God whith out His word. You can't take God at anything apart from His word.
-Israel had 40 new years but no change in their lives. They were going to Canaan, yet going on a cycle of life.
There are people like that, who had made many resolution, they had prophecy after prophecy,made declarations and positive confessions,changed to a new church the in every new year, yet nothing has changed in their lives.
-We have 365 days in a year and in each day there is the day of The Lord.

(John 2:5)His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
-The host of the wedding did not plan to run out of wine.
-There are certain things that will happen to you that is out of you control. Take Jesus at His word.

04/11/2019

THE BLESSED LIFE 1

-Everyone wants to be blessed. People are after blessing at the cost of anything.
-Churches don't have loyal members because of the pursuit of blessings.
-What does it mean to be blessed in the context of Biblical teaching?
-We often hear statements such as,“I am blessed with a new job," or “I feel so blessed I received a promotion," or "we just bought our dream house, we are so blessed!”

-But what happens when you don’t feel so “blessed” in your current circumstances?
-(e.g) When your car that you called a blessing is repossessed and you are devastated and broken. Are you no longer considered blessed?
-(e.g) when you loose your job, and your house and all you have worked for. Are we no longer considered blessed?
-(e.g) When you struggle to make ends-meet,did you miss out on the blessings that others seem to be receiving?
-Are you perhaps in the wrong church that you seem not to be receiving your blessings,or you are planting in a wrong ground?

Genesis 39:1-5
1)​ Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
2) 'The Lord was with Joseph' so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. {Not in his own house}
3) When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did,
4) Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.
5) From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.

-Joseph was a blessed young man who had dreams that assured him of his position as a leader.
-However here he found himself sold as a slave in a foreign land. Was he not blessed anymore?
-Why do we most often associate being blessed with positive circumstances, wealth, comfort, and the absence of problems?
-I believe it’s because many of us don't know what it means to be blessed.
-If to be blessed is depending on what one has, then many of us are not blessed.

What is to be blessed as we look at Joseph?
-The Greek word translated blessed is makarioi which means to be fully satisfied. It refers to those receiving God’s favor, regardless of the circumstances”
-A state of being who God made you to be despite of where you live or who you are.
-It is a state of being able to do things through Christ which strengthen you.
(Ref: Philippians 4:12-13) (12)I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content(blessed) in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.(13) I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
-There are people whose blessing is not based on circumstances or what they have.
-Whatever happens to them can never take away their blessing.
-Josesh was one of those people. No matter where circumstances put him,the blessing still manifest.
TESTIMONY: Vaneetha Rithna
"Earthly blessings are temporary; they can all be taken away. Job’s blessings all disappeared in one fateful day. I, too, had a comfortable life that was stripped away within a span of weeks. My marriage dissolved. My children rebelled. My health spiraled downward. My family fell apart. My dreams were shattered.

And yet, in the midst of those painful events, I experienced God’s richest blessings. A stronger faith than I had experienced before. A deeper love than I had ever known. A more intimate walk than I could explain. My trials grounded my faith in ways that prosperity and abundance never could."

11/04/2019

From the Pastor 's desk
WHAT IS WORSHIP ? PART 1

(Matt.4:8-10)

-Why was Satan willing to give up the whole kingdoms of the world in exchange of worship?
-What is so valuable about worship that Satan bargained with Jesus for it?
-Satan did not ask for a song, but for a worship. -What is so significant about worship? What is worship?

-In simple tense, worship is the admiration, honor given to someone, or something in recognition of their merit.
-When you worship someone or something you acknowledge the superiority over yourself. You put what you worship above yourself. What you worship matters more than anyone or anything else.
-Worship seems like something simple, but if Jesus would not give it to Satan in exchange for the world kingdom,then worship is not a simple things as it seems.
-Today the enemy is still looking for people to bow down and worship him in exchange of the pleasure of the world. He is still making an offer to us as he made to Jesus, promising materialism and power.
NB: An offer has been tabled in exchange of the very essence of your soul,your worship. What will it be?
-Remember worshipping God kept Lucifer in God's presence, made him beautiful, and gave him specific placement. (Ref. Ezk. 28:12-15,17 -You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire.
-Pride was the cause of Lucifer to loose all the privileges he had. He wanted to supplant God's rule with his own, and self-will that asserted independence from the Most High. Your heart was filled with pride
because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground ...)
-There is no true worship where there is pride. Pride opposes true worship, hence God resist the proud and blesses the humble.

-Worship is the essence of our existence. We were created not for many things, but to worship God. Hence worship is more than just a song, but a lifestyle of obedience and dependence on God. (1Cor. 10:31- "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God".
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11/03/2019

THE SPIRIT OF MAMMON 1
1.
(Matthew 6:24)“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

-The master over your life will have your commitment, love and loyalty.
-Being a servant to tow masters sets you up for comparison, and comparison leads to love or hate,loyalty or disloyalty.
-(e.g.In church) You can't serve tow Pastors or serve in tow churches. You can't commit,love and be loyal to tow churches.
-Paul refers to such case when he address the Corinthians.
-(1Corinthians 4:15)Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
-Paul was appealing to the Corinthians 's loyalty.
-By referring to himself as a father he meant that he was the founder of the church, and as a founder of the church he could be trusted to have its best interests at heart.
2.
THE TOW MASTERS (Matthew 6:24 )"You cannot serve God and mammon."
-In this verse Jesus contrast the heavenly values with earthly values by using tow most powerful masters who can control one's life.
- "You cannot serve God and mammon."
1.God is the creator of everything. All things belongs to Him.
2.Mammon is a spirit that contrast the Spirit of God.
- Mammon comes from the Syrian god of riches/materials.
-Mammon originally came from Babylon. Babylon came from Babel, which means confusion. Babylon means planted in confusion.
-The Tower of Babel was a man made system that they believed on, that they could get to heaven on their own without God.
-Mammon spirit says to you, you don't need God when you have money/riches
-It is a spirit that is arrogant and prideful, that is trying to replace God.(e.g.Have you seen how people behave when they have money)
-God is looking for servants, and mammon is also looking for servants, hence Jesus says,you can not serve God and mammon.
-Some people come to God, not because they love Him but because of what they can get from Him, they think God and mammon are one and the same.
3.
-A mammon messages are being preached in church, like the prosperity message, the give and get lots of money and cars. Such preaching are motivated by mammon.
And people become loyal to this messages, but when this people don't get the desired outcome they despise God because they are loyal to mammon.

-Mammon will give you a false security. Your confidences will rely on riches. Mammon will say,if you have more money you will be happier.
-Many people give not out of love for God, but out of mammon motivation. (E.g. If I could say,"give your salary and you get a mansion", you do it without hesitation, but if I say," let us give in worship to God," we only bring ten rands.)
NB: We are quick to give our love, service,and loyalty to mammon, and this you see in regard to our giving. (Refer story: One man said, I give no more because I never received the things I was told I would receive")
-We don't give for the salvation of people (missions,outreach) we give for cars, for houses and riches.
-Money is not evil, it is neutral. Mammon is a spirit that rest on money.
-Either your money has the spirit of God or mammon spirit on it.
- Money submitted to God and His purposes has the Spirit of God on it. Money not submitted to God has the spirit of mammon on it. Mammon promises everything, but delivers nothing.

-Your money get redeemed from the spirit of mammon by giving 10% of your income.h

Message of God versus mammon
-God says, "My son, give me thy heart." Mammon says, "No, give it to me."
-God says, "Be content with such things as ye have." Mammon says, "Make more money and you will be happy."
-God says, "Defraud not, never lie, be honest and just in all thy dealings." Mammon says "Cheat if thou canst gain by it."
-God says, "Be charitable." Mammon says, "Hold thy own: this giving will make us poor."
-God says, "Be careful for nothing." Mammon says, "Be careful for every thing."
-Thus different are the messages of God and Mammon, so that we cannot serve both.
-Song says, I will serve no foreign god. Mammon is that foreign god.

05/03/2019

Morden Christianity Versus Biblical Christianity 2

How many so called christians are appropriating to themselves the gifts of God! How many are adding house to house and land to land. How many are spending their money for pleasure, for the gratification of appetite, for extravagant houses, furniture, and dress. Their fellow beings are left to misery and crime, to disease and death. Multitudes are perishing without one pity look, one word or deed of sympathy. They parade their cars and luxury lives on social media rather than taking the glory in helping the poor, the widows and orphans.

Men are guilty of robbery toward God. Their selfish use of means robs the Lord of the glory that should be reflected back to Him in the relief of suffering humanity and the salvation of souls. They are embezzling His entrusted goods. The Lord declares, "I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against...those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right." "Go to now, ye rich men,...your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you....Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." "Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton." "Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." James 5:1-3, 5, 4.

04/03/2019

Modern Christianity Versus Biblical Christianity.

Look at the life of many who claim to be Christians,especially called 'men of God'.
The Lord has endowed them with capabilities, and power, and influence; He has entrusted them with money,some with millions, that they may be co-workers with Him in the great redemption. All His gifts are to be used in blessing humanity, in relieving the suffering and the needy. We are to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to care for the widow and the fatherless, to minister to the distressed and downtrodden.
God never meant that the widespread misery in the world should exist where there are His ambassadors. He never meant that one man should have an abundance of the luxuries of life, while the children of others should cry for bread. The means over and above the actual necessities of life are entrusted to man to do good, to bless humanity. The Lord says, "Sell that ye have, and give alms." Luke 12:33. Be "ready to distribute, willing to communicate." 1 Timothy 6:18. "When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind." Luke 14:13. "Loose the bands of wickedness," "undo the heavy burdens," "let the oppressed go free,break every yoke." "Deal thy bread to the hungry," "bring the poor that are cast out to thy house." "When thou seest the naked,...cover him." "Satisfy the afflicted soul." Isaiah 58:6, 7, 10. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15. These are the Lord's commands. Are the great body of professed Christians doing this work?

20/02/2019

*THE LOVE OF GOD 1

(1 John 3:1 NLT) See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know Him.

(1a)-How much do you think God loves you?
-For many of our unmet needs and suffering we seem to be doubting God's love for us because we look for it in wrong places.(cars,money, and good life)
-Whenever everything goes well we feel loved and blessed, but when things turn bad we begin to ask if God loves me.
-NB:In regard to God's love for you it's not the matter of what you feel, where you stay, how much you pray, whether you got a job, but it's a matter of Jesus dying for you.
NB:The love of God is not a matter of feeling, but seeing it in the death of Jesus Christ. Feelings come and they go,they change with circumstances.
-God's love for us is seen in the sacrificial death of Christ and not in the material possessions we have accumulated.
(Romans 5:8) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

(1b) -How do you feel when someone calls you with a name that touches your heart, a name that when is called, echoes the language of love in your heart?
-It is a privilege that we are called the children of God.
-There is something in a name. A name carries an inspiration to live up to something.
-John points out, we are not merely called the children of God; we are the children of God.
NOTE: 1.It is by the gift of God that a man becomes a child of God.
2.By nature a man is the creature of God, but it is by grace that he becomes the child of God.
3.There are two English words which are closely connected but they have different meanings, paternity and fatherhood.
A)Paternity describes a relationship in which a man is responsible for the physical existence of a child.
B) Fatherhood describes an intimate, loving, relationship.
-In the sense of paternity all men are children of God; (Ref: Acts 17:29
Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising).
-In the sense of fatherhood men are children of God only when they believe and receive His only begotten Son.(Ref: John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name).

(1c) But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.
- Why does children of God are so despised by the world?
-The children of God are experiencing only what Jesus Christ has already experienced. When he came into the world, he was not recognized as the Son of God; the world preferred its own ideas and rejected Him.The same is bound to happen to any man who chooses to embark on the way of Jesus Christ.
-When people see you suffering, with no money, no job, and you say you are a child of God, that is like an embarrassment.
-How can God be your Father and yet you suffer so much? This is the kind of question the world ask you.(ref:Job)
-The world does not know you because it did not know God.
-The world does not understand God's ways or why He allows certain things to happen.
-We sometimes don't understand also, when a criminal, like the one who was crucified with Jesus,dies and goes to heaven, when you wish pain for your enemies and God wish for them to be saved. We don't understand how He saved people, we don't understand how He loves the unloveable.

(Is.55:8) My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord .
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
-God works and saves in His terms and not on our terms.