BEWARE OF SAINTLY WITCHCRAFT THAT DEVOURS!

Galatians 5:14-15 says For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

In James 3:9-12, we read that therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

The issue of praying that people we call enemies fall down and die, cursing people that offend us and seeking spiritual vengeance in the place of prayer has become so popular in the body of Christ particularly in Nigeria and we have to sincerely put it in proper perspective.

I remember that sometime in the early 90s, people started using a scripture in the laws of Moses to try to kill witches, suffer not a witch to live, in the usual doublespeak error where we say Christ is the final sacrifice for sin on one hand but wouldn't mind picking anything that supports our pettiness from the law of Moses on the other hand. The quest not to suffer a witch to live has graduated to all out declaration for every enemy to die in the name of Jesus and over time this have become the central theme of our prayer and the drawer of people to prayer meetings.

The instructions of Jesus Christ on how to handle our enemies have been generally sidelined here, just as in many other issues to the point that if the four gospels were removed from our Bibles, "Christianity" as practiced by many will still go on as if nothing had happened! We hardly follow Jesus Christ yet we follow the "Bible"!

The instructions of Christ on this remains sacrosanct and if you are still in Christ you'd better be sure you are following Him! We need to keep reviewing and taking heed to what we have once known lest they slip from us as admonished in Hebrews 2:1 that therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. I too had allowed some things to slip at a time so I'm not writing with an ‘holier than thou’ attitude but admonishing that we should review whatever we think we are sure of in the light of what the scripture actually says.

Jesus Christ said we should pray for our enemies, He canceled the principle of an eye for an eye, He instructed we do good to those who hate us, He said that way, we shall be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect! Matthew 5:38-48 Go read it!

But we have gone on as if He hasn't said anything like that and what do we risk? We are at the risk of institutionalizing sanctimonious witchcraft in the body of Christ. We need to understand that the realm of the spirit isn't exclusive to God, His children and His angels. Satan and the dark Kingdom too have their space in there... Their human agents too reach from the physical into that space by faith and prayer. It's only that their faith is in Satan and their prayer isn't to cause God's will to be done on the earth nor for His kingdom to come. Their prayer is to cause Satan to steal, kill and to destroy. They don't want sinners to repent and be saved but to die and to perish. They don't want divine destinies fulfilled but evil!

So when we too forget the spirit we were made of, and we permit fear, unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred, vengeance, envy and other works of the flesh and we step into the realm of the spirit by faith and prayer, we pray contrary to the will of God, we ask that the sinner who God planned to be saved be killed because such has offended us, we ask that the brother or sister who offended us be killed and since God won't attend to prayers outside His will the kingdom that such prayers are compatible with takes over the requests and if the one being attacked is not standing strong spiritually, such falls victim and the one who "prayed" rejoices but had practiced witchcraft, a work of the flesh.

Apostle Paul said we can actually consume one another if we don't walk in love and those who do the works of the flesh shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

We must be careful of saintly witchcraft. We can't partake of the table of the Lord and of Satan same time. We should remember we were also forgiven and washed and everyone deserves same salvation in Christ. If Paul as Saul had been killed for his wickedness against the church we would have missed such a great gift of God. God doesn't need to kill anyone today for His will to be done in another person's life.

We should be careful of covered up witchcraft and we should be careful also to be under the cover of God against such. May God grant us wisdom! 

Galatians 5:14 -22 says For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15). 

Rev. Evans Adetokunbo Emmanuel is a prolific writer and ordained minister of the gospel. He is the president of Grace Missions International Ministries based in Lagos, Nigeria, an inter-denominational ministry that focuses on ministering to ministers. The ministry holds a bible class every Wednesday (The Bible Class) where topical issues relating to Christianity today are freely discussed in the light of the bible under the auspices of the Holy-Spirit.You can access more of his materials at http://evansademanuel.blogspot.com

THE JOY OF SALVATION

The joy of Salvation was brought by the Holy Spirit when He came into our hearts at salvation and is maintained by Him. 

It is the joy that comes from the understanding and appreciation that you and God are now one. 

We did not work for this joy, it came when we simply opened up our hearts to receive God’s gift that was brought to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus and we continue to experience it daily as long as we are in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. 

The joy is with the Holy Spirit, He prompted us the day we got born again to respond to God’s offer and accept Jesus as our Lord and we did. He came with this joy and it continues to flow from Him to us like a stream or river as we continue to yield to His promptings in our lives daily.

Today, the Holy Spirit seeks to play a greater role in our lives than He currently does, His inability to do this is what causes the joy to wane.

Someone may say ‘He indwells us, so we are in fellowship with Him always’. Well yes, it is supposed to be so, only that our will is involved and it is one thing the Holy Spirit does not force. 

Just like a husband and a wife in a contractual and God recognized marriage relationship can stay under the same roof and not talk/relate positively for months, just like a child and the mom or the dad can be under the same roof and not relate positively for years, it is possible for the believer to walk out of fellowship with the Holy Spirit for days, months or even years, even though He indwells them.

Walking out of fellowship with the Holy Spirit cuts off the joy of our salvation because He is the source of it, it flows from Him to us like a stream and the flow is maintained by fellowship and obedience.

This joy that the Holy Spirit gives us cannot be found in anything or anyone else but Him. It is the joy that God desires that His children have always, the joy of His presence and union with us.

The Holy Spirit is God with us here on earth today, He is God working on earth operationally today. If He does not work, God does not work. There is nothing God the Father will do today on earth outside the Holy Spirit.

The kingdom of God is not in meat and drinks (man-made rules and regulations) but God inspired righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Where these three are lacking, one may not say ‘I am walking or living in the reality of the Kingdom of God’. 

These works of the Holy Spirit keep the Kingdom of God going here on earth and lead to its increase. It is when believers walk and live in this joy that the glory of God becomes common place among them. The bible calls it joy unspeakable, full of glory (1 Peter 1:8).

We must ensure that we keep our fellowship with the Holy Spirit unhindered and alive. He is all the help we have from God here on earth and without staying in fellowship with Him, we cannot have good success.

DOES GOD STOP LOVING HIS OWN?

If we do not experience this joy, it does not mean God does not love us or His love for us has diminished. His love for us caused Him to give us His Spirit, what love can be more than God sharing with us His very essence? 

We only demonstrate our love for Him in reciprocity by allowing the Holy Spirit have first place in our lives. The benefits of God’s love and care can only be fully experienced within the joy the Holy Spirit brings, the reality of which we got to know when He came into our hearts and re-created us.

If you have never experienced this joy, then maybe you have not invited Jesus into your heart to be your Lord and savior. It is beyond feelings, it is an assurance in your spirit that you are now one with God. The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are the sons of God (Romans 8:16).

It is the absence of this joy which is peculiar to the saved only (that is, the body of Christ, the spiritual Church), that has led to the pursuit of other things by the physical Church to make them peculiar. The physical Church is a religious institution run by the same system that runs the world. 

To be peculiar, the physical Church now wants to have the most money, control the most people, have and control the most real estate, have the most crowd, control the government, control the economy, if possible control God etc. 

Little do most believers realize that you do not need to be born again to have and control all these things they now chase after. Having these things does not make a believer peculiar, the world also has them!

The joy of salvation however cannot be obtained or attained by the world because the world does not and cannot have the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit and the joy He gives makes the believer peculiar, this should be our pursuit.

When the bible says joy unspeakable, it means joy that cannot be explained by natural understanding or by the mind. It does not depend on anything that is natural, material, financial or man-made. That is what beats the world! ‘How can a people be so joyous and free despite not having what the world seeks to make it happy’?  

This is the question the world will ask when we return to full fellowship with the Holy Spirit in our individual lives and the glory of God radiates through us. 

If you are a believer and still seek after the things of the world to make you happy, you may have temporarily lost the joy of your salvation, a sign of broken fellowship with the Holy Spirit. All you need do is go back to the obeying Him, starting from your personal and most intimate affairs and the joy comes back. 

Then you will realize you do not need all the spooky music that promotes the lusts of the flesh and eyes and the pride of life to make you feel ‘alright’, or the ‘high’ which the drink, prescription drugs, joint or load brings or the approval and company of that person or people who clearly do not love or fear God.

One thing about this joy is that when you have it you know and others know too. Its absence from the believer leaves a void, question marks, discontent, irritation, restlessness, exhibition of hideous tendencies, criticisms of whatever is godly and all such anomalies that typifies when fish is out of water. 

In its absence, the believer finds it difficult to fellowship with other believers, prayer becomes a burden, studying and meditating on the word become a burden, witnessing ceases, pride comes in, arrogance and naughtiness find expression, walking in love becomes difficult, among other such undesirable traits. 

If we ever find ourselves in such a situation, we must not excuse it away or try to resolve it on our own, we cannot. But God understands and is ever ready to help us (Psalms 103:13) if we will simply return to our first love.

In Revelation 2:4, Jesus admonished the Church at Ephesus (and the entire Church through the ages) to return to their first love. There would not have been any need for the admonition if there was no departure in the first instance. Once saved forever saved you say but Christ admonishes to watch yourself.

Who will agree that they have departed from their first love except those that are sincere enough to measure themselves against how things were when they first believed? For most believers, the so many things we do that we try to excuse away would not have been at all, if we have remained full of the joy of our salvation. 

Had we remained full of His joy, we would not separate ourselves from believers that walk in the fear of God (blaming it on them Jude 1:19), we would not be keep malice and excuse it away as minding our own business, we would not hate studying the bible, we would not hate praying without ceasing, we would not be averse to being more involved in our local churches than we are and so forth. 

If you notice, we become like these as a result of occupying ourselves with other things that we think will bring us joy and satisfaction but which never do. These things may satisfy the flesh temporarily, be acceptable to the society and other believers may even do them. But we are not answerable to the society, we are to God, and His Spirit within us watches over His word to ensure we live in line with it. 

Making God’s word the final word in our lives keeps us in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and there is a call for us to go back to our first love. 

God desires that we experience the joy of salvation as a daily benefit because we are His children. Without this joy, we cannot survive in this world that we live in today, this joy is the source of our strength against all evil (Nehemiah 8:10). 

We must go back to walking hand in hand with the Holy Spirit so He can take us into the fullness of God, empowering us to live victoriously in this life. The bible calls this walking in the spirit, the antidote God has given the Church against carnality and the works of the devil. 

The Holy Spirit is willing and waiting to cause a continuous flow of the joy of salvation in our lives, we only need to ask God for restoration and submit ourselves to His Spirit again if we have gone our own way. If we haven’t, let us take our fellowship with Him to the next level, there is never too much of the joy He brings.        

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15). 


Pastor Gboye Omolayo is the Resident Pastor of Church@Allen, Allen TX, USA. He is a prolific writer and preacher who believes the efficacy of the word of God and the potency of the works of the Holy Spirit are still available to the Church today, as were at the Church’s infancy. He is the publisher of this blog.

HOPHNI, PHINEHAS, ELI & THE CHURCH....

From the second to the fourth chapter of 1 Samuel, we read of a part of the story of Israel that packs a lot of lessons for the Church in these end times. 

There were a number of players in these chapters, the key ones being Eli (who was the high priest and a prophet), his two sons Hophni and Phinehas (who by virtue of birth, according to Mosaic law, served at the tabernacle of God), Samuel (who later became the high priest and a prophet of God also), the children of Israel and the philistines (Israel’s enemy). 

For the purpose of this write up, we can compare the trio of Eli and his two sons as ministers of God in the new testament or leaders in the Church and consider Israel as the Church at large (all believers), the Philistines as the kingdom of darkness with who we contend under the New Testament (Ephesians 6:12).

The sons of Eli were misbehaving very badly at God’s tabernacle. They treated the things of God with so much irreverence, they did just like the undisciplined people of the world would do today when they are put in position of authority over the affairs of men (they become corrupt out of selfishness and greed). 

While it was an established order under the Mosaic laws that people who worked in God’s house would feed from there, there was a procedure for this. There were portions of people’s offerings that went to God in sacrifice, the primary thing in God's tabernacle was service to God and it was to be attended to first. 

When the parts for God’s sacrifice are taken out and offered then the portions for those who served at the tabernacle were given them. Hophni and Phinehas however disregarded this, they disrupted the order of God’s service and when people tried to restrain them, they forcefully had their way, claiming that 'God's anointed should not be touched' (1 Samuel 2:12-17). 

As though this was not enough, they grew wilder and started sleeping with the women who assisted in the performance of service to God at the tabernacle (1 Samuel 2:22).

Eli, rather than do what the law of Moses said to do to those who committed fornication/adultery chose rather to try and persuade his sons to turn from their evil ways. Though he noted that his sons’ ways were evil, that they were by their conducts causing God’s people to sin and that there was only one consequence for their actions except they turned (God’s judgment), God told him in the 29^th verse of 1 Samuel 2 that he honored his sons more than Him (God) and that Eli himself was a beneficiary of some of his sons' evil. This speaks volumes, but we would not be going into it at the moment but rather draw other lessons from the events.

Over the next verses and chapter, God 'touched His anointed' by Himself, He judged Eli and the judgment extended to his generations after him. The consequence of the sons' evil on Eli and his entire generation was very grievous. Without doubt the judgment also affected God’s people (Israel) who were precious to Him. 

After the judgment was passed, the fulfillment was recorded and we see that though the priests and the high priest started and continued in evil, when they were judged it affected the whole of Israel! Israel went to battle against the Philistines twice at this time and were roundly defeated the two times. 

Not only did Israel lose thirty four thousand of her soldiers, the Ark of Covenant was captured and taken away. In New Testament manner of speaking, the glory of God (His presence and works of His Spirit) departed from His people. The Israelites thereafter were God’s people only by name, God’s help that made them special and different had been temporarily removed from them by God Himself. 

As for the Ark of Covenant that was taken by the Philistines, God preserved His Glory and honor, He did not need men to fight for His glory, He dealt with the Philistines so hard that they eventually sent the Ark away with entreaties to God for mercy. God will always give a good account of Himself; it is man that suffers when God’s glory departs. The presence of God's Glory with His people is for the people's benefit, God will always remain God.

It is not right for believers under the New Testament to live outside God’s will because ministers and leaders in the Church are doing wrong. God holds everyone accountable for their wrongdoings, notwithstanding what leadership does. The judgment of the leaders will be more terrible than that of the believers no doubt, but each believer will answer for his/her own failings. 

The Israelites that took after the evil of Hophni and Phinehas knew that what they were indulging in was against the laws of God. The fact that leaders chose to run afoul of God’s law does not mean the Church at large will be excused for running afoul of it. 

Our consciences do not excuse us when we indulge in wrong things, they accuse us and we know. Most of the time when we claim men are ‘judging’ us, our consciences have actually judged us first. Whatever we hear that sounds like ‘judgment’ is simply an echo of what our hearts already told us. 

When we do wrong, we are wrong and being God’s people does not make that right! If God’s word points it to us, it’s not judging us but rather telling us to repent so we do not come to judgment. 1 John 3:20-21 says for if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. 

In other words, if our hearts condemn us for running afoul of God’s word, we should not be under the illusion that we are not wrong before God and should immediately correct our ways so as to stay in fellowship with Him. Otherwise, there sure will be consequences if we persist, whether or not our leaders are indulging in the same wrongs or not.

There is no way the wrong doings of leaders in the Church would not affect the whole Church. Firstly it emboldens believers to do the same wrongs the leaders are caught in. This is natural, it happened in Israel during Eli’s time and would happen now if permitted. 

Secondly when God’s glory and power is withdrawn/suspended, it does not only affect the leaders, it affects the entire Church. What can believers do, you may ask? There is a lot believers can do. God’s expectation is that believers should stick to His word and continue in it and He has made this easy in the New Testament, each believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. 

You can chose to be obedient to the word of God irrespective of what others do. Not only this, the believer should also promote obedience to God’s word by living it and not failing to preach/teach it whenever there is the opportunity. 

Even when other believers who would rather follow the lusts of their flesh say you are ‘judging’ them, you do not stop doing and saying the right things because you owe it to God as a duty. Lastly, believers should pray for the Church always, that the will of God be done among leadership and the entire body of Christ.

It is God’s will that leaders obey and promote His word for the people to follow. It is the believer’s duty therefore to ask God to do whatever is necessary to ensure that both leadership and the entire Church are doing what God expects of them. This is important because except it is so, God’s judgment comes and it affects everyone. 

We know that God is just, He will not allow the righteous to be destroyed with the wicked (Genesis 18:23) but of what benefit will it be if you are the only believer following God’s word? The entire body will be weak and because you are in that body, you will end up being affected by the weakness of others also. You only need to look around you today to see this playing out. 

Samuel followed God after Eli passed but this did not take away from the fact that the Ark of the Covenant was taken away from Israel for a period and everybody missed out on the benefits of its presence. 

The responsibility of seeking God to ensure that His glory is restored rests on all believers and it is very expedient in the days in which we live when the Church is the weakest it has been in decades (and this is not negative confession, it is as bad as when apostle Paul referred to believers in Galatia as having been bewitched - Galatians 3:1). 

The crises and the scandals that riddle the Church today speaks for itself, the waning impact of the Church on the society as shown by prevalent unrighteousness that is also impacting the Church speaks too.

There is a wake-up call to all believers at this time. I dare say that believers that got born again in the millennia hardly know the Church in great glory. A lot is happening within it which ought not to be and a lot is not happening which ought to be. God’s power and glory that should be strongly manifested in her is not as is supposed to. 

If we will take up the challenge in our own personal lives, return to the straight and narrow way of God’s word and prayers for God’s will to be done and His glory returned in its fullness, God will hear and He knows exactly what to do. He waits on us to make adjustments and to pray, will you? 

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15). 


Pastor Gboye Omolayo is the Resident Pastor of Church@Allen, Allen TX, USA. He is a prolific writer and preacher who believes the efficacy of the word of God and the potency of the works of the Holy Spirit are still available to the Church today, as were at the Church’s infancy. He is the publisher of this blog.

SERVING GOD ACCEPTABLY

In Hebrews 12:28-29, it says wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. Whenever the scriptures say for us to do something, it is because there is the likelihood we would not do it except we pay close attention to and deliberately do it.

Here in this text, we see an instruction for us to serve God acceptably because we are now members of His kingdom. We are saved to serve God and there is an acceptable way in which we must do it, in reverence and godly fear. The extent to which each generation of believers meet this requirement of God depends on whether they know there is such a requirement and how much they understand why it must be met. Just as God does not change, His requirement from believers from generation to generation does not too. It is our duty to meet this requirement, it is by meeting it that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

SERVING GOD: WHAT IT MEANS

The believer’s service to God in this context is beyond doing something for God at certain times or every now and then like going to Church services, serving in an activity team in Church, volunteering for community service etc, our service to Him is to live unto Him in all we are and do. Romans 12:1-2 says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. As believers, we belong to God and the only thing we should be about in life is seeking to know and doing what He wants in every area of our lives.

When God delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh’s enslavement in Egypt, it was so they could serve Him (Exodus 8:1) and the moment they came out of Eqypt, they were given instructions which explained how they were to live, not just to conduct worship services from time to time but how they were to live their lives. Serving God is in living our lives unto Him and no less is expected of us under the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 6:20 it says concerning us that for ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirits which are God’s. Romans 6:10-11 says for in that he died, he died unto sin once but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. If we are alive unto God we should live unto Him.

The greatest knowledge a believer can come into is the discovery of the fact that he/she belongs wholly to God and therefore should live unto Him. No believer can have true peace with God, understand the reason for their existence or be fulfilled (which most refer to as being happy) until coming to terms with this fact and submitting to it. Without submitting to God completely, the Christian life will at best be a struggle and end up being a façade and fiasco, much of which we see in this generation. The will of God cannot be done in the life of a believer that has not fully submitted to Him.

Satan had always exploited this lack of submission to keep believers outside God’s will where we may not enjoy the benefits of our salvation. He employs deception, half truths, and lies to take advantage of the immature Christian by leveraging on our uncontrolled lusts. Overcoming him begins with coming to terms with this spiritual reality that we should no longer live to ourselves but to God. There is no true Christianity without this and it is the beginning of total victory over Satan and his kingdom.

GOD’S GRACE TEACHES TO LIVE UNTO GOD

Titus 1:11-12 says the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world. Beyond what most know, the grace of God brings more than forgiveness of sin and unmerited favor, it brings instruction also, it tells us what to do, it teaches us how to live unto God. To the believer, this grace is not useful or profitable except and until it is allowed to do that for which it is given. The greatest resistance to the work of this grace in a believer’s life is the non acceptance of this fundamental doctrine that we are no longer ours but God’s. Living soberly, righteously and godly will be a struggle until we totally submit to God, which in actual fact most see as unnecessary or impossible but the word of God teaches its necessity and possibility.

The teaching done by God’s grace that brings salvation is through the word of God and it takes putting God first to have regard for His word, else we continue to argue with it or twist it to mean whatever suits us, as many do.

BEWARE OF SELF!

In this dispensation, self is ‘the idol’ we are most at risk of submitting to rather than to God. God’s word forewarned us about this (2 Timothy 3:2-4). Idolizing self is simply consistently obeying the flesh rather than God and it is subtle because the urge to always obey it is usually so strong. The strength is due to persistent appeal of Satan to its lusts either directly or through the things of the world.

The lust of the flesh is the only avenue through which Satan tempts us. He never attempts to tempt us with what we do not lust after. James 1:14 says every man is tempted when he’s drawn away of his own lust (not Satan’s lust). All Satan does is to appeal to the lusts and true to it, every disobedience to God, every fight against God’s will, every rebellion against God by the believer is always as a result of giving the flesh and its desires the place that should have been given to God in our lives.

Overcoming starts from the place of total submission to God. Have you ever wondered why it says in James 4:10 that humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up? Humbling yourself is giving up on self and making God object of honor and obedience. 1 Peter 5:5 says the same thing also. James 4:10 says submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil and he shall flee from you. The resistance will not work without the submission.

THE CONCLUSION

If you have areas of your life where you are not getting bible results, if things are happening in your life that do not glorify God, if your peace is being chastised by the enemy despite the fact that the chastisement of your peace had already been borne by the Lord Jesus then I suggest you run a check on whether or not you are living unto God. Are you seeking and doing His will as a way of life? The benefits of being in God’s kingdom are only enjoyed when you live unto God.

It is true that the just shall live by faith. Faith is what it takes to get your needs met and problems solved by God. But never forget that this faith, the God kind of faith, comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. This word belongs to God and is revealed only by His Spirit to each individual. The hearing and hearing is so revelation knowledge may come from the Holy Spirit. If there is no revelation knowledge there can be no faith and no faith, no benefits. Faith subsequently comes from God, so we are right back to where we need to start from, total submission to God.

It is true that it is by grace that we are saved through faith, not by our own works. We have seen additionally that besides salvation and unmerited favor, this grace teaches living unto God which puts us in the position to enjoy the benefits of being in His kingdom. The good part also is that if we live unto God here on earth, we have double benefits, first the fullness of His blessing here on earth and secondly reward when we leave here into eternity with God and His Christ. If we do not live unto Him however, we have neither His best down here and certainly no rewards over there. God’s grace for salvation does not cover reward in eternity, our living unto God here on earth is what we will be rewarded for over there. It is better to fully submit to God and serve Him acceptably in reverence and godly fear while we still can, it pays for now and even more in the hereafter.

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15). 


Pastor Gboye Omolayo is the Resident Pastor of Church@Allen, Allen TX, USA. He is a prolific writer and preacher who believes the efficacy of the word of God and the potency of the works of the Holy Spirit are still available to the Church today, as were at the Church’s infancy. He is the publisher of this blog.

SELF DENIAL IS NO LONGER STILL A DOCTRINE OF CHRIST

Self-denial is part of a doctrine of the gospel of Christ (repentance from dead works) that should be as popular (if not more popular) in the Church today as doctrines that promote the acquisition of the good things of life for the benefit of the believer. But it is not! 

If only believers knew that all the good things of this life they can ever think of or desire and more are in Christ and that they will get these things in Him without getting their fingers burnt, they would deny self already, to seek and follow Him without distraction. 

Following Christ is the access to God’s omnipotence and for the believer it is a life-long journey. Jesus said in Mark 8:34 that whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.  

What is self-denial? It is one phrase that secular definition can hardly correctly explain because it presents it as something negative. The act of not allowing yourself to have or do something you want sure sounds and feel negative, doesn’t it? 

But Jesus never came to take away from you but to add to you, so there must be something to self-denial than what the secular definition offers as its meaning. Self-denial is not negative but positive, it has great gain (1 Timothy 6:6). 

It is crucial for us to have adequate understanding of what self-denial is to the believer. I have come to discover that the greatest conflicts believers have in their lives today in following Christ derive from not knowing or knowing but not understanding this requirement well enough, for living to please God.

UNDERSTANDING HOW GOD DEALS WITH YOU

The word of God is the only means by which the believer can have understanding of things regarding his relationship with God. So powerful is the word that it is only by it that we are able to distinguish between our spirit and our mind (Hebrews 4:12) and understand who we really are. 

The word of God explains to us that Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). We need not over stress the point that the new creature refers to man’s spirit that got recreated by the Spirit of God at salvation. This is what is referred to as being born again (John 3:3). 1 Peter 1:3 says the believer has been begotten again unto a lively hope. 

The twenty third verse of this same book refers to the believer as being born again, not of corruptible seed. James 1:18 says of His own will begat he us with the word of truth… All these refer to the re-creation of the spirit of the believer, which Ephesians 4:24 speaks of as the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.  

The believer’s re-created spirit has the life of God and desires to please God and always do His will. Sin or whatever is contrary to God's will cannot arise from the believer’s spirit. 

As a believer, whatever is sinful or contrary to God can only come from other of your members, not your spirit that has been created after God in righteousness and true holiness. 

In Romans 7:15-25, apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit explained this in details. He said the new creature, the born again spirit of the believer delights in the law of God. This new creature he called the inward man (referring to man’s spirit - Romans 7:22).

We do know also that there is more to the believer than his spirit while he is here on earth, he has his flesh on still. The flesh of man is that part of man that nothing happened to at salvation, the part that remains corrupt and corruptible, full of evil desires.

The flesh therefore fights against the believer’s re-created spirit for control over the mind because whichever dominates the mind determines what the believer eventually does, either the spirit unto righteousness or the flesh unto sin.

Sin comes from the believer’s flesh, not his spirit. The believer’s spirit always wants to do God’s will and with this knowledge he must deny the flesh what it desires at all times. This is the self-denial Jesus commanded and requires.

You must deny your flesh what it desires because it can never want anything that is not sinful. Romans 7:18 says For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing. Never hope for a day when your flesh will lose interest in sin so you can start doing God’s will.

Do not seek for or hope for a day when prayer can be made for you to cast evil out of your flesh so that it stops desiring sin. Such a day will never come. The way to live and the only way is self-denial, deny and deprive the flesh what it wants so you can follow Christ all the way. If you do not deny self, you will continue to deny Christ.

THE ‘FEEL GOOD’ THAT IS BAD FOR YOU

Following Christ will never make your flesh feel good, sinning however would. Following Christ fills your spirit with joy unspeakable, full of glory (1 Peter 1:8). The believer is expected to dominate his flesh with this. 

What the bible says mostly in reference to self is nothing more than the desires of the flesh. In these last days, self has been exalted above everything else (including God) and the ‘feel good’ buzz up in the atmosphere, people take drugs and do all sorts to ‘feel good’, some end up killing themselves all in the attempt to 'feel good' or get high.

The believer must take a position on whether he would follow Christ unto life or follow sin (self/the flesh) unto death. The ‘feel good’ of the flesh brings forth sin unto death. 

The ‘feel good’ of the flesh is what Satan uses to lure men to destruction, but the joy of the Spirit brings forth righteousness unto eternal life.

As a believer, never let what your flesh feels when you deny it be a deterrent to your obedience to and living to please God. Rather see it as honor and service unto God (Romans 12:1) and rejoice knowing He is pleased with you and He rewards. There is no limiting your spiritual development when you follow this, for God will take you on a no holds barred experience in your walk with Him.

While it is erroneously held by some that 'if it does not feel good then people will not want it', I will say this holds only to the extent that people do not have the revelation knowledge of God’s word. 

With the revelation knowledge of God's word, people would want God, they would chose Jesus over the world, blessing over curses, plenty over lack and poverty, joy over guilty conscience, peace with God over conflicts, victory over defeat, eternal life over eternal damnation and the list goes on.

The Church cannot make the flesh feel good because the word of God will not. If the Church follows the 'feel good' path, it will end up being full of people who are not saved and will not get saved because they do not know the difference.

No man genuinely comes to Christ with their flesh feeling good. Repentance and the flesh feeling good go in opposite directions. 

If the flesh feels good, then it is not Church, neither is it of Christ. 

The Church is meant to teach and encourage denial of the desires of the flesh so that the believer can walk with God. The lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life are the things the bible refers to as what the world is all about and it says if anyone loves the world and the things in it, such a person cannot love God (1 John 2:15-16). How possible or easy do you think it is to follow someone you do not love?

The desire of the spirit of everyone that is born again is to follow Christ and the ‘feel good’ of the flesh can never satisfy this desire but rather take away from it. 

God put the desire to follow Christ in our spirits by the Holy Spirit, making provision for us to walk before Him unto all pleasing in this life. He has given us His life, His very own Spirit is in our spirits. 

The desires of the flesh He asks us to deny do us no good. They only give temporary pleasure to the flesh while our spirits groan and are drawn away from God. 

Self-denial does not take away from the believer, it positions him to get the most from God in this life and in the hereafter, it only adds to the believer.

The only way you are not doing the desires of the flesh is by denying the flesh, not explaining them away, wishing them away or pretending as though they are not being gratified or that they are right before God. 

Are you wondering what the missing ingredient is in your life as a believer? Are you wondering why the things of the Spirit are not clear to you or why your experience is far from what you see in and know of the bible? Then check on your self-denial status, put your flesh under by denying it what it desires, so you can focus on doing what Christ says. 

Walk in love rather than hate, backbite, back-stab, take vengeance, keep malice, lie or set another up for a fall for your benefit. 

Think no ill to your neighbor but rather do good to them. 

Study the word of God and pray habitually. 

Never give up on what God’s word says, do it and be an example of a true disciple of Christ. 

Preach the gospel, live in purity, shun impurity. The list is endless but the summary is not; love God by doing what He wants as stated in His word and witnessed to your heart by His Spirit and love your neighbor as Christ loves you. If you do these, I assure you that you will never be barren or unfruitful in your walk with Christ (2 Peter 1:8).

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15).


Pastor Gboye Omolayo is the Resident Pastor of Church@Allen, Allen TX, USA. He is a prolific writer and preacher who believes the efficacy of the word of God and the potency of the works of the Holy Spirit are still available to the Church today, as were at the Church’s infancy. He is the publisher of this blog.

        

NEVER LOSE HOPE!

Anybody that has ever achieved notable success in anything in this life achieved it because they never lost the hope of achieving that success. 

This fact holds true even in the body of Christ because it is God ordained. 

The spiritual weight of having hope and never losing it is more than that of the human effort that is put into achieving any desired goal. 

All efforts and no hope always end in futility because at the slightest resistance, efforts wane and fail without hope remaining strong.

THREE THINGS 

There are three things required for a successful walk with God in this life as a believer, faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). 

Love is the greatest of the three and understandably so because it is the nature of God and being born of Him, it is an attribute of His that mark us out as His children. 1 John 4:7 says every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. 

The importance of faith is underscored by the revelation in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please God, and hope is the precursor of faith. 

These three do not work independently in the believer’s life, they work together to bring the fullness of God’s purpose to pass (Galatians 5:6, Romans 5:5).

As God requires that His Children walk in love because He has given us the wherewithal to do so (we have His nature by His Spirit Who indwells our spirits – Romans 5:5), He also requires that we walk in faith and never lose hope in His promises.

WHAT IS HOPE?

Hope is defined as expectation of something happening. 

For the believer, hope must always be tied to what God has promised or what God has said. It is expecting what God has said to happen. 

Apostle Paul said we hope for what we have not seen, as we do not need to hope for what we have seen (Romans 8:24). 

Whatever God will do in our lives starts from His promise and as at the time we learn about the promise, those things are yet to be seen. 

God demands that we expect whatever He has promised to happen, because not only can He not lie but He also cannot fail.

Satan overcomes so many believers by keeping them in the realm of the senses. Once they look around and what they see or feel is different or far from what God has said, they lose their expectation, they give up hope. 

God does not want us to walk in that realm, He wants us to walk in the realm of His promises, the realm of the unseen and the un-felt, for that is where God is. 

His promise, His word supersedes whatever we can see or feel.

In God’s kingdom, once you lose hope, you lose everything because keeping hope is what puts you in a position to act on what God has said (which you have believed). 

If you lose hope, you have simply thrown away what you believed and you cannot effectively act on what you do not believe anymore. 

Faith is acting on what you believe, what you are expecting; that is why the bible calls it the substance of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1). 

It is the only tangible evidence you have (your action due to what you believe) that what you expect (which you have not seen) will happen. 

If you are not acting on God’s word (His promises), check it out, it is because you do not believe Him or you did but have thrown the belief away due to some reasons.

START FROM GOD'S PROMISES

As a believer, if you have any issue in your life that does not glorify God and you want it dealt with, your starting point is to find out what God has to say about it. 

God has made provision for all our needs to be met in His word, His word is His promise to us, His covenant. 

Once you get God to reveal His promise to you on the matter, then you believe it. This gives you immediate respite, it kindles an expectation of what God has promised irrespective of your present circumstance or situation. 

Your belief gives you hope, your hope determines your action consequently. Your action on what you believe, your action on your expectation is the expression of your faith.

There are times you see believers say they have faith but their actions are far from that of someone expecting anything positive to come out of their situations. 

God would not turn up in such situations because they simply do not believe His promise or they did but have stopped believing, they have lost hope.

TWO TYPES OF HOPE

There is hope you have as a result of the promises that God has given and there is natural hope which is expecting something to occur given the space of time. 

A woman who has not conceived (for example) but have not reached menopause has natural hope of conceiving (all things being equal). However, there is no natural hope for the woman after menopause. If there will be hope thereafter, it will have to be based on God’s promise (supernatural hope) that the naturally impossible will be made possible by God.

As believers, we are not supposed to base our lives on natural hope but on the promises of God. 

Satan can mess with natural hope (by making all things not to be equal) but can never mess with hope based on God’s promises. 

Natural hope is not protected against the onslaught of Satan, supernatural hope is protected against everything that is of Satan because it is backed by the entire force of God’s omnipotence. 

Your hope as a believer must always be based on God’s promises.

IT'S NOT 'ENEMIES' BUT YOUR UN-RENEWED MIND

I often tell people that most believers continue to fail not because of their perceived enemies but because they refuse to renew their minds with God’s word and get their thinking straightened out. 

‘Enemies’ centric believers hardly have any enduring victories over the works of Satan but God centric believers do. 

How would you expect God’s power to work for you when you do not have His promises and so do not believe them? Your expectations will remain that of failure and defeat (what Satan is doing and can do) unless and until you start to and continue believing God’s promises (what God has promised and will do). 

With negative expectations, you should not expect God to turn up because you do not honor Him, you do not believe Him. 

Someone would say ‘but I believe Him’ and I’d be like ‘if you do, why are your expectations negative’? 

The fear you have comes from negative expectations, a tell-tale sign of having lost hope or having no hope based on God’s promises. 

Victory over the battles of this life starts from knowing God’s promise and believing them, expecting them to be in your life because God said they would be. 

When you believe God’s word and act on it, the word contends with Satan on your behalf (in addition to your prayers) and that is the only reason why you win. Satan is no match for God’s word.

HOPE OF ETERNAL SALVATION

We all know that there is a reward in heaven for living right here on earth (Revelation 22:12, Galatians 6:8). What Satan does is to get believers to lose this hope of God’s reward in heaven for living to please Him here on earth. 

Once believers lose this hope, they cast away restraint at the slightest impulse and live lawless lives believing that it does not matter because God will always forgive their sins. Yes, God will always forgive the believer’s sins when they sin and ask Him to, but why would they continue sinning if indeed they believe God that there is a reward in heaven for living right here on earth? (Except of course they never believed or have stopped believing). 

Only a believer that has lost this hope will not strive to live and please God here on earth.

We must not lose the hope of our salvation, if we do, we will live like any other unbeliever for there will be no compelling reason to work hard and subdue the flesh in the honor of God. 

Any preaching/teaching/life style that in any way allows or encourages believers to live like the hopeless (Ephesians 2:12) is that of the anti-Christ whose mission is to cause the believer to live contrary to God’s will here on earth. Such believers put themselves at great risks, put other believers at the same risks through their negative influences and are of no use in getting unbelievers to come to salvation.

God rewarding the believer in heaven for living to please Him while here on earth is not a myth, it is based on God’s promise and it is our continued belief in this promise until the end that causes us to exercise restraint, deny self and turn down the pleasures of this world to live to please God. 

As there is the reward for living to please God, there is no reward for not living to please Him while here on earth but losing out by the believer who is caught in it and this means an awful lot.

CONCLUSION

You must find out what God has said in His word concerning your life and under no circumstance should you stop believing what He has said if you intend to see it happen in your life. 

You must never lose hope, not only regarding things of this life but more importantly things of the life to come. 

Maybe you have missed out on these in some ways, it is not the end, you can make mid-course corrections, change your orientation and thinking, asking God to help you and He will. 

You are born again to always win but the beginning of all victory is never losing hope.

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Timothy 4:15).


Pastor Gboye Omolayo is the Resident Pastor of Church@Allen, Allen TX, USA. He is a prolific writer and preacher who believes the efficacy of the word of God and the potency of the works of the Holy Spirit are still available to the Church today, as were at the Church’s infancy. He is the publisher of this blog.