LIVING OR EXISTING

By Brother Godwin

Beloved,

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection (Romans 6:5)

Many of the folks that would read this will remember the morning, the leader of the companion distributed a write up titled Living Cadaver. That was in our second year in the university. Summary of the write up was this: ‘people think they are living but actually are dead because they do not have Jesus Christ as their savior. It made such a powerful impact on our classmates who were not born again then (Thank God that a lot: I mean so many have accepted Jesus Christ since then. Hallelujah).  This analogy brings out the fact that a lot are living the lives they are not. So many Christians are not living the lives they really are.
Before Adam became a living soul, he merely existed. The life of God did not flow through him. When God breathed into him, he became a living speaking spirit like God (Genesis 2:7); he became a co-creator with God. He single handed named everything living and impacted the nature that they exhibit today (Genesis 2:19). Adam started living when God breathed unto him. Before then he merely existed.
Psalms 82:1 says that God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. That clearly identifies who God says we are, mighty. God calls you a god (if you are born again). “Me, mighty” you may ask? I did not say it. Check it from your own copy of the Bible. Don’t be surprised. That is God’s view of you, but it did not stop there. Verse 7 says that you are not a man (some version says a mere man). Now that introduces a completely different narrative. I am not a mere man? Yes, you are not a mere man. You are a spirit, in the image and likeness of God. You are mighty. God had so much confidence that he appointed you a defender of the poor and fatherless, a deliverer of the needy (verses 5-6). I mean you are to enforce salvation that Jesus brought. You and I are to execute the judgment written in the scriptures (Psalms 149:5-9). Now read the whole of Psalm 82 and see that for yourself. Obadiah 21 calls you a savior. Earlier in Obadiah 17, the scripture says that there shall be deliverance upon mount Zion. Who shall do that, the deliverers of course!  I mean The Saviors in Zion..you and I WORKING  WITH GOD!.
That is why the whole creation has been waiting for ages for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19). You and I are the hope of creation. True! Friend, Jesus is sitting down at the right hand of God waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool (Psalms 110:1). Satan has been defeated (Colossians 2:14-15) but that defeat needs to be enforced. Who would do that? Saviors in Zion: sons of God. I mean mighty spirits. This honor have all the saints of God (Psalms 149:9).
They were entertaining that daughter of Abraham for 18 years in that synagogue until Jesus appeared (Luke 13:16). The lame man was there at the beautiful gate until Peter and John showed up (Acts 3:1-7).   Simon the sorcerer was the talk of the town until Philip showed up (Acts 8:8-13). Ha ha ha! It is our time and we have to make it count.
How shall these things be, Mary asked the angel? Hosea 6:3 puts the answer this way “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth”. When we follow on to know the Lord, his glory manifest. This is not head knowledge. It is heart knowledge with the whole spirit, soul and body, programmed and working in unison with the word of God. Daniel called them “they that know their God” (Daniel 11:32).
We ought to live in the likeness of his resurrection. The resurrected life did not recognize walls: the resurrected like could enter a locked room without the need for a door (John 20:19). The resurrected life could stay in the deep for 3 days without getting drowned. The enemy recognized the resurrected life in Jesus and Paul. Did you say Paul? I did not say it. The Bible said it (Acts 19:15). Paul, a re-born man like you and I, developed to the extent that he was recognized in the spirit realm. If Paul can, then we can.
Let’s wake up and make the divine life we have to count. We should not just exist we need to start living the divine life.

BAPTISM SERVICE, 18TH SEPTEMBER 2011

Riches and Good Health: All part of the salvation package

By Brother Godwin

Beloved,

Scripture Reading: And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you (Exodus 10:24).

Last week we saw how the enemy tries to negotiate our divinity away by making every effort to keep us at the fringes of our commitment to God. Go serve God he says, but do not go very far. Interestingly, this is a direct opposite of what God said in his word. Jeremiah 29:13 says, you shall seek me and find me when you search for me with your whole heart. The word also says that God will show himself strong in the life of those whose heart are perfect toward him (2 Chronicles 16:9). These are people who go far with him. Didn’t God say that he would spue out those who are neither warm nor cold out of his mouth (Revelation3:15-16)? So get immersed in God. That is how to get the best in God.
Pharaoh had another argument in order to contain the blessings of the people of God. This was what he said: Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed (Exodus 10:24). Flocks and herds represent their riches; the blessings of the Lord upon their life. The enemy wants us to think that the good of life does not belong to us. “You can be holy but don’t talk about wealth”. “Don’t talk about a healthy living”. So people sing such songs as “take the whole world and give me Jesus”. No, that is wrong singing. If God is your father, doesn’t a good father take care of his children?  What reflection does it have on God that his children would be begging food? Friend it is not God. It is the enemy that convinces people that holiness is incompatible with riches. Lack or poverty does not make you more Christian than your neighbor that is rich. In fact it mocks the authenticity of the God you claim to serve (Psalms 37:18-19). Check the scripture. People that served God well were people of means. You know what? It is the love of wealth much more than love for God that is a sin. When wealth becomes a god, so that you live for it instead of for God, you are into idolatry. You will agree with me that the person that has 1000 Euro can be as idolatrous towards money as the person that has billions of Euros.  Don’t allow the enemy to negotiate the blessings God has given you away.
“Go serve God but leave the blessings behind”. This is a ploy of the enemy. God’s blessings include good health. The same death of Jesus Christ that saved you from your sin also saved you from sickness and lack. Salvation is much more than cleansing from sins. First let’s see what the problem was.  Jeremiah 5:25 says “Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.  Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you”.  Now see the available solution:  Isaiah 53:6 says  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Put together, the iniquity that withheld good from us has been taken away. Every good thing has been provided. Don’t listen to the negotiator. The most holy God is the richest personality. The most holy God is not sick. So why should you and I lack? Why should you and I be ill? God’s plan is that those that serve him will not just be satisfy with the good things of life, also he plan to keep them healthy (Proverbs 13:17). See what he said And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil (Exodus 23:25-26). This is the true reflection of God.
Friend, we need to stand strong and take that which God has already given us. Joshua was frustrated with the children of Israel and asked them, how long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you (Joshua 18:3)? These are all included: Signs and wonders shall follow those of us that believe (Mark 16:17-18). We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). God’s divine power has given to us all things that pattern unto life and godliness (2 Peters 1:3-4).  Stop the enemy from negotiating away your covenant rights.
I will end this write up by quoting what the Spirit of God said through a man of God in August 2010: “Our ignorance or laziness to appropriate that which belongs to us does not invalidate the promises of God. It just means we did not take due diligence to do what we are supposed to do” (Pastor Olumide, 2010). How ture this is!Stop standing on the fringes. Go take that which belongs to you. Find them from the scriptures and forcefully take them by faith.

GET IMMERSED

By Brother Godwin

Beloved,

Scripture: And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: intreat for me (Exodus 8:28).

God had a promised land ready for his people but Pharaoh would not want them to get there. By telling them not to go far away, he wanted to make sure that he could always have access to them. Our destiny is divine life and we can only access it by the knowledge of God. 2 Peter 1:4 says Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. You are I are programmed to live the very life that God lives. Our words and deeds are programmed by God to depict divinity but that can only come through the knowledge and application of the word of God; through sailing out in search for God and his way of thinking and doing things. This way you stay far away from the enemy.

But you know what? The enemy would do everything to convince us that we should pray when our busy schedule permits; that we should study the word when we have time to spare. Friend, do you breathe when you have some time to spare? Moses while speaking to the Israelites told them that the Word; the study with practice of the Word is their life (Deuteronomy 30:20).  In other words, if you do not apply it to your day to day walk, you are as good as dead. Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish (Psalms 49:20). Did you read that? The enemy will do everything to keep people at the fringes of God’s kind of life so that they will not enjoy the fullness of the divine life already available to them. Listen to this, you and I are not supposed to live and die like mere men. If we know who we are and do what we are supposed to do, the things that happen to men would not happen to us. True! Our being is God (Acts 17:28, Psalms 82:5-7). Eternal life is accessible through the knowledge of God. Stop staying at the fringes: get immersed.

‘Don’t go far away in God’, the enemy will say.’ Go to church when it’s convenient’. ‘Instead of going for a prayer meeting, go and visit a friend’. ‘Spend as must time as possible to watch television instead of spending time in the word of God’. ‘Don’t keep yourself pure, God understands’. These are suggestions of the enemy to keep us away from God’s blessings. ‘Keep your tithe’, the enemy will say. ‘The Pastor just wants to use your money to buy a new car or a new shoe’. ‘Discuss your Pastor and your fellow Christians’. ‘When you get to church, judge every single thing that is done’. ‘You are comfortable; those people that are always in church are those that have needs’. ‘Even if the Bible says it, this is not what you have practiced since you were born’. All these are the enemy’s ploy to negotiate away your dominion.

God’s eye is going to and fro the earth to show himself strong in the life of those whose hearts are perfect towards him (2 Chronicle 16:9). Friend, you will find God when you seek him with all your heart. You might not have a need now but you need God to keep that which you have. Get immersed.

Hear what Jesus said And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him (John 8:29). God was always the focus of Jesus Christ. To get the kind of result that Jesus had, we have to focus on God the way he did. This is what Jesus advised: If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (John 14:23). Using another set of words, ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).

Get immersed in God. Think, talk and do his word. Get immersed in God and watch to see how your life will be completely transformed. Do not negotiate away your divine position.
Godwin

The enemy is a negotiator. He always has alternative plan that tries to convince the believer that you can serve God half-way. ‘You can be a Christian but you do not have to be filled with the Holy Spirit’ or ‘you can be a Christian without being a fanatic’. Let me paint this picture to you: can a fish live in a bucket of water or bath tub? There is water in the bath tub but the bath tub can never be a river and the river is the natural habitat for the fish. Unless the fish abides in the river, it will suffer and eventually die. You and I do not want God. We need God and no half way would do.

BIBLE JOURNEY OF THE WEEK.

Monday: Acts 21
Tuesday: Acts 22

Wednesday: Acts 23

Thursday: Acts 24

Friday: Acts 25

 

God wants to talk to you everyday through his word.

 

Create time for him by studying prayerfully the word of God.

 

God bless you.

 

Shalom

THE TOP CHILDREN SING FOR THE PASTOR.

BIBLE JOURNEY FOR THE WEEK

Let us continue with our Bible journey through the book of Acts.

Monday: Acts 11
Tuesday: Acts 12

Wednesday: Acts 13

Thursday: Acts 14

Friday: Acts 15

We need the word of God in our lives everyday. Let us desire his voice by studying his word and see how he changes our lives. The more you study the word prayerfully, the more like him you become.