LIVING IN THE VIEW OF GLORY (7)

“And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth” (Revelations 14:2-3 NKJV).

The Christian life is always to be lived in view of God’s glory. Every pursuit in this present life must be with the glory of God in view. Getting one’s eyes off the glory of God heads one towards an avoidable perdition.  If you doubt this, ask Demas who loved the things of this present world more than Christ and thus forfeited the glory (2 Timothy 4:10).  Irrespective of whatever glory one gets out of this life, if the person misses out on actualising the fullness of God’s glory in eternity, the person’s loss is colossal. Central to our quest to experiencing the glory of God is worship.  Worship is an adoring relationship with God in deep appreciation of who He and for what He does. It is setting our attention on God and on heavenly realities more than on earthly ones. In worship, we celebrate and contemplate the excellencies of God. The immediate reward is a download of the peace of God that is beyond human understanding. The Prophet Isaiah said, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” (Isaiah 26:3 NLT).  Fixing our thoughts on God is the core component of pure worship. Whatever or whoever is primary in your thoughts is the thing or person you worship. You cannot ravish your thoughts on worldly things all week and quickly switch on the worship button on Sunday morning.  To worship God properly, He must be at the centre of our thoughts all the time. We must constantly pull our thoughts back to Him from time to time all through the day. Singing with all your might while your thought is on something else other than God is not worship.

True worship draws us close to the heart of God and positions us to commune with Him. There is hardly any other way to get quickly to the heart of God than to approach Him with pure worship.  The process of true worship would include, reflective bible reading, prayers and singing –either short choruses or hymns. The singing may be in a known language and sometimes in the Holy Spirit inspired supernatural language.  Paul declared, “...I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding” (1 Corinthians 14:14 NKJV). It is beautiful and very spiritually nourishing to sing and worship God in the spirit. Glory descends in a worship session when one receives a new song from the Lord.

A new song is not the latest song you just learnt. It does not originate from the human mind but from the Spirit of God.  Often, it is the song the Angels and heavenly beings are worshipping God with which the Holy Spirit decides to share with the worshipping believer or congregation. When you receive a new song, stay on it as long as the Holy Spirit stays on it.  The hundred and forty-four thousand saints redeemed from the twelve tribes of Israel sang such a new song to the Lord to celebrate their redemption.  “They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth.”   This is a special song, which nobody else could learn except the one hundred and forty-four thousand.  Glory always comes with a coming of a new song from God. We must learn to stay long enough in worship until the glory comes. When we sense the glory has come, we must keep singing the new song until the Holy Spirit signals the satisfaction of our Father.

This quality of worship calls for creating special time for God inspite of our crowded program. God desires to bring us into special experience with His glory. Our Lord declared, “The same glory you gave me, I gave them...” (John 17:22 The Message). Worship is indispensable in every human attempt to cultivate and enjoy the glory of God –His weighty Presence in and around His Children.  May the Lord help you to press into this life-changing encounter in Jesus name.

LIVING IN THE VIEW OF GLORY (6)

“And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelations 5:9-10 NKJV)

One key feature of worship in heaven is its spontaneity. Heavenly beings are God-watchers. They have their attention focused on Him and any action of His resonates in spontaneous praise and worship. Cultivating your spirit until it easily worships God in spontaneous songs is one good way of experiencing the glory of heaven. The word “spontaneous” is defined as “coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation, natural and unconstrained, unplanned.” Spontaneous worship results from supernatural impulse without effort or premeditation. As a matter of fact, spontaneous worship is the worshipper’s response to the stimulus of the Holy Spirit. Many of the songs, and to some extent, the hymns we sing came originally to the composers as a spontaneous praise and worship. 

Spontaneous worship happens when we observe what God is doing or has done and respond in joyful praise to what we observe.  For example, when God divided the sea for the children of Israel who were fleeing from Egypt to cross on dry land, and then collapsed the water to drown the Egyptian army, the children of Israel burst out in spontaneous praise.  “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying: “I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously!  The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!” (Exodus 15:1 NKJV). They did not know this song before the incident of crossing the sea.  It was a spontaneous response to what God has just done to deliver them from the hand of their enemies. The works of God in our lives are likewise meant to elicit spontaneous songs of praise and worship from us.  This was one key way heavenly beings worshipped God. Most of the psalms of David were spontaneous songs sang unpremeditatedly to celebrate the present wonders of God in His life.

When the four living creatures and twenty-four elders observed the gallantry of the Eternal Lamb of God as He stepped forward to take the scroll from the Hand of the Father and to open its seven seals, having triumphed over the enemies of God, they burst into spontaneous song to worship the Lamb. “Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelations 5:8-10 NKJV). This song was birthed at that moment to celebrate the gallantry of our Lord. Hence, the Bible said, “they sang a new song.”

God is doing so much in your life; but are you raising new songs to Him?  Every experience of blessing from God should be celebrated with a new song. New songs express our original and heartfelt appreciation to God for His present blessings in our lives. New songs declare new seasons of God’s favour in our lives and position us to live under the cloud of that favour. What great opportunities we have wasted in not celebrating God’s favours with new songs as the Spirit of God spurs us at any given moment! The beauty of new songs is that they are melodious to God even when they is not to human beings. Provided they are flowing from the Holy Spirit through your spirit to the heart of the Father, they are welcome in the court of heaven. “He has put a new song in my mouth...,” declares the Psalmist. (Psalm 40:3 NKJV). Sing God new songs every day as they come to you in your quiet moments as you soak in the glory of His Presence. Every day dawns with new opportunities to sing new songs to God. Let us make the most of those opportunities and His glory will ever enshroud us in Jesus name.    

LIVING IN THE VIEW OF GLORY (5)

“The voice said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.’ And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it” (Revelation 4:1-2 NLT)

God want to take us on an excursion in the realm of the spirit.  When John heard the invitation from God to come up to heaven for deeper revelations, he accepted the invitation and instantly he was in the spirit. What does it mean to be in the spirit? Well am sure I know what the Bible means by that but we can attempt an explanation from other incidences in the Word of God. Paul spoke of similar experience in 2 Corinthians 12:1-3.

This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord. ²I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows. ³Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know ⁴that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.”

To “be in the spirit” could be to be brought into “visions and revelations from the Lord.”  The Lord may open His deep mysteries to a believer to enable the person see and experience His eternal goodness and wisdom. At such times, He grants one special privilege  to see those things which eyes have not seen or those things which no ear has heard of the things He prepared for those who love Him, but which the Holy Spirit has the prerogative to reveal to the believer as He will  (1 Corinthians 2:9-12). Our Lord had earlier promised that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will lead us into all truth and take from what belongs to Jesus and declare it unto us(John 16:12-15). Such encounters in visions and revelations can be a form of being in the spirit.

Again, to “be in the spirit” could mean and imply being “caught up into the third heaven.”  The third heaven is the physical home of God. It is the tabernacle of His glory and the place of His throne. It is the place where spirit of believers go to after death to be with their Father.  To be “caught up into the third heaven” could be to be taken out of one’s body. Sometimes we have dream experiences that looks like out of the body experiences. You may have seen yourself in a dream doing something while your body is fast asleep. When God summons one’s spirit out of his body into the third heaven, it is called out of the body experience. Paul said that “to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (1 Corinthians 5:8 NKJV). This must not be confused with astral travelling which people of the occult indulge in to the detriment of their souls. As astral travelling or soul projection is what one does through soulish power under the influence of satan. Being caught up in the spirit is what God does when He summons any of His children into His Presence when it pleases Him. The person involved did not have to plan for it. It happens unexpectedly as in the case of John.

It is also clear that “to be in the spirit” could be out-of-the-body or in-the-body experience. As we have explained in the out-of-the-body experience, only the human spirit is interacting with heaven. In the in-the-body experience, the fully conscious person is interacting with heaven.  It is more like the person becoming overshadowed with the glory of God in an awake experience, much like what happened on the mount of transfiguration with our Lord and the three apostles, Peter, James and John.

The unique feature of being in the spirit is the full activation of one’s spiritual senses.  John testified, “And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it.”  Therefore, to be in the spirit involves the activation of our spiritual senses so that we can see into the spirit realm and hear the voices of God and of His angels, and sometimes smell the heavenly aroma. John’s spiritual eyes were activated and he saw a throne and One who sat on the throne. This is the level of intimacy God is calling us into.  It will come when make quality time to be with God in prayer and reflective study of the Bible.  May the Holy Spirit inspire you to press in for such an intimacy with our Father in Jesus’ name.

LIVING IN THE VIEW OF GLORY (4)

“Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this” (Revelation 4:1 NKJV)

God has so much to reveal to us than we are willing to receive. Sometimes we are too busy to give Him the attention He needs to initiate a revelatory process with us. Moses was totally consumed in his job of tending his father-in-law’s sheep in the wilderness until one day God was able to arrest his attention. “And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed” (Exodus 1:2 NKJV). Notice the sequence of events that brought Moses to a destiny-changing encounter with God. First, he looked and saw the burning bush, which aroused his curiosity and birthed a hunger to see more of what God is doing. He could have dismissed the whole incidence at that point like most of us often do.  He would have found the bush burning without being consumed a mere amusing spectacle with no spiritual or divine connotation.  Instead, he considered it a sign and wanted to know what the signification could be. Therefore, he did the second thing that is often critical in processing a revelation from God –he probed further.   “Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn” (Exodus 1:3 NKJV). He turned aside to study the phenomenon –why the bush does not burn even though the fire was raging. What Moses did that doesn’t come easily to us these days was that he set time aside to reflect deeper what God seem to be doing around him.  This seems to be all that God was waiting for.

God immediately took advantage of Moses’ attentiveness and began download revelations to him –“So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am. Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.’ Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exodus 3:4-6 NKJV).  Moses was certainly not prepared for this. God likes throwing surprises at us sometimes. Notice that Moses did something that triggered the flow of revelation and positioned him to hear God – “when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look.”  Moses turned away from his business and preoccupations and paid attention to what God was doing around him.  Moses must have thought to himself, my business is truly important to me and should command all my attention, but even more important is checking out on God to see what He had for me.

We see similar incidence in our text. John has been enjoying a series of visitations from God’s Angel who has been speaking to him about God’s assessment of the seven churches in Asia. These were by every means very powerful encounters   but there was more that God had in store for him. God had spoken to John on earth through the Angel, now He wants to bring him to heaven so he could experience deeper intimacy with his Father.  Friends, it does not matter what level of revelation God has given you now about His person and His program, there is always more for us. Notice the same revelatory process as we saw in the case of Moses.  “Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast.”  He looked! Searching always leads to revelation. Many of us are not receiving much from God because we hardly truly seek Him. John sought Him. As He looked for God, he saw a door standing open in heaven. That door does not close. It is always open for those who would seek God. As he gazed at the open door wondering what it meant, he heard a voice inviting him to the Throne Room in heaven. The voice said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.” What privileges are ours as God’s children that we never enjoy because of ignorance and busyness?  John looked, his eyes were open to see an open door in heaven, and he heard a voice inviting him to step through those open doors to a life-changing, sin-blasting, and God-glorifying encounter with our Father. You are next in line for similar favour and blessing in Jesus’ name.

LIVING IN THE VIEW OF GLORY (3)

“...And the glory of children is their father.” (Proverbs 17:6^b NKJV)

The awesome privilege of the fatherhood of God is the glory of the believer in Christ. God could not have loved us better than to adopt us as His children. When the apostle John caught the revelation of this truth he exclaimed with rapturous appreciation –“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!...” (1 John 3:1 NLT).  God is our Father! Our Lord Jesus came to this earth to reveal God as Father to the world of orphans and to restore those who would believe in Him to the family of God. The new birth experience is God’s way of bringing people to share in the glory of His fatherhood. “God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation” (Hebrews 2:10 NLT). God brings people into glory as Jesus brings them into their salvation. When a person believes in Jesus and trusts Him for his or her salvation, that person becomes a member of God’s family. John explains the process of becoming a child of God: “He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God” (John 1:11-13 NLT). You lay claim to the fatherhood of God by believing in Christ and by accepting His finished work of our salvation at Calvary. 

The experience of glory comes with assurance of God’s fatherhood.  The deeper you become aware that God is your Father, the more of the glory you will experience.  The life of faith is one that is deeply rooted in the knowledge that God is our Father. This assurance of the fatherhood of God is what gives wings to our faith and enables us to approach God with confidence in prayers. Prayer is nothing more than a loving discussion between a child and a Father that loves unconditionally. Our Lord affirming said, “If a child asks his father for a loaf of bread, will he be given a stone instead? If he asks for fish, will he be given a poisonous snake? Of course not! And if you hard-hearted, sinful men know how to give good gifts to your children, won’t your Father in heaven even more certainly give good gifts to those who ask him for them?” (Matthew 7:9-11 Living Bible). Good fathers are happy to give good gifts to their children. I certainly derive my joy in giving good things to my children than they derive in receiving them.

God, who is our Father, is the most generous and kindest Person there can ever be. Knowing Him and relating to Him as Father is the crowning glory of our being. He said through the Prophet Jeremiah, “Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:23-24 NKJV). No human achievement, however lofty, is worthy enough to become the reason for our glory. Our only true reason for glory should be that we know God as Father –“exercising lovingkindenss, judgement and righteousness in the earth.”  God is not an angry God. Our successes or failures do not determine His mood. God has no tantrums to throw at people! He is a happy Father!  If you are unfortunate to have an earthly father who is abusive and ill tempered, then take solace in the factual reality that you have a Father in heaven who loves you and cares about you with boundless kindness.

God is our ever-present Father. He sticks with us irrespective of the prevailing conditions in our lives. He thinks good about us and has great plans for our future. He is too jealous of you to allow the enemy to prey on you. He fights your battles and defends your cause.  He says to you, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NKJV).  Will you not take advantage of this invitation and run into His warm embrace? He will lavish you with love.  Our dear heavenly Father, open our hearts today to receive your love, to know it and feel it as your children in Jesus’ Name.

LIVING IN THE VIEW OF GLORY (2)

“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory” (Colossians 3:1-4 NLT).

Our new birth confers on us the right to participate in the life of glory with Christ. When we were born again by receiving the forgiveness of sins God offers us in Christ, God counted it for us as death and resurrection experience. By believing in Christ and accepting Him as Saviour implies an exchange of your life for His. Hence, Christ did not only die for you as a person, He died as you! Therefore, the Bible declares, “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”  How did you die? You died in Christ because He died as you. Because Christ died as you, you are now empowered to live as Him.  On the strength of this eternal and permanent transaction, John was bold to declare, “And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world” (1 John 4:17 NLT).  Did you capture the reason the apostle gave as to why we should live with confidence in view of glory? “Because we live like Jesus here in this world.”  Did you get it?  You live like Jesus here in this world. Can this be true?  If indeed it is true, how do I live like Jesus here in this world?

Now listen to Paul:

Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.(Galatians 2:20 Message).

Our Lord Jesus Christ now lives His life through me and in me. Now, I live in Him, move in Him and derive my being in Him. I like the way the Message Bible rendered this thought: “We live and move in him, can’t get away from him!...”(Acts 17:28).  As believers, we exist only in Christ. As the fish has no life outside of the water, so we do not have any life outside of Christ. How do we live in Him? We live by trusting Him and resting our hope on the eternal validity of His finished work for our redemption.  Therefore, we have total freedom to live for God’s pleasure in view of His coming eternal glory. 

Our only preoccupation now should be to “set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand.” This means that we should now live on earth looking up to heaven. Nothing should matter to us apart from that which is taking place in the heaven. We catch initiatives from heaven and implement them here on earth. In this way, we will be living true to our real destiny as citizens of God’s kingdom. The book of Hebrews explained further what setting our sight on the realities of heaven entails. “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honour beside God’s throne” (Hebrews 12:2 NLT). If God commands us to keep our eyes on Jesus, He meant for us to be able to see Him now. Similarly, if God commands us to set our sight on the realities of heaven, He meant for us to see those realities and for them to determine how we live on earth; thus, living with eternity in view!

Finally, we learn to live in the view of glory by keeping the realities of heaven alive in our thought.  “Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.”  Intentionally choose to approach things on earth from heaven’s point of view. Take the case of success. Why should you work hard to succeed in everything you do?  Your reasons must be that there is no failure in heaven and because Jesus did everything well (Mark 7:37).  May the Lord so fill your heart with heavenly realities that it shows in your earthly life now even as you live in the view of the coming glory in Jesus’ Name. 

LIVING IN THE VIEW OF GLORY (1)

“But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light” (Revelation 21:22-23 NKJV).

As we begin the last quarter of the year, it is necessary to refresh our mind on how far we have come since the beginning of the year. We opened the year with defining glory and discussing its varied manifestations surmising that Christ is the best and fullest expression of the glory of God. To know Christ is to know the glory of God. To abide in Him is to abide in the fullness of that glory. Everything there is to be revealed about the glory of God is clearly seen in Christ.  His life and work are most eloquent demonstrations of the glory of God. The ultimate expression of glory will be in the person of the glorified Jesus. I have sometimes exercised my mind trying to imagine how glorified Christ looks. John gave a glimpse of what he saw of Christ in his vision on the Island of Patmos. “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength” (Revelation 1:14-16 NKJV). It makes sense when God told Moses that nobody could see His face and live.  Imagine looking straight into the sun shining in its full strength. Who can behold such a scorching brightness and live?

The greatest spectacle one can ever imagine is that of seeing Christ in glory. Seeing Him is the ultimate transforming experience for believers. The Apostle John explained, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3 NKJV). How can we ever wrap our finite mind around such an infinite thought as expressed by John, when he declared, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”  Think about this truth for a moment. You shall be like Christ as He is in glory! You will look like Him if you see Him. Our ultimate transformation is predicated on our ability to see Him. Are you planning to see Him in the glory land? Here are those who cannot see Him. “But cowards who turn back from following me, and those who are unfaithful to me, and the corrupt, and murderers, and the immoral, and those conversing with demons, and idol worshipers and all liars—their doom is in the Lake that burns with fire and sulphur. This is the Second Death” (Revelations 21: Living Bible). Get your name off this list by purifying yourself as you fix your affection in Christ. How can you achieve this? John reminds us “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  That is the hope of seeing Him in glory. There is so much in the world today, that are forcing us to believe that life on earth is the ultimate reality. This is a lie.  We have a hope for a better life in a better world –the New Jerusalem.

In that eternal city, we would not have need for the sun or the moon because Jesus will provide all the light we would ever need.  His glory will illuminate the eternal city –“the Lamb will be its light.” Paul explains how we can book our place in that city of glory: “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory” (Colossians 3:1-4 NLT). Let the thought of heaven fill your heart as you begin now to partake of its most fulfilling reality. We are designed to live from heaven to earth! Far from being merely a future experience of believers, God wants us to begin our experience of glory now –“As He is so are we in this earth” (1 John 4:17). O God let the light of your glory so shine on us now that we will both absorb and emit the same light for the world to see in Jesus’ Name.

EXPERIENCING THE GLORY OF GOD (5)

“May the Lord make your love grow more and multiply for each other and for all people so that you will love others as we love you” (1 Thessalonians 3:12 NCV).

The love of God is transforming. It is the most transforming power known to man. It’s goal is always to bring the beloved into conformity with Christ. J. Oswald Sanders defines love as “the self-imparting quality in the nature of God that moves Him to seek the highest good of His creatures, in whom He seeks to awake responsive love.” Love is the intrinsic nature of God.  When one receives Christ, the nature of love is imparted into him or her in a form of seed, which must be nurtured over time to maturity. When the love of God is received in a heart, it awakens responsive love in the person. This means that the person receives the capacity to respond in love to God and to people. This capacity to respond in love to God and people is the means through which Christians learn to grow in their experience of the love of God. The believer is deemed mature in Christ only to the extent he or she is maturing in love.  The more the believers learn to respond to people and situations around him with the love of Christ, the more mature he will be termed to be.

The sons of Zebedee, James and John, provide a good case study of the transforming influence of God’s love.  They had three character traits that negate love, which the Lord has to deal with in order to mature Christlikeness in them. First, they were inordinately ambitious and that caused serious dissension among the apostles.  “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.” (Mark 10:35-37 NKJV). Their demand bespeaks of selfishness, which has no place in Christian love. Love by its very nature is not self-seeking. It is rather self-giving.

Second, they were tempestuous and intolerant of opposition.  “As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival. But the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. So they went on to another village” (Luke 9:51-56 NKJV). Jesus had told them that He came to give life to people and not to kill them, which is the work of Satan. Yet they were asking for power to call down fire to destroy the people of Samaria simply because they did not allow Jesus to pass through their territory. Our Lord turned down their request and followed an alternative route. Love is tolerant and provides room for others to change.

Third, they were cliquish and unaccommodating of people who do not belong to their circle.  “Now John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.” (Luke 9:49-50 NKJV). Again, this attitude is a clear negation of love. God’s love is universal and always seeks the highest good of His creatures.  Similarly, Christians as those who have received the love of Christ must seek the highest good of all people without distinction.

However, after God poured out His love into the heart of the disciples through the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), the sons of Zebedee received an impartation of the divine nature and began to grow in love. James loved God and people so much that he had the privilege of being the first Christian martyr. John, on the other hand, lived on to become the great apostle of love. No bible writer received the revelation of love at the level John did. He had the privilege of being one of the delegates who prayed for the new converts in Samaria to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I guess the Holy Spirit must have whispered to him, “what if the Lord had allowed you to call down fire to consume them a few years back?”  James and John allowed the love of God they received in Christ to transform them into the persons God designed them to be. What a godly legacy they left for us!

Let us the pray with our text: “May the Lord make your love grow more and multiply for each other and for all people so that you will love others as we love you” in Jesus’ name.

EXPERIENCING THE GLORY OF GOD (4)

“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”” (Mark 10:21-22 NKJV).

No greater tragedy can ever befall a person than to turn down the love of God. This was exactly what the rich young ruler of our text did. He walked away from the love of God into an irredeemable perdition. What pain of sorrowful displeasure must have pierced through the heart of our Lord as He watched that young man He so fervently loved turn his back against Him and took the first fatal step away from Him? Why would he do such a thing you might be thinking?  He turned down the love of God because he loved something more that Jesus. He loved earthly possessions more than he did eternal treasures in heaven, which Christ offered him instead.   He preferred the perishable blessing of material possessions that he could see to the imperishable blessing he could not see.  Whenever you lack the spiritual sight to see the reality as God sees it, you trade the temporal for the eternal. By so doing, you bring an unmitigated disaster upon yourself. Here is the principle –you cannot have your eyes focused on the visible and still see the invisible (Hebrews 11: 27 NKJV). This truism was the theme of the Lord’s lamentation in the Prophecy of Isaiah, “Who is blind but My servant, Or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant? Seeing many things, but you do not observe; opening the ears, but he does not hear.” (Isaiah 42:19-20 NKJV). Herein lies the real danger of materialism.

Materialism is the cancer of the present church.  Like cancer, it’s danger is not easily noticed but it works unnoticed until it has taken over the system of its host. By the time cancer become obvious to its victim, it is ready to kill. The rich young ruler could have quarrelled with any person who accused him of being materialistic. Not when he flaunted such impressive religious credential as he did. Our Lord had tested him on the laws of his religion  and found him perfect–“You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honour your father and your mother.” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” (Mark 10:19-20 NKJV). Like Paul the young man could boast to be blameless “touching righteousness which is in the law” (Philippians 3:9 NKJV). Certainly, the man was morally upright but had no deep love for Jesus because he could not love God and mammon (Matthew 6:28).

Materialism is a mindset that prioritizes the material over the spiritual, the earthly over the heavenly, the seen over the unseen and the temporal over the eternal. The Bible enjoins us to weigh the eternal more than the temporal. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NKJV). Wise people invest the present to gain the future. That explains why people endure the pain of discipline today in order to enjoy the glory of tomorrow. Besides, most of the things that really matter in life are not material –God, love, kindness, laughter etc. All these are unseen realities that greatly impact our day-to-day life on earth.

The real danger of materialism is that it weakens the ability of believers to respond to the Spirit and to discern God's loving call. This was the case with the young man of our text.  He rejected the love of Christ because “he had great possessions.”  God can love you but until you welcome His love and appropriate it for yourself, it will not benefit you. Our test declared “Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” That notwithstanding, an unwelcomed and an unappropriated love has no redeeming power to it, even if it is God’s love. God loves you! Do you love Him? Until we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we do not love Him well enough. We must love Him with our material possessions too! May our prayers always be that the blessings of God in our lives should not be our reason for rejecting Him and turning our back on His loving call in Jesus Name. 

EXPERIENCING THE GLORY OF GOD (3)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 NKJV).

The glory of God is the revelation of His love. To Know God’s love is to know His glory. Paul prayed that believers should “know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19 NKJV). Knowing the love of Christ results in being filled with the fullness of God, which implies His glory. The primary motive of the coming and the suffering of Christ is to enable believers to experience glory. The Bible testifies to this saying, “God is the One who made all things, and all things are for his glory. He wanted to have many children share his glory, so he made the One who leads people to salvation perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10 NCV). God’s love for the world should result in bringing people of the world to share in His glory. When Moses prayed God to show him His glory, God answered by revealing His nature of love to him.  “The LORD passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The LORD!  The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin...” (Exodus 34:6-7 NLT). Wherever you see the compassion and mercy of God, there you find His glory.  The forgiveness and the unsurpassing patience of God towards people, as well as His unfailing faithfulness are some of the ways He demonstrates His love to us and thus reveal His glory.

The clearest revelation of God’s glory was in the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Bible describes Jesus as “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3 NKJV). In the “Incarnate Word,” we beheld the glory of God –“full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). To know Jesus is to know the glory of the Father. Human beings have no other means of encountering and experiencing the glory of God apart from receiving His gift of love in the person of Christ. Those who receive God’s love gift, which is Jesus Christ, are guaranteed two fold blessings namely.

·         Deliverance from eternal damnation – should not perish. 

·         Participation in God’s eternal glory –but have everlasting life.

Man, outside of Christ, is dead in sin and cannot do anything that would earn him God’s love and salvation.  Sin makes man guilty before God and therefore unfit for glory. God’s way of dealing with sin was love. Our text declared that He “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” His uncaused love moved Him to make the greatest sacrifice to meet man’s greatest need. The indescribable love unleashed its eternal power to deal with an indescribable evil called sin. Hence, the Scripture declared, “...But Christ came only once and for all time at just the right time to take away all sin by sacrificing himself” (Hebrews 9:26 NCV). Notice that the sacrifice of Christ is a once-and-for-all solution for the problem of sin. By sacrificing Himself, He effectively and for all times, took away all sins! By this singular sacrifice, Christ solved the greatest problem human beings face and will ever face. Sin no longer has power or consequence as far as God is concerned for all those who have received His gift of love in Christ.  They should not perish having become exempted from eternal damnation because of their faith in Christ and His finished work at Calvary.

Those who are thus exempted from eternal damnation because they have received God’s gift of love in Christ, are brought into the experience of the ever-increasing glory of God through the process of sanctification.  Experiencing God’s love is like a ride on an endless ocean of eternal bliss. Paul prayed, “you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19 Message). The more of God’s love you discover and experience, the more of it you long after and the more the Holy Spirit transforms you into the image of Christ  from glory to glory. Having this transforming power of God’s love at work in our lives is the way God has chosen to prepare us for glory –“everlasting life.”  May His grace abound for us for a tireless pursuit of His glory as the Holy Spirit takes us deeper and deeper into the experience of the love of Jesus.

EXPERIENCING THE GLORY OF GOD (2)

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! ...” (1 John 3:1 NKJV)

The extraordinariliness of God’s love for humankind is most evident in the elevation of believers in Christ to the glorious status of children of the Most High. The implications of this transaction are deep and rooted in unfathomable mystery. For example, by making us His children in Christ, God subsumes our humanity in His divinity. Apostle Peter affirmed that in Christ, we become “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:4 NKJV). Again, by becoming God’s children, we receive His love; consequently, our mortality becomes subsumed in His immortality. “If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead” (1 John 3:14 NLT). Receiving God’s love in Christ and serving as a channel through which that love is extended to others is a proof of possessing eternal life. God’s love for us is so amazing and so astonishingly outlandish that John, the beloved apostle, could not find words to describe it. Nobody, before or after him has been able to describe it either. All he could do was to invite us to behold it, to wonder at it and to stand amazed at its profound immensity.

God could love so limitlessly and so freely because His is love. The apostle John declared, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8 NKJV). God is love! He is exclusively so, such that nothing is love that is called love if it does not emanate from Him. Love is the essence of God’s nature. His love is uncaused and unconditional. Nobody could ever earn the love of God. He proves His love for us by sacrificing Jesus for our sins. “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him” (1 John 4:9 NLT).  He did not wait for us to become good before He sent Christ to die for us. “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 NLT). God loved us when we were most unlovable! He reaches out to us in mercy in our most despicable condition.  His love for us does not depend on anything good we did or fail to do. It was entirely pure love given at no cost to the most undeserving. Such a love had not been witnessed before in human history. It is unparalleled in content and unspeakable to experience. Hence, John invites us all to behold it with amazing wonder.  

God’s love is so out of reach to mortal humans that the only way we can ever access it is through divine bestowal. To bestow is “placing something really valuable or honouring in the hands of another, thereby conferring a position of responsibility to the person.”  God, in bestowing His love on us, gives us something extremely valuable and honouring. This bestowment confers on us a position of responsibility –“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11 NKJV). Receiving the love of God makes it mandatory that we love others. God loves us so we can love Him and extend His love to others. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NKJV). We cannot love Him or other people unless we first receive His love in Christ. He desired that those who have received His love in Christ would serve as channels of His love to others. “And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also” (1 John 4: 21 NKJV). This is the pathway to glory.

As God’s children, we are children of love. Love is in our DNA and we must live in such a way as to let the light of God’s transforming love shine steadily out of us to give the light of heaven to the world of darkness.  You will do this as you receive God’s love, grow God’s love, celebrate God’s love, demonstrate God’s love, and foster God’s love. These constitute all we are called to be and to do as Christians –Ambassadors of God’s love. May the Lord fill us with His love until it overflows towards the healing and saving of those we come in contact with in Jesus name. 

EXPERIENCING THE GLORY OF GOD (1)

¹⁶I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit. ¹⁷I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. ¹⁸And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is. ¹⁹Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you  will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19 NCV)

The glory of God is the manifestation and revelation of His love. We experience the glory any time we feel the love of God in our lives. Our Lord passionately invites us to abide in His love, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love” (John 15:9 NKJV).  Abiding in the love of Christ is the sure way to experience His glory. The Psalmist declares, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1 NKJV). This scripture summons us to intentionally cultivate intimacy with God. If intimacy is implied, then abiding “under the shadow of the Almighty” must imply abiding in His love. Only those who abide in God’s love will have access to His secret places. The secret place of the Most High is the place of glory. It is the place of face-to-face encounter with God. God directed Moses to create a physical representation of the secret place of the Most High: “You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel” (Exodus 25:21-22 NKJV). This makes it clear that the secret place of the Most High is the place of most intimate relationship with God. It is the place of the highest manifestation of His glory. Only love can take you there.

The Apostle Paul therefore made four prayer requests for believers namely,

First, he prayed for spiritual strength for all believers –“I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit.” This strength flows out of the glory of God and is imparted to our spirit by the Holy Spirit.  The goal is to make us spiritually strong. Second, he prayed that love becomes the foundation of our Christian life – “I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love.” Our life of faith in Christ is strong to the extent it is standing on the foundation of Christ’s love. Love is the evidence that Christ is alive in our hearts. Hence the Word of God declared, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.”(1 John 4:7-8,12 NKJV). Love is our identity card as Christ’s followers (John 13:35).  

Third, Paul prayed for power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love for us – “And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is.” This presupposes a lifelong quest for understanding of the incredible love of God for believers. It implies diligent effort to understand the meaning and the implication of God’s love in its multifaceted dimensions –its width, its length, its height and its depth. As Christians, we have no greater business than to explore God’s love.

Then finally, Paul prayed for revelation knowledge of God’s love –^“Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love.”  The only way we can know what cannot be known is through revelation (Matthew 16:17). Revelation is knowledge supernaturally imparted in the mind of the Christian by the Holy Spirit. This defines for us a never-ending prayer project.  We cannot imagine a greater prayer point than to seek for the experiential knowledge of the love of God. The ultimate purpose of God in all these is so we “can be filled with the fullness of God.”  To be filled with God is to be filled with His love because God is love.

God is calling us as a church to make love the centre and the circumference of our lives and activities. We should have no greater goal than to learn how to abide in God’s love the rest of our lives. When you learn to abide in God’s love, everything you do becomes a response to His love nothing more, nothing less. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME (4)

“And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31 NKJV).

                                                                                                                                                                   
The Holy Spirit is given to the believers to inspire them to act for and on behalf of God.  His presence in believers should signal the end of their dormancy and redundancy in the church because He comes with such a force that would not let any person continue to be a mere spectator in the work of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit dispels every fear and fills the believer with holy boldness to confront the enemy and throw him out of God’s inheritance. The Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy, “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6-7 NKJV). Fear is a spirit –a contrary spirit from the devil. The Greek word translated fear in this verse basically means timidity with the deeper implication of cowardice. The Holy Spirit did not come to make us cowards but to imbue us with heaven-made courage that spurns the devil and demonstrates the power of God. As believers, we are the righteousness of God in Christ (1 Cor 1:30). “The righteous are bold as a lion” (Provbs 28:1 NKJV).

The Bible affirms that fear is a manifestation of the spirit of bondage. “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15 NKJV). The spirit of bondage is the spirit of slavery, of repression, and of oppression. When people are in any of these conditions, they live in fear. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of adoption into the sonship of God.  He reveals God to us as our Father and inspires us to cry out to Him “Abba, Father.”  A child knows no fear in the presence of his or her father. Likewise, as children of God there should be no room for fear in our hearts. The most fundamental job of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers is to establish them in the love of God as their Father. The spirit of fear is paralysed anywhere in our lives that experiences the revelation of the love of God. John the Beloved declared, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18 NKJV). God’s antidote to fear is the revelation of His love.

God’s love is perfect because it is unconditional.  He loved us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:6). He did not wait until we could earn His love. He knows we will never be able to earn it. Hence, His love for us is not subject to who we are or how we behave. He loves us not as reward for any meritorious input from us but undeserved gratuity based on our acceptance of the Jesus as Saviour and Lord. The Father loves us because He loves His Son in whom we believe for our salvation.  The Holy Spirit comes to help us respond appropriately to the Father’s love –“because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5 NKJV).  Therefore, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NKJV). We could not love God except as a response to His love, which the Holy Spirit unleashes in us when He fills us. Boldness, which implies absence of fear as we stand in ministry as Christ’s representatives, flows directly from our awareness of this unspeakable love of God for us in Christ. Knowing the love of the Father is the secret place of the Most High (Psalm 91:1). Dwelling in this secret place is what gives us boldness to speak up and out for Christ.

When the church prayed from the secret place, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31 NKJV). All who were filled with the Holy Spirit spoke the word of God with boldness. The Holy Spirit emboldened them to act on behalf of God. They did so because they felt secure in the assurances of the Father’s love. The Holy Spirit fills us to speak boldly for and on behalf of God.  We take the initiative and begin to declare our faith in Christ wherever we are. We should not live merely in reaction to the devil because that would mean that he determines our agenda. We should rather take him by surprise by acting and speaking as people who are standing in the secret place of the Most High. With Holy Spirit upon us, let us declare operation down, down satan as we turn our city upside down for Jesus. Don’t agree to keep silent again. Share your faith with boldness and be counted among those who are bringing in the great harvest into the kingdom. SILENCE, NO MORE!

THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME (3)

“⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: ⁹If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, ¹⁰let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. ¹¹This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ ¹²Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:8-12 NKJV)

When the Holy Spirit fell on the 120 disciples on the Pentecost day, the disciples responded with action –they spoke in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance and preached the gospel with remarkable unction that brought in three thousand souls into the kingdom. Action is always necessary for releasing the faith for the supernatural. A believer may be loaded with the power of God within but that power will remain a mere potential until it is released by relevant action by the believer. God fills you with the Holy Spirit to do something supernatural! For the church universal, the Holy Spirit did come on the Pentecost Day and has remained with her ever since.  For individual believers, the infilling of the Holy Spirit occurred when each person was baptised in the Holy Spirit. On that day, at that moment, the Holy Spirit moved in without measure. He resides in every believer with the fullness of the power of God waiting for the relevant action that will provoke His manifestation. Until we act, He remains dormant!

When the Apostles were threatened to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, they lifted up their voice with one accord and prayed to God. “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31 NKJV). Notice again that all who were filled with the Holy Spirit spoke the word of God with boldness. It was not only the apostles that preached with boldness, but as many as were part of that prayer meeting who became filled with the Holy Spirit.  Anytime the Holy Spirit comes upon a person, or group of persons, He always provokes some corresponding actions through which He manifests His power to honour Jesus and advance His kingdom. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter bore a powerful witness for Christ before the rulers of the Jews and declared that only the name of Jesus can bring salvation to humankind on earth. Such bold stand for what we believe excites God and provokes His interventions in the affairs of people. Will you begin to take a bold stand in His name?

Elymas the sorcerer held sway in the Island of Paphos, but soon ran out of luck when Paul and Barnabas who were full of the Holy Spirit arrived the island. Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of the Island had sought to hear the word of God from Paul and Barnabas but Elymas would not let him. “Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.” And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord” (Acts 13:9-12 NKJV). Signs and wonders reinforce the preaching of the Gospel.

Such power encounter as this, is part of the reason God fills His children with the Holy Spirit. The devil is doing so much that calls for our rebuke in order to checkmate him for the gospel to move forward in our time. God is waiting on you to unleash the power you are loaded with by doing something that will provoke the Holy Spirit in you to manifest His presence through you. Many a time all that is required of you is to make a faith declaration based on what you know is the will of God. Yes, God is depending on you to act on His behalf and He will back you up. Start today to release the power of God by speaking into the different situations you feel that demand His interventions. May the Lord depend on you to reveal His power in your sphere of influence in Jesus name.

THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME (2)

“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4 NKJV)

The coming of the Holy Spirit is meant to equip believers to effectively represent Christ on earth and then to re-present Him to the world. This explains why every believer must not stop at nothing less than being full of the Holy Spirit and letting Him lead the way as we walk in the steps of Christ. It is erroneous to think that the Holy Spirit is meant for any special class of God’s children and not for others. I remember a dialogue that occurred between one young zealous charismatic and a priest in our student days.  The young charismatic had enthusiastically declared to the priest that he could preach the gospel and cast out demons because he was filled with Holy Spirit.  The priest took strong exceptions to such confidence and quietly asked the young charismatic why he could claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit when he was neither a priest nor a bishop.  He went on to explain that priests and bishops are representatives of Christ and therefore are the only ones that are filled with His Spirit.

Our text is clear on who was filled with the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost –“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Everyone among the one hundred and twenty disciples including the twelve apostles and others were all filled with the Holy Spirit.  God expects this pattern to be followed in all generations. Every believer in Christ should seek and expect to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Have you been filled with the Holy Spirit?  “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39 NKJV). Do not let anything prevent you from seeking to be filled with the Spirit of God.  God has not hidden His ardent desire to have anyone who desires, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The prophet Joel declared, “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28 NKJV). You are included in this broad category of all flesh. Get filled with the Holy Spirit! Ask God to fulfil His promise to you and fill you with His Spirit. He will never disappoint you because He called and saved you for this purpose.

When you are filled you will know it.  when the disciples were filled on the Pentecost Sunday, they knew it. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4 NKJV). They spoke in the supernatural language as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Holy Spirit gave each person an utterance and each person spoke out what was given.  You are not to seek the utterance but the Spirit who gives the utterance. Some people seek the ability to speak in other tongues rather seeking for the Holy Spirit. The resultant effect is that we have people today who can speak in “other tongues” but who are evidently not filled with the Holy Spirit.  While the Holy Spirit can give one the ability to speak in “other tongues,” the ability to speak in “other tongues” cannot give you the Holy Spirit.  Go for the Holy Spirit with all the faith you can muster and the gift of tongues will be added to you.

When the Holy Spirit comes, He does so with all kinds of gifts, one of which is tongues.  Paul explained these supernatural gifts in his letter to the Corinthians; “for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10 NKJV). These nine supernatural gifts are included in the package the Holy Spirit comes with. You can ask for any of them and be sure He will give you attention.  God is eager to see you full of His Spirit and power such that you can effectively represent and re-present Christ on earth. May the hunger for the fullness of the Spirit drive you to the closet to pray until the fire comes upon you in Jesus’ Name.

THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME (1)

“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:32-33 NKJV)

The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church on the day of the Pentecost was the logical conclusion of our Lord’s earthly ministry. It was on that day that He formally handed the baton to the Holy Spirit to continue His work in us, with us and through us. We can also understand Pentecost as our Lord’s inauguration of the church for her earthly ministry as His witness “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NKJV).  Our Lord had earlier hinted His disciples that the Holy Spirit would come and take His place when He goes back to the Father.

If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:15-18 NKJV)

Let me highlight some of the key points in this passage. First, the Holy Spirit is given to those who love God and demonstrate that love through obedience to His commandments. To experience an increasing presence and power of the Holy Spirit in your life, you must live in obedience to God.  Second, the Holy Spirit is given in answer to the prayer of Jesus to His Father. God is still answering this prayer till today. Third, the Holy Spirit is coming to us as “another Helper.” This phrase requires an elaboration in order to appreciate its import better. The Greek word translated “Helper” in this verse, also signifies a Comforter, an Advocate, a Defender of a cause, a Counsellor, a Patron, a Mediator, and a Friend. Jesus had been all of these to His disciples while He was on earth with them. Hence, He described the Holy Spirit as “another” divine person who would be all of those to us when He comes.

Fourth, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth. This means that as Jesus, He is the embodiment of truth, and therefore, a teacher of truth, a revealer of truth, and a defender of truth. At no other time in history does the church need the Spirit of truth than she does now. Our Lord promised, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come” (John 16:12-13 NKJV). As we learn to pay more and more attention to the Holy Spirit, we will overcome the current crisis of truth that seems to engulf the church worldwide. Only by the ministry of the Holy Spirit can we reverse the popular verse by James Russell Lowell, “Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.” Only as we listen to the Holy Spirit and speak in His power and authority can we dethrone wrong in the heart of so many today.

Fifth, the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because it does not know Him and cannot see Him. When He came on the day of Pentecost, the world described those that received Him as drunkards. To this wrong accusation, Peter objected and explained in our text that what the people were seeing and hearing was the fulfilment of the promise of our Lord –the coming of the Comforter. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a testimony that Jesus was back on His throne at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

As we commemorate that initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit today, we expect that God will, as He has done throughout history, renew His work in our days and grant us a new Pentecost.

We attract a new outpouring as we exalt Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes to exalt Jesus and whenever we focus on exalting Jesus, we prepare the platform for a new visitation from Him. As we enjoy the season of the Pentecost, let us pray that God will so fill us with His Spirit that people around us will both see His works and hear His words from us in Jesus’ Name.   

RESURRECTION BLESSINGS (5)

“And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:22-23 NKJV).

The overriding purpose of God in blessing people is to use them to bless others. God is not so much in need of repositories of blessings as He is of channels of blessings. He blesses us so we can bless others. He forgives us so we can forgive others. He told Abraham, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing” (Genesis 12: 2 NKJV). In His resurrection blessings, Christ gives us peace so we can become peacemakers. He gives us power so we can empower others. He honours us with His Presence so we can reveal Him to others.  He forgives us our sins so we can forgive others.  The resurrection blessings of the Lord can therefore be summed up in four words –peace, power, presence, purpose.  He conferred peace when He declared, “Peace be with you” (v19). He empowered us when He said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (v20). He blessed us with His abiding Presence when He declared,   “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v22). He gave us purpose for living on earth when He announced, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (v23).

Christ, by His death and resurrection enabled believers to become one with Him and by so doing become restored in the image and likeness of God. “So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world” (1 John 4:17 NLT). The goal of Christ in redeeming us is for us to be able to live like Him in this world. He wants to populate the earth with people who resemble Jesus in every way. Only such people would do the work of Jesus, which is the ministry of reconciliation. The ministry of reconciliation is the way we extend or retain forgiveness to others.  The Apostle Paul explained:

¹⁷When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun! ¹⁸All these new things are from God who brought us back to himself through what Christ Jesus did. And God has given us the privilege of urging everyone to come into his favour and be reconciled to him. ¹⁹For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. ²⁰We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you—be reconciled to God. ²¹For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us! (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 LB).

You cannot preach to anybody whose sins you have not forgiven. It is only when we have forgiven those we perceive as sinners can we feel the compassion to share the love of Christ with them. Only a person who has been reconciled to God through Christ can serve in the ministry of reconciliation. Christ first loved the world before He took its sins upon Himself and died on the cross for its redemption. Forgiveness is borne out of love for others. Nobody can forgive without the empowering influence of the grace of God. As “God was in Christ restoring the world to Himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out,” even so  we as ambassadors for Christ, He want to be in us pleading to non-believers to be reconciled to Him.  In this way, we extend the forgiveness of God and spread it throughout the entire world.  When we fail to do so, we restrain the forgiving influence of Christ from diffusing into and throughout the world.

The Bible makes it clear that only God can forgive sin (Mark 2:7, Luke 5:20-24). We live in an imperfect world, therefore we offend one another from time to time. God expects us to forgive one another in cases of such offences. When we forgive other people’s trespass against us, God also forgives us readily (Matthew 6:12; 18:35).  May the Spirit of God help us this week to extend forgiveness through the ministry of reconciliation and as we forgive one another’s offences in Jesus Name. 

RESURRECTION BLESSINGS (4)

“And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22 NKJV).

The importance of this simple act of our resurrected Saviour will be fully understood against the backdrop of the creation of the first man. “Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” (Genesis 2:7 NLT). After God formed the first human being from the dust of the earth, he was no more than a mere work of heavenly art.  God had to breathe into his nostrils before he could become a living person.  Through this simple act of breathing, God imparted a divine essence in man, a life principle that made him a living person. The breath of God bequeathed on man nonmaterial values such the mind, the will, the emotions and all that distinguishes him from animals. More importantly, this breath from God imbued man with the propensity to desire God and want to be with Him.

When man sinned, in obedience to satan, he lost most of the essential parts of this impartation and whatever was left became corrupted with the nature of his new master satan. He could no longer desire God and cherish His company. When God came calling in the garden, Adam and Eve, his wife ran from His presence.  “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees. Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” (Genesis 3:8-10 NLT).  The word naked came from the root word in Hebrew, which means, “to be made bare.” It means not only that they were without covering over their body, but also that they have been robbed of everything dear to them. Everything that distinguished them from mere animals, all the godly qualities and values that make them attractive in the sight of God were all either gone or unrecognisably corrupted.  This poverty of values they inherited from satan became the new nature of man and was made evident when their first child killed his brother.  Faced with the lifeless corpse of their son Abel, the real import of sin dawned on Adam and his wife. What regret that must have welled up in them!

Man remained in that state until Christ died on the Cross and rose from the dead.  Recall that Jesus came for the sole purpose of destroying the work of the devil and restoring life to people.  When He concluded the work of our redemption, He visited His disciples who represented the humanity of all race and time and restored that divine essence by breathing on the disciples as representatives of the rest of humanity who would trust Him for their salvation.  As He breathed to the dust-man at creation for him to become a living person, so He breathed on the redeemed man so he could become spiritually alive.

“...And said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” signifying that life in the New Covenant is going to be in the power of the Holy Spirit and not by the dictates of flesh and blood. By this declaration, our Lord accomplished a definite impartation of spiritual life in the disciples. This declaration remains in force until today. Any time someone repents and turns to Christ, this declaration is activated in the person and the Holy Spirit moves in to impart spiritual life into the person and graft the person into the Body of Christ. Paul explains, “Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13 NLT)

This means that as believers in Christ, you have this life of Christ imparted in you and by so doing you have become an integral part of the Body of Christ. You are one with Him and nothing can ever separate you from Him. You are saved and safe in Him who is the head of every principality and power. Rejoice in your redemption and celebrate your Redeemer “for in Him we live and move and have our being...” (Acts 17:28 NKJV). It shall be well with you.