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This I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. See this link to discover the benefits of walking in the spirit. GBY: Heaven & Hell, 1000 to 1, Reverend Park, Yong Gyu#.TyQIXE06uKE.facebook

Coming Soon

Please watch out for my books: Heaven, Hell and Eternal life - Are these real; Will This World Really come to an End? and Exploring The Word of His Power. They will all be out by March by God's grace.
Meanwhile, Have a look at the following link, it will change your life trust me!
http://spiritlessons.com/Documents/Carmelo_Brenes_Christian_that_wound_up_in_Hell/index.htm

THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF THE FLESH IN THE LIGHT OF DIVINE VISITATION

BY:

Alero Nanna     

Before we look at these four dimensions of the flesh, let us first refresh our memories on the word the Lord gave us by prophecy when He announced His visitation to us for this month.

“For this reason, call on the Church to clean up for I am about to visit my people. I want to visit them to raise them so they shall be raised. Tell them that my visitation has the result of a double edged sword. I judge sin and unrighteousness and unfaithfulness. I reward purity, righteousness and faithfulness. I bring answers to prayers (especially long standing ones), increase and fruitfulness. I shall be rewarding my laborers who have been laboring faithfully in my vineyard even when they did not have any physical reason to do so. I am the Lord, I change not. I do not share my glory with graven images. Therefore, tell my Church to clean up. I am coming for a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle.”

From this prophecy, we gather that the visitation of the Lord bears a double edged sword that would see the people He visits on either of two sides. In the instance when God visited His people in Egypt, the enemies of God were destroyed by the power of God at the same time when He rescued His people from captivity.

The relevance of this study of the dimensions of the flesh therefore, is to help us see how we can be enemies of God without knowing it and what to do to change that so that we will not suffer the consequences of being caught on the Egyptian side.

I came across these four dimensions of the flesh through a message taught by Bishop Dag H. Mills and it dawned on me how relevant this is to our divine visitation. He listed these four dimensions as: the sinner’s flesh, the uncontrolled Christian’s flesh, the controlled Christian’s flesh and the incorruptible flesh.

1. The sinner’s flesh or the unbeliever’s flesh: In Eph.2:1-10, we are reminded of our former lifestyles and verses 2-3 of the text reads: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

     Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” In other words, we were controlled by the desires of the flesh working in perfect agreement with the soul and the devil. In 1Thess.5:23, we are told that we are spirits and have a soul and live in a body. The spirit is the real man and it is the part of man that gets born again. Before this born again experience however, the spirit of man or his heart (not the physical blood pump, but the inner man), is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. See Jer.17:9. This scripture describes the state of an unbeliever or all of us before we came to know Christ. At this level, people fulfill the lust of the flesh with a mind and spirit in total agreement with the flesh or human nature. In Romans 1:18-32, we see the potential of every unbeliever, no matter how nice they may seem to be. They are capable of manifesting any of the traits listed in the text. Let me quote the text below for our perusal:

     “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

       Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

       For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

       Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

       Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

       And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

       Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

       Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

       For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

       And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

       And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

       Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

     Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

     Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

       Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

An examination of the above traits of the sinner’s flesh or nature tells us the extent of depravity to which the devil has brought mankind. The prince of the power of the air is another name for Satan. He carries out many of his nefarious activities through the air waves. This is why he tries to resist us from using the mass media because he knows the potential we have of touching more lives through that medium. He not only encourages the doing of these things by working on people directly, but goes the extra mile of giving it widespread publicity to encourage those who were hiding to do these things to give it open admission. For instance, the issue of homosexuality is so base that even animals don’t do it. The worse of these all is bestiality which is sexual intercourse between man and beast. Anyone reading this now that is not born again may feel irritated by some of these things if you do not do them, but it won’t be long before you will start to do them if you do not accept Jesus Christ because the devil is working hard against you through the airwaves. It is my heart felt prayer that you will make a decision for Christ so that when God visits you this month, he can help you overcome the war the flesh will continue to wage on you even after you are saved. This explains why there should be no reason under the sun why the Christian should seek counsel from the unbeliever or worse still, marry an unbeliever. See Ps.1:1-3 & 2Cor.6:14-17. The believer is described as light, Christ, temple of the living God and righteousness. On the other hand, the unbeliever or sinner is described as darkness, infidel, son of Belial, temple of idols etc. This is a terrible state to be in and a very good reason why you must make thanksgiving to God on a daily basis for the salvation of your soul a life style.

2. The second dimension of the flesh is the uncontrolled Christian flesh or the canal man: When we are born again, we are made new creations. God takes away that heart of man that is deceitful and desperately wicked and gives us a new heart that is good and godly. As we saw earlier in 1Thessalonians 5:23, man is first spirit and has a soul and lives in a body. The spirit is what is changed at new birth. God takes away the old deceitful and desperately wicked heart and gives you a new heart in which He puts His Spirit and writes His laws  – Eze.36:24-26. This new heart is incapable of sinning – 1Jn.3:9. At new birth, the conscience of the believer comes alive and as a result of the seed of the word of God sown in the believer’s heart, each time he sins, his spirit does not cooperate with the soul and body which agreed to sin. This is what leads to the guilt crisis and I believe this was the experience of Paul when he wrote in Romans 7:18-25 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

       For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

       Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

       I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

       For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

       But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

       O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

       I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

From this scripture, we gather that even though we are saved, our bodies and souls are not saved at new birth. That is why the bible tells us to renew our minds so that we can walk in the ways of God. The soul only gets saved on a daily basis when we meekly receive the engrafted word of God – see Jas.1:21. If the mind refuses to cooperate with the body, the flesh will loose its influence over you. God’s original intention was for us to live from the spirit, but that changed with the sin of Adam and the flesh began to rule. Time and experience has however shown us that the flesh is a very poor leader.

Consequent on the foregoing, the uncontrolled Christian flesh is not different from that of the sinner except for the conscience. If the Christian keeps ignoring his conscience, over time, he will loose it and eventually loose his faith.

The uncontrolled Christian flesh is said to be canal and the bible says to be carnally minded is death. In Rm.8:1-8, we read:

      “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

       For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

       For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

       That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

       For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

       For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

     Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

     So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

In summation here, the uncontrolled Christian flesh describes a Christian whose mind is full of fleshly desires and as a result too weak to resist the flesh and allow the Spirit of God to take charge of his or her life. This is a pathetic case and it describes a baby Christian who has refused to grow up because he or she is starving himself or herself of spiritual food which would have helped to reprogram his mind to make him compliant to the new life in Christ.

The bible is very clear on this that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God – See Gal.5:16-21 & 1Cor.6:9-10. In extreme cases however when God wants to be merciful to a person in this state, He can allow the body to be destroyed and save the person. This explains why at the time of God’s visitation, some Christians experience untimely death so that their souls can be saved; especially Christians in leadership positions. Note however that not all untimely deaths of Christians happen as a result of carnality some others will be explained to us when we get to heaven. See – 1Cor.3:13-17; 5:1-5.

3. The Third dimension of the flesh is the Controlled Christian flesh: Until you get your flesh under control, you are no different from an unbeliever. As soon as your flesh comes under control, you start living like a believer. The big question is how do we get our flesh under control?

An examination of the word of God reveals this to us. Apostle Paul said he does his by disciplining his flesh and keeping it under so as to avoid being disgraced. You will find this account in 1Cor.9:27. He also suggests in Galatians 5:16 that if we walk in the Spirit, we would not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. To walk in the Spirit means to fill our minds with Spiritual thoughts. The bible says that the spiritual man, minds spiritual things – Rm.8:5. This is made possible by mind renewal. Rm.12:2 says we should not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may be able to discern the will of God and of course, the will of God is a spiritual thing because God is Spirit and expects us to worship Him in Spirit and truth. See Jn.4:23-24.

Also, Apostle Paul enjoins us to set our affection on things above. In Col.3:1-10, we read:

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

       Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

       For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

       When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

       Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

       For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:

       In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

       But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

       Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

     And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:”

From this text of scripture, we discover that as believers, we have a choice as to how we live. God will not expect us to do what He has not equipped us to do. So if He says to “put off” and to “put on”, we can do it. So we can put off the old nature and put on the new man in Christ. This is in consonance with what the Lord tells us in the book of Mat.6:19-21 which in summary is that we should place value on eternal pursuits as opposed to earthly ones.

Finally, the Apostle Peter, gives us a recipe for victorious Christian living in 2Peter 1:4-10, while John the beloved emphasizes in 1Jn.5:4 that we overcome the world (which is powered by human nature or the flesh), by faith. The reason he gives for this is that whatever is born of God has a potential to overcome the world.

In summation here, therefore, we must understand that, whereas the unbeliever has no choice than to be controlled by the flesh, we have a choice as new creation. We can and should make the choice for right living, it has eternal rewards!

4. The fourth kind of flesh is the incorruptible flesh: This is where all believers are going. This is the celestial or heavenly body we shall receive after our physical death. At physical death, we deposit this terrestrial body at the cemetery to be buried and move on to heaven to receive our celestial body. This body is incapable of any of the characteristics of the old man or the unbeliever’s flesh. It is in perfect harmony with the new creation human spirit and the Holy Spirit. In 1Cor.15:35-46 we read:

     “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

     Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

       And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:

       But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

       All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

       There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

       There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

       So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

     It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

     It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

       And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

       Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.”

 This is the state of sinless perfection which was God’s original purpose for us. Every true believer in Christ looks forward to this blessed hope. It is ignorance that makes many Christians cling to this world as though this is all there is. Believe me, there is more beyond the grave than we know. It will make a whole world of difference for us if we can just put spiritual things first and cease being carnal minded. If we do this, the preaching of the gospel will become more effective and we would hasten the day of the Lord’s return and when God visits us this month, there would be no doubt that our exodus from our present spiritual locations would be guaranteed just like that of Israel from Egypt – Ex.3:7-10; 11:1. I want you to understand that as you put this word of God to work this month of our divine visitation, no matter what the Pharaoh of your life is God will see to it that he lets you go. Every Pharaoh of fear, sickness, lack, want, inability, bondage, carnality etc. will surely let you go in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!

THE PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS IN THE LIGHT OF DIVINE VISITATION

BY: Alero Nanna     

Hello Yoke fellow,

This morning, after my quiet time before the Lord, I had this impression to share with you an insight the Lord has given me about the parable of the ten virgins.

Before we look into this message, let me first say that the kingdom to which we belong operates by keys. Until you locate the right key for your particular challenge by the leading of the Holy Spirit, the struggle continues. When the Lord told His disciples that He would give them the keys of the kingdom to enable them bind and loose in Matthew 16, what He was telling them in other words, was that without receiving the keys of the kingdom, you cannot exercise kingdom authority here on earth. What are these keys? In Lk.11:52, Jesus said: “Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: …” This tells us clearly that the keys of the kingdom are knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom. This knowledge is however, only assessable to those within – Mark 4:11. Who are those within? The spiritual minded Christians. In Rm.8, we see two sets of Christian namely the carnal minded and the spiritual minded Christians. The former operate under the law of sin and death as they walk after the flesh by living for themselves instead of God; are enemies of God and cannot please God because they mind earthly things like the unbelievers and behave like dogs that go back to their vomits and they are therefore without – see Rev.22:15. The spiritual minded Christian on the other hand, mind heavenly things, walk after the spirit, is a friend of God and pleased God. They are those without condemnation because they operate under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This law places them above sin and death.  

In this kingdom to which we belong, people suffer needlessly due to a lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6 says: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” From this text of scripture, we gather that from God’s perspective, the absence of knowledge in your life only means one thing: ‘you have rejected knowledge!’ This has far reaching consequences as it results in God rejecting us when we approach Him and forgetting our children as well. None of us want this to happen to us. Now to the parable of the ten virgins: The text is Mat.25:1-13 –

 “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”  

From this parable, we learn the following lessons in light of our divine visitation:

1.    God has declared His prophetic program for this month that He wants to visit us, just like He promised the ten virgins. So, we like the ten virgins have light in our lamp. Note that the lamp here stands for your whole spirit soul and body while the ignited wick of the lamp stands for your spirit enlightened by God with the knowledge of His intended visitation. The bible says the spirit of man is the candle of the lord in Prov.20:27 and in Ps.18:28, we are told that the Lord God will light our candles and enlighten our darkness.

2.      The virgins are divided into two sets namely wise and foolish. Why? The wise took oil in their lamps and the foolish did not. What is the implication of this? We get back to knowledge again. The bible says it is given unto us to know the mysteries of the kingdom – these mysteries are the keys for unlocking life issues brought upon us by the darkness of ignorance. You and I know that the only solution to darkness is to carry light. When light arrives in a dark place, the darkness automatically disappears. Darkness has never been known to contend with light. In Jn.1:1-5, we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” From this text, we understand that knowledge is synonymous with light because the word translated light in verses 4 and 5 has the same meaning as knowledge. The knowledge referred to here is knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom. This knowledge is mysterious for our glory. According to Apostle Paul in 1Cor.2:7, God has kept these truths hidden for us and not from us so that when we discover them, we shall be glorified over darkness. In Prov.25:2, we are told that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the honor of kings to search them out. The bible also says in Rev.1:6 that the Lord has washed us in His own blood to make us kings and priests unto our God. So any how you look at it, we have a legal right to knowledge of the mysteries of God if we will take the side of the wise virgins.

3.    What sets the wise apart from the foolish in the kingdom is that while both are aware that they had to carry oil in their lamps, the wise took theirs early enough, but the foolish procrastinated until it was too late. Now, what is this oil? As we saw in the preceding paragraph, we are ignited in our spirits with the knowledge that God is going to visit us this month. That single knowledge alone is not enough to sustain us till He comes. We must keep the fire burning by adding more knowledge about His visitation. Just like the fire in the lamp cannot be sustained without the fuel of the oil, our knowledge of divine visitation also, cannot be sustained without more knowledge added to us on this matter. Thus depending on just one sermon in a week in Church to sustain our faith – the fire in the wick, for our divine visitation is like eating one cold light snack a week to sustain our bodies. We would be malnourished if we do so and like the foolish virgins, realize it when it is too late.

4.    What are we supposed to do to be termed ‘wise’ for our divine visitation? We must be willing to go the extra mile to pay the price for more knowledge to keep our spiritual lamps burning for the Lord so that when He comes, He would find us ready. Let me also say here that those who are always looking for a convenient time to pay the learning price always realize too late that they will never get it. Don’t forget that we are up against forces of darkness who we do not see and who are also very crafty acting behind the physical scenes to keep us from learning so that they can continue to prey on us due to our ignorance. They know that they have no power over you except the one you let them have through your ignorance. Every ignorance you get rid of through knowledge provides light that takes you to your next level in life.

5.    The learning price is a non transferable responsibility. It is a cup you must prepare for yourself and drink. When the foolish requested oil of the wise, the wise could not transfer their oil, instead they told the foolish to go and buy their own. Talking about oil, the bible says in Isa.55:1-3: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

        Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

        Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; …”  The key in this scripture is to hearken diligently to the Lord. Jesus said to come to Him and learn of Him – see Mat.11:28-30. This is how the wise were able to carry oil in their lamps. Are you carrying oil in yours, if not you can start today as the month is not yet over. Your visitation from God will bring you promotion in Jesus’ name!

6.    Finally, both sets of virgins slept. This means that both were not in a state of sinless perfection. However, the wise had acquired enough light to get them back on course and set them up for divine recognition. The question I want to close with here is: What side would you rather be in? If your answer is – on the wise side, then I counsel you to pay the learning price because as we can see, there is no future with God for one who has stopped learning. 

A MESSAGE TO THE CHURCH

The following message is the demonstration of the message on the gifts of the Spirit that was concluded last week on Television. Here, we see a combination of the gift of prophecy, the word of knowledge and mostly the word of wisdom disclosing the plans and purposes of God and giving direction to His Church.

Prophecy:

The government of the Nations are on the shoulders of the Lord Jesus Christ. The head of the Church is Christ and the body of Christ is the Church. The shoulders are within the body. To this end, if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and heal their land. This is how I bear the government of the nations on my shoulders says the Lord. We do not war against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this world.

A mixture of Prophecy, word of knowledge and word of wisdom:

There is an ongoing revolution. This began at the beginning of last decade and intensified in momentum between 2003 and 2004. It is a revolution that will bring about a change in systems and governance around the world. It is a mindset revolution that would see the flushing away of the present crop of rulership to be replaced by the leadership style of the Lord Jesus Christ. When people go to school, they go to learn to think in a certain way. In the same connection, one of the reasons we go to Church is to learn to think like Christ Jesus. He is the greatest leader who ever walked on the sands of time.

For every Pastor around the world:

Here is the word of the Lord. The wind of the Spirit is blowing in the direction of change in leadership style in preparation for the Lord’s return. You will do well to mount this wind. The next generation of leaders are the youth of today. And I am fishing them out even among teenagers now. There is an ongoing selection process and many who were given the opportunity and have not applied themselves until now are being replaced by teenagers.

To this end, set up leadership training scheme for yourselves and your church with emphasis on your youth.

No matter how anointed you are, you are not a good leader until you apply yourself to the demands of training required for leadership. If you fail to do this within the window of opportunity given to you, your place would be given to a worthier vessel than you.

Please understand that this program will not accommodate pride, petty jealousies and envy. Locate a good leader around you and submit to their tutelage by pouring into their relevant literature for your training. Buy their books and electronic messages and learn of me through them. Says the Lord for the change I am bringing about will birth many surprises beginning this year.

You cannot worship God and mammon. Says the Lord. Mammon will make a lousy god to you and end up wasting you. Worship the true and living God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And obey His voice all the time.

Be a sheep and not a serpent. Serpents are killed but the sheep is protected by the shepherd.

Leadership should not be confused for fame or popularity. Fame is the platform or house top God gives you to express what He has whispered in your ears. Popularity on the other hand boarders on people’s response to divine favour bestowed on you by God. however, if you are truly God’s servant, a time comes when you have to sacrifice popularity for divine approval because that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God.

Do not be an Absalom to your fathers in the faith because Absaloms die. It is even better to be a prodigal son because the prodigal son will always come to himself and return to his father.

However, it is wiser not to be either of them because the prodigal son who is too laid back to go to his father within the window of opportunity allotted to him may NEVER get that opportunity again and this could be quite devastating as he/she would find out that in the midst of greatness, yet they are not great because they would not take advantage in time.

Every purpose is timed, do not let yours time out. Run the race that is set before you with the determination to obtain. Seek to apprehend that for which you were apprehended. Those who give up divine approval for human ones have sealed their doom like Saul and have already been displaced by Davids. 

The Moseses of this generation are presently transferring their mantles to their Joshuas. If you are a Moses, you will know when to allow your Joshua to exercise in his office. We are in a time when Moses does not have to die for Joshua to come on board.

This is the wisdom day of the Church. If you make your relationship with me the most important experience of your life, you will be most secure says the Lord.

Any Church leader who would not lay this to heart would fade into oblivion as he would have lost relevance. Those who lay it to heart would be ushered into the next level of the program of God. I AM THE LORD!

THE LAW OF SEED TIME AND HARVEST

THE LAW OF SEED TIME AND HARVEST – date: 08/01/2012

TEXT – Gen.8:22

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Since the restoration of earth from the flood of Noah, God decided not to punish men before the end any more, but decided to set a law in motion that would regulate the activities of men. This law is known as the law of seed time and harvest. It is the law that governs our lives while we are on this side of eternity and it is also by this law that our place in the other side of eternity will be determined.

Man is triune in nature namely spirit, soul and body. So this law regulates our spiritual lives, our souls and our bodies – Gal.6:6-10

The law of seed time and harvest is reemphasized in the New Testament and in addition, we are told that we will reap whatever we sow. In other words, if you so good, you will reap good. If you sow evil, you will reap evil. If you sow love, you will reap love. If you sow hatred and bitterness, you will reap hatred and bitterness.

Spiritually, if we sow to the Spirit, we shall reap life and peace, but if we sow to the flesh, we shall reap death.

In the realm of our souls also, if we sow our time in the word and good company of the Holy Spirit, we will reap the salvation of our souls and mind renewal. When we sow our time in the word, we will reap raw materials for meditation that will make us like trees planted by the rivers of water whose leaves shall not wither but will bring forth harvests in its season. See Ps.1:1-3 & Jer. 17:5-8.

Still looking at the realm of the soul, whatever attitudes we sow in our relationships is what we are going to reap.

In the realm of the body, whatever we sow into our body will reflect in the state of health of our bodies. If we sow the wrong food and drinks, it can reap disease for us. If we sow laziness, we can reap a dirty environment, smell and dirty clothes.

Different kinds of seeds

1.     Time.

2.     Life.

3.     Money.

4.     Love or affection.

5.     Thoughts.

6.     Words.

7.     Natural seeds such as crop seeds.

8.     Kindness etc.

The harvest is usually more than the seed sown.

HOW TO HEAR THE VOICE OF GOD

INTRODUCTION: The reality of the new creation man is that God speaks to him or her every day. The challenge however, is that how can we actually know that the voice we hear is God’s voice. This question is what would make us examine why and how God speaks and guides. To this end, we shall look at some reasons why God speaks to us and several ways he speaks and guides us. Then we shall examine how to hear when God speaks and know that this is the voice of God.

Four reasons why God speaks to us:

1.     He has mouth and can speak. In fact he created our mouths to be able to speak.

2.     Speaking to us is the means by which He guides us in life to protect us from destruction and cause us to walk in the way of righteousness - Job.33:14-18

3.     He wants to instruct us and He does so by speaking to us. Ps.32:8

4.     His wisdom, knowledge and understanding are communicated to us by the vehicle of His words which He speaks to us – Prov.2:6

HOW GOD SPEAKS AND GUIDES

1.     Through the audible voice – 1Sam.3:1-10; Acts9:1-7

2.     Through the inward witness or inner perception – Rm.8:16; Acts27:10.

3.     Through dreams or visions of the night – Dan.2:19; Job33:14-16

4.     Through trance – Acts10:1-6; 22:17-19.

5.     Through open visions – Acts10:10; Lk.1:8-12

6.     Through the bible which is the written word of God – Isa.8:20; 1Jn.5:7-8.

7.     Through circumstances - 1Sam.14:6-15;

8.     Through preaching and teaching the word - Isa.30:20-21

9.     Through prophecies - 2Chron.20:13-17; Acts 11:28; 21:10-11

10.Through angels - Mat.1:20; Judges 6:11-21

HOW TO KNOW THE VOICE IS GOD’.

1.     The voice of God carries peace with it – Phil. 4:6-7, Ps.85:8.

2.     The voice of God agrees with the principles of the Bible – Isa.8:20; Jer.23:25-26.

3.     The voice of the Lord does not encourage hastiness – Isa.28:16; Heb.6:12

4.     The voice of the Lord does not release fear but faith in your heart – Rm.10:17; 1Jn.4:18.

HOW TO RECEIVE GOD’S DIRECTION FOR OUR LIVES

We shall examine four steps we must take to receive the voice of God. Hab.2:1-3

1.     Stillness - This means to be quiet in your heart and allow God's voice to come in through your spirit because the bible says in Rm.8:14 & 16 that the Holy Spirit will communicate to us through our spirits. God is Spirit and man is also spirit so Spirit communicates with spirit. See Jn.4:23-24. 

2.     Vision: Each time God speaks to you, you can easily envision what he says as his words would paint a picture in the canvass of your mind. Vision enhances your faith because you can only receive what you can see with the eyes of faith. The importance of vision cannot be overemphasised. In fact, in Gen.15, God had to cause Abraham to come out of his tent to count the stars in the sky to enable him visualize the multitude of children he was going to give him before Abraham then Abram could beleive and could be regarded as righteous. In fact, to emphasize this, God also told him to envision the sand on the sea shore and of course we all know that they are uncountable and he told him that his children would be that many. I dont know what you have believed God for this year, but if you can just envision it, it would be yours. Remember, that in Gen.11:1-10, God had to confuse the language of men because of this same principle that nothing shall be restrained from them whic they have imagined to do. Note that vision is the same as imagination. 

3.     Spontaneity: When the Holy Spirit communicates with your spirit, you become aware of this through a spontaneous flow of thoughts that come into your mind beyond your control. Remember the bible makes us understand that thoughts are not original with us. You take thoughts. Jesus said in Matt.6:25 & 31 that thoughts are taken. This is why mind renewal is very important. When you renew your mind by replacing your carnal thinking with Godly thinking through the word of God, then you can easily tell when a thought from the Spirit of God is flowing into your mind. Note that these thoughts will never contradict the principles of scriptures.  

4.     Journaling: As you receive this flow from the Spirit of God, take a pen and paper and just write what you receive. This is the means by which David wrote many of the Psalms that we still enjoy till today. In fact, he gave some very powerful word of wisdom about the Messiah which came to pass hundreds of years later. See 1Chron.28:19 where David said that the plan for the Temple of God was delivered to him by writing by the hand of God that was upon him. Also, the prophet Jerimiah had to also employ journaling to compile the word of the Lord for others to be able to read. See Jer.36:1-32. In Hab.2:2 we are told to write the vision and make it plain on tables that he may run that reads it. So it is important that we write what God tells us especially when it has to do with the future because it will surely come to pass.

 BELOW IS A WORD OF PROPHECY THAT CAME IN THE COURSE OF THIS TEACHING:

"A new day has dawned for you because you have obeyed me in spite of all odds I will cause my voice to be heard in all the nations of the world through what we have done here tonight. Remember that through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down who smote with a rod. I am your God and there is no one who put their confidence in me who shall be disappointed. I do not relate by the ways of men for my ways are higher and my thoughts are higher. I will be exalted in the earth I will be exalted among the heathen because of the trumpet I shall sound by you in a short while. This is my mind for all my own."