REVEREND CHRIS OKOTIE (five)

   (…continued from part four…)

*5*            My Deeper Life Church pastor and friend, in his asseveration, pointed out, in all seriousness, that having crashed to conjugal relationships, Reverend Chris Okotie is not fit for his pastoral office again. Too bad, the way many Christian sects interpret the protocol of the LORD God. Adam, did he not start all these earthly palaver we have found ourselves in? Did he lose his federal headship of the human race? Noah, it is on record, threw man back into the curse of sinfulness when he cursed Canaan. Where is Noah, heaven or hell?

Moses did anger the LORD God, hence, did not taste of the land that flowed with milk and honey or did he? Could he be in hell? Could he be in hell and Jesus will call for his presence in the transfiguration on the mount? David, no doubt, I believe, did worse things compared to Rev. Chris Okotie’s divorce saga (never meant to excuse any miscreant act). Did David lose his life, head, crown, Israel or heaven, which one or ones did David lose? David, for your information, was not just a king, he was a prophet.

The brilliant thinking Pastor

Moses, as their leader, held a political post, his priestly and prophetic offices were ecumenical, thus religious. Solomon went as far as not only building satanic shrines, he was their guest and even bowed his head before those idolatrous images. Solomon did not only keep his crown, he grew older to be an improved preacher, prophet and king. Did Solomon go to hell?

The eleven disciples forsook Jesus. Were they not restored? What do they understand of Romans 11:29, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance?” The noun ‘gifts’ is charisma (khar’-is-mah) in Greek, and it means: 1. a (divine) gratuity, i.e. deliverance (from danger or passion) 2. (specially), a (spiritual) endowment 3. (subjectively) religious qualification 4. (objectively) miraculous faculty.’

The Diamond aged celebrant

What is ‘calling’ in Greek? It is klesis (klay`-sis) 1. a calling 2. (specially) a divine calling 3. (figuratively) an invitation 4. (by extension) a name.’ The two words ‘without repentance’ come as one Greek word, ametameletos (am-et-am-el’-ay-tos). Ametameletos comes from the negative particle ‘a’ meaning ‘not’ and metamellomai (met-am-el’-lom-ai) ‘to care afterwards, i.e. regret.’ Ametameletos here in this verse means: ‘irrevocable.’ Once HE calls you, either as a born again or into the ecumenical office, it is absolutely irrevocable. Amen.

If you have opened your Bible, say, “Uh huh uh huh!”

I am just trying to imagine what would have happened if Rev. Chris Okotie had not heeded the call? The revolution this man of God has championed in scriptural didacticism is phenomenal. He does not sit atop hundreds or thousands of churches as the alpha and the omega. He pastors only one Household Of God Church. He is richer than many of the General Overseers or General Superintendents with too many churches they can effectively manage.

Rev. Chris Okotie is the man!!!

I believe I know one of the reasons why his marriages would not succeed. It is to deny him of fatherhood. Imagine he has for children: two males and two females. They would be heads of the Church’s departments. When the children he had successful nurtured in the Lord would hold hands with him in prayers, what do you think will happen? They will not only relocate mountains, they will pulverize Gibraltars and the Himalayas put together! Satan will enter ‘gàù.’ Lucifer hates that!  

Congregational edifying and spirit lifting songs from the David of our time. Amen!

My Prince looks so good so much that you cannot believe that he is three scores years old. Your pulchritude, my dear Pastor, is a divine beneficence. Your modish sense is Solomonic exemplum. Indeed, only a man full of sapient ingenuity like Pastor Chris Okotie luxuriates in triumphal accomplishments. You fear the Lord, you love the LORD God, no wonder you are like David, the one HE has seen to lead in paths of righteousness that exalts a nation. If Moses, Samuel, David and Solomon all held spiritual and political posts concurrently in their respective days, what, I ask is wrong with Rev. Chris Okotie’s intention to run for the political Presidency of Nigeria, his dear country? I just love your swag. Thank you for being my pastor!

He must for all reasons have the patrician swag. He’s God’s child.

Anyone who wishes to be an attestant to the vertex titillation that resides inside the stormy gene of Chris Okotie should just ask him who Jesus is! You will receive a treatment of an overwhelming amalgamation of grammar and raw scripture! Nothing commoves my Pastor like the Lord Jesus. Happy birthday, my Prince, sir! I love your patrician swag.

THE MAN OF GOD! MANY HAPPY RETURNS, SIR!!

What do I say to my Prince at 60? My Pastor, I bless the name of our Lord, Jesus, for calling you into the ministry and the profundity of my thanks to you for heeding the call, takes on a cornucopian fluidity. Your bucolic office has engendered a certain pedagogical excellence, paving an altitudinal touchstone for ecumenism. Amen!

“Come unto me,” asks Jesus.

Get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.  (Concluded)

Read part four here

REVEREND CHRIS OKOTIE (four)

The Household of God Church, called “THE VILLA.”

 (…continued from part three…)

*4*  Going back to my Deeper Life Church minister friend asseveration concerning his failed marriage which should automatically make Chris Okotie lose his sacerdotal office before God’s judgment, let us look into the Bible.  Even Elijah, the great prophet of Israel, goofed. After having wagered in faith, the name of the LORD God of Israel, to achieve a touchstone victory against other gods, all it took to get Elijah to ask for a termination of his prophetic office and from the face of the terra firma was a letter of threat from the priestess of the very god he had hitherto contemned.

What yanked Elijah from the exalted vineyard and a glorious earthly exit? It was an egregious pusillanimity! God did not allow Elijah’s pusillanimous deed to erase the irreversible call of HIS Divinity. Elijah’s epical heroism was not denied its appropriate trophy of his crowning glory.

It’s Bible reading time in THE VILLA

There was a day that Satan, according to Pastor, came to him. This was before he was called into the ministry. Lucifer was taunting him and was yelling at him, “You want to be a preacher? That’s impossible!” The Reverend said he was wondering what he was freaking the Devil out. Suddenly, Lucifer grabbed his hand and was trying to remove the wedding ring of his first marriage. That told me one of the reasons why his marriage was having problems. The old serpent had visited each one of them and had played the same game of “had God said…….?” and they had failed to use the dominant line of Jesus -“get thee behind me Satan!” Yes, maybe he should not have gone into the conjugal relationship with them, it is evident that an unseen evil is at work!

Teacher extraordinaire -of the Bible.

I have learned so much from this Paul of our modernity. Before I began to do serious biblical studies he had mentioned the concept of the hypostatic union. I was literally flung into a wow! wow! wowing! mesmerism when he explained it of Jesus as being 100% man, 100% God! Ponderous! He taught the intercalation of the Church age in-between the seventy weeks prophesied by Daniel, regarding the Jewish expectation of the Messiah. One of the topics of his teachings: “The Angelic Conflict,” gave me all the scriptural ingredients I needed to publish my five-part post titled “DEMONISM.” Click this URL and you will be taken to the post: DEMONISM (part one) https://hoojewale.wordpress.com/2016/04/30/demonism-part-one ….

Praise and worship to Him with Whom we all have to do

The Reverend taught us that there are two ways of studying the Bible. One is: ‘reading out of the Bible,’ and the other being ‘reading into the Bible.’ Reading into the Bible means adding of your personal ideas to God’s word. This is the practice of too many readership of God’s protocol. The bane of scriptural adulteration.

Reading out of the Bible is the appropriation of the raw, undiluted word of God. Few do take the Word for what it says. This is why the Hebrew and the Greek interpretations are so germane. Amen!

April children are not left out in the celebration of their month

If righteousness of the famous scripture of Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people;” is anything to go by, there is no doubt in my mind that Pastor Chris Okotie, Household Of Church and Nigeria form a spiritual bond. It will be quite easy for anybody to asseverate that King Solomon’s sagacity pertains only of Israel and not Nigeria.

Bible reading time

Whoever is of this opinion has not studied this verse well enough because the word ‘nation,’ in the Hebrew, is: gôy (go’-ee) BDB Definition has: ‘nation, people, usually of non-Hebrew people.’ Strong’s Definition: Apparently from the same root as [gêvâh (gay-vaw’) ‘the back, that is, (by extension) the person] (in the sense of massing); a foreign nation; hence a Gentile.’ Nigeria is a Gentile nation, hence, Proverbs 14:34 is apropos for the Nigerian extant situation of wrong leadership. I voted President Buhari because Rev. Chris Okotie was not running.

Baby dedication time in THE VILLA.

Get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.   (…to be concluded…)

Read part three here

Click to read the concluding part five

REVEREND CHRIS OKOTIE (three)

 

Winner of Queen Esther Pageant 2017 of HOUSEHOLD OF GOD CHURCH

 

*3*   (…continued from part 2…)    There is this other lady, over thirty years old. Miss Oke had all her days been bedridden by sickle-cell anaemic syndrome. Her genotype had changed! It was no longer SS, she could not believe the result. Those who had been managing her health status were dumbfounded. Her genotype was now a healthy AA! That syndrome had killed her eldest brother, a very committed worker, with whom I taught in the four years class of the Children Church Department.

There are many others. This guy, John, was up there on a very tall tree, trying to fix the Christmas (of year 2016) lights, known of our church every yuletide. Unbeknown to him, he was too close to the live electricity cable. He made a disastrous physical contact! The current flung him. A deadly descent landed him with a murderous thud. Electric officials came and they were heard asking one another whom they could remember surviving such an accident. Their verdict? None!

We went to see him at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. I told him, “John, I am expecting you back in church to see you take the dance steps I’ve known you for.” He gave me an enthusiastic, “Amen.” Sometime in the month of May, this year, the same young man is helping to clean the church. Last Christmas he was in church to fix the bulbs for another Household tradition of ‘light up the world’ for Christmas!

Amiability that is of affability of this great friend if Jesus

I have my own testimony. Four times in two years I had slumped. Several people slumped not more than once and they were just dead! Three times it happened at home, once in church, of all places and moreover on an Easter Sunday. I truly sensed the attack the fourth time. And I remember telling the Lord, “I don’t want to slump! I mustn’t!” The Devil had his way but he lost the battle and the war. Praise the Lord.

It was a Saturday and we were getting our class ready for the next day’s service. The Reverend walked past our class and showed his displeasure at the loudness of the music I was playing. I apologized. At another Saturday, the man of God told me, “This is Church and I don’t allow the playing of any music that is not Christian.” I looked at him, meeting his gaze, I said, “This is Christian music, sir.” The man maintained his accusation, and that should have got my feelers warning me seriously.

I was stupidly sure of what I thought I knew. I stuck to my guns not even knowing the lyrics of the sung. It was when the Pastor said, “This so and so,” telling me the title of that R. Kelly’s song that I knew I had planted myself inside ‘gàù!’ ‘Gàù’ is a Yoruba expression of ‘deep trouble.’ Quickly I had gone to turn the offence off, but not before I had promised never to let that happen again.

I have been looking for an opportunity to apologize for my procacious stunt. What I am trying to enunciate here is that the man of God did not get angry with me for stubbornly arguing with him. I said to myself, “This is a man of true maturity.” The Reverend earned more of my respect for him. I love my Pastor!

When his first marriage crashed, I told the ladies who had ears to hear that, if a whole Reverend Mrs. Tina Okotie would go against the will of God then anything could happen to any incautious wife. But when the marriage to Sister Stephanie broke down I expect my Pastor to apologize to the congregation of Householders.

Get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.   (…to be continued…)

Click here to read part two

Click here to read part four

REVEREND CHRIS OKOTIE (two)

 

  REV. CHRIS OKOTIE, THE GREAT PREACHER.

 (…continued from part 1…)                                                                                                   *2*   Household is the church where the altar call is given so much time as fifteen or more minutes for converts to make up their minds. I have heard pastors around the world and I do know that what Chris Okotie teaches is very difficult to surpass. This great man of God refuses to plant sister churches. His reasons? It is first and foremost not scriptural. He will be playing the Holy Spirit’s role -quite usurpative. He will have to appoint pastors; which is only by divine appointment (Ephesians 4:10-11). This man will not do anything which does not conform to scriptural verity.

Nobody’s tithes or offerings are recorded. I remember attending a church and when I gave the man in charge of the offertory my money and told him, “This is my tithe,” and he asked me to get my tithe card and he heard my answer of, “I don’t have,” I saw him almost agitated to perspiring. I had to wait for a card to be provided for me with my name and address on it and after my contributed amount was duly entered could he receive the said tithe from my hand! In Household, even your pledged money goes into the same offering bag as the one in which you put your voluntary offering and tithes.

    The Preacher, in a Wednesday service.

The Pastor of Household of God is of the understanding that whatever you bring to church is unto the Lord and if HE has acknowledged your pious gesture, then it is settled. When the altar call is consummated, the Reverend will tell the nascent converts among other things, “If you like our Church, we invite you to be part of what we are doing; but if for any reason you cannot come here, talk to Jesus and He’ll lead you to another Church where you’ll be comfortable, but you must go to Church.” I do not know how many pastors will continue to say this to every Sunday and Wednesday new converts. Very few you will say this, if there is any. Their perceptive stance drums it too loudly and clearly into the core of their beings that the church is their personal investment. Definitely not the Okotie, my Pastor that I have seen for decades.

A woman, according to Reverend Chris Okotie, during the annual sensitizing teachings that gets us ready for the blessing pact we enter into with the Lord, brought the documents of her landed property to redeem her pledge. He said he told her that as an old widow whose children would be expecting to use the land in future it was better she kept the property, at least for her children’s use since neither him, the Pastor, nor the Church needed the land. This is sheer display of the virtue of moral rectitude. Rev. Okotie, who is guiltless of being under the dominion of cupidity can be trusted. The woman went home with her property.

The blessing pact enables Householders to enter into a business pact with the Lord, based on scriptural promises of God that whatever we ask of Him in faith and doubting not, He will do it. We give the amount pledged even before our requests concretize, proving our level of faith. This is Household and the grand depiction of faith in Him who hath brought us out of the darkness into His marvellous light. Hallelujah!

June celebrants of Household of God Church

          Many people have censurably clothed Household and her pastoral headship of not seeing miraculous deeds going on in the Church. In fact, about a year of my membership, an HOD of the Church agreed, confiding in me, with the public criticism. In my bewilderment I showed him how wrong he was. The number one miracle that is constantly wrought in Rev Chris Okotie’s Household Of God is that people get born again every blessed week! They that were headed to an everlasting hellish confinement have heard the undiluted logos and by the Holy Spirit’s energizing, a simple prayer of salvation is rendered from the heart and immediately a volte-face to heavenly citizenship is engendered! Miracle!

In the serious worship of Jesus

A very pulchritudinous woman with an envious job was without a husband for years. On the day of her testimony in a church service she said, “Pastor, the song you taught us, ‘Settle Me’ had been my prayer to the Lord.” Overwhelmed, the beautiful woman, Sister Yemisi  continued, “Pastor, look at the fine, nice, rich and handsome man the Lord has given me,” pointing at the evident truth, the young gentleman, Sina, her husband standing by her side. Today, years past, they are blessed with two wonderful, teenage boys.

Celebration before the Lord Jesus.

What about the ophthalmologist, Sister Omena, a very nice looking woman, who did everything, went everywhere just to have her matrix serve as the receptacle for which it was created: the gestation of foetus. It has served billions of births, so why not her? When she testified of the Lord’s miracle she had been looking for the fruit of the womb for twelve, painstaking years. The good news? She had not come to thank God expecting a biological issue. She had come before the Lord God Almighty to inform Householders that her womb received and gave birth to a set of twin girls. Those lovely girls, as at this day, are in a secondary school.

Get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.    (…to be continued…)

Read part one here

Read part three here

REVEREND CHRIS OKOTIE (one)

 This is the man of Jesus, Rev. Chris Okotie.

1)            Men of God there are, who are called personally by the Almighty. They abound as well who have continued to call themselves to do work in God’s vineyard, not having been called. Reverend Chris Okotie has continued to prove to be called of Jesus Himself to shepherd the believers of Household Of God Church, where he is the Pastor since the inception, in the month of February, the year nineteen hundred and eighty-seven.

The ebullience of Rev. Chris Okotie has continued to unravel the mystery of the Lord Jesus Christ, using God’s own protocol, the Bible. At the diamond age of sixty, this June 16th of 2018, he is still waxing strong in the pedagogical dissemination of scriptural veracity. This, none can take away from the one who goes by the sobriquet, ‘My Prince’ or ‘My Pastor’ by Householders i.e. Church members.

He is the Paul of our time. The altitude display of this man’s erudition can best be described as bodacious in every Sunday and Wednesday midweek service. Call him a walking Bible and you will be closest to the very truth.

I just cannot forget my first time in Household! It was on a Sunday, the eleventh of September, 1994. I christen that day ‘my own version of America’s 9/11, albeit mine wasn’t a disastrous one.’ For two decades I had stopped going to church out of sheer disappointment. The churches I knew had the laity robed in dogmatic dispositions of unscriptural involvement. Eight years approaching the twentieth year I began to ask God for my church, a place where I would worship Jesus in truth and in spirit and absolutely devoid of any religious straightjacket. One day, after prayers, I fell into a sleep.

The brilliant thinking Rev. Chris Okotie

I saw myself standing under the roof of the girls’ wing of my elementary school and someone looking exactly like Rev Okotie walked up to me and said something I cannot remember. Agreeing with him, I jumped down from where I stood. We walked through the gate, onto the tarred street which led through two cemeteries. I looked to the red brick walled cemetery to the right and it was overgrown with elephant grass, and the end of which lay in the geographical horizon, and to the left, it was the same outstretched, overgrown weeds. Waking from the sleep, I knew the Lord had answered the prayers of my place of His worship.

Gifts galore to worshippers!

On the next following Sunday I became a Householder, and neither can I forget the topic of the powerful sermon which was “Christian Cults.” I knew I had been led to my Church! At the last time I counted, I had 650 audio tapes of Household Of God Church. Two of the very explosive didactic excellence of earliest sermons are “The Character of Satan” and “The Angelic Conflict.” You would think that the Pastor is in the business of error dissemination. I remember sharing some points of scripture from one of those tapes and the woman, Mrs Afolabi asked, “You mean from this Bible that we all read?” My pastor’s teachings are quite astoundingly deep! On this woman’s birthday I got her about 4 or 6 of Household tapes and she could not hide her excitement of, “I was truly blessed by these tapes.”

My Prince! My Pastor! Paul of our time!

Every Sunday and Wednesday is a celebration of Jesus. Praises and praises. Beautiful Household songs with lyrics right from the throne of HIS celestial Majesty, all written by the Prince, Rev. Chris Okotie, himself. They are soul rending, spirit elevating and faith provoking songs. Household of God is truly solid!

Is it the serial sermonic topics like: “THE THREE MUSTS IN THE BOOK OF JOHN,” “THE TRIUMPH OF HEZEKIAH,” “MARRIAGE SEMINAR” that we want to talk about? Or is it the so many Easter, Christmas or hundreds of spiritual, eyes opening didactic journeys into the mysteries of scripture, where the swaddling clothes of the baby Messiah are carefully perused? My Pastor has taught us so many things regarding God’s protocol. Where do you think I got the knack to teach the Greek and Hebraic interpretations that feature in my posts? Rev Chris Okotie.                             (…to be continued…) 

  Get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.              (…to be continued…)

I DON’T WANT TO MISS HEAVEN! (III)

The Church (most of its leadership) is not doing well by keeping the scriptural truism from the laity. So many scriptural anomalies got ingested in the unsuspecting laity during the millennia of the hegemony of Catholicism. James Arminius, whose teachings sired the Remonstrance and their five points, the fifth of which states thus: “believers are able to resist sin but are not beyond the possibility of falling from grace. The crux of Remonstrant Arminianism lay in the assertion that human dignity requires an unimpaired freedom of the will.” Over 90% of Christians believe this Arminianistic didacticism (unfortunately).

                1Corinthians 1:30 says, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:” where the ‘righteousness’ is, the Greek, dikaiosunē (dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay):‘equity (of character or act); specifically (Christian) justification.’ And 2Corinthians 5:21 has “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Dikaiosunē is the same Greek word for ‘righteousness’ here.

Matthew 16:18, “….and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Katischuo (kat-is-khoo’-o), that is the Greek for ‘prevail against’ which means ‘to overpower.’ Jesus says so clearly that none of His saved can be overpowered to fall into sin that will make him or her to lose heaven. This is the Bible. This verse points to the fact that it is absolutely incumbent upon Him to ensure our eventual heavenly citizenry the moment we pray the prayer of salvation. Jesus takes over our lives from then on.

Anyone who gets born again is a stone that has just been fix, permanently, in the building called Church. No satanic shenanigan can remove him from the structure whose erection is brought into a ginomai (made –righteous, that is) by Him who is the Architect, Draughtsman and the Bricklayer of the Church, the mystical body of His own being. God will never use an element which will become ineffectual to build the Church! The gates of Satanism cannot overpower a true Christian. A true Christian is a person who has professed the Lordship of Jesus.

John 10:10 “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”  ‘Life’ is zoe (dzow-ay’) ‘1. life-above 2. epithet of Jesus (John 14).’ Zoe comes from zao (dzah’-o) ‘1. to live {literally or figuratively}.’ It is in contrast to another Greek word, bios (bee’-os) ‘1. natural, physical life 2. (literally) the present state of bodily existence 3. (by implication) the means of livelihood.’ ‘More abundant’ is the Greek perissos (per-is-sos’) ‘1. superabundant (in quantity) or superior (in quality) 2. (by implication) excessive.’

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” To understand the unique profundity of this asseveration let us begin with ‘I am.’ When you read this verse from the Septuagint ‘I am’ will be ego eime. When Moses asked God for His name, the Septuagint rendition is ego eime. The life, zoe, that Jesus is giving abundantly in this verse is God’s kind of life. It does not come to extermination and absolutely nothing can bring it to extinction.

What is the connection between the ‘I am’ and the shepherd? Psalm 23 opens with “The LORD is my Shepherd” where the title ‘LORD’ is Yhovah (yeh-ho-vaw’) ‘1. (the) self-Existent or Eternal 2. Jehovah, Jewish national name of God.’ In Psalm 80 the first verse reads: “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.” If the Shepherd of this verse is not Jehovah God, then Jesus never trod upon the surface of this terra firma. So, when Jesus declared, “I am the good shepherd” the definite article points in the direction of the One no Israelite would feign not to know: the Almighty LORD God of Israel! Amen!

Get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.        (…to be continued…)

Click here to read part II

Click here to read part IV

I DON’T WANT TO MISS HEAVEN! (II)

 

The LORD God does not break His promises. What He promised the Old Testament Israel He has also given to the spiritual Israel i.e. Christians in Hebrews 13:5, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”  The English translation fails to render the total import. The adverb ‘never,’ ou mē (oo may), is a double negative strengthening the denial; it comes from two words: ou (oo) ‘the absolutely negative adverb; no or not,’ and mē (may): ‘A primary particle of qualified negation (whereas ou expresses an absolute denial); (adverbially) not, (conjugationally) lest.’ ‘Nor’ is oude (oo-deh’) {From ou and de (deh): A primary particle (adversative or continuative); but, and, etc.}; not however, that is, neither, nor, not even.’ So many reassuring negatives are couched in this verse.

Rev. Chris Okotie expounds the promise of the Lord thus: “I can’t, I couldn’t, I will not leave you.” Clark Commentary puts it this way: “There are no less than five negatives in this short sentence, and these connected with two verbs and one pronoun twice repeated. To give a literal translation is scarcely possible; it would run in this way: “No, I will not leave thee; no, neither will I not utterly forsake thee.” Those who understand the genius of the Greek language, and look at the manner in which these negatives are placed in the sentence, will perceive at once how much the meaning is strengthened by them, and to what an emphatic and energetic affirmative they amount.”

2Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” The auxiliary ‘hath’ perfects the main verb ‘made’ which in the Greek is poieo (poy-eh’-o): ‘to make or do {in a very wide application, more or less direct; properly refers to a single act}.’ The Bible does not use another differing ‘made’ prasso (pras’-so) meaning: ‘to practice, i.e. perform repeatedly or habitually.’ The righteousness which the Lord ‘made’ for us is a once and forever righteousness. No one needs to do anything about this righteousness again, in fact any human righteousness will only pollute what Jesus has perfectly made. The second ‘made’ is ginomai (ghin’-om-ai) ‘1. to cause to be (“gen”-erate) 2. (reflexively) to become (come into being).’

Ginomai assures us that we have become righteous people, as born again individuals. The preposition ‘in’ is en (en) “in,” at, (up-) on, by, etc. [a primary preposition denoting (fixed) position (in place, time or state), and (by implication) instrumentality (medially or constructively), i.e. a relation of rest].’ I honestly cannot come to any understanding of the whiney stance of my fellow Christians when the ‘in’ found in the last part of the verse above shows that our righteousness resides in God. It is not a possession of any believer. It finds a resting place in the righteous Lord God Almighty. We are righteous forever in the Eternal Jehovah. Amen!

1John 4:10, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” God, without any shred of doubt, is the Initiator of our salvation. Only the Author knows the story more than any other, and this salvation narrative happens to be His story. We did not initiate the spiritual cleansing of our nature. We did not ask Him to do anything about it. Grace. Nothing but graceful magnanimity.

Get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.            (…to be continued…)

Read part I here

Read part III here

 

I DON’T WANT TO MISS HEAVEN! (I)

A throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne

It is such a displeasure to behold the exigent cry the followers of Christ exhibit concerning heaven. “O! I must make it to heaven. Arrhh! I don’t want to lose heavenly citizenship, Holy Spirit please help my spiritual infirmity.” And they, quite unbelievably, profess to be God’s own begotten Christians when asked, “Are you born again?”

Imagine the disciples of Jesus querulously doubting a place for them in heaven, even after Jesus had breathed the breath of the Holy Ghost on them and had instructed them to tarry in Jerusalem until they were empowered. Is it not of truth that, “My people perish for lack of the knowledge?” They are unquestionably afraid of losing their salvation.

In my stupefaction I have always asked, “How did you get born again?” A truly born again Christian will always answer, “I received Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.” Good. Well said. “How much did you have to pay and how did you catalyze this new birth?” The truthful answer is, “Well….nothing.” It should be clear to all and sundry that the architect who designed the foundation and the eventual erection of the edifice is the one who can take the best care of the building. Henry Ford, no doubt, is the best person to talk to concerning your Ford car.

Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our lives, is the only One who can preserve the soteriological rebirth of our spiritual lives. He perfected the sanguineous Calvary rituals. And all that is expected from an individual is just to believe. “For God so loved the world……..whosoever believeth in him…..perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The word ‘loved’ is agapaō (ag-ap-ah’-o): Perhaps from ἄγαν agan (much); ‘to love (in a social or moral sense).’ It is the verb form of agapē (ag-ah’-pay) which is: ‘affection or benevolence; specifically (plural) a love feast.’ It can only be this, unconditional, kind of love that the Divinity must employ to wash away all our iniquitous inclinations. Jesus paid the price. He proved His magnanimity with, “It is finished.” The perfect tense ‘finished’ is: teleō (tel-eh’-o): ‘to end, that is, complete, execute, conclude, discharge (a debt) fulfil i.e. to pay; of tribute.’

One of the fear of losing God’s salvation is based on righteousness, which has slipped from the hands of man. How can you forget so easily, that one of the names of our God is Jehovah Tsidkenu: The LORD our righteousness? The righteousness is not our own; He wraps us in His own righteousness, making us righteous as well. “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” [Jeremiah 23:6].

The epithetic ‘THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ in Hebrew is: yehôvâh tsidqênû (ye-ho-vaw’ tsid-kay’-noo) Strong’s Definition: From Jehovah and tsedeq (tseh’-dek) with pronominal suffix; Jehovah (is) our right; Jehovah-Tsidkenu, a symbolical epithet of the Messiah and of Jerusalem.’ Tsedeq (tseh’-dek) means ‘the right (natural, moral or legal); also (abstractly) equity or (figuratively) prosperity.’  Jehovah means: I AM THAT I AM or the self-existing God (One who iexists by His own power). This LORD is none other than ‘The BRANCH’ of the preceding verse. This is Jesus.

“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4) When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” [Colossians 3:3-4]. The word ‘hid’ is kruptō (kroop’-to) to conceal (properly by covering).’  The righteousness that marks us out as Christians is veritably a clothing and Jesus is essentially the covering. We do not have in our possession any inherent righteousness. And the reality on the scriptural ground is that only this same Jesus has the capability of the competence to keep us in this state of Godly righteousness. We have the same life as Jesus for we are, in the strictest sense, in this righteous journey together for it says that: “Christ, who is our life.” Amen.

My five-part post titled, ”WHY GO ARMINIANISTIC SOTERIOLOGY” http://wp.me/p5iz2f-1H  16 Mar 2015  explores in details why no true born again will ever go to hell, please do read it.

Get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.            (…to be continued…)

Click here to read part II

 

John 13:13 (part 2)

THE SOON COMING KING! LORD OF LORDS; KING OF KINGS! THE MESSIAH!!

(…continued from part one…)            John 13:9 “Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. John 13:10, Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all” (the underlined are Italicised). After one has got the cleansing righteousness of Jesus, ones ineludibility of the idiosyncrasies of his lifestyle makes it germane to have the feet washed. This is the cogency of the main reason why Jesus washed their feet; if you should ask, “why the feet in particular?” Why were His feet nailed? To remove the negativity imbedded in the idiosyncrasies of the walk before our thrice holy Jehovah. Jesus is good! Amen!

“For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” [John 13:15]. He had charted the Kingdom course of humility and not the literal scrubbing of each other’s feet (which some pastors are erroneously guilty of). God is humble. Godly virtues must be exercised. The LORD God wants you to prove that He has endowed you with this virtue of humility.

God humbled Himself to bring the Incarnation into a historical reality. He humbled Himself to be the first show us love. It is quite inconceivable that the very Creator will choose to salvage the fallen mankind, knowing fully well that the only antidote for our sinfulness is the gory death of the Calvary cross. His unconditional love humbled Him to serve us. Moses saw the backside of the Divinity and became the brightness of a walking sunlight.

The Red Sea parted hither and thither, standing at attention, to make a dry passageway for the trekking feet of Israel. Angels worship Him in the heavenly assizes; and when John saw Him in the island of Patmos he fell as though dead. This same Master was the One who left the glory of heaven in an unprecedented humbling of Himself, in the service to humanity. It is stupefying to arrive at this understanding: that the Divinity will even allow the thought of lowliness to cross His eternal mind. Mind-blowing!

THE MASTER AND LORD!

There is only one reason why a creature will deign to forsake the virtuous walk of unpretentiousness. It is pride. Lunatic pride of Satanism. Lucifer detests embracing the spirit of self-abasement. He would rather keep himself on a delusionary, prancing high horse, ambience of his phantasmal romance. Pride, as a matter of fact, goeth ere destruction. Pride has a way of making you think that you know a whole lot when the stark reality is that you are actually wallowing in abject ignorance.

The prideful ones are made to discountenance tiny inconsequential lowliness, too enraptured in the pride of their physical status. Lucifer saw only what he wanted in an absolute neglect of the Creator’s word. Pride is an avid preacher. It will sermonize its captive in subjects that are diametrically opposed to God’s protocol. Whose tireless advice got Satan derailed? It was none but his own self who got himself alienated from God’s goodness. When you take decisions that run contrary to the instructions of the Word of God you have just embarked on a journey in futility. Today, Lucifer is licking his wounds. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them;” Jesus taught His followers in John 13:17.

Judas Iscariot was not clean. Be clean to enable you walk with the LORD. Get born again. Say this prayer of salvation: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.    (Concluded)

Click here to read part 1

John 13:13 (part 1)

Jesus served us to save humanity

“Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.” Jesus made this absolute unequivocalness in John 13:13. This is a categorical in asseveration, devoid of any scintilla of ambiguity. What does the denotative momentousness of this statement elucidate and what does it connote? Just follow my didactic piece and there will be an unravelling truth.

The word ‘call’ in Greek is phōneō (fo-neh’-o) ‘to emit a sound (animal, human or instrumental); by implication to address in words or by name.’ Master is didaskalos (did-as’-kal-os): ‘a teacher in the NT one who teaches concerning the things of God, and the duties of man.’ Lord is kurios (koo’-ree-os): ‘From κῦρος kuros (supremacy); supreme in authority, that is, (as noun) controller; by implication Mr. (as a respectful title).’ The word ‘well,’ is kalōs (kal-oce’): ‘beautifully, finely, excellently, well;’ while ‘am’ is eimi (i-mee’) ‘to be, to exist, to happen, to be present.’

“But to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many“ (Matthew 20:28)

Jesus had done what tradition forbid. A master does not stoop low to serve his disciples. His following catechumens also addressed Him as kurios. How can Jesus, who has just displayed a prodigious humility, not dissuade them from addressing Him in a cognomen of the Supreme Being? I can hear Jesus telling them, “It is germane that you call me ‘Master’ for I teach you Kingdom truths. And it’s apropos to be called your Lord for its excellent correctness.” The pronoun ‘I’ is italicized, hence, is not in the original script. Translators applied it to make an English sense to its readers.

The ‘am’ or eimi is what lends credence to the gravity of the true definition of kurios. Eimi speaks of existence which gives no hint of time because it does not arise, in this context. Eimi, in this context, has no beginning and no ending. This eime takes us back to Exodus 3:14, “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” The Septuagint translates ‘I AM’ as EGO EIME. This is the covenant name, Jehovah.

So, when Jesus said, “for so I am,” the intimation here is simply, “for so Jehovah.” ‘Lord’, in the Greek, is the same as the Old Testamentary Yahweh. This is the grand revelatory import! The Lord Jesus did suffer them to address Him as ‘Lord’ just because, the wholesome truth is that He happens to be the ‘I AM’ of their forefathers. He is the Supreme Ruler of the entire universe! This was not a case of an arrogation of falsehood of identity. “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am” (John 13:13). Amen!

How could the Sovereign Lord stoop so low to play the role of a mere servant? Food for humility thought, it is, no doubt. “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet” [John 13:14]. Washing of feet was purely a Jewish traditional way of life and it was the job for the servants. As their Master, tradition forbid the Lord’s serving stance. It did not, therefore, fail to ignite the brashness of Simon Peter.

The Great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls

John 13:8, “Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.” The neuter ‘part’ is the Greek meros (mer’-os) ‘From an obsolete but more primary form of μείρομαι meiromai (to get as a section or allotment); ‘a division or share (literally or figuratively, in a wide application); destiny.’ Jesus has a Kingdom everlasting. None else boasts of such. Anyone who gets alienated from God’s Kingdom is doomed for eternity. Peter understands this fact but was incognizant of the Import of the cleansing of their feet. It is crystal clear that being with Jesus, in truth of spirit, is a cleansing agent. Having believed the spiritual efficacy of the word of Jesus, with one’s whole heart, makes one clean.

           

            The condemnation that gave us justification

Judas Iscariot was not clean. Be clean to enable you walk with the LORD. Get born again. Say this prayer of salvation: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.                  (…to be concluded…)

READ THE CONCLUDING part 2 here