Death [5]

(…continued from part four…)

5)            “We shall not all sleep” simply means that not all Christians will taste of death. Paul included himself, not knowing when the end will come: for ‘no one knows when the actual day of the end is, save the Father’. “But we shall all be changed,” he concluded, in 1Corinthians 15:51,  meaning that when Jesus shows up to receive the Bride, even His Body, the Church, every Christian (born again) will be given a new body to befit his celestial citizenship. This is the secret even the philosophical minded Greek did not know. Concerning death, the true Christian remains much unperturbed. Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” As a living entity, the Christian lives to preach the Way, Truth and the Life –of Jesus, the Saviour. At his earthly cessation of life, he is never a loser; he is going to be with his Lord, Saviour and God who made the promise of John 14:1-3, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2) In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”  Throw or toss the deciding coin of fate; and, head or tail, the true born again Christian will never lose! Amen.

                The worst that can happen to a careless Christian is found here in: 1Corinthians 3:14-15, “If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15) If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” One begins to work for the Kingdom of God only after one is born again, and never before. The work of the Christian can be hay, wood or stubble, each of which is unacceptable in the heavenly assizes.

Those tried by fire of judgment burn up to ashes: of worthlessness. Good works acceptable are gold, silver and other precious stones, which when tried by the same fire, come forth most purified, handed back to the good worker, to determine his hierarchy among fellow children of God, before the Lord God. This is what really ensures one’s heavenly citizenship. A born-again person becomes four.

Four is the number of creation. As a tripartite being, at the spiritual regeneration, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell permanently with you: making four; and this can be said to be one of the reasons why a born again Christian is a new creature [2Corinthians 5:17]. The unregenerate remains three, believing the deceptive sermons of Satanism, telling you that you are god: your own god. Your tripartite nature makes you a trinity: a god as well. The irreconcilable predicament will come and stare guiltily at you when death comes calling. Your body must be dropped; it cannot accompany you to the afterlife. So, you are actually two, not three of the Divinity. You cannot be your own mediator; it is not allowed in the heavenly assizes. You cannot be your own witness. Empyreal impossibility. You will be guilty as divinely charged!

       Let us make an observation of the born again Christian. At the cessation of earthly life, he inevitably drops his cadaverous body, leaving the terra firma not two, but three. His soul and spirit plus the indwelling Holy Spirit of the Divinity make him three. He has a Witness, God the Holy Spirit, the Third Member of the Godhead is the Witness that the unregenerate cannot present before the thrice holy God. Jesus, seeing the Holy Spirit is very ready to be his Mediator: for Jesus is the only recognised Mediator between God and men. The Eternal Father beholds those coming before Him having His Spirit dwelling in them and immediately welcomes them, “Welcome, my heirs, into my Kingdom of your abode.” Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you are not truly born again.

Whether you own a reward of celestial elevation or not, as long as you did, truly receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, the Bible is quite unequivocal about your empyreal stance, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved! QED! “Ye must be born again,” Jesus made the asseveration.

                Rid your mind of unscriptural thoughts. Get born again. Say this simple prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say:

“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 that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”      

(Concluded)                               

Read part four here

Death (4)

Art by AnaStpaul

(…continued from part three…)

4)            The parabolical mastery of the Lord Jesus made a conclusion regarding those who reject the gospel of the truth in Matthew 13:30, “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” The adjectival ‘both’ will always be an inference to only two things. Only two categories of people are seen in the life after death. Paradise people got born again, but candidates of hell rejected the Lordship of Jesus. There is no in-between, sitting on the fence. As a matter of scriptural fact, there is no absolute death, in the sense that immediately one breathes the very earthly breath –in the least of a fraction of a second— one is transported either to heaven –if born again— or to hades, where the rich man of Lazarus’ (Luke 16:19-31) story was led to.    

The parable of Matthew 18:8 would not have been told if there is no real hell of after-life torments, which reads, “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.” What is ‘everlasting fire’ if not hell?

Jesus Christ taught what will happen in His Kingdom in Matthew 25:24-46. “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:” (Matthew 25:32). Only two categories of people: meaning that spiritual reality does not entertain neutrality. You are either for or against Jesus, the Author of creationism. For those wicked souls who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ and the ones who accept Him, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal;” respectively. The choice of the two categories of Matthew 25:46 is yours to decide before death –the minute, hour or day you are absolutely oblivious of. Selah!

And God delivered just Lot

                2Peter 2:4-9,  4) “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5) And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6) And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 7) And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:  8) (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 9) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:” Strength of soteriological admonition, that is deduced from this apostolic words of Peterine couch!

Noah and his antediluvian family coming out of the ark

I remember a scriptural disquisition I got myself engaged in with a visiting Jehovah’s Witness people who asked, “How can a loving God throw people of His creation into hell.” I did not even know the above scripture then. And I remember asking them two scriptural phenomena. “If you think God wouldn’t do it,” I began, “what about the annihilation of the great Deluge of Noah’s days, which involved about two and a half million people? What about, in case you’ve forgotten, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Jehovah’s angst poured torrential conflagration upon the disobedient inhabitants of those geographical settlements?” was my conclusion. They had not a convincing flow of words of defence.

Those who will go through rapture will not taste of physical death

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,” [1Corinthians 15:51]. Mustērion (moos-tay’-ree-on) is the Greek for ‘mystery,’ meaning: ‘hidden thing, secret, generally mysteries, religious secrets, confided only to the initiated and not to ordinary mortals; a hidden or secret thing, not obvious to the understanding; a hidden purpose or counsel.’ ‘Sleep’ is koimaō (koy-mah’-o) to put to sleep, that is, (passively or reflexively) to slumber; figuratively to decease: – (be a-, fall a-, fall on) sleep, be dead, to die.’ ‘Changed,’ allassō (al-las’-so), means: ‘to change, to exchange one thing for another, to transform.’ Paul reveals a future phenomenon of Divine working intended to glorify His holy nation, the Christians. This is a mystery known only to the regenerate souls of the body of Christ, which the Holy Spirit reveals to those who are endowed with His Spirit.  

Rid your mind of unscriptural thoughts. Get born again. Say this simple prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say:

“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 that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”

(…to be concluded…)

Click here to read part 3

Read the concluding part 5

Death [3]

(…continued from part two…)

3)            There is a certain judgment awaiting the soul that dies without the regeneration that comes from the finished work of the Christ at the Golgotha crucifixion. “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23) And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24) And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame” [Luke 16:22-24]. This story is not of the parabolic ordonnance of the great Teacher’s didacticism of God’s Kingdom. Lazarus, the beggar, had a true existence. If not, the story would not be told of the historical Abraham, the father of Israel. From the region of the wicked dead ones, the rich man did not only see Abraham, he recognised him, and called out to him, “Father Abraham”, appropriately. He dwelt in the place of torment. Hellish death, ergo, is real!

Recognizing him, the dead rich man cried, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me” [Luke 16:23].

Matthew 25:41 “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” this, will Jesus, the King, say in His judgment, in the heavenly assizes. And this sentence of the future underscores the hell reality. The adjective ‘everlasting’ is aiōnios (ahee-o’-nee-os): ‘without end, never to cease; perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well);’ while ‘fire’, pur (poor) is: ‘1. the burning flame, πῦρ καίειν or δαίειν to kindle fire, 2. the funeral-fire 3. the fire of the hearth, 4. as a symbol of things irresistible or terrible, they were fighting like burning fire.’ This is a Divine deflagration of eternal duration. It may sound incredulous, but that is what the Word of God says. Incontrovertible.

Revelation 20:14-15, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15) And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”  Empyreal citizenship is a life as unending as God’s own life of zoe. So that, absolutely nothing will tamper with our eternal life, God must destroy death and hell. What is ‘death’? It is thanatos (than’-at-os): ‘that which is antipodean to life; the death of the body; that separation (whether natural or violent) of the soul and the body by which the life on earth is ended.’ This is the Greek word for ‘hell’: hadēs (hah’-dace): ‘1. name Hades or Pluto, the god of the lower regions 2. Orcus, the nether world, the realm of the dead. 3. later use of this word: the grave, death, hell. 4. it comes from ‘a’ (as a negative particle) and eidō (i’-do) ‘to see’; properly unseen, that is, “Hades” or the place (state) of departed souls.’ In His divine wisdom, what is God going to do? He will take hold of death and its gloomy abode, and sentence them to the eternity of hellfire, thereby effecting a relocation of them. The LORD God must do this to ensure our eternal undyingness.   

                Rid your mind of unscriptural thoughts. Get born again. Say this simple prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say:

“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 that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”      

(…to be continued…)

Get part 2 by clicking here

Click here to read part 4

Death [2]

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?” [1Corinthians 15:54-55]

(…continued from part one…)

2)            Some still believe and asseverate that, “There’s no physical realm of hellish gaol.” A Davidic Psalm 16:10 is a Christological “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” The word ‘hell’ is the Hebrew she’ôl (sheh-ole’): ‘grave, hell, pit, the underworld Sheol – the OT designation for the abode of the dead; place of no return; without praise of God; wicked sent there for punishment; hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranian retreat).’ Jesus did not receive any condemnation in the abode of the dead. Acts 2:31 “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.” Pellucidity of Scripture teaches that Jesus descended, the proclaiming Visitant, to the invisible underworld.

Who says hell is not real? It is a reality.

It says in unequivocal terms in Ephesians 4:9-10, “(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? [10] He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)”  He went to the same place where Lazarus found himself –Abraham’s bosom. God would not allow the argument of the wicked-dead ‘rich man’, borne out of Satanism, to thrive: by sending him back to earth –even if Abraham could.

“…and delivered them into chains of darkness…” [2Peter 2:4].

Jesus, the true Witness, had to manifest in the lower region of our world –the wicked-dead to expect judgment, while the righteous dead had the flame of their hopes burning brightest. 1Peter 3:18-20 18) “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:  19) By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20) Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” Jesus went yet to the lowest region of hell –Tartarus— to proclaim doom to the fallen angels who married the daughters of the antediluvian men, to engender the atrocious act of Satanism. The creation of Adam and a wife, perfectly established the Church.

.

So many scriptures support hellish life after death. “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” [Matthew3:12]. The understood goodness of the harvested wheat is the pointer to its usefulness. What accounts for its goodness is none other than the imbibed Word of truthfulness: Jesus. The worthlessness of the chaff (children of disobedience) makes them candidates of the unquenchable fire.

randygage.com

                Proverbs 2:19, “None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.” The expression, ‘take hold of’ is the Hebrew nâśag (naw-sag’) meaning: ‘to overtake; ability; to reach, attain to, cause to reach; to be able to secure.’ Once in hell, the occupant has lost the ability to return to the life of celestial bliss. And this is what Pauline couch of Hebrews 9:27 is all about, which reads, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” where the word ‘appointed’ is apokeimai (ap-ok’-i-mahee): ‘to be laid away, laid by, reserved; reserved for one, awaiting him.’ The subject of this verse, ‘men’ is the Greek anthrōpos (anth’-ro-pos): ‘1. a human being, whether male or female or man-faced; 2. with the added notion of weakness, by which man is led into a mistake or prompted to sin 3. with the adjunct notion of contempt or disdainful pity.’ From these definitions, anthrōpos connotes degeneration of Adamic nature as opposed to the born again Christian.

                Rid your mind of unscriptural thoughts. Get born again. Say this simple prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say:

“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 that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”      

(…to be continued…)

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Read part 3; click

Death [1]

1)            Death is not an absolute cessation of life. It is simply the reality of being cut off from the presence of God. In the tiniest fraction of a second, one is out of one’s body when death sniffs out the earthly life. To physicality, breath cessation of a living intelligent being is his end. Not so, it is, at all. Death is actually the absence of the vitality marking the essentiality of the spirit, one of the known tripartite quiddity constituting the Adamic creation. Simply put, theologically, death is to be absent from the presence of life –Jesus.

At the cessation point of breath, the dual entity of spirit and soul is transported to the realm of the ‘unseen’, either to eternal bliss or anguish. Who is the entity, of whom a cut off from His presence is death absolutely? Is it Brahma, Krishna, Buddha or Allah? None of them. It is Yahweh, the I AM THAT I AM, who was, and who is, and who is to come. Amen.

Lucifer was piqued to see the first couple still alive

      Adam, when he committed the disobedient, original sin of the Eden Garden, he died, not physically but spiritually. His spirit realm, sin-stained, failed to enter into the erstwhile sacred fellowship with the Creator. This is the truth about death. It was when he saw the sacrificial animals, one for him and the other for his wife that the gravity of the mark he had missed struck him. Dead animal friends of the pristine family told him: death was imminent. Every birth of Adamic progeny, as a result, became the accouchement of a walking cadaver. Death!

Then came the death of Abel, probably the most favourite offspring, which, definitely, shook him terribly. Death! Pellucidity of death passing upon every mankind became unbearably a truism.

In the couching of God’s protocol -the Bible- the very first words are, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” [Genesis 1:1]; and the title ‘God’ is the Hebraic ‘Elôhı̂ym (el-o-heem’): ‘Plural of ‘ĕlôahh (el-o’-ah); gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative.’ The One who spoke the first words of creationism is none other than the First Member of the Godhead, the Father. Verse 2, “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters:” is an introduction of the Third Member of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. ‘Moved’ of verse 3 is râchaph (raw-khaf’): ‘to brood; by implication to be relaxed.’ It is the brooding likened to that of mother hen, creating the energizing spirit of hatching the egg into life. Like the eternal Father, the Holy Spirit is the life Giver.

There is life after death

 “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” [Genesis 1:3]; bringing the Second Member of the Godhead, Jesus Christ, into creationism participation, ergo, Creator of life. Amen. Mosaic couch needed not say, “In the beginning God the Father …. ” simply because it was the Trinity –constituting one God—, working in consonance as co-Creators. Having established the concept of the Author of life, let us look at the users of it.

When one is pronounced clinically dead, a resuscitation of the essential vitality of life –the soul—, seen to be absent, is about to be scientifically carried out. Its failure renders the body, that did containerized the vital life, what my Yoruba people call, korofo –emptiness. Pinch, tickle and make verbal and physical advances at the cadaverous heap of remains, and there would not be the slightest response. Why? The soul [which is the realm of emotions, will and thoughts] is no longer present in the lifeless remains. After death is judgment. How do I know this fact? Lazarus died, the rich man died, each one to a separate region of the blissful Abraham’s Bosom and the fiery hell torment respectively.

“It shall bruise thy head” [Gen. 3:15]

                Rid your mind of unscriptural thoughts. Get born again. Say this simple prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say:

“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 that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”      

(…to be continued…)

Read part 2 here

Delay Is Not Denial (seven)

Winslow Homer

(…continued from part six…)

7)            God’s delay, for the benefit of questionary hearts, is never a denial of goodness. It is a means of testing the strength of an individual’s faith. Abraham most probably, at the age of around fifty, married Sarah. Had God not told the Adamic world to, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion” in Genesis 1:28? So, what is the rationale behind these many decades of Abrahamic waiting on the LORD for his wife’s fruit of the womb? After many shows of Abraham’s unwavering faith, and Sarah’s supportive obedience to Abraham’s headship, the LORD God showed up, physically, at Abraham’s home. ”I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son” [Genesis 18:10]. Circumstantial staging of existential phenomenality, most certainly, knows how to erode your prized faith during the workability processes of God’s promised word.

“Shall I of a surety bear a child?”

                Sarah had long stopped seeing her menstrual flow –emblematic of fertility. Her matrix had ceased functioning as a foetus nursery. These were experiential realities. What should one give one’s vote of faith to: doubtless physicality of one’s being, on one hand, or the word of the ‘unseen’ God? Sarah was not the only one to scorn the promise of Jehovah, Abraham in the preceding 17^th chapter had shook his head, laughed to scorn, the promise of God: “Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?” [Genesis 17:17].

                What none expected began to receive biological attention. Sarah conceived. Months rolled by. The supposedly deadness of Sarah’s dishevelled matrix came to life and nurtured the foetus that eventually culminated in the accouchement of the promised Isaac. Delay is not denial. Sarah had the last laugh, so is the plan of God for every believing person. Amen.   

                How could a teacher of theology live a life of penury? So, Jabez prayed, wanting to be no more called a pitiful man of penury. Only God knows for how long he continued to offer the prayer of a man of hope. Did Jabez die hopelessly wretched? “And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren” [1Chronicles 4:9] is the proof that God’s delay is not a denial. In the Book of 2Kings chapter 5, Naaman could not get his healing the way of his dramatic wish, “Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper” [2Kings 5:11]. The prophet, Elisha, would not have it according to the generalissimo’s way. The delay was to test Naaman’s faith in the God of Israel. He dived into Jordan and came out, dived in and out a total number of seven times. Seven being the number of perfection, Naaman’s tested faith yielded the desired result: “and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean” [2Kings 5:14]. The delay in Naaman’s miracle was not a denial of God’s beneficence.

            Have they been laughing at you: calling you a failure; wretched poor; barren witch; useless idiot and even challenging your Jesus to do something about your predicament? Let the delay strengthen your faith. You will laugh last. Joy cometh in the morning. Jehovah’s delay is not a denial of your happiness. Amen.

Seven dives of delay did not deny Naaman of his miracle

            I was living in two very tiny rooms with my family in 1993. I searched and sought for a good apartment which yielded not a favourable success. My landlord was a man of incredible wickedness. Our disagreements made him take us to court. The court allowed us a stay in his house for not more than six months. He promised to throw me out of his property if I should stay for few hours after the 31^st of October, 2000 court ruling. It would have given him the bestial joy of sadism; I know. The good Lord knew that we did everything we could; and asked everyone we came across, to help in getting another place.

                In those days –of six months of my stay in his house— I had to see Mr. Kusimo, the landlord, in his sitting room. I looked into his eyes and told him, “Sir, I know you’re counting the days of putting me to disgrace, but I’d like you to understand that, ten thousand years ago God counted the number of days I’d spend in your house; a million years ago God counted and He finished counting the number of days. So, please, stop worrying yourself.”

Hebrews 4:12

                I continued the discussion, “Honestly, I don’t know where He is taking me after this place, but, because I know that He is a Big God, and for His love for me, He’ll probably get me a big apartment.” Two years before the court case we had embarked on moving into another place to no avail. Just one day to the last day, the 30^th of October, 2000, the good Lord found us a place! It was well after 9pm, when the new landlord said we should come the following day for the keys. I told him we needed to have the keys as a testimony of God’s beneficence. He agreed. The new landlord did not take the first rent from tenants -his lawyer was responsible for that. Now, because God was involved in our peculiar case, Mr. Ògún took the rent from our hands. The rent was 75 thousand naira. “All I have here is 70 thousand, I’m giving you my word that, you’ll get the remaining five as soon as I lay my hands on it.” You know what? Mr Ògún’s unbelievable answer was, “Okay.” We left his house –soon to house my family— sometime after 10pm, victorious soldiers of Christ.

                Early the following morning, my wife announced, in Yoruba tongue, “A ti rí’lé ooo! –“We’ve got an apartment!” and the entire tenants could not hide their joyous elation. It was electric. Honestly, the charged response was reminiscent of the jubilant shout one hears from enthusiastic Nigerians when the Super Eagles scores the winning goal of a football tournament. It was a three bedroom flat. The children’s room alone was bigger than the two rooms, we used to dwell in, put together! Delay is not denial!

XIR84999 Job (oil on canvas) by Bonnat, Leon Joseph Florentin (1833-1922) oil on canvas Musee Bonnat, Bayonne, France Lauros / Giraudon French, out of copyright

Job, in all his epic trials, did not die a wretched man

                Have you been told that you can never be a million naira rich? Have faith in the workability of divine operations. They that used their mouths to rubbish your future will have to queue up to receive monetary donations from your hands when the LORD God eventually makes you a billionaire, not in Nigerian naira but in the USA dollars. With God nothing shall be impossible. “And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren”, the Bible reveals. The word ‘honourable’ is the Hebraic kâbad (kaw-bad’): ‘to be heavy; be weighty; be rich’. Jabez became a heavyweight financial controller. Are you still reeling in poverty? God’s delay is not denial.

After Samuel anointed him, David had to wait 13 years to ascend the throne.

                 Isaiah was sent to tell the Southern Kingdom of Judah’s king to put his house in order, in readiness for his death. God delayed the king’s time of death, expecting him to look up to Him for divine intervention. He had been terribly sick, to the point of death, for some time [Isaiah 38:1-7]. The faith wielding king cried onto Jehovah God. Fifteen more years was added to the king’s days, which enabled him to father Manasseh, the next king of Judah. Is delay a denial? Selah!

                Get born again. Say this simple prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say:

“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 that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”      

(Concluded)

Read the 6th part here

DELAY IS NOT DENIAL (six)

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

(…continued from part five…)

6)            Adam began to see his race as an alien before the thrice holy God. He had forgotten that he was created, not only in the anthropomorphic façade of the Divinity, but also in absolute facticity of the grand image of the One seated eternally on the empyreal throne of the Rainbow Administration. The Image of Elohiym is Christ. So, what we read in Genesis 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…;” the ‘image’ is tselem (tseh’-lem), meaning: ‘to shade; a phantom, that is, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol.’ The image of Genesis 1:26 points to a Personage. 2Corinthians 4:4 reveals, “…lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” The ‘glorious light’ is not the image, Christ is the Image.

                Let us go to Colossians 1:15: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:” The ‘image’ found in Corinthians and Colossians is the Greek eikōn (i-kone’) and it means: ‘figure, likeness; an image of the things (the heavenly things); used of the moral likeness of renewed men to God; the image of the Son of God, into which true Christians are transformed.’ Hebrews 1:3 “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” but the word ‘image,’ in this verse includes its adjective, hence, ‘express image’ which goes by the Greek, charaktēr (khar-ak-tare’): ‘the exact expression (the image) of any person or thing, marked likeness, precise reproduction in every respect.’

                It is this Image that had, from the day of Adam’s creation, given Lucifer his discomforting envy. If he could just unsolder this Adam from this Image, he would be as disgraced as Lucifer suffered. The Devil failed to understand that God was so much interested in this fallen Adamic entity. It was very apropos that the LORD God must walk into the Garden of Eden, because of the image. It has an intrinsic attraction of the pull of the Divinity. The image gave Adam the unmerited second chance, quite unlike the angelic reach. An unprecedented grace was offered mankind even in the face of an unquestionably fact of his fall, when the Lord God of creation thundered the vaticinatory, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” [Gen 3:15]. Satan’s dream of, “to steal, kill and destroy” the image of God’s donation failed, all because Jesus Christ stepped into the arena, our Gladiator! The intensity of the oculogyria that took over Lucifer’s sockets told me that he would find somewhere to weep out whatever liquid he could shed. Satan, the machinator that I saw, was drenched in sweaty failure. Amen.

                1Corinthians 15:55-58, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56) The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57) But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” This Lucifer has not yet been thrown into his hellish gaol of confinement. He is “our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” [1Peter 5:8]. He is the evil spirit that pours wicked thoughts of dejection in our minds, making us believe that a delay is a denial of request by the Divinity.

“…what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless…?”

                Let us go back to Abraham. When God told him, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” of Genesis 15:1, he could not help asking, “Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?” Abraham continued with, “Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.” If Abraham had known God’s plan for him, he would not have asked out of ignorance; Abraham would have done the needful to strengthen his faith. What should he have done? “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be” [Genesis 15:6]. Yes, we can build our faith levels and strengths by looking around us and especially, remembering that the LORD who had saved us six whole times will not abandon us on the seventh occasion.

Remember to ask your problems, “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?”

                The Bible says, “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” In the tortuous face of uncertainties, show God your faith. When creditors surround you with all the claims of legalities, calling for your head, ready to roast you alive, it may sound really crazy, but, the gospel truth is that, keep showing faith. That faith is all the Lord God is waiting for to prove to your detractors that the LORD your God is the Jehovah of salvation. Hallelujah!

David anointed at seventeen

                Once upon a time, God decided to give Israel a king.

                1Samuel 16:1 “And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.” In the 13th verse: “Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah:” David, at that time, was a teenager.

This same David did not ascend the throne to become a sovereign ruler until: 2 Samuel 2:4 “And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, That the men of Jabeshgilead were they that buried Saul.”

King David of Israel

                At this time, David was thirty years old, so, for thirteen whole, long years all he had was the anointing but not the emblematic crown of the majestic office of God’s word concerning his kingship. The good Lord who delayed David’s coronation did not deny him of the promised throne. At another time: 2Samuel 5:3, “So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel.”

                God eventually made good His word.

                The good Lord God, I pray, has begun His providential beneficence towards your predicament. Keep believing. Delay is not denial. Amen!

                Get born again. Say this simple prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say:

“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 that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”      

(…to be concluded…)

read part five here