FAITH RESPONSIBLE (I)

Every act of man is a reaction to the prevalent force from two entities of good and evil. Man was made to be a believer. We know that not everything is to be believed; man, hence, is accountable for that which he has made himself to live by. Amen.

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God,” says Hebrews 12:2. The word ‘looking’, aphoraō (af-or-ah’-o), comes from apo (apo’) meaning: ‘of separation; “off”, that is, away (from something near), in various senses (of place, time, or relation; literally or figuratively)’; and horaō (hor-ah’-o) ‘(Properly) to stare at, that is, (by implication) to discern clearly (physically or mentally); by extension to attend to; by Hebraism to experience; passively to appear’. From Thayer Definition: ‘looking’ means ‘to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something’, and from Strong’s Definition: ‘to consider attentively’. If it says ‘looking’ then it whips up the spirit of continuity of this act of faith. ‘Unto’ is eis (ice): ‘towards; to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etc.)’. Our focus must, scripturally speaking, be a continual reaching out to Jesus.

The word ‘author’ is called, in the Greek, archēgos (ar-khay-gos’) which comes from archē (ar-khay’) (properly abstract) a commencement, or (concrete) chief ‘ and agō (ag’-o) ‘properly to lead; by implication to bring, drive, (reflexively) go, (specifically) pass (time), or (figuratively) induce’. This makes archēgos ‘the chief leader, and not a writer. What is ‘finisher’? It is the Greek word, teleiōtēs (tel-i-o-tace’): ‘a perfector, a completer, that is, consummater‘. Faith is an established understanding in the heart which one sees as the solution to problems. The foundational ground of faith is of utmost importance. To the unlearned heart, faith can come from anywhere, and to such mind, it is debatable when you say that true faith stems from the knowledge of the word of God, in the name of Jesus. Your faith cannot stand the true test of global vicissitudes outside Christ based faith. All other ground, as the hymn renders, is sinking sand.

Do we have scriptures that agree with ‘looking’? Isaiah 8:17 reads, “And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.” Chapter 45:22 of Isaiah says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Prophet Micah, in the 7th chapter of the 7th verse of his prophetic book also agrees with, “Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.”

Abraham showed unwavering faith according to God’s will

Definitely, it will take the collaboration with the One with spiritual disposition, for us to expend faith. This takes us to John 1:29, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Our faith, exercised, can only find a surest footing in the One who can find a lasting solution to our sinful nature. John 6:40, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” Even the father of faith developed his faith power from the only source as we read in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” Abraham made contact with the Author of pistis (pis’-tis), the Greek word for faith. It is a feminine noun –an indication of its profitable productivity. It is defined as: ‘persuasion, that is, credence; (morally) conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), (especially) reliance upon Christ for salvation; (abstractly) constancy in such profession; (by extension) the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself’.

The uniqueness of faith is so evident. It is captured in Hebrews 11:3, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Ten times God spoke at the creationism, God being fully aware that absolutely nothing could challenge His words of creation. God, at creation, exhibited faith in Himself. We cannot draw perfect faith from our being. Impossible. Atheists and Humanists will erroneously believe otherwise.

Philippians 3:20, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:” tells us where Christians come from, spiritually. The neuter ‘conversation’ is politeuma (pol-it’-yoo-mah): ‘a community, that is, (abstractly) citizenship (figuratively)’. The Holy Spirit made it known to Paul who failed to disbelieve, so, he wrote, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” [2Timothy 4:8]. (…to be continued…)

Click to read the concluding 2nd part.

 

 

 

 

UNBELIEF (1st part)

          

                                                                Doubting Thomas

 

(Edmond Sanganyado asked me how I think one can overcome unbelief when I commented on one of his posts. So, dear Edmond, I’ve made some addition to what I posted on your blog site and hoping you’ll see this. Thanks for asking me to do this. It’s the 1st part.)

It is the opposite of saving faith, and by this same faith, we understand, God perfected creationism (Hebrews 11:3). God, therefore is the first to exercise faith. If God is love (1John 4:8) it then follows that true faith must be found in ‘Love’ i.e. God. Unbelief is not only the absence of faith, it is an unfortunate rejection of the Lord God of salvation.

In a stealthy creep unbelief does advance its bid to strike a devastating punch. Unbelief is always the enemy’s approach. Not once has unbelief uttered the beneficial, “peace be unto you”, because it has always run a destructive errand for its author – Lucifer. Unbelief is Satanic set up. It comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy [John 10:10]. It has been missioned to disarm you – of your shield faith (Ephesians 6:16, 17) so that you cannot use the sword of the word – in order to weaken your spiritual business relationship with the Author of faith (Hebrews 12:2) to subdue and to shipwreck you. The Luciferian spirit of unbelief is sadistic, relishing every second of your plunge into the slavery of faithlessness.

Unbelief blindfolds (John 12:40). It delists you from the partakers of joyous mood of accomplishment. By it we disappoint God (Mark 6:6). It makes us losers (Mark 9:24); and by which we stumble (Romans 4:20). Dejection is its sole terminus. Thank God, however, that there is a way out for an unbelieving heart.

Matthew 13:58, “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief”. This is the first time ‘unbelief’ is used in the entire Bible which the Greek calls apistia (ap-is-tee’-ah): ‘faithlessness, that is, (negatively) disbelief (want of Christian faith), or (positively) unfaithfulness (disobedience)’. Jesus, even Jesus, in His native Nazareth, could not perform great miracles which all Israel had hitherto witnessed. Unbelief is nothing but one of the games Satan plays to outwit humans. To beat the enemy the first thing is to uphold the God given, Joshua 1:8, formula. The word ‘depart’, muwsh (moosh), means ‘to withdraw’. Joshua was directed never to allow the positive word of God to ‘muwsh’ from his mouth. Joshua learned that one of the secrets of the success of Moses was to have shunned negativity. Positively, Joshua was to ‘meditate’ which in Hebrew, is hagah (daw-gaw’): ‘to murmur (in pleasure or anger); by implication to ponder’. ‘Ponder’, from Collin’s Dictionary, is ‘to give thorough or deep consideration (to)’.

When one fills one’s whole being with God’s rhema it will definitely purge one of the negating impurity of the enemy’s words of unbelief. Like He informed Joshua, God assures us of ‘good success’. The clause ‘have good success’ is śakal (saw-kal’): ‘to be (causatively, make or act) circumspect and hence, intelligent’. You would have, on account of depending on God’s word or promises, acted intelligently in your ‘way’. ‘Way’ is derek (deh’-rek) from BDB Definition: ‘way, road, distance, journey, manner a. road, way, path b. journey c. direction d. manner, habit, way e. of course of life (figuratively)’. ‘Prosperous’: tsalach or tsaleach (tsaw-lakh’): ‘to advance, push, prosper’. Unbelief will hinder your positive push in your course of life.

After you have learnt the word of God or better still the promises in God’s word, you must guard it as your treasure. You guard the word of God like the pugilist holds his fists and arms to guard his chest and ribs (or else one heavy punch lays him flat even till the count of twenty) by doing Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…”. It is all about Jesus. The word ‘looking’ is aphoraō (af-or-ah’-o) Thayer Definition: ‘to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something’.

Strong’s Definition: ‘to consider attentively’. Looking, grammatically, is a present continuous verb. Yea, it is all about Jesus, all the time, so do not stop, for a second, in your continuous ‘looking’. ‘Author’ is archēgos (ar-khay-gos’) ‘the chief leader, prince’; while ‘finisher’ is teleiōtēs (tel-i-o-tace’) Thayer Definition: 1. a perfecter 2. one who has in his own person raised faith to its perfection and so set before us the highest example of faith’. Strong’s Definition: ‘a completer, that is, consummator’.

…to be continued…

Read the 2nd part here

MIND GAMES (4th & concludingpart)

(continued from 3rd part)

“If I were you, I’ll save my neck”, the devil entered into the prophet’s mind to start another game. Lucifer went on to show him how Jezebel single-handedly jettisoned God’s established Jewish worship and successfully installed her Baal religion in Israel“. “I, Elijah, the dreaded, famous prophet of God stands to be put to shame by a mere alien woman. I cannot allow Satan to receive pleasurable satisfaction!” Elijah did not realize that all Satan did was just to script those lines and played it back in the prophet’s mind, using the prophet’s very voice. Elijah thought that he was the one thinking those thoughts. He believed that his fears were God sanctioned. Elijah was felled by a game of fear. He had been had!

This one was sired by Iscariot, who was christened Judas. His name means praise (of Jehovah). What Satan had for a long time sown in him was greed. Judas Iscariot could not resist the game of misappropriation. He saw himself getting rich. In Satan’s bid to make him an incorrigible figure he fed Judas on the meals of apathy towards the ministry of Jesus. Satan made him console and embolden himself with, “After all no one will suspect me of embezzlement”.

Apostle Peter was caught in the web of the mind game as well. Peter would rather be in the good books of his religious Jewish people than instill confidence in the hearts of Gentle converts as Galatians 2:11-12, “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision”, enlightens.

The designer of this mind game is the great angel, Lucifer, who degenerated into the rapscallion, bent on a mission of perfidious mendacity. This entity has nothing to hope for: eternally condemned to hell. To place Satan on top of his fiendish game he had to set up religious institutions. Man was made to worship his Maker. Sin removed man from the fellowship that developed into a rapport with God. Man felt a vacuum and rather than cry out for help from his Creator man sunk into a pity party. Satan, capitalizing on man’s resultant vulnerability, mesmerized him into seeing himself in a quagmire. Religion was the opium that Lucifer presented as the panacea. He entered into an uncanny pact with philosophizing brilliant thinkers who upped the game of the mind.

Lucifer, the god of all religions, establishes and sets the rules of religious activities to galvanize his spiritual lordship over man and of the mind game. Take a good look at religious adherents’ epileptic fits in the rites of worship. This is the validation of demonic possession. “And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” is what the Bible says in 1Corinthians 14:32. A master stroke, evil in its ingenuity, by the Devil, is the in-road into the Church à la Catholicism. It was his deceptive in-road into Church affairs which erected for the Church, the façade of religion. Lucifer did this to perfect a portrayal of ‘the way, truth and life’ in his imposture bid of Jesus. Of the seven billion population of the globe, probably six billion are religionists or atheists, which actuates his desire of Isaiah 14:14, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High”.

The cultivation of religious institutions, giving room for atheism, produced the fruition of the spirit of flippancy, which ensured Cain’s disrespect for God’s instruction as pertaining to the sacrificial elements for sin. Satan knows that most times God would not descend on sinners immediately so, he treats them with the spirit of flippant tendencies and making sure he gives them successes in every venture. Cain ran a city of immense wealth, the delusion of which made him to think that he did not need God, the Creator. Very rich and successful individuals of the world of today, are atheists, agnostics and cultists; and it is all part of the mind game deceit. Why would you hear a lot of them query, “When will this your Jesus come?” and conclude with, ”Let’s face facts, God doesn’t really exist…”.

Through ancestral worship, Satan has networked his trade through the hearts of everybody. Who does not have, in his ancestry, a familiar spirit of demonism to contend with? I, personally, come from a family of masquerade worshipping ancestors. Once upon a time, in my dream, I made a purchase of a ballpoint pen. I asked the seller to give me something to test the smooth writing quality of the blue ballpoint pen. A card was handed to me to ensure I was buying what it was worth parting with my money. I just decided to scribble a scrawl and lo and behold a very legible script, not in the blue ink I intended buying was, “Alaaake, you are under my feet”, in red ink!

Those who play games with Satan are always ending up as his trophies. You will make Lucifer the most miserable loser in your life when you decide never to partake in his games. Every game of his is always a dirty one so, is there any way you can play his evil game and you will remain spiritually unstained? Ponder.

By the grace of God, in the name of Jesus and through the leading of the Holy Spirit I had slammed the evil spirit inherent in the Ojewale of Alaaake, bruising him under my feet shortly (Romans 16:20). So, I am always saying that Alaaake, the demonic familiar spirit of my family home, and I have met and I have shown him who is greater and he knows. I, therefore, bare Ojewale with a certain pride knowing fully well that anytime I answer the name Ojewale that demon remembers how I floored him and that I am fully aware of where he is, as far as we are concerned. Having overcome Lucifer’s representative, Satan is vanquished because the Bible warns, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2Cor 2:11).

I have decided never to play any game with the Devil. He has been in existence for billions of years, hence, too formidable an opponent to trifle with. I am constantly looking unto Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) in order to exercise my faith thereby strengthening myself against every noema of Lucifer, who is now Satan, the Devil. Looking unto Jesus, most certainly, takes my focus off Satan, making me unavailable for his wicked mind games.

Read the 1st, 2nd & 3rd parts here