GO AND DO LIKEWISE

GO AND DO LIKEWISE…

Luke 10:25-37

Jesus said ‘…he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do’… (John 14:12).

They that know their God shall be strong and they shall do (carry out) great exploits (Dan. 11:32).

A lawyer (an expert in religious law) tested the Lord, by asking Him for the requirements for eternal life. This man already had his own pre-conceived mind-set/opinion, but he decided to check out what Jesus would say. Many times, we ask God questions that we already have customized answers for…

Jesus replied him, ‘What is written in the law of Moses?’ ‘How do you read/understand it?’
Do you understand what you are reading? – Acts 8:30; 2 Cor. 3:15.

The man recited the laws of Moses, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind…and your neighbour as yourself’.
Having heard this, Jesus encouraged him to live according to the Word (just as he had recited), therein lies eternal life.
However, this man, wanting to justify himself before God, asked Jesus, ‘Who is my neighbour?’
This is exactly what we do. We try to appear blameless before God. We try to define the scope of God’s will, purpose and assignment for our lives. We try to determine people who fall within the category of our ‘neighbour’. We try to pre-determine who we will love.
Someone is asking the same question today, ‘Who is my neighbour?’

Jesus took this discourse to another realm by telling the lawyer a story!
This was about a man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and got waylaid by thieves who stripped him of all his belongings, wounded him and left him half dead…
The man in question, who went from Jerusalem to Jericho is a typical Christian or prospect, who still shuttles between the light and darkness…
The thieves here, represent the devil, whose major pre-occupation is to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).

But for God, who sent His only begotten Son to take away the sin of the world, through death by shedding His precious blood on the Cross of Calvary, we had been left for the dead…

Now by chance, a priest showed up on the scene…But when he saw the half-dead man, he passed by on the other side of the road.

Thereafter, a Levite came along, when he got to the place, he moved closer and looked, and decided to move on, crossing to the other side of the road.

Many of us are like the priest and the Levite, we meet spiritually ‘half-dead’ people on a daily basis in our workplace, institution of learning, group, within the neighbourhood, in the same community, on air (while we are travelling), in the bus/car, etc.

We decide to ignore their spiritually appalling conditions, do business with them, interact with them, and move on, leaving them for the dead… (within the claws of eternal damnation and doom).

Chances and opportunities present themselves before us regularly, but do we leverage on these, to advance the Kingdom of God?
Time and chance happen to them all…Eccl. 9:11

Furthermore, a Samaritan, who was embarking on a journey, came along, when he saw the half-dead man, he had compassion on him.
He went to him, bandaged his wounds, rubbed oil on his body, gave him wine, and set him on his own donkey, took him to the inn (hospital) and took care of him. The man got much better, but the Samaritan didn’t stop there.
On the next day, when he saw that the man had regained his consciousness, he decided to proceed on his journey.
However, he gave two denarii to the inn keeper, and said to him ‘Take care of him, whatever more expense you incur, I will repay you when I return…’

The good Samaritan is a type and shadow of our Lord, Jesus Christ…He alone can deliver from the power and consequence of sin. He came to us, bandaged our wounds, anointed us with oil, gave us the wine of new life, carried us on His divine wings, took us to the place of grace, the secret place of the Most High and took care of us…

Just as He gave the innkeeper money to take care of the wounded, He has called us and given us resources, as His servants, to minister to the needs (spiritual, economic, social, psychological, medical, etc) of people…
We must use our God-given resources (life, health, money, materials, time, etc) to reach out to people in the love of God.

Please, take note of what He said ‘Take care of him, whatever more expense you incur, I will repay you when I return…’

Jesus finally told the lawyer: ‘Go and do likewise’.

 PASTOR NATHANIEL SADELA

        Resident  Pastor

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THE PERFECTION MANDATE PART 4

THE PERFECTION MANDATE – PART 4

THE BLESSING

Genesis 22:1-18

The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. The blessing of God upon Abraham is the seal of the perfection mandate that God gave us.
It pleased the Lord in His awesome Majesty, to choose Abraham as the conveyor of the blessing He wanted to bestow upon mankind (Gen. 12:3; 22:18; Gal. 3:13-14).

As we all know, God took Abraham through a divine process before he could attain this level. In Genesis 21, Sarah conceived and gave birth to Isaac, just as the Lord had promised.
However, there was another hurdle for Abraham to scale.
A man who is going to be a conveyor of the heavenly blessing must be tested, proven and certified by God.

Brethren, for everyone who has been given the perfection mandate, divine processing is not an option! It’s a major pre-requisite!
In the school of the Spirit, process precedes progress, test precedes testimonies…

God told Abraham to take his son, Isaac to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which He (God) would tell him…

Abraham embarked on the journey. He set out very early in the morning for the place, not knowing the exact mountain where God wanted him to offer his son as a sacrifice.

Brethren, Abraham couldn’t have known that God was actually testing him. However, he took the step of obedience. God will definitely test you, He will test every one of us, at different points in time. Are you prepared for the test? Some of us are already going through the ‘test’ unknowingly. God is taking you through a divine process, and you probably think it’s the enemy that’s attacking you…

For Abraham, Isaac was the greatest blessing he would ever receive from God. Isaac was the link to his being a source of blessing to all the families of the earth, yet, God asked him to present Isaac as a burnt offering…
Can God request for anything that is very dear to you? Can God command you to drop that ‘great’ ambition of yours, and follow His agenda for your life?

When God lays it in the hearts of His servants, that we should sow seed for the expansion of His kingdom, do we obey His Words?

God took Abraham from the lineage of idolatry, began a new thing in him, processed him, nurtured and groomed him, till he became the father of faith. The Bible says he offered up Isaac by faith (Heb. 11:8-19).

As a result of Abraham’s obedience, God renewed His covenant with him through an oath (Gen. 22:16-18; Hebrews 6:12-18).

In Genesis 24, Abraham, guarded jealously his posterity (the trans-generational blessing he carried), therefore, he charged his servant Eliezer to get a wife for Isaac from his folks (his father’s house). He refused to allow Isaac to mingle with the daughters of the Canaanites…

He remained totally obedient to the commandment God gave him many years earlier (Genesis 12). He told his servant that, on no condition should he take Isaac back to his (Abraham’s) relatives.

When Isaac eventually got married to Rebecca, Isaac was 40 years old (Gen. 25:20) and Abraham was 140 years old (Gen. 21:5).

When Jacob and Esau were born, Isaac was 60 years old (Gen. 25:25-26).
Abraham was 160 years.

Abraham died at the age of 175. The Bible says he dwelt in the tent with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise… (Heb. 11:9).
Abraham must have noticed the lifestyle of Jacob right from childhood (Gen. 25:27), and taught him the ways of God. He must have told Jacob about how he received the call, the heavenly mandate, how the God of glory appeared to him in Mesopotamia, etc.

Where was Esau all this while? He was missing in action! May we never miss out of God’s blessing in the name of Jesus Christ.

Abraham died a fulfilled man, having secured the destinies of his descendants to the fourth generation, before he slept in the Lord (Gen. 14; Hebrews 7:9-10).

Receive grace to run diligently, the race that has been set before you!
You will fulfill the perfection mandate that God has given you! You will finish strong, and pass on the baton to the next generation, in the name of Jesus Christ! 

  PASTOR NATHANIEL SADELA

        Resident  Pastor

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PERFECT LOVE

PERFECT LOVE

1 John 4:8-18

The best way to describe God is love! The best way to describe love is God!
God is love.

God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… (John 3:16).

Greater love has no man than this, that a man should lay down His life for His friends (John 15:13).

Until your love life is perfected, you will never experience the fullness of God.

Thank God for your career life, academic life, etc. However, for you to enjoy an astounding success in all these, you must be fully established in the love of God.

Love God by showcasing His love around people.
Man is an extension of God, created in the image of God. Service to people is service to God. It's not possible to claim to love God if you find it difficult to love people around you (Matt. 25:31-40).

Love God with all your heart, mind and soul; Love your neighbour as yourself.
Upon these two commandments hang the law and the prophets (Matt. 22:37-40).

The royal law – love your neighbour as yourself… James 2:8.
Love is the fulfilment of the law (Rom. 13:10; Gal. 5:14).
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13).
Love activates faith (Gal. 5:6).

Love is the more excellent way. 1 Cor. 12:31, 13:1

A new commandment I give unto you...John 13:34-35

IF YOU LOVE GOD, HOW WILL IT SHOW?
It will show through the things you do to people around you.
Agape love - unconditional love, selfless love, sacrificial love.
It is the nature and character of God.

When you love people, you don't compete with them, you complete them.
When you love people, you are not proud against them, you are proud of them. When you love someone, you don't just try to tolerate them, you also appreciate and celebrate them.

Wherever perfect love exists (family, church, group, organisation, etc.), fear becomes eradicated. Perfect love casts out every form of fear!

People who loves God loves the truth, and they love to be told the truth, no matter how hard it hits them.

Many folks lack the anointing of the Holy Spirit because you don't show love!
Their heads lack the anointing because you don't understand the mystery of love.

The love of God, unconditional love, undiluted love, Godly induced love fuels the anointing of the Holy Spirit in one's life!

When we are entrenched in the Spirit of Love, there is a heavy dose of the release of God's anointing upon our lives - Gal 5:22-23

He that has love has all things.

THE PERFECTION MANDATE PART 3

THE PERFECTION MANDATE – PART 3

THE COVENANT OF CIRCUMCISION

Genesis 17:9-14

In our last discussion (on this series), we concluded that God took Abraham through the process of ‘perfection’ in order to make him a distributor or conveyor of the eternal blessings He bestowed upon mankind (Gal. 3:13-14).

After what seemed like eternity (a period of about thirteen years in absolute darkness), God showed up!

This marked the beginning of another phase in Abraham’s life! God made a covenant of circumcision with him.

WHAT IS CIRCUMCISION?
It’s the surgical removal of the foreskin of a young boy or man. This is usually done as a religious rite or as a purely hygienic measure.

God began the process of perfection by giving Abraham the covenant of circumcision, as a means of ensuring that he put his absolute trust in God.
Because Abraham had been consecrated by God, every male descendant of his, must be circumcised, in order to manifest the trans-generational blessing that God had conferred on him…
God declared that every descendant of Abraham who would not be circumcised had broken His covenant, and therefore, would be cut off (Genesis 17:14; Exodus 4:24-26).
This physical circumcision was meant to inflict ‘pain’ and ‘weakness’ on Abraham and his descendants, and this would leave an indelible mark in their lives forever…Through this process, they would become more and more dependent on God and not themselves!
Furthermore, God told Joshua to circumcise the sons of Israel, who were born in the wilderness, and after they were healed, the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you” (Joshua 5:2-9).

Some days after this occurrence, Joshua encountered the Lord in another dimension. He saw the Captain of the LORD’s army, who revealed divine strategies to him on how to penetrate the walls of Jericho… (Joshua 5:13-15).

However, God just used the circumcision of the flesh as a starting point, whereas the real circumcision is of the heart (Deut. 10:16). This is the only means through which we can attain perfection in the sight of God (Romans 2:25-29).

The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart! Perfection is not necessarily a function of what is physically seen, but it’s a function of the heart. Is your heart right towards God and men?

Furthermore, let’s look at Deut. 30:6 and Colossians 2:8-12.

Abraham caught this revelation and keyed perfectly into it. Even though he was physically circumcised (which could be done today, based on people’s discretion), he knew that God’s desire was a perfect heart! This man eventually became the father of faith, a friend of God, a reference point in Christianity!

Few days after Abraham and all the male adults and children in his household were circumcised, as he was sitting at the tent of the door (with optimism and expectation), he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold….he saw GOD! (Gen. 18:1-15.
When you experience a circumcision of the heart, you no longer see as the world sees…you no longer walk by sight, you rather walk by faith! (2 Cor. 5:7).
You fix your eyes on the unseen…for the things that are seen are temporal, the things that are not seen are eternal. You focus more on things that have eternal value. You discover the mysteries of the kingdom which are hidden from the ‘multitude’ (2 Cor. 4:18).

Abraham entertained the ‘three men’ and thereafter, the promise was re-emphasized.

Furthermore, God saw Abraham as a prophet and revealed His intention to Him (Genesis 18:17-19; Amos 3:7).

Abraham became an intercessor! He stood before the LORD in prayer, negotiating the destiny of a nation…Through the circumcision of the heart, he was no longer selfish (self-centred), he no longer engaged in self-centred prayer sessions, he started interceding for others! (Genesis 18:20-33).

The Bible referred to Abraham as the friend of God in three different places:
2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23.

You can also be a friend of God, if you choose to walk before Him with a perfect heart, through the circumcision of your heart…

The circumcision of the heart is what makes a constant walk with God possible.
Furthermore, circumcision of the heart is the beginning of the process through which Christ makes us priests and kings unto our God (Rev. 1:6; 5:10).

HOW DO I ATTAIN THIS CIRCUMCISION OF THE HEART?
Deny yourself, pick up your cross daily and follow Jesus (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23).