The Nature of our Freedom

The Nature of our Freedom

[My Offline Bible] 1 Peter 2
16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

[My Offline Bible] Romans 6
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

The nature of the believer's freedom is such that he still has the power and authority to yield his life to obey God or not to.

The process of deliverance from the power of darkness doesn't automatically translate the believer to becoming a servant or a bond slave to God.

Our freedom in Christ is freedom in deed. Jesus sets us free through His sacrifice on the cross, paying off the enemy who had us enslaved and satisfying the demand of divine justice, forgiving our sins and washing us clean. Removing our sins far from us and presenting us a clean bill of righteousness.

We are redeemed and pulled out completely from the slave market of Satan, never to be put up for sale anymore.

Before the purchase, we were bound to a sinful course. We had no options but to live in sin. We were strangers to God and without hope in the world. We were by nature children of wrath as being children of disobedience possessed by the prince of the power of the air according to Ephesians 2.

But God stepped in and pulled us out of the satanic entrapment through the operations of His grace through faith.

Pulling us out of that wrath-heading course through such enormous payment, one would think He'll naturally make us dummies without a right to chose what's next in our lives...
He didn't do that. He gave us all the rights and privileges to decide where out allegiances would be. Every believer has a right either to go back into the miry clay or to go on to stay on the solid rock.

Going back isn't God's plan but going on with Christ is our choice to make. Continually living in sin isn't God's plan for our redemption but living in righteousness and in holiness is our choice to make.

For a believer to continue to live in sin is a choice and to enjoy the grace to live above sin is also a choice....it all depends on who he yields his members, spirit, soul and body to obey.

The present day attitude of believers to sin is worrisome.

Believers live as if holiness is an impossibility and righteousness is unattainable. This is a lie of the devil pushing a lot back into their vomits and making their latter worse than the former state.

The goodnews is that you can decide to do the will of God. We have the freedom to yield and we should yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto holiness and fulfil the reason for our liberty bringing forth fruits to the glory of God!

For freedom Christ has set us free, stand fast therefore, do not submit again to a yoke of slavery... Galatians 5:1 RSV

Join us

This Friday 1st of May

10:00am

@
Grace Missions International
Special Ministers Conference

Power for Maximum Productivity

@
20 Oloruntimilehin strt
By Kemo Hospital
Off Mosan Pipeline Road
Federal Low Cost Housing
Shagari Estate

Ipaja Lagos

Iron sharpens iron! We can do more!

Living the Christian Life to the Fullest

Living the Christian Life to the Fullest!

Many of us were brought up to release our faith for miracles and supernatural interventions.

We were brought up to see the manifestation of the Spirit as an example for the manifestation of the Sons of God in us and not just as sons of prophets.

[My Offline Bible] Romans 8
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

God's ultimate goal is that every child of His will grow to conform to the image of Christ in character and in charisma.

This scriptural perspective is fast disappearing in the body of Christ as the five fold ministry becomes consultants instead of being motivators to bringing the child of God to becoming like Christ.

The fivefold ministers have become people the rest must depend upon for even the simplest of things.

This isn't the model God desires.

Every child of God has access to the throne of grace and to partake of God's own nature through the exceeding great and precious promises of scriptures.

[My Offline Bible] 2 Peter 1
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Jesus in John 16 even said we won't need Him to pray the Father for us because we now have access...and the Father Himself would want a direct engagement with us. Since we share same nature now...

The five fold are equippers, through teaching and demonstrations, theory and practical classes from where the sons of God learn and grow to go perform to the fullness of their new nature in their world. Ephesians 4:11-16

The five fold are helpers of faith and not usurpers, they don't have authority over people's faith....2Corinthians 1:24

The child of God today needs more space and independence to learn the Word and get to know how to live by faith and have fellowship with the Father through the Spirit...towards manifestation as a son of God...that's the fullness of life available to the believer....

Romans 10 from verse 12 tells us that there's no difference between the Jews and the Greek, as the same God over all is rich unto all who call upon Him...we now have a level playing ground...sharing God's nature...that's the very best anyone can get...settling for less is shortchanging self...when we can live to the fullest!

Now, WHOSOEVER shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved! 

What every child of God need do is make sure he or she is adequately exposed to the teaching of God's word with demonstrations so as to develop strong enough faith to counter the forces of unbelief, fear and doubt and deal with personal life's challenges with God!

We have a duty to teach and preach the Word for that purpose we were sent as five fold ministers since the believers' faith comes through the Word preached and taught...so that they can call upon God and enjoy their deliverance.

Each child of God is seated and enthroned with Christ right now on the right hand of God in majesty Ephesians 2 and shares in the authority that is in the name of Jesus and so can speak and expect mountains to move and pray and expect God to answer according to Mark 11:23&24...in line with the will of God...being adequately taught by the fivefold ministry.

The fivefold ministry need not take over the role that isn't its. The fivefold should wonder why the child of God cannot be all that God has made him or her to be...just as Jesus wondered why the disciples couldn't speak to the storm...

We should have no greater joy than to see our children walk in the truth 3John 1:4...but we have to spend more time equipping them...all of them and not just a few...

And to the child of God, seek to know who you are in Christ, what you have, your privileges, right and the extent of your responsibilities...so that no one will take undue advantage of you...

That's how to live the Christian life to the fullest!

Remain blessed!

Join us this

Friday, 1st of May 2015

10:00am prompt

for

Grace Missions International Teaching Centre's

Special Ministers and Leaders Conference

Theme: POWER FOR MAXIMUM PRODUCTIVITY

Increase your ministry's and life's productivity, fruitfulness, effectiveness and efficiency and become happy with yourself as you leave landmarks in the lives of people you meet in life... pleasing God in all you do!

@

20 Oloruntimilehin Street
Off Mosan Pipeline Road
By Kemo Hospital
Federal Low Cost Housing (Shagari) Estate
Ipaja, Lagos

Get equipped! Invite Friends too!

The Lessons of Lent: 'I go a Fishing'

The Lessons of Lent: 'I go a fishing'

[My Offline Bible] John 21
3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.

Jesus Christ had prophesied before His passion that His disciples would forsake Him. And they did.
The prophesy was for them to know that He would be watching their backs. And He did.

In the double confusion in which they had found themselves: the death and the announcement of His resurrection, they found themselves merely huddling and hiding.

Someone had to break the inactivity and it was Peter, he wanted to go fishing.

For about three and a half years, the least thing on his mind was fishing. He had been plucked out of the fishing business to attend to a higher calling. He was told to follow and he would become a fisher of men.

At this point, so many things were racing through his mind, 'is this being a fisher of men?' 'How would this sustain a man and his family?' 'For how long shall we sit with this?' 'What does the future hold?' And so many such questions.

So he made up his mind to be proactive. He won't just sit there doing nothing. He was breaking the silence and needed to take his destiny in his hands, and he would do something about it. If he couldn't understand this business of fishing for men, he hadn't forgotten that of the good old fishing!

He remembered where he had hung his net and other fishing apparatus amd he went for them. Others too, in same disillusionment decided to go with him...it was a tough decision to make but what options did they have anyway?

We often get to that point where we ask what next. When the future looks bleak and uncertain. Not that we forgot the path of God's expectations and calling but it doesn't seem as if there is a thoroughfare or a passage there into the future once envisioned.

So in the absence of any other answer, we abandoned the dream and went back to where we'd left: the comfort zone, the familiar turf, the apparent path of least resistance.

That was exactly what the very very disciples of Christ did. They gave up! Even after the resurrection of their Master, they caved in and broke down.

What was our expectation of Christ? We would have thought Jesus would get angry and also feel disappointed and blame them...? No, He didn't. He already knew what was going to happen. He knew their frame, how they were mere flesh without Him.

They cought nothing!

The grace for fishing had long left for the grace for fishing men, but the frustration they faced wouldn't let them know...all their renewed enthusiasm and their investment weren't strong enough to bring back the grace.

Many had left the calling of God to go back to the place from where God had called them only to see that God doesn't change His mind until His purpose is done.

They experienced failure which God didn't intend for them. That's the best result from such a venture any other result of pseudo-success will trap one in the gal of eternal failure.

Jesus had to come to their rescue! No matter how far we have gone, God's watching over our every step. Not in judgment but to bring us back to the point of our call and to His pleasure.

[My Offline Bible] John 21
5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.

Jesus asked the question as if He didn't know but even in that situation, He had an answer, He was present to rescue the situation. If you had gone fishing the wrong fishes...you'll need to consider how you are faring.

Maybe it'll be good to know that in all our straying, He was there 'stalking' us and following patiently and quietly, waiting for that moment we'll eventually get ourselves into trouble to rescue us. He wouldn't stop being the very present help in all our troubles...

You may be far away from the centre of God's plan for your life...but He has trailed your steps even there. Even if you were just one of a hundred, he won't mind leaving the ninety nine to come rescue you...once you are ready to return! You may have walked yourself into the valley of the shadows of death...His presence will be there to get you back to the still waters and the green pastures... even on the disobedient journey to Tarshish, He was there with His submarine to take Jonah to the place of destiny...

Can you trust Him for your rescue? He can save you from yourself, if you don't mind! Are you already fishing in forbidden waters? Have you left your family and moved in with strangers? Have you left your ministry to engage in selfish passions? Have you forsaken holiness to live in spiritual filth? If you are willing, listen to His voice and return...He knows the way out!

He won't abandon you there, He has come to take you back into the cozyness of His embrace! Take that chance now!

Good morning! Share this and be a blessing to someone now!

Join us this

Thursday

6:00pm afterwork hours on the way home...

@
The Bible Class, TBC
Non Denominational Bible Discussion Class

83, Adeniyi Jones Avenue
2nd Floor
Opposite Trevo office
Ikeja, Lagos

Let's explore the word of God together to answer the questions and the mysteries of this life...

I pray His face shine upon you and bless you, He'll visit you in whatever state and bring you His deliverance today in Jesus name!

The Lessons of Lent: It was for us!

The Lessons of Lent: It was for us!

[My Offline Bible] John 18
38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

[My Offline Bible] John 19
4 Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.

6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.

Thrice in the course of the trial of Jesus Christ, Pilate made the open confession that he found no fault in Him.

That was enough to release Him but the politics of the Jews prevailed as pilate himself wanted to be in the good books of both the Jews and his Roman superiors.

The Jews got on to a very important information that though unknown to them was the exact explanation of what they were doing...

Caiaphas had told them how it was expedient that someone should die for the people...

[My Offline Bible] John 18
14 Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

That means He couldn't be released even if He wasn't found guilty. They had made up their mind to do evil and they were ready to back their wicked injustice up by some spirituality or religiosity. That remains a tactic for getting ones way even till date!

Jesus had, at the supper spoken to the disciples how His blood was shed and His body was broken for us. It is being justified here that He didn't suffer neither died because of His own errors but as an atonement for our sins and for our eternal redemption.

It is judged that if one person died for all, it is agreed that all have died.
[My Offline Bible] 2 Corinthians 5
14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

Which means God was seeing us in Him and with Him as He suffered, was crucified buried, raised and enthroned on the right hand of majesty. God was seeing beyond Him, He was seeing our perfect identification with Him and so could take the payment as we paying it!

So we were crucified with Christ...every believer must see self on the cross, crucified with Him. Meaning we are dead to sin, to sickness and to every other satanic influence and now Christ lives from within us. Every time we identify with His crucifixion and death, we give way for Christ to live His life through us in grace...and the output of our lives becomes the result of His character and charisma and no more of our dead selves again.

[My Offline Bible] Galatians 2
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

We were also buried with Him as His body was kept in the sepulchre good Friday to resurrection Sunday. This is the spiritual baptism we encounter as we come into Christ.
[My Offline Bible] Romans 6
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

[My Offline Bible] Colossians 2
12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

We are buried with Him and also raised with Him into the newness of life. What was raised would be different from what was buried. Buried in corruption but raised in incorruption unto a life limitless like the risen Christ powered by the glory of God, sin not having dominion over us again....we live in the newness of the new creation by partaking of the divine nature.

We were raised together and enthroned together at the right hand of God with all things under our feet. We are raised in universe's authority hierarchy to share the position of Christ. God puts us there, Satan and his cohorts see us there, and obey the authority in our words, nature waits upon us to receive directions by the authority of Jesus title and name and they obey as we issue them...'go' and they go, 'come' and they can't say 'No'

[My Offline Bible] Ephesians 2
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

We share authority with Christ because God sees us in Him as He travelled through death to the throne. It was for us He did all that and we can't allow that go without enjoying the dividends.

The believer must begin to see self in Christ at every point of that journey because it was for us He did all that. As we see ourselves in all that He did we must begin to live like it, speak like it and walk in confidence in line with our identification with Christ.

Now we can differentiate between the old man, that is, who we were, and the new man, that is, who we are now...we must see the difference in us between the old and the new creature....and we shouldn't and don't have to allow the old man with its weaknesses, lack of authority, hypocrisies, insincerity and inability to walk in faith, in love and in holiness to take over.... it is dead and buried and we are risen without it!

Think on these and enjoy the fullness of Christ's redemption and our identification with Him!

Good morning!

Share this...

Join us this

Thursday 6:00pm
Afterwork hours...on the way home...

@
The Bible Class, TBC
Non Denominational Bible Discussion Class

83 Adeniyi Jones Avenue
2nd Floor
Opposite Trevo office
Ikeja Lagos

Visit
www.evansademanuel.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/TheBibleClassTBC

Remain blessed, walk in newness and live far above and beyond the limitations of the flesh in victory over sin and over all the powers of the enemy...the peace of God abide with you in Jesus name!

The Lessons of Lent: To What End?

The Lessons of Lent: To What End?

One lesson that resounds so loudly throughout the passion of the Christ and both before and after is that of purpose.

Jesus stood before the authorities and was interrogated to see if something could be found against Him. Nothing was found!

The discussion or interrogations drifted to the status of Jesus Christ. Are you a king? Jesus demanded of pilate if the question was from him or from some other people.

Realising that Pilate, a roman colonial ruler desiring to please his Jewish subjects sincerely wanted to know what this jewish man had done to offend his people that he couldn't understand, Jesus had pushed the conversation or was it interrogation forward.

Jesus wasn't answering to be set free, He was rather speaking to the conscience of the man and explaining eternal truths.
He said His kingdom wasn't of this world though He was a king. Otherwise, His followers would have fought to defend or to win it.
He wasn't here to win an earthly kingdom but to testify to the truth and that was His primary concern.

To this end was I born, for this cause came I into the world....
And so choose your battles...!

A friend had told me this a few days ago after some people attempted some smear campaign against my reputation...

He had pointed out the distraction that could be and encouraged me to go on doing what I am doing...

They aren't the main show, only a side attraction and it was me, who should choose my battle...and that reminded me of Jesus's discussion with Pilate!

What would be the essence of fighting a physical battle over a kingdom that isn't of this world? So Jesus wouldn't want anyone drawing swords and knives to defend anything. That would be a distraction and not the main battle.

What would be the essence of arguing about if He was a king or not, when His kingdom wasn't of this world? That too wasn't going to amount to anything meaningful!

He had to choose His battle and that means reiterating the reason He was in the situation and to concentrate on that. That reason would not require of Him setting Himself free and so would not be dragged into defending Himself.

We speak of our victory today because He didn't do what wasn't necessary to the cause for which He had come, He maintained focus on the purpose that brought Him to the earth.

Choose your battle! And let your purpose for coming into the world help you make the decision on which battle to fight and which to let go. That will determine to a large extent wether you win the war or not!

The side shows may be mouthwatering but let purpose hold you back till the main show...
Don't dissipate energy on what's not going to have any significant impact on the cause that brought you to the world...don't leave leprosy to treat rashes...

But that means you'll first have to discover and define the end to which you were born and the cause for which you have come into this world...beyond mere sustenance and comfort!

If the end of your coming isn't beyond what to eat, drink and wear, affluence, influence, physical pleasures, comfort, popularity, fame and men's recognition, then get ready for all sorts of battles that add nothing to the essence of your being here... because I see you drawing your sword at every little pain, insult or discomfort that take precious time and cause more bruises! You can't fight a battle without scratches and wounds....every little crisis in an organization or in a person's life leads such entity a little away from main goals and vision...

To which end were you born? For which cause did you come into the world...for that, nothing is too big to let go for its preservation! That's your battle, face it and you'll always win...

Good morning!

Share this...
And join us

@
The Bible Class, TBC
Non Denominational Bible Discussion Class

Next Thursday
23rd April 2015

6:00pm after work hours on the way home...

83, Adeniyi Jones Avenue
Opposite Trevo
Ikeja Lagos

Let's discuss the issues of life from the standpoint of life's manual, The Bible and you'll see how easy life can be if lived with the Creator's purpose in mind! Invite other friends...

Share this and visit
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Remain blessed, satisfied with favor and with the abundance of the household of God. He shall guide and guard you and your interests today and always...peace in Jesus name!

Dealing with Life's Foundation!

Dealing with Life's Foundation

One of the most prominent phenomenon that lots of Christians have attached their life challenges to is 'foundation' resting on Psalms 11:3.

[My Offline Bible] Psalms 11
3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

But Jesus Christ has dealt with it.
The foundation of any life or anything is so important, if anything goes wrong at that point the whole project becomes futile!

So it's understandable that people see every problem as coming from their foundation though may not always be so.

While that may be largely right, dealing with foundation problems isn't following the procedure of the same scriptures that identified foundation as the problem.

We would rather try to profer our own solutions than following scriptural prescriptions. We want to fast, pray or do some physically rigorous penance to deal with a spiritual problem while we neglect what God said.

Jesus said 'whoever ears these sayings of mine and practised them will be building his life's foundation on a rock...'

[My Offline Bible] Matthew 7
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

One thing majority of people looking for solutions don't want to do is learn what Jesus said about the issues of life...many don't know what He said and don't want to know...and if you don't know, you can't practice them and if you can't practice them the foundation remains faulty and as long as the foundation remains faulty the problematic tilt to life remains so...irrespective of whatever religious activities or superstitious rituals engaged in.

Apostle Paul called Jesus the foundation already laid, 1Corinthians 3, and no other foundation could be laid except that...others aren't capable of carrying the Christian destiny to term.

[My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians 3
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

This foundation is laid when the believer becomes born again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Then we become new creatures, old things passed away and all things now become new. 2Cor 5:17

[My Offline Bible] 1 Peter 1
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

[My Offline Bible] 2 Corinthians 5
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

...but that looks too cheap as if God has an alternative in a special ministration somewhere or by a special anointing.

When this foundation of Christ is properly laid and the believer sets out to make Jesus's words his or her manual for living, not trusting in any other gimmick or high sounding rhetoric, or in some ritualistic prescriptions, his life becomes so stable over time that no storm of life can shake... no matter how terrible.

If we neglect that simple passage Matthew 7:24-25....the whole words of Jesus as powerful as they may be are rendered powerless and the faulty foundation we inherited from our earthly, flesh and blood fore fathers remains, irrespective of whatever mountain or anointing we pray on top or under...

Seek from today to know what Jesus has said concerning life. Read through the Gospels. Seek the practicalities in the Acts of the Apostles and the explanations in the Epistles and live daily on them, interpreting the world around through them and see how powerful the Word of Jesus is in driving any destiny in the direction of divine pleasure, no matter how derailed such a destiny might have hitherto been! Start today!

When you have found it and make it a lifestyle, you inherit the blessing!

[My Offline Bible] James 1
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Good morning!

The Bible Class, TBC
Non Denominational Bible Discussion Class

exists to help in establishing a formidable foundation in Christ through offering knowledge and understanding of the Word and Mind of God concerning different issues of life...

You can participate freely...

2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month...
Next Class: 23rd April 2015
@

83, Adeniyi Jones Avenue
Opposite Trevo office
Ikeja Lagos

6:00pm afterwork hours on the way home...

Be there!

Visit
www.evansademanuel.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/TheBibleClassTBC

enjoy other messages!

Let the strength of God uphold your foundation and destiny in Jesus name!

The Lessons of Lent: Do you Believe?

The Lessons of Lent: Do you Believe?
John 20

The situation that played out in the case of Thomas, Didymus, one of the twelve, cannot be overlooked as we endeavor to learn from all that happened during the passion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Thomas wasn't there when Jesus appeared to them at the first instance. We were not told why he wasn't with them and so we could not blame him for what Christ didn't blame him for. He was to be the leader of those who didn't see but believed and so should have received the greater commendation, which he missed.

Coming in he was told of the resurrection and the coming of Jesus. It was clear from earlier portions of the chapter, John 20 , that other disciples including John who later wrote the account didn't believe too until they saw....

[My Offline Bible] John 20
8 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. 9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

They all didn't get all that Jesus was telling them about rising up again until they saw. It was difficult also for Thomas to be outrightly better than them in that except that all of them testified to having seen the living Christ except they'll be lying in conspiracy!

And that's significant. If Thomas, one of the twelve, could raise a dissenting voice to the resurrection of Jesus and call it a cunningly crafted conspiracy, you can imagine what the world would have been saying by now.

Even without that,  all manners of conspiracy theories are everywhere both from religious circles and from secular settings.

So Jesus had to do damage control for Thomas to believe and for the testimony of the disciples to be perfected in one voice. One can imagine what this would have done in the midst of the disciples those eight days before Jesus appeared to them again.

It isn't possible for everyone to witness everything, meaning, there are lots of true and faithful things that each one of us would not be able to witness first hand. So God created the pathway of reporting or testifying what we have witnessed and also gave each the ability to believe.

Isaiah asked in prophesying concerning the death and resurrection of Christ, who has believed our report and to whom is the hand of the Lord revealed? Isaiah 53:1

It takes a report to believe. And Thomas got that report but as William Burkitt's note on the New Testament puts it, 'he had his faith on his fingertips'. He wouldn't believe except he saw or put his fingers in the hole of His hands...

But Jesus, when He appeared, told him the opportunity he lost in wanting to believe by seeing and touching. Those who didn't see but believed are more blessed than those who had to believe after seeing. He would have been the very first of such people!

And to us...the latter part of the passage told us how Jesus did many more signs and that those they wrote were for us to believe...

The question is, do you believe? From what we saw in the experience of the disciples, they couldn't understand the scriptures that spake of Christ's death and resurrection. They never believed He was to die and even after His resurrection they expected Him to form an earthly government....

Those negative expectations which came by listening to the Jewish superstitions and interpretation of who Christ was to be and not by a first hand understanding of scriptures made their believing in the resurrection a difficult hill to climb.

What are you hearing of God's word? Are you satisfied with the interpretations of others laden with their prejudices and their deception? The Bible is an open book and reading it with the Spirit of wisdom and revelations opens us to wondrous things from in there for our faith to be strong and effective.

Lots of superstitions have gone into the church based on satanic deceptions, self aggrandizement of preachers, financial motivations, ego and all manners of motives to build personal empires in Christ's name using God's people and it's time we went back into God's word for personal understanding that has the capacity to build a lasting faith.

We don't have to keep our faith on our fingertips and on our eyelashes, faith must be in the heart ready to check the veracity of every report with the integrity of the Word of God exalted...

Such faith lasts eternity...immovable as settled as the Word of God which is settled in heaven forever, from where the faith came from in the first place....

Faith is settling with the settled Word of God irrespective of what we feel or are able to see...do you believe?

Be sure that what you believe and are assured of had come from the hearing of the understanding of scriptures, so that the hope and the expectations in our hearts will be what the Word recommends to avoid a shipwreck of faith...!

[My Offline Bible] Romans 10
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

[My Offline Bible] 1 Timothy 1
19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

Good morning!

Prepare to attend the NEXT edition of

The Bible Class, TBC
Non Denominational Bible Discussion Class

83, Adeniyi Jones Avenue
Opposite Trevo office
IKEJA Lagos.

Thursday 23rd April 2015

6:00pm afterwork hours on the way home...

Come, refer friends also...let's discover what the Word is saying in sincerity and so refresh our souls and rekindle the fire of our faith in God!

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Remain blessed and keep holding forth the Word of life in this crooked and perverse world! Peace to you!