UNDERSTANDING THE FAITH: SURPRISED BY JOY SERIES 1

Dear significant friend, this piece is for the believer or seeker who intends to understand the Faith. It is really important that we truly have a good grasp of the themes, settings and pillars of the Christian Faith especially in times like this. In my young but eventful life in the faith I’ve found the level of ignorance to be quite high and considering that I suffered from such ignorance myself I felt compelled to write this to enable someone perhaps to live a more comprehensible and productive Life.

C.S. Lewis said of himself in his book “Surprised by Joy” that he was the most reluctant convert in the whole of England! (J.R.R Stolkein, the author of the “Lord of the Rings” was influential to Lewis’s comeback to Christianity), Oscar Wilde lived a life of pleasure all his days but at his deathbed asked for a priest as “God alone was big enough to cleanse this heart of mine”. On the floor of my hostel room at the age of 18 I began a fresh and lasting relationship with Jesus Christ.

Regardless of how and when we come to the Lord, the great news is that we came; you came.

THE PLACE OF UNDERSTANDING

“they do not know, they do not understand. They walk about in darkness. All the foundation of the earth are unstable” Psalm 82:1

“it seemed good to me also, having had a perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus” Luke 1:3.

Perfect understanding is attainable and when it is absent, instability is the rule.

WHAT HAPPENED AT NEW BIRTH?

The death and resurrection of Jesus brought several realities to bear;

1. Jesus died for the sins of the whole of humanity: from the Middle east to the Antarctica, humanity’s problem is not a “sin” issue it is a “belief “and an “understanding” issue. (1 Cor 15:3) Belief for those who don’t believe and understanding for those who do. People will go to hell for rejecting Jesus alone. For more see the meaning of salvation

2. He rose from the grave: His death and shedding of blood secured forgiveness, His resurrection provided the Life. When He died, He took a trip to hell and got the keys of Hell and death (Rev 1:18, Math 28:18). He disarmed principalities and led a triumphant procession out of captivity (Eph 4:8, Col 2:9). His resurrection marked the conquest of death which is a product of sin (Rom 5:13, Gen 2:17). Note that death is spiritual. If you are afraid of death or hell, lose it. He has got the keys.

On resurrection, He offered us the opportunity to live a life devoid of death (eternal life) 2Tim 1:10. This provision is called GRACE and is accessed by FAITH (Rom 5:2). Grace encompasses forgiveness and righteousness. This righteousness is not because we have not sinned but rather because we believe, it is called the righteousness of Faith (Rom 10:6-11).

So God sees me in the Light of Jesus Christ (in HIM), we are free of the burden/conscience of sin (Heb 10:22). I am also able to serve God on planet earth (Heb 10:19).

The Christian life is life in Christ

Jesus among other gods

Eckankar and other eastern religions subscribe to a doctrine of spiritual enlightening via many spiritual exercises; all are aimed at attaining this eternal life (the God kind of life). Islam on the other hand focuses more on atoning for sin via rites (a similitude to the karma, Hindi caste structure and reincarnation theories as all are a form of penance for offence (the present and previous-life).

Christianity offers forgiveness by a God who could forgive and an eternal life to those forgiven. Forgiveness and Salvation is the central theme of the Christian faith and is lacking in every other faith. We have a savior!

THE OBLIGATION OF THE SAVED

“for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries” Heb 10:27.

It is then my responsibility to live this new found life. It is essentially a Love life (Faith works by love –Gal 5:6) see my allegory of the Christian Life

Another good reading in dealing with everyday life can be found here “Word Patterns in Life’s Kaleidoscope”

What Happens when I do sin?

Know this for certain; provision was made (note the past tense) I John 2:1-2, you however have the ability not to sin and you must access this ability by faith see “The Bondage Breaker: Overcoming sin”.

THE BATTLE FIELD OF THE MIND

Your flesh in not born again though your Spirit is. So the significant you (the spirit You) must win the tussle by transforming the mind with the Word and prayer while starving the flesh of it’s desires (you know what…….). it is like the two heavy weight dogs of a certain man that fought for bets from onlookers, the owner always knew which dog was going to win. when asked, he stated that the secret was plain simple “starve one and feed the other”.

In conclusion, I hope this was not too long? I will close with the prayer of Blaise Pascal, the great French scientist:

“Almighty God who gave your servant Blaise Pascal a great intellect that he may explore the mysteries of your creation and who kindled in his heart a love for you and a devotion to your service; mercifully give us your servants according to our various callings, gifts of excellence in Body, Mind and Will and the Grace to Use them diligently in and to your glory through Jesus Christ our Lord who love and reigns with you and the Holy spirit, one God now and forever Amen.

Thank you.

Okwonna Nelson

nnamdiokwonna@yahoo.com

WORD PATTERNS IN LIFE"S KALEIDOSCOPE

The title suggests a manner of things in Life’s maze; I have come to realize that on this side of the divide, in God’s dealings with us there is a way He does His things. As a kingdom citizen there are some three basic facets of Life you are interacting with everyday and your success will be measured by the fruit of those interactions.
1. God’s promises
2. God’s ways
3. God’s commandments

The way we see life, our attitude and all we do is a function of our understanding of the above, though our individual experiences and mannerisms cannot be identical, our paths of faith are. I will summarize these thoughts without a stepwise pattern.

A cardinal issue is our view of God and our relationship with Him, a father or a God? A son or a servant, a dependant or an Heir: My association with Christ and His works: a finished work or a partial work. My understanding of the death and resurrection of Christ, is it just for salvation? What is the nature of that salvation? : Forgiveness of sin or power over sin, or both?

My interaction with evil forces: my battle or a finished battle? My position in Christ: the Power in that position. These perspectives and understanding matter a great deal and I would just stress one; victory over sin. For young people this is a prerequisite for birthing the purposes of God on planet earth. It really doesn’t take a special unction, it is an endowment on all born again believers, you have the power over sin! Yes you do (Rom 5:17, John 8:12). yet if you should sin, God will forgive. The issue most young people have is that we forget that the blessed man of Psalm 1 will not do some things for him to do some things and that every statement in the Bible is assessed by faith (they are spiritual).

The place of God in everyday life: God is the God of the whole universe. More importantly He is not just the God of the whole; He is also the God of the individual parts! So He understands commerce, I.T, pharmacy, medicine, quantum physics and Mechanics more than anyone. His influences is not out of those realms. They are everyday issues, in the Hall of Faith (Heb 11) all the men mentioned there were interacting with everyday issues as you and I. I said that because we often limit His influence to “spiritual” stuffs forgetting that all the parables of Christ were about everyday stuffs.

To bring the above point home, do we believe that it is God that ministers the advances in commerce, I.T, business, Medicine, Agric, etc to the hearts of man! A popular Scientist was quoted as always reciting these words as he entered his laboratory; “Lord open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things out of thy word”! Next time you look at the sun, remember it is made by the Word and the maker could minister the seed for the next alternative energy solution. God is not archaic! He is on the cyber and more!

All things are made by the Word! All! Everything we see, both the good and the bad are all provided for within the plan of God, He may not have been the one behind the death of that loved one but His plan provides for that eventuality! The day Bill Gates conceived Microsoft it was at the impulse of God, He knew I would be writing this from Windows Vista Home Basic service pack 1! In God’s kingdom there are not only sons, there are hired servants as well (Luke 15:17) and all are for Him. He is good to all! His sons have special privileges but He won’t force them to take it, He respects growth and will not give a man’s inheritance to a child for He had better the child be poor than lose him (He is Love). So if you are wondering why “not-so-good” people are thriving remember that our father is just and loving and in His plan He uses everybody; servants, hired servants, sons and children.

He is spiritual yet He makes the physical, the spiritual makes the Physical and he detests individuals that walk by the physical (unbelief). His blessings are spiritual blessings in heavenly places (Eph 1:3), they are not physical cars and houses. He doesn’t give wealth per say; He gives the power to make wealth.
He has given the earth to man and He respects His ordinances. Man must pray “thy will be done on earth” or it won’t, and man can only pray what has been revealed to him. So man’s greatest assets are the Words spoken to him, your greatest asset in Life are the Words of God in your heart, that dream that is burning holes in your heart, put them in a ledger. When the time comes they will speak. In the father’s agenda there are always intervals between the promise (the passion/seed) He has ministered and the fulfillment, once you have received such a ministration the next thing is processes.

Words are the only things that have equal significance in both the physical and spiritual realms, they bear the power of life and death and they are products of the heart, God knew and is much bothered with my heart. He knows that left to itself the hear would stray so He commands me to meditate on His words, He tells me to speak it and not allow it depart from my mouth for only then can I really prosper. He informed David to remind me that since 24hours is all I have I must not walk with, reside with or take the advice of certain folks before I can handle the word.(Psalm 1).
The primary prerequisite he demanded from those that walked with Him were independence, it takes an independent man devoid of emotional clutches (they owe me mindset) to walk with the Father. No one owes you anything! Depend solely on God, our continued dependence on individuals, connections and manipulations is the reason there are no difference in the lives of citizens of the kingdom and common folks. I must be independent of friends and general consensus, following the Father most time is an invitation to controversy but if you follow Him long enough those same people will chant your praises. Fans are a dime a dozen, they come and go; don’t take them to heart.
Only people of Faith can please Him, when you step out on faith keep stepping. It is like walking on solid water, if you doubt the water will melt! The faith walk has this inbuilt correction mechanism that provides a sinking feeling anytime one considers the odds (Mat 14:30) but thank God for His ability to rescue even in moments of doubt. When He communicates specific promises to you He calls you to process, His training is painful, He is never in a hurry, He understands how weak you are and why proper work must be done to enlarge your depth else you flow with the tide!
In the process, be faithful with everyday issues. It is a kingdom, the King makes provisions for His subjects and He knows you need most of those things on your prayer list! But you must seek the Kingdom first and its righteousness. Its righteousness implies the way things are done in the kingdom. The Kingdom of God is not limited to heaven (as a location). It is the counsel of God; the operating system of heaven! (You can read up the parables on the kingdom).
In the Kingdom, it is an Agrarian economy; seed time and harvest time. Things start small in the kingdom-mustard seed; there are no “rich men” there! You lose “mine” mentality, there is plenty there too. In the kingdom it is capitalism: you trade the talents well, you get more yet the Lord owns all. For God to trust you with a billion dollars He will first be sure your heart can handle it and that you won’t bank it! The question is can you stand to be blessed? To be blessed is not easy, believe me!

In the kingdom of God the perception of it is by being “born again”. The experience of it is by being “born of the Spirit and the Word”, (John 3:3-5) folks can be born again without being born of water (The Word) and of the Spirit. Outside of the Kingdom there will be gnashing of teeth, walking in the ways of the Kingdom and the revealed will of the King is righteousness (getting saved is the baseline righteousness!(2 Cor5:21 KJV). It will guarantee peace (Peace is the umpire of the will of God), and then Joy in the Holy Ghost.

There is the trio of anxiety, offence and profanity. They will kill the anointing quickly; the Word of Faith is established on”The finished work of the Cross” therefore it does not permit anxiety over any issue. Anxiety says I am not sure He can handle it, Also you cannot be offended and be anointed at the same time, thus Faith (the currency of this kingdom) works by confident love. Love says I choose to treat you kindly because I can afford to! That is it; I can afford to love anyone! I am a child of the King! The King is apt to forgive, He expects same. The King cannot stand profane individuals, He is the King remember and His scepter is that of righteousness.

In the Kingdom of God, Sons pray. It is the only means of bringing the power of the kingdom to bear in any situation! The prayer of a righteous man avails much since the blessings are spiritual. It is only in the Place of Prayers that a righteous man can make tremendous power available, he must speak the revealed will or he will not form them on this side of the divide. This is not a bless-me club! i.e. calling forth cars and airplanes! There is a place for that if that is the Word communicated to your Spirit (James 4:3), but it is more of calling forth the virtues and characters that are in you (Isa 12:3), the will of God on planet earth, creative ways of solving problems, Africa is in dire need of Kingdom children. It includes devising ways to be a blessing to nations (Gen 12:3), the open secret in the Kingdom is that if you pursue being a blessing, you cannot lack, even when you try!

In the kingdom, though children are all over the place and are coheirs they are not much different from servants! (Gal 4:1,7). The truth is that the King is seeking for Sons and if you listen attentively, one of the common words your spirit ministers is “grow up, grow up”. When sons refuse to grow, they will work, be taught and be under the tutelage of servants! I have long refused that option.
All the revealed will of God calls one into a process (righteousness)
(2Pe 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.”

We see this in the life of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David and Daniel. The process is often a wilderness but it is in those wilderness that King materials are made. There we lose our diapers and all childish tendencies, there our Heart is tested (our selfishness, abiding faith, dependence, forgiveness). On passing the exam we reign with the King in Life (this one here! Rom 5:17), the King said we already have Grace to pass.

In the Word of Faith, the Word of God is really a picture. If you continue looking at it you will line up with it. (James 1: 23=25, 2 Cor 3:18)

Dear, if you read this article up to this point then it was written for you, please I would like to hear from you.
We are still very much interacting with the promises of God for our lives. For more thoughts please visit www.nelsontalks.blogspot.com

”All things are made by the Word”