CHRIST IS PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY DWELLING AMONG YOU FIRST BIBLE LESSON: 1 CORINTHIANS 14:20 Brethren, be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding, be men. SECOND BIBLE LESSON: COLOSSIANS 3:5 Mortify therefore your members, which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry. GOLDEN TEXT: HEBREWS 12:14 Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which none will see the Lord. Brethren, that is the revelation of this mornings lesson. As soon as you reflect on the three texts, each and every one of you will definitely realize where you have gone astray from the path of rectitude. When it is stated that a great many of you cause trouble and confusion always, you begin to defend yourself that you do not know how to cause trouble, that you only speak what you see. When you consider these three lessons, you will realize that they illustrate exactly what you should do, what you should think, and what you should say. You will remember when the Pharisees asked our Lord Jesus Christ when the kingdom of God will come, he answered them and said, Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, Lo there! For, behold, the Kingdom is within you. (Luke 17:21) At another time, he told his disciples that, I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the father, but by me. (John 14:6). It was this statement which prompted Philip to ask to be shown the father, when he said: Lord show us the father that it may suffice us. Our Lord Jesus Christ said unto him, I have been so long with you and you have not known me, and you say show us the father. When you see me you have seen the father and how sayest thou then show us the father. He continues to tell him: Believe that I am in the father and the father is in me. The word that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself but the father who dwells in me, he does the work. (John 14:8-11) Have you heard the answer given by our Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples and the people? At another time, the disciples confronted our Lord Jesus Christ that he always made reference to heavenly things, that he would show them heavenly things and our Lord Jesus Christ told them, If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you Believe when I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:12) Brethren, realize that you err when you tell people to go to Lagos, and they will see Christ; or if they went to America or London they would see him. Whenever you make that type of assertion, you have erred. That is not the type of work we are expected to do, because the word of God has clearly told us that we should follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. It is just like you asking a blind man to look at his face in the mirror, because he cannot see and he will not be able to behold his face in the mirror. Such an act amounts to your mockery of the blind man, when you know very well that he cannot see, and you are therefore foolish to present a mirror to him to look at himself. Similarly you know a fornicator, a drunkard, a thief, a liar, a murderer or any other sinner will never see the Lord, why then do you call them to follow you to see the Lord? Quote The Bible passage which supports the fact that a thief, a drunkard, a swindler, a fornicator, a liar will ever see the Lord, and I shall quote for you that no sinner will see the Lord, the Scripture says: And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. It is not easy for a person to know God, neither is it simple to know our Lord Jesus Christ. The privilege of knowing God is a special assignment. Even if you are a philosopher, a professor, an engineer, a doctor or a scientist, you cannot know God except those who are specially privileged. The ability to know our Lord Jesus Christ is a special endowment by God. What was the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ in this regard? He said: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Only the pure in heart can see God. You who profess to see, is your heart pure? You who go about purporting to have seen God, and calling upon people to go and see God, have you proved that their hearts are pure? Can you place your precious gem before the swine? So brethren, the trouble of the whole world emanates from this fact of seeing God vis-a-vis having a pure heart. Jehovah God and his Christ existed before the foundation of the world was laid. That was why he pleaded with the father saying: And now O father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. This explains very vividly and graphically the fact that there has never been a time in human experience when our Lord Jesus Christ was not on earth. He has always been on earth from the beginning of the world. People always claim from time to time that God has come back, and the question is where has he ever gone to? When the Israelites told him that the pool was given to them by their father Abraham he told them: Before Abraham was I am. It is therefore erroneous to say that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the sky, or that he is in India or Europe or America. He is here with us. He is everywhere doing his work. He is the doer of everything in the world, he is in America, in Atlantis, in the forests, in the abyss, he is also in heaven, he is walking about physically and spiritually. Remember when he told his disciples, I will not leave you comfortless, I shall come back to you. Yet a little while the world will see me no more but ye see me, because I live ye shall live also. (John 14:18-19) If I may ask you when did he leave the world? When did he ever leave heaven and earth? He is now here with you, he is in heaven, he is on earth, he is inside you. He is virtually everywhere. Many people inadvertently claim that God has left the earth for Satan to rule supreme and that he is in the sky. Do you believe that a man can have innumerable people but he deserts them in the world for somewhere else? Do you know the trouble of the whole world? It is because you do not see him and others do not see him, and so you conclude that he is not in existence. He has however advised us that he is the way, the truth and the life. Just make an effort to practice his teachings and you will see him always because he is always around. God has never left any person a step. He is always with you. If you cannot see him, know that it is because you have not complied with his teachings. Before he came into the world he sent Elijah to prepare the way and put everything aright to herald the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the story of John the Baptist that our Lord Jesus Christ remained on this earth for many years and no person could recognize him. Neither his mother nor his father know that he was the son of man, the Son of God, and God himself. His brothers and relations and kinsmen did not know him. If God had not loved the world to have sent Elijah, known as John the Baptist to teach the people repentance, righteousness, and purity, Our Lord Jesus Christ would have been here on earth for thousands of years without being known and recognized by any person. How did John know him? In order to be able to know and recognize him, John did not eat anyhow. He lived on Locust beans and honey, he lived in the wilderness, he did not marry, he did not tell lies nor commit any other vices. He was completely separated from other human beings in order to make it possible for him to see our Lord Jesus Christ. He preached in order to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. The main assignment of John the Baptist was to reveal the son of God to the children of Israel and to the whole wide world, showing them the son of God, the son of man who has come to take away the sins of the world. Brethren, notice then that it is not a simple thing for any person to know our Lord Jesus Christ. He has been passing beside you, he stays in your house and your offices, he goes about everywhere. How then can you see and know him, because you are full of a multitude of sins, you steal, fornicate, tell lies, cheat and commit all sorts of vices. Our Lord Jesus Christ is always with you but because of your sins you cannot see him. A person who conquers death and takes away the keys of death and Hades, collects the sting of death, overcomes Satan, somebody who has dominion over everything, how can you know him when you are deep in sin? Think of such a person, what would have had dominion over him? Death has no dominion over him, sickness has no dominion over him, hell, Hades and Satan and any other forces cannot have control over him. Everything is under his power, for he controls and rules over the heaven and the earth. Did he not tell his disciples: All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world. (Matthew 28:18-20). When such a person, who is working here is actually in heaven, so that when ever he is performing and whenever you find him, he is strictly speaking in heaven. Did he not say, I and my father are one.” (John 10:30) He is in the spirit as well as in the flesh. That was why he appeared physically and spiritually, sometimes he walked on top of water, and at other times, he was walking like man, and sometimes he vanished away. Why did he say if you ask anything in my name, I will do it for you? (John 14:13) Does it mean that a dead person or somebody who is in heaven is capable of granting your request? Search the whole bible, you will discover that the Lord Jesus Christ has never directed you to go to the tree, or rock or river side or to go to the moon or sun for salvation, or that you should go to such places to get life. All that he has enjoined you to do is that what ever you request of the father in his name, he will do it for you. If Christ loves you he will reveal himself to you provided you have complied with his teachings. I am telling you, he can reveal himself to you right now physically and spiritually, and not in the dream. I do not know how you regard our Lord Jesus Christ? I do not know how you love him? Have you not been told that he died once unto sin, but in that he lives unto God and he has no connection with sin. He is moving everywhere he does everything for you. Is there any point in time you called on him and he does not respond to your call? Call on your earthly parents and see if they can satisfy your needs, if they can protect you, if they can rescue you from your difficulties. But anytime you call upon our Lord Jesus Christ, he answers and grants your request promptly, is that the attribute of a dead person? What did he tell his disciples? He said: He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21) So brethren, Desist from referring people to locations where they will find our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather practice his own teachings and comply to his instructions, if you really want to see him. When the Jews, being astonished at his wonderful teachings, contemplated within themselves saying: How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Our Lord Jesus Christ then said: My doctrine is not mine but he that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. (John 7:15-17) Let us have our first Bible lesson. FIRST BIBLE LESSON: 1 CORINTHIANS 14:20 Brethren, be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding, be men. Brethren, have you heard that lesson read to you? Know that to turn into a child, one has to be cautious because some children steal and tell lies, and that is not the type of child you have been called upon to become. It is said you that should be men in understanding, but be a child in commission of crimes. As far as sin is concerned, we should be children, because children do not know how to steal, fornicate, bear malice, and tell lies. We should be as innocent as children in order to be able to see God. Children like to imitate so you can tell a child that his mother is a thief, and he will repeat it. Tell him to say he is a wizard, he will repeat the same thing. What ever you tell children to say they will merely sing along with the chorus without knowing what they say. That is why you have been advised not to put your mind in the things of this world; be it money, women, children or any sin at all, and that you should have a pure heart in order to see our Lord Jesus Christ. Divert your mine from all mundane things. You have been advised that in the commission of sins you should be like a child. Do not steal, do not bear malice, do not hate and plot evil against any person. You cannot find Jehovah God and his Christ somewhere else. You can only find him in yourself. That is when you wear the bowel of the virtues of God. He is in your heart. He is not far he is nearer to you then the tongue to the mouth. But if you give yourself to vices, you will never see him till doomsday, but he is very much in existence. The teaching imparted to us by our Lord Jesus Christ was to enable us to see him. That was why he told Nicodemus that: Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. He also added: Except a man be born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3:3-5) This is why he also says: I am the Way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6). It means that his teachings are the way, and when you abide by them, they will lead you to Christ and you will see him and dwell with him. When the Jews prosecuted our Lord Jesus Christ, and they sought to slay him because he had worked on the Sabbath day, Jesus told them: My father worketh hitherto I work. (John 5:17) He also told them: The son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do: for whatsoever things he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise. (John 5:19) This means that our Lord Jesus Christ saw the father, he is pure in words, thoughts and deeds. Has he not taught you that God is the father of everything and that God is a spirit? That is why he teaches us saying: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be children of father who is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to shine on the good and evil and he sendeth the rain on the just and unjust. (Matthew 5:44-45) Do not think that this spirit consists of shaking the head. It is not! The spirit is something, which is blameless and spotlessly pure. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise think on these things. (Phil 4:8). What are these things brethren? When you hear of spirit you think it consists of shaking the head. This is not so because somebody purported to be possessed of the Spirit can shake the head, but he continues to fornicate, steal, and tell lies. Is that the Spirit in action? When that lawyer addressed our Lord Jesus Christ saying, Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said unto him: Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God, (Matthew 19:16-17). Do you not see that the father is good? He is pure and blameless. Today if you do good to somebody, he pays you back with a bad coin because he does not know God. If you people speak the truth, they will regard you as liars, because they do not have the Holy Spirit, and they do not keep the Word of God. Sometimes you visit somebody, and he drives you away saying, everyone is evil for there is no good man on earth. All these happen because we do not for sake sin, we bear grudge, and plot evil against others. Every person has gone astray from the ways of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ has told you plainly that: Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled, and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their minds and consciousness is defiled. (Titus 1:15) This explains the reason why our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the injunction that we should Love one another as he loves us. This is the way, the truth and the life. If you love one another then your eyes will be opened and you will realize that our Lord Jesus Christ dwells in you and you will see God and his Christ. What has the scripture told you? It says that he who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother, is in darkness and walks in darkness, and cannot differentiate his left from his right and he knows not whither he goes, because the darkness has blinded eyes. If a man walks in darkness, he cannot see anything, even if you give him a million dollars or a beautiful girl or a handsome young man, he will not see, because he is overwhelmed with darkness. If you are told to go to Ikot Ishie in the night, you will be hesitant, even if you will not bluntly refuse to go, but during the day, you will gladly go majestically and joyfully. From now on do not tell people to go and see God or our Lord Jesus Christ at any particular location that will be absolutely fallacious, but tell the people that they should abstain from sins and vices in order to see God. Let our second lesson be read. SECOND BIBLE LESSON: COLOSSIANS 3:5 Mortify therefore your members, which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry. What is now read is your duty. These really are what debarred you from seeing and recognizing our Lord Jesus Christ. Do not forget that since he says: I and my father are one, he who sees our Lord Jesus Christ also sees the father. You who desire to see God, have you abstained from stealing, fornication, concoctions, and charms, craftiness, and deceit and other vices, in order to be able to see him? The vices enumerated prevent you from seeing our Lord Jesus Christ in spite of his presence in your homes, offices, marketplaces and elsewhere, in spirit and in flash because he is the king of the spirit as well as the king of the flesh. If you refrain from fornication, theft, lying, craftiness, inordinate, affection and evil concupiscence, and malice, if you withdraw your membership from the secret society and therefore you purify yourself, in whichever form he comes you will see him. It may happen you are planning to travel to Lagos but your constraint is that you do not know any person to travel with you. You will be surprised that before you end your contemplation, a car pulls in front of you, the driver asking if you were traveling to Lagos and you quickly enter the car. Who is taking you to Lagos? Sometimes, you are abandoned by your parents, brothers, friends, and other relations when you are confronted with much difficulties and you are thrown into absolute desperation. Before you realize yourself, somebody arrives as one bolting from the blues, to rescue you, but since you are blind, you will not see him. Did he not say when he is taken up is when he comes down, and when he descends is when he ascends. Do you not understand spiritual language? It is possible that if he appears now you see four persons at the same time, one as an old man, another as a sick person, another as a beautiful lady and yet the fourth as a middle-age man. Who are these persons? They are only one person our Lord Jesus Christ, but you see them as four because your mind is not pure. If you abstain from vices, you will see that four persons are only one. It is because of your sinfulness that the veil of sin covers your eyes. He can come to you as a sick man or a leper, or as a mentally deranged individual or as a very weak man, even if all of them walk together, note that there is only one person, our Lord Jesus Christ, but you will never know him. He can also appear to you as a beautiful girl, or a handsome man or an old woman, it is only one person that you see our Lord Jesus Christ. He can wear your facial appearance, and at the same time he has the face of a girl or and animal, but his behavior will bear eloquent testimony about his attribute as the Son of God. Do not search for him any longer, but remember the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Even though the disciples, before the crucifixion, were with him day and night, yet did they know and recognize him? When he met the two disciples discussing what had happened and our Lord Jesus Christ ask them: What manner of communication are these that ye have one to another as ye walk? They became exasperated and asked him: Art thou only stranger in Jerusalem and has not known these things which have come to pass there in these days? He ask them what had happened and they told him concerning Jesus of Nazareth which was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people and how the chief priest condemned him and crucified him and how he has resurrected. All the while Christ walked with them did the two disciples know him? The church denominations preach that until Jesus comes back with the sounds of trumpets and arc angels. Notice that the more you look the less you see. He can appear in any form. He can appear like Moses, or Elijah, or Abraham. He can at the same time appear like your grandfather. When you pray to God to give you a good wife or a husband or a son and God gives you a good wife who is like a mother to you, you begin to praise God, since your heart is not pure, you cannot recognize him, otherwise you would have known that, that very good wife is our Lord Jesus Christ. Why did John the Baptist recognize him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, but when he was in the prison suffering greatly, he sent his disciples to find out if Christ was the one who should come or they should look for another. He was prompted to say this because he thought that if our Lord Jesus Christ where the Son of God, he would have rescued him from prison. But the Scriptures tell us: Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. What happens now is that malice, grudge, fornication, theft, craftiness, falsehood, and other vices deter us from seeing and recognizing our Lord Jesus Christ. Since you believe that you have God, hold fast to that, do not go about inviting people to follow you to see God or our Lord Jesus Christ. How can you afford to place a precious article before pigs? What is your thinking about God? The two angels who visited Sodom and Gomorrah, you can remember, when they entered into the house of Lot, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah went to Lot to demand him to give out to them the two visitors for them to kill. Lot pleaded with them to spare his visitors and instead take his two daughters who were virgins, and do what ever they like with them, but they rejected that alternative offer. Did Lot know that the two persons were angels? That is why we are advised that we should not be forgetful in entertaining strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. The two visitors at last told Lot to let them in. They swarmed into the house of Lot and searched for the visitors, but they could not see them even though they were inside the house gazing at them. What do you think God is, so that man wants to see God face to face? If you deny that you have seen our Lord Jesus Christ, he has seen you and he will not deny you. He is caring for you, protecting you, rescuing you and serving you, even though you claim you have not seen him. If you do not see our Lord Jesus Christ, that is your own lookout. Have I ever told you that I am God, or Jesus Christ or an angel? Have I ever said you are God or that God is found at a particular place? I am telling you that our Lord Jesus Christ is in your midst, but your own corrupt mind prevents you from recognizing him. This is why this lesson is imparted to you because this is the time when it is said: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother saying know the Lord: for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. If you had attempted to abide by the teachings you receive here, you would have seen the significance of these teachings. Right now most of you claim that God is at 34 Ambo Street or at Mbukpa Road, or in any other place, but I am telling you that I am not the doer of the work but Jehovah God and his Christ; this is the glory of God. He it is alone who does this work we all are witnessing but you do not believe because you are all Thomases. He is the everlasting father, he is, and was, and ever shall be, he has no beginning and no end, he has never gone anywhere else, for in him we live, and move, and have our being in him. He will live forever but unless you forsake sin completely, you will never see him. Let us have our golden text. GOLDEN TEXT: HEBREWS 12:14 Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which none will see the Lord. Every time it is asserted when he will be revealed. This means that something which will be revealed, is in existence. It is said: Behold now are we the sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. He is not walking from street to street he is here. He is working everywhere throughout the universe. Have you heard what the golden text says that we should follow peace with all men in holiness, without which no man will see the Lord? But he is here. From today, as you have heard this gospel, do not tell anybody where our Lord Jesus Christ can be found or that the other man is Christ or God, but rather make peace with all your enemies and have a pure heart. Abstain from craftiness, theft, fornication, drunkenness, concoctions and charms, then cultivate a loving heart and love every body. It is said: though we have known our Lord Jesus Christ after flesh, yet now henceforth, know we him no more in the flesh. But notice if your heart is not pure, if you have no love, you do not know him and see him. It is because you do not search your Bible, and even if you search through it, remember the word of God, which says: Blessed are those who do not see but yet they believe. What ever your status is in the hierarchy of church offices: Bishop, Pastor, Deacon, Prophet, if you still drink and fornicate and sue at law court and fail to refrain from all vices and if you do not love your enemies, you cannot see the Lord. You call him Lord, Lord, but you do not practice what he likes, not even loving one another, but you continue to sin, and cause confusion and assert that until he comes back again, where has he ever gone to? Remember the Samaritan woman who told our Lord Jesus Christ that when the Messiah comes he will tell us all things, and Jesus Christ said unto her, I that speak unto thee I am he. Remember also the blind man whom he made to receive his sight. When the Jews asked him who was responsible for the recovery of his sight, they were told, it was our Lord Jesus Christ, they asked what exactly he did and he told them, but they asserted that such was not the work of God. Did that blind man know our Lord Jesus Christ? But when they persisted in their interrogation, he told them: Whether he is a sinner or not, I know not, one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, but now I see. As they continued to question him, he told them: Will you also be his disciple? They reply, You are his disciple but we are the disciples of Moses. After sometime, he was cast away. But our Lord Jesus Christ heard that they had cast him out, so he drew near him and asked him: Dost thou believe in the Son of God? He answered: Who is he, Lord, that I might believe in him? Jesus told him: Thou has both seen him and it is he that talketh to you. And he said: Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. (John 9:35-38) Our Lord Jesus Christ does everything for you, even if he tells you, since your mind is dark, you will not recognize him. Our Lord Jesus Christ in this advent walks with great caution. How do you know that people have not set their guns and bombs prepared to shoot at him as they look at the sky to see when he will come down so they fire at him at his appearing. Have you not heard that the father sent his angels and the people of the world kill them beating some up. He then sent his servants who were ill treated and turned back. Then finally he sent his own son thinking that they would fear him, but when he came, they said: This is the heir, and they killed him. Do you think that under such circumstances the father would descend to the earth in the way that people think? I do not wish to be tedious unto you, those who have ears, let them hear. May God bless his holy words, Amen. THANK YOU HOLY FATHER
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 07:54:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015