We Were Made For His Pleasure; But Are We Giving Him Pleasure?

 There was a time when I thought some things would definitely never be mentioned in the midst of believers. Painfully, some such things have become the order of the day amongst believers. I wish this was about sexual sins, not that it is acceptable; but this is about wickedness, envy, jealousy as a result of which we are tearing down one another. It is about greed, strong desire for power and lack of contentment. The hatred amongst believers is totally on another level; I don’t think unbelievers even experience this. We tear one another apart so badly that we pull down the body of Christ, albeit unwittingly, thereby making the word of God appear ineffective. Is there any end to all of this? 

Acts 2: 44 “And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.”

I have heard some believers argue that these should not be unusual occurrences amongst believers and they buttress their position by insisting that it was the same even with the Apostles. They talk about how the apostles struggled for position, wanted to know who was greatest and who Jesus loved the most but they forget that this was before they were baptized in the Holy Ghost. After they received the Holy Ghost they worked as one and even when they had differences they were soon resolved. The level of bitterness that exist amongst us now is on another level; it is so bad we don’t even need the devil to kill and destroy believers anymore, we appear to be doing fine at the job.

1 Corinthians 3: 3 “for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?”

I guess the truth is, the level of carnality is at an all-time high and heaven is not on our minds. Life is now all about us, what we can get and how to have the most pleasurable life here on earth. We even want to live on earth forever and will prefer to do anything we can to avoid dying forgetting that we are pilgrims on earth who will one day, if Christ tarries, die. Reality is that eternity is where a good life matters the most, because there is no ending to it; and we decide here on earth by the choice of our faith and how we live our lives, where we would spend eternity.  Seeing that we love pleasure, shouldn’t we fight to ensure that we live life in comfort in eternity? Or could it be that we don’t believe in life hereafter or we don’t believe that hell exist? Or are we just too self-centered to care?

Romans 8: 6 “So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

We have become so engrossed in self that we think life is all about us and our wants. Indeed it is so bad that we are not ashamed to boast about it forgetting that if life is all about us then we leave no room for any other including God who desires that our lives are all about Him. God demands that we willingly give Him our lives as living sacrifices so that our lives are meant to be built around Him and not the other way round. Instead of desiring that our lives give God pleasure, our desire is that God works to ensure that we have all the pleasure that we desire. All we want is to be blessed which by the way is to have all the money that we desire so we can get anything we even think of not caring whether or not it could even cause harm to others. Sadly, this desire is insatiable; so insatiable it can actually make believers steal, kill and destroy whilst still professing Christianity. This is certainly not God’s plan so we must stop.

The “More Excellent Way” … The Way of True Love PT 2

I did not intend to write a second part to my blog on love but it provoked a few questions so I thought to share my response without indicating the questions. Let me start by stating that “like” is different from “love”. According to Webster, like is to have an inclination or preference for or for something to please you. It is to regard something favorably or feel affection for or enjoy being with someone or something. This seems to be the basis upon which the world’s definition of love is founded. So definition of love by the world is a stronger version of like and a far cry from the love God is.  

1 Corinthians 13: 13 “And so faith, hope, love abide (faith-conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope-joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love-true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for us), these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

The love that God is and we have experienced has character; it is deep and strong. That is the love God wants us to express. It is instinctive to us as believers and is without prejudice. It flows from inside us. We don’t have to be friends to love people; we love them even without knowing them, because we see them through the eyes of God and feel about them, the way God feels. This is true love which cannot be faked and is also very different from being nice. This love lives in us and is only expressed through us. It would be impossible for man, given his nature and the state of his heart, to truly love in this way without God in Him. This love is too sincere and pure to come to man naturally. It takes a life transforming conviction to have and express this love. It takes a spiritual man to express it. 

1 Corinthians 13: 7 – 8 “Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything (without weakening). Love never fails (never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end). 

Don’t tell me you love when you are in unhealthy competition, which by the way is jealousy and/or envy, with another; and sometimes the other party is unaware of the fact that you are in competition with them as a result of which you are doing all you can to ruin them. Love makes one mannerly even if they were unruly. It restrains one from seeking attention so desperately even to the extent of wickedly expelling another because they want their place. You cannot claim to love and yet be so vindictive and your great excuse is that you are angry. Though the word of God allows us the right to be angry yet it says we must not sin despite anger.  There is no justification for being vindictive; it is vile and cannot operate in a vessel that carries love. Some things just naturally die when God comes into a person. God kind of love is who you are and not a feeling you express to some only. 

1 Corinthians 13: 5 – 6 “It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride): it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it (it pays no attention to a suffered wrong). It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.”

God has not asked us to like people but has taken it to another realm by asking that we love. Love is God and all He is asking is that we express His nature. This love is despite our feeling; it is a way of life – The God way of life. If you say you love, does your love have this character? The more excellent way has character and gives one a great personality, taking one to a realm where godly honor just comes upon them. Is that the love we express? The Holy Spirit is every ready to help us if we find we fall short.

The “More Excellent Way” … The Way of True Love

Defining love, in Christian gatherings around where I live, is something I prefer to stay away from. Love often gets confusing for me in these settings because our description is often, to me, an aberration. It does not tally with the love the bible describes and is influenced by the emotions of the person defining it. Interestingly, the world’s definition, which is unacceptable to us, is less complicated. We have intellectualized love and mixed Bible and the world’s definition. This cannot be right; love is spiritual. It is not acquired character but an expression of The Personality inside us – The Almighty God.

1 John 4: 7 “Let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

The love we describe is a variation of the world’s love which can be switched on and off depending on what one gives or wants or can get from you and cannot last the long haul. It has everything to do with feelings, which is why it often begets fornication or adultery, and nothing to do with what God would have us do. Though it may qualify us for “nice” it is not what the world longs for. The world awaits the manifestation of the sons of God. They are a people who carry and express God even in relationships; especially relationships with believers. This is walking “the most excellent way.” 

1 Corinthians 13: 3 “if I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I have gained nothing.”

God is the epitome of love and without Him in our lives; we are unable to express true love. He first expresses His love toward us but He desires that we reciprocate that love and in doing so we become living sacrifices allowing ourselves to be led by His Spirit and instinctively expressing the God (love) in us. If you express God, you express love and vice versa. It is only in loving God that we can ever truly love others. It is impossible to love any one more than God loves them. To love anyone is to let God express Himself through us in our relationships. This love is deep and everlasting. 

  

John 15: 12 – 13 “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.”

1 John 4: 13 “And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.”

1 John 4: 16b “God is love, and all who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them.”

It is sad when people work on their loving by working on the outward or the expressions of love. That is carnality and the end is death. The flesh is unable to control the Spirit; love is spiritual. If therefore, our love is found wanting when placed against the word of God which is the mirror for our lives, the way to fix it is to struggle to yield more to God; it is to work at our submission to Him. Love is the nature of believers but can only be expressed to the extent that we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit of God. I daresay that it is impossible to be led by the Spirit of God and yet hate anybody particularly believers. The most excellent way is the way of the Spirit of God. One reason we have a problem with defining love is our strong desire to look good to man, which is the way of the world. The Spiritual man desires God’s affirmation. Love is deeply spiritual and we must not trivialize as we often do.

1 John 4: 20 “If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?”

THERE IS LIFE CHANGING POWER IN THE WORD OF GOD PT 3

God’s desire is that we be like Him here on earth, so that those who come in contact with us come in contact with Him through us. Our God has power so as believers we should express power since we are our Father’s representatives here on earth. To this end, God gives us His word in which the fullness of His power and righteousness are revealed. Jesus is the embodiment of the fullness of the power of God and only through Him does God do all He does. So the word of God in its pure form, simple as it is, carries power. The Word of God is more than mere letters; He is living.

John 1: 1 – 3 “In the beginning the word already existed. The word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through him.”

Unfortunately, today, believers are lacking in power despite that our faith is full of power. We struggle so hard to manifest the power that we ought to carry and display easily because in truth, we don’t have it. Since we don’t have it, some of us have learnt to turn to the flesh or human efforts to facilitate our expressing God’s power and glory but we forget that the flesh is unable to work the things of the Spirit. So, instead of expressing power, we get more frustrated; then dig deeper into flesh instigated activities, albeit unintentionally, hoping to work the display of God’s power but it never happens. It is time to repent, turn around and return to the word of God in its simplicity. The word of God is the light that shines through darkness so no one by himself or though his own personal effort can shine through darkness. It is the glory of God radiated that pierces through darkness.

Romans 1: 16a “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work”

1 Corinthians 1: 18 “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the power of God.”

It is true that the word of God appears simple, especially to the intellectual mind. One cannot help but wonder how so much power could be packed in such simplicity but the personality behind The Word is the Almighty God. The authenticity and/or power of The Word rest in the fact that it emanates from God who cannot lie. His word is Truth in every situation; as God speaks, creation aligns with His word. The only work of God’s hand with a choice is man and that is because God gave him that right. So that in making decisions, man is again revealing the power of God though unfortunately, we sometimes make unwise decisions. God does not, as some of us think, need our help to make His word more powerful; He has no problems with it, the way it is.

1 Corinthians 2: 4 “And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would not trust in human wisdom but in the power of God.”

Unfortunately, some people for selfish reasons and others who feel a genuine need to make the gospel more appealing have so wrongly interpreted God’s Word that the gospel often preached now, is not the gospel that was preached by the Apostles. We have ended up with a gospel lacking in power. If we want the power, we must return to The Word of God. A little veering of course to spice up God’s word has taken us out of the way of truth and power which is ultimately, our loss. We don’t need more than the correct gospel to live and excel in all areas of life and be the head. Let us stay with the original gospel simple as it is. We have to re-acquaint ourselves with the full and original gospel.