Monday, February 14, 2011
The Rabbi: OUR INHERITANCE
The Rabbi: OUR INHERITANCE: "It's another bright day and I'm glad to share with you something that will bless you. In our assembly- ..."
OUR INHERITANCE
Therefore I encourage that as Pastors, Family heads, leaders of units, groups and corporate organizations and individuals learn to believe in any word that is given in your local assembly because whatever He says to one, He says to all. More importantly, the word is for the profit of as many as those who have enough faith to fertilize it.
It is not surprising that various teachings are going on right now around the world on the subject of our inheritance in Christ just like in my local Church. Wonderful insights, some of which I may never have known. However, there is an insights that I wish to share in today's volume of the Rabbi which will not only help to correct some myopic views about our inheritance but if embraced will open anyone to unlimited blessings of salvation.
What is inheritance? Dr. Francis Wale Oke calls it something that is bequeathed to you and needs to be treasured not because of the cost of the thing but the relationship between the original possessor and the inheritor. He opines that wise people don't sell their inheritance no matter how much you are willing to pay for it. Only the generations of Esau sell their inheritance.
In my own opinion, inheritance is simply a gift, handed down to you by a person because of your relationship with him or her. It is not what you labour for but a product of grace from the owner.
Friends, if I ask you, what is your inheritance as a believer? I can guess some of the things on your list; good health, long life, financial prosperity, children, lands, houses and every other good thing of life. For those who are a bit more spiritual, you'd talk about the mansions in heaven. Those are the things that used to preoccupy my mind also until recently when the Lord refreshed my memory with deeper understanding of the matter of inheritance. As wonderful as those things you think about are, do you know they are not reliable. When I say reliable, I mean they are physically tangible but they hold no promise of the future because they shall fade away. Imagine you build a house reputed as the most beautiful even in Guinness book of records or you buy the latest model of car today, they will soon become outdated because someone will improve on them.
However, God does not want your inheritance to become outdated. That is why He did not make them physical. Rather, He packaged our inheritance (blessings) in spiritual form.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hat begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.(1 Pet. 1:3,4)
The implication of this scripture is that you can always download from the spiritual reserve and convert them to the physical. This is the more reason we should not make these things our pursuit not because we are not entitled to them but because they are not the real things we should seek. We would not be different from unbelievers if we limit our pursuit to physical things.
…………………………………For after these things do the gentiles seek (Matt. 6:32 KJV)
Seeking after the physical dimension of the blessing is like going for the egg rather than the goose that lays it. It is tantamount to dying for the offer of bread when you have the option of owning a bakery and having access to the ingredients for production.
David understood it better. He did not make anything his inheritance not even his children because they cannot be trusted completely. Imagine his own son conspiring against him. God forbid that we experience such in Jesus name. If David had made anything perhaps his throne his inheritance, he would have been finished when the inheritance was usurped. What was the psalmist’s inheritance?
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and mine cup, thou maintainest my lot (Psalm 16:5 KJV)
David spoke here in recognition of his priesthood calling of which kind we are. The Levitical priesthood is the old order and it is the shadow of the priesthood to come. One of the fundamental statutes of the Levitical priesthood is that the priests cannot share inheritance with the other people. The underlying idea is that God wanted the Priests to learn to focus on him and not on things. He wanted to be their sole means for living. He wanted them to learn how to trade spiritual substances for material blessings, so their dependence was on the altar.
We have a better Priesthood. It is the permanent priesthood after the order of Melchidezek. It is the Priesthood of Jesus, our Lord who sprang out of Judah as the son of David. God expects also that we would focus more on Him than on things. In the new priesthood, we can own things but they come by the law of exchange. I do not want to dwell much on that today.
Now you know that the inheritance is first spiritual before conversion to physical and that the natural blessings take their source from the supernatural. You and I therefore need to focus on the supernatural. What then is the supernatural inheritance? It is Christ; our Lord himself!
Christ is the summary of the inheritance. He is God giving himself to man. He is God’s best offer to mankind (John 3: 16). Therefore everything that was freely given to us with Him and for which He suffered and died has automatically become ours.
Surprisingly, He had no house or wife. He purchased no land or property but He had an anointing and the presence of God (Acts 10:38). He had wisdom combined with favour with God and man (Luke 2:52). He had the Spirit of God upon Him without measure. Above all, He had the status of the firstborn and the Champion of the world (John 16:33). When He died as the Lamb of God before the foundation of the world, He earned for himself seven incomparable heritages - Power, Riches, Wisdom, Strength, Honour, Glory and Blessing. What then could he hade left for us? All these things!
Sharing the status of first born with Christ (Ex. 4: 22, Heb. 12:23) entitles us to whatever belongs to God as the possessor of heaven and earth (Gen. 14:19, Ps.24:1). Therefore, we depend not upon our ability or connection with men but our right of sonship as heirs. Being heirs, we have access to all things. Our spiritual inheritance of favour with God and man make us to turn anywhere and get anything we want. The anointing and the grace of Christ give us access to physical blessings. By His wisdom, we access hidden wealth of secret places and make witty inventions in exchange for great financial rewards. Are you not excited about this?
As we earlier established in the words of Dr. Francis Wale Oke, we are expected to treasure our inheritance and not trade it for anything. If you inherited a physical land, you may choose to give it for humanitarian purpose or sell it in exchange for money. In that case, you have not lost anything great. But if you trade your status of firstborn like Esau, you have lost everything! If you are betrayed by a friend and perhaps lost your wife (God forbid) like Samson, you have not lost everything but if you lose the anointing, you have lost everything.
Therefore, we don’t hold on to things not even children (Hannah did not). However, we hold on to our spiritual inheritance. When our garments of many colours given to us by our parents are taken away, the favour of God upon us will buy for us another one if not many as replacement because the coat is not the inheritance; it is the favour of God. When you dig a well and they come to fill or strive with you over it, you can afford to leave the well like Isaac left his inherited well because the well is not the inheritance, it is the covenant. They may take your well but they can’t take the covenant!
Can you shout with me, I cherish my status as firstborn? Shout I cherish the favour of God upon me. Scream with me, I cherish the anointing. Lift you voice and shout I treasure the grace! Finally my brethren, if we must treasure anything, it is your salvation; Christ dwelling in your heart by faith. Love you all.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
TEACH US TO PRAY BY YOUR SPIRIT
Hi friends! Yesterday, we talked a little about the infectious prayer life of John the Baptist. In the same volume, we saw that Jesus lived an exemplary prayer life that caught the attention of the disciples rather than first sermonizing the disciples with long teachings about prayer. The actions of this duo revealed to the disciples their emptiness, giving them a burden for prayer. That is what the life of a praying person does. It speaks! It speaks volumes more than the words of many sermons put together.We can then conclude that when the disciples were demanding to be taught, they wanted to be imparted with a life and with the skills.
I have taken time to check the original words used in this context. The exact word used by the disciple here is the word yahrah which means to rain or flow as water. It is also translated as throw or lay as if aiming at something. This tells that the disciples were asking for a rain that is aimed at them. It is like asking for a baptismal experience. May the Lord baptize you and I with rain of prayer (Amen).
Other synonyms to the word yahrah are the words chdasko and rhipzo . The former means to impart the skills and knowledge of something. I am more in love with other word rhipzo which means to fan or bellow. This word can best make more meaning to you if you have been to a blacksmith's shop. The bellow is that instrument that they use to blow hot air into a given object so that the impurities can be removed and the object can be bent into the shape that the blacksmith has in mind. This is actually the end point of a praying life; you are purified and bent into the master's desired shape. However, my emphasis here is the heat that is blown on the metal. We probably are spiritually cold today because the Lord has not blown the heat on us. But if the heat must come, we must ask. Every appreciable change a man experiences from the Lord are those desired and demanded. Will you ask the Lord for a baptismal and a firing experience of prayer today? I tell you, if you ask, the Lord will not hesitate to give. He gave them the life and the teaching about prayer.
Now, Jesus is not physically present here but He does the same work of baptism through the Holy Spirit. John prophesied that He shall baptize us with Holy-Ghost and with fire (Matt. 3:11). He personally said, He will send the Comforter who shall take from Him and impart to us.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8 : 26-27)
Our infirmities are many. Apart from lacking the fire of prayer, the bible establishes in the scripture above that we don't know what to pray for and even how to pray. Alas, there is good news !Now we have the Holy-Ghost, the one who carries the fire and know what to pray and and how to pray. Can you ask Him to help you today?
I am not just talking about praying in tongues alone, I mean an unusual experience that cannot be explained. Have you groaned before? If you have not, then you are not getting me yet. In fact the few instances that Jesus prayed in the Spirit publicly were not in tongues like we do today but He groaned. This kind of groaning is like labouring in pain. At the house of Mary and Martha on the instance of Lazarus' death, he groaned in the Spirit because of the shared pain of Lazarus' death (John 11:33). This was the kind of experience at the garden of Gethsemane when He prayed and the sweat form His body was like blood. Can you groan without uttering a word and yet there is spontaneous result? Naturally, you cannot do that but by the power of the Holy-Spirit, you would.
Groaning is a result of a burden. It comes when you are desperate for a change like Hannah. She prayed, only her lips moved, her words were not heard. She sweated to the point of being soaked and mistaken to be drunk. At Pentecost, when the tongues of fire came, they were like drunken men. Ask The Lord for a baptism today, you will be surprised at the termendous impact on your prayer life and the amazing answers you will receive.
I'm waiting to hear your testimonies. Keep the fire burning!
I have taken time to check the original words used in this context. The exact word used by the disciple here is the word yahrah which means to rain or flow as water. It is also translated as throw or lay as if aiming at something. This tells that the disciples were asking for a rain that is aimed at them. It is like asking for a baptismal experience. May the Lord baptize you and I with rain of prayer (Amen).
Other synonyms to the word yahrah are the words chdasko and rhipzo . The former means to impart the skills and knowledge of something. I am more in love with other word rhipzo which means to fan or bellow. This word can best make more meaning to you if you have been to a blacksmith's shop. The bellow is that instrument that they use to blow hot air into a given object so that the impurities can be removed and the object can be bent into the shape that the blacksmith has in mind. This is actually the end point of a praying life; you are purified and bent into the master's desired shape. However, my emphasis here is the heat that is blown on the metal. We probably are spiritually cold today because the Lord has not blown the heat on us. But if the heat must come, we must ask. Every appreciable change a man experiences from the Lord are those desired and demanded. Will you ask the Lord for a baptismal and a firing experience of prayer today? I tell you, if you ask, the Lord will not hesitate to give. He gave them the life and the teaching about prayer.
Now, Jesus is not physically present here but He does the same work of baptism through the Holy Spirit. John prophesied that He shall baptize us with Holy-Ghost and with fire (Matt. 3:11). He personally said, He will send the Comforter who shall take from Him and impart to us.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8 : 26-27)
Our infirmities are many. Apart from lacking the fire of prayer, the bible establishes in the scripture above that we don't know what to pray for and even how to pray. Alas, there is good news !Now we have the Holy-Ghost, the one who carries the fire and know what to pray and and how to pray. Can you ask Him to help you today?
I am not just talking about praying in tongues alone, I mean an unusual experience that cannot be explained. Have you groaned before? If you have not, then you are not getting me yet. In fact the few instances that Jesus prayed in the Spirit publicly were not in tongues like we do today but He groaned. This kind of groaning is like labouring in pain. At the house of Mary and Martha on the instance of Lazarus' death, he groaned in the Spirit because of the shared pain of Lazarus' death (John 11:33). This was the kind of experience at the garden of Gethsemane when He prayed and the sweat form His body was like blood. Can you groan without uttering a word and yet there is spontaneous result? Naturally, you cannot do that but by the power of the Holy-Spirit, you would.
Groaning is a result of a burden. It comes when you are desperate for a change like Hannah. She prayed, only her lips moved, her words were not heard. She sweated to the point of being soaked and mistaken to be drunk. At Pentecost, when the tongues of fire came, they were like drunken men. Ask The Lord for a baptism today, you will be surprised at the termendous impact on your prayer life and the amazing answers you will receive.
I'm waiting to hear your testimonies. Keep the fire burning!
Monday, February 7, 2011
LORD TEACH US TO PRAY!
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one f his disciples said unto him, Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Luke 11: 1 (KJV).
The scripture above is one of the many scriptures that have changed my life. This disciple made a desperate plea after observing Jesus in one of His serious prayer moods. The plea was not such of a personal ambition but the voicing of a corporate need that required urgent attention. It may probably mean that the disciples have met after hearing much of the exploits of John the Baptist and his followers; the kind of revivals they pioneered in their days and drawing a comparison with their own state, they felt sorry for themselves. They have suddenly woken up to the reality of the import of prayer in ministry.
The reference to John and his disciples here was also a way of telling Jesus that they have sincerely admitted that a fervent prayer life is a mark of true discipleship. They saw it in John. He did not only pray, he taught his disciples. Could that mean that John's congregation was a praying army? Those that were truly his members; the people that drank from his spirit were not in any way cold when it comes to the matter of intercession.
John stung his disciples with the grace for fervent prayer because he understood the multiplier effect of prayer and its dynamic workings. It was practically impossible to belong to his inner caucus without a burning prayer life. He was infectious in prayer. Little wonder, his ministry was rapid in fruitfulness and impact. Oh how I pray that every Pastor and Bishop today would be as infectious as John in prayer that we may have a victorious church!
Similarly, Jesus was exemplary in prayer. He never mentioned the subject of prayer to the disciples before this time. All He did was to place a fervent prayer life before them because He knew that prayer is first taught in deeds before in words. That may not sound logical but except you show a man how to pray by example to the point that he has a burden to pray, you never can succeed in teaching him how to pray. Why? Prayer is more of a life that is injected than an act that is communicated.Prayer is a spiritual exercise that requires a propelling force of the spirit. It cannot be carnally machinated. (To be continued)
The scripture above is one of the many scriptures that have changed my life. This disciple made a desperate plea after observing Jesus in one of His serious prayer moods. The plea was not such of a personal ambition but the voicing of a corporate need that required urgent attention. It may probably mean that the disciples have met after hearing much of the exploits of John the Baptist and his followers; the kind of revivals they pioneered in their days and drawing a comparison with their own state, they felt sorry for themselves. They have suddenly woken up to the reality of the import of prayer in ministry.
The reference to John and his disciples here was also a way of telling Jesus that they have sincerely admitted that a fervent prayer life is a mark of true discipleship. They saw it in John. He did not only pray, he taught his disciples. Could that mean that John's congregation was a praying army? Those that were truly his members; the people that drank from his spirit were not in any way cold when it comes to the matter of intercession.
John stung his disciples with the grace for fervent prayer because he understood the multiplier effect of prayer and its dynamic workings. It was practically impossible to belong to his inner caucus without a burning prayer life. He was infectious in prayer. Little wonder, his ministry was rapid in fruitfulness and impact. Oh how I pray that every Pastor and Bishop today would be as infectious as John in prayer that we may have a victorious church!
Similarly, Jesus was exemplary in prayer. He never mentioned the subject of prayer to the disciples before this time. All He did was to place a fervent prayer life before them because He knew that prayer is first taught in deeds before in words. That may not sound logical but except you show a man how to pray by example to the point that he has a burden to pray, you never can succeed in teaching him how to pray. Why? Prayer is more of a life that is injected than an act that is communicated.Prayer is a spiritual exercise that requires a propelling force of the spirit. It cannot be carnally machinated. (To be continued)
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