| When I was a young boy, my mother taught me that I needed to plant a seed to bring whatever harvest I wanted in life. She used a grain of maize for an example; she showed me how the maize crop looked when it was harvested and linked it back to a single grain. As always, I believed my mum wholeheartedly. The next day, my siblings and I were drinking Cokes and my mum’s illustration on sowing came to mind. So I gathered up some of the bottle caps and rushed to our garden. I started “planting” them in spots I would commit to memory when my aunt appeared. “What are you doing?” she asked. I told her about the concept of ‘sowing and harvesting’ that I had just learned and that I planned to harvest some Coca-Cola in the future. She laughed sarcastically and called my mum to come and see what I was doing.
With the benefit of hindsight, I see that the principle my mum taught me was true, but my application was wrong (at least I haven’t harvested any Coca-Cola yet). Also, with the benefit of reading the scriptures, I realize that broadly speaking, there are two major areas where we sow, and they in turn affect who we turn out to be in life. Galatians 6:7-8 (GNB) says “Do not deceive yourselves; no one makes a fool of God. You will reap exactly what you plant. If you plant in the field of your natural desires, from it you will gather the harvest of death; if you plant in the field of the Spirit, from the Spirit you will gather the harvest of eternal life.”
Beloved, none of your actions is insignificant. You are either sowing (or in the process of sowing) to the flesh OR to the Spirit. It’s just a matter of time, and you will get the result. You are the way you are today because of the seeds you sowed or some other person sowed yesterday. You don’t need to come tell me in 5 years how you have been living your life. I only need to look at your life then, and it will be easy to tell where/ what you have been sowing over the years.
A brother once told me he had serious issues with lust and narrated his misdemeanors against some sisters in his church. He needed help to get out of the mess. According to him, he had been praying about it. I said to him – ‘stop disturbing God; start sowing the right seeds’. He seemed surprised by my statement and asked what I meant. I asked him a few questions and his answers revealed the seeds he had been sowing; do you watch sexually explicit films? Do you sometimes look at pictures of nude women? Do you entertain fantasies of having some form of pleasures with those sisters? His answers to these and many other similar questions were – Yes. I then told him that when he did all those things, he was sowing seeds; he was passing ‘credit’ entries in his life, and life had come to make ‘debit’ entries for all those credits. As a chartered accountant, he understood that for every credit there must be a corresponding debit, and that really helped him see, in clear terms, how to start to change his life.
Keep sowing the right seeds as prescribed in the scriptures. There is no vacuum in life; your life will someday tell the story of the seeds you have been sowing. ———————————————————————– Tope S. Aladenusi |
One striking difference between people who lived in the Old Testament times and believers of today (that existed after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ) is the relationship and operation of the Holy Spirit in their lives. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit did not dwell inside any being. He only manifested at some points and later departed. Sometimes he had some symbolic representations. For instance, when Samson’s hair was scrapped off, the Holy Spirit departed from him. But Jesus came with a new order.
He told his disciples in John 14:16 “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever”. The promise of Jesus Christ to us is that the Comforter (Holy Spirit) will abide with us forever. And since all believers have theHoly Spirit dwelling in them (Romans 8:9), they also have that supernatural advantagewhich comes with the indwelling of God’s Spirit forever. There are magnificent implications of this singular (yet powerful) fact, but it is quite unfortunate that many believers undermine them.
Ephesians 4:30 (GNB) says “And do not make God’s Holy Spirit sad; for the Spirit is God’s mark of ownership on you”. One of the key evidences that God has already purchased you with the blood of Jesus Christ is that his seal of ownership is on you, and that seal (Holy Spirit) will remain on you forever 2Corinthians 1:22 tells us — it is God who has sealed us with His Spirit irrevocably! You don’t have anywhere to run to and the devil or any evil spirit cannot dwell in you again. I once told a friend this and he referred me to Matthew 12:43-45 (CEV):
“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it travels through the desert, looking for a place to rest. But when the demon doesn’t find a place, it says, “I will go back to the home I left.” When it gets there and finds the place empty, clean, and fixed up, it goes off and finds seven other evil spirits even worse than itself. They all come and make their home there, and the person ends up in worse shape than before.”
My friend tried to explain that when a believer sins, the Holy Spirit can leave him and evil spirit can return to that person. But that’s a lie! John 14:16 tells us that the Holy Spirit will abide with us forever. God does not give up His ownership nor can He hand us over to the devil just like that even though we did what we were not supposed to do. I John 2:1 reminds us that our advocate – Jesus will stand in for us if we sin. And because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we can never be found in an “empty” state where there will be room for an evil one to return into us.
Some believers even think evil spirits can dwell side by side with the Holy Spirit inside us. But the bible says in 2Corinthians 6:14 GNB “…How can light and darkness live together?” So beloved, don’t believe those who say believers can have spirit husbands / wives. Don’t accept the idea that the evil one can dwell within you. Believe the report of the Lord and act accordingly. Jesus Christ already paid the price by his death and resurrection and henceforth, the Holy Spirit dwells in us forever!
– tope aladenusi
| The fruit-sign Bible Reading: Galatians 5
Imagine you saw an usher in your church laying hands on a paralysed man, and suddenly the man leaped to his feet and started walking, what would be your reaction? “Hey! That usher is a great man of God!”… “He has really gone far”. “…He should not be an usher in the first place”. “…Oh God! When will I grow to that point?” These are examples of what I hear Christians say when they see a miraculous work performed by other believers. They are quick to conclude that such works are a result of spiritual growth and advancement. But the bible says “These are some of the signs that will accompany believers: They will throw out demons in my name, they will speak in new tongues … they will lay hands on the sick and make them well.” Mark 16:17-18
Demon-casting, tongue-speaking and sick-healing are not signs of spiritual growth but are tendencies of every believer. If you are a believer and you have not been experiencing these things, you are like a fish that sees swimming as a strange thing or a sign of maturity. The same thing applies to our perception of the gifts of the spirit. I Cor 12:7-11 says “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge …; To another faith …; to another the gifts of healing …; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; … But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
The underpinning principle here is that the Spirit distributes his gifts as he wills and not based on a believer’s spiritual growth. The manifestation of spirit is given to “every man” and not only to “every growing man”. Remember immediately after the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), they started speaking in tongues and healing the sick, though they were babes in Christ at that time. So we need to adjust our thinking and stop seeing the manifestation of the gifts of the spirit as a sign of spiritual growth. That will save us much trouble in the church because we will no longer see these gifts as a fast track to the office of a pastor or a basis for feeling that we are more advanced Christians.
On the other hand, the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in the life of a believer is a proof of spiritual growth. It is the tendency in our lives that surfaces when we yield to the workings of the Holy Spirit. It is similar to apple trees. You do not see their fruits immediately after the apple seeds were sown but after the apple trees have grown. Gal 5:22-23 says “the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”.
Imagine a life where the fruit of the spirit is always displayed, then success will be a lifestyle. For example, nearly every marriage counsellor you meet will tell you that you need two things to succeed in marriage – love and patience. I do not hesitate to remind myself that these virtues are fruit of the spirit. They are not what you get from outside but what you experience when you subject yourself to the influence of the Spirit on your inside. You can now see how spiritual growth is tied to nearly every success in a Christian’s life. Beloved, please always give priority to your spiritual growth.
– tope aladenusi
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| Living Beyond and Above the Sex Trap
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the Flesh. The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh: and these are contrary the one the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Galatians 5:16-18
The end of all our struggles will come when we walk in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit all the time will not only place us not above our sexual struggles alone but all our struggles.
Christ did not leave us without help, He left us with the Holy Spirit, the comforter to guide, teach and even reveal the person of Jesus to us. John14:18-26 We will become the perfect person we want to be if we decide to walk in the Spirit always. We will have the perfect relationship we want when both parties in a relationship (of any kind) decide to walk in the Spirit all the time.
Easy to say but how do I get to practice it? First you need to build a relationship with the God, that’s when you will be able to tell when the Spirit is speaking. Just the way you are able to identify your mum’s voice because of time spent together over time, you will be able to tell when the Spirit is speaking. The more time we spend with God the better we get.
And how do you build a relationship with God? Firstly, accept the death and resurrection of Jesus as the sacrifice for your sins and the only way to your salvation; Believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord. Desire to have a relationship with God and continuously follow Him Read the Bible and Pray Regularly. Surround yourself with the right set of people who share your passion for God. Identify good teachers of God’s word and listen to them. It is very important to feed our mind fat with God’s Word, so that out of the abundance of the word in your mind you are led. You need to be able to say personally, ‘Your word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against thee’.
Become a Living Sacrifice! A Living Sacrifice is like a live goat tied to the place of sacrifice and set on fire, it feels the pain and the heat of the fire, yet it cannot leave the spot because it has been tied to the place. And when you bring more fire close to it, it has little or no effect on it because it already is on fire.
I believe this is a good place to start from as we begin the New Year. My prayer this year for you and myself is that we all become Living Sacrifices hot and burning for the Lord Jesus.
Have a Great Year ahead!
Omolola |
| The Holy Spirit; Christian’s power and light
The promised Holy Spirit; comforter and Teacher The Holy Spirit; person of the Godhead The Holy Spirit; Blessed Trinity He cometh not in a measure Ever asked for a portion of Christ or God? He is not water, fire, a dove, oil, or a force Why thinkest thou that He is given in measure Why thinkest thou that He can run dry Why thinkest thou that He can be extinguished Grieve not the Holy Spirit He is a person; committed to you fully He has power; He giveth it fully He lives in us, wholly, wholly, wholly! – funmi aina
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