Saturday, 17 March 2018

COVENANT RIGHTS AND BLESSINGS




“And he was pleased with the girl and was kind to her; and he quickly gave her what was needed for making her clean, and THE THINGS WHICH ARE HERS BY RIGHT, and seven servant-girls who were to be hers from the king's house: and he had her and her servant-girls moved to the best place in the women's part of the house” Esther 2:9 BBE
                                                                                                    
Once we come into the Kingdom of God as believers having accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, there are certain rights and privileges that we come into automatically as sons and daughters of God. Can you imagine that Esther, an orphan and a slave girl coming into the King’s palace and her status changed immediately. She was treated with royalty, given a plush apartment to live with seven maids at her beck and call. From then on, she eats of the king’s delicacies and come into a realm of affluence, authority and prosperity. “Blessed be the Lord, who daily load us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah” [Psalms 68:19]       
                                   
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heal all thy diseases; Who redeem thy life from destruction; who crown thee with loving kindness and tender mercies; Who satisfies thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. The LORD executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed” Psalms 103:2-6                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                  
The benefits that God daily load us with are numerous and abundant, we are the apple of God’s eyes, He perfects all that concerns us and make sure that we do not lack because all things are created in this planet for our pleasure.

“As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king's sons…So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he did eat continually at the king's table; and was lame on both his feet… And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely show thee KINDNESS for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will RESTORE thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt EAT BREAD at my table continually.”   2 Sam. 9:11, 13, 7
                                                                                                                           
King David remembered the covenant that he cut with Jonathan the son of king Saul and so he showered KINDNESS on Mephibosheth, all that belong to Saul was RESTORED to him, a villa was given him in the King’s palace, he ate at the King’s table continually and he walk continually in the corridors of power and authority. That is what adoption does for all believers in Christ Jesus who come to reside in the King’s palace [Kingdom of God].   
                           
“…ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” Romans 8:15-17
                                                                                                                                   
We have been graciously bestowed the Spirit of God that we might know those great and mighty things that have been given unto us [1 Cor. 2:12]. These things were given to us because we have been adopted as legitimate sons and daughters of the heavenly Father such that we are coopted into sonship and given such rights just like our big brother Jesus Christ the Son of God [Gal. 4:5-7, Eph. 1:5; Eph. 1:11-14]. Jesus Christ even said the glory that the Father gave Him, He has given it to us believers … His brothers and Sisters. Together with Christ we have inherited the grace, glory, power and blessings of our heavenly Father.   

All believers have been given the Holy Spirit as the down payment for all inherited virtues in God such that with Him all other inheritance is guaranteed to be given to us. This Spirit of God also reveals the truth in us such that we are free from the spirit of bondage, remember that we shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free [John 8:32].

“Whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” This is the highest form of confidence. I get the picture of a cub of a great lioness sitting in the bosom of his mother who protects, trains, guard, and feed and become an emblem of dominion for when she roars all other animals in the forest flee. Or can we look at what happens when one is adopted by the President of a great nation like United States of America such that there is an immediate change of status once the adoptee Father sign on the dotted lines of the adoption contract or covenant.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion…And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that move upon the earth” Gen. 1:26-28
                                                                                                                                     
In the very beginning, God created man as His sons and daughters, for only such created being can bear the image and likeness of the father! God created us such that we can become the territorial commanders, dominators or His ambassadors on earth. Such powers bestowed upon us made us to be blessed, multiply, subdue, replenish and have dominion over all other creations on planet earth while the plants and animals are given to us as food.

Do not allow the devil to barrage your mind as if you are still under bondage, our status changed the day we accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; old things are passed away while all things have been made new [2 Cor. 5:17]

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hang on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” Galatians 3:13-14                                    
It is the same blessings upon men in the very beginning that was restored when Jesus Christ went to the cross. We are now REDEEMED and RESTORED! Every precious promise of God can also be appropriated by us THROUGH faith in the finished work at Calvary. We are delivered, sanctified, justified, blessed beyond measures, anointed, empowered to prosper and have the promise to be glorified. The same promise to be HEIR of the world given to Abraham has now been conferred upon believers through the righteousness of faith [Romans 4:13].

“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS?” Romans 8:31-32                                              
God told our father Abraham “in blessing, he would bless him; and in multiplying, he would multiply him; that his seed WILL possess the gate of his enemies; and that in him all the nations of the earth should be blessed” [Genesis 22:16-19]; If Levi paid tithe in Abraham, it simply means Levi also received all these blessings in Abraham therefore as covenant believers born after the order of Abraham, we also are partakers of these blessings.

Will God not give BELIEVERS all that was SPIRITUALLY, PHYSICALLY, MATERIALLY, and FINANCIALLY intended by these promises including good health, deliverance and sound mind? God’s only begotten Son was sacrificed in order to purchase every blessing that the soul of man will need and we have the assurance that the hand of God will dispense it all! No good thing will God withhold from the righteous [Psalms 84:11]. I have been young and now old, I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor their descendant begging for bread … Impossible! [Psalms 34:27]

Friday, 16 March 2018

LAWFUL BUT NOT EXPEDIENT





LAWFUL BUT NOT EXPEDIENT

“When she went from the harem to the palace, she could WEAR WHATEVER SHE WANTED…When her turn came, she wore just what Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the harem, advised her to wear”
                                                                                         Esther 2:13, 15 Good News 

There are things that we do as believers that are legitimate and not out-rightly sinful but could negatively affect us if we are brought under its power or it has taken over our lives that we are hereby subjected to it. 

“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities” 
                                                                                                                       1 Tim. 5:23
 
We are quick to say that Paul told Timothy to take wine because it is medicinal to the infirmity that was affecting him then but if he is brought into bondage by imbibing wine to the point of overuse, he will be drunk to stupor most times and will constitute what is not beneficial or expedient to his spiritual walk. It is called alcohol abuse!
Disciplining of our children is lawful and we were told not to spare the rod but overly chastising them with rod is what is called child abuse. Looking good is allowed in Christendom but a woman who uses too much make up, dress provocatively with too much perfume will look like an harlot. 

Moderacy is essential and important for all believers.

Whatever we do must be agreeable to modesty, decency, order, and purity. It is contrary to the established usages of the best and most enlightened believers, and should not be tolerated in the Church of Christ.

“And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king…But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself” 
                                                                                                                          Dan 1:5, 8 

Some things are abominable, hereby forbidden by the law of God such as eating meats offered to idols, will almost necessarily lead to bad moral consequences and we should not partake of it just like Daniel purposed not to defile himself with the King’s delicacies sacrificed to idols [the meat were of unclean beasts which were forbidden by the Jewish law]. Like Daniel we must rather obey God than obey our appetite hereby satisfying our earthly craving, bodily pleasure and indulgence. We must not eat certain things though we have knowledge that it is nothing so that we should by this not offend and grieve many weak minds.

A man is brought under the power of anything which he cannot give up. He is the slave of that thing, whatsoever it be, which he cannot relinquish; and then, to him, it is sin. Sex is ordained by God between a man and woman that are married but it is either fornication or adultery when it is done outside wedlock or between a married man with an unmarried woman or vice versa. Even too much indulgence in sex between married folks is not the best. Much time should be allocated to spiritual matters else we will be earthly, sensual and if care is not taken demonic.

Esther came into an influential position and a beneficial or profitable change from living in a shanty with Modecai to living in the palace where everything were at her fingertip or disposal, and for her using pleasure but these things did not get to her head nor did she loose spiritual decorum because of them. She maintained her sanctity and not yield to the pressure of the world system in walking in the flesh and fulfilling the lust thereof. Her ears were opened to obey the dictates of the Spirit and so she did not fall off from serving God in truth and the Spirit.

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you…”
                                                                                                                     1 Cor. 6:9-11

Believers must not be subject to impure influences. Our affections, likes and cares must not be defiled. When our morality and integrity loses its authority to keep us on the path of godliness, there will be nothing to prevent our souls from becoming the slaves of the most debasing influences or evil powers. Such performances must be inconsistent with truth and righteousness, once truth that sets free is negated then all that is left will be bondage, slavery, oppression, depression or captivity to powers of darkness because these unrighteous acts will negate such persons from inheriting the kingdom of God.

“Someone may say, "I'm allowed to do anything," but not everything is helpful. I'm allowed to do anything, but not everything encourages growth” 
                                                                                         1 Cor. 10:23 God’s Word Bible

Paul a man full of wisdom speaking about godliness and piety said it is not everything that seems good that will help our Christian Life or will hasten our spiritual growth. And we know that we will be stagnant, stunted or even retrogress if we are not growing in the things of the spirit.