KINGDOM, LAW AND FAITH

There are three things among other things that GOD cherishes in our relationship and work with HIM. If these three things are taking seriously at heart, our relationship and work with GOD will be inseparable.

As the KING, GOD has a Kingdom and a Kingdom cannot function without Laws that would guide and inform the Kingdom’s purpose of existence. So, if The Kingdom and Law are the elements of ruling the hearts of men, what is the need for Faith? How helpful is Faith to the KING and HIS people?

KINGDOM AND LAW

Generally, the law can be a set of instructions written in order to guide a system for the purpose of functioning according to design. This means that law does not create a Kingdom but guides to function according to the Creator. There would always be satisfaction if the Kingdom is always functioning as it needs to function and even though the Kingdom is not created by the law, they must equally emerge from the same source.

In ancient times, it is often said that the king is the law i.e. Whatever the king declares stands as the law people should live by. In the Kingdom of the LORD, the Word of GOD is the Law because HE is what HE says and the Spirit from which the Words HE speaks from is the embodiment of HIS kingdom. According to the Holy Bible, the summary of the Kingdom of the LORD is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This means that whoever is living in the reality of the Kingdom of the LORD, these three things must be his reality and this can only be possible if the Laws of the KING are being kept sincerely and cheerfully.

FAITH

According to the book of Hebrew, Faith is the substance of the things hoped for and the evidence of the things not seen . . . So how does Faith relates to the Kingdom of the LORD and the Laws governing it?

From the Scriptures, it is evident that:

1. Law of GOD = HIS Word
2. Word of GOD = HIS person or Who HE is
>>>Therefore, The Law of GOD = GOD HIMSELF

Also,

1. Kingdom of GOD: King’s Domain
2. Domain: Everything was made by HIS Word

This means that whatever we see and not see i.e. whatever we know to be existing and the ones we are not aware of their existence were made by GOD’s Word. They are all from GOD. “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof . . .”

So, GOD asking us to have Faith is a way of saying that:

“I am My Word and My Word is Law; My Kingdom is a part of Me that I have spread in the hearts of My people on earth and even upon the earth itself. My Kingdom and My Law are both products of My Spirit. Can you just obey ME when I say a word to you in form of a command? Since I am the Law and you have accepted this same Law, can you just do things only because I say so even though it may not make sense in the immediate?”

If GOD speaks and HIS words become law and everything we see are products of the same words, it means there is more to GOD that can only be accessed through a relationship with HIS person. Faith is more of our relationship with the KING that founded the Kingdom and made the Law . . . If we accept the person of GOD and HIS Son JESUS CHRIST, then the Law would be natural to live by and the Kingdom will be our abode even as HE abides in us.

Faith is allowing GOD to live out HIS Kingdom and Laws from our within . . . Selah!

#AboveAndFulfillingTheLaw
#HIM

The C.U.P of Ministry

2Corinthians 6: 4-10

There are many people claiming to be ministers of the LORD before men and they present themselves as such before men. But according to the original design, ministry goes a long beyond proclamation and presentation. In truth, proclamation of a minister should be left to GOD and presentation as one before men is a later stage in the process of making a minister.

There are some inner workings that the prospective minister must have gone through before GOD can present him before men. The ministry of every man to GOD has it’s own cup just like when JESUS had its own during HIS time. This cup has been duly mentioned by Paul . . . Pointing to the three major attributes that would present one as a true minister of the LORD whose goal is to do the will of the LORD by ministering the LORD to the people according to GOD’s particular instructions:

1. CONDITIONS

“But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of GOD: IN much patience, IN tribulation, IN needs, IN distresses, IN stripes, IN imprisonments, IN tumults, IN labours, IN sleeplessness, IN fastings.”

Why does the Scripture made mention of bad and cruel scenarios only? Is it that ministers only function in bad conditions?

The truth is that in favourable conditions, everything always seems so obvious and flourishing . . . the abundance and superfluity of things make even the works of a self-acclaimed minister abound effortlessly. But true ministers abound both in favourable and trying times. For them, persecution and tribulations are like fire to their gold.

So if you want to know a true minister of GOD, wait till the trying times seasons and those who are ministers only in the times of abundance would be blown away like chaffs; leaving behind the abounding ministers whose strengths are not found in the abundance of things but in abundance of their communion with GOD. Even in abundance of things, they are not without distinction for they are given to fated life . . . a life that understands that expediency should be pursued over lawfulness because they are Nazarites of GOD.

2. UMPIRES

“But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of GOD: BY purity, BY knowledge, BY longsuffering, BY kindness, BY the HOLY SPIRIT, BY sincere love, BY the WORD of Truth, BY the power of GOD, BY the armour of righteousness on the right and on the left, BY honour and dishonour, BY evil report and good report.”

Even though our liberty is potent and sure as the day and night, there are boundaries and gracious guides on how we are to minister the LORD to the people HE has sent us to. There are umpires of ministration and they must be what we should operate by if we desire to have good success in the assignments GOD has given us to do.

In the ministration that GOD approves, anything cannot go . . . there are always instructions and guides to follow and specific path to tread if we want to reach the destination GOD has at heart for both the minister and the ministered. To be what GOD wants the people to be, ministers are also meant to be what HE wants them to be first. By this, ministers can also serve as umpires, having embodied all that GOD wants the peoe to know,learn and ultimately embody.

Ministers must know that the deciders of what is good or evil is GOD and even though what is done is good or evil before men, it does not change GOD’s view or perspective. Whatever reservations we have must be subjected under the umpires that GOD had set for any mission to be successful according to HIS will . . . this means that there are ministers who do not operate under the umpires of GODly operations because they are always thinking about the perceptions and perspectives of those who are to be ministered into than the author of the ministration.

3. PRESENTATIONS/POSTURES

“But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of GOD: AS deceivers, and yet true; AS unknown, and yet well known; AS dying, and behold we live; AS chastened, and yet not killed; AS sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; AS poor, yet making many rich; AS having nothing, and yet possessing all things”

GOD has a way if fashioning out strength from what seems weak not because what is strong is not strong but so that HE could render the wisdom and strength of the world that so hates HIM and that HE cannot reconciled with. And this may not be because what is weak is actually weak but because the world has tagged it as weak in their own shallow and unGODly reasoning. So GOD in HIS sovereignty would work out HIS will in a way that would shatter the systems and beliefs of the world.

This would be the lot of ministers: for them to be relevant in the kingdom of GOD, they must seem useless and unprofitable to the kingdom of the world. They must choose to be covert and unseen even when the world is continuously reaching out to them. By this GOD would be ‘successful’ in fashioning out HIS will in and through them. Even CHRIST forsook all so that HE could minister salvation to mankind; posing as what HE is above and partaking in the lot of people HE had come to save.

Most times, many ministers tend not to adhere accurately to this attribute of a minister because after all they have gone through and all they have attained in stature and resources, they find it hard to pose as below their true stature . . . many revel in this attainment thereby failing to minister the LORD to the people they are sent to. In their own reasoning, they have worked so hard for the extraordinary that they could no more now to live the ordinary life needed to reach those who are yearned to be misnistered unto. They fail to realize that GOD has chosen to use the weak and te foolish things to confound the strong and the wise in this world. Unless they see themselves as weak and poor before the LORD, HE cannot fashion out out HIS strength and wisdom in and trough them as HE used to do before they became ‘great’. A minister may be a great man but his success according to the will if the LORD would be determined by HIS willingness to go so low for the sake of CHRIST and the ministry to HIM by GOD.

#HIM

Comfort and Suffering

 

2Corinthians 1: 3-7

Many have mastered that art of reaping and sowing . . . “If you do this, you will get that . . .” And due to this, they would not do anything without a motive attached to it or a promise of what needs to be gotten because something has been done. The motive being the hope of getting things that exchange the feeling of what is lost with the feeling of abundance of what is lost. This mentality has found its way into the core of the Church.

We see comfort as a means of GOD consoling us for the suffering we have passed through for the sake of the Gospel. We see consolation as GOD telling us to relax and enjoy the fruit of our labour and because of this, we have turned the work of GOD to the equivalent of the world’s kind of sacrifice before getting what is hoped for.

The world sees endurance as a means of waiting till you lay your hands on what is here on earth but GOD wants us to endure so that in this present time and at the earth’s very end, HE would reward us with HIMSELF. HE said we are not of this world even though we are in the very middle of it . . . This means that whatever we do here on earth is for the purpose of standing strong before HIM. So to a man given to GOD and HIS SON, both comfort and suffering are tools for advancing GOD’s Kingdom and spreading the Gospel of CHRIST.

The purpose of enduring hardship is for the sake of letting the Gospel touch the hearts of men . . . if the only way to reach their hearts is to humble ourselves to the basest, then that is what needs to be done. And if by means of this GOD rewards our toils by providing what we lack in the times of suffering, it is so that we can use this reward to reach out more to men or to those who can be reached by utilizing these rewards/consolation.

In the bid to reach out to hearts with the rewards we received from HIM, it is possible we go back to where we were before – ‘in the suffering state’. This simply means that our comfort and suffering are both channeled into the furthering of GOD’s Kingdom and JESUS’ Gospel. No matter the situation we find ourselves, GOD and HIS Kingdom; JESUS and HIS Gospel should be our priority in any condition. Our suffering must not hinder our services to the Kingdom and being in the state of comfort must not make us relent in sharing the Gospel of CHRIST in Truth. It is the faithful services we offer to HIM regardless of our situation that informs HIM of the quality of our devotion.

The ultimate comfort or consolation is in the knowledge and the realization that we will be with HIM and also be like HIM in the end. The consolation of this world could make one very entitled and loose focus on the ultimate and eternal consolation – HIMSELF! We must know that both comfort and suffering are tools and means to an end that GOD has at heart for all that would make HIM their LORD and KING!

#HIM