The Real Picture Of God (6)

We are still on our series THE REAL PICTURE OF GOD

Today is the 6th session on the series

We have taken several scriptures and we have seen that every scripture tells us about who God really is

And also we have seen that FEAR and LOVE cannot coexist

And last week we were able to see together what MATHEW 7:21-23 was really talking about

For tonight,are we ready?

Yes

In making us to see the real picture of God,this is also one of the things we need to know,

What matters to you matters to God.

Luke 12:6-7

6 "Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten

before God. 

7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore;

you are of more value than many sparrows.

Majority of us have the notion that we need to do somethings specially before God can reach out to us. For example when we pray,shouting when praying is not the problem,because at times you just want to express how you feel at that time,just like when you are rejoicing,you can shout and do all sort. But the notion that you need to shout when you pray before God can hear you is WRONG

Those that fall victim of this need to be taught that God is closer to them than they think

I got saved in the year 2012,and of course I had the workings Holy Spirit inside of me as a well. So I wanted to RECEIVE the baptism of the Holy Spirit

But then,after some months of 'tarrying',I was like God if I were to be you and you were to be me,I would have given you the Holy Spirit

After a year of 'waiting',I began to take God as a God that answers prayer only when He feels like.

And that notion affected the way I relate with God anytime I want to pray.

I used to pray then with Uncertainty

Some months after the 1 year,I told a friend of mine who knows more than I do about my challenge with God. How I have been begging Him for His Holy spirit and He has refused to answer me

When I was done,he said we should pray together and we did. After the prayer,He told me something that I WOULD NEVER FORGET

He said 'Samuel,God said you are not the one waiting for Him,He has been the one waiting for you since over a year ago'

That really struck me and to His glory I got baptised not too long after that time. 

The Holy Spirit is a gift,We are to RECEIVE it and not beg for it or what have you. I had no one to teach me this then,but after He (my friend) told me its not the question of HIM GIVING, ITS A QUESTION OF ME RECEIVING.

Today we talk about Empathy,God has empathy

There are times when we pray for somethings and we feel as is God refuses to answer your prayers or He doesn't care

God cares

Infact, God wants to take care of every area of your life, even the smallest detail.

He loves you so

much that He knows the number of hairs you have on your head

And if your loving

heavenly Father knows and is interested in the small details of your life, then He won't allow you to tackle any problem on your own.

You know, what we think about God goes a long way in determining whether/ how we pray or not when we face challenges

So it's important you desire to see the REAL PICTURE OF GOD

What do you do when you face challenges?

Who do you call when you are bothered?

I have an answer for over 70% of us here. 

We find it easy to call our uncle or aunty or brothers or sisters or parents when we face one trial or the other

And psychologically speaking, we do that because somewhere in our subconscious, we feel as if God is FAR from us

So He may come in late when you call Him,or His number goes on call busy

When we face challenges,the first thing the bible tells us to do is to PRAY

Have you come across this before in your bible?

James 5: 13

KJV:Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

The bible never said,

Let him call on an Uncle

Why, UNCLE COMES AND UNCLE GO

Uncle can't be there at 3am

Uncle can't help you,He never has, except God through Him reached out to you

But like I said,the reason why we still find it easy to call an Uncle is because we are also where I said I was when I wanted to be baptised with the Holy Ghost.

God is closer to you than you can ever imagine

And for those of us that doesn't call on Uncle but all we do is panic or worry when we are being afflicted,if only we know,we would choose not to be a WORRYOR

Still on 'what do you do when you are afflicted'?

Some of us says things like  'God is using it to teach me a lesson'

I will be talking about this next week. Does God uses afflictions and sickness to correct believers?

Is any among you afflicted? LET HIM (SEEK MY FACE)

Is any among you afflicted? LET HIM (TELL ME TO HELP)

Is any among you afflicted? LET HIM (JUST COMMUNE WITH ME)

Is any among you afflicted? LET HIM (FELLOWSHIP WITH ME)

Is any among you afflicted? LET HIM (LOOK UPON ME)

Is any among you afflicted? LET HIM PRAY TO ME

My friend, when you worry, you are actually believing that the devil has the power to

make inroads into your life that God cannot protect you from.

But when you pray, you are putting your faith in God.

You have more confidence in His love and

power working for you than in the devil's ability to harm you!

This wasn't what I planned for tonight anyways,but I believe God just wanted to reach out to someone

God is always waiting for you to pray to Him

So please let him be your first option when you are being afflicted

So whether God is the source of affliction or the cause of tribulations, we will see together next week. Was God responsible for Job's misfortune? We will get to know next week.

The topic will reveal more to us THE REAL PICTURE OF GOD.

The Real Picture Of God (5)

We are revealing THE REAL PICTURE OF GOD 

And today will be the 5th session on this series

And like I said earlier today,tonight's session is going to be so powerful that some of us will keep thanking me,while some of us may abuse me,and some of us will leave the group

Just kidding

In revealing the real picture of God,there are some places in the scriptures that we need to clarify,else we will find it hard in acknowledging God as who He is

What I will be teaching on tonight,wasn't what I planned to teach on.

Its still in line with the topic,but its more or less enlightening us on a commonly misinterpreted scripture in the bible

Can someone paste Mathew 7:21-24 here please

21Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.

22Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?

23And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].(C)

24So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a [p]sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock.

 I want to guess that majority of us can quote it off hand

Nevertheless,I found out so many of us have a wrong interpretation about what Jesus was talking about here

So I believe God wants to open our eyes tonight,that is why He is leading us to enlighten ourselves from this portion of the scripture

21Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.

People use this portion of the scripture to SCARE one another

Anytime someone quotes it,it promotes fear in the heart of the hearer

But I explained last week that fear and love cannot co exist

So if we are not careful,we will begin to take God as, 'God I know you love me o,and I love you too,but please don't say you don't know me on the last day'

Read the scripture in its context

Before I got the truth behind this portion,I have always been reading it based on what people have told me

I love using this illustration

When you put on a green goggle, everything you begin to see becomes green,irrespective of the colour. So the problem is not the object,it is your goggle

Not everyone who says to me Lord, lord,will enter into the kingdom of heaven

Why will the Loving Jesus say this?

Is it to scare us?

Follow me please

Let's look more closely

21Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven

First of all,in verse 21 he said, you can't enter the kingdom of heaven until you do the WILL OF THE FATHER

So what is the will of the Father

I'm coming back to answer this in a moment

22Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?

Let's also see verse 22 closely

Many will say to me on that day...

What day is Jesus talking about?

If you don't know the day He was talking about you will be apt to misinterpret that verse

I want to be sure that I'm not alone here tonight,so permit me to ask this question

Do you know about the millennium reign of Christ?

The day Jesus was referring to is that day when He is coming back NOT AS A SAVIOUR again but as a JUDGE. And when He comes,He is coming in HIS MAJESTY AND LORDSHIP, righteousness will reign on earth, there will be no more sickness,no more pain,no more shame.

Halleluyah

And at that time everyone,whether saved or not will call Him Lord,all kings and rulers whether they like it or yes will call JESUS LORD

That is the time Jesus was referring to

That time when demons and the evil ones will be the 'scale goat',that time when the bloods of the innocents will be avenged,that time evil will be in evil,the just shall be justified when they see God avenging their for them!

Everyone will refer to JESUS AS LORD

Now follow me

22Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?

So in that day(when righteousnees shall reign on earth),many will say unto me...

So that's 2

I'm coming back to this too in a moment

23And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].(C)

Then I,Jesus will say unto them publicly

Too bad

How will I receive the life of Christ and at the end of the day,Jesus will tell me openly that He doesn't know me

It is easy to conclude that that is what the bible is saying

PERMIT ME TO OPEN YOUR EYES TO WHAT JESUS WAS TRYING TO COMMUNICATE TO US THERE

IS IT LOVE OR FEAR?

Let's go back to those scriptures and see the things that are in between the lines

21Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.

22Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?

23And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I never knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].(C)

Starting from verse 23,Jesus said something very powerful

Permit me to bold it

23And then I will say to them openly (publicly), I NEVER knew you; depart from Me, you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].(C)

I believe we all understand English language

Dictionary meaning of Never at no time; on no occasion

Jesus didn't say 'I DO NOT KNOW YOU AGAIN',or 'YOU HAVE CHANGED SO MUCH(WITH YOUR MAKE UP),that I don't know you anymore'

JESUS SAID I NEVER KNOW YOU

I haven't even seen you before

There is someone in this group that is not in Nigeria,I haven't seen her before,but we chat very well,she can't say she NEVER KNOW ME,even though she does not know me.

The NEVER statement is used for a person you don't know at all at all

If you didn't see the never, you will be like me few years ago living with the fear of 'Jesus please don't fall my hands on that day o,I be your padi abeg'

I believe someone's mind is getting renewed right now

So he wasn't referring to people like us that are born again

So the word is NEVER, I no sabi you at all at all.

Interpret it in Yoruba,you will understand better

Now let's go to the next point

22 Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many mighty works in Your name?

*Many will say to me*,NOT, *I will say*

They said they did it in the name of Jesus,

Jesus didn't say they did it in his name 

THEY WILL SAY THEY DID IT IN JESUS NAME,

JESUS DIDN'T SAY THEY DID IT IN HIS NAME

I hope someone gets that

Now I explained earlier,that they will call Jesus,Lord is because the table has been turned around.

I already explained that. Jesus is in His majesty,so they will have no choice than to call Him Lord.

Then finally,verse 21

21Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven

What is the will or the father?

People scare so many people with this particular verse,but only few talk about what the will of the father is

So permit me to show you what the will of the father is from the bible

John 6:40

KJV:And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

This is the will of God,that we BELIEVE in Jesus Christ His Son(John 3:16) and then on that last day,He will raise us up

Let me tie it up tonight

I believe many of us are being ministered to tonight, I can even sense it from here

If you still see a portion of the bible and it promotes fear in your heart,please show that place to those that knows more than you do and let them explain what the bible is really talking about to you

Fear and Love cannot co exist

We are still on the boat together,and we will see more places in this journey.

The Real Picture Of God (4)

We are revealing THE REAL PICTURE OF GOD

And today will be the 4th session on this series

To start with,let me make this statement and I will explain what I mean in a jiffy

There are 2 categories of believers, those that FEAR God and those that LOVE God

Growing up as a Christian,I use to think FEAR AND LOVE can co exist, but some months ago,I found out they actually can't

I believe the reason why God wants me to take this tonight is that He wants to change someone's orientation about Him today.

If love to make this illustration

I you are putting on a green goggle(glass),without doubts everything you will be seeing will be colour green

Even if the thing is white,you will be seeing it as green,why? Because that's what you are seeing with

The green goggle

So the problem most of the Time isn't what we are looking at,what needs to be checked is our goggle

What we see with

Fear and love cannot co exist

You can't love a person and fear the person at the same time

Unfortunately many sincere believers fall into this trap,an in the process of fearing and loving God at the sane time, they end up with the wrong belief that God is disappointed with them and mad at them.

Fearing God and Loving God cannot co exist

You can't do both at the same time

Permit me to prove that to you

1John 4: 18

KJV:There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Have you ever come across that verse before?

Let's quickly compare scriptures with scriptures

Romans 8:15

KJV:For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

...spirit of bondage AGAIN to Fear....

In the old testament,when the children of Israel relates with God,they relate to him from a fearful heart and that wasn't their fault, that was the extent of their knowledge about God.

They didn't understand what LOVE really means

They served God in fear and not in Love

Here is a practical example to tell the difference between fear and Love:

Parent's relationship with their children. In your dealings with your children as a parent, there will definitely be correction and guidance,but you never want your children to fear you, or be insecure about your love for and acceptance of them. 

You correct them in love and not otherwise

And it also happens in an organization

Some of us do things at the office because we love our boss, while some of us do eye service and get somethings done unwillingly because we fear our boss.

INSECURITY AND LOVE CANNOT CO EXIST IN A TRULY INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP

Fear and insecurity will only lead to hatred. If your children fear you,they will grow up hating you.

Have you felt like hypocrites,have you once felt like stop attending church, stop reading the bible,stop talking to God in prayer?

Most of the time,if you check it very well,this feeling crept in not because you are a bad person,but because you probably just believe that God is annoyed at you at that moment,maybe because of what you did wrong or what you didn't do right.

In your relationship with friends,family,lovers and God. It's either you do things for them out of love or out of something that isn't love

1John 4: 18

KJV:There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

In the new testament FEAR means honoring,worshipping, and reverencing God as God in our lives.

So like someone asked earlier,what about the FEAR of the Lord in the book of proverbs?

Intelligent question

The Fear Solomon was referring to doesn't mean to being terrified or afraid of and threatened by God

Like I said earlier it means honoring,worshipping, and reverencing God as God in our lives!

I'm going somewhere please

Do you want to hear Jesus definition of FEAR??

something happened in Mathew 4 which I want us to see together

Where Jesus was tempted

13

KJV:Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.

That's Deuteronomy 6 :13

Jesus quote this verse when the devil tempted him

Mathew 4: 10

KJV:Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt WORSHIP the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

I hope its the same in your bible too

So if you will compare both scripture, Jesus defined Fear to be Worship

And not the FEAR as some of us take it to be today

Jesus came to make us understand that Love is greater than Fear

He gave 10 commandments in exodus

An in the new testament,he summarized them into 2

LOVE

Let me put some things together right now

I want to believe someone's mind is being renewed right now

If you have any dream or revelation or vision that promotes fear in you, ITS NOT FROM GOD

Someone asked me one day and said 'Samuel, I don't seem to understand you,you don't believe in prophecy'

And I replied, I said I do.

She said,you only believe the positive ones,I said Yes.

Because my bible told me prophecies has three purpose 

-To edify

-To exhort

-To comfort

So any thing that is otherwise will only promote fear which is not From God

If you read any portion of the bible and it doesn't portray God as a loving father,please consult people before you conclude that God is what He is not.

Love and Fear cannot co exist

That why believers that fear God will always be amazed when they see we that Love God relating to Him in some ways.

Just like Moses and the Israelites.

Moses saw the ways of God while the Israelites saw the Acts of God

One question I will be answering next week is that 'Does God punishes His children'?

You know people quote from Proverbs and say 'God chastises those he loves'..

I will explain what it means 

And other places of the bible that you are yet to be clarified on.

Cases like 'Ananias and Sapphire

We will see what God wants us to see from those places and what religion wants us to see.

So permit me to give you an assignment right now,

Write that portion of the scriptures that counters the image of God you know,and then let's see them together next week.

Jesus is the revelation of the Real picture of God!

Like I said last week, by the end of this year,on this series,we will all come to the unity of faith.

We are taking it Pocco a pocco,we will continue next week.