1. While occasionally watching tennis, I like to see how champions play with skill, stamina, strength and speed, and how they crown their efforts with a resilient frame of mind that fights until the last point. So is the walk, training, dealings and trials, from faith to charity. It should prepare us to become gland slam overcomers of this world who refuse to stop fighting/walking against its course; rising up after each fall, until we firmly and skillfully hold the mystery of faith. (Prov. 24:16, Rom. 1:17, Eph. 2:2, 1Tim. 3:9).
2. The world wants us to live in denial of the need for continuous repentance of what brought us to an estate or lifestyle that is lacking in God's power; in God’s grace and glory. There is nothing new in not repenting, and there is something new in promptly repenting; like David was trained to. It is new and celebrated even in the very presence of the angels of God, and welcomed by the Father (Lk. 15:7-24).
3. If believers can qualitatively wait for and on the revelations of God’s righteousness available today, like saints in Genesis 5 did before changing seasons to one where they had to deal with the cares of this life, we would be graced and endued with wisdom and stature to handle the pressures of today's life-draining civilization, and would also be able to better represent the interests of the Lord on earth.
4. The more we feed on the epistles with our ears, and comb through it with the eyes of our hearts and under the auspices of the Spirit of the Lord, the more of Christ we'll see, the more of His parables/mysteries we would comprehend, and the more of God we would hope for. The less we do, the more of ourselves we would see, the more of this world's hope we would nurse and the more shortsighted we would remain or become. (Isa. 55:1-3, Eph. 1:17-18, Col. 2:2, 2Pet. 1:9).
5. It is injustice against the cross of Christ, to use the outward success of ungodly men as a reference point to fellow believers in the house of the Lord, to those who were purchased by His blood, especially because there are sufficient success stories on this present/natural life - in the man Christ Jesus (Ps. 78:2-22, 1Pet. 1:18-19, 1Cor. 2:2). It is tantamount to the merchandize of replacing gold with brass in the house of God, and making men to rest their faith in the wisdom of men, rather than in the power of God. (2Chro. 12:10, 2Cor. 2:5).
6. When a body of knowledge bothers on anything truly spiritual, and doesn't have the content or ingredient of salvation in it, or it isn't tailored unto salvation, or doesn't translate to the healing of our soul's infirmities, God doesn't trust it, neither can He be pleased by it. Also, the devil understands it better, and can use/influence it to our detriment. So as far as the Lord is concerned, there are books/statements that had no business being published/made, especially when labelled with His name. (Ps. 103:2-3; 74:12; 68:20).
7. The world is the corporate adversary of the universal church, and the same enemy that Christ Jesus once faced in a different way than believers do. It is on an apostolic mission from the god of this world, and the provision of the Lord to combat it is in the true church; such as is graced with His gifts; even the five-fold ministry that is meant to checkmate its wiles. Don't joke with the five-fold; it's the Lord joker against vanity, especially when they are functioning in their priesthood. (Eph. 4:8-17).
8. God didn't wait for our prayers before giving His only begotten Son, so providing the pounds and dollars when we truly need it, and in unknown ways and means, can't be a headache to Him. We just don't truly know His terms for supernatural living, so we breach it and many a times settle for less. God’s economy (grace) has since been kept/hidden in the commandments of the epistles, and it awaits those who’ll harness it by desiring it more than the gold of this world. (2Tim. 1:5, 2Tim. 3:15, Ps. 19:10-11).
9. When a meeting that has prospects of monetary gain are proposed with clients living afar, they can travel across the Atlantic to attend same, but when a meeting has to do with the gospel; or is intended to enable believers truly appreciate in life and godliness, or to address issues bothering on the prosperity of their souls, they would have 1001 excuses not to make it because the life created by this world keeps them perpetually busy, and limits them from addressing the weightier matters of their souls. (Mal. 3:16, Lk. 14:16-20).
10. As long as men don’t grasp the first civilization of God’s faith that was offered to man in Eden and received for the first time by Jesus, they can easily be entangled by its ills ans become executive slaves of it. So what Christ did via His faith, was to initiate a contrary walk against it, even such that raises the soul of man above its wiles, and also make men become civilized citizens of God’s life/power (Hos. 6:2b-c, Jn. 5:25; 6:57, Heb. 12:9). It was once warehoused in the tree of life, but like Adam, most believers still rather choose to adventure the world, than adventure it.
Blessings!
Tayo Fasan
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