Giving Diligent Attention to the Commandments of Life

   Transcript Excerpt

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6). God is interested in man giving Him pleasure. God is not fully committed to us because we have not yet given Him the pleasure that is required. But His desire is that every one of us would give Him pleasure. This desire will be realised as we are made free from sin.

We are not on a journey without a purpose. We are not on an endless journey. We are not on a journey that has no tracker or marker. If Scriptures talked about the end of faith (1 Peter 1:9), it means our faith has an end. We began somewhere, and we should end somewhere. “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air…” (1 Cor. 9:26). We should be able to track our progressive movement in the Lord. We must not just be churchgoers or be casual in the church setting; there must be joy in our hearts as we follow the Lord to a particular end. 

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus knew the particular joy because He knew there was something set before Him, and because of what was set before Him, He could despise the cross. When we are subjected to the cross life, sometimes we feel like running away. But there was something that Jesus was seeing. There was a marker. He knew He had journeyed far after some time because He was already sighting the joy. 

“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7). The Lord sends His law our way so that it can translate to a portion of our building. The building of the Lord in us is not fully done until we do or obey the laws. Each time a minister is ministering, what they are sending to us is a building of the Lord. This building has to come by words and then exercised in us. Apostle John said it is he that doeth (obey) righteousness that is righteous (1 John 3:7). It is not the hearer of the word alone that is blessed, but the doer of the work (James 1:22). This means there is a work you are meant to do to make what is sent to you via the word to become a part of your being. We have heard of faith, hope, and charity, and we have no choice in this season but to progress and prosper more in our charity work. 

Charity has to be revealed to us. The Lord knows the particular darkness we are carrying and instructs us individually against our darkness. We have to take doing the work of Christ very seriously in this season. The actual raw material God is looking for and wants to work with is Christ. It is a mountain and a foundation that can house God. It is when we have attained the stature of Christ that God can now begin to come and pitch His tent in us. God will not come when we have not fully become Christ. We must finish our Christ. We have to do everything to obey all the laws of Christ. 

To overcome this world is not impossible. It looks far-fetched sometimes, especially when we consider 1 Corinthians 13. Most times, we wait for something big to happen to say that we have fulfilled Christ. But Christ fulfillment will be in our normal everyday life—in our relationship with our sister, mother, brother, and those around us. This world was carefully, sophisticatedly, and with precision crafted to make it difficult to escape. So, really, to escape it, one must be picking information from somewhere else.

The law of the Lord has to be coming to us to have the ability to convert our souls. They want to change our souls from a particular state to another state. There is a way the soul should be reasoning and patterned after the issue of salvation. How did Jesus live? Jesus had no business, as it were, to enter the flesh. All He entered the flesh for was to show us how to live in this flesh. 

 John 5:30

“I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”

When we are making decisions, they should not be made in isolation; our brothers or sisters and pastors should be included. The Lord should be consulted on how we deal with one another. If we do so, we will reduce our conflict by half.]

Do not take lightly the formation of Christ in your soul lightly. You must learn to profit from every law that proceeds from the mouth of Christ, for each word is a portion of your building. A house must first be built by the word before the testimony can be placed within it. Where there is no building, no testimony can abide. Every word that comes to us is a measured portion of the structure being sent. We must therefore receive the word, prosper with it, and be conscious that with each reception, a precise part of the house is completed.

The law of the Lord, as it comes to us, must convert our souls from one state to a completely different state. It must give us a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26). This new heart and new spirit are what make up the heart of flesh— the foundation upon which the everlasting God will build. A man with a heart of flesh is one who has completely become Christ: one who has overcome the world, escaping the pollution that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4). That is the man who will be built as an incorruptible habitation for the Lord.

We must desire to come to a place where God can start working. At this time, our consideration should be how to do excellently in our relationships with one another; we must examine our thoughts regarding each other.

Christ is a tool for purging the soul and bringing it out of the pollution that is in this world; it is what makes the soul fit for the mountain. God appears on the mountain, therefore we must do all the preparations required to get to the top of the mountain. We arrive at the top of the mountain by exercising ourselves in our relationships, as Paul admonished in the Scriptures (Acts 24:16).

Man is bent over. What God desires to do is make us erect by sending the law. When a man is erect, God can then begin the work. The law is making us righteous, turning us right-side up. When some people get born again, they remain bent, still seeking the things that are beneath. If a man refuses to live by charity, he is seeking the life beneath, which is the life of fallen creatures tied to death.

We are in a very beautiful season, and we must be encouraged to fight to finish our walk of charity. It must not end as just esoteric knowledge, where we can explain the divisions between faith, hope, and charity. Rather, it must become the life we live. We must use these things to deal with the wrong nature in us.

The nature of God is unchangeable. He is eternally saved—saved from every corruption in the world, irrespective of anything the devil brings up. This is what He desires: to save you to the uttermost, until your nature is as His.

Each law from the Lord that comes to us ought to convert our souls to the base minimum – Christ, one whom God can use. Yet we sometimes fight against the law, reconverting our souls back to what God desires to save us from, by not giving ourselves to the change that comes with the law. We must be true to ourselves, allowing the word of the Lord to change us, so that we can bring forth offerings in righteousness.

“Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.” ‭‭(1 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭15‬). Our profiting will not appear until we give ourselves wholly to the law of the Lord. We must give ourselves wholly to the instructions the Lord brings to us concerning our relationships.

Blessings!

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