SIX DIMENSIONS OF GRACE!

This message is an abridged version of my first teaching in this year's Word and Glory Invasion Conference!

The grace of God is what separates us from the Old covenant saints. The Bible tells us that Moses, brought the law to God’s people, but Jesus Christ, brought grace and truth.

The Bible goes on further to tell us that the law was weak, because it did not give the; people the power to be able to keep it, but from our study today, you will see that grace did.

The grace of God, is not the freedom to be bound by a habit, and still be a Christian, it is not the ability to fall into more sin and be forgiven. The grace of God, will not be made more available, to those who willfully and knowingly, decide to continue in sin.

WHAT GRACE IS

A SAVIOUR

 We can see this from the book of Titus chapter 2 and verse 11:

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

This portion of the scripture tells us that grace brings salvation, in other words, grace is a savior. You and I can still see a further explanation of this from Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 5:

5 Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved ;).

The above scripture again tells us that we are saved by grace, and not of works. This is repeated even more clearly in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8:

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and not by yourselves: it is the gift of God:

A TEACHER

Grace is a teacher, in Titus chapter 2 and verse 12 again, we read another important side of what grace does:

12 Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should learn to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Grace teaches us to deny ungodliness, it teaches us to deny worldly lusts, it teaches us to live soberly, it teaches us to live righteously. Grace in no way teaches us lewdness, seduction, fornication or adultery. Grace teaches us self-control. Therefore, when a man or a woman or a church is struggling with sin, there are two things that may be involved.

The first is that it may be that he or she has not yet received the teaching of grace, or has not received grace, has received the grace of God in vain.

GRACE: THE POWER OF GOD AND THE STRENGHT OF CHRIST

In the Book of 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Apostle Paul talks about thorn that he had in his flesh. This was a messenger of Satan that was sent to buffet him and he said that he prayed about it so many times. The Lord spoke to him and here is what he said:

9 And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Jesus said that his grace was and of course is still sufficient for Paul, you and I if we believe. He goes on to explain that this grace is his strength, which is made more abundant to strengthen you in your weakness. Apostle Paul later called it, the power of Christ. Grace is therefore the power to resist sin.

THE ANOINTING/ THE MIRACLE WORKING POWER OF GOD

In the Book of Acts chapter 4, we read about the great manifestations of the power of God that took place as the Apostles prayed together. Peter and John had healed a lame man. They then went ahead to explain to the elders and leaders of the synagogue who threatened them to stop using the name of Jesus. In Acts chapter 4 verses 31-33, we see the manifestation of power and great grace, leading to signs, miracles and wonders.

GRACE IS A TRANSFORMER (it changes lives).

In the Book of 1 Timothy chapter 1 verses 11-14, Apostle Paul explains how that he was a wicked and an injurious man to the body of Christ, but the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, changed his entire life.

11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry;

13 Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious: but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

14 And the grace of our LORD was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Jesus Christ.

In the last verse, which is 14, Paul the Apostle explains how that he obtained his change-it was by the grace of our Lord.

You can still prove the transforming power of grace further from what Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 10:

10 But by the grace of God, I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than them all: yet not I but the grace of God which was with me.

I am what I am by the grace of God, actually means; I became who I am now, by the transforming power of the grace of God. Note also, that he talked about how that grace enabled him to do more work than all the other apostles.

GRACE IS HELPER

In Hebrews chapter 4 and verse and verse 6, Apostle Paul, explains another side of grace-the enabler, or the help:

6 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in the time of need.

Conclusion-the grace of is a person-Jesus Christ the son of God.

Song: Jesus-God’s righteousness revealed!

INTRODUCING THE 2014 WORD AND GLORY INVASION CONFERENCE!

It is my pleasure to inform all my readers on Blogger about the 2014 Word and Glory invasion Conference. This Conference which is supposed to take place on the 15th and 16th of November 2014, will be taking place at the famous Ikwuano Plaza, Km 1, Ikot Ekpene Road, Umuahia Nigeria.
Ministering in this year's Word and Glory Invasion Conference, is Evangelist Chris Akosa. Evangelist Akosa is man of God that I have known since I was as young as 20. He was one of the ministers that touched my life as a student and (a member) one of the leaders of the Student Christian Movement of Nigeria-Enugu Campus.
He is the President of the Abundant life Fellowship, in Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria.He also, conducted our commissioning as leaders of the Nigeria Christian Corpers Fellowship-Benue State Nigeria, in 1995. I was at that time elected the Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Corpers' Fellowship, Benue State Chapter. He is an anointed evangelist.
Also ministering in this year's programme are several ministers of music: number one on the list is Ezzy Tee, one of Nigeria's very talented gospel artiste, with number of good recorded albums, and his songs have have been enjoying good airplay on radio stations like Vision Africa Radio, in Umuahia-Nigeria.
Also ministering is a young Saxophonist whose talent has taken him ti minister in several places including the Faith Tabernacle-Ota, the largest church Building in the world.
There are others like Mike Eben and the prestigious crew- a group of young upcoming artistes, including singers, songwriters, instrumentalists of all sorts, dancers, choreographer, decorators, and so on and so forth.
I will be personally ministering, alongside with these.
On Sunday afternoon, also, my new gospel CD, titled: I choose to believe, will be presented for the first time to the public, for official release. The promotional songs are already on 6 radio stations at least, also on hulkshare, and reverbnation.
This year's programme, will never be forgotten!

THE BEAUTY OF FOCUS IN LIFE, ESPECIALLY THE LIFE OF THE WORD OF GOD!

One of the things that I like so much about the Book of Proverbs is the ability of the wisest man who ever lived,(I believe, apart from Christ), to give instructions that can apply to everyone and anyone in spite of their age and time of existence.

In the Book of Proverbs chapter 4 generally and especially verses 20-27, we can read the most profound instructions from a father to his son, on how to have a focused and thereby a successful life.

Paying attention to the word of God

In verse 20-22(AMP) of the Book of Proverbs, we read as follows:

“20 My son attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings.

21 Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart.

22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh”.

These three verses of scripture bring out what I will call-the what, where, and the why, of the word of God.

Concerning the what, the wise man by the Holy Spirit tells you and I how precious the most important commodity-ever is. Why do I call it a commodity, because the Bible says-Buy the truth and sell it not!

And so He instructs us to go for the most important thing and pay attention to it and hear it all the time.

Concerning the where of the word of God, He tells us to store it in our hearts or spirits. The human spirit is the Centre of man, and the word of God is the raw material for building up the human spirit. In the Book of Acts, we read, Acts chapter 20 and verse 32:

“32 And now brethren: I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance amongst them who are sanctified”.

So it takes the word stored in your spirit, to build you up, but it also takes the word to renew your mind. The Bible tells us in the Book of Romans chapter 12 and verses 1-2, that if your mind is not renewed, you will not know the different phases or types of the will of God.

Lastly on the instructions concerning the word, let us look at the why of the word of God: verse 22 of the same scriptures tells us that the word of God gives life to those who find it, and is medicine to all their flesh.

What does He mean by the word of God giving life to those who find it? The word of God, is anointed, the word of God carries creative and healing power. If the word of God has the ability to create life, it sure has the ability to sustain life.

The Bible tells us in the Book of John chapter 1 that the word of God was here right from the beginning, and all things were made by him, without him was not anything made that was made.

Jesus went on and said, “The words that I speak to you they are spirit and they are life”!

Therefore, it is easy to see that the word of God is the giver and sustainer of all life!

Guarding your heart or spirit against the interference of negative influences.

Again in the next verse, which is verse 23, we read another very important instruction as follows:

“23 Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance, and above all that you guard, for out it flow the springs of life”.

This scripture is very important, the heart here refers to your spirit, and your mind is the doorway to your spirit. Therefore whatever goes on in your mind, affects your spirit because it will eventually find its way into that place if care is not taken.

The mind is the battleground; devils are able to insert things into your mind, if you let them. They can suggest for you to go and sleep with someone not your spouse, and if you are not careful, you will stomach it. They can tell you that you will never be healed because God does not love you, and you will believe it. These days, we are told that there are mind reading satellites, and occultism has extended to the mind and is now wreaking havoc in many places.

Occult mind readers are able to search out secrets and can harm you if you not grounded in the word of God, based on the apparently true things that they can fling out from your mind.

Avoiding the evil tongues

As you continue to read, He continues to instruct via the wise man in chapter4 and verse 24:

“24 Put away from you false and dishonest speech, and willful and contrary talk, put far from you”.

I love the way the King James Version of the Bible wrote this part, it tells you to put away from you, the froward mouth and to stay away from perverse speech.

Now putting the two scriptures together, it means to put away from you, in terms of either you speaking falsely or in a dishonest manner, or you hearing it from somebody else.

It equally means that we should not allow those who speak foul and immoral language or talk to hang around us speaking vile and foul things that will eventually find their way into your heart or mine, and corrupt us or corrupt the anointing inside us.

The necessity: why you ought to be focused, persistent and consistent.

The last three verses from the eight verses of scripture mentioned above, lay emphasis on why you and I should be focused in all that we do, let us look at them (25-27):

“25 Let your eyes look right on [with fixed purpose], and let your gaze be straight before you.

26 Consider well the path of your feet, and let your ways be established and ordered aright.

27 Turn not aside to the right hand or to the left; remove your foot from evil”.

In life there are many ways that the devil strives to distract us. The enemy comes from or through our friends, as well as through our enemies, to throw things at us. He never gives up on this. If you have never been fought left and right by the wicked, in an effort to push you off from your divine destiny and purpose, you will never know what am talking about.

If you have not yet encountered people whom what they have can never be enough for them, what things they have achieved in their lives are never enough for them, and the devil tells them that unless they take away the one God gave you, they are nothing. These are people some of who are in our churches, but they cannot recognize the voice of the devil, neither can they discern that they are deceived and going to hell because of their folly, are those you and I need to be very careful with.

You and I need to be careful how we let the devil talk to us or to our destiny through them, because it matters who you listen to and respond to.

In another important scripture, the wise man says to us: When sinners entice you, consent thou not, that is in Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 10:

“1 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not”KJV.

It is very easy to give in to peer pressure especially for children, and also for women who want to fit in amongst their friends. It is a common fact today that there are women who have gotten involved in all manner of sexual immorality, just so that they can be hailed or rated highly among their unbelieving friends. These were people who once professed Jesus Christ as their Lord.

In the same vein, some men who claim to be Christians are visiting shamans and spiritualist to be rich, or have even joined cults. These things are evidence that a man or a woman’s life is not focused or secure in the God.

As a result of this spiritual inattentiveness, failure and defeat are inevitable because a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Finally, let us remember to continually give ourselves wholly to the word of God as Paul instructed Timothy, to always study and meditate on the word of God. If we can only continue to do this, it won’t be long before our profiting from the word, will become evident to all!

UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF THE GLORY OF GOD

We often hear the word ‘glory’, used every now and then. I am sure that you love to hear the word glory, just as I do. Have you ever wondered what exactly is the true is the true meaning of the word -glory?

Depending on your usage and your objective or motive, the word has many different meanings which are good. It is the same with the scriptural usage of the word. There are different places where the word is used in the Bible, and each of these, you will find out, or most of them, mean different things.

I will be illustrating from the scriptures, and you will find out at least six different meanings, with some of them closely related.

1.   Heaven and the atmosphere of heaven!

One of the meanings of glory which I love the most is that glory, in some places in the scripture, refers to heaven and its atmosphere. We can see this from the Book of 1Timothy chapter 3, and verse 16. Here we read as follows:

16“And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God  was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles,believed on in the world, received up into glory”

God-talking about Jesus, was received up into heaven: he ascended up into heaven according to the Book of Acts, with his disciples watching him. This happened on Mount Olives. In this sense of usage of the word-glory, the Bible talks about heaven and its atmosphere. See also, Luke 2:9, and John1:14.

2. Beauty

Again, from 1 Chronicles chapter 16 and verse 27, we read as follows:

27 “Glory and honor are in His presence; strength and gladness, are in His place”.

This particular reference to glory refers to beauty, and by extension-a heavenly atmosphere.

This atmosphere of beauty is made beautiful by two things, which I am going to talk about next, which are also interchangeably used with the word-glory. This takes us to the next word and scriptures:

 

 

2. Praise and worship

Again, in 1 Chronicles chapter 16, verses 28 and 29, we read as follows:

28 “Give unto the Lord ye, kindred of the people, give unto the LORD, glory and strength.

29 Give unto the Lord, the glory due unto his name: bring an offering and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness”.

Here in these verses of scripture, you can see that glory refers to the worship of God. When the Bible says give unto the Lord glory, it means, bring your offering, praise and worship the Lord, and create an atmosphere of heaven, for God to inhabit.

In that atmosphere of heaven, we have a very important personality-the most important:

4. God Himself

The presence of God himself is glory. We will explain this from the Bible using three simple scriptures. Firstly, in Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, we read as follows:

23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Secondly, in Exodus chapter 16 and verse 10, we read as follows:

10 “And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel that they looked towards the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud”.

What the Lord showed in the cloud, was himself, the Lord appeared to them. And if you study from the same Book and other Pentateuch, you will see the instructions of the Lord concerning what the children of Israel are supposed to do, so as to experience his glory (his presence). You will find this in Leviticus 9:6, and Leviticus 23.

Again in Exodus chapter 24 and verse 19, we read as follows:

19 “And there, I will meet the children of Israel, and the Tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory”.

God was saying here that when He meets Israel here, the tabernacle shall be sanctified by His glory or His presence. This can help you to understand the scripture better that says, in Romans ,chapter 3 and verse 23, that ‘All have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God’.

When man fell,  his sin cut him off from the presence or the glory of God.

Therefore, without God himself, there is no glory. You will understand this better, by reflecting on the fact the Bible tells us, that there is also the glory of man. This refers to the full weight of a man, his substance, and his authority.

Something exciting happens in the presence of God, and that takes us to the fifth Bible usage and meaning of the word-glory.

5. Joy (The Joy of the Lord)

The Bible uses the word glory, occasionally interchangeably, with the word joy. The reason for this is that heaven is a place of joy, and in Psalm 16 and verse 11, we read as follows:

11 “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore”.

Thus in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 9, verses 23-24, we read as follows:

23 “Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

24 But let him that glory, glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the LORD which exercises loving kindness, righteousness, and judgment, in these things I delight saith the LORD.”

Looking at the word glory in the above scriptures, you can understand that God is talking about rejoicing, or celebrating, or being prideful. He is saying, rejoice in one thing-that you know me, and my ways (summary is mine).

Lastly, but not necessarily, all there is to the word glory, we have the sixth usage or meaning, of the word glory-God’s miracle working power.

6. God’s miracle working power

In John chapter 11 and verses 39- 40, we read as follows:

39 “Jesus said, “Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

40 Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?           

Jesus was, that if Martha believed, she was going to see, God’s miracle working power, and she eventually saw it. She saw it when her brother was raised from the dead.

Finally, in Roman’s chapter 6, and verse 4, we read about how that the power of God raised Jesus from the dead:

4 “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life”.

It was God’s glory-Himself, with his miracle power, that raised Jesus from the dead!