MY BIRTHDAY TESTIMONY

So nothing yesterday actually went as planned, but I really did have a great time. I was supposed to travel, I didn't. I went to the studio for nice shots, I got terrible shots (or maybe I'm the one that is not fine enough), hmm.....putting it all together though, I eventually had fun, thank God!

Yesterday was actually a picture of what the last 2 years have been like. Since I dropped my pen as a student for the last time on June 12, 2013, literally nothing (well, almost nothing) has gone as planned; however, at the end of it all, I have every reason to say "blessed be God!" This testimony is about God's faithfulness.

From the moment I passed my final exams, my life seems to have gone on "pause" again & again: from the sudden postponement of our induction to the wait before finally getting a housemanship placement in the Military hospital; the strike halfway through housemanship (hmmm.....strike of life!), the 6-month "home-punishment" by the the Nigerian Army authorities, especially that wonderful Major-General (bless his soul!) and the recent delay in NYSC mobilization. Through all these things, my "personal calendar" has been edited, adjusted, thrown out, picked up, reset, rewritten & ultimately (in utter annoyance) done away with!

Am I writing this to rant and rave & call a pity party? Like Paul said: God forbid! I am writing this to say that in all these things, God is faithful! I once planned to be married before 25 years, be a consultant in OB/GYN before 30 years and leave the medical field by the age of 40 years, like a boss! I became 25 yesterday and I haven't put an engagement ring on her finger yet; I have to conquer NYSC before I can even start the OB/GYN residency program. Maybe I can still do the third one, or maybe not. All that matters now is to be in step with the Master. You see the change? It's no longer about running at top speed to get to specific landmarks, it's about being in prepared places at prepared times with prepared people doing prepared good works. Do I then allow the devil to throw spanners in the works & attribute it to God? A thousand times NO! Anywhere I sense him doing his nasty deeds, I'll hammer him with the Word, because I've had enough!

So, in the last 2 years, I was supposed to finish housemanship & NYSC; I didn't, but I finally finished housemanship Mondays ago with excellent ratings, remarks and lots of favour testimonies & happy stories. Bless God, it feels so good to finally be a medical officer! I was supposed to make a certain amount of money just by going to work & being a conscientious house officer. I don't even want to start about the money, but God has been my provider. Still expecting my remaining money from the Ministry of Defence though! I know they're God-fearing & now Buhari-fearing, they will pay. Amen! I'm supposed to be married, at least according to previous calculations. Well, I'm married to Jesus! And yes, I found a rare gem this last year, I hope to be able to tell you more about her someday soon. Wink wink.

Almost nothing has gone according to my plan. I wouldn't say things went precisely according to His perfect plan either (I'm not that self-deluded). In all these things, however, I can lift up my EBENEZER to my Father, my Helper, my Succour, my Stay and say "thus far You have helped me"!

There are adventures ahead, testimonies to be shared, territories to be conquered, victories to be sung and yes, trials & temptations to face. In all these things, I am more than a conqueror. I am born of God so I have won already. The Holy Spirit, my Helper & my Friend, is in me, spurring me on, leading me into all of the Father's best.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for celebrating me yesterday! Today I celebrate you, God's special treasure; God's righteousness in Christ. I remain yours in Him. Jesutola Obafemi Adewumi (Ayanfe).

THE BLESSING 4 (THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT)

What if I told you that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, David and all the heroes of faith listed in the Hebrews 11 hall of fame did not receive the promise? What if I told you that, by believing in Jesus, you have received much more than they could ever have hoped to receive? What if I told you that you are far more advantaged than they ever were? What if I told you that you are greater than Abraham? Would I be speaking the truth? Would you believe me? What exactly does the bible say?

Hebrews  11:39 & 40 - And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE: God having provided some BETTER thing for US, that they without us should not be made perfect

1 John  5:12 - He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life

Matthew  11:11 - Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he

Each of them had peculiar dealings with God. Abraham had a covenant; Isaac, Jacob & Joseph benefited from it. Elijah was a "fireman", Samson had the Spirit of might come on him several times; David was unbeatable in battle, he also saw revelations of the coming Christ & the new creation. No matter how unique God's dealings with them, however, the one thing they never had, never could receive, was the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah saw it, Ezekiel caught a glimpse of it (Jer. 31:33-34 & Ezek. 36:27); the Spirit of Christ signified to them the coming grace, but when they sought it out, they discovered it was not for them but for us. The promise of the Spirit was to perpetually remain just that: a promise.

The good news is this: God has kept the best for last! God has provided something better for you, for me, for us. We have the Spirit of God living in us now, not as a promise, but a reality! He doesn't come upon us & leave, coming & going again & again; rather, He now makes His home in us. The sovereign eternal limitless God living inside mortal man!

Once Adam committed treason in the garden of Eden and became separated from God and joined to Satan, there was no way God could indwell him, no way he could be one with God; sin had made a gap that could not be crossed; sin had transmutated his nature from life to death. Only the blood/life of a sinless man could qualify as payment for such a terrible betrayal. Only a person man with the life of God could possibly be sinless. So God became a man. The blood of the Man, Jesus Christ, became the necessary payment.

When a man is cleansed with that blood, he becomes holy enough to be God's house. Nothing but that holy blood can make him holy; not his own works, not penance, not all the tears in this world, just the blood of the Lamb of God. That blood has made you holy, now the fullness of the Godhead lives in you in the person of the Holy Spirit. To you, the promise of the Spirit is no longer a distant promise; it is a present tense reality, it has been received! It's here & now; He's here, He's now! This is what Jesus hung on the cross for (Galatians 3:14). It's the reason He died & rose. The blessing of Abraham, the promise of the Spirit!

Please note that while the promise of the Spirit primarily has to do with the Holy Spirit recreating your human spirit & making His home in you; the reception of this promise is not complete without the baptism/infilling of the Holy Spirit. Even after Jesus had breathed on the disciples and imparted the Holy Spirit to them in John 20, he kept talking about waiting for the promise until He finally poured out the Spirit on them in Acts 2. You keep saying that you have the Holy Spirit living in you and therefore don't need to speak in tongues. Who told you so?! I know for sure it wasn't Jesus! Jesus couldn't have been more clear: the Holy Spirit has to come UPON you (Acts 1:8) and you're supposed to speak in tongues in His name (Mark 16:17)! If for any reason you haven't received the fullness of the promise of the Spirit & you don't speak in tongues, I beg you by the mercies of God, don't stay there! Don't be deprived of something Jesus died for!

When Jesus breathed on them in John 20, He said "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained". Remember, Jesus said "the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins" (Mt. 9:6); and the result in that particular instance was the healing of a paralysed man. If Jesus then says that now that I have received the Holy Spirit, I have power on earth (just like Him) to forgive & retain sins, imagine what endless possibilities there are? No wonder He said in Mt. 10:8, "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils!"

Something more than gold

Something more than silver

The Spirit of God in my heart

Something more than gold

Hey somebody, I have received the promise of the Spirit! As Jesus is, so am I in this world; I have become one with Him! I am a new creation, limitless in expression! I've got the divine nature, the very life of God in me! The world has never seen our kind before; in fact, the world is waiting for us, it just doesn't know it yet!

If you haven't received the promise of the Spirit, pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase make sure you do today. If you have, blessed are you among men, rejoice!!!

THE BLESSING 3 (THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM)

Think with me for a moment please. Jesus became a curse for us, redeemed us from the curse of the law so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Him, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith? What is it about the blessing of Abraham that is so vital for the Gentiles (non-Jews) to have that Jesus would sacrifice everything for us to have it? The law came with its blessings and curses (Deuteronomy 28), so Jesus could have redeemed us from the curse of the law and qualified us for the blessing of the law; but rather, what He qualified us for is the blessing of Abraham.

What is the blessing of Abraham? The few times the bible recorded what God said to Abraham in blessing him, it details such things as fruitfulness, multiplication, greatness & dominion. The few times the bible describes the blessedness of Abraham, it talks about his wealth and greatness. In a way, these things are the results of the blessing that God put on Abraham, but what is the blessing itself?

Yes, the blessing is that thing that God puts on a person, giving him the ability/power to prosper, to be healthy; to enjoy such things as Abraham evidently enjoyed. The blessing, however, goes deeper than that. For example, Romans 4 describes what it means to be blessed, using Abraham as a model: blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin (Romans 4:3&6-8). According to Romans 4, a blessed man is one unto whom God imputes/credits righteousness without works; one whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered; a man to whom the Lord WILL NOT impute/credit sin. This is what Abraham enjoyed. Despite not being righteous in behaviour by God’s standard, God declared him righteous simply because he believed God when God said “so shall your seed be” (Genesis 15:5). Ultimately, the seed He spoke of was not just Isaac or the other physical descendants but rather Christ. Abraham believed what God said about the seed (Jesus), God accounted it to him as righteousness.

This same way, when Jesus became a curse for us on the cross, He redeemed us from the curse of the law and qualified us for the blessing of Abraham: He made it possible for us to be declared righteous without having done anything to deserve it. Now, simply by believing what God has said about Jesus, we have righteousness credited to our account & no sin held against us. The blessing of Abraham is not really in the silver & gold but in the simple truth that an undeserving sinner is declared righteous simply by believing in the seed, Jesus. How then does this translate to the wealth & fruitfulness & greatness seen in Abraham?

Having legally declared man righteous through Christ Jesus, God can then legally give to him His very own nature, the life of God in his human spirit. This life is the very thing that makes everything work. Where there is life (eternal life), there is health, strength, wealth, fruitfulness. All these are the things we call blessings, they are a result of the blessing, they are a result of life. Psalm 133:3 calls the blessing “life forevermore”. Eternal life - the life of God in us, literally, is the blessing. That is why Galatians 3:14 mentions the blessing of Abraham and the promise of the Spirit in the same breath. The promise of the Spirit (the indwelling of God’s Spirit in mortal man) is the one thing that every man under the law needed but couldn’t have, but we have through faith in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 11:39 makes us understand that even Abraham (before the law) didn’t receive this promise, he only enjoyed a measure of what is called the blessing. For us under this covenant, we have the fullness of what was promised to Abraham, the completeness of what Abraham only tasted. We have the blessing, the very life of God in us; the promise of the Spirit, fully downloaded!

That is why Paul said in Romans 8:1 – the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin & death. The solution to the law-curse is the life that Jesus brought. This life is mediated through the Holy Spirit indwelling us, giving life to our spirits and even to our mortal bodies (Romans 8:10&11). He who has the Son has the Spirit of the Son (the Spirit of Christ) dwelling in him and therefore has life (Romans 8:9; Galatians 4:6 & 1John 5:12). That’s why the Holy Spirit is the agent of the blessing, because He’s the agent of life! If we have become one with Him, we have become one with life, we have become one with the blessing (1Corinthians 6:17). The blessing is not just on us, but in us. We carry the blessing, to spread it far as the curse is found. We carry the life of God, to spread it far as death is found! Death reigned through sin, now life can reign through righteousness, or as Romans 5:18 puts it: we who have received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign as kings in life through Jesus Christ!

This is the blessing of Abraham, not because Abraham enjoyed the fullness of it, but because it was he to whom it was first promised, and to his seed (Christ). It is the promise that the prophets and kings of old saw by the Spirit, desired to have, but God reserved it for us, that they without us should not be made perfect (Hebrews 11:40). Don’t ever wish you were like Adam or David or Elijah or any of the saints of old. Come on, God has reserved the best wine for last. God has kept the best for us!

It is the blessing that we carry, the promise that we have received. It is the life that the Father wants every man to receive & enjoy. Enjoy the fullness of it, live in the fullness of it, live blessed!