Sunday, 12 April 2020

THE STONE IS ROLLED AWAY!

Sickness, death & sin have ended
See lives transformed, changed and mended
The blood, the precious blood has been shed
The Saviour Christ for man has bled

His death was not the end
It was just the watershed
A new beginning He intended
By His resurrection from hell & death

The darkness could not comprehend
The light that shown and brightened hell
The gates of death could not defend
Their master from the onslaught sent

The grave could not keep Him dead
The throngs of hell could not keep Him bent
No power the mighty rush could fend
Every knee to the mighty name must bend

Resurrected by power so mighty
Bright and shining is His glory
He arose from death & Hades
King of glory, God so holy

The mighty angel descended
Men did quake and fall dead
Such was the sight that they fainted
The stone men placed, He simply shifted

The stone is rolled away
Come and see where He lay
No power His rise could stay
No obstacle, for He is the way

Hail, Zion's King who did ascend
Hark, the angels heralded
Let every knee in worship bend
Let every mouth His Lordship tell

Hail, Zion's King who did ascend
Hark, everlasting gates to Him attend
Lift up your heads, lift up your heads
The King has come, His Lordship accept

One no power of hell could  withstand
The King eternal and triumphant
No other than the great "I am"
None besides Him, Rock Eternal

Hail His name
Sing His praise
Shout His fame
Forever the same!

Sunday, 22 March 2020

THE SUPPLY OF THE SPIRIT

THE WORD IS NEAR YOU

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. What are you doing with it? The word of faith formed the worlds, and by it the elders obtained a good report with manifold exploits.

The very word became flesh, died, resurrected and lives forevermore, to be your supply- in your mouth and heart. The word is in you right now! Fellowship with the Word, and with the Spirit- your unending supply.

THE SUPPLY OF THE SPIRIT

Luke 4:18-19 NKJV
‘’The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."

The Spirit of the Lord is the anointing to do. He is the supply that we have to live the life (zoe) of God. It is by the supply of the Spirit that we live as sons and kings. It is by the supply of the Spirit that we live Christ.

We have dwelt so long in the realm of the senses trying to live the ‘Christian life’, and have often ended up on the path of delusional religion which is apart from Christ. That is, we have lived a life of the senses, which is not of the faith.

But we have the supply of the Spirit - the Anointing of the Holy One to live Christ. Yes, to live Christ, not to live like Christ, not a photocopy of the original, but as the original. We are not called to live like Christ, NO! That would be living in the shadows of our identity and walking on the side ways of Zoe. Rather, we are called to live Christ, to live the life of God in us. It’s either you live Christ or not, you can’t live as if you have the life of God. You either live the life or you don’t.

The truth is, we have the life of God (Zoe) in us, now! For, He who has the Son has life, since Jesus came that we may have life, and have it more abundantly. (1 John 5:12, John 10:10)

We have not been living the life because we have been living apart from the supply of the Spirit, in the realm of the senses and what appeals to the natural mind.

What then is the supply of the Spirit?

Jesus, in His earthly walk, never operated with the senses. When He saw the multitude of over 5000 people, He didn’t worry about how He would feed them with bread and fish that could hardly satisfy a few people. When He saw the man with the withered hand, He didn’t say, ‘oh! What a withered hand!’’ and shake His head, neither did He say to the man born blind, ‘what a long-standing problem you’ve got! You must have lived a hard life’. Jesus never allowed His senses to dominate. If He was a ‘sense-man’, He wouldn’t have seen the joy set before Him, endured the cross and scorned its shame. (Hebrews 12:2) He saw, He heard and felt- for He was a man as we are, yet He was always in control. The Spirit was always in charge.

How did He operate in the Spirit?

Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. (John 5:19 NKJV emphasis mine)

Yes, He saw the withered hand, but He also saw God healing the hand. There must have been a second eye, an eye that sees differently, apart from the senses; an eye that sees God and what He does per time. The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do- we can do nothing of ourselves but what we see the Father do. This is just what we do- NOTHING, when we try to do things of ourselves and operate by the senses.

Look at this: 
For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. (John 5: 20, 21 NKJV, emphasis mine)

The Father willingly shows the Son what He does, because He loves Him. There is a realm beyond the natural, a realm where we show-and-tell with the Father!

Paul said, we look to the things which are not seen. (2 Corinthians 4:18). This eye sees the unseen, the spiritual and eternal. Also, ‘’ we walk by faith, and not by sight’’ (2 Corinthians 5:7). This means that there are two ways to walk - by faith or by sight. Both walks have different supplies and results.

Faith is supplied by the word of Christ while sight is supplied by the natural, transient and physical. Faith is the eye that sees what the Father does. It sees the unseen, eternal and spiritual. Hebrews 11:1 amplified version, says ‘’…faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses’’. Faith is how we walk in the realm of the unseen. It is how we access the supply of the Spirit.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN AND LOGISTICS OF THE SPIRIT

Faith is produced when Christ is proclaimed (Rom 10: 17). Any word or doctrine that is not full of grace and truth cannot produce faith, because it is not of Christ.

We have the supply of the Spirit. We access and walk in the Spirit by the faith (of Christ) produced by the word of Christ.

When we receive the Word, and believe it, we do not just put it aside on the shelf to gather dust. No!

We having the Spirit of faith, (2 Corinthians 4:13) put the word in our mouth and speak; confessing, meditating and watering it by praying in the Spirit till it forms in us. It may take some time, but we keep speaking the word of faith. It’s worth more than the wait and patience. It gets to a point where it controls our being h we literally become one with it, such that our actions and inactions are in line with that word. Our actions, words, thoughts etc. are the word. Our being is in a state of revolt to going against the word, such that we cannot but be that word! This is living the word - living Christ.

This is how we who have received the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life as Kings, and minister as Royal priests unto God.

So, get the Word of Christ to you, get into the word, and get the word into you. Fellowship with the Word and Spirit, and with the eye of faith, you will see the unseen, the eternal, the Father and what He does per time.

The supply of the Spirit is Elohim - the Godhead. The Lord is the Spirit, the Lord is not apart from the Father, neither is the Spirit apart from the Father. Also, we are not apart from the Godhead, for in Christ the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form. We are in Him, and He in us. The Lord, the Spirit and the Father together with us make up the supply of the Spirit. Whatever you need, know that you’ve got the supply of the Spirit to meet it.

THE SPIRIT IS THE SUPPLY

The Spirit is my supply. I do not lack. Elohim is my supply, my supply knows no end and cannot be exhausted. My supply is not limited in His applications; He meets all and fills all. Shalom! (selah)

Dara Makinde

Sunday, 23 February 2020

BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN FORGIVEN

I can never forgive him!

Really?

Do you know who you are? Do you know what has been done to you?

Some preachers and motivational speakers might tell you that you need to forgive so that you can be free from the prison you’ve put yourself in. They’re not wrong.

Some will preach and teach that God will not forgive you if you don’t forgive others. They have a good reason for saying so. After all, Jesus said so to the Jews under the law of Moses (Mark 11:26 & Matthew 6:12).

But wait a minute please. Are you a Jew or a Christian? Are you under the law of Moses or are you under grace? Are you an old creation or a new creation?

Maybe that’s why you’ve been finding it so difficult to forgive despite knowing what Jesus said. You’ve only heard what Jesus said to the Jews; to old creation men under the old covenant. I think it’s high time you listened to what Jesus is saying to YOU today, you the new creation in the new covenant.

Of course, after Jesus rose from the dead, there’s no record that He ever spoke directly to us (the new creation) about forgiveness; but from then till now, just as He prophesied before His crucifixion, the Holy Spirit has been conveying the words of Jesus to members of His body. Some of those words are written in the epistles (Romans to Jude).
So what is Jesus saying to you today? Why should you forgive?

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7)

In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14)

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses (Colossians 2:13)

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32)

Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye (Colossians 3:13)

The emphasis of Jesus to the new creation man is not “forgive, SO THAT you can be forgiven”.

The emphasis of Jesus to the new creation man is “forgive, BECAUSE you have been forgiven”.

It cannot be both, they are like “word & opposite”. It is either forgiving others comes first or receiving God’s forgiveness comes first.

The Jews had not received forgiveness, for the blood of Jesus had not yet been shed to procure it (Matthew 26:28). They needed to forgive others to qualify for God’s forgiveness by forgiving others. Is it sounding more familiar now? Works of the law? “Do this so you can have that”?

We were the most unqualified for God’s forgiveness; but, in Christ, He went ahead and forgave us all the same! All we had to do was receive Jesus’ free gift and…..BOOM!!! We were redeemed, forgiven, recreated & sanctified! Having received forgiveness, now we can give it. Glory to God!

It gets even better.

What does it take to forgive? Love. Do you have love? You’ve got LOADS of it! Where?

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Romans 5:5)

You have love. You have it in your spirit, your heart. You have the ability to love. You have the ability to forgive.

You have received forgiveness, now you can give forgiveness. You are instructed, commanded to forgive, because you have been enabled to forgive.

You have received love, now you can give love. You are instructed, commanded to love, because you have been enabled to love.

For the sake of emphasis and clarity; Jesus is saying to you today that the reason you are to forgive is two-fold:

You have been forgiven

You have been given the ability to forgive.

What’s your excuse?

Say: Father, I have received Your love & forgiveness, now I give it to (others) in Jesus’ name.

If there is someone you have hitherto found it hard to forgive or decided never to forgive; repent. Amen?

Put his/her name in the bracket and make that confession.

And if the devil ever tries to bring wrong thoughts of bitterness & unforgiveness back to you, declare that you have forgiven that person and that is that about that. Shut him up with the Word!

If it seems like it’s your feelings, align them by speaking the Word!

The Word works!

Light dawns!

Glory to God forevermore!