Message for Sunday 11^th August 2013

The three Levels of the Abundant life 1Thessalonians 5:23

Like we saw last week, the abundant life we enjoy is at three levels namely:

1.     Spiritual abundant life.

2.     The abundant life of the soul.

3.     The abundant life of the body or material realm.

Spiritual Abundant life

From our text it is clear that man is first a spirit, he has a soul and lives in a body. When Jesus Christ said in John 10:10 that He has come to give us abundant life to counter the theft, killings and destruction brought upon man in the Garden of Eden through sin, his first point of call was our spirits.  Abundant life is impossible without a recreation of our spirit because sin brought spiritual death upon man. This explains why sin is at the foundation of the human problem. The Lord told Nicodemus that except a man is born again; he cannot see and enter the kingdom of God (see John 3:1-6). When Jesus hung on the cross to die for us, He accomplished the following feats for our spirits:

1.     The forgiveness of our sin by God because by shedding His blood for us, remission of sin became the portion of man and therefore access to God became possible without any sense of guilt or inferiority. See Heb.9:22-28; 1Pet.2:24; John 3:16; Isaiah 43:25. The good news here is that as a new born baby before God, you have no past as God has forgiven your sin and will not remind you of them anymore. This is abundant life because you will be able to live free of guilt. Please understand here that sin is not measured by God so your past is dead and buried irrespective of the magnitude of your offenses.

2.     He upgraded us from the class of fallen man to the class of God. This is why we can now be called the children of God. The simple logic is this: a child of an animal is an animal and a child of a human being is a human being therefore, a child of God is God (Ps.82:6). Ephesians 2:4-6; Ps.8:3-5.

3.     Following from above, your old human nature which was the reason for your sinful habits was destroyed and removed and a new spirit from God was birthed in you by the Holy Spirit. 1Cor.5:17; Ezekiel36:26.

4.     Your spirit is now a conducive place for the Holy Spirit to reside. Thus fulfilling God’s promise to us in Ezekiel 36:27. The implication of this is that your life will now be controlled from the superior realm of God and if you learn to be led by the Holy Spirit, you will operate by divine intelligence otherwise known as abundant life. So your body is the temple of God who walks in you and dwells in you. If you pray in the tongues often, you will have access to the mysteries of God and your inner man or spirit will be sharpened to be able to pick divine signals easily such that your outer man can benefit immensely from. See Jude 1:20-24-25, 1Cor.14:14-15, Rom.8:14.

How to build up the human spirit for the abundant life

1.     Pray in the Holy Spirit or in tongues. This is the gateway to the superior supernatural realm to which you now belong. This will enable you get firsthand information from God. When you do so, you are communicating with God through His direct line. He will pick the call himself and answer you Himself. In 1Cor.14:2-4 we are made to understand that when you pray in tongues, you are not speaking to men but to God and no man would understand you; only God will. This is why you do not know the meaning of what you say when you pray in tongues. 1Cor.14:14-15. This was the secret of Apostle Paul’s ministerial success and why God committed much more light to him than all the other Apostles including those who knew Jesus Christ in the flesh. See 1Cor.14:28. If you want to enjoy abundant life in your spirit today, begin by deliberately setting aside at least 30 minutes daily to pray in the Holy Spirit and in a month of 30 days, you would have consistently prayed in tongues for 15 hours. Imagine what your life will become after then. You will supernaturally know how to make sound judgments that would bless you in time to come.

2.     Read and study the bible; then, meditate on it on a daily consistent basis and you will be amazed that you will become a spiritual floodlight that would dispel darkness anywhere you are found. See 1Tim.4:13-16; Jos.1:8; Ps.1:1-3; Prov.4:20-22; John 6:63; 15:1-7; Ps.119:11, 105, & 130. Further, feeding on the word of God this way, will enable you to grow up to be able to take your place as an heir of God in the kingdom otherwise, you will be robbed of your abundant life privileges. 1Peter 2:2; Romans 8:15-17 & Gal.4:1.

3.     Do the word. This is the only way you can come to a point of being fully persuaded that the word really works because doing the word will deliver the blessing of abundant life to you. The first two steps conditions you to do the word but whether or not you will do the word has to do with your decision because God will not tamper with your will. To obey is better than sacrifice. Do not sacrifice your abundant life on the altar of disobedience. You cannot be truly free from the devil’s oppression without continuing in the word of God by doing it. See Jas.1:22-25; 1Sam.15:17-23; John 8:31-32.

4.     In making decisions, give the word of God first place. If anything step you are to take conflicts with what God says, then decide against that that step and follow God’s word. This is the wisest way to live because God knows the end from the beginning. In life, time will never create itself for you to spend it with God; you are the one to make the decision to invest your time by giving God more of the attention than this mundane world that will soon pass away. Ex.20:1-6; Mt.22:37; Mk.12:30; Lk.10:37.