Living Waters

Friday, 16 August 2013

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.

UNDERSTANDING THE ABUNDANT LIFE

JOHN 10:10:

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

What does Jesus Christ mean here when He says He came that we might have life more abundantly?

An understanding of the words “life” and “abundant” or “abundance” would give us a clear picture of this.

The online English dictionary defines life as follows:

1. The condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally.

2. The sum of the distinguishing phenomena of organisms, especially metabolism, growth, reproduction, and adaptation to environment.

3. The animate existence or period of animate existence of an individual: to risk one's life; a short life and a merry one.

4. A corresponding state, existence, or principle of existence conceived of as belonging to the soul: eternal life.

5. The general or universal condition of human existence: Too bad, but life is like that.

In summation, we can define life as the condition that distinguishes between organisms from dead organisms being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction and the power to adapt to our environment through internal changes. In other words, life implies growth and total wellbeing of any individual. Life is made possible by the fact that man is a spirit and has a soul and lives in a body – 1Thess.5:23. The spirit is what keeps the body of man alive. This is why Jesus Christ by His death and resurrection redeemed us back to God so that we can be living spirits again and his intention is that we would afterwards live our lives as dictated by the Holy Spirit through our spirits and this is made possible by renewing our minds (which is an integral part of our soul) with the word of God because the word of God is the food of our spirits that enables us to grow to the point of living life to its fullness. See 1Peter 2:2; James 2:26; Romans 12:1-2 and John 6:63.

Abundant or abundance on the other hand could be defined as follows:

adjective

1. Present in great quantity; more than adequate; oversufficient: an abundant supply of water.

2. Well supplied; abounding: a river abundant in salmon.

3. Richly supplied: an abundant land.

The world Dictionary defines it as follows:

1.	Existing in plentiful supply
2.	Having a plentiful supply (of)

Thus the intention of the Lord is for us to have a plentiful supply of life or have life to overflowing.

Thus among human beings, there are people merely existing as dead spirits walking around in a body (unbelievers) and living spirits walking around in a body.

Every born again Christian is spiritually upgraded to the class of God with the aid of the Holy Spirit which God sends to live in our recreated human spirit which has come alive through the new birth experience. See. 2Cor.5:17.

For example Apostle Paul received this abundant life and was changed from a murderer to an Apostle who was instrumental in writing more than half of the New Testament. 1Cor.15:10

Peter the fisherman was converted from an unlearned ignorant fisherman without guts to a great bold leader instrumental in moving the work of the Lord Jesus Christ to the next level after His ascension. Eg. Peter who once denied Jesus Christ had this impression about him of his enemies – Acts 4:13

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”

Add examples of your personal testimony how this gospel has changed you and given you and some other people you know abundant life.

Abundant life influences us spirit soul and body. We shall take these one after the other from next week.

Thursday, 1 August 2013

Welcome to August, 2013: OUR MONTH OF ABUNDANT LIFE

In John 10:10, the Lord Jesus Christ made this claim:

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

More than two thousand years later, this claim has been proven to be the truth over and over again. The existence of the thief cannot be denied as a quick look at the violence, perversion and devastation in the world today proves his existence. The Apostle Paul in 2Cor.4:4 refer to the thief as the god of this world. Another name for the thief is Satan, the devil. He is also referred to in Revelation 12:7-9 as the dragon, that old serpent and the accuser of our brethren. The text reads thus:

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. “ Revelation 12:7-11.

So the thief in our text scripture has lost his place and all he seeks to do is to make us lose ours by the same means he lost his – rebellion against God. He temporarily succeeded in making man lose his place with God when he deceived the first woman and successfully tempted the first Adam to rebel against God’s authority. His method as pointed out by the Lord is to steal, kill and destroy and he does this through deception. If he succeeds in doing this to any man, the man loses his place with God and he goes ahead to blind the mind of the man from the truth so that he can eventually damage the man without remedy.

The good news however is that the Lord Jesus Christ came and by the truth which He represents, brings the light that would dispel the darkness of ignorance and its consequent deception so that we might have abundant life.

In this month of abundant life, God is set to enlighten all the dark areas of your life that came about by your ignorance. In John 8:12, the Lord makes us understand that He is the light of the world and if any man follows him, he shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life and John 1:5 tells us that the light shines in the darkness and that darkness cannot comprehend the light. Why would a right thinking person want to walk in darkness when he can have the light of life?

In light of the foregoing, this month, we shall be looking at what abundant life really means and how the believer can lay claims on it in practice.

In summation, let me quickly say here that it takes the new birth to belong to the class of people who can benefit from the abundant life the Lord brought and new birth is available to any human being irrespective of your nationality and tradition by choice. If you have not made yet made this choice and you want to do so now, please say this prayer below out loud and you will be born into God’s family:

Heavenly father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. I repent of my sin and receive the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross for my salvation. I believe He died for me and on the third day, you raised Him from the dead for my salvation. From today, I receive Him as the Saviour and Lord of my Life.

Thank you father for forgiving me and writing my name in the book of life with the blood of Jesus. I pledge allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ from this day forever in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen!!!

If you just said this prayer, congratulations! You are now born again. Please let us know by emailing flourishinggirl@gmail.com and we will send you an e copy of our “Believers’ Guide to Growth” to enable you take off on this glorious adventure of the new creation. You can also log on to our blog at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com or follow us on face book at www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl. You will access more resource materials to enrich your Christian life. God bless you!!!

Welcome to August, 2013: OUR MONTH OF ABUNDANT LIFE

In John 10:10, the Lord Jesus Christ made this claim:

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. “ Revelation 12:7-11.

In light of the foregoing, this month, we shall be looking at what abundant life really means and how the believer can lay claims on it in practice.

Heavenly father,

Amen!!!

Monday, 1 July 2013

Welcome to July, Our Month of Overwhelming Praise

ISA.43:7 “Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.”

JOHN 17:4 “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

Just yesterday, the last month of the first half of our year of Divine Visitation, came to its conclusion and I must say that that period ended for us as a ministry on a good note. We could not help praising God with reckless abandon at the Celebration service yesterday because He has been good to us and each word of the month He has given us this year has been confirmed with signs following. To God be the glory; this month of July which is our third anniversary month has been declared by the Lord to us as our month of overwhelming praise. Halleluiah!!!

The word overwhelming means very great, very strong, complete, total etc. Praise on the other hand means the expression of respect, gratitude and honor to God. Another word for praise is to glorify which means to praise and worship God. Hence the word glory is used in our text scriptures. Thus it is our month of very great, strong or complete expression of respect, gratitude and honor to God.

In Psalm 100:3, we are made to understand that God is the one who made us and not us ourselves. The text says:

“Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

The next question we ask as soon as we realize that God made us is why did He make us? The answer to this question is supplied by our first text scripture above which says that God formed us for His glory. Let me quickly clarify to some skeptics who would say that this text of scripture refers to the Jews that Galatians 4:28 makes us understand that we who have believed in Jesus Christ like Isaac (the son of Abraham) was, are heirs of the promise. That text says:

“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.”

In addition, Galatians 3:27-29 tells us:

“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Furthermore, in his letter to the Church at Ephesus, Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote in Ephesians 2:19 that we are no longer strangers or foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. For a better understanding of this text, let us see Ephesians 2:11-20:

“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;”

Having established that we are made to glorify God, let us see how this can be done because that is the whole essence of what we are going to be focusing on this month of overwhelming praise. Jesus tells us in our second text scripture above in John 17:4 that we glorify God by finishing the work He gave us to do! This immediately places a responsibility on us each of us to find out what each of us was born to accomplish because if we do not know why God made us as individuals, we cannot fulfill this word to bring Him overwhelming praise.

So contrary to what many think that praise is restricted to the fruit of our lips, we can see now that praise is an entire life style. Even though God has called this our month of overwhelming praise, God expects overwhelming praise to be our lifestyle forever!

In light of the above, this month as a ministry, even though we already know why we exist as a corporate body and are running in it, for more effectiveness, each person will be encouraged to know why they exist as an individual. To this end, we are going to be looking at a series on “Destiny and Purpose”. I believe God that as this month winds to an end, if there is anyone of us not standing in their purpose and running the course of their God ordained destinies, all the necessary adjustments will be made to enable us bring the Lord overwhelming praise indeed.

If you are reading this and are not yet born again, you may not find yourself fitting in with what we are saying because you are not yet a part of the commonwealth of Israel. But I have good news for you, you can belong right away by saying the following prayer and the Holy Spirit will come into you and fulfill the promise of the new birth experience for you. God bless you!!!