in computer systems and programming, there’s a phenomenon of interoperable systems built on computer programs that act as a mediator between clients and servers or in non-technical parlance, consumers and providers. these systems are called application programming interfaces[apis] and they act as the middle ground between backend server activity and the user interface. they perform the desires of the client[users] and retrieve resources and responses from a server[a bank of resources].  

in the same way, principles are the apis of the world, they are the intermediaries between desires and results. laws as we fondly call them can be explained as established principles, derived from proven concepts. for example, gravity is a force that was built into the ethos of the cosmos, it necessitates that whatever goes up must come down, that’s a principle, proven so well that it’s been established as a law. it’s the same with motion, and thermodynamics or any other principle that has been discovered, conceptualized and subsequently expressed through science.

i’ve come to terms with the fact that the world was designed to respond to the correct application of principles; it has no prejudice for who you are, what you believe, your character or whatever self-righteous disposition or sense of worthiness you hold onto, it’s subject to principles. God the creator also honors this concept as proven in the holy scriptures and his character, he respects and subjects himself to the principles and the statutes with which he established creation.

a major expression of wisdom is the fruit of the honor for these principles and every tangible and lasting fruit of success obtained in this realm can be tied to the accurate practice of established principles whether it be in wealth, influence or growth. this contemplation first came to me as a impression and as i meditated intentionally it expanded and i thought i’d express this reflection as it develops in my consciousness.

while this is no excuse to not have moral guardrails or ignore axiological truths that make for good living, i see that even the worst crop of humans with skewed values can get more results and fruits to show for their wisdom than even we the children of light because while we’re largely sentimental and like to display esotericism like it’s a substitute for being effulgent creatures, they pay attention to and have a dogged respect for principles and practice it as such. 

while my views are clear and my belief systems are clearly expressed in my writings, the lord has begun to open my eyes to the folly of ignoring principles and the individuals who have paid the price to understand and put them to practice with fruits to show for it because they don’t share our values or belief systems. it’s one of the reasons why the world sometimes laughs at us, we don’t seem to be changing the world like the heathen do, and it can be tied to the ignorance of and apathy to honoring principles. 

people in the world doggedly apply these principles and enjoy both the results and the fruits that abound from it because principles are indifferent to prejudice or your perspective. there’s no nepotism with principles, they’re indifferent to your whims and misgivings. you honour them, they produce and like a mirror, they reflect your folly when you choose to ignore them. our advantage as sons and children of light as i’ve come to understand is that light. light that gives us access to the keys that unlock these principles, light as understanding so we can produce fruits called wisdom.

in light, we operate from a realm of progressive understanding of how they were designed to be applied. most of the people who we’d call the ‘heathen’ practice these laws in isolation from the creator and credit the wisdom to themselves. if you really pay attention, you can credit a major part of the tangible results in the world today across spheres and stratas to the application of one or multiple principles, even when it’s done in ignorance and the absence of consciousness. 

a great example would be the principle of faith. while most people won’t readily admit it, man is a creature made to operate by faith. dr myles munroe said and i quote “ purpose produces design and design predicts potential”.  if man was made to give God pleasure; and without faith it’s impossible to please him, this points to the fact that we were created with the capacity to have faith and live by it, because design points to potential. 

by design faith in God, but the world hinges theirs on logic, might and strength, science, gifts, systems, knowledge, experience and so on and while that’s a deviation from the original design, they still operate by this principle. how? well, i can express this logically from two perspectives. trust and belief. listen, whatever you trust, you have faith in and this happens in the presence or absence of consciousness; you might have to think on that one. 

trust is a faith business and that’s the object of this analogy. you need faith to trust anything, or anyone. faith is the substance of an outcome believed for and hope is tied to believing in the possibility of the manifestation of a certain expectation that you trusted for. you can’t trust without faith, you can’t have faith without believing and you sure can’t believe without hope; so you either trust or doubt, they’re mutually exclusive and they are both conscious choices.  this gets clearer when you understand that faith is belief. 

while bible faith always begins with the knowledge of God, faith in the world begins with knowledge of the said thing, no matter how faux or distorted it is. here’s an excerpt from another article of mine – you can explain faith to an accounting expert as a discounted cash flow; it’s seeing things from the lens of what they’d be in the now. while DCF as a concept is hinged on the value of potential income or revenue; faith is hinged on the knowledge of God, his word, his nature and his character.

now while the world might not have faith in God, they have faith nonetheless, in other things, like resources, power, association, knowledge, influence, or anything they hold on to with dear life. they trust, and by extension believe and that my friend is faith. i’ve said all of this to express two things. the first is that there’s no getting around principles; no matter how misaligned you are, you have to live by them, and that the fact that you’re ignorant to this reality doesn’t negate the effectiveness of the practice of principles. 

continuing in the spirit of this contemplation, i’ll point out a couple principles, prove that they were God designed, touch on how they were designed to function and show you that the heathen practice them in apathy to God to get results. my aim with this article is to first show you that principles run the world, then point out the folly in us as believers being high minded because we’re sons of God yet ignoring his set principles and watching the heathen practice them, get results while defying our father; yet we watch, like servants. 

a principle that will be an object of the elucidation of this perspective is that of imagination. imagination in simple terms, is a creative ability. merriam-webster defines it as the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality and this is a well rounded pragmatic definition. imagination according to the bible can be defined with this phrase – as far as your eyes can see. i define it as seeing the end from the beginning and crafting a perspective that is defined by that reality that you have conceived.

whatever you can’t picture, you can’t have and in the same vein, whatever is not in your frame of thoughts remain outside the shores of your possibility. the greatest inventors in history operated by this principle and leveraged it to birth already existing realities albeit intangible. i say this because whatever you can imagine actually exists as a possibility that’s waiting for manifestation and if you align yourself you can partner with that reality for it’s tangible manifestation.

examples communicate principles so i’ll use a few illustrations. what do you think martin luther king jr. meant when he said “i have a dream” ?. simply put, he was saying i have a mental picture, the imagination of a reality so tangible that you couldn’t convince me otherwise. he saw a future that others without that imagination couldn’t see, a picture that superimposed his physical reality or context. you see, imagination, when done right, is a necessary component for vision, which is another principle i’ll get to later.  

imagination births conviction, something you can live and if need be, die for. in the scriptures, we learn of a man who through dealings with God became a father of generations who proclaim the name of Jesus by faith today. we read that he heard a spirit – God, obeyed, received promises and walked with him. God was going to give him descendants that can be likened to the stars in the sky and a trans-generational inheritance. to help him conceptualize this promise, God told him to look as far as his eyes can see. in other words, what i’m trying to give you cannot be compared to anything in your current context, you have to picture it, because it exists, albeit not in the physical realm.

today in the secular world, we see this principle practiced in different ways, shapes and form. the architect uses this principle to conceptualize a building project and builds it on paper before any building block is laid on the ground. the painter or visual artist uses this principle to recreate what he pictures in his mind, the inventor sees the invention in his mind before he holds it in his hand. i could go on but i want to establish quickly that there’s nothing made that wasn’t made by God. everything tangible and intangible was made by him and principles are present in that number. 

if that sinks in, you can understand that because principles were made by God, and because creation itself is subject to God, creation as an entity subjects itself to those that honour them. humans therefore leverage these principles even if they don’t honour the creator of the principles. most people that board flights around the world today have no idea of who the wright brothers were, yet they take advantage of the concept they birthed. most people who use pharmaceutical products don’t know who the chemists that laboured to produce these solutions were and in the same breath; principles and God. 

another principle that elucidates this perspective of God, principles and results is that of time and chance or opportunity.  the bible says that the race isn’t to the swift or the strong. in simple terms this law points to the fact that, you’re never really the most qualified or most deserving across board. it points to the reality of a hand at play that makes those that emerge or rise have the chance to. malcolm gladwell’s book on outliers point to this principle, he argued that extraordinary success is rarely the result of hard work, talent and skill alone but the culmination of many factors like timing, circumstances or events, culture and the fruit of this principle is what the world has come to describe as luck. 

this principle found expression in the story of david, arguably the greatest hebrew king. the story points to the fact that he was chosen by God – election, he was a talented musician – gift, skilled – hardwork, was a shepherd who’d fought beasts in the wild – preparation, he found himself in the camp of the army running errands and heard the boasting of the enemy, got the opportunity to express his desire to fight the enemy to the king and was favoured by God and permitted by the king to do so. these many factors aligned together for that feat to be achieved and the absence of any of these factors would have produced a different story. 

in the secular world, many people explain away this principle as the luck factor, or being at the right place at the right time. i’ll use another illustration, mark zuckerberg wasn’t the only computer science geek in 2004, who happened to have attended harvard, but he met his friend eduardo, hacked into school portals, which gave him a notoriety that the winklevoss brothers heard about that necessitated a meeting that eventually crystallized the facebook idea that he ran with, he wasn’t the only one who found himself in palo alto, he wasn’t the only guy who spoke to peter thiel about an idea, he wasn’t the only hardworking cracked programmer or hacker as he’d tag himself but time and chance happened. now isolate any of those factors that interplayed and tell me if there’s still a facebook today. 

next up is the principle of process. in the aftermath of the flood, God bound himself with a promise that set forth a principle that’s known today as the law of seed, time and harvest, and the earth and  everything in it is subject to this law. this law expresses itself everywhere, from agriculture, to character and deeds or the idea of karma, to the spiritual laws of giving which itself is another principle. my focus in this principle is the time. seed, time, harvest. time points to process; one that starts when the seed is put in the ground and ends when the fruits are ripe for harvest. 

this phenomenon doesn’t just apply to plants, it applies to everything that starts as a seed, from ideas to concepts and insights, to building and establishment, to procreation and everything really because everything starts as a seed. a forest starts with a seed, a skyscraper starts with one building block, the human race started with one man, it’s a principle that was wound into the fabrics of the cosmos. between the first seed of corn a farmer plants and a farm full of maize ready to be harvested is process. process looks like death, life, growth, preparation, capacity building and patience and it’s typically under the hood. 

“one of the most important building blocks in becoming is process. it’s involved in the creation, birth, reiteration and even the decline or destruction of anything that was made. done right, you have something that lasts, when it’s botched, you have an eventual disaster at best. it’s involved in going from bad to good and good to great. the power of process can define outcomes, it can transform potential to legacy and whilst that’s great, it can turn potential to disgrace and rot too. silent yet loud, sometimes ignored but time reveals it’s importance. process is the midwife that helps you birth what you’ve incubated. a constant force, yet dynamic. sometimes fast and at times painfully slow.”

that was an excerpt from an article i wrote on the subject of process. i believe there’s nothing birthed that didn’t go through a process and this applies in both worlds – spiritual and physical. this principle applies in both worlds whether in birthing promises or building structures and products. when humanity fell from grace, God pronounced a verdict of death, and creation has been dying a gradual but eventual death since then, that’s process; when he came in the flesh to restore, he gave life and that life canceled out that death but there’s still a process for the growth and full manifestation of that life in tangible creation.

businesses measure their progress in the secular world with benchmarks and timelines like year-on-year, year-to-date, or quarters and this is a reflection of the law of process. how? you might ask, well, every fiscal year or quarter, each business outlines their growth indices for the year; targets, projections and what have you, they apply measures, tactics, strategies based on data but they still have to wait till the end of the fiscal year or quarter to see if these strategies actually work, that’s process, the time factor, a God designed principle that man leverages. 

everything that has a gestation period points to this principle, from pregnancies in humans and animals to horticulture; dreams, visions, ideas, concepts must all submit to this principle to find true and lasting expression. every f1 driver in the world started with go-karts and scaled the heights from division to division, that points to process; nearly every nba player likely started as a junior in high school, proceeded to college and then the bright lights of the nba, that’s process; even in the kingdom we go from glory to glory; process. 

next up is the principle of value, value generally refers to perceived worth, importance or usefulness of a thing, but the context can morph it to mean something else. in this contemplation, my perspective for value points to productivity and diligence which in itself is a principle.  value is intrinsically linked to resourcefulness; the ability to make things happen, proffer solutions, create products, offer services are all expressions of the subject of value. the bible says and i’m paraphrasing, that the diligent man will stand before kings, it also says that the gift of a man makes room for him. 

gift here can be talent, skill or proficiency; anything you can truly be adept at is a way to get you to the palace. this principle found expression in men in the bible, from jacob to joseph and daniel. the principle of value made them almost indispensable; protocols were broken for them, rules were bent for them, they ushered in dispensations and revealed a greater dimension of wisdom by this principle. the man of value is almost always preferred to others because humans are inherently wired to want to satisfy their needs and they’d do anything for the one who’s able to consistently satisfy that need. 

in the secular world, whether in business, sports, entertainment, governance, or any realm that is a microcosm of society, we see it play out. those that possess value as a currency remain at the forefront of important, dispensation defining conversations and make decisions for the larger crop of society who most times have no idea that these conversations are even being had, whether in board rooms, legislature and legislation, or multilateral governing bodies. wealth, as finances, influence, relationships or associations all flourish on this benchmark of value. biblical based principle diligently applied in society by those who wouldn’t acknowledge the God of the principles. 

there’s a ton of other principles that elucidate this frame of thought that i’ll urge you to look into, like vision, frequently conceptualized pragmatically as goal orientation; giving, although the world calls it charity or philanthropy; diligence, resilience and productivity that the world calls grinding or hustling; relationships, alignment and positioning that the world calls networking; stewardship that the world calls treasury or wealth management. i could go on but i think my point is entrenched that these are bible-based, spiritual first principles that have been intellectualized and brought down to a lower level of pragmatic wisdom. and proof that these principles work are the fruits we see in the religious and secular worlds regardless of the imbalance on the scales. 

i believe that the disconnect or chasm between the success and pseudo dominion of the heathen is not the act of defiance to God in itself, it’s the dogged respect and honour for these principles even in their ignorance of and disjointed knowledge of God. in the faith, we tend to be sentimental in our interpretation of what it means to be light and salt; joint heirs with christ and children of God. the bible soys and i’m paraphrasing again, that the heir that has the disposition of a child isn’t different from a servant even though he’s lord of all; it also says that man in honour that is unaware is like a beast of the field. 

these two scriptures coupled with a third that says that the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light in their day all point to the fact that if we as children of God remain sentimental, lacking understanding, continue to ignore God’s established precepts and patterns we’d keep living as second class citizens in a realm and kingdom where we’re princes. we have to understand that as much as God is love, he is just; he’s no respecter of persons, he’s a God that permits tares to grow with wheat for a time and it’s really up to us to raise up the banner of his name with our fruits because he’s given us all that pertains to life and godliness.

purpose defines function, if he made us to have dominion, to take charge, to rule and reign, then capacity is inherent and it’s going to be up to us to take advantage of these possibilities and produce fruits that point to stewardship. the world should come to ask us how, we shouldn’t be tilting towards it because of the results they have to show. mediocrity, sensationalism, fanaticism are not fruits or expressions of dominion or sonship, they point to ignorance, a ton of it. the world isn’t smarter or wiser, they just practice principles, doggedly, albeit in decadence of character; from music, to fashion and every expression of creativity and culture, to sports, entertainment, business and governance.

in closing, i’m saying that we have a responsibility as God’s workmanship to transform and disciple nations. change agents don’t moan and complain, or live as victims; they do what their name implies, make change. but what’s a change agent without understanding? a liability. if we’d have dominion like we were sent here to, we need to get to places of understanding; higher levels of it, and that with a well curated perspective. this subject of principles is a crux; a definitive pillar in the crafting of that perspective.  

the subject of dominion only applies to those who have been translated by faith into the kingdom of light. if you read this and you haven’t, or you have in the past but strayed and things are not the way they used to be.

here’s a quick prayer to get that fixed

Lord Jesus, I believe that you’re the son of God that came into the world to die for me that I might be reconciled to God. I acknowledge my state as a sinner, I receive you as my Lord and personal savior and acknowledge you as the Lord of all in my life. I declare that the power of sin and death is broken over me and that i’ve translated from darkness into the glorious kingdom of God.  

that’s all it takes.  welcome to the family of God 🙂

until next time, damola out!

references 

And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

— Luke 16:8

And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

— John 8:29

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

— Hebrews 11:5

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

— Matthew 5:45

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler: Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place. I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

— Ecclesiastes 10:5-7

As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

— Romans 4:17

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

— John 1:3

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

— Genesis 1:1

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

— Ecclesiastes 9:11

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

— Genesis 8:22

Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.

— Proverbs 22:29

A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.

— Proverbs 18:16

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;

— Galatians 4:1

Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

— Psalm 49:20

another way of elucidating this concept or subject would be to express it as knowing God for yourself. i have come to understand that there’s a great chasm between knowing God and knowing about God. by inference there’s a knowledge of God that comes by books, stories and legends of old, but there’s also a knowledge of God, and that by experience. this is a personal knowledge of God; your God, not the next man’s, because our lives are a reflection of the God that we know; a reflection that superimposes culture, perspectives, character and the many other fruits that reveal this truth.

in a bid to contextualize this point, picture this; God the father, God the son, God the spirit; same God. God as king, God as judge; same God. God as redeemer, God as salvation, God as provider; same God. God as life, God as truth, God as love; same God. God as peace and God as righteousness; same God. God as wisdom, God as power; same God. God of vengeance and then of mercy; same God. a God who’s lord of all, yet humble enough to respect your will; same God.

there’s a God of the valley and a God of the mountains; there’s the God in the waters and a God in the fire, a God that reveals himself as the consuming fire and as the wind; with thunderings and earthquakes or a still small voice, a God of justice, yet merciful and kind. same God; different expressions. each expression has the capacity to reveal him to you and these revelations come by experience. when i speak of an experiential knowledge of God, i speak of a revelation of God through intimacy and fellowship; instruction and guidance; consecration and sacrifice; adoration and worship.

it is written that the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits; it’s also written that if you faint in the day of adversity your strength is small. on a surface level, we can infer from the presentation of these truths that there’s a connection between the knowledge of God and strength, and that there are levels in this school of strength. we can also deduce that there is a certain day called the day of adversity and that the only insulation provided for this day is the knowledge of God.

in the first text, the word know is from the hebrew word yâda’ and it means to learn to know, to perceive, see, discern, discriminate and distinguish, to know by experience, to acknowledge, recognize, confess, be acquainted with, know carnally, have revelation of, be instructed, to be known and all of these definitions or use cases give context and credence to the fact that the knowledge of God is not mental ascent, neither is it assumption or faux revelation, this knowledge rides on the wings of your will and desire.

faith as a concept is hinged on the knowledge of one, whether it be God, science, data or resources and this list is not exhaustive. faith is both trust in something that you know, and hope that, that which you trust is able to deliver when you need it to. if this is true, then it reveals the role and position of knowledge as a crux in the precipitation of hope, trust and faith. there’s no real faith without a degree of knowledge in who or what you trust in; without knowledge, that equation is incomplete.

believers today say how could the isrealities in the days of moses still doubt God even after the many miracles and wonders they saw God do in their midst and i say it’s because they didn’t know the God of the miracles and wonders, because miracles, signs and wonders are just that – signs, and signs never point to themselves, they point to something and in this case, God. the God they couldn’t see because of the veil over their faces. these guys didn’t have a revelation of God apart from his works and usually, his works are invitations to a realm of the knowledge of his ways.

the difference between the isrealities and moses was the knowledge of God. moses had a profound revelation of God as a person and his ways through intimacy, fellowship and continuous beholding, and this revelation was the crux of the disparity in perspective. God never intended for it to be so, he wanted to reveal himself to them too but these guys told moses to hear God for them and then translate God’s instructions to them but they were ignorant to the fact that hearing God requires intimacy and intimacy is a recipe for this subject of the knowledge of God.

i speak quite a lot on the power of wisdom and understanding but these begin with the fear of the lord and that comes by a knowledge of who he really is. as believers, a lot of things are hinged on our knowledge of God, from understanding the word of God to the revelation of keys and mysteries, the discovery of ourselves, our individual purposes and the hope of our calling, to the effective communication of our faith and the manifestation of God through us as sons. all these and more ride on the efficacy of our knowledge of God.

if he says as he is so are we in this world, how do we know who we are if we don’t know him? how can we know the works of God, if we don’t know Jesus whom he hath sent? and how can we know Jesus without a knowledge of the one that sent him? and if the word says of hope, faith and love, the greatest is love, how do you love who you don’t know? he was in the world and the world was made by him but this world made by him knew him not, he came to his own and his own received him not. why? because they knew him not.

these and more are the many questions that flooded my mind as this contemplation developed from an impression on how everything wrong in the world can be traced to a deficit or corruption in the knowledge of God. i mean, even the subject of eternal life is the knowledge of God and Jesus the son. in the same breath, we only have access to all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him – God, that called us to glory and virtue.

knowledge begins by revelation, which effectively is progressive information, and an unveiling by inquiry and investigation. the bible says that the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge, this fear is a reverence, piety, fear and terror for one who’s greater; it’s an acknowledgment of might and strength that’s greater than self but this posture can only be genuinely birthed from a revelation of the nature, ability and the works of the one who you acknowledge is greater.

i say this to say that there’s a reason why God’s mighty works were referenced and canonized in the sacred texts or holy scriptures as we call them and i believe that consciousness is a major player in the frame of thought that led to that fruit of wisdom. merriam-webster defines consciousness as the quality or state of being aware, especially of something within oneself. i define it as an awareness, a reckoning or discerning of something intangible as though it was tangible.

simply put, it’s being so aware of a truth or reality that it defines your perspective, influences your actions and methods of approach towards a certain subject or to life as a macrocosm. it can be conceptualized as the donning of a regalia of what you believe and the subsequent effulgence of that belief. a simple illustration would be fear. if you’re conscious of fear, you perceive everything through that vista, it defines your approach to things and situations. you begin to live out fear essentially, because it’s in your consciousness.

consciousness is knowledge, expressed as the possession of information, one that becomes a reality, a reality that lives and breathes within you. i read the scriptures, the old testament more specifically and i marvel about how conscious these guys were of a God in heaven, the God of their covenant. they were so conscious that they attributed everything to him, they’d seen expressions of his might and they knew nothing could happen to or for them without him, whether good, bad or ugly. God was real to them and they feared him.

a fear that came from a dimension of knowledge, the knowledge of his terrible works, and this is an expression or the fruit of a degree of the experiential knowledge of God. when this reverential fear of God is established as a stronghold, a pillar, that can’t be shaken; then we can proceed to the next class in the school of knowledge and that’s the knowledge of his nature, character and tendencies. the nature of a thing tells you a lot about the thing and in the same breath, the nature of God tells you a lot about him

he is spirit, and if you really understand that, it defines how you relate with him, how you respond to his beckoning and instructions, how you perceive him. Jesus said and i quote, a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones as ye see me have. how do you communicate with an entity that doesn’t have flesh and bones? this information alone opens up a well of curiosity and a desire to know and understand, how does a spirit talk and instruct? how does a spirit walk, act, and think? what does a covenant mean to a sprit and how is it established?

if you do this right, you’d come up with a wealth of information you’d have never had if you never took up that responsibility. it’s the same with his character, if the word says he’s good, how so?, how can he be just and merciful at the same time? how is he love and how does he love? how is he all powerful yet he put himself in a position where he will only work and show out in this realm through willing and yielded men? how can he kill and make alive? how is he one in three expressions and each co-exist without conflict? how is he one spirit and seven spirits at the same time?

all of this questions and more can only be answered by an intentional walk with and an experiential knowledge of him. i wrote in a previous article that all of the expressions of God that we know today are a product of his revealing himself in those dimensions and i know without a shadow of a doubt that there are more expressions of his person yet to be discovered or articulated. the word says that the secret of the lord are with those that fear him, and if fear is the beginning of knowledge, we can deduce from these two statements that the secrets – mysteries, insights to deep things are given to those that know him.

Jesus said and i quote “ye worship, ye know not what.” and this remains true even today. most people worship a God they have no revelation of, the children of israel proved this to be true, the pharisees and sadducees did too. your father’s God might not necessarily be your God and jacob’s life proved this. as much as he was a beneficiary of the covenant of abraham, he had to go on his journey to find that God, and he did. he found God, got a name change and bought into that covenant.

scattered around the scriptures, you’ll find these two statements – the lord God of your fathers and the lord your God. they both hold so much weight but i’ll just zero in on the fact that there’s a difference between your God and the God of your fathers. this speaks to a personal knowledge on both sides of the coin. the fathers had to know him personally or in the spirit of the article, experientially for him to be their God, and the sons have to take up that responsibility too, to know him as their God because you can’t transfer your knowledge of God.

the knowledge of God is a conscious reality that is intangible. of course it comes with tangible fruits that others can glean and benefit from but that knowledge of God remains largely personal. for example, the keepers of the law in the days that Jesus walked the earth didn’t know God like abraham knew him and they lived out that ignorance, to the point of killing his son, thinking they were doing him a favour. the law was a fruit of personal revelations of God from the covenant to moses and the prophets and they handled this fruit without a revelation of who it was pointing to.

you have to understand there’s a God beyond the letter, and this is where this contemplation really begins; i write the next few statements at the risk of sounding controversial. it’s written that the letter killeth, because the letter was an invitation, God isn’t limited to it. the spirit of God inspired the letter, or the law, using the individual perspectives of the writers but he’s not limited to the law. for example, i’m writing this body of truth, but my knowledge isn’t limited to the content of this article.

the knowledge of the letter and the canonized word of God is great and it’ll always be our benchmark in the faith, but i believe that God is calling us to a place of deeper experience with him. experiences that confirm and align with the word but also come with degrees of consciousness. experiences with God that make him real and true. john said and i quote, “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life”.

this is pointing to the fact that their consciousness of and confidence in Jesus was not predicated on hearsay or other people’s experiences, they saw with their eyes, heard him with the hearing of the ear, their hands handled or touched to establish the perspective that Jesus was both the son and the word. these guys saw him as a man, they saw and heard God affirm him, were witnesses of his passion, they saw him die, saw him buried, saw his body missing in the grave, saw the resurrected christ, saw him ascend, and received the baptism of the holy ghost which was proof that he was glorified and seated at the right hand of the father.

now you tell me, how could they doubt? or deny him to save their lives? this experience gave them a consciousness that could not be taken from them. the writer in the book of acts said that Jesus showed himself alive by many infallible proofs and was with them forty days before his ascension. why go through all that stress if experiences were unnecessary or irrelevant? experiences bear witness to the truth, many of the things they heard Jesus say didn’t crystallize in their understanding until after his resurrection.

the things they experienced confirmed the things that were written about Jesus before he was born and you’d find this in the scriptures where the disciples would say things like “this” happened that “that” may be fulfilled. this contemplation is to shine light to the place of an experiential knowledge of God. for the keepers of the law, the letter was in their hands, and they’d read it all their life, but when they saw the fulfillment of the letter in the flesh they couldn’t perceive him for who he was, and this is proof that the letter without a revelation of the person of Jesus is just that – a letter.

paul was an apostle that saw the resurrected christ in a heavenly vision, and this was one of the things that established his confidence in his calling and the gospel he preached. it established his consciousness of God so much that he went through hell and high water to fulfill his assignment.
persecutions not withstanding, afflictions front left and center, he kept at it, defended his faith and finished his race. this was a man who prior to this encounter, persecuted the church to defend this letter. the bible records that he learnt from the best teacher and affirmed his zeal, yet he was blinded to the truth.

the difference between saul the persecutor and paul the apostle was a revelation of God, or better put, the experiential knowledge of God. his perspective was corrected and realigned, his zeal got repurposed and he could see as God would have him see because of that encounter and the quest to know the God that the letter had always spoke about. same letter, but a different perspective that can be traced to first the encounter and then the subsequent knowledge of God. the letter couldn’t achieve it’s purpose without that knowledge of God.

please understand that i’m not advocating for a dismissal of the supremacy of the word of God or the adoption of a posture of irreverence to the written word, i’m saying that we have to press for the knowledge and revelation of the person that is the word. the written word has to come alive and become the living word, that is real and tangible to you; we have to grow to a place where the word is not just tales, fables or historical artifacts but spirit and life and this will only happen with the experiential knowledge of God.

this is the wisdom behind encounters and experiences, to give us confidence and establish consciousness, ultimately precipitating the knowledge of God. it’s not enough to know that there’s a God in the bible, we have to labour to know the God of the bible; neither is it enough to know the written word, we have to know the spirit that inspired that word. only then can we proceed to bear fruits of this knowledge of God. he calls us to be with him – to know him, his acts and his ways. only then can we bear fruits.

one of the many fruits of the experiential knowledge of God is the correct interpretation of situations and scenarios. if you know God as good, one that dwells in light and has no darkness in him, if you’re aware that he is love and he loves you, if you know that he’s almighty and that he can keep you, armed with the consciousness of his promises and the fact that he can’t lie, or that he binds himself to his word and is committed to performing them not because you were told but by experience, how can situations and circumstances dictate to you what is true and what isn’t? how can they tell you what to believe?

i’m not downplaying the reality of scenarios and circumstances, as even the best of us will be confronted by them, i’m saying that the knowledge of God crafts a perspective for us and we approach and respond to this situations from this perspective. for example, Jesus said that in the world we’d have tribulation: but to be of good cheer; why? because he had overcome the world. this is a truth that establishes perspective, it doesn’t insulate you from tribulations but it gives you the disposition of an overcomer in light of that tribulation.

this knowledge determines how you fight, and how you speak, and the actions you take to establish your victory. i’ve come to realize that the name of a thing is the thing and you have to brood on that to understand it, but continuing in the spirit of this example, if you define a situation as a stumbling block, then that’s what it becomes, and in the same breath, if you defined that same situation as a stepping stone, that’s what it is. that’s the power of perspective; every hypothesis is born out of it, but the good thing is that as you progressively know God, he crafts your perspective.

another fruit of the knowledge of God is in the demonstration of faith and the manifestation of power.
you can explain faith to an accounting expert as a discounted cash flow; it’s seeing things from the lens of what they’d be in the now and acting accordingly. while DCF as a concept is hinged on the value of potential income or revenue, faith is hinged on the knowledge of God, his word, his nature and his character. most people won’t readily admit it, but man was a creature made to operate by faith. by design, faith in God, but the world hinges theirs on logic, might and strength, science, knowledge and so on.

and while that’s a deviation from the original design, they still operate by this principle. whatever you trust, you have faith in and this happens in the presence or absence of consciousness. this gets clearer when you understand that faith in lay man’s terms is simply belief, belief that is hinged on trust. faith is a God designed principle, and this cosmos was designed to function by it, in addition to the many other established principles wound into the fabrics of the cosmos.

bible faith always begins with the knowledge of God. if i handed you a cheque for a billion dollars and you know me or at least a few things about me, that i don’t lie and that i’m capable and that it is my will for you to cash the check and spend the money, would you be jittery on your way to the bank? it’s the same way with God’s word, embedded in the word are blank cheques – promises, with instructions on how to cash them.

the knowledge or awareness of these promises coupled with the knowledge of the one who has given you access to these promises by faith comes with the confidence to prove it. this is the confidence ingrained in those who stay with him and then get sent to do his will. it’s the wisdom in waiting on him, the wisdom in intimacy and fellowship because all of these help you know him and by inference trust him. trust is a fruit that has seeds that eventually grow into trees and subsequently more fruits, one of them being audacity.

audacity is brazen confidence that is hinged on the benchmark of belief. whether in self, ability, skill, competence or faith and trust in God. it can be explicated as taking risks, attempting daunting tasks and feats or doing things others would ordinarily not dare and knowing God experientially has a way of exercising this muscle. another fruit of a comprehensive knowledge of God is that you begin to see the way he sees and that ultimately crafts a perspective that individuals in the realm of absolute pragmatic wisdom can’t comprehend.

perspective itself is power, and a perspective that is crafted from a bedrock of the knowledge of God, faith and trust in him, and the audacity to work out that faith gives you disdain for fear. a man once said that fear is to the adversary what faith is to God. here’s an analogy, a father and his young son are on a walk, a dog appears from no where and attempts to scare the son. even if the scenario is scary to the son, the fact that he’s not alone and that the dog itself won’t dare to come close because it’s wary of the father is enough reason for the son to find rest.

this can explain why scattered around the scriptures we see “fear not”, “be still”, “stand still”, “rest”. and the context where these expressions are used were situations where these instructions made no pragmatic or logical sense. we stand still because we know him, and because we know him, we know his character, and we also have a revelation of his will and might. the aggregation of this knowledge gives us rest. rest my friends, is not the absence of a storm, it’s peace in spite of it; and the power to glide over it. fear and faith are mutually exclusive, like noise and absolute quietness, and the challenges of life can be likened to the dog that trembles at the presence of our father.

there are many other fruits of the experiential knowledge of God not elucidated in this article that are valuable keys that ultimately catapult us to the realm of true dominion and victory but the true understanding of this reality- the experiential knowledge of God, precipitates faith and that’s how we please God. it’s how we live in the kingdom of light. this is not another article to preach mental ascent, neither is it an attempt to virtue signal spirituality.

it’s a call to responsibility, to actively seek him out and that with our whole hearts, to worship in truth and from a disposition of love, to find him while he’s near. it’s a call to take up our journey and follow after him, to submit to process and dealings, to die that we can live; individually and then corporately. if this article nudges you in that direction, then i’d have achieved my goal.

dominion, which is a product of genuine transformation, both individually and territorially will only find expression in a people that have a true knowledge of their God.

this knowledge that i speak of is only for those who have been translated by faith into the kingdom of light. if you read this and haven’t, or you have in the past but strayed and things are not the way they used to be.

here’s a quick prayer to get that fixed

Lord Jesus, I believe that you’re the son of God that came into the world to die for me that I might be reconciled to God. I acknowledge my state as a sinner, I receive you as my Lord and personal savior and acknowledge you as the Lord of all in my life. I declare that the power of sin and death is broken over me and that i’ve translated from darkness into the glorious kingdom of God.

that’s all it takes. welcome to the family of God 🙂

until next time, damola out!

references:
I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.
— Numbers 15:41

But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
— Daniel 11:32b

He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
— Psalm 103:7

Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
— 1 John 4:17

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
— John 5:24

Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.
— John 7:28

I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.
— John 8:26

And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.
— John 12:45

But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
— John 5:36-38

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
— John 17:3

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
— 2 Peter 1:3

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
— Proverbs 1:7

Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
— John 4:22

And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
— Genesis 32:28

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
— 2 Peter 1:21

I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
— Acts 22:3

Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
— Psalm 66:3

Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
— Luke 24:39

The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.
— Psalm 25:14

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
— 2 Corinthians 3:6

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
— 1 John 1:1

Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:
— Acts 26:19

Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
— Acts 26:22

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
— John 16:33

And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
— Exodus 14:13

But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
— Isaiah 43:1

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
— Hebrews 11:6

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
— Hebrews 10:38

Peace.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

— Philippians 4:7.

focal points:

• peace as an anchor. 
• peace as a ticker- a knower. 
• peace as a tangible state of being- a reality that overrides lying vanities.

• PEACE AS AN ANCHOR.

An anchor in the context of ships and seas, is a big metal heavy object, used to secure vessels to the seabed, to keep it from drifting during turbulence.  Peace is one of the ways the Lord keeps us grounded in this word of corruption and sin.  It is written that we’re in the world, not of it, we’re of a different heritage but currently in this fallen world on this side of eternity.  This world became perverted when the devil stole authority from Adam. This world lost equilibrium and corruption found its way into this world. 

In the beginning, all that God made was good. But since this corruption crept in, creation groans, and there’s going to be a new world, a new dispensation, but while we’re here, there are tribulations. – Gen 1:31, Rom 8:19, Rom 5:3. 

Tribulations as in persecution, warfare, pain, sacrifices among other things as God’s people. This world is run by the prince of the power of the air- satan and his kingdom of the fallen ones. He’s got a government, and because he lost, he knows his time is short, he’s on a rampage, to inflict pain and sorrows to us as God’s people because quite frankly, he can’t fight God, but he’d fight us to get to our father.  – 1 Pet 5:8. 

Even in all this though, we triumph gloriously, we dominate, we win, because Jesus won. And all the tribulations and temptations actually work together for us for good, giving us a greater weight of glory. But it doesn’t always feel that way. That’s where peace comes in. God’s peace. Jesus is the prince of peace, we have his spirit in us, so we have peace. Peace that keeps us grounded, deeply rooted, knowing we’re in christ and christ is in us.  This peace helps us sleep through the storms of life  just like Jesus did in the boat. 

We know we’re in God, and we’re at his right hand, seated in heavenly places. This peace helps us know we’re good, because we believe God’s word as the absoluteness of his power. We know we are more than conquerors by this peace. -Isa 9:6,  Eph 3:13, 2 Thess 1:4. 

• PEACE AS A TICKER.

Peace can also be a very important tool for discernment, it can be used to discern God’s state of heart about our situations,decisions, desires and even us as his chosen.  Peace as a state of mind is one of God’s ways of speaking to us, as believers we know we have peace by his spirit. Now what happens when that peace is displaced? When we’re troubled by the spirit, we know something’s off.  And that loss of peace can mean different things for different reasons and scenarios. I’ll touch on a few of these.

These are all signs and nudgings of the spirit, all greek words.  Meaning different things, but i’ll simplify. 

Tarasso – agitation, being troubled, stirred up or made restless by the spirit, to be perplexed.   It can be a warning sign, of things to come, or a consequence following an action.  – Mark 6:50, Matt 2:3, Matt 14:26. 

 Paroxuno – irritation, being provoked, aroused to anger, to be exasperated, to burn with anger.  This is mostly a nudging of the spirit to take action. – Acts 17:16. 

 Epiginosko –  to know accurately, to know well, discern, recognise, by sight, hearing, of certain signs, to perceive who a person is or what something really is. – Matt 7:16, Matt 7:20, Luke 5:22, Matt 14:35, Acts 4:13, Acts 12:14.

 Splagchnizomai –  to have the bowels(inward parts) yearn, to have sympathy, to pity, to have (be moved with) compassion. – Matt 9:36, Matt 14:14, Mark 1:41, Mark 6:34, Mark 8:2. 

 Epitimáō – To rebuke, to charge, to admonish. This is also a call to take action by the spirit, to enforce. Usually sternly. – Matt 8:26, Matt 12:16, Matt 17:18, Mark 1:25. 

 Sternazo – deep groaning, deep sighs. travail. Can be a note of victory, or  intercession by the spirit, it can also be a sign of a burden, or a longing. – Matt 7:34, 2 Corinthians 5:2,4, Romans 8:23. 

These are a few signs that replace peace within us as a perpetual state of mind or being. Telling us something’s up or something needs to be done.  We live a supernatural life as we’re  supernatural beings and these are some of our weapons of advantage over the enemy. 

• PEACE AS A TANGIBLE STATE OF BEING. 

As renewed and redeemed beings, peace is one of the ways we know all the things we believed by faith are true and real even though they’re intangible.  Peace is one of the ways we know we’re righteous, holy, acceptable, and loved.  Peace is a reality, a literal blanket that shields us from the lying vanities of this world. One of the ways the enemy attacks us is by attacking our hearts, by offense, by pressures, sometimes lack, temptations and magnifying unpleasant situations. But peace is one of the ways we live above it. – Jam 1:2

By resting and focusing on God’s word, having greater and higher revelations of who he is to us as father, friend, redeemer, keeper, and the many other dimensions of who he is. By trusting in him fully, and resting in hope, we enter this economy that gives us a rest that’s supernatural. A state where it doesn’t matter what’s happening, your joy is intact, your heart is protected and you sail even though storms rage. – Rom 14:17, Phil 4:7.

In conclusion, as believers we shouldn’t be conformed to this world, we live above it even though we’re physically in it.  We’re not of it, so our realities, mental modules and perspectives should reflect that. Peace is one of our advantages.  

Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

— Jude 2  

Shalom, saint!

the subject of eternal damnation.

Now i wouldn’t be doing you much good if I didn’t touch on the repercussions of rejecting this great salvation. 

The will of God is explicitly clear on the fact there’s absolutely no other way to be accepted and reconciled to him except through his son. He came as the way, the truth and the life, the bread of life, the life that became the light of men. 

All men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God’s standard of righteousness could not be met by works. That’s why it pleased God to bruise his son Jesus and consider him stricken, to make him an offering for sin. That by him righteousness can be imputed into the books for us. That by Jesus we can be restored to the father, that we can come boldly to the throne of Grace knowing that we are declared righteous. -Rom 3:23, Isa 53:10, Heb 4:16. 

The law (Commandments) was to establish the fact that we couldn’t attain to God’s standard so he made an avenue where we can be righteous through the obedience and conformity of one- Jesus, even as we became unrighteous by the sin and disobedience of one- Adam.  -Romans 5:19. 

Righteousness is right standing with God, Him being pleased. Only Jesus could do that because he obeyed and conformed even onto death, the death of the cross and that’s why God raised him, highly exalted him and gave him a name that’s above every other name.  And it’s also expressly clear that there’s no other name under heaven by which all men might be saved.  Jesus is the ONLY way. -Acts 4:12.

It’s established by God that he can’t behold sin or unrighteousness, in the dispensation of the law, God touched on the fact that his presence would consume sinners.  He even had to turn away from his own beloved son, the first begotten, when he became sin, he’s unchanging.  That’s why God made provision of the blood, the fulfillment of the allegories of the blood of animal sacrifices in the mosaic testament.  Those sacrifices weren’t sufficient for atonement, so the blood was to appease the wrath of God, so they weren’t consumed, the only acceptable sacrifice was the blood and the death of Jesus. That was when God’s wrath got fully satisfied. -2 Cor 5:21.

And it’s on that basis that we’re no longer separated from God, so a sinner remains isolated, alienated from the manifest presence of God, cut off from the kingdom of God and everything that pertains to life and godliness, blinded by the prince of the this world and God leaves them in their folly even though it’s his desire that all men be saved.  -Eph 2:2.

Jesus during his earthly walk expressed in parables and teachings on how there’s a place reserved for the wicked and unjust, a place of everlasting punishment, a place of gnashing of teeth, a place of eternal separation from the father.  A place where every sin is accounted for, a place of unquenchable fire and darkness, an abode shared with the separated sons of God who lost their first estate, a place where forgiveness is withdrawn forever.  A place of eternal separation from the father, and it’s important to establish what that means, that means separation from God, and everything that’s his, separation from light, hope, mercy.  A place where you’re totally cut off. -Matt 8:12, 13:42,50, 22:13.

The Lord Jesus gave a parable to the end that there’d be a shutting out to the door of grace, and a casting or thrusting out of workers of iniquity, those who reveled in their unbelief, in their wickedness.  God is not a thug, he won’t force himself on anyone, that’s why he leaves unbelievers to their evil desires of being stone hearted.  He is a just judge though, as he gave each one of us a will, so as many of them that reject eternal life, the judgement of condemnation still stands on them.  -Luke 13:25

Jesus came as the route to redemption, a means to sanctification, justification and glorification.  The only way to access grace and help,by his spirit we have liberty, which is freedom from guilt and essentially the qualification to enter God’s presence.  As a high priest who’s not oblivious of our infirmities, one who was tested on every side, Jesus felt that separation for a moment and he cried out, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”.  And that’s why he continually makes intercession for us in heaven, he’s been there, he tasted it, bore it, felt it.  -Matt 27:46.

This was a man who pleased the father on every side, but he felt the weight of the judgement he came to set us free from and he cried, there’s no account where he spoke or complained or cried when the punishments were being put on him, there’s stripes, battery, humiliation, disrespect, bruises, he kept mute, being stricken as a lamb taken to the slaughter.  But at the moment the father turned his back on him as he became sin, he cried out. -John 8:29, Isa 53:4,5.

So its safe to say that if the son of God cried, there’d be a lot of crying on the other side, a place of everlasting punishment where every man would have to account for every sin, every word, every action. 

We’ve also established that the law being a school master was put in place so we know that righteousness to God would never be by works and no man would ever be able to attain it themselves. If it was possible then Christ would not have had to die.   And it’s also established that the soul that sins shall die, so the death of christ was God’s window of mercy to be the death of all, he died so that as many that believe in him and his works would not perish, so there’s a place for perishing of souls not renewed and joined to christ.  -Eze 18:20, Gal 3:24. 

Hell

Hell simply put, is the final abode for those condemned to eternal perdition. A place reserved for the wicked, the unrepentant, the unsaved and the ones who rejected the great gospel of salvation. Those that mocked the grace of God. It’s a place of total separation to light and all that God is, a place of gnashing of teeth, pain and punishment that never ends.  An abode for unregenerate souls, a place of fire, brimstone that never gets put out, a place of undying worms.  It’s a pit and in the bible it’s often used in the same sentence with destruction. It’s a place of unending sorrows. – Psa 9:17, 18:5,

It’s safe to say that whatever God does is forever, nothing can be added or taken away from it.  God prepared a place of eternal bliss for his saints and also prepared a place of bondage for his enemies.

That being said, Who ends up in hell?

—The wicked.

Going off of the hebrew word rasa, the wicked are those guilty of crime, in this case sin, the rebellious, those that commit iniquity.  From inception, the scriptures always pointed out the fact that the wicked would always end up being judged.  Everyone who’s unrighteous is wicked in God’s eyes, and even before this age is wrapped up, some get their recompense here, and still end up in hell. -Psa 9:17. 

—The tares.

The scriptures describe tares as the planting of the enemy. Just as we the righteous are the planting of the Lord, the work of his hands. The enemy doesn’t create, but he’s the master of perversion. One of the things seeks to pervert are the ordinances of God.  Tares can represent false messengers, false teachers and preachers who corrupt God’s purposes, and end up making other people miss their way too. Their judgement is set in stone, they’d be bound up and thrust in a furnace of fire. A place of eternal gnashing of teeth. – Matt 7:22, 13:29,40,42.  

—Demons/ Erstwhile sons of God. 

Scriptural history also tells us that somewhere between the days of the fall of Adam and the days of Noah, Angels looked on to the daughters of men and laid with them, creating a corruption that made God repent. -Gen 6:6. 

God didn’t forgive them, neither did he give them the grace of being restored to their former estate. They’re current bound in chains, in pits of darkness, in hell until the final judgment. -2 Pet 2:4.

—Satan. 

Lucifer, the adversary, the accuser, the father of lies himself. Hell is reserved for him and his fallen followers who tried to disrupt God’s order by trying to exalt himself above God’s throne, He desired to be like the most high, iniquity was found in him, which we know is the number one ticker to get cut off from God’s presence.  God cut him down and cast him to the ground. His judgement is sure, it’s been set in stone since the foundation of the world was laid. That’s why he’s on a rampage, seeking who to join him in eternal damnation, like a wounded lion, his time is short, already set in stone.  And his job is to stop people from accessing true light with his many tactics which are bordered around stealing, killing and destroying.  He can’t fight our father, so he fights and accuses the children to get to him. He’s a defeated foe though, always will be. -Isa 14:12-20, Eze 28:12-19, Rev 12:10.

In conclusion, Knowing the type of place hell is and will be by experience, and the company waiting for people there, i think the reasonable choice is to do anything to avoid it. God has made it easy by the economy of grace, through his son Jesus.  He who died and rose again, the messiah, to the end that mankind doesn’t have to perish, he paid every price and forever the sacrifice and atonement is complete. Our job is to buy in, remain, live in righteousness and holiness, being acceptable to God all by grace through faith.  The first step is to be reborn by accepting Jesus the son as lord, savior, believing all that he did, without which no man can see the kingdom of God. Next we yield our members, as living sacrifices, instruments of worship to God, live in obedience perpetually and lean on the grace of God, living above sin.- John 3:16, 17:3.

Ultimately finding and fulfilling purpose, that the son may find us worthy when he comes with his angels on that last day, where we’d be changed into the same image and eventually transition into the new life, incorruptible eternal life, in his kingdom that will never end.  -Luke 1:33.

i’m saved, what now?

Hey friend! now that you’re saved, you need to contend for light, a lot of it.

light with regards to who you are, how the father sees you, the games of the enemy and the afflictions of the righteous, becoming a legislator, the casting down of age long strongholds, being a tree of righteousness, planted. understanding the blood, the name. growing in faith, grace, holiness and righteousness., intimacy.

 I intend to touch on a few of these today.   Have a good read!

• Contending for light 

What is Light?

First of all, God is light, he dwells in light, unapproachable light. There’s no darkness in him at all and that’s why darkness disappears at the sight of light. 

He made light appear out of darkness on creation. Light is a dimension of God, a domain of God and a nature of God.  -2 Cor 4:6.

Light is that which makes manifest, as if to reiterate the fact that God is light, Jesus came as an embodiment of that nature of God and a carrier of it.  In him was life and that life was the light of men.  – John 1:4, Eph 5:13.

Light is also revelation, for example, a believer doesn’t know God redeemed us from the curses of the law when Jesus hung on the cross for us is in darkness in that area, and will get afflicted in that area until the understanding that it shouldn’t be so comes alive to them. The coming alive of that reality as a revelation is light. 

Light is learning and growing daily in the knowledge of God, his will and purpose, growing and grasping spiritual understanding. Understanding the hope of God’s calling, why he redeemed us, saved us, glorified us. Knowing God as we should, being washed by the water of his word.  That’s our responsibility.

• Being a legislator

This is using the light you have to enforce the spiritual realities you’ve been given access to by the father. Before we got saved and redeemed, a lot of were victims of the effect of being slaves to sin and its fruits, we were blinded by the prince of the power of the air, scriptures call him the god of this world and hitherto we indulged in wickedness and evil things in the sight of God.- Eph 1:3, 2 Cor 4:4.

Now God forgave us and all those sins are blotted out by the blood of the lamb that paid the price for us, but we have an adversary, a legislator who’s not on our side, who approaches the courts of heaven to present reasons why we should be judged by God.  Knowing that God is just and is subject to his word and exalts it even above himself.  He gets legal rulings to afflict us in areas we default in. – Col 2:14, 1 Peter 5:8.

Now it’s our responsibility to enforce the victory purchased and freely given to us of God to ensure that we live and walk in the redemption purchased for us. 

And to be an adept legislator, you have to understand the tools made available for us to do that effectively which would be addressed hereafter.  – 2 Cor 2:11.

• Understanding the Blood and the Name

“Wherefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name above every other name, that at the mention of the name, every knee bows and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.” – Phil 2:9-11.

 

“Blotting out handwriting of ordinances that were formerly written against us. “ – Col 2:14.

These are realities that the blood and the name represent. They are weapons for warfare. God made it so because he knew that there are strongholds to cast down, principalities and powers in heavenly realms to contend with.

God gave us that name as one of our inheritances so that whatever we ask in the name of Jesus becomes ours, whatever. So long as it aligns with his will and we’re not just trying to satisfy our own lusts.  He made it so that whatever we bind remains bound and whatever we loose remains loose. What boundless love? – Matt 18:18.

We also enforce realities in terms of putting the devil in his place in areas of our lives he previously held sway, health, finances, goals, dreams, holding back our spiritual inheritances in the name of Jesus and with the blood of Jesus. 

Every knee bows in the name of Jesus. We enforce the power of God with the name of Jesus. Mountains crumble, hills are brought low in the name of Jesus. Devils are subject to us in the name of Jesus.  We heal the sick in the name of Jesus, we raise the dead in the name of Jesus.  We give out virtue in the name of Jesus, Acts of kindness, mercy and love are all done in the name of Jesus. 

In the legalistic dimension of the spirit, the blood of Jesus speaks for us, it speaks mercy over judgement, it’s the basis of our right standing with God, like a shield from the wrath of God. The token of appeasement to God. 

In addition, the blood is also  how we enforce the new covenant realities like emancipation from curses,old ungodly covenants and allegiances contrary to the new covenant in christ.  The enemy as an adversary goes to the father as an accuser and points out where we default, but thanks be to God, we have a mediator, who’s blood is the accepted appeasement, therefore we enjoy mercy.  – 1 Tim 2:5, Heb 8:6, Heb 9:17.

The blood of Jesus is what bought us back from sin and slavery, from bondage, ordinances and subjection to the law as a schoolmaster. It’s the price that was paid for our redemption.  1 Cor 6:19-20,  Isa 52:3.

• Growing in Grace, Righteousness and Holiness, Intimacy . 

Grace

“Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” God forbid.  – Rom 6:1.

We often mistake the availability of grace for freedom to continue in the lust of the flesh, or indulge in things we know doesn’t please the heart of the father, because of the grace made available by the father through the sacrifice of Jesus.  

Grace is the ability to do what pleases the father, Grace as empowerment and enablement, grace is the basis of our coming boldly to the father, grace is the provision available to no longer be under the schoolmaster called the law. Grace is how we live above sin, its not a license to sin, its the measure we need to stay above it, Grace is how we’re able to perpetually walk in the spirit and deny the lust of the flesh. Grace is how we’re in right standing with God, and Grace is how we know that if we do fall, he’s right there to pick us up.  It shouldn’t be taken for granted, it should be accessed to help us do the will of the father who loved us first.  – Rom 3:24, 5:20, 5:20, 6:14.

Righteousness 

Righteousness is exactly what it sounds like, being in right standing with God, pleasing to the father, it’s everything sin doesn’t represent.  Righteousness is being obedient, yielding, being upright, devoid of blemish.  This is one of the qualities that helps us be able to behold God forbid who he is.  

The very nature of Jesus, he knew no sin, he didn’t sin, he was totally conformed, obedient to the father, never did anything the father didn’t do, moved in accordance with every will of the father even until death, he didn’t consider it robbery to come in the likeness of a servant.  His desires were the father’s desires and he took on that responsibility, did everything the father wanted and finished it on the cross, that nature is what’s considered righteousness.  We got that freely when we believed Jesus and made him lord of our lives.  – 2 Cor 5:21, Phil 3:10, Phil 2:5-8.

But we also have a responsibility in keeping with that nature, making sure it’s not corrupted, that means being conformed with our will, our choices, choosing what the father wants and says per time. That’s what’s expected of us. It’s our reasonable sacrifice.  It’s what we can give to the One who’s given us everything we have.

Holiness

“holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord”- Heb 12:14.

Holiness is the nature of God, it’s a description of that nature, the nature of being in a class all by himself,  and because he’s holy, we as his sons have to be holy. Holiness isn’t just a nature, it’s a state, it’s a type of life, the greek word “hagiasmos” explains it with details, “consecration”, “purity”, “separation”.   – 1 Sam 2:2, Isa 6:3. 

Now this a subject that i could really linger on, and i think i’d have a separate writing on this subject as i’m inspired by the holy ghost, but holiness is being set apart, totally belonging to someone like a deity or something as like a cause, a purpose.  

Holiness means you live according to the demands of who you belong to, in this case the most high God.  Holiness means the life you live isn’t yours anymore, it means you’ve been chosen, bought, put in a different class for a reason, and that reason defines how you live, move, act.  Holiness means presenting your members as a living sacrifice. Living under authority. 

Holiness means being separated unto priesthood , like the levites  of old did. Their lot was God, Even so in this new covenant, we’re called to be kings and priests. Our bodies are his dwelling place, living altars and temples, as he doesn’t dwell in temples made by human hands.  Our bodies are temples, and by inference, we live as a temple should be, clean, purged, sacred.  – Rom 12:1.

Intimacy

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.” – 2 Cor 13:14.

Communion in the text above is from the greek word “koinonia”. It means fellowship.   In this case, fellowship with God”s Holy spirit. The Holy spirit is a person, not a dove or a thing, He’s the third person in the trinity, One with God the father, and the Son, but with a separate personality.  He’s how we know the true nature of God, He’s our comforter, teacher, friend, helper, counselor and the one who reveals the heart of the father to us.   – John 14:16, 26. 

As sons of God, we’re expected to be express images of God, even as the first born was, so as we behold we’re changed, improved, from one level to another.  Beholding comes from intimacy, genuine fellowship with God. 

In conclusion, this new life in God, is not a passive one, it’s not just about the knowledge of it’s existence , it’s a life to be lived, a life to give up everything else for, a life of purpose and ultimately fulfillment, a life of power, dominion, authority and a life of love.  Please don’t settle for the bare minimum, there are realms in God to be explored and he wants us to come closer, boldly, to worship in spirit and truth, to explore realities cut off from carnal or natural men.  shalom! 🙂

the reality of the new birth.

Welcome back to life! A life of God, i mean you died, now you’re back. Redeemed, the beloved of God. 

You have become a new man, a new person, an overcomer of the world. 

Now i think it’s expedient that we establish this new reality, this life you and I now live as the redeemed;

• Dominion.

When God created Man, he hinged it on two parameters. Image, Likeness to the end that they would have dominion.  Gen 1:26.

The Hebrew word for image in the text is ‘ṣelem’ which is transliterated as semblance, a representative, like a copy. 

The Hebrew word for likeness is ‘dᵊmûṯ’ which simply put is a similitude, of the same model, kind, or fashion. 

And the purpose for this was to create a race that would have dominion over the fishes of the sea, birds of the air and all creeping things, a specie that the rest of creation would be subject to, as creation would then submit to HIM. -Rom 8:16

A race who would be fruitful and multiply. – Gen 1:28

A race who would prosper and steward the earth and fullness, a man who would mirror God’s reign in heaven here on earth as the Godhead desired it.

Now Mankind fell from grace, lost that dominion through sin by disobedience and got shut out of that first estate. Creation was made to be subject to an authority, as dominion also can pass for authority. Adam and Eve yielded themselves to the enemy and automatically became subject to his authority for it is written that whosoever you yield yourselves to obey, you are subject to. -Rom 6:16

Satan, the adversary took the place of our dominion over creation and that’s one of the reasons creation earnestly waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. 

That’s what christ did, he restored us back to the position of sons.  He restored us to the place of dominion over all things as it was in the beginning. Now satan lost, but he won’t just admit it and give it back to us. That’s where authority comes in.

• Authority.

When Jesus rose again from the dead, he took back that authority.  -Matt 28:18.

He satisfied the claims of justice by his sacrifices, the blood and the cross. As the second Adam in God’s eyes,  he pleased God and became the perfect example of what mankind should be.  As sin, death and defeat became imputed to all of mankind by Adam’s actions, righteousness, life and victory became imputed to mankind by Jesus’ actions.  -Rom 5:12. 

He confounded the enemy and his cohorts when he rose up from the dead, openly disgraced them and showed their powerlessness over him and as a direct result us. -Col 2:15

Now Jesus didn’t just win for himself, neither did he take that authority and power for himself alone, God by grace, made it available to all of us. 

Tracking back, He demonstrated this authority even before his death, to model what God expects us to be after redemption.  By that authority, he healed all that came to him with diseases,palsies, afflictions.  He casted out devils and destroyed all the works of the devil, he set captives free, he brought light to those in darkness because he was the true light, by this same authority he raised the dead. Matt 12:15,Matt 15:30, Acts 10:38.

It’s also important to note that all the while doing so, he taught and told his disciples that the same works they’re seeing him do, they’d do also, even greater. -John 14:12.

And to prove that they really could, he gave them the first dose power to do so when he sent them out, and the seventy-two returned with joy. With a testament that the demons were subject to his name, even before glorification, Amazing. -Luke 10:17.

Then he gave them authority over serpents, snakes and scorpions and all the power of the enemy. -Luke 10:19

Upon resurrection, he obtained for us legal grounds to exercise that authority. 

To do all that he did and more, and it was proven by the works of the apostles, they did all that Jesus did. You can too.  That’s your new reality.  Col 2:14

You have authority to enforce the reality of the finished work of christ over the works of the devil in your life. Every area, health, relationships, family, finance. Every promise of God is your right and inheritance and you can exert it as a legislator that you are.  -Luke10:19

Purpose

Now that you’re officially reborn, it’s important that you have an understanding of why God did what he did when he justified, sanctified and glorified us according to his divine purpose. He predestined us to be his sons, to bring him glory just as Jesus did.  -Eph 1:5

Ultimately, the first mandate or assignment was to go into all the world, all nations, this world of men, so everywhere men are, nations, territories, kingdoms, governments, industries, the church and ideally every realm of man’s domain and and make disciples of all nations, bringing them into the knowledge of his will and his ways, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.  – Matt 28:19-20

We as sons of God are his representatives, his ambassadors for his kingdom to reign on earth as it is in heaven. He gave us power to do exploits, to take charge, and have dominion as the lord commanded it. To bring every creature back to the knowledge of God as creature awaits the manifestations of the sons of God. -Romans 8:19

We are to embrace heralding the Glory of God, making the earth filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.  -Hab 2:14

For some he gave gifts, special gifts for the building of the church. Usually referred to as the 5 fold. 

-Apostles

-Prophets

-Teachers

-Evangelists 

-Pastors 

These are those called specifically by God to serve the church body and ecclesia.

To build up his saints. – Eph 4:11

But essentially we all have a place in the call of God, as we’re all parts of a body, some pronounced, some not seen but every part is as important. 

Being called of God is not for a select few, all of us are called by God and we all have parts to play in his kingdom reigning on earth as it is in heaven.

It’s also important to note that passion isn’t purpose, even though a purpose revolves around something you’re innately passionate about, there’s a sense of assignment, a sense of responsibility and a fulfillment with purpose.

Purpose can be likened to what you were created to do, the position you were made to occupy, it defines and qualifies your existence and subsequently assignment, in purpose lies fulfillment.  An in-depth satisfaction and sense of belonging, a duty assigned to you before you came into the world. – Jer 1:5

While not all of us are meant to be on the pulpit, like i’ve said earlier, we all have a purpose assigned to us from the foundations of the world that we’re required to engage in and fulfill. Else the moment we became reborn, he’d have called us home. 

• Understanding the enemy

Paul said in his writings that we shouldn’t be ignorant of the wiles, the stratagems of the devil, for we wrestle.  It’s important to know that we’re dealing with a rebel, rebels don’t respect the status quo, they don’t follow order and that’s exactly why they’re rebels.  -Eph 6:12

The fact that we have overcome according to God’s word doesn’t mean the devil and his cohorts would just let us be, even though judicially they should, i mean its only right, but they wont, again, they’re rebels so we have to fight not from a place of fighting to win, but fighting from a place of victory and enforcing that which christ already did.  -1 John 5:4

You see, the fact that Christ bore our sicknesses on his back and by his stripes we’re healed doesn’t stop the enemy from trying to afflict the believer with a sickness, that’s why its our responsibility to reject that sickness and insist, enforce our freedom from diseases and get our healing.   -1 Pet 2:24, Isa 53:5,7

That’s why on ascension, our lord Jesus gave us power, the power he took back from the enemy, the root word there is authority, legislative jurisdiction to enforce our judicial ruling.  

The enemy doesn’t care about the fact that we have victory on paper, he cares about what we do with that victory we have on paper.  Matt 28:18, 19, Luke 10:19

We have a wicked adversary who wouldn’t stop at trying to fight our faith, beliefs and life because knowing he’s defeated and his reign on this side of eternity is for a time, he’s ready to afflict and frustrate us but thanks be to God who causes us to triumph always.  2 Cor 2:14

Now this isn’t so we glorify the enemy because we’re meant to triumph over him even as Jesus already did, or to live in fear, because we didn’t receive the spirit of fear but of love and adoption. We’re to exact our dominion and authority over the enemy and his hordes.  To trample over them as they’re under our feet. 

It’s a call to awareness, to understand his motives to kill steal and destroy, to know his desires, to actively resist him and keep him under foot.  -John 10:10, Psa 91:13, James 4:7.

It’s so that we’re conscious of the fact that we are here to spoil his works too just as Jesus did. To free people from his chains and blindfolds as we continually yield to the father.  We have a victory, and we live to enforce it.  Shalom!

why you should be saved.

Beyond the cliché and generic “hell is real” and moral induction of guilt, there are genuine reasons why salvation should be extremely important to you as God’s creation.

Translation from Darkness

Let’s talk about the fall of man and who a man alienated from christ is, when Adam fell, i think its important to state here that Adam means mankind. Adam was mankind to God, when he was in glory, mankind was in glory from God’s perspective.

In the same vein, when he fell from glory after the devil came in the picture, God judged him with death- Genesis 3:19. That justifies the popular verse in the scriptures “The wages of sin is death” – Romans 6:23.  

Judgement from God’s perspective was Curses and Death- Genesis 3:17-19. Mankind became Sin to God and God is so holy, his eyes can’t behold sin. 

Mankind became alienated from God, afar off- Ephesians 2:13

It’s also important to note that as Adam fell, We all fell, When he got judged, all of mankind was judged, when he became Sin, all of mankind became sin and was subject to death as a result of the law of sin and death and the curse from the judgement of God.  Romans 3:23

But thanks be to God, who has loved us with an everlasting love, he looked at us in our fallen state, and out of his unsearchable depth of love, he came up with a solution, a way where judgement could be satisfied, where our sins could be blotted out and his wrath would be satisfied because he’s righteous. He does things the way they should be done, that’s why he’s God.  Jeremiah 31:3, John 3:16.

He sent his only begotten son, that through faith in his son, Jesus, we might be saved, saved by believing in the finished work of Jesus on the cross at calvary, Christ became an appropriation.  now HOW?

Well,

He became a curse that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law. -Gal 3:13

He became Sin who knew no sin that we might be counted as righteous. -2 Cor 5:21

He became a life giving spirit. -1 Cor 15:45

He came as the Way, the Truth, and Life.  -John 14:6

Now i’d like to touch on the aforementioned points briefly.

• He became a curse that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law.

To understand this CURSE, we have to go back to where the curse first came into the world. At the fall of man, God pronounced a judgement of Adam and Eve, Mankind’s  progenitors. -Gen 3:15,16

 As if to emphasize that we had all fallen short of his glory, he gave laws to Moses, laws that no one could ever live up to, laws they always had to atone for with sacrifices of blood, goats, oxen, asses. -Ex 20,21,22,23. 

But even then Gods wrath wasn’t satisfied- Heb 10:4

All of that which was basically covering up sin and not actually blotting it out was God’s way of foretelling his intent with Mankind, he never gave up on us, he loved us with an everlasting love, a love that predestinates us. Jer 31:3, Rom 8:29

The true acceptable atonement for sin was when Jesus came, the living word of God becoming flesh to dwell among us.  He lived and never erred, he was the beloved of God even under sinful flesh, he pleased the father, did his will to the end, and God in turn glorified him, but that’s not where we’re headed. He was righteous, not a sinner like us. 

He came that we might have life, because we were dead, in the soul, spirit and body, slaves to sin and the curse.  He took on our sins, debts, infirmities and afflictions in his body and became the embodiment of sin, he took on the weight of the sins of all mankind, those that existed and those to come and paid the price with his blood, he died in our place to please God, to make us alive, he took our place in judgement and defeat that we might have freedom and victory, he took our sin and gave us his righteousness,  he did by hanging on a tree to negate the curse on us by being a curse, for cursed is the man that hangs on a tree, he became a curse for us that we would no longer be cursed, what a love, what a saviour!  That’s what our lord Jesus did.  

• He became sin that we might be counted as righteous.

God, the father of glory has a nature of holiness, that means he’s just, he honors his word and his statutes, he’s not emotional, he’s a just judge. So no matter how much he loved us, he couldn’t just wave us sin because his word already went forth and his word doesn’t come back to him void, interesting right? its a two edged sword, he created this world and all that is visible with his word, he judged man’s disobedience with that same word.

To take care of this, in his infinite wisdom he came up with substitution. Exchanging one for another, he exchanged Adam the fallen for Jesus the Exalted, he inputted us into Jesus instead of being imputed to Adam like we once were. So in essence he died to fulfill the claims of divine justice. 

 –      He became a life giving spirit.

The first Adam, which was God’s first creation of Man, the prototype for mankind, the human race was a living soul. Made out of dust, and given the breath of life through his nostrils.  Gen 2:7.

Jesus came as God’s perfect specimen and his fulfillment of the meeting of GodHead , when God said let us make man in our image and likeness. A “man” conformed even unto death, became a life giving spirit because in Him was life and that life was the light of men.  1 Cor 15:45. John 1:4.

It is also written that He came, that we might have life and have that life abundantly, the “life” here is ZOE.  The life of God, the life the first Man was cut off from, the life he lost, the glory of God.  

When he died and rose again by the spirit of God, he made that spirit available to us so long as we believe in Him, the same spirit that raised him from the dead, raises us up too, that’s why we’re BORN AGAIN. We become born of God, restored, resurrected, we become begotten of HIM, who first loved us and predestinated us to redemption.  Reborn first from the spirit, our inner man, the soul, and even our mortal bodies become quickened i.e made alive.  Eph 2:1,5. Rom 8:11.

• He came as the Way, the Truth and Life.

It’s imperative to point out that even as God loved us, and never really gave up on us, he made only one way available to give us the opportunity to be redeemed, or better yet, saved. and that way is JESUS.  John 14:6

He’s the door to the father, the only access to the father, our mediator, our high priest. Recall that God is just, and the claims of divine justice, HAD to be satisfied, he gave us Jesus as the atonement for all that was written against us, ordinances that stood and gave the enemy power over us because of sin and disobedience. Heb 12:24, Col 2:14, 

That’s why he had to die, first by becoming sin, then got put to death, that SIN itself might die, and essentially lose its grip over us.  His blood had to be shed, as payment, because sin only gets blotted out by blood.  His blood spoke 2000 years ago, still speaks now, speaks redemption, justification, sanctified, the precious blood of sprinkling that spoke mercy over our transgressions and made them totally wiped out.   2 Cor 5:21, Heb 12:24 

That was our fate, death for atonement, he died so we would not die, his blood was shed so ours wouldn’t be,  He got scourged, bruised, beaten to pay for everything, redemption from sicknesses, eternal loss of peace and payment for every iniquity man committed in his wickedness.  The only acceptable atonement. Isa 53:5, Matt 8:17, 1 Pet 2:24

Now, all you have to do is Believe.  Believe what?

Believe. Rom 10:9-10

• That he is God’s begotten, the express image of the father, and the first born from the dead. 1 John 5:1
• That you were indeed a sinner, not necessarily because of your deeds, but because you inherited that sinful nature immediately you stepped into this side of eternity. Rom 3:23
• That he came here for you, that he died for you, that he paid the price for you, so you don’t have to pay it. But most importantly that he rose up again on the third day.  John 18:37, 1 Thess 4:14
• That through his sacrifice you have redemption, sanctification and justification. Eph 1:7
• That you’re free, and most importantly loved by God.  And restored back to the father. Eph 2:13

When you believe, you confess.

Confess. Rom 10:9-10

• That he’s indeed LORD Rom 10:9-10
• That he’s Head over all things, his body which is the church Eph 1:21-23
• That by his blood, you’re redeemed, that by the cross you’re free from all curses and judgements and that all things in heaven and the earth bow to his Name Eph 1:7
• That you’re FREE. 8:36

In believing, with your heart, by faith and confessing with your mouth, you receive this new life, you receive this new life. you become born of God. An immediate overcomer of the world. 1 John 5:1-3.

Now, If you’re not saved, or you can’t expressly define your position with respect to your relationship with God.

Here’s a prayer you should pray to get that fixed.

Lord Jesus, I believe that you’re the son of God that came into the world to die for me that I might be reconciled to God. I acknowledge my state as a sinner, I receive you as my Lord and personal savior and acknowledge you as Lord of all in my life.  I declare that the power of sin and death is broken over me and that i’ve translated from darkness into the glorious kingdom of God.  

That’s all it takes.  Welcome to the family of God 🙂