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In this article, we are going to be looking at something; And I believe the manner of our time together is going to be in the manner of conversation. I just want us to focus on the Holy Spirit, so that in the few Scriptures that we’re going to be visiting this evening, we’re going to learn something that is going to help us as disciples towards effective discipleship. And the short thing we want to look at is; ‘The Religion of the Fathers’. We want to see how it impacts our discipleship.
Listen to the Podcast: The Religion of the Fathers
One of the things that becomes clear to us is that when we say ‘The Religion of the Fathers’, we are talking about things that people have been doing before we were born. One thing that our fathers share in common is that they were there before we were. So, the religion of the fathers are the things that our fathers had practiced. Many times in the New Testament, the Bible mentioned the tradition of the elders. That’s something that is very close to it, you understand?
So, even though we are doing it, we didn’t start it, we didn’t originate it. Even though we were born into it, and we are identified with it, it wasn’t necessarily our decision, it wasn’t our choice. The truth is, each one of us was born at certain point in time, into families and into religious setups. People didn’t have to choose their religion, whatever the parents were into, became theirs. Let’s take for instance, the father is an alhaji or an imam. And the mother attains a cherubim, and seraphim church. We’re talking about 70s and 80s. Not now, because things are bit difficult to find. Then it was much more easier. So, the father an alhaji, the mother, a cherubim and seraphim woman.
But, since the alhaji has many wives, the different wives also have different religion. And the alhaji systematically or technically allows the wives to practice their religion. So, when children are born to that alhaji depending on the disposition of the alhaji towards the mothers, the children are shown, or they are exposed to the religion of the predominant person in the marriage. So, it could be the Alhaji’s religion, it could be the woman’s cherubim and Seraphin religion. So, the child didn’t necessarily have to say, I’m just a cherubim and serahim person, I am a muslim. The child didn’t have to say that because the child decided to be, it was simply because the child was born into it. Many people were born into Catholic Church, many people were born into different churches, many people were born into Anglican, many people were born into different things. Some were not even born into churches, they were born into the worshipping of osun, worshipping of sango, worshipping of Amadioha; the worshipping of different things.
Now even though an adult could be saying, I am a worshipper of this or that, it wasn’t necessarily the decision of that person, it is simply the religion of the fathers. So, we want to look at how does the religion of the Father’s impact our growth? How does the religion of the father’s impact, our discipleship? Does it enhance it, or does it draw it back? Does it aid us or does it pull us back? So, now let’s look at the book of Acts of the Apostles. Acts of Apostles chapter 17, I will start from verse 16 and read until we get to the end of the chapter in our private moments, but let us just read a few verses there.
So, Acts of Apostle chapter 17, We will start from 16, and we will stop in verse 24. The Bible says; “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked; Another word could be his spirit was troubled within him. When he saw that the city was given over to idols.” He went round the whole city, he saw different things, he was not a member of that city, he only came visiting, he came passing by. But he observed that the entire city was given over to idol. So, there were different entities that they considered to be God and they were worshipping. They worshipped God so much so that they created a worship alter for a god they don’t even know about.
Now, let’s jump to verse 22. It says; “Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said Men of athens, I perceive that in all things, you are very religious.” Even though that looks like a compliment, but there is a challenge. Many people have said Nigeria is a nation that is highly religious. I was telling my wife while we were coming today, that it looks like at a point in time in Nigeria. Churches were springing up everywhere and even though churches were springing up, iniquity was not going down. And I told her that, that was what happened also till today in Nigeria that petrol stations spring up. Before you know it, a new petrol station has started. Stop passing a road come back next month, a new petrol station is already built. And yet we have never been with enough petrol. So, petrol stations are been built, but there is scarcity of petrol for almost a year or more in Abuja now there has been petrol scarcity, yet petrol stations are everywhere.
So, how can there be so much springing up of infrastructural facilities, that could aid supply, but yet there is scarcity of the product. In the same way in religion, there’s so much churches, so much religious activities going on, but a little supply of faith, a little supply of growth. It is possible that even though there are many churches, there are many religions, and there are many faith? But we should be about the faith of Christ Jesus. And so even though it’s about the faith of Jesus, we know there are many denominations of the church. So, why is it that there are churches, every street you go to, you will find churches, sometimes when you go to the same building you will find three or four churches? Why is it that even though the churches are increasing, the knowledge of God is not really increasing in people?
Apostle Paul said he has gone round. He said, it’s like, the way I can say is that this people have so many religious centres. He said; ‘You are highly religious’. But if that was it, it could have been a compliment but Apostle Paul continued. He said; “For as I was passing through and considering the objects, the entities, the personalities of your worship. I even found an altar with this inscription; TO THE UNKOWN GOD. Therefore, the One capital letter O, whom you worship without knowing him, I proclaim to you.” This is a city that was highly religious, they worshipped many gods, many idols, and in fact, many of them still worship the unknown god, they pay obeisance to the unknown God, they offer sacrifices to the unknown God. But even though they do that, Apostle Paul said they did not know Him. Of course, we’ve said unknown God. He says, ‘Him I proclaim’. The one that you worship without knowing I proclaim.
Imagine I have an organization, or let’s say, in my house, I have a need for a staff, a domestic staff. And the person is working so much and so hard for so long in my house, and the person does not know me. How can the person serve me acceptably, when the person does not know whom he or she is serving? So, when we talk about worship, we are talking about serving, offering services unto one. In those days, they will say offering sacrifices unto one. So, these people were offering services, they were so hardworking and committed, yet they didn’t know whom they served. How would they know if their services or their sacrifices were accepted?
Now, when they don’t even know God, how can they reflect God that they do not know among the people? Now, how do you know that somebody is a politician when the person is 30 or 40 in Nigeria today? The first thing among other things you’re going to notice is that the person is going to look clean.
And when you start hearing them talk, there is a way they talk. Now, how do you know the person is serving a political party or a presidential candidate? Check the mannerism of the conversation, the attitude, the confidence. Some will be stammering because it’s difficult to sell a bad product to the market. Are we getting the practical example? I will say it again; you must have been an apprentice, a mentee of a politician, you must have been following that politician for a long time, before you come up in the air and say I am speaking for so and so. And I want you to vote for so and so, these are my reasons. He is the best man in the world.
How effective can you talk about and describe a man that you do not know? Can Nigerians buy that product if you yourself don’t have a personal encounter with the product. So, the genesis of effective worship, effective service is that you must know whom you worship, whom you serve. These people were worshipping many gods and in fact they began to worship the true God yet they didn’t know Him. How can they represent Him when they didn’t know Him? How can they manifest Him? They didn’t know Him, how can they please Him? They didn’t know him, how can they become like Him? What is the essence of discipleship when all these things are missing? You say you are a disciple of somebody, you don’t know the person you are following. You do not understand the person, you cannot behave like the person.
Apostle Paul was telling Timothy that you have followed me, you know my trials; you know my purpose, you know my this, you know my that. Do you understand? Later Apostle Paul will send him to some people and he will say they should recieve him. He’s somebody that shares in his spirit. And these things don’t fall like ripe paw paw, you cannot reflect one that you do not know. That’s the point. Now let’s continue.
It says; “God who made the world and everything in it, He is Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is it worshipped with men’s hands as though He needed anything. Since He gives to all life, breath and all things and He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of all the earth and has determined their pre appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. Verse 27; so that they shoe seek the Lord in the hope that they might grop for Him and find Him. Though He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live, and move and have our being.”
‘In Him we move’. Who is the Him? For them, ‘the unknown God’ but for us, we’re talking about the Father. It is in Him the father that we live, we move, we have our being. Our lives are sourced in Him, our joy is in Him, our focus, our purpose is in Him. Everything about us; Our agenda is in Him. We don’t know what to do, except He tells us what to do. That is why He is our Lord. See how the Bible says it; “So that they should seek the Lord.” The God that they were serving that they didn’t know was the Lord. And as the Lord, He determines the direction of our lives. He dictates the mannerism of our lives. How can we worship the one that we don’t know and yet we want our lives to be guided by Him.
Now, there’s another Scripture I want us to look at. John chapter 4. That’s where we would really build a sequence. We will read from verse 10 to verse 38. Now, we know the story. For many of us, Jesus was by the well, He was waiting for His disciples. He was hungry, so they all went to get Him food. Before they returned, a woman came to fetch water. And Jesus said, give me to drink, give me a drink. And the woman started drama. Just like many women, its just ordinary water. But we thank God for the drama. Because if all she did was just to give the water maybe there wouldn’t be a conversation. Maybe I’m just speculating. But drama started, she began to toss Jesus like, your people don’t talk to our people. Stay on your own let us be on our own. But let’s look at how the matter got to a point; they’ve been discussing.
And Jesus was telling her how what He had to offer her was even much more important than what she has to offer Him. But at a point Jesus said in verse 16, “Go and call your husband.” And the woman says she didn’t have any husband. And Jesus said yes, you have said well; “for you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband, in that you spoke well.” The moment Jesus did that, the conversation changed. And that’s the focus of our conversation. The woman said to Him, Sir, I perceive! Because, it’s always good to perceive people very well. I perceive that you are a prophet. Look at it. “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. And you Jews say it is said that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her woman, believe Me! It is like woman, I’ve heard you, but believe me, like this is the truth. Whatever your fathers have been saying, put it like this.
But this is the truth. Believe me. The hour is coming when you will, neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.” For that woman, the goal was about worshiping the father. She said sir our fathers worshipped on this particular mountain. This is the mannerism that we worship. These are the Scriptures we normally teach in our believer’s class. When people come to our church, born again, we normally take them through this process. But in your church, they said this is what our people must be taken through for them to grow. This is our doctrine here. But your people said, there is another doctrine, and Jesus said believe me, and that is important for us to start with. When we are confused, we must choose whom to believe. It is Christ we will believe. People can say things, our fathers can say. Our mothers can say things too, but we will choose to obey and to believe Christ. It says; “It will No longer be on this mountain or in Jerusalem, where you will worship the Father. It says, You worship what you do not know; just like the people of athens, who had an altar and they were worshipping an unknown God.
Jesus said the entire people where the woman belongs to, they didn’t even know whom they worship. Yet they were worshiping. They wouldn’t come to Jerusalem, but they were worshipping on that mountain. And their goal was that even though we were at the mountain, we still want to worship the Father, we will still worship the Father in our own style, but we want to still worship the Father. And Jesus said, you have even been worshiping the one that you don’t know. So, that is to help us to realize that if it was true that they didn’t know whom they were worshipping then, and some of them had worship for many years. Who says that we all know whom we worship today? Do we understand what we are looking at? The religion of the fathers, how it affects our discipleship.
It says; ‘” You worship what you do not know’. We the Jews know what we worship, for the salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is; and if it was now, then it is now. It says; “And now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father, in Spirit and in truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit. And those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.”
Now, let’s quickly replace the word worship with follow. God is Spirit, and those who follow Him must not say yesterday, as I was passing that route, I saw God. So, if you want to see God, let’s go and pass that route. The kingdom is not by observations. The kingdom is in you. Can you go about looking for what is in you? So, the Father is Spirit, God is Spirit. And if you must follow Him, if they ask you, who are you? Say I’m a disciple. Disciple of who? If you say you’re a disciple of a man, then that man, since you can actually see him, you can actually see Him and follow Him. But God is Spirit you can’t see God.
So, lest you say, where are you coming from? I’m coming from following God. So where are you going? I’m going to my house? So where is God? He passed that side? No, its not like that. God is Spirit. The worship of God, following God will no longer be restricted to you coming to Jerusalem. By December when they ask you, where are you going? I’m going to Jerusalem, I’m going to worship God, I am going to seek God. It says, it won’t be about that. Neither will it be about the Mountain. It won’t be about something that we set up. There was a place in Acts of Apostles that says God cannot be worshipped by the things that were made with the hands of men. Anything we create with our hands cannot become something that we will use to worship God, God is bigger than it. God made us and made everything on the earth. Look at it. Anything that we can create cannot be used by us to effectively worship God.
What God ultimately needs from us is something that He creates not what you create. It says, God is spirit and those who follow Him, those who worship Him, they do it, they follow Him in spirit. They don’t deceive themselves. The Bible says; God cannot be mocked, whatever a man sows, the same he will reap. Those who worship Him, those who follow Him, they don’t deceive themselves, they don’t give people the impression they are following God while in reality, they’re following something else. They don’t try to impress people; they are not into people pleasing business. Those who follow God, they understand the implication of following God, They understand the demands of it, they know what their lives will stand to gain by following God, they don’t do it so that people can promote them in the church. They don’t do it so that people can say you are a spiritual brother. They do it truthfully. And they do it invisibly. What is another word for spirits, you can’t see it. As I’m following God, you shouldn’t even see it, it is spirit, and it is sincere. The truth, there is no lie in it. Once there is a lie in it, it cannot be what God is seeking. Those who worship the Father, they do it in spirit and in truth.
Let’s quickly look at Matthew chapter 4, something that will be also a guide for us in the book of John. Jesus was led up to the mountain and let’s see what Jesus and Satan discussed. Matthew chapter 4, I will read from verse 7. The Bible says; “Jesus said to him, It is written again, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high Mountain.” Don’t forget what the Bible says; Jesus said it will neither be on this mountain, or in Jerusalem. In those days Jerusalem was also a mountain, it was not valley, it is just that the mountain is in Jerusalem. Alright, so the devil who also wanted something else, Bible says he took Jesus to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “And he said to Him; and I want us to meditate on it, all these things I will give you if you will, fall down.” Because that has to have a meaning; ‘To fall down’, is a posture, its a disposition.
Now, in that falling state, this is what you will do, you will serve and you will worship. Did he stop with worship? He said ‘you will worship me.’ Take a falling posture and worship me. Usually, when you hear worship it must not hang in the balance. Because to hear the word worship doesn’t make sense until you add to whom should you worship? Apostle Paul said he observed the objects of their worship and Satan said worship me. So, who would be the object of Jesus worship assuming He yielded? So, he said fall down and worship me. Less we think what he was telling Jesus is fall down and start singing songs. Holy are you Lord. Or we think worship means when you fall down and start mixing some things together. It was much more than that. Jesus didn’t have all those effects on the mountain. What did He have that time? Satan said fall down and worship me. Another word for that is fall down and serve me.
You pay obeisance to the person you recognize the person as an authority over your life. Let me say it again. You put the person as the father figure of your life. It got so serious that Jesus was like don’t call any man a father on this earth. But many of us don’t obey Jesus. Do we understand? Okay, is a very simple thing. You just fall down right? And you say from today, I give my life to you. I live for you. Your word will be my command. Wherever you send me I will go, whatever you asked me to do, I will do.
You will say all these things and He will stamp it! So be it, you will never do otherwise. So, anytime he calls you, you must answer. The Bible says you are a servant to whomsoever you obey what Jesus was requested that day by Satan was that He should fall down, get down from the place where God has put you and be my servant. But if you study the ministry of Jesus from when He started to when He ended, there was this attitude He had. Even though He was God, He had a reverence for God that was beyond what anybody could do.
When you see the way pastor Adeboye will relate with God in public, you begin to see a man that fears God right? The way Jesus did His own was much more. He was never carried away by just calling Him God. He was not carried away by calling Him God. He was always calling Him the Father. At a point when He was even in His glory, when He was raised up, He said; I’m going to your Father and My Father, your God and My God. Every time He calls God God, He will still be called Father. So that the devil doesn’t mix things up. Devil I have not forgotten why I’m here, don’t forget or don’t assume I have yielded to your demand. As long as I live on this earth the Lord will be My Father. It is a means of worship. I’m sure many of us that are born in southwest, we know in those days and perhaps now when you see your father in the morning, the next thing you’re supposed to do is that you prostrate very well. Have you seen it before?
So, when you see a father, what do you do? You prostrate, you worship. That’s why at a point in my life, I started staying away from people that request or demands my prostration. And why do you do it? You prostate because that’s the tradition of the fathers. If you look very well, it is not the mother’s that said their children must prostrate every morning. It is the father’s; father’s love to be worshipped by their children. That’s the truth. When Satan came to Jesus, he wanted Jesus to become his own son too. Forget about who gave birth to you. You, are a son to whomsoever you prostrate to.
How long does it take a man to have a father in the church today? Just go and worship. Go to the general overseers church or office, go and see the pastor privately prostrate, fall down, worship. If you like hold his leg and say; the anointing on your life, I believe in it. I respect you, I celebrate you sir. You’re a great man of God. You must say it, if you don’t say all those things you are on your own.
When you are done saying all those things and the man puts hand on you. He has accepted you into the beloved, instead of beloved in Christ, He has accepted you into his own family. So, you can then go about carrying his name. Tell anybody you are a son of Bishop so and so, most Reverend, Apostle so and so. How did you become a son? You fell down and you worshiped. Some of those falling down requires that you forget the past messages you’ve been preaching? Start preaching differently.
There was a time I read in Bro Gbile’s book that somebody wanted to sponsor maybe a publishing or a radio program several years ago. And the person sent support I think they’ve accepted, and before you know it, the person came up and said actually, there is a way he normally preaches that he is not comfortable with and I’m like they’ve been on their own preaching for years. You were the one that heard them preach and you felt you want to be part of it. You now started supporting them, but now you say the way they are preaching you don’t like it. They should stop that way, they should preach in a different way. Bro Gbile said stay with your money. But how many of us end up telling people to stay with their money? So, once we start accepting support, those that support us start telling us how we should do it, it is not all falling down that leaves you the way you were before.
Usually it shifts you, it changes you, it turns your focus, the things that used to make sense to you will stop making sense. You will now start having a new passion, a new burden, a new style. You start preaching like them. You start dressing like them, your mannerisms must be after them. Why you are a son of your father. But the Word of God to us is; do not call any man on earth your father. In reality you must be a disciple of Jesus, don’t be a disciple of just any man.
Look at it. When Jesus saw Satan, was Jesus seeing God at that time physically in the flesh. No, Satan came to Him. And he said, fall down and worship me, then see all these kingdoms, you will take over, you will have churches in all the major towns in Abuja. And once you are ready, with my permission, you will go nationwide, and then you go worldwide. But you have to do is fall down and worship. People will say heaven help those who help themselves; it is people that God will send to people. It looks like it’s God that has sent this one to me.
Why didn’t Jesus think or say God was the One who created the serpent that appeared to Him? Wasn’t it God’s creation? Just like the men we see; the Bible says Satan came to Jesus, the Passion of the Christ showed us snake. But we don’t know what Jesus saw. But, why didn’t Jesus consider this to be a messenger from God? I just need to fall down to this one, he is also from God, maybe God created him and he has so much power and influence, he will also make me. But Jesus said something; “Away with you Satan, for it is written You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve.” So, the essence of worship is service. When you follow God, it is that you may serve Him. When God was telling Pharaoh, Let my people go that they may serve Me, in another form, He can say that they may worship Me. When God was even telling Moses what he will tell Pharaoh. Tell them you are going yonder, you want to go somewhere to go and worship God. But God also was saying that they may serve Me.
So, when you serve God, it is equal to you worshiping God. No wonder Jesus was also speaking in a place, he said you cannot serve two masters, you either love one and despise the other. He says no man can serve God and mammon. The devil said Worship me thinking that Jesus will assume that if only I can continue to worship God and still worship this one. I’m fine. But Jesus showed us that you cannot think you can worship the two together. You can’t be loyal to God and be loyal to this one also.
In your life, you must not make God and other things to be at the same level. Let people be in their place, let God be in His place. It says; ‘you cannot serve God and mammon’. Now let’s go to John 17, we will start from verse 1 and stop in verse 5. “Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father; Again we are seeing that Jesus saw the Lord God as the Father, all through His ministry, calling Him the father. It says; the hour was come, glorify your Son, that your son also may glorify You. As you have given him authority our all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him, and these is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God. Can we see that? And the other one apart from the Father is what? Not the only true God. The only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Look at it, He said in verse 4; “I have glorified you on the earth, I have finished the walk which you have given me to do. And now O Father, glorify Me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was.” He said glorify Me together with yourself. But first, I have glorified You. I didn’t glorify other people. Satan came to me I didn’t glorify him. Satan said fall down and worship me then, all these kingdoms and their glory, you will get it. And Jesus said, I did not glorify anyone, I only glorify You. The work you give me to do, not the work the serpent, Satan gave me to do. The work that you God the Father gave me to do I have finished it. Are we going to be able to tell God that we have finished His work when in reality as the Father gave us work to do, we also have received works from other places. Remember, when you worship the father, what it means is that you are following Him to serve Him.
Now, when you fall down and worship something else, that means you are trying to worship the Father, following and serving Him but trying to worship or follow other things, follow other trends, follow other passions, follow other people and to serve them. You know, there is a Scripture that is always coming to me in this kind of situations in Songs of Solomon, chapter one verse six. It says; “Do not look upon me because I am dark; It says because the sun has tanned me.
It says my brothers have made me the keeper of vine yards. They are already angry with me because maybe I’m not doing the best job but my own vine yards I have not kept.” How many of us will say I have finished the work you gave me to do? Because, discipleship is about following and about serving God. You will follow Jesus, you will serve Jesus. That’s why Jesus Christ was talking in John, He said; The works that I do, they will do, and greater works than this. Look at it. There’s something about works. You don’t follow in vacuum or for fun, you follow for works. You follow for function, you follow to do things. If you’re a politician’s follower, you will campaign for them. You will do it in the rain, you will do it in the market, you will do it everywhere.
So, the essence of following God is not so that you can say I’m a God person. No, you will work. But are we going to be bold to say we are finished the work, when in reality we were busy with works? If God gives you work, the only way you will do it is because that’s the only work you’ve committed yourself to. If other people give you works, they will demand your loyalty, your time, your focus.
When you are given a work, it becomes difficult to do something else. That’s why you have to mind the manner of works you accept. You must understand the work you have accepted? Is it the work that the Father has given you? Because it must be on that they will check you up and say, have you finished what I asked you to do? So, we started with they were worshipping an unknown god.
What does it mean? They were following an UNKNOWN GOD. And the unknown god that they were worshipping, can they know the will of the unknown god? Alright, let me come again. Can you know the will of somebody you don’t know? So, you have to know God to even know His will for your life. So, they were worshipping an unknown god, they didn’t also know the will of God for their lives. So, they couldn’t tell God that they had finished what God wanted them to do. Because in the long run all the things the idols wanted them to do, that’s what they be doing. The challenge is upon us today, are we going to be able to say, we have finished what God asks us to do? Are we going to be a people that walked in the will of God for their lives? When Jesus got to that place that they call Gethsemane. And He was under tremendous pressure. There’s a way the passion of the Christ shows it, Satan was looking around again, looking at Him, Son of God, suffering for nothing, get out of this mess. Have you seen sons of GOD suffering under children of men before? So why you subjecting yourself to these things? get out of this mess, that would have spared all of us from our redemption and salvation.
The devil tempted Him; are you not tired of the way they are insulting you, are you not bigger than this. Don’t forget by that time the devil was already getting enough facts, he was already beginning to suspect him very well, you must be the Son of God. Get out of this mess. But Jesus before that time, when Jesus was at the other place in that night, and there was so much pressure on Him, Jesus said to the Father, could you please take this cup away from Me? And Bible says it came like three times to pray the same prayer. But before He left the moment, He said, nevertheless, not as I will. I’m not worshiping an unknown god. The known God that I am worshiping has a will for my life. Not as I will, but as you my father, the one that I worship, as you will, Your will be done in my life. Can you tell God that His will be done in your life, when you don’t even know that will and you don’t know that God. Those people that do know their God, the Bible says they shall be strong.
They will be different from the rest, they will be strong. They will carry out great exploits. Men and women will see them in their generations as people that stood out. The Hebrew brothers, they were given the opportunity of bowing down and remaining alive. They say when there is life, there is hope. But when they are killed, there is no hope that they will ever be great again. But this man that knew their God, they were strong. They said they were going to kill that they said Our God that we know, He is able to deliver us. Even if He chooses not to deliver us, we still not bow. Why? They knew their God. Now look at it. And this is a revelation they had about God that many of us don’t.
They said, Our God is able, ‘even if’; we don’t believe in that, “even if.” That’s why because we think God must do something. When we come to God, we say to God, you must do it. Except you are not God. But God doesn’t have to do it. He may choose not to do it. Stephen was to be stoned, God didn’t save him, rather God used his death to spread the church. The moment Stephen was killed, the church expanded, people began to get the message in other places there was growth.
So, now if you were Stephen, and you would be like are like God you have to save me now. You have to show up now. And God doesn’t show up, are not going to say there is no God? But the people that know their God, THEY SHALL BE STRONG. Strength in weakness. It looks as if you are weak because you have been stoned, but in your heart, you know that God is for you. Bible says he saw the heavens opened. And he saw the son of man standing up for him. He saw, they didn’t see what he saw. Yet he was the same person that was looking weak, looking vulnerable.
We have to know our God, let it not just be that the father’s tell us and we believe. Let it not just be that people give us curriculum, they just give us curriculum, some pamphlets. These are the things that you will use to grow throughout this year, you must get out of the curriculum, get out of the pamphlet, go and seek God. There’s a place Acts, it says in the hope that they may grope for Him even though he’s not far from any one of us. God has determined our pre appointed times He has determined our boundaries, how far you will go in life, He has determined everything about our lives. But until we know those things, he has determined we will live outside those things. Let God be true and every Man a liar. Let us not be people that are loyal to the elders, to the Fathers; And you are disloyal to the Father of fathers to whom all men must answer.
Both Satan and death must answer to Him, shouldn’t all flesh be loyal to Him? I pray that God will help us in Jesus name. The religion of the Father’s, if you look at the Bible, it didn’t help anybody towards knowing God. The Bible says in Hebrews, if the law was perfect, there wouldn’t be a need for a new one. There were weaknesses, there were mistakes so to say, there were loopholes in the law. So, God brought Jesus in the hope that we will grope for Jesus, even though Jesus is not far from us. Now, as many that believe Him, to them God has given the right to be called children of God.
It is our responsibility now to choose to believe Jesus. This is the one that God has placed for us. It says that we may believe on God, the only God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. God has sent Jesus for us, we must believe Him. God has sent Jesus for us, we must grope for Him. We must lay hold on to Him and never let Him go. And what do we do? We must follow him day by day, He should be the one that we worship, He should be the one that we serve.
Check the Bible very well. Every time angels came to bring messages from God, and men wanted to serve them, to worship them. They will say, Don’t worship me, I am your fellow servants. They will say, it is God that you should worship. Every time people worship Jesus in the Bible, He never told them don’t worship me. The only time somebody called him good, and I’m sure he was dealing with the heart of the person, good teacher, good teacher, Jesus turned and said no one is good but God. But those who worshipped him, He didn’t cast them out. So, God has put for us a means to find Him, a means to become like Him. a means to be restored back to glory and authority on the earth. Let’s grope for Him, let’s layhold of Him. Lets following Him and let’s do His will.
Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Gboyega ADEDEJI
