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As a Believer, what do You Believe? This will be the crux of our discussion in this piece is. If you are asked, are you a believer? There is a strong tendency for everyone to say ‘I am a believer’, but that you are a believer is not in question, the question is not are you a believer? The question is what do you believe? The question could be taken further by saying whom do you believe? And I want us to start from the book of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1 to verse 12. It says;
Listen to Podcast: As A Believer – What and Who Do You Believe? Whose Report Do You Believe?
“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of [a]Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; don’t forget our goal is as a believer, what do you believe? When you are looking at deception, it is aimed at peoples believe. The goal of deception is to alter the believe system of anyone. Without deception, there is a tendency for anyone to believe in one particular thing or the other. But once deception is brought on board, then the goal is to shift your believe from what you had believed to something else. So, deception is about believe.
It says; “Let no one deceive you by any means for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of [b]sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits [c]as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” Showing himself, proving it, providing evidence. At the New Dimension Bible School we learnt about evidence, about faith being the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen. Here it says; showing Himself. It means He had proofs, he had facts, he had materials; things to substantiate his claims. Verse 5 says;
“Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the [d]mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only [e]He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the Truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason; for the reason that they did not receive the love of the Truth that they might be saved, the Bible says; God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
It says; ‘because they did not receive the love of the Truth’, sometimes in our past readings we could have said the knowledge of the Truth. But this time around we are seeing the love of the Truth. And if they had received the love of the Truth, the goal is actually receiving the Truth, but that Truth is described as a loving Truth. Not a hating Truth. What they actually needed was the Truth. If they had done that, the Bible says they would have been saved, their homes would have been saved, their businesses would have been saved, their marriages would have been saved. Assuming they had known the Truth.
I am sure we understand that we cannot believe what we have not known. So, the foundation of believe is first knowing. Assuming they had known the Truth and they had received the Truth; the Bible says they would have been saved. And because they have refused, they did not receive the love of the Truth, or the knowledge of the Truth, the Bible said God sent strong delusion that they should believe the lie.
When you have seen a man or a woman who has come to believe the lie, it says ‘the lie’ if the Bible had said ‘a lie’ it is something that is not definite. But the Bible says; ‘believed the lie’. It means there is a specific lie. So, at that moment, when a man or a woman believes a lie, what do you call he or she? Will you call that person an unbeliever? When you see a man or a woman that believes a lie, won’t you call the person a believer? You are not yet judging what the person believes. The issue is not being a believer, the issue is what do you believe? Because they refused to believe or to receive the love of the Truth, the Bible says God sent strong delusion among them, so that they should believe the lie, that they may be condemned, who did not believe the Truth.
There are two dichotomies; you either believe the lie your you believe the Truth. So don’t go about feeling good that you are a believer, there is a necessity that is placed upon you to review the things you believe. I would like us to have that as a background.
See the way verse 12 concluded; 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 12. It says; “that they all may be condemned who did not believe the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” There are many things we have found to acceptable in our societies but it is not ideal. Sometimes, some things don’t look like sin, I am sure we remember where we started from. Somethings we were seeing like the mystery of lawlessness. In fact, the Bible says the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. If it was already at work in the days of Apostle Paul, then it means it is fully at work now.
So, having that as a background, let’s remember that the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. And the goal is to produce lawlessness in the midst of the people. So, verse 12 concluded by saying; “they had pleasure in unrighteousness.” For example; let’s say you have had a desire that when ever somebody makes you feel bad you should slap the person. And suddenly the general overseer says good morning church I just received a strong revelation yesterday while meditating, I came to realize that if somebody offends you, it is Scripturally right for you to slap the person. And you were already struggling with that before because your hand itches you whenever somebody makes you feel bad.
What do you do about that revelation? You jump at it. Because that thing connects with something that had been in you before. It is not right; it is an unrighteous thing. It had been there, you only got something to hang on in a man of God, in a revelation. The question you could ask is; that revelation, is it the revelation of Truth or the revelation of the lie. Because, we have come to a time that it is not everything we hear no matter how new it is that is the Truth. For the fact that somebody says let me tell you the Truth does not always imply that what you are going to hear is the Truth.
There was a time in 2 Timothy that the Bible was talking about the latter times; it says people will start having itchy ears, and they won’t be able to receive sound doctrine the way they used to do. In fact, it will come to a time that they will now heap up teachers for themselves, they will raise up teachers, they could appoint teachers and say from today so, so and so will be our teacher, because they know that that person is going to say the things they want to hear.
Let’s quickly look at our society, because we separate our society from our spirituality. Before somebody can be chosen in a local area, to become representative of the people both at the councilor level, or as the law maker in the house of assembly, or at the national assembly. That person must have an idea, or must belong to a block. He must belong to a place or a group of people that think in a manner. For instance, somebody could believe that it is wrong for a man and a man to get married. It is wrong right? Then they choose the person to go and represent them at the national assembly, anytime somebody raises the matter of gay marriage, your job is to bring it down. Do we understand? There are people like that.
It is possible for a denomination to raise up an honorable member to represent them at the national assembly. Now, why I am giving that example is to help us see how people can raise up teachers for themselves. It is the society that says this is what we think, this is what we accept, we need somebody that will speak for us in the national assembly, so that a bad law will not be made against us. So, go there and speak for us. That is how people can raise up teachers, raise up prophets, raise up apostles among themselves and say speak to us.
While that could look like people have appointed people, the question we could then ask is; this work of ministry is the one that people sit down and gather to say be our teacher, prophet, be the one that hear from God and tell us. Because, this is the genesis of people telling people lies. If God had never called me and then you look at me and say please be our teacher, and the teacher opens the Bible but couldn’t find clarity, it is what he understands that he will teach. Because, you are the one that says be our teacher, God did not call me. You say be our prophet but God did not give me a word. Who is he that says it and it comes to pass when the Lord has not commanded it.
When people start raising up from among themselves people to teach them, lead them, prophesy over them, the tendency for lies to be propagated will be very strong. The Bible says; because they did not refuse the love for the Truth, God Himself sent strong delusion among them. What is the meaning of delusion? It means false; a chronic lie. Imagine when a chronic lie has been sent from God to a people. Will they know that they are deceived? How many people today who are deceived and are aware that they are deceived.
There is a saying among us that whenever a mad man realizes that he is mad, then he has been healed. Have we come to a point where we start checking ourselves; the things I have believed all my life, how true have they been? Because in life, you either believe the Truth or believe the lie but you are not in the middle. The things you have chosen to believe, are the things that God told you? Or the things that you told yourself. Don’t forget its about believe, and every believe must lead you to faith. That your faith is it the one that came from God, hearing and hearing by the word of God. Or the one that came from hearing people. Or hearing yourself. It is possible for a man to deceive himself.
You look at yourself and choose to tell yourself lies and you believe it. I just pray that that person has not been sent strong delusion from the Lord. Because, the person must then believe it. How many things that we believe can be substantiated by the word of God. If you don’t want to believe the lie, then it must be the word of God that you hear. Whatever is being spoken to you in the name of the Lord, whatever he says must be corroborated, must be substantiated by the word. It says faith is the substance of things hoped for. Let’s say bro John tells me something, the substance of what he has told me should be the word of God.
If I hear a thing and what I hear from the man or the person I cannot find it from the word of God, then I have believed a lie. How many preachers have stood before us, and we have listened to them online and everywhere and they have spoken for thirty minutes and there is no mention of the word of God, and they are just pacing around on the pulpit and the words are coming nicely, and nothing from the word of God.
Many people have told us many things, not because those things are necessarily true, but because they want us to believe it. And it is possible for you to go for meetings all your days, all year and all you hear are things that “make believe”. I remember when I was in school and I was in drama team, they defined drama or theatre as make believe. Another word we can put it is to make people to believe that what they are saying is the Truth. So, if I enter the stage and I am supposed not to be happy, I must never make you doubt it that I am very sad, while I am not sad. Do we understand? If I was poor before I came to the stage, and I am supposed to flaunt riches to you, do like a rich man that has arrived. I must make you to believe that actually I am very rich. How many of us have watched movies like that. And in our minds we are like these guys have made it and later we now hear that some of them need money to pay for hospital bill.
They have given us impression that they are rich; the houses are borrowed, the cloths are borrowed, the vehicles are borrowed, and then the return everything after. I did a drama in the university, the shirt I wore was not mine, it was the director that lent me, so after the drama I honorable gave him back. It is not everything that people make you to believe that is the Truth. That is why everything you hear must be subjected to the word of God. Let God be true and every man a liar. Apostle Paul was so excited about a church, they were called the Berean Christian, they were listening to other people and when Apostle Paul came, they listened and when they get home, they opened their Bible, to correspond what they heard from Paul with what the Bible has said to know whether the things he said are true.
That made them to be excellent and noble more than every believer around them. Why? They had an attitude of checking what they heard with the word of God. I love to watch military films, classified films; I have learnt a lot but one of the things I have learnt is that when a man is a spy, an agent, and he is expected to go to a safe house, a place that the government has made for people like him, how will the people that want to welcome him identify him as one of them not their enemies? They would have given him a code word. They could tell you when you get there, tell them is there a meat pie? Sorry is the carrot available? I am here to pick a banana. They would have told him what to say and those ones, it is those words they are waiting for.
When you say something else, its either they shoot the person or they don’t even respond. Because they know you are an enemy. You can’t say something else. What you must say must correspond with what they have been told. If what you have been told is not what you are telling them they discard what you say. What you are saying is not as important as what they have been told.
When you look at the crew in a submarine or warship, before they bomb a place, when they receive an order, and the command is to bomb that place, they carry the code of the message they just received, they go to their achieve, they correspond the new message with the old message, if there is a confirmation, the commander of the ship will issue the command. If there is no correlation, they will say this is a lie. If the military could be so careful about lies and Truth, how comes we that are not liars are not like that?
A Prophet has prophesied over your life, you cannot carry the word and carry it to the old word to see if there is a confirmation. But before we do that we start rejoicing. We rejoice so early to the point that when God burst your burbles, we feel disappointed that God does not want our progress. Why? We celebrate the new word and we don’t confirm whether the new word is the same with what God has said. So, whether it is 2014 or 2024, whatever the Lord says is the Truth. God will not contradict Himself. So, you cannot be a believer who does not want to be deceived and the last thing you want to do is to study the Bible. You don’t know what God has told other people, then you want to know whether God is the one talking to you. Go to other places where God has spoken to people, see the mannerism of God.
In your spirit, you scan it in seconds; has God ever spoken to anybody like this in the Bible? No! you can’t accept such a voice because this is not how God talks. When you read how God spoke to people from Genesis to revelation, when a voice comes to you, and the voice is talking to you, you can then correspond what you are hearing with what other people have heard. And then there will be a Spirit witness in your heart to say, this thing that you are hearing is from the Lord. We cannot become gullible if everything we receive is from the Lord. That is why our lives have been patterned after many things.
I had an experience in the university, I can’t remember the year, I was directed by two directors in a major drama presentation. It was the worse moment. The rehearsals took place for like two months every day, minimum of three hours every midnight. And sometimes a directors will be too tired to come for rehearsal. Sometimes the two of them will come, sometimes one. So, one will direct us today, and then we would have thought we have gotten it, and then the second day he does not come. The new one will say who told you to do like that? The last time I told you when you get here you do like this. That was how they were tossing us, sometimes they agree, sometimes they disagree.
When they are together too, they agree sometimes they disagree. So, it wasn’t easy. Imagine your life, being directed by many directors. What could have saved your life is that your life is directed by the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t matter if the Holy Spirit is speaking through 10 thousand people, it will be the same word. If A comes and says something, B comes to you and says another thing and the two are not the same, it is a lie. It has been said that you will have to do too much work to make sure your lies are not detected so early. But when you say the Truth, it is easy.
Lies cannot be consistent over a long time for too long. Let God be true and every man a liar. Let’s go to Romans chapter 1 we will read from verse 18, The Bible says; “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness; What is the meaning of ungodliness? It means something that is not godly, or something that is not from God. It says;
Against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men, who [d]suppress the Truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is [e]manifest [f]in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and [g]Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like [h]corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves.
When you read down you will discover a lot of things but the emphasis is on verse 24. It says; “For that reason, therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves.” And so, they began to do things. Is it possible for somebody to do things he doesn’t believe in? Its not easy. For instance, if you know that walking on a rope could make you fall down and die will make you fall down and die, will you still walk on it? It’s because you, it’s because it’s a robe but there is a believe that you can’t fall down. That’s why you walk on it and people will say you are daring. But your daring is built on the things you have believed.
God gave them over to things and they began to do things. How many things that we are doing today and in our pureness of thought we know they are not clean, they are not right, have we been able to stop them? Could it be that God has given us up? When God gave us up, could be also that we have chosen to believe a lie? When Nebuchadnezzar was made in that new form and was led into the bush, he began to eat grass, rain fell on him, his body began to change. Do you think he was thinking as a man when he was eating grass? He couldn’t be thinking like a king and be eating grass. Later on, the Bible says; his understanding returned to him. Talking about the things he knew and the things he believed.
Suddenly he began to know that he is a king. Suddenly he began to see himself a royalty. He said as soon as my understanding was returned to me, my dominion was returned back to me. He was the one that wasn’t remembering anybody again, he lost everything upstairs, so he began to do things that were not convenient, God gave him over to a vile mind, to a reprobate mind.
He began to sleep in places that he was not supposed to sleep in. so, I am sure when he was spending those seven years, he was believing that he was not yet a king, he was no more a king, he was not a king at all. He was believing the lie. But when his knowledge was returned; Jesus said you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free. Maybe some of us are living like slaves today because we have believed we are slaves. Some of us are living like sinners today because we believe that all men are sinners. Some of us are living from debt to debt today because they said nobody can achieve anything no matter how big without borrowing. The things we believe have formed the things we have been doing.
It might not have been convenient, but because of your thinking, your believe system, the things you have come to know and believe. You could be saying if God is on the throne, why is my life below the throne? It is the things you have believed. God is on the throne and the knowledge that can bring you to the throne is available, but you have chosen to believe something below the throne. God did not hate those people; they chose to believe something else and God gave them over. God did not give them over because he didn’t care about them. It looks like the things we have come to believe whether Truth or lie is going to determine the life you live. Even though God loves you, if you believe a lie, your life will be a lie. Even though God does not love you, if you choose to follow the Truth your life will be true. You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.
The Bible didn’t say you will know God and God will set you free. Even though that’s ultimately the meaning. The Truth that you know will be thing that will liberate you. The lie that you also know will be the thing that imprisons you. So, don’t be blaming God, it is the things that you have known. If your life is not better than this is what you know. And what you know is what you have believed. So, whose report will you believe? Believe the report of the Lord.
What is the Lord saying concerning your life? You heard it in the morning, you hear it in the evening, you hear it in the night. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Do you find it so convenient to listen to men and you find it so discouraging to listen to God. If I keep listening to God in the next couple of years I become so great, people will say I suddenly became great. But was it sudden? If you find it difficult to listen to people and not God, your life will reflect what the people are saying.
You can choose to be different by the things you hear. The things that people communicate to you. Because what ever people communicate to you could either be the Truth or lie. But whatever they communicate to you, they want you to believe it. That’s why the Bible says the mystery of lawlessness will be according to the working of Satan. Many of us are not even aware that Satan is at work around us. And everything he is doing is to make us believe the lie. So, you must check everything you have believed.
An average month of the year is named after a god or a goddess. The same day with an average day of the month or days of the week. Whether you say Sunday or Monday or Tuesday or Thursday, is named after a goddess or a god. But not every one of us are in the knowledge of these things. But we can go about glorying in days, glorying in months. Bible says God makes all things beautiful in its own time. Jesus spoke to his disciples that it is not of you to know the times and seasons that God has put in His own authority. Let us be careful not be listening to lies.
Whose report will you believe? Isaiah 8:20 says; “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there[o] is no light in them.” Every word we speak, let it be according to this word. Bishop Oyedepo usually say from Genesis to Malachi, Matthew to Revelations means north to the south, east to the west, as far as your eyes can see within the word, God is able to make it happen in your life. So, don’t believe outside these words. Are you a believer? Then believe the word.
Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Gboyega ADEDEJI
