CHAPTER 4. A LIFESTYLE
See, the will of God is not a decision
making tool. You
have to
first give yourself
over completely to it
before it can
have any
meaning in your life. Let me explain something here.
The will
of God is
in two levels.
There is a GENERAL
LEVEL that applies equally to everyone,
and a SPECIFIC ONE. This
latter is
unique to each
person. The general
one is expressed
simply by
Paul thus,
1 Thess
4:3-7
“3 For this
is the will of God, your sanctification; that
is, that you
abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each
of you know how to possess his own vessel
in
sanctification and honor,
5 not
in lustful passion,
like the Gentiles
who do not
know God;
6 and that
no man transgress and defraud his brother
in the
matter because the
Lord is the
avenger in all
these
things, just
as we also
told you before
and solemnly warned
you.
7 For
God has not
called us for
the purpose of
impurity,
but in sanctification.”
This sanctification represents
the GENERAL WILL of God
for
everybody. No one is exempted from it. It includes sexual
integrity, honesty
in business, and
all forms of
purity. If you
are not
living a life
that is sanctified
thus, you are
definitely
walking outside
of the will of God. You need no prophet to tell you this.
THE SPECIFIC WILL, on the other hand, has to do with
you
as an
individual. This is
the one that
deals with who
you
should marry,
what job you
should take, what
carrier to
choose,
whether to go into the ministry or not,
etc. These are
the things
that are not written in black and white in the Bible.
These are
the things that are written in YOUR OWN BOOK
that is
kept in
heaven. We shall see how to know these things later.
What I
want to bring
out at this time
is that God
has
said that
before anyone can legitimately come to Him in prayer
requesting
to know the specific will of God for his or her life,
that person
must be walking in the general one that
is clearly
stated for
everyone. No one who is walking out of fellowship
with God is
allowed to seek to know the specific will of God.
Ezek 14:7-8
“For anyone
… who separates himself from Me, sets up
his idols in
his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling
block of his
iniquity, and then comes to the prophet to inquire
of Me for
himself, I the LORD will be brought to answer him in
My own
person.
I will set
My face against that man… “
If you
are walking in
sin and living
life the way
you
want, with
no regard for
God, forget Him
when it is
time to
make
decisions.
Many years ago, I was in the presence of
a man of God
and he was
narrating how a woman had come to him with her
son. THEY CAME
WITH PHOTOGRAPHS of
three young ladies
and
they wanted
him to pray
and tell them
which one he
should
marry. As
you can easily
see, this young
man was not
really
looking for
the will of
God but was
seeking the best
for
himself.
He said that
he simply dismissed them after explaining
to the woman
that he did not pray such prayers. He challenged
the young
man in question to deny that he was having sexual
relations
with the three girls.
I believe
that young man was not a believer, but it is a
fact that
a lot of
Christians behave in
a way similar
to that.
They do
business like unbelievers,
engage in sexual
malpractices like
unbelievers and then
come to the
Lord in
prayer to
seek His will.
It does not
work like that.
These are
the things
that Ezekiel called
the stumbling block
of iniquity.
They always
cause the child of God to fall away from the will
of God.
Every child of God must repent of walking and talking
like the
world before the will of God can be manifested
in their
lives.
Another point that I will like to dwell
on at this time is
what God
called ‘THE IDOL IN HIS HEART.’
In my
experience, idols in the heart
is a main
reason
why believers
walk out of the will
of God. IDOLS ARE
THOSE
THINGS THAT
WE HOLD ON
TO RIGIDLY AS
TRUE BUT WHICH
ARE NOT
FOUNDED UPON THE WORD OF GOD. Most of them are founded on
human
experience or are simply a generally held belief, which
no one
really knows where it started. A few practical examples
will make it
clear.
There are
those who have in their minds that they must
marry
someone from their ethnic group or even
close to their
native home.
They want to be accepted
in their native
community. There
are those who
claim that they
can never
marry someone
who is from
a broken home.
Their reason is
that
research has shown that those people tend to end up with
broken homes
themselves. They hold on to this thought and so
never give
any such person a chance. If the ordained wife from
God for them
is of this kind of background, they will definitely
miss her.
The truth
is that the
word of God
says “henceforth
know no one
after the flesh; if anyone is in Christ, she is a new
creation and
old things have passed way.”We are only what
God has
created us to be in Christ Jesus. It is the blood of Jesus
and the
cleansing word of God that
will cause us
to become
successful in
marriage. Most of the people
who will end up
with
broken homes are not from broken homes. CLEANSE
YOUR
HEAD OF SUCH NONSENSE AND FILL IT
WITH THE POWER OF THE WORD OF
GOD. IT IS THE POWER OF GOD WORKING
FOR YOU THAT WILL GIVE YOU
A STABLE AND HAPPY HOME.
I see
books teaching people
on how to
choose a
marriage
partner encouraging the children of God to continue
in this
error. If you
look at those
things with a view to
cleansing them
with the word
of God it
is okay, but
to use
them as
criteria for choosing a mate is nothing but consolidated
unbelief.
With that attitude you can never get the plan of God.
Here is another example of this idol. Many
years ago,
people used
to tell me
that before you
go into ministry,
you
should have
a business running or something else that will be
giving you
money so that
you can preach
the gospel without
problems. They
felt that those
who go into
ministry without
this are
unable to do a good job of it. They hated the
idea of
receiving
offerings from people. They looked, in effect, not to
God but to
material things for supplies. I also believed it then
but the Lord
has since corrected me.
I have discovered that such doctrines
are often born out
of pride in
the heart of the people. They do not want people to
think that
they came to the ministry to get money. Well, when
Jesus was
going to send
out His disciples
at a time,
He told
them to
take no provisions
(Luke 10:4). Paul
said that those
who work in
the gospel have a right to feed from it. I
am not
saying that
it is wrong to have resources coming to you on
the
side; it is
okay if the Lord chooses to give that to you,
but you
cannot
make it a doctrine that you will
store in your heart. It
will prevent
you from doing the will of God.
Another common
idol is found with those who believe
that God
can never bless
them in one
country but that
they
must go on
to another. Many people labour and walk straight
out of
the will of
God just because
they will not
accept the
counsel of
God that He can bless them anywhere. They have
decided where
blessing is. Many
times I have
encountered
such people
and it can really be sad. I know people, some o f
them
believers, who have spent many years pursuing a visa to
what they
consider a prosperous nation; in this period they do
nothing that
could bring them
promotion. They change
their
names, tell
lies, do anything just to get there. I don’t know how
more stupid
a person can be; if you claim to be praying to God
for
blessing, the least you should do is to walk pleasing to Him
in small
things. By the time you lie and change your
identity
just to
get to America,
the angels of
blessings may just
not
recognize
you there.
God opens
doors for people in many places but once it
is not
that place that
they have decided
that the blessing
is,
they
will not walk into it. “I can’t live anywhere but Lagos”;
“Port Harcourt
is where money
is”. Such statements
are the
reasons why
God cannot bring them into His will.
See, MONEY IS IN
THE PLACE WHERE GOD WILL PLACE YOU.
Prosperity
will come to you where God ordained for you to be.
If you
are a blessed
person you are
a blessed person;
that
blessing can
manifest anywhere. Trying
to tie the
manifestation of
blessing to a
place of your
own idea is the
very thing
that will hinder
it. To be
choosing where to go
because of
where you think money
is nothing but idolatry.
You cannot
be pursuing after money as a child of God; it is not
right.
For many
people it is this covetousness of their hearts
that is
pushing them out of
the will of
God. They have
seen
that
the other company
pays more money
and that is
all that
matters.
God may
have ordained for a major
breakthrough to
meet them
where they are
now and all
the signs and
sound
principles of
life are in
keeping with their
staying there, but
there is
this bigger cash that has prevailed over the will of God.
IDOLS IN
THE HEART AND
STUMBLING BLOCKS OF
INIQUITIES
ACTUALLY GROW OUT OF A LIFE THAT
IS SEPARATED FROM GOD.I have
found out
that the more
believers distance themselves
from
fellowship
and from the word of God, the more the idols and
stumbling blocks
are seen in
their lives. Many
times men
become too
busy to put
the word of
God first in
their lives.
They have
become too prosperous;
they have become
important. There
are too many
things demanding their
attention.
The word of God loses out and the devil fills their
lives with
chaff and they
are wondering why
they cannot
follow the
will of God.
Reunite
with God. CLEAVE ONCE
AGAIN TO THE
WORD OF
GOD;
LET THAT WORD
CLEANSE YOU OF
ALL IDOLS. Repent
of your
iniquities and you will find out that
THE WILL OF GOD IS NATURAL,
AS NATURAL AS BREATHING.
#This is culled from the book, “ WHAT'S GOD'S WILL HERE? ”, by Pastor Bankie (emphasis mine….download
the FULL BOOK@ DOWNLOADS ,and learn. IT'S FREE)
Recommended
MP3/BOOKS Downloads:
1. The Will of God(series), by Pastor
Bankie
2. The Character of Destiny(series),by
Pastor Bankie
3. Choices: Key To Destiny(book),by
Pastor Bankie
4. The Power of Godliness(series),by
Pastor Bankie
5. The Giant Killer(series),by Pastor
Bankie
6. Character(series),by Sam Adeyemi
7. The Myth of Singleness,by Myles
Munroe
8. Kingdom Keys To Successful
Relationships
9. Die Empty,by Myles Munroe
10. The Perfect Spouse for Me,by Kingsley
Okonkwo
11. Friendship,Courtship and The Proper
Procedure,by Kingsley Okonkwo
12. 7 Questions Wise Women Ask,by Kingsley
Okonkwo
13. Don’t Marry If ,by Mildred Okonkwo
14. Don’t Marry Him If ,by Kingsley
Okonkwo
15. Do's And Donts Of A Romantic
Relationship,by Kingsley Okonkwo
16. Books/MP3s by Praise George
17. How Good People Miss It,by Segun Abe
18. Resolving Conflicts In Relationships,by
Poju Oyemade
19. Is He Into Me,or Does He Want To Get
Into Me?,by Steve Harris
20. Life Is A Week(series),by Steve
Harris
21. The Law of Association: 2 Types of
Husbands,by Fela Durotoye
22. The 12 Tests of Love(CD),by Tekena
Ikoko
23. What The Rabbit Did Not Know(book),by
Tekena Ikoko
24. What I Wish I Knew Before I Was
14(book),by Tekena Ikoko
25. How To Find True Love,by Pastor
Bankie
26. Building The Family God’s Way,by
Pastor Bankie
27. Foundation for
Marriage(mp3-series),by Pastor Bankie
28. Maximizing Your Youthful Season(book),by
David Onuoha
29. Be Different(book),by David Onuoha
30. Grooming for Men,by Amara Blessing
31. Grooming for Women,by Amara Blessing
DOWNLOAD
LINKS are culled from the manual,’QUICK DOWNLOADS(QD) Vol.1’,containing over 300 free download Links to high-value materials(mp3s,videos,books,etc
on Love,Relationships,Marriage,Money,WealthCreation,Leadership,etc. by various
Authors/Speakers),and DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY@
QUICK DOWNLOADS [Volume 1]
Powered
by(and Copied from): OUR FACEBOOK PAGE (Like Us)
Website: www.AmInspired247.com
( For your requests,enquiries,complaints and/or comments,send a email us: aminspired247@gmail.com,or drop a comment here,or use the facebook page....)
( For your requests,enquiries,complaints and/or comments,send a email us: aminspired247@gmail.com,or drop a comment here,or use the facebook page....)
No comments:
Post a Comment