What Does It Take To Be A Disciple Of Jesus?

By Pastor M. Isi Eromosele

The short answer to the above question is, “It takes all of you!” This is probably the reason why our Lord Jesus often times cooled off the enthusiasm of potential candidates for discipleship by urging them to consider its costs (Matthew 19:16-22, Luke 9:57-62).”  

If one truly desires to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, it is imperative that he/she first heeds the words of our Lord and counts the cost of discipleship. A church that does not teach the principles of discipleship is doomed to lose her spiritual influence in society and to become a spiritual nursery filled with immature Christians.

Jesus Christ took time and clearly explained to His disciples what it takes to become one of His disciples. To be a disciple of our Lord demands that Jesus becomes the most important thing in your life.

The disciple of Jesus Christ must be a new spiritual creature and a citizen of God’s Kingdom. 

The first condition of discipleship is that one has already become the recipient of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There is no discipleship without salvation. Jesus metaphorically explained this: “No one sews a patch of un-shrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.

Neither do men pour new wine into old wine skins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wine skins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wine-skins, and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:16-17). Without the miracle of the new birth, no one can completely devote him/herself to Christ.

The disciple of Jesus Christ must daily crucify his/her own self. 

Informing His disciples about the events leading Him to the Cross, Jesus emphatically told them that every true disciple must also bear a cross. “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).

Taking up our Cross daily describes our willingness to lay aside all self-seeking and ego-centric ambitions: It means that our utmost desire and ambition is not to satisfy ourselves, but to please our Savior and Lord. It means that Jesus, not ourselves or anyone else in this universe is the object of our supreme worship and affection.

Pleasing Him is the driving motivation of our lives, of our activities, and of our choices. Jesus didn’t mince words: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27).

The disciple of Jesus Christ must pursue the teachings of the Kingdom of God as taught by Christ. 

By definition, a disciple is a student and a follower of his master. A disciple of Christ must strive to learn, understand and apply the principles of the Kingdom.

We can only live according to what we know: the more we know Christ’s teaching and character, the more we can emulate His lifestyle and character. Philippians 2:5 exhorts us to “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

A disciple is called to embrace the mind, the attitudes, the purposes and the destiny of his/her Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The disciple of Jesus Christ must place Jesus above those dearest to him/her. 

The fourth requirement Jesus underscored is that our love for Him must have priority over any other human being: “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

This verse doesn’t mean that we, as disciples of Christ, cannot love God and our family at the same time. The Bible clearly teaches our obligations to our husbands, wives and children (see Ephesians 5:22-25; 1 Timothy 4:8). What Jesus means is that our love for Him must have primacy over any other affection and our bond to Him more inseparable than to anything else.

Our relationship to Christ must have priority not only over family members; our union with Him must take priority over all forms of human relationship. Being a true disciple of Jesus Christ will often times lead to enmity with the surrounding world.

Jesus did not hide this reality: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).

The disciple of Jesus Christ must place his/her devotion to Christ above material possessions. 

After Jesus taught about the true riches, He declared, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

Rich and affluent people of the world clearly have a problem with this condition of discipleship, but so do most of us that are the citizens of the most affluent nation in the world, The United States of America, especially when Jesus adds, “So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions”(Luke 14:33).

This simply means Christ’s disciples must love God more than they love money and what it can buy. However, this doesn’t mean that the Bible teaches that one can become a Christian only after disposing of all his or her material possessions; most likely it refers to the attitude towards material possessions:

“Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:24). Paul explains: “The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang” (1 Timothy 6:10).

He continued to instruct those who were rich in material things to be rich in good works, and not to trust in the uncertainty of riches (1 Timothy 6:17-19). In the life of a disciple of Christ nothing must compete with his/her devotion to and dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

A disciple of Jesus Christ must be fruitful and multiply him/herself. 

Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:24-25).

Like our Master, who died and through His resurrection reproduced His life in us, we also must reproduce ourselves in others and produce disciples of Christ. This is the heart of the Great Commission: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Only a disciple who died to himself and to this world is capacitated to reproduce himself in others!

What does it take to be a disciple of Lord Jesus Christ? 

A “disciple of Christ” is someone who has been called first to intimately know Christ and His salvation, then to daily pick up his cross and follow Him by placing his devotion to Christ above any other human, above any material possession, and any other philosophy.

Following his Master, the disciple is becoming more and more like Him, emulating Christ’s thinking, feeling, and living. In obedience, Christ’s disciple embraces the goal to disciple others, from every nation, understanding that the Great Commission is Christ’s commandment, not suggestion!

Pastor M. Isi Eromosele is a part of the Leadership Pastors at God’s Intervention Center in New York. He is also the Founder and CEO of Oseme Group, a global management consulting company based in New York City.

The Power of Prayer

By Pastor M. Isi Eromosele

 

In Luke 11:1 Jesus' disciples asked, "Lord, teach us to pray." Christians today also need to learn to pray. People who are new in the faith may have never studied about how to pray. Some members do not pray properly so their prayers are not even answered. All of us can improve in this aspect of worship.

We need to learn what to pray about. Should we make requests, be thankful, offer praise, intercede on behalf of others, offer petition? And what power does prayer have? Does God really answer prayer? If so, how should we pray and what conditions must prayer meet in order for God to hear and answer?

What is prayer? Note Acts 4:24,31. Prayer is simply man talking to God, expressing his thoughts to God (Rom. 10:1; Matt. 6:9). Hence, it is a form of communication similar in many ways to simply talking to our earthly father, except that we must remember whom we are addressing and must meet conditions of acceptable prayer.

How To Pray To God - What Does The Bible Say?
 
In Matthew 6:5-13, Jesus shares how not to pray.

• Verse 5: We are to pray in secret, not the way people did in His day -- praying out loud publicly, primarily to just be seen, and heard.
• Verse 6: Jesus asks us to go to a private place since our Heavenly Father already knows what we are going to pray about.
• Verse 7: Jesus tells us not to ramble on and on, as people of other religions do, or be repetitious with words. God, our heavenly Father, would have us be specific about our prayer.
• Verse 8: Jesus reiterates that the believer is not to pray repetitiously like the heathen

Peter, in I Peter 5:7-8, exhorts us to cast all our care upon God because He cares about us. In verse 8, Peter warns us that Satan seeks to devour the believer. James 1:5 says we can pray and ask God for wisdom, but this should be done in faith. James 4:1-4 says that when we pray, we often pray or ask out of our own selfish ambition. James 4:15 exhorts that we pray to God for God’s will to be done in our lives.

In the Old Testament, Moses prayed to God almost constantly on behalf of the Israelites for God’s mercy and graciousness in dealing with their sins. Abraham prayed persistently for his relative, Lot, who lived in Sodom that God would spare him. 2 Chronicles 14:11 says Asa cried out to the Lord. Prophet Jeremiah prayed for God’s guidance and correction of the Israelites (Jeremiah 10:23-24). David prayed for the peace of Jerusalem in Psalm 122:6.

The protocol on how to pray covers several ways of prayer. The primary focus of prayer is intent. Does the prayer honor God and exalt His name? What is the purpose behind the prayer? Is it personal gain or ambition?

Do you pray for others to be blessed and encouraged? Are your prayers done in secret and in humility? Are your prayers focused on obtaining Godly wisdom, counsel and direction? God is pleased with these prayers and answers them.

How often are we to pray? The Bible says to pray without ceasing (1Thessalonians 5:17). What should we pray for? What if we do not know how to pray? The Bible says the Holy Spirit will help us pray (Romans 8:26-27).

How do we pray to God? Prayer is essentially putting your request, concern or issue before the Lord and trusting Him to answer them. Matthew 18:3 says we need to pray with the heart of little children, simple, reverent, specific and trusting.

Why Should We Pray – To Whom Do We Pray?

Before we can answer, “why should we pray,” we must know to whom we pray. There is only one Supreme Creator and Sovereign God. There is only one way to Him and that is through His only Son, Jesus Christ. God, our Heavenly Father, is the only one we can be assured of who hears and answers our prayers. He is the God of amazing love, mercy, and forgiveness. 

• By Him, all things are possible. Jesus says in Mark 10:27, "Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God."
• Daniel 9:18 tells us: “We do not ask because we deserve help, but because you are so merciful.” (Mercy means showing favor, compassion, and kindness.)
• God’s ultimate demonstration of love is forgiveness of the sins each of us have committed. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it” (John 3:16-17).

He is the only God who has done this and is the only God able to do so. But His enemy, Satan, has sent many false gods to deceive mankind. Do not be deceived nor allow anything or anyone to take priority over the only true and living God.

Why Should We Pray - For What Do We Pray?
Prayer is the key to the heart of God. Prayer is the only way to a real and personal relationship with God.

• Pray acknowledging He is God, and that you accept His gracious gift, Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior (Genesis 17:1, Romans 6:16-18).
• Pray confessing our sins and accepting His forgiveness (Romans 3:23-26).
• Pray that His will be done in our lives, that His Holy Spirit guide us, and that we be filled with the fullness of all God has for us.
• Pray for (spiritual) understanding and wisdom (Proverbs 2:6-8, 3:5).
• Pray with thanksgiving for all the ways He blesses us (Philippians 4:6). Pray when we are ill, lonely, going through trials or interceding for others (James 5:14-16, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
• Pray to worship Him (Psalm 95:6-7).

There is nothing we can’t pray about. There are abundant references to prayer in the Bible. The Bible tells us to “pray without ceasing” and “in everything give thanks to the Lord.” When we choose to have a positive attitude, we realize we have received many blessings for which to give God praise. 

We find intimacy with God through communicating with Him in prayer. We go to Him in faith, knowing that He hears and answers all our prayers (1 John 5:14). Be confident that God knows and wants what is best for us; so ask that His will be done in all we seek from Him. Then, thank Him for it, even though it hasn’t happened yet.

Pastor M. Isi Eromosele is a part of the Leadership Pastors at God’s Intervention Center in New York. He is also the Founder and CEO of Oseme Group, a global management consulting company based in New York City.

The Devices Of The Devil

By Pastor M. Isi Eromosele

Satan is the great enemy of the Saint. In fact "Satan" means "adversary." The Bible refers to the devil by a number of names and descriptions. He is seen as "the anointed cherub" (Ezek. 28:14), "the ruler of demons" (Luke 11:15), "the ruler of this world" (John 16:11), "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4), and "the prince of the power of the air" (Eph 2:2).

He is identified as a great dragon, a roaring lion, the vile one, the tempter, and the accuser. He is formidable, cunning, and powerful. Paul writing to the Corinthian church realized that Satan was working overtime in the church and emphasizes that we are to be vigilant and alert to his subtlety.

Satan’s advantage is based upon one being ignorant of his devices or his methods. What are some of the devil’s devices by which he seeks to deceive God’s children, defeat God’s church, destroy God’s work, and denigrate God’s Word? His methods include distraction, discouragement, disillusionment, discontentment, discord, and disassociation.

Distraction

1 John 2:15-16 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."

Satan seeks to distract us by getting us to focus our attention on the material instead of the spiritual, on methods rather than the message, on men rather than God.

2 Timothy 2:4 "No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."

If Satan can, he will get us to major on the minors and to minimize the majors.

It was a 99-degree September day in San Antonio, when a woman accidentally locked her 10 month-old baby niece inside a parked car. Frantically the mother and aunt ran around the auto in near hysteria, while a neighbor attempted to unlock the car with a clothes hanger.

Soon the infant was turning purple and had foam on her mouth. It had become a life-or-death situation when Fred, a wrecker driver, arrived on the scene. He grabbed a hammer and smashed the back window of the car to set the child free.

Was he heralded a hero? He said, "The lady was mad at me because I broke the window. I just thought, what’s more important, the baby or the window?" Sometimes priorities get out of order and it takes a Fred reminds us what’s important.

 
Satan seeks to get our priorities out of order.

Discouragement

One of Satan’s most potent weapons is trying to get you into a feeling of discouragement, so maybe you’ll give up. Discouragement is a lack of hope usually after a major victory.

Many are confronted with it on Monday after a breakthrough on Sunday. The Devil wants you to believe that things are worse than what they are and that you are the only one who cares. That is exactly how Elijah felt after his victory on Mt Carmel. 

A man who is continually criticized becomes good for nothing; the effect of criticism knocks all the gumption and power out of him.

Sometimes it’s circumstances that discourage us. Numbers 21:4-5 "And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.

And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, saying “Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loathes this light bread."

Discouragement is faith in the devil.

Everywhere the perpetual endeavor of the enemy of souls is discouragement. If he can get the soul "under the weather," he wins. It is not really what we go through that matters, it is what we go under that breaks us. We can bear anything if only we are kept inwardly victorious.

Disillusionment 

Disillusionment is the state of being disenchanted or disappointed by unfulfilled expectations.

Proverbs 13:12 "Hope deferred makes the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life."

Have some of your carefully created castles been washed away? Mine have. Several times along my life’s journey, I had nowhere to turn except into my heavenly Father’s arms. There I remained quiet, soaking up his love for as long as I needed. Then I saw his hand begin a new creation for my life, a new direction, a new service for him and his kingdom. Waves need not always destroy. We must allow our heavenly Father to use them to redirect our lives.

If you expect perfection from people, your whole life is a series of disappointments, grumblings, and complaints. If, on the contrary, you pitch your expectations low, taking folks as the inefficient creatures, which they are, you are frequently surprised by having them perform better than you had hoped.

There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God.

Discontentment 

Numbers 21:5-6 "And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loathes this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died." 

The children of Israel did not find in the manna all the sweetness and strength they might have found in it; not because the manna did not contain them, but because they longed for other meat.

1 Corinthians 10:10 "Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer."

Half the world is unhappy because it can’t have the things that are making the other half unhappy.

Complainers are the greatest persecutors.

Discord (Division)

1 Corinthians 1:10-11 "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you." 

There are four ways the devil brings about division in the church. He uses Selfishness, Favoritism, Narrow-mindedness, and Lack of Fellowship

Selfishness says do it my way or no way. Favoritism says our way is better than your way. Narrow-mindedness says we’ve never done it that way. Lack of Fellowship says you go your way and I’ll go my way.

Romans 12:3-5 says "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."

The secret of every discord in Christian homes and communities and churches is that we seek our own way and our own glory.

It is too bad that anything so obvious should need to be said at this late date, but from all appearances, Christians have about forgotten the lesson so carefully taught by Paul: God’s servants are not to be competitors, but co-workers.

The problem with the church today is not corruption. It is not institutionalism. No, the problem is far more serious than something like the Minister running away with the organist. The problem is pettiness that is so blatant

Disassociation

Hebrews 10:25 "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."

The devil loves when believers do not fellowship: he loves it when we distance ourselves from each other.

1 Corinthians 12:18-21 "But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you."

1 Corinthians 12:25 "That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another."

Communion is strength; solitude is weakness. Alone, the eland is an easy target for the stalking lion. The devil would like to isolate believers just like predators separate their prey from the herd thereby weakening it and easily killing and devouring it.

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walking about, and seeking whom he may devour:"

Churchgoers are like coals in a fire. When they cling together, they keep the flame aglow; when they separate, they die out.

 
Community ... means people who have to learn how to care for each other.

Pastor M. Isi Eromosele is a part of the Leadership Pastors at God’s Intervention Center in New York. He is also the Founder and CEO of Oseme Group, a global management consulting company based in New York City.

Divine Progression By Faith

By Pastor ChyChy Ayodele

Today, every believer saved from this world stands at this cross road. We have to make up our minds and advance in God and come to the fullness of God’s salvation, His redemption. The only reason most believers make no progress is unbelief. And if they continue in unbelief, they will not only stagnate, they will fall back into perdition (Hebrew 10:38-39).

The only safe state for a believer is progression by faith. Never stand still until you enter your rest (Hebrew 4:9-11). If you are not advancing, progressing, growing steadily into Christ and departing more from the flesh, the world, sin and the natural, then you are in unbelief. And unbelief is sin, unbelief is rebellion.

Unbelief means you are hardening your heart, resisting God, stopping His actions and stopping the work of the spirit in your life. Conversely, faith unleashes the spirit of God within you. Faith is the victory for you.

If you stay in Faith you will make the steady progression in God until you come to the fullness... the salvation, the redemption. You have to believe God in spite of the odds, in spite of how seemingly weak we are to resist the devil and overcome, die to the flesh.

Since God said it, then believe it. He said crucify, mortify the flesh, sin shall not have dominion over you, by His stripes you are healed, you have been delivered from the power of darkness etc.

By divine progression, you step into the realm of God. You step into the outer court. Here you are just flesh, born again, introduced into spirit. But here, you are still flesh-ruled, following every impulse, struggling with sin, unable to say no to sin and devil, still suffering bondage, too weak to drive out demons.

Most believers live here, freely co-exist with sin, traits of worldly lives of sin, no evidence of change, having flesh to fight with, living so in the flesh.

Holy Place

In the Old Testament temple given by God's design the outer court is not floored, or cemented or paved. The floor is dirt, earth and mud etc. Those who live there walk in the flesh, they are in contact with earth, dirt, flesh, dust and in this world, sin.

To get to the holy place, there is a layer of big bowl of water and the altar of blood sacrifice. The altar of sacrifice is where you advance if you want to depart from the outer court. You get sprinkled with the blood.

Blood sanctifies you, cleanses you, then you proceed to the bowl of water, actually applying the Word to clean up and wash your life, purify your walk. Believers must apply the Word directly to their lifestyles, their earth walk, they must separate from the world and climb up. There is a climbing to do to get up, this symbolises prayer and the Word.

Having applied the Word you enter into the prayer life by Baptism of the Spirit. Then you will enter Spirit worship that releases such divine presence over your life. You become a lot stronger here, far away from the outer court believer, but your journey is not over yet. Outer court dwellers live here. They have some victory but at a great cost.

The Holy Of Holies (The Most Holy Place)

Unlike the holy place where you have flesh plus spirit duality, here its all spirit, all God. You are dead to flesh and to works, self, effort, exertion, in the presence of God. In the most Holy place you meet the Shekinah glory, the full presence, the total manifest presence, All God.

You do your part which is simply to abide there, not by striving, sweating, but by yielding to the spirit. The simplicity here is incredible, almost fantastic, too easy, yet the most difficult for our human souls who believe in earning by effort. But God said be still, yield. He kills your flesh; you enter into His own strength and relinquish your own. You are in the strength of God's glory.

Here, you are not using formula, principles, work, labour, effort as in the holy place. You are simply yielding and this is Grace. 

You must enter this realm ferociously, fervently, pressing until you enter the rest.This is the sweetness of Grace, this is the beauty of Grace. Once the soul learns how to live here, the simplicity is amazing, the ease is unbelievable. 

The supernatural is normal. God is a constant flow, no coming out of Him. Once the soul enters here, it enters the school of the spirit, here it must be schooled in the way of the spirit.

Only believe! Which is all God requires. It is by Faith.

Pastor ChyChy Ayodele is the President and Pastor of Supernatural Life Ministries Global in Abuja, Nigeria. She is also a Lawyer, a Gospel Singer, a Christian Publisher and a Motivational Speaker.

Travails Of Your Spirit Soul

By Pastor ChyChy Ayodele

Fulfillment is of the spirit not of the soul though the soul and even the body enjoys it and feels it. Fulfillment, self-actualisation (the new creation self created in the image of God) is only possible and attainable when the God-implanted desires of the spirit man are released and expressed.

Those who will be fulfilled in this life must reach deeper beyond the material and basic survival and subsistence needs of the body and even beyond the soul’s vain quest into the deeper realms where solid desires are lodged which is Spirit.

When your soul sinks into these realms and begins to discern the rhythms of the Spirit and remains there until such rhythms begins to make meaning and such deep level language of groaning and travails is translated or interpreted into intelligible terms, your soul would have fully understood its quest, mission and purpose in this life.

It would have found the desire of your spirit and heard the cry of your spirit. This for a believer is also the cry of The Holy Spirit of God. This is the groaning of the Almighty God to bring forth inventive genius as He continues His work of creation through you, a co-creator with Him, made in His image.

This cry fulfilled will bring forth the divine purpose, glorifying Christ and benefiting humanity. For the unbeliever this will bring glory to Him or Satan and be of a humanistic order, an achievement of Babel, looking good on the outside but intrinsically perverting the divine purpose. This is the furtherance of unregenerate.

Deeper Spirit

Your body's groaning or cries are for the cries of basal propensities: food, comfort, sex, pleasures, highs, trips and more of this repeated in other forms. It seeks shelter, clothing, it seeks the satisfaction of basic, superficial needs, survival and satisfaction of gross appetites as well as materialism.

Your soul is egostistic, vain and hollow. It craves vanities for prideful display and exaltation. Good clothes, romance and erotic love, fashion, plenty of money to satisfy every whim and win a place of respect in society.

It also seeks power, political, sexual or otherwise to influence and control others egotistically, seeking acceptance, respect and everything that will give it a place in society and win it respect according to the norms and standards of the society in which it thrives.

None of these cravings fulfilled or satisfied can bring fulfillment. As a matter of fact, these are cravings that cannot be satisfied. The soul that pays attention to satisfying these urges will be poor and miserable regardless of its financial worth and will be too selfish to help mankind or significantly upgrade humanity. Such a soul will only bring glory to itself at the most or gratify its senses at the least and then only momentarily.

Unfortunately and most sadly, the majority of humanity, over 90 percent, live on these two low planes of non-fulfillment.

They just live and die. Most live on the first level of body-gratification, working hard to barely earn a living, eat, sleep, have sex, marry, and die. Less even succeed in getting to the souls level of frivolities, vain pursuits and living.

Spirit is purpose. This spirit is supposed to drive the life to selfless attainment. Even when sinners reach this level of desire, they live selflessly and find fulfillment of some sort.

Spirit is objective and purposeful. God is a spirit. Everything He does is purposeful. Everything He says and creates has a meaning, an interpretation, a revelation, a truth, a sense. Everything is objective and revealing in God’s core values.

You are spirit. You are a new creation spirit in perfect union with God the divine Spirit 1Corinthians 6:17. The spirit is creative and the seat of creation and the divine spirit heaves within your breast, groaning to come forth with further creativity, songs, poems, music, art, useful inventions, truths to guide mankind, powers to show forth His praise and knowledge to enlighten humanity, compassion and mercy to help and heal the less privileged, among others.

These desires are not perceived by the shallow superficial; surface thinking and surface living, selfish, pleasure seeking, vanity-chasing majority. Their souls live on the surface, in the distracting plane ruled by external stimuli of all kinds, noisy and full of sensual, Earth originated impulses.

The Soul Must Be Quiet

You will never touch the true desires of your spirit that leads to fulfillment if you consistently live your life on these noisy realms of active fleshy thinking and human physical activity.

You will keep being deceived that you will be fulfilled if you find comfort, a good home, nice cars, good fashionable clothes, jewelry, a nice husband or wife, have sex and erotic pleasure as well as romance or sexual love.

You will feel falsely secure, since you think as if all your basic needs are being met, including financial security, some fame and reputation plus influence. You begin to feel a false sense of satisfaction. But you will never be truly satisfied! No one will ever be! That is the deception that's drawing the multitudes away from God.

Fulfillment is of the spirit. It comes to those who hear the spirit and pursue its desires and its desires lead away from self into love, into God, into forgetting yourself and getting lost and abandoned in higher purpose, vast activities, greater order.

This phenomenon goes over and beyond you as an individual, stretching to satisfy the divine cravings of God and entering into human situation with selfless answers that touch the very deepest and truest needs of mankind. Is this what you seek?

As such, the soul must be quiet. It must seek to be spiritualised, so that it can eventually interprete the language of the divine spirit, decode the mystery with its own spirit and translate it into actions and activities on the earthly realm.

The real soul must come through prayers, groaning, crying, tongues of intense longings, curiosity and questions into the presence of God and soon begin to hear the still small voice that leads you away from you into God and His higher purposes, soon to become your own as you embrace the voice. Soul and spirit unite here, as the Kingdom of God is transferred into the human soul, giving it divine stature and dignity.

In quietness before God, in quests, the mind is silenced after much prayer. In the power of much prayer, in the power of the spirit and meditation, the mind enters the spirit to hear. That's why few ever get here.

Few souls are noble enough to practice silence for their feeble and fickle low-quality souls are easily drawn by the clamour and racket of the outside world as they are led by external stimuli. They are drawn away and never touch the centre of their beings - spirit.

They live in the fruitless, drudgery of meaningless activities, restless and creative. Nothing new or fresh of divine and eternal quality will ever enter Earth through them.  They live for today and die tomorrow and are forgotten the next day. Such souls cannot be timeless for they failed to touch the eternal being, which is the spirit. They leave no legacy for humanity, they pass away, forgotten.

But the divine voice, the purpose, the cry of the spirit rages on within every man. The divine call is calling on every man. It is not a call answered by many with a craving for the superficial of soul and body. Yet such gratifications come with fulfillment, as secondary necessities.

Seek ye first the kingdom and all these things shall be added unto you as rewards or necessities not ends. When you have possessed the kingdom of God which is within you, the divine spirit purpose will descend on you, changing your life and lifestyles.

Such noble souls live for higher things, are of a finer quality and are quiet, satisfied, focused, non-frivolous, resting while labouring, enjoying the highest of life, pleasing and glorifying God, expressing Him and revealing Him and blessing humanity.

If you want to be an inspired genius lifting many into spiritual fulfillment, you must separate yourself from vain flesh and find that cry. You are not here on Earth on a pointless voyage. Your life is meant to be a high energy, high drama, massive explosion of glory as you manifest the Christ in this simple world.

You must find that groaning; find that deeper desire for your divine purpose. You will only be fulfilled by fulfilling divine purpose. For that is the essence of your existence, the meaning of your life.

Purpose is the meaning of your life and only in fulfilling the deepest desire of your being - spirit, can you be fulfilled and find true joy. It is time to get out of self, to escape the ordinary, to enter into spiritual adventure, to enter into spirit.

Now is the future. Enter your destiny, go inside the spirit, pray, seek God’s face, be quiet. The journey begins. God is saying something. Something you desperately need to hear. Something connected to the life of many of your generation and beyond.

Pastor ChyChy Ayodele is the President and Pastor of Supernatural Life Ministries Global in Abuja, Nigeria. She is also a Lawyer, a Gospel Singer, a Christian Publisher and a Motivational Speaker.

Compelling Compassion - The Driving Force

By Pastor ChyChy Ayodele

The unbeatable pity for the suffering of mankind...

And when this unbeatable sympathy becomes Compelling Compassion, you will be moved to act. For it is written in the Bible about Jesus, “And He, seeing the great multitude like sheep without shepherds was moved by compassion…”  “And He seeing the sick and diseased was moved by compassion to heal them…” Paul said, “the love of God constraints us…”

The love of God, Divine Compassion is the compelling, motivating force of the Christian life and ministry. It is the drive of the Christian work for mankind.

It is the power and the momentum. That is why God must pass us through great pain first in life before we can realize our ministry. The Bible says of Jesus that He is able to be our High Priest because He Himself has been touched by our infirmity. He has lived in the flesh… of The Trinity. He is the One most qualified to be our advocate.

He knows what it feels like to be tempted, to be limited, to die, to go to hell. He knows it all therefore His compassion knows no bounds and thus has become an appealing force before the Throne.

Your pains are the means by which God imparts this compassion. It is the means by which God drives the love for those to whom you are sent to help. And those to whom you shall be sent to help are those who shall be in the pain that you are presently in, or have gone through, going through and are now finding God’s answers for.

It is this answer that you shall give them. It is full-proof answer that He is giving to you, if you would seek Him for it rather than get into self-pity and whine and complain and grumble.

Your pain, the greatest burden, need, desire, bondage of life should and is divinely designed to drive you into God relentlessly until you come forth with God’s full-proof answer. A Revelation from God, Truth that will set you free and you will use to set others free who are likewise bound.

Your Pain Should Drive You To God

God is waiting to give you the answer. With that answer, you shall be freed and used to free others.

Your sympathy must become compelling compassion for a particular suffering of humanity to which you are called to help eradicate. You will realize that your quest, your purpose will be to be great in spiritual advocacy, in the power it will take to bring relief to that particular suffering. If that suffering is poverty, you will be looking for financial greatness which will be for you God’s power to break that poverty.

If it is sickness, you will be looking for greatness in God’s healing anointing. Mike Murdock is constantly looking for wisdom… Myles Munroe is constantly projecting purpose… Let your suffering become a compelling compassion that moves you like Jesus to minister. Let your pain drive you to God to receive the Truth to free you so you can also be used to free others. Turn away from you and turn to God.

“All things work together for good…” so you can turn your misery into your ministry, going forth with the power and answer to free people from what once bound them. Your pain will bring gain to many in the future if you turn it to your good now because you love God and are called according to His purpose.

Why would you be financially great? Is it so as to enable you to drive the finest and latest cars, wear the best clothes, eat at the finest restaurants and have the biggest bank accounts, live in a posh house, in the most exclusive part of town and jet-hop across the famous cities of the earth vacating? A billion times NO!

There is a work of the devil called poverty. And prosperity is an anointing God is giving to you to use to smash that work. For you are a son of God and for this purpose you are manifested, that you may destroy the works of the devil… John3:8 and you must! Every other thing is a benefit.

Pastor ChyChy Ayodele is the President and Senior Pastor of Supernatural Life Ministries Global in Abuja, Nigeria. She is also a Lawyer, a Gospel Singer, an accomplished Writer and a Motivational Speaker.

Achieving The Holy Spirit Filled Life

By Pastor ChyChy Ayodele

The Holy Spirit filled life does not take time to attain. It takes a decision. No one on Earth but you can make that decision for yourself. A man will always pursue his true desires with decisive actions and labour.

The Holy Spirit filled life is entered into by decision. You are going to realise by yourself that you do not and cannot actually exist as a Christian in the true meaning of the word without The Holy Spirit and this is the beginning of the journey.

Most Christians think to be a Christian means to be free from certain gross sins. So they say, self-righteously, such statements as "I do not fornicate, I do not steal, "etc, naming a few gross sins that in real sense they are still even guilty of in thoughts, words or permission as they are still enjoying observing those who do, (as in magazines, TV, video and music).

Additionally, these Christians may be fellowshipping closely with those who do without confronting them. It may also be as in listening to their exploits in these regards and enjoying it.

However, these self-proclaimed Christians still fall short in many other areas. Christianity is simply not doing wrong. It is not doing wrong by the power of The Holy Spirit and of the new creation and doing the works of righteousness, love and service inspired and powered by the Holy Spirit and by the new creation.

True Christianity is not only passivity (omission), it is also activity (commission) powered by the Holy Spirit. The decision is not a decision to just conduct yourself a certain way by acts of the will so as to satisfy a religious conscience and to meet up to a regulation.

The decision should be to enter a vital, active and real contact, relationship and fellowship with Jesus Christ and The Father through the Holy Spirit. In other words, it is a decision to enter into direct encounter with The Holy Spirit. This is where prayer and The Word come in.

The commitment to these is not of duty but of love. You love someone so much that you want to be with that person endlessly, know the person, be involved with the person, share interests and please the person.

To be filled with The Holy Spirit is not just to have received the Holy Spirit baptism four or five years ago and then claim to be spirit filled. "Spirit-filled" describes an actual state of being possessed, taken over, in the grip of and under the influence and control of the Holy Spirit and this is achieved in degrees.

In other words, if you are not filled by the Holy Spirit today, you are not spirit filled. It is an on-going experience that never ends. Be aware that you can turn on or off the blessings of the Holy Spirit by your lifestyle.

It is a daily opening up to God to be filled anew with the Holy Spirit. That is called "fresh anointing". This should occur every day, moment by moment, every so often and every night. You must be baptised in the Spirit daily. There must be a renewal daily, always, which causes you to increase in your spiritual capacity until you get to that point where you are full, not just filled...

Overflowing with the Holy Spirit

Filled with the Holy Spirit means He fills you to the capacity to which you are emptied of self. Full is not arrived at overnight. It is the result of overtime or being filled by the Spirit day by day, by emptying yourself more and more of Earth and self until you are full, completely possessed and the infilling now becomes an overflow to others... This is called being anointed.

The journey to fully filled by the Holy Spirit begins by desire. Many believers live stale, dry Christian lives, unfruitful, bearing no proof, sign or mark outwardly of any relationship with Christ - the Holy God.

When you look at them, you see nothing of that sweet, meek, loving, gentle, holy and joyful Jesus. They do not exude the aura of Christianity that is manifested to you. When they tell you they are Christian, you would have ample reasons to doubt them.

No one among them can boldly say anywhere that "I am a child of God, born again" because they know that they do not look it, live it nor really show it in anyway. Their appearance from a distance and up close does not portray or radiate the influence and the effect of Jesus on their lives.

There is only one way such a diseased condition can be corrected. This would be through repentance from dead works, carnality and love of this world, among others and running back to the closet to begin a life of active and vital contact with the glorious Holy Spirit.

Transformation takes place there. They would need to get on their knees on a daily basis. They should tarry before Almighty God as one tarries at the wine until drunk, yielding until they are drunk of the Holy Spirit, filled afresh and everyday with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit would quench their thirst and hunger as they pant for more. He is there to fill them again and again as He gives them a glorious experience again and again as they yield again and again for more and more.

When prayer is a dry, drab and boring routine to a believer, it shows that such a believer is in a very seriously diseased condition, in dire need of a revival that will not come from heaven above but from spirit deep within him as the believer returns to devotion to God and yielding in prayer.

It is the absence of the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes prayer boring and such a hard task for believers. They want to do it without the relationship with the Holy Spirit that is conditional upon yielding. They want to do it by themselves in the flesh. This is not possible.

Yielding To The Holy Spirit

If you never get to understand for yourself what “filled with the Holy Spirit means”, you will never know the Holy Spirit. But when you do, you will be able to yield and flow with Him anywhere, anytime.

When the Holy Spirit is in a believer's prayer life and ministry and any other part if his life, he yields to the Spirit (marriage, relationship, etc.) they would be in no struggle, no rigor, just greased flow... This is called Grace. Then it is fun and glory and you don't want it to stop as time doesn't bother you.

How can you claim to love God when you can't stay in His presence for long. You just endure your prayer time and are relieved when your clock tells you to get up? Nobody can say He loves the presence of God acting like that.

We need more than survival and subsistent levels of Christianity in these end times. A nice little shallow prayer time that does not touch God deeply will put you on maintenance status spiritually.

But maintenance status is no longer safe in these last days because "the love of many is waxing cold", (this includes the love of believers for their Lord and Savior and the love for their brethren).

Inequity is abounding... These shall be plagues, pestilence, diseases, epidemics, wars and rumours of war, earthquakes, men's heart failing them for fear of what's happening in the world and sin, immorality, perversion, sensual entitlements, lustful gratifications of the grossest kind swirling around and dragging away many including many believers in its wake.

It is going to take a beyond average Christian existence to deal with the above. Imagine the level of corruption, bribery, bottom power that will be flowing and required to get a contract, position and earn an honest living within government departments to process requirements, for instance?

Imagine how really difficult it will get for anyone who claims he wants to live righteously to survive in these times without the Holy Spirit. Imagine how dangerous it will be to live in such times, with diseases, pestilence on the rise, violent crimes, rape, robberies, occultism and ritual activities multiplying.

All these describe "darkness and gross darkness" as God spoke about through prophet Isaiah as coming to the earth in these last days.

A New Kind Of Believer Is Needed

These end times call for a new kind of believer who lives on a higher status than maintenance. He lives on the advance mode of spirituality. In such a mode, the believer would be the opposite of what is happening in the world today.

Righteousness would be waxing strong and abounding as the love of God is waxing hot. The righteousness in them would be greater than the unrighteousness and wickedness in the world.

They would be ruthlessly righteous and loving it! Bold as the lion. They would have Faith that will quench the raging fires, stop the violence of the sword, of guns and bombs. They live in a Faith Force Field (3.F ZONE) that insulates and shields them from epidemics and diseases,... It is called Righteousness and Truth.

These new believers would not just be running into hiding from the darkness and praying for rapture to happen suddenly. They would be projecting Divine Light and pushing back the darkness. They would be advancing the borders of light and annexing spiritual territories of human souls for the kingdom of God.

Don't be fooled! Darkness is coming upon this generation no matter what the politicians are saying! Jesus already said it. Things are going to get worse in the world. The only sure place of refuge and light shall be in Christ. "For of the increase of His peace and of His government, there shall be no end!" "And Christ is that spirit (2Corinthians 3:17) and where the spirit of The Lord is there is liberty..." freedom from all bondages coming upon humanity.

This dark future which is coming to the world has been revealed prophetically and wisdom calls to us believers to prepare for it. Prepare for manifestation! This will be the manifestation of darkness and the manifestation of Light.

Those who are wise are earnestly seeking God now, being filled more and more with the Holy Spirit and with the Word in anticipation of the great day of The Lord. The unrighteous are also increasing to the climax of wickedness in these last days. Who shall challenge them? Who?

Pastor ChyChy Ayodele is the President and Pastor of Supernatural Life Ministries Global in Abuja, Nigeria. She is also a Lawyer, a Gospel Singer, a Christian Publisher and a Motivational Speaker.

Holiness - The Beauty of God

By Pastor ChyChy Ayodele

You heart must crave God’s Holiness. The Holiness of God as revealed in His Word. This is holiness that cannot be attained by man through acts of the flesh. No human effort can bring it about. It can only be attained through spiritual means. This is the Holiness our Lord wants to give to us by His Grace revealed in redemption. It is the Holiness of God.

Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights until he was transfigured. His face shone with God's light, he had remained with God for so long, beheld Him face to face until he was bearing God’s glory as manifested on his face.

Moses came back to Earth with the glory and the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone containing many instructions, ordinances and statutes from God. The Israelites hid from his face the same way they hid from God's appearance on the mountain, saying "Moses you go up, we cannot come, we fear this awesome, terrible sight, lightening, thunder, earthquake and dread.

“Whatever He tells you, come tell us and we would listen", the Israelites had said to Moses. They hid from Moses, asking him to veil his face. As such, they didn't get the glory by going directly to God and when God put the glory on Moses so they could behold it on a human level without fear and be transformed, (have it rub off on them), they rejected it out of fear.

So Moses simply gave them the written Commandments, the laws of God amounting to a spiritual letter without divine spirit. In the end, they received it as a yoke, a heavy burden they could not bear.

None of the Israelites could attain the glory of God since they avoided the Lord’s face and none could follow to the laws of God because they considered it too stringent and rigid. So they just lived in religion, striving wearily to obey God’s laws and failing and thus living under condemnation continually. “It is not by power or by might, but by my spirit”, says The Lord.

This is the spirit of religion taking people out of Grace back into the bondage of the laws of Moses. No human effort can produce Holiness. Holiness is the nature of God imparted into our spirits as new creations in Christ and realised only as we dwell in His presence, like Moses did over long seasons.

In order to maintain Holiness, one has to spend long seasons in God’s presence for durations of perhaps days, months or years. These seasons must be repeated habitually until spiritual changes are manifested and perceptible. Because of the forty days that Moses spent with God up in the mountain, the Holiness of God was transferred to him, which was manifested in the glow on his face.

God has already blessed all of us with the power and capability to seek Him in order to receive His Holiness. Standing before God's burning presence purifies the soul, purging it of iniquities, destroying and actually removing from it the very spiritual substance and essence of sin, non-regeneration, dross and impurity.

This is why you must find the manifest presence of God quickly through prayer, then begin to dwell daily, habitually, seasons on your knees, using every given opportunity in your waking moments in your life, dwelling all the time in His Holiness.

You dwell in God’s Holiness not because you are so strong-willed and disciplined to do so, but because you are so aware of your helplessness, weakness, and the hopelessness of your ever attaining true holiness without turning to Him continuously.

Live beyond the veil, ministering from there in high anointing but never coming out because you know that you cannot make it outside of Him and His Holiness. It is a revelation you must be conscious of in your spiritual.

Many preach Holiness as conducts, acts, behaviour you must attain. However, you cannot attain God's Holiness through acts of the flesh. It can only be attained by deep spiritual means, the kind He wants to bestow on us through the Cross.

God's true holiness is attainable by all, including the weak and the strong willed because it comes by Grace. But what comes by Grace is more easily received by the weak because they do not have an alternative to it.

But the religious, self-disciplined, strong willed, including the Jews who had practiced religion for ages, Pharisees, Sadusees, Teachers of the law, Priests and many others are too proud and think they are self-sufficient to accept it.

That's why Paul had so much of a battle with the Jews as he sought to preach Grace to the Gentiles who were generally weak willed, having no history of religious discipline. The Jews and the Gentiles symbolise for the context of this writing the strong-willed and the weak-willed respectively.

The Grace of God comes with Holiness imparted into our new creation spirits and realised in actual communion with God as we begin to reflect this same glory from glory to glory. This Holiness will continue to evolve as a result of changed conduct, not pretense, no hypocrisy but through true obedience to God.

The pathway to receiving God’s Holiness remains the same. Moses’ face started to shine with the Holiness of God as he dwelt before God for long periods of time. Jesus was transfigured as He constantly knelt down to pray to His Father, God. The angels of God shine so bright with God's glory because they are always in God's presence (Matthew 28:1-2)(Revelations 18:1).

We must labour first in constant prayer to break through the veil of flesh abduction and gain access into the Realm of Almighty God, which manifests the presence of God. Then we must begin to effortlessly dwell there, passively in rest as we are transformed ever increasingly.

It is imperative that we resist and fight off the distractions of Earth that seeks to pull us out of there to attend feverishly to natural things by overnight instead of by faith and trust in God and His supernatural help.

This is more than getting needs met through prayers which anyone can get by faith formula. This is the place of transformation in deep communion with God. And once you secure the breakthrough in prayer, you can now just dwell there, until it becomes habitual, enabling you to can carry His presence with you everywhere you go.

Holiness - The Splendour Of God

The Do's in God’s Commandments becomes response to divine function (that comes as natural as your own desire) to do righteous acts, works, pray, witness, fellowship, minister and perform charity as you experience oneness conscious union of your soul with God.

The Don’ts in God’s Commandments become your response to divine checks within you and the sense of His nature (holiness within you), divine restraints in you like your own such as unwillingness, disgust, reluctance to comply with unrighteousness, unclean desire, fleshly excesses and desires, a check and restraints for moderation in all things.

All this because at points of decisions, trails, temptations, negative or positive thoughts that compel you to turn to Him who is within you and abide holding still as He destroys the evil impulse that wants to hold you and free you of its compulsion.

Isn't all this so marvelous? Turning to the manifest presence of God, intensifying your gaze, your awareness of Him at all times. But you must first discover and possess that manifest presence of God!

Pastor ChyChy Ayodele is the President and Pastor of Supernatural Life Ministries Global in Abuja, Nigeria. She is also a Lawyer, a Gospel Singer, a Christian Publisher and a Motivational Speaker.