First
Bible Lesson: Ephesians 4:30
"And
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption."
Second
Bible Lesson: 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21
"Despise
not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."
Golden
Text: Galatians 5:25-26
"If
we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous
of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another".
1982
The Year Of Peace And Joy
All
those who are weak in spirit resulting from sickness, or poverty and
wretchedness, or sinfulness, or temptations, or tribulations, and afflictions,
or any other encumbrances should look steadfastly on Me, and all their problems
are solved. I do not speak in the future that their problems will be solved
but that all of them are being solved at this instant. All spirits
which do not give glory to God have been expelled from your bodies. This
warfare is not that of the flesh and blood. It is not a carnal warfare
but spiritual. The spirits of sickness, poverty and wretchedness which caused
you not to be rich in 1981, the spirit of fornication which had prevented you
from serving God, the spirit of pride, vain glory, pomposity and arrogance, the
spirit of death which has dominated the whole world, the spirit of hatred and
malice, have all been expelled from your bodies and minds. 1982, therefore has
brought to you peace, prosperity, joy, truth, love and all other virtues of
God.
I have
a firm belief that reading through the three texts, the words contained therein
will be firmly established in your minds and will form a guiding principle to
your life throughout 1982.
From
January to December, you will keep on reading these passages. As long as there
is life in you in season and out of season, every year, every month, every
week, everyday, every hour, minute and second you should focus your attention
on these passages and make them your watchwords.
Cause
Of Trouble In the World
Have
you not heard what is being read unto you, that you should not grieve the Holy
Spirit? Our Lord Jesus Christ had already released this to the whole world. A
great many people think that it is the curses and abuses pronounced on them by
their mothers which have contributed to their poverty, bad luck and other
problems. This cannot be true. Your trouble is that you have grieved the Holy
Spirit. It does seem to Me, and it is true, that God had set aside 1982 as a
year of redemption for every soul. This is so because since the first day of
this year up till today, the revelations of the Father, the messages of the
Father, the teachings of the Father and the work done by the Father are not
only marvelous but surprising even to Me. This is indicative of the fact that
God loves us more than we love ourselves. Each and every one of us should rid
himself of the work of darkness and move towards the light. If the Father had
not loved us, He would not have removed us from the work of darkness. He had built
a strong fence to enclose us in the Kingdom of God. Therefore, the
gospel of today is an iron fence which the Father has erected around you for
your maximum security. No evil spirit will ever come around you and this iron
fence will ward off all evils and encumbrances from you.
Our
Lord Jesus Christ has said whosoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit shall
not be forgiven in this generation and in the generation to come. (Matt
12:32). What particular lesson have you drawn from this statement?
Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit shall never be forgiven from
generation to generation. We should ponder a while over this concept of the
Holy Spirit. If you offend against your fellow human being, you will be
forgiven but if you offend against the Holy Spirit, there will be no
forgiveness for your generation after generation. Till today the whole world
does not understand this statement and even you, who profess to be in this
Kingdom, have no regard for this important statement.
It
Is Better To Obey God Than Man
Upon
all your complaints, have you searched yourself to find out if you did not
grieve the Holy Spirit in 1981? What about the generality of the whole world,
have they ever stopped for a moment to search themselves whether or not they
have grieved the Holy Spirit? When the kings and rulers of the world called
Peter and John and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the Name of
Our Lord Jesus Christ, what was the reaction of the Apostles? Before these
kings and rulers, they asked them to consider for themselves, "whether
it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto man more than unto God, judge
it yourself. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and
heard." (Acts 4:19-20)
To
grieve the Holy Spirit is to disobey the voice of God. You
grieve the Holy Spirit when you disobey the instructions of God, that explains
the reason why the wrath of God had been visited upon the sons of men on earth.
If someone complains that you do not exchange greetings with him or that when
he greets, you do not answer properly, do not argue with him but apologize to
him and tell him not to be angry. You may be fasting, during which you visit
somebody who, on seeing you, invites you to dine with him and you tell him you
cannot eat because you are fasting. If he insists and tells you if you do not
eat you do not love him, apologize to him and tell him not to be annoyed.
Sometimes, you may be invited to participate in a certain tradition concerning
your village or family. Even though they know that such an action contradicts
your belief they will still insist and will tell you if you do not participate,
you will not be a true son of the family or village and that you are not
dynamic and progressive. In spite of their pressure, you should not succumb, if
you do, you will grieve the Holy Spirit. If you walk according to the
dictates of the flesh, you have grieved the Holy Spirit. Whosoever
wants to live according to the promptings of the flesh grieves the Holy Spirit
because he is not prepared to listen to the instructions of God.
Now it
is the Holy Spirit who is ruling in heaven and on earth, He rules everywhere
because He is the Government in power, He is the Father, He is the Lord, He is
the Ruler of everything. It is therefore, incumbent, upon us to obey His voice
and comply with His instructions.
To
Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice (1 Sam 15:22)
To obey
the voice of a man and comply with his instruction is in effect respecting and
honouring a man, loving a man, trusting a man; and this in turn is worshipping
man.
If
you are prepared to put into practice all the words: teachings exhortations,
admonitions of the Almighty God then you are blessed with eternal life. You have to
lend your ears to His words and His instructions, doing only such things as He
likes and abstaining from such things as He forbids. And once you comply with
His instructions, you have no problems and difficulties. Take for instance, you
have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, certainly most of you have. You are aware of
the instruction of God that you should not fornicate. You have complied with
that instruction by refraining from fornication but because you are so
compassionate and sympathetic with your girl or boyfriend who always desires
carnal intimacy, you succumb and fornicate; not because it is your pleasure to
contravene the commandment of God but because you wish to please your girl or
boy-friend or that by your failure to be intimate with her or him, you will
lose her or him to another person. You should note that while you are trying to
please her, you have seriously grieved the Holy Spirit. Here lies the source of
your problems.
When
You Please Man You Displease God
Sometimes
you have observed what the big members of your family are doing to the utter
displeasure of God, things which do not give glory to God and which disobey the
commandments of God. Your family members all plead with you that they are aware
that God does not like the things they do, but for the preservation of the
family name and its upliftment and also to take away their reproach, you should
join hands with them in what they do. In spite of the fact that you know that
such things are evil and abominable before God, yet because you seek to please
them, you participate with them. By your action you have grieved the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes also, you really know that there is in existence nothing like
witch-craft, mermaid, phantom, charm, or talisman but members of your family
invite you and tell you, they are aware that you do not believe in these things
but they would like to find out certain things affecting the family by
consulting oracles, necromancers and soothsayers. They tell you even though you
do not believe, they who believe will consult the oracle but that you should
provide the funds. You then dip your hands into your pocket and give them
money, you have grieved the Holy Spirit and have set your house ablaze. You
are true witnesses to the fact that most of the things you do, and most of the
vices you commit do not derive from your desire or pleasure but because you
want to please human beings. The result will be that you will grieve the Holy
Spirit because you have not listened to the instructions of God. Similarly,
you know too well the instruction of God which states that you should neither
drink nor give drinks to any person. You do not drink at all but because of
your several commitments associated with your work, or with the contracts which
are to be awarded to you, or because many important personalities visit your
house always and you rather feel that there is the need to always keep drinks
nearby for the visitors. You then console yourself when you say God knows that
it is not your pleasure to give drinks to people but for the very reason of
keeping up your standard and since such action places you in good light before
people you give drinks to them in utter contravention of the commandment of
God. Once you do this, you have fallen short of the glory of God. The Father
knows that about 99% of the actions you take are not taken by you per se, but
they are taken in order to please others around us. Here lies our trouble. You
have been advised to go on ministry work everywhere, to be kind and generous
and benevolent. To distribute to the necessities of the poor and needy. Because
your wife has questioned you about a certain girl to whom you have been kind
and generous you feel you should not displease your wife for fear of any
palaver and so you refuse to do that which you ought to do. What is it that you
have done? Note that you have grieved the Holy Spirit. In the same token, women
who are prepared to serve God, with the present dearth of gospel workers and
practitioners, will be hindered from doing their work if perchance the
relations of their husbands complain that they are very free with men. For fear
of not losing husbands, they will withdraw from the service of God. To do this
is to grieve the Holy Spirit. You only wear the soutane when you come here on
Sunday. You find it difficult to put it on and walk about in the streets for
fear that people will look down on you and speak evil of you; and so since you
want to please them you refuse to put on your soutane. Notice that your action
tantamounts to grieving the Holy Spirit. You are a respecter of human beings.
Sometimes
the Father directs you to go and preach to someone but you feel that the person
hates and persecutes Brotherhood and if you go he will disgrace you. You
therefore, decide not to go thereby disobeying God. Your failure to preach to
the fellow, means that you have grieved the Holy Spirit. Sometimes you are
given a vision to go and make peace with the person you had quarreled with, but
you feel that you cannot reconcile with someone who has insulted your person by
being carnally intimate with your wife, that instead of reconciling with him,
you prefer to go into hellfire, and that you cannot honour that vision. By your
refusal to reconcile with him you grieve the Holy Spirit and also kick against
the pricks. Whosoever wants to do something to the pleasure and
recognition of many people must of necessity, displease God and grieve the Holy
Spirit.
Sometimes
you come across someone, may be a Brotherhood member, or your wife or your
brother or your son, who does not do something which gives glory to God. You
have heard the still small voice bidding you to speak to her to refrain from
such acts but you feel that if you do, it will spark trouble with your wife and
you say instead of being stone by your children, you refuse to speak to them.
By so doing, you grieve the Holy Spirit.
Always
Listen To The Spirit
We are
under the rule of the Holy Spirit. He is the Redeemer, He is the King and the
Lord and He is the Father, He rules in Heaven and on earth and in all the four
corners of the world. It is, there-fore, incumbent upon each and everyone of us
to listen to the voice of the Spirit and obey the instructions of God, failure
of which is disobedience. You have been instructed not to keep a mourning
house, not to weep and wail, not to perform any traditional rite and that when
somebody dies, you should bury him in accordance with the teaching of this New
Kingdom of God. But what obtains here is that when someone dies, you keep
mourning houses for a long period, you perform many traditional rites, you give
drinks and money to people and you indulge in many other irreligious actions
consoling yourself that you are giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. By
this singular act, you do not only set your house on fire but also grieve the
Holy Spirit. When Our Lord Jesus Christ washed the twelve disciples'
feet, (John 13:5-10), it was to symbolise their transfer from the earth to
heaven, separated from the world unto the holy and sanctified work of God. They
had no more connections with things mundane. What did Our Lord Jesus
Christ say when someone informed Him that His mother and His brethren were
standing outside desiring to speak with Him, while He was talking to His
disciples? He asked him: Who is my mother and who are my brethren? Then He
stretched forth His hands toward His disciples and said, behold my mother and my
brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of My Father who is in heaven the
same is my brother, and sister and mother. (Matt 12:46-50). But, so
long as you abandon your brothers and sisters here with you and associate
yourself with your relations who are thieves, fornicators, prostitutes, liars
and abominable men, it amounts to borrowing from Peter to pay to Paul. You
desert your brothers who are practicing the gospel of God, you do not help when
they are in want but give out all you have to the worldly people. You have
grieved the Holy Spirit.
Come
Out From Among Evil Doers And Be Separated
What
did St. Paul say? He said if any person who calls himself a brother be a
fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater or an extortioner, let it not be once
named among you. (Ephes 5:3). Do not keep company with
somebody who professes to be Brotherhood but you know that he is a rogue, a
fornicator, a prostitute, he indulges in charms and concoctions, he drinks and
is walking in an abominable way, but you attach yourself to him and when he
dupes or deceives you complain that it is for the sake of Brotherhood that you
are duped. Are you sure he has duped you because of Brotherhood? From
your actions, it appears to Me that you want to tempt God because you know too
well that a particular person is a thief or a swindler but you transact
business with him. Many people advise you against it but you say since he is a
Brotherhood and God knows him, nothing will happen to you; and God will not
allow anything to happen to you. Does the Father advise you to steal or does He
advise you to swindle or dupe any person? When such a brother makes away with
your belongings you complain that it is Brotherhood that is killing you, that
the Father says we should love every person, that every person should unite.
When you make such a statement, are you justified?
Do
Not Sue At Law Court. Resort To The Spiritual Council of Churches
You
will observe that the cause of most of our sufferings is the reason that we
have grieved the Holy Spirit. All your important matters and issues are
discussed with the worldly people who do not believe in God. They are rogues,
liars, harlots, murders, necromancers and soothsayers, and those who commit all
acts of sin. What benefit, do you think you will derive from them? If your wife
offends against you, you report her to unbelievers, if your husband offends
against you, you report him to unbelievers. Is that the proper place you should
report her or him? And is it what you are taught to do? And the Scripture asks:
Do you not know that you will judge the world and the angels? (1 Cor
6:3). And if the world shall judge the smallest matters, why can't you
resolve the small misunderstandings amongst yourselves and why should you
report yourself to unbelievers? You approach somebody with your friend and then
introduce your friend to him but complain that you brought drinks and he
refused to drink and that you have brought him for settlement, because the
purported judge is a drunkard. Like you, he will condemn the friend that his
action is anti-social and for that reason he has been fined six bottles of
drinks.
It may
happen on a fasting day that a sister has decided to kill the flesh, mortify
the body and keep herself holy but the husband will tell her she cannot behave
in that way in his house because the Holy Father has never said so and that he
would report her to her parents for her misbehavior. If you want to report her
to somebody why not to the Holy Father? The answer is that if you report your
sister to the Father for that particular matter you will be condemned. Because
you are carnal you always wish to go to carnal persons so that they may pervert
the judgment. Upon your forced justification do you not set fire into your
house and at the same time grieve the Holy Spirit? Why do you always go to
court and other worldly centres of settlement to make your complaints? You have
grieved the Holy Spirit. The Spiritual Council of Churches has been
established by the Father for settlement of all types of disputes but you
prefer the law courts. This you do because here settlement is based on the
truth but what you do has no iota of truth. Note that craftiness is not wisdom
and it causes you to lose what you already have. Very many of you remain in
Brotherhood for 10 to 20 years which period cannot afford you any good because
you are cunning. You are not prepared to comply with His instructions, but when
you are sick or when you have a case in the court you go into the Bethel to
receive prayers. You have never considered it necessary to plunge yourself
head-long into the service of God.
Do
Not Sow The Seeds Of Division
You are
advised not to drink, not to fornicate, not to be exasperated, not to hate any
person, not to tell lies or bear malice against any person but the actual
situation is that you still live with these vices. Has anyone who is pompous
and arrogant not grieved the Holy Spirit? Has any person with a divisive
tendency not grieved the Holy Spirit? Any person who commits any act of sin has
grieved the Holy Spirit. Today we have been told that we should not grieve the
Holy Spirit because He is the Ruler of the entire universe. He is the
Protector. He is the Counselor and the Doer of everything. Compare this with a
situation in the world where you are appointed to lead a group of people who
are expected to take orders from you, but they always disobey you. When you
tell them to stand up they sit down, and when you ask them to sit down they
rather stand up. How will you feel being at the lead? The scriptures advise
that you should obey them that have rule over you, and submit yourselves, for
they watch for your souls as they who must give account that they may do it
with joy and not with grief. (Heb 13:17). The Holy Spirit
has come to redeem us from the wrath of God which is to come. But if you do not
comply with His instructions and practice His words, you will surely grieve
Him. The Holy Spirit does everything for us. He instructs that you
should not quarrel but you are quarreling, He instructs that you should not
tell lies but you are indulging in falsehood, or any other vice; consoling
yourself that the Father is working. Has He ever instructed you to tell lies?
You are instructed not to find fault with others, and that you should love
every person as He has advised us. Your duty therefore, is to love one another.
He is the Doer of everything. If we do not drink and do not give drinks to
people, nor fornicate, nor indulge in concoction, nor tell lies, nor get
exasperated, nor hate and persecute others, it means that we are walking
according to the directive of the Spirit. Let us have our first lesson.
First
Bible Lesson: Ephesians 4:30
"And
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption."
Drugs
Defile The Body
A great
many of you were full of the Holy Spirit. But since the day you took bed in the
hospital and certain drugs were injected into your body (to the utter
defilement of your body), are you still feeling the power of the Holy Spirit?
Everything in your body is at a stand still. From day to day you go to
the hospital for surgical operation, or for "D & C" or for X-Ray
or for medical check-up, do you not grieve the Holy Spirit by your
action? Right now you bank your hope in the hospital, you run to the
hospital at the sign of the slightest ailment. Your action is grievous to the
Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus Christ unequivocally said: "these signs will
follow them who believe. In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak
with new tongues, they will take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing
it will not hurt them, they will lay hands on the sick and they will
recover." (Mark 16:17-18). Brethren, where is your port of
call, your dwelling place now? Have you ever stopped for a moment to ask
yourself why the signs have not followed you and why you visit the hospital? It
is simply that you have grieved the Holy Spirit. At present your entire hope is
in the holy oil, and vision, and X-Ray, and extraction of charms from the body
because you complain you have pains all over your body. But you have never
cared to ask what is happening. The reason for your pains is that you have
grieved the Holy Spirit. An adage says what is delicious in the mouth of a sick
person, that he will eat till he dies. Whosever commits sin is a slave to sin.
The
Wages Of Sin Is Death (Rom 6:23)
God
instructs that you should not be exasperated because anger will cause you
suffering. He instructs that you should not bear grudge against any person
because you will be visited with tribulation and affliction. You have been
advised not to take any type of drugs, nor to snuff or smoke because these
drugs defile the body and so cause untold suffering to the body unknown to you.
When
you indulge in these vices, sickness and suffering visit you and these in turn
induce you to visit the hospital for a medical check-up. Additionally, you
visit the necromancer and soothsayer because you feel God helps those who help
themselves and that your ailment is not such that can be cured by prayers. It
is true, your kind of sickness is no longer subject of cure by prayers.
Anger
Rests In The Bosom Of Fools (Eccl 7:9).
The
Scripture says if we would search ourselves, God would not judge us but when we
are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with
the world.(1 Cor 11:31-32). When you are angry, do you not know the
punishment which is commensurate with your anger? What has the Scripture told
you? It says: "whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgement, and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca,
shall be in danger of the Sanhedrin: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall
be in danger of hell fire." (Matt 5:22). If you are going to
the altar with your gift and on your way, you suddenly remember that you have
offended against your brother, or you grudge against him for the offense he
committed against you, leave the gift at the altar and go back to become
reconciled first with your brother before you go back to offer your gift.
Whenever you are exasperated with someone, you have grieved the Holy Spirit.
When you pronounce woe onto somebody, or call him Raca, do you not grieve the
Holy Spirit?
Now
that you find yourself in a situation where you quarrel with many persons, you
are at loggerheads with everybody. You are always at daggers drawn with members
of your family and you have been advised to go and be reconciled with them, but
you reject the advice and say only God will reconcile you, that the offense
they have committed against you is very grievous and that you cannot become
reconciled to them but that you will continue to worship the real God. Is it
not a sad situation to find somebody who calls himself a brother who bears
malice against another brother even in this Kingdom of God, you refuse to
exchange words with him, you do not even greet him or respond to his greetings.
It is not uncommon to find two brothers passing themselves without exchanging
greetings. They just pass by silently looking each to the other person's face.
God
Will Judge The Abominable
When
you speak disdainfully against your brother to the extend of assassinating his
character, have you not grieved the Holy Spirit? The advice that you should not
keep company with them does not imply that you should be irritated with him or
abuse or insult him, or hate him. Leave him alone to his own ways. Neither does
it imply that you should not be kind and benevolent to him or love him but it
says do not keep company with them, have no association or connection with
them. It is said that every brother who walks disorderly and not after the
tradition of the Kingdom, after advising him twice, and he persists, withdraw
from such a brother. Do not hate him, do not abuse and curse him, do not beat
him, that he may be a ashamed and find some useful thing to occupy him. But for
all those who walk in an abominable way God will judge them. Why do you seek to
advise a rogue not to steal again? He will slap you and drive you away. The
only safe way for you, is to leave him to himself; for God will surely judge
him. If you place a fornicator in a position of responsibility, do you not
consider that he will perpetrate all sorts of evils? If you want to advise him
to refrain from fornication he will quarrel with you, and ask you if you are
not a fornicator. He will cause commotion. The Word of God says: "if any
man is overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, should restore such a
person in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself also, lest you also be
tempted." (Gal 6:1). This is like trying to catch a mentally
deranged fellow by the use of force with incriminating weapon, machetes, guns,
staves in order to compel him to submission. He will also make use of the
weapons at his disposal to fight and tear you to pieces. But should you use
love, meekness and kind words, you will be able to win him easily. You do not
realize that, while in his attempt to fight you, you apply your own weapon on
him, he may be wounded and a criminal case will be preferred against you.
What
You Speak Should Minister Grace To Hearers
You
will remember that when Peter cut off the ear of the servant of the High
Priest, Our Lord Jesus Christ ordered him to put his sword into its place; for
whosoever takes up the sword must die by the sword. He then bent down and took
the part of the ear which was cut off and put it in its place. (Matt
26:51-52/Luke 22:51). Can this not serve as an example for you to
follow? And God has advised that when you have any business with the people of
the world, you should be very careful in handling them, and your conversation
with them should be with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how you
should answer every person otherwise, they howl at you and tear you into
pieces.
What
is referred to as the flesh is a situation in which you go to somebody who
offends against you, and tell him you are no respecter of persons; and that you
do not fear any person; and that you understand that he is a thief. You have
disgraced him and until he dies he will never forget that disgrace. What you
speak to him is not the Word of God. He can sue you before the Court for
defamation of character. You should always speak to an evil doer in
parables, if you speak positively to him, he will immediately rise up and fight
you and God will not support you in your action. This is so because
thieves and other criminals are always watching and ready to react against
whatever you do to them. He is always well blasted with his weapons to fight.
If you look at him he will ask you why you are looking at him, whether it is
because people regard him as a thief. You are aware that from the beginning
satan has never done any good thing. He has been an evil doer, a criminal from
his birth and he has no ability to do what is good.
Resist
Not An EviL Doer (Matt 5:39)
The
only weapon which you can employ to live comfortably with satan is love. When
you abandon love you have not only failed but have grieved the Holy
Spirit. If a fornicator goes to live with somebody who does not find
such a place very conducive to his practice, even if you cook delicious dishes
for him everyday, give him clothes, and money, he will not be happy to stay
under such an atmosphere where he has no opportunity to fornicate, he will run
away from the place. When a quarrelsome person comes to your house with all his
tactics to induce you to quarrel, and if you do not quarrel with him, he will
pack his things and run away, and will refer to all members of your house as
evil persons. This explains why Our Lord Jesus Christ advises that we should
not resist an evil doer. Whenever you resist an evil doer, you grieve the Holy
Spirit because you have not complied with the instructions of God. We should
listen to the voice of the Spirit and walk according to the instructions of Our
Lord Jesus Christ as enumerated in the Holy Scriptures from Genesis to
Revelations of John the Divine, so that it be well with us. This is why,
whenever you come to see the Father, He looks at you and X-Rays you from head
to toe. Then knowing exactly what is in you, He asks you to open to several
portions of the Bible.
Sin
No More Lest Worst Things Happen To you
When
you come home, I will not say you are a thief, or a fornicator, or a liar, but
when you read through the passages you will contemplate within your heart how I
manage to know what you do. As you read the passages you will actually know
that the words are for you but I do not call you a thief or prostitute. Is it
not the same thing which happened when the Jews summoned the woman taken in
adultery before Our Lord Jesus Christ to tempt Him? On arrival they told Our Lord
Jesus Christ that Moses has provided in his laws that a woman such as the one
they took to him, who commits adultery should be stoned, and they asked Our
Lord's opinion about that provision. If Our Lord Jesus Christ had ordered that
she should be discharged, He could have been killed at the instant because He
would have been accused of contravening the law of Moses. Conversely, if He had
advised that she should be killed according to the Mosaic Law, it would have
generated into the talk of the town, the order of the day. They would have
implied that it was Our Lord Jesus who advised that the woman be killed. If He
had said that, He would have committed a very grievous sin even though He had
to be crucified on the cross, His Blood would not have availed anything. For
God says you should not kill (Ex 20:13), and as a Son of God
if you order the killing of any person, you would grieve the Holy Spirit. What
did Our Lord Jesus Christ do at that instance? He stooped down and started
writing the names of the people, who accused the woman, on the ground. Beside
each of the names He indicated the sins they have all committed. He did not
mention any person's name. When they continued to ask Him,
He
lifted up his head and told them, He who is without sin among you, let him
first take a stone and cast at the woman. When they heard that, and as they
looked at their names and the crimes they had committed, they were convicted by
their own consciences and so went out one by one beginning from the eldest to
the least. (John 8:4-9). Throughout the whole episode, Our
Lord Jesus Christ did not make mention of any person. Our second lesson will
now be read.
Second
Bible Lesson: 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21
"Despise
not prophesyings. Prove all things: hold fast that which is good."
Your
Speech Should Be With Grace Seasoned With Salt
Brethren,
have you heard what is read unto you? Any person who believes in God and has
implicit faith in Him is quite free to speak to Him at anytime on any subject,
but any person who neither believes in God nor trusts in Him is not free to
speak to Him. Whosoever does not believe in God is not only dangerous but
dubious and suspicious. He will always watch, observe and listen to you. He
will also look at your countenance and give interpretation to any expression of
your face. If you cough, he will interpret it to mean your cajoling him. If you
laugh, he will complain that you laugh at him. Whatever you do will be
misinterpreted by him. From the day you openly told him to go away with his
foolishness, he will not forget it till he dies. He will not forgive you. Do
what you may to him, he will neither forget about your statement nor appreciate
what you have done to him. Now that you complain that you have not offended
against him, but he hates you, can you remember when you addressed him as a
foolish person? This statement has driven cold blood into his vein; and so do
what you may to him, buy a car, build a house, buy an airplane or steamer for
him, he will not forget your statement. You have been advised to abstain from
all appearance of evil; from calling any person Raca, to speaking disdainfully
against any person. If you see somebody drinking wine and you advise him before
others that he should not drink again, he will be so enraged that he will begin
to abuse you whether your father or your mother does not drink and whether he
is the only person who drinks. He will regard your statement as a disgrace to
him.
Always
Approach People With Love and Humility
When,
in your pomposity and arrogance, you approach somebody and tell him you are
fearless of any person, when he does anything you tell him to his face, do you
think that by so doing you are serving God? You are not; but you are causing
confusion and trouble. God has
advised
that you should employ love in dealing with people and that you should love
every person. Has He advised you to disgrace any person, or to curse and abuse
him, or to beat him up or to bear malice against him? He says you should love
him. What else can you do? It is only the Father who can change and
reform a man. You lack that ability, but you have to love every person.
If a
person who is a thief lives in your house, when he steals do not judge, do not
complain but be good and truthful to him. God knows that he is a thief; you
know he is a thief and he himself knows that he is a thief. Just leave him
alone. God will change him in due season; but be kindly affectionate to him.
The only precaution is that you have to be mindful of sinful men, take caution
in what you do and say to a flippant person, to a thief, and to a fornicator.
Know what to say to a prostitute. Be very cautious with any human being. Not
long ago somebody came into the Bible Class with all sorts of charms around his
neck, he carried other charms, concoctions, talisman and ring. Since I have no
regard for such use-less things, (I do not even know or recognize them), I did
not comment on it, but continued to impart the lesson and the man was sitting
in there. However, since then he has not put up any other appearance in the Bible
Class. If he was beaten up and driven out of the House of God, he would have
gone away to make adverse reports against Brotherhood, he would have even
alleged that his money was taken away from him, what defense would you have
made? You would not have been able to exonerate yourself from the charges.
Abstain
From An Appearance of Evil
You are
aware that sins have multiplied and that evildoers have doubled the number of
the righteous ones, and so whenever anything is alleged against you, the evil
ones will always rise up and stamp their feet on the ground in affirmation of
their allegation and will even mob you and condemn you while you try to defend
yourself. Is it the thing of God to implicate yourself amongst the evil doers?
Have you ever seen a godly person taken for judgment before the worldly men?
Who is justified? He will never be justified till doomsday. But, no matter what
the evil men do since they are judged by persons of the same plumage, they will
always be justified. You are warned to abstain from all appearances of evil.
You know that a person is a necromancer, a drunkard, an evildoer and you invite
him to a divine function or celebration. What is he coming to do there? Is he
coming to cause confusion and commotion, if such happens who is to blame? When
you are invited by unbelievers to their function, because they are prostitutes,
thieves, fornicators, snuffers, drunkards, abominable men, and necromancers, do
you actually know where they will take you to? God really knows what happens
when a man of God comes in contact with unbelievers. That was why he advised
Solomon not to fall in love with the woman from the province of the strange
country. (1 Kings 11:1-2). God knows what would happen between
her and Solomon but Solomon did not know it. It was because he grieved the Holy
Spirit and the Almighty God, that his kingdom fell. He erected a building for
God quite alright but he not only erected a temple where mermaid or fetish was
worshipped, but also knelt down to worship the fetish. Do you think God was
pleased with his actions?
We
Ought To Please God Rather Than Man (Acts 4:19)
You may
have a function to which you invite unbelievers and the children of God, and
because you want to please the worldly people, you buy drinks, cigarettes,
snuff and encourage the pouring of libation and the observance of certain
traditional rites. When they come, you keep them in one part of your compound.
It is your intention to give to each group what they like so that you maintain
your position as a gentleman. Have you not grieved the Holy Spirit by your
action? This is exactly what goes on in Brotherhood. When you want to bless
your marriage, you extend invitation to men of various stations in life. After
the divine and solemn blessing by the Father, you arrange reception for the
various sets of persons. You take the worldly men to a hotel and entertain them
with drinks and disco dances. Is it what you are taught in this kingdom? Who
has imparted such a lesson to you? You are, by your actions, blame-worthy even
by outsiders, and you have also grieved the Holy Spirit. Conversely, if you
invite them but do not give them drinks, or cigarettes or snuff, they will
think you are a mentally deranged fellow.
Of a
truth it is good for one to please God.
You
should not have invited them at all. Whatever you have to celebrate, you should
not invite them but only the children of God. Whether at funerals or at
other functions and celebrations, are the children of God not capable of
containing the situations? Is there any portion of the Scriptures which lends
support to your having association with the worldly persons? The various
passages which advise against your having association with the worldly men are
at my finger tips. You have left the world. You should not associate
with them. Separate yourself from them, but you should not hate them. When
in the previous advent, Our Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, have you read
somewhere that He had connections with the people of the world? The Bible has
borne eloquent testimony to the fact that He did not commit Himself unto any
person because He knew all men. To fail to commit yourself to or to
have connection with any person has nothing to do with love, truth, humility.
What happens is that when you commit yourself and separate yourself unto God,
you will be capable of serving Him properly, and God will be pleased with your
actions.
Commit
Yourself To God Not To Man
All
that you read from Genesis to Malachi are prophecies. You should not despise
these words of God, and prophesying. Do not disregard any of the prophecies.
All are the words of God. They were written by the inspiration of God;
and whatsoever is inspired of God is prophecy. That was
why, when Our Lord Jesus read these Books, the Laws and the Prophets He said,
"Today these prophecies will be fulfilled in your ears." (Luke
4:21). He did not therefore despise the prophesying. He complied
strictly with the instructions contained in the Books, and did everything
accordingly in obedience to the Words of God. If somebody misleads you to
believing that Our Lord Jesus Christ committed Himself to the worldly people,
you should quote a passage of the Scriptures which lends support to that
statement. When people claim that Our Lord Jesus Christ is a friend to sinners,
you will also quote your authority. Because He was never exasperated. He never
stole, and never committed fornication, nor did He abuse any person nor judge
any person. Any person who commits sin is an evildoer. Even among the twelve
disciples, only three of them were admitted into His inner circle. Even then He
did not rely much on them. Whatever happened to Him, He did not confide in any
of them. He did not trust any of them, nor did He commit Himself to any of them
apart from the Father alone. Remember an instance, when Our Lord Jesus Christ
told the disciples how He would go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the
elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the
third day. And Peter rebuked Him saying, "Far be it from you Lord, this
will not happen to you". But He turned and said to him, "Get you
behind Me, satan, you are an offense to Me, for you think not of Spiritual
things but of the flesh". (Matt 16:23).
If Our
Lord Jesus Christ had relied and accepted the advice by Peter, He would not
have been able to fulfill the purpose for which He came into the world. Search
all passages of the Scriptures, you will discover that Our Lord Jesus Christ
did not commit Himself to any person neither did He trust any man apart from
the Almighty God. Love all men but; do not trust any man. To
trust in a man is to obey and comply with the instruction of man. Our Golden
text will now be read.
Golden
Text: Galatians 5:25-26
"If
we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous
of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another."
Walk
In The Spirit And You Will Not Satisfy Carnal Lusts
Brethren,
do you hear what is read unto you? It is said, if we profess to live in the
Spirit, we should walk in the Spirit. If we profess to be the children of God,
we should practice His Words, doing only those things which He commands us to
do and abstaining from these things which he forbids us to do. You should not
be proud, pompous and arrogant. You should not be envious and jealous, you should
not be exasperated against anyone. If you are irritated against anyone, is that
an indication of walking in the Spirit? If you are proud and arrogant, can you
profess you walk in the Spirit? If there are envying, quarreling, petty
jealousies and disputes, is the Spirit of God present in such an atmosphere?
As I
have already told you, the Spirit is life. It is peace, it is truth, and such
traits have no tendency to pride and arrogance, or to exasperation or to envy.
If you discover that you have lost ten naira after the departure of your
visitor, you either send a messenger or approach him yourself and ask him if he
had seen a ten naira when he came to your house. Will that action indicate that
you are walking in the Spirit? If a man is in a state of financial difficulty
and he approaches you for an assistance for a small sum of money, but you tell
him that you are sorry that you have no money nearby even though you have
thousands in your house, can you walk in the Spirit?
Love
Your Enemies
Sometimes
you complain that you are not aware of any offense you have committed against
somebody who hates you bitterly. Can you deny offending against Me? When the
other day the person asked for a help of ten naira but you told him you have no
money though you are counting in thousands, and your fleet of cars are around
and tomorrow you would undertake a project costing so many thousands of naira,
yet you try to defend yourself as a brother. Compare that with a situation in
which someone is in financial difficulty and you
do not
even give him the opportunity to ask for help but you give him some money to
help himself and tell him to pay back only when he can afford it, but he
forgets about the whole transaction. Anytime you see him, you ask him:
"brother how are things?" He will pay deaf ears to your question and
will go his own way. Why then should you send messages to him that you are
exhausted of your patience and that if he fails to defray that debt you will
have no alternative than summoning him at a place where he would not be
comfortable, by such an action, are you walking in the Spirit? Furthermore, if
you resort to threatening him, whenever you see him you curse him that God
should punish him for not refunding your money, you also report him to every
person you come across that he has not defrayed his debt can you claim to be
walking in the Spirit? If you profess to live in the Spirit, why do you not
walk in the Spirit? Most of you are sometimes kind and benevolent to a person,
you accommodate him in your house and maintain him. But after sometime, because
of annoyance, you become angry with him and abuse him and even drive him out of
your house. I ask you when you do this, are you walking in the Spirit?
Judas
Iscariot was gallivanting and loitering about in the streets when Our Lord
Jesus Christ picked him as one of His disciples. However, he went into the
midst of the disciples, and fortunately or unfortunately, he was appointed a
treasurer. Do not forget the passages of the Bible when Our Lord Jesus Christ
says all those sent to Me by the Father will follow Me and all those who follow
Me, I shall in no wise cast out. (John 6:37) Who has taught
you to evict somebody, whether he is a rogue, a swindler, and extortioner, a
robber and an ardent evil doer? Was Judas driven away by Our Lord Jesus Christ?
Even
that night during the Last Supper Our Lord Jesus Christ openly told his
disciples one of you will surely betray Me. Does it mean that He did not know
who would betray Him or was He feeling shy to mention the name of Judas? He
knew him yet He did not mention his name but rather declared that one of them
would betray Him. And so the disciples, one after the other asked Our Lord
Jesus Christ saying, "Lord is it I?" (Matt 26:22). He
answered in the negative but when Judas Iscariot asked the same question, He
said, "yes you are the person". Do you know the reaction of Judas at
that point in time? Realizing that, Our Lord Jesus Christ was aware of his plot
to betray Him to the Jews he immediately withdrew the action. God can make and
unmake. If Judas Iscariot had not betrayed Our Lord Jesus Christ, what would
have saved us? Would Our Lord Jesus Christ have been the One? And would the
Word of God have been fulfilled? What did Our Lord Jesus Christ do thereafter?
He dipped a piece in the cup and gave to him and as soon as he took and ate the
bread the action of withdrawing his betrayal of Our Lord Jesus Christ
disappeared from his mind. That was why Our Lord Jesus Christ told him saying,
"Judas whatever you have to do, do it quickly". When Judas was told
to put his plan into action quickly, the disciples thought He meant that Judas
should go and buy food quickly. But Our Lord Jesus Christ knew that he would
betray Him.
If
Judas Iscariot had withdrawn from carrying out his plot of betraying Him, Our
Lord Jesus Christ would not have fulfilled His assignment of shedding the Blood
and the Word of God which says whoever eats your food will kick against you.
All would have been made void, and He would not have been the Christ. The ways
of God are deep and mysterious.
Forgive
Others And God Will Forgive You
Sometimes
a thief may come into your house, and you know him from the expression of his
face to be a thief, a swindler, a murderer but you allow him to remain in your
house. You have to eat with him and bear with him, otherwise, you are not
walking in the Spirit.
God
knows each and everyone of us, whatever you may be, a thief, a fornicator, a
prostitute, a liar, God knows you all. But sometimes in your ignorance you say
God is stupid for allowing certain things to happen because if He were wise
such a thing would not have occurred.
Rather
you are foolish and not God. If we profess to live in the Spirit, we should use
the power of God to walk in the Spirit. We should be slow to speak, slow to
wrath (James 1:19), and we should surrender everything to God
but continue to practice loving one another. Do you consider that when you
nurse evil thoughts that God does not know or that when you commit any vice, He
has not seen you? Even after committing any evil He is still kind to you. He
does to you even those things you never expected God would do for you. And then
in your ignorance you contemplate within your mind that if God had known what
vices you have committed He would not have bestowed such blessings unto you. He
knows, but He has no association with anything sinful, but it is His duty to
bestow His blessings upon his own children. He loves you. We hate God more than
we hate ourselves.
We have
insulted Him more than our fellow human being. We have used him in the most
disrespectful way and we have not stopped at committing any evil against God.
Upon all your discourtesies to Him, your actions against God and the sacrilege
you commit, has He ever told you to stop talking to Him? Has he ever reacted
against your misuse of Him? Even where you do not take cognizance of His
existence, He does not react because He is in the Spirit. He has instructed you
not to steal, not to tell lies, not to indulge in charms and concoctions and
other evils. To which of these have you complied, and from which of them have
you refrained?
Do
Not Impute Sin On Anyone
And yet
He still gives you food, money, children and answers your prayers speedily.
This explains why you refer to Him as sumptuous Jehovah. Do you really know
what is referred to as very good? If you have a wife and she is contracting
illegal carnal intimacy with another man and you do not even budge, you pretend
as if you do not know anything about it, your wife will refer to you as a very
good man because despite what she has been committing against you, you still
give her money for clothes, food, etc. Indeed, you are a very good man.
Similarly, if you have a wife but you are always running after women outside
your matrimonial home, or take home other women and commit adultery with them,
and in spite of your waywardness, she does not complain or quarrel with you or
cause trouble in the house, but continues to prepare your food and keep the
house, you conclude that she is a very good woman and that you have never seen
her like and, for that, she is your mother.
What
the worldly people refer to as good man, and those regarded by God as good, are
those persons who always endure all situations in their lives, those who endure
evil doings. No matter what you do, he does not bother himself, he will not
even ask questions for offenses committed against him and people will conclude
that such persons are very good. That is why Our Lord Jesus Christ told Simon a
parable that a certain creditor had two debtors, one owed him fifty naira and
the other ten naira and when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them
both and so asked which of the two debtors would love him most? And he answered
and said, I suppose he to whom he forgave most, and Our Lord Jesus Christ told
him you have rightly judged. (Luke 7:40-43). Do you realize
that any person, who does not impute sins on you in spite of the fact that you
have committed all sorts of vices and he imputes no sin, is the one who loves
you most and he it is that you will regard as good. This is the characteristic
feature of Our Lord Jesus Christ which endeared him to people and induced them
to seek after Him since He never bothered about what sins they committed.
Fervent
Love Casts Away Fear
Let Me
tell you that no matter what you do for your wife, buy a car or a ship for her,
build a stone building for her and do all other material things for her but any
day you rebuke or admonish her for committing any vice, she will be very
infuriated with you and will pass you for a very bad man who does not want her
to be at peace. In the same token a man may do what he likes in the house but
any day the wife tells him she does not like his going out at odd hours, he
will be exasperated with her and will warn her to stop her insolence.
The
implication of the injunction that we should love one another as God loves us
is to forgive one another, without reckoning any sin for any person and to
endure all evildoers. You may quarter somebody in your house free of charge, feed him,
buy a car for him and look after him but if you rebuke him for going out often,
he will be very cross and will plan his exit, and one day you will be surprised
to come back and will not find him in the house. He will pack away from your
house in spite of your generosity but because you have rebuked him, he has to
go away. Our Lord Jesus Christ has enjoined that we should forgive one another
as He has forgiven us. Why have you not accepted this injunction? Because this
is the only factor that can unite us, that is, if we no longer impute sins on
people. I do not impute on you and you do not impute on me; we continue to love
each other, that is the order in this new world.
Do you
consider that God does not see a thief when he goes to steal? Sometimes he goes
to steal and his ear is chopped off.
When he
goes back, he will not think again of going to steal. Even if you advise him to
go and steal he will tell you that roguery is not a good occupation because he
is fully aware of the repercussion of stealing. Do you feel that a person who
does not fear God can fear a human being?
No
Suspension From The Kingdom Of God
I want
to tell you that whosoever is an evil doer is neither afraid of the government
nor police, nor the president, nor the governor, he does not even fear God. Leave
such a person in the hands of God, only God can change such a person. If you go
to reprimand him, it means you have voluntarily given up yourself to him and he
can deal with you as he likes. That is why we have been advised not to be
proud, pompous and arrogant, not to grieve one another, not be jealous of each
other. Leave such a person to his own way, and practice what God has enjoined
you to do, i.e. love one another. Do not be exasperated with any man neither
should you commit any offense against any person.
Are you
not surprised that no person is suspended from
Brotherhood
of the Cross and Star, none is excommunicated or disfellowshipped? None is
reprimanded yet there is no problem, only the Father reforms. The order is that
we should love one another, and do not impute sin on any person, this is the
greatest of all the commandments. A spiritual chorus says, clear the forest and
God will set the fire. Why not clear the bush and allow God to set the
fire? Go and practice what God has advised, that we should love one
another, we should not impute sin on any person, and that we resist not the
evil doer. We should not tell lies and get annoyed if God will not do whatever
is remaining. Even though you build a house and buy a car for someone but
as long as you continue to pronounce woe on him and disgrace him and grow
exasperated with him, it means you have no love. If you give one thousand naira
to somebody gratis but you report him to every person you see to an extent of
his being sued before the law courts where he is fined one thousand naira, what
good have you done for him? If somebody offends you and you do not backbite
against him nor report him to others and become exasperated, you have retained
his good name and it means that you love him and stand well before God.From
that day Our Lord Jesus Christ shed His precious blood when He said: "it
is finished," (John 19:30), it symbolises that God imputes no sin on any
person.
He
forgives us. In the same token we should no longer impute sins on people. That
was why when Peter asked Him how many times will my brother offend against me
and I forgive him? Is it seven times?
Our
Lord Jesus Christ told him, "not seven times but seventy times seven
times." (Matt 18:22). This means that you should not impute
sins on any person. That is the commandment of this New Kingdom of God;
you have to love one another always.
That is
the basis of the freedom and the liberty you find in this Kingdom. If any
person pronounces woe on you or calls you various names, no person listens to
him, no person is angry about it. Instead he will be loved and ministered unto.
But
this is not an indication that a man will not reap what he sows. If you do good
you receive good reward. But if you do bad you receive bad reward also. We
should, therefore, surrender everything into the hands of the Father; but
rather practice His Words and comply with His commandment.
Brethren,
I do not intend to be tedious unto you, one stroke of the cane is sufficient
for the wise, let those who have ears hear. May God bless His Words.
Amen!
REFERENCE: Everlasting
Gospel By The Sole Spiritual Head
Of
The Universe, LEADER OLUMBA OLUMBA OBU on:- NEVER
YOU GRIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. From:-FROM CROSS TO STAR - THE
GLORIFICATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT- Volume One Pages: 16-58.
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