Luke
12:10
"And
whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him:
but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be
forgiven."
Brethren,
today I want to deliver a lecture to you on the Abuse of the Holy Spirit, and
the repercussion consequent upon such abuse. If you were to obey the Holy
Spirit, then no person would have had any problems. Your greatest
problem in life arises from your disobedience and insubordination to the
directives of the Holy Spirit.
On
several occasions, you have been directed, even from birth, on what you should
do. You are aware of your divinely assigned duties in the service of God, but
you have persistently disobeyed the Voice of the Holy Spirit. Your problems,
your ill health, your afflictions and tribulations, your worries and
difficulties are neither attributable to apparition, nor mermaid, nor witchcraft,
nor any diabolical means, but to your refusal to comply with the instructions
of the Holy Spirit.
You
Have Refused The Will Of The Holy Spirit
The
children of God are everywhere in the world, and as a child of God, you have
specifically been directed by the Holy Spirit to come out from the world,
forsake the earthly things and serve God, but you have persistently refused.
This has been the crux of your trouble. Having been deliberately recalcitrant
to the directives of the Holy Spirit, tell Me how you can have peace in this
life or in the life to come, either in this generation or in the generations to
come. As long as you do not listen to and obey the Holy Spirit, you cannot have
peace nor can your life be worth living. If you disobey the Holy Spirit how
will you please Him?
Matthew
9:28
"And
when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith
unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord."
Whenever
you are in the confines of the Kingdom or in the world but refuse to listen to
the Holy Spirit, your problems became compounded. The reason, you find people
in prisons, in psychiatric homes, hospitals, prayer houses, receiving treatment
with necromancers and consulting oracles is that they are disobedient to the
Holy Spirit.
A few
years ago the Holy Spirit sent a message to the President of the United States
of America, and he refused to comply, and the Nixon Watergate scandal is still
fresh in your mind. In 1979, the Holy Spirit again sent a message to General
Ignatius Achampong, the Head of State of Ghana. He was directed by the Holy
Spirit to do certain things, and also to see the Father in Calabar. He refused
to comply with the instruction of the Holy Spirit. Even though he was no longer
the Head of State when Rawlings staged a coup which ousted the Military Head of
State, Achampong was assassinated along with the former Head of State. That was
punishment for his disobedience. Further, the Holy Spirit sent a message to the
Liberian President and Head of State, William Tolbert, but he also disobeyed
the Holy Spirit and did not comply with the provisions of the message. He was
ousted in a coup d'etat staged by the army under Sergeant, now General, Samuel
Doe, in which he also was assassinated.
During
the same period also the Holy Spirit sent a message to Alhaji Ahmadu Adhijo the
President, and Head of State of the Cameroons. As a moslem and one who believes
in idolatry, he did not accept the message. The resulting effect of that
refusal was the many problems which he could not grapple with and which were
instrumental to his abrupt resignation. These are living testimonies, from
which we have to learn and take stock of our lives. We should learn from the
mistakes of others, and remold our lives.
In
Nigeria, several messages have been sent on several occasions to the Head of
State as well as to the State Governors, since after the civil war and even at
the attainment of Independence in 1960, but none of them had thought it
expedient to carry out the message and you are aware of the turbulent periods
of history in Nigeria since 1963. There have been four coup d'etats in two
decades and two which took lives of two Heads of State. Apart from killing, intertribal
wars, internal squabbles, gross disrespect to constituted authority, highway
robbery, there have been moral bankruptcy, unstable successive governments,
economic recession, and general poverty styled "austerity." There is
everywhere a sign and feeling of unrest. Examine the situations throughout the
world. There is no peace. Whatever happens in the world, therefore, is
the result of disobedience to the Holy Spirit. The inhabitants of the
world have rejected the Holy Spirit, and you, who were elected out from the
world by God unto Himself, have also rejected Him. Do you know it is better to
obey God rather than man?
Acts
4:18-19
"And
they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name
of Jesus.
But
Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of
God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye."
Your
fall is that you listen and obey the voice of men rather than that of God.
Whatever your problems are, they are attributable to your disobedience to, and
lack of belief in God, but you rather obey man and believe in Him.
At
Etinan, God sent a certain lady to deliver a message to a certain pregnant
woman, what she should do for a safe and smooth labour and delivery. The lady
refused to carry out the message. The consequence of the disobedience was
disaster for the two ladies. The lady who refused to deliver the message became
lame and the pregnant woman delivered a stillborn child. Many visioners
complain that they have no money, husband or wife, they only suffer because of
their disobedience to the Holy Spirit. Take note that this message
comes from high heavens unto you, and you have to rearrange your thinking
because your problems arise from your disobedience to the Holy Spirit. But
when you obey Him you have no problems.
Matthew
12:31-32
"Wherefore
I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but
the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
And
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but
whosoever speaketh against the Holy
Ghost,
it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to
come."
There
is one thing you have not understood. If you quarrel with somebody in Calabar,
and after sometime you leave for Lagos, the man will not see you again and it
will mean that you have escaped from him. In the same token, you can have
conflict with the Government of Nigeria, but while the Government is processing
your prosecution, you escape to the Cameroons, since the Government of Nigeria
does not see you and since you have escaped, the government will stay action on
your prosecution. But with God the situation is quite different. If you oppose
God, He will pursue you to the matter's absolute conclusion within this world,
in this generation and in any other generations. You blaspheme against God and
refuse to serve Him because you complain that He has not yet done certain
things for you. This is erroneous.
It
seems that you have so soon forgotten what befell Jonah when he disobeyed the
Holy Spirit, the ship in storms, his being eventually thrown overboard, the
whale which swallowed him up for three days and three nights and being
deposited on the bank of Nineveh. (Jonah 1:17) Remember also
what befell Nebuchadnezzar when he disobeyed the Voice of God. (Dan
4:31-37) Do not forget also what happened to King Herod, (Acts
12:23), and Pharaoh (Ex 14:17) as a result of
disobedience to God's instructions. Remember also what happened to Zacharias
when Angel Gabriel told him that his wife Elizabeth would be conceived and
would bear him a son and would call his name John. (Luke 1:13-20) He
started quarreling with the angel asking him how such a thing could happen
seeing that he was an old man, and his wife-well stricken in years. For his
stubbornness and insubordination he was stricken and he could not speak until
the day John was born.
Have
you seen what is happening in Nigeria or in Africa or in the whole world? If
you go to deliver to any person a message from the Holy Spirit, he will drive
you out that he himself belongs to a church denomination. From now on, whatever
the Holy Spirit reveals to you, obey it promptly so that you obtain peace not
only for yourself but for the whole world. Do not listen to the advice of your
wife or husband or any other persons who try to hinder you from serving God. Do
not listen to your friend or master or teacher or father or mother who attempts
to stop you from serving God. Do not consult an oracle or a soothsayer. Do not
go to the hospital or to the necromancer, whatever is your problem, go back
home, search yourself diligently, you will discover that you have disobeyed the
Holy Spirit which directs you to go to serve God. After you have discovered
this snag, be born again and go forth to serve God in order to obtain peace for
your soul. Take note that in God's case there is no appeal, His judgement is
final.
Illustration
I want
to use an earthly situation to illustrate an heavenly situation for you. Once
upon a time, there was a certain widow who had four children, two male and two
female. It was the will of God that her husband should die to afford her the
opportunity of serving Him. If the husband were alive, he would not have
allowed her to serve in the temple of God. What happens to you now? You so
stick yourself to your wife or husband or children that you fail to serve God,
and at the end you perish.
Matthew
13:40-43
"As
therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the
end of this world.
The Son
of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom
all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
And
shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of
teeth.
Then
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who
hath ears to hear, let him hear."
Whoever
prevents the children of God from serving their Father, will be destroyed, and
all his ways will be closed. If it is the government that prevents you from
serving Him, God will cause confusion, reshuffle the ministries and cause you
to lose your job. If it is the husband that prevents the wife from serving, the
Father will remove the husband to afford the wife the opportunity of serving
God. If the wife wants to hinder her husband in the service of God, then the
Father will either remove her or call a halt to the marriage. If it is a mother
who prevents her children from serving God, He will remove your mother in order
to allow you the free hand of serving Him.Whatever stands in the way of any
person who decides to serve his God, whether it is government, or church, or
village, or relations or society, will be completely eliminated.
To
continue with our story, the Voice of God reached this widow, that she should
forsake all worldly things and serve Him. She argued, as you would argue today,
that the children, left for her by the late husband, have to be trained,
brought up and maintained. She pleaded that she be given time to educate her
children first and then prepare them for life before going to serve God. Since
the Father had given her the instruction, He was not perturbed by her flimsy
argument.
After
sometime, God again directed her to abandon what she was doing in order to
serve Him. God told her that what she was doing was not the assignment God had
kept for her, and that she was wasting her time educating her children. She
again complained bitterly and argued that she be engaged in contract work in
order to be able to educate her children. She pleaded that she would serve God
after educating her children.
God
appeared to her the third time and told her that she was sent to the world to
serve God, and that she should forsake all that she was engaging in, because
they would not benefit her in any way. But she again pleaded that she be
permitted to educate her children until they graduated, and take up employment,
and marry and build a house for themselves. Only then could she serve God.
After the third warning, God quietly left her and did not talk to her again. The
moral of this anecdote, is to convey to you, what it is to disobey the Will of
God. The ways of God are very mysterious and incomprehensible, that is why I do
not toy with the Voice of God. When you toy with the Voice of God, you suffer.
At the
end, all her four children graduated with degrees. They got lucrative
employment. The two boys married and two girls were also married. A great many
people regarded the woman as a very intelligent and wise woman having educated
her children to that high level. She then embarked upon building a family house
to accommodate all her children, their husbands and wives. Both the mother and
her children, their husbands and wives continued to work and lived in the
family house. Very soon the house was converted into a brothel and hotel and
the woman was at the height of her enjoyment in life. She was very popular with
the presidents, governors, lawyers, and millionaires. She started attending
ballroom dances and clubs. She was now given to licentiousness, voluptuousness
and sensuous snares. God was laughing at her.
The
Bible says, "As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord
shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity..." (Ps 125:5). It
has always been your feeling that if one does not work for the government or
for the company, if one does not enjoy life, if one does not fornicate, if one
does not engage in contract work, if one does not marry and accumulate a lot of
wealth, he cannot live, but do you remember where your soul shall be?
The
Bible provides that if you walk according to the promptings of the flesh you
will die, but if you use the works of the spirit to mortify the flesh you will
live. (Rom 8:13) The choir of 10 Ikom Bethel has a song which
advises people to accept their poor position but follow God.
When
this widow was at the height of her life enjoyment, and when she thought that
she still had many years to enjoy, she suddenly reached her wits end. As she
returned from the hotel and pub one night, she dropped down and died. This is
indicative of the fact that whenever God calls you, you must answer. Your
life is not in your hands, and your life does not consist in the abundance of
the possessions you have. Your life is in the hands of
God. No man can take your life and you cannot take your life. It is in
the hands of God. As the story of the death of the prominent widow
rang in the air, the community was in confusion. She was buried. This was the
beginning of a tragedy.
At the
close of her funeral, and the day of her memorial service, the first son died.
He was also buried. During his memorial service, the first daughter died. The
whole community was thrown into a great confusion. The other two children
followed in the same way without sickness but at the climax of enjoyment, they
all died. The tragedy did not end in this world but in the other world, they
also suffered because they were accommodated in a congested, narrow and
non-ventilated house in darkness.
God is
to be feared. If you do not fear Him, you are but abominable. That is why the
Scriptures advise that you should not fear one who kills the body but cannot
put the soul in hell; but that you should fear Him, who after destroying the
body, casts the soul in hell. (Matt 10:28). It is not
important to think of your present life but be much concerned with your next
life to come.
In the
final analysis, the five of them were accommodated in hell. God had warned her
that she was wasting time educating her children and building houses and
accumulating wealth. Now that all of them had died, what was the purpose of her
children's education, the family building and the wealth accumulated?
Luke
12:16-21
"And
he spake a parable unto them saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought
forth plentifully:
And
he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room
where to bestow my fruits?
And
he said, This will I do:I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there
will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou
hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be
merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul
shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward
God."
Do not
be stubborn with God. Obey whatever the Holy Spirit directs you to do, but I
will never be stubborn with Him. Have a change of heart and obey always the
Voice of God.
If you
walk according to the promptings of the Spirit you will live.
Obedience
is the first order in heaven. Therefore, obey God and carry out His
instructions.
Let
those who have ears, hear the Voice of the Spirit. God Bless His Holy Words.
Amen!
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