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| Photo credit: Atlanta Bethel USA |
The whole world was waiting for this kingdom.
And since the wisdom of God confounds man, it has been enjoined that the gospel
of this day has to be made available in black and white, so that once those who
were meant for this kingdom read it, they would be able to identify themselves.
This is so because it appears as if most of you are not prepared for the
kingdom. That is why you relish in immoralities, in stealing, in falsehood and
in other vices.
The Holy Spirit has come to lead mankind and
it is only the Godly ones that leads. The Holy Spirit alone does all things. He
is accorded recognition for His glorious works done on earth. That is why you
always see things going haywire when you attempt to arrogate any glory to yourself
in the choir and other fellowships. The power which people were coming to
behold has come. But instead of them purging themselves of all sins and
materialism completely after baptism, in order to see the power lavishly in
them, they turn to defile themselves, thereby crucifying Christ the second
time. And by so doing, the said power eludes them. It is a pathetic case. If
you wish, I could enumerate to you those people who, after baptism, went back
to defile themselves because they feel aggrieved that they are not blessed with
material things which they needed only with the spiritual ones. Their lack of
appreciation of these spiritual gifts caused the spiritual gifts to become
dwindled, you can easily trace the cause of the dwindling of these spiritual gifts.
DO NOT RESIST THE HOLY SPIRIT:
A great number of people here in the kingdom
do not want the Holy Spirit to work in them. That is why they always flout the
Holy Spirit’s injunctions. It is true that the flesh and the blood cannot do
the said work. It was written of the Holy Spirit to come and lead. And He has
come to do exactly that. But surprisingly, we have deliberately crucified Him
again. Some people have baptized up to five times into Brotherhood of the Cross
and Star in their life time. The nagging question is, what does the Holy Spirit
use you to accomplish? He uses you to pray, heal the sick, preach the word of
God, and perform other marvelous works in every nook and corner of the world in
order to uplift the glory of God. The bible has enjoined that, 'let all those
who call on the Lord separate themselves from evils.' But how many have
separated themselves from evil? Have you vowed to deprive yourself of the
worldly things? None of you has done this, for you all are like dogs, which
after vomiting, turns back to its vomit. This is because after being baptized
and made to resurrect with Christ (made pure), you turn back to indulge in sins
and vices (defile yourself).
Are you not surprised to see yourself
refraining from snuffing, immoralities and other vices, which you got entangled
with after baptism? Why then do you still go back to indulge in the unwholesome
acts which deprive you of the Holy Spirit?
If you are led by the Spirit, you can sleep on
the floor, fast for one week, and preach at all times, at the expense of
staying idle at home. Also, should the spirit lead you, you would discard the
love for materialism and shun sinful acts. Now if you resurrect with Christ,
you need to seek for the heavenly things at the expense of the carnal things? Now
the question is, how many people are seeking for the heavenly things. Are the
quarrelling, segregation, immoralities etc, you indulge in not worldly things?
So beloved, have you seen what is killing the spirit of God in you? Have you
also seen what is responsible for your inability to do the work of God? Your
indulging in sins, and developing mania for materialism after your baptism are
the sources of your problems.
Some people accepted baptism into Brotherhood
of the Cross and Star in the hope of having children, but if after two or three
months without being blessed with a child after baptism, do go back to consult
native doctors for help. And as a result of that, goats, yams and other
materials are demanded from them. Have you seen the problems involved here?
This is the folly of man.
THE UNLIMITED POWER:
All those who proclaim to have enrolled in
Brotherhood of the Cross and Star and later left are those who do not seek for
God and His kingdom. They are also those who are not ready to mortify the flesh
and become one with Christ. Also, those who are in this group are those who do
not care for the heavenly but mundane things. Anyone who has agreed to mortify
the flesh has no right to dance to the tune of the flesh any longer. Rather, he
must always be led and controlled by the Holy Spirit. There are some people who
go into the bush in order to possess this power but their effort end in fiasco.
The medical personnel do pray always to be blessed with this kind of power, but
to no avail. The reverend fathers too seek for this power with all their best
but to no avail. But if there are some of you here who would mortify the flesh,
believe in God and purge yourselves of sin, you will be blessed with the power
of God without limit. There is no power or person that exist apart from Jesus
Christ. There is no male, female, children, heirs, slave etc, for it is Christ
alone who exists in all things.
The word of God which has it that, "When
the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not
speak on his own authority. But whatever He hears He will speak, and He will
declare to you the things to come..."(John 16:13),, is vindicated.
But have you accepted the promised comforter? It is said in our first lesson
thus: For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There
is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus.
Sequel to the statement above, there is need
to purge ourselves of segregation and embrace oneness and unity here in the
kingdom.
Read the first lesson again.
FIRST LESSON GALATIANS 3:27
For as many of you have bean baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ
Jesus.
WHAT BAPTISM IS
Do you know that Baptism means dying again
with Christ? Do you also know that, your emerging from water after baptism
constitutes your having resurrected with Christ? So those who have resurrected
with Him need not behave the way they did before, for they are one with Christ.
Anyone who does things according to the
commands of God will reap the fruit of it. And those who contravene the word of
the Holy Spirit and act contrary to His injunctions are bound to see the adverse
effect of their action. We are made to know the fact that, wherever exists
segregation or division, unity cannot prevail there. And as such, the place
cannot stand firm.
Right now, we are baptized into one and we are
one with Christ. So there is no need for segregation or division amongst us. We
all have died and left behind the world and its work of darkness; we are in the
kingdom of God. We no longer lament, cry, medicate, fornicate, tell lies, sue
people, begrudge etc. for we are all one in Christ Jesus. If there exists a
person who knew not that mortifying the flesh constitutes dying with Christ,
such a person should now realize this very fact. And note that, anyone who has
mortified the flesh is led by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he has no concern
with the carnal things of this world any longer. And if you now realize this
fact and practice same, you would see the glory of God manifesting in you.
BAPTISM IS A MUST
It is imperative that, we are baptized,
because without baptism, no one is worthy of the kingdom of God. This explains
why people like John the Baptist, Jesus and others embraced baptism without
delay. In fact, baptism constitutes mortifying the flesh, and being made pure.
So baptism is very significant in the life of everyone. A local adage has it
that, a blind man cannot lead a fellow blind man. Imagine someone who baptized
many people but does not have baptismal card himself.
If Christ did not die, He would not have been
able to perform miraculous works, neither would He have been called, Christ. He
would not have had the Holy Spirit in Him. And it is your failure to die and
resurrect with Christ through baptism, that you are unable to perform any
miracle in the kingdom. Since some people do not have baptismal certificate,
they cannot inform the people they baptized about the significance of baptism,
and the importance of baptismal certificate. They do not know that anyone who
has been baptised has died and resurrected with Christ, therefore such is
justified. So any one who has been baptized and made to resurrect with Christ
is justified and such has to be glorified along side with Christ.
The baptism of John has repentance as its aim.
The baptism of John is performed so that you should believe fervently in Our
Lord Christ Jesus, while the baptism of Christ on the other hand, connotes the
forgiveness of sins, so that you might receive the Holy Spirit. No matter the
extent of your sinfulness, when once you confess your sins and are immersed
into water in the name of baptism, you are one with Christ, justified, and are
given the Holy Spirit as a gift, for you have died and left behind the
materials things of the world.
THE ESSENCE OF BAPTISM:
If you go back to sinful acts after baptism,
you are made to confront tribulations and sufferings. The question is, what
then does your baptism entail? I preached this to bring you to the accurate
knowledge of truth. An adage has it that an orphan uses both his head and hand
to erect a fence. Some of you do not know what it entails to indulge in sins
after baptism, that is why it is not uncommon to hear you testifying and
confessing of committing sins everyday even after Confession. This very gospel
needs to be read by every one in order to know the significance of baptism. At
baptism and upon the confessions of your sins, all your sins are forgiven.
Anyone who fails to be baptized cannot be
saved. Mortify the flesh for the spirit to take dominion over you. All those
who are Christ’s followers have seen their nakedness, for they all have
realized the fact that there is no righteous man on earth due to the fact that,
we were conceived of iniquity and born of unrighteousness. And it is the
baptism preached in this very sermon that can save us and make us pure and
worthy of God. This is because it is after baptism that we are blessed with the
Holy Spirit as a gift. This gift is meant for us and our offspring. But we
cannot achieve such due to our indulgence in sins after baptism.
MY MISSION
I do not come so that you might be unhealthy,
sick, condemned, lack and die. Rather, I come to feed you with the accurate
knowledge of truth and I have done same openly. Therefore, if you perish as a
result of not imbibing the truth, your blood is on you. Since it is the patient
that always seek for the physician, anyone who knows that he needs baptism must
seek for it. And anyone who knows the right thing that should be done and fails
to do it, has him or herself to blame, because he or she is condemned. Eventhough
the money and wealth of such people are distributed to people along the street,
they would all perish.
Most of the lunatics in the psychiatric
hospital are not actually mad. Rather, they are tormented by the spirit. And
would only be made whole if only the person accept baptism. The same thing
happens with those in the prison custody, because as a result of their not
being baptized, the spirit in them instructs them to do things abnormally.
Similar thing is happening in the hospitals. And if these people are made to
confess their sins and accept baptism, most of them would be freed.
We are enjoined that the flesh uses its lust
wage war against the spirit. And the spirit too in response also wages War
against the flesh. So both of them are incompatible. It is the war waged by the
flesh against the spirit that makes people behave like mad, sick persons and
prisoners. And once you accept baptism, you have killed the flesh leaving the
spirit to exists alone in you. And by so doing, you are saved and made normal.
Baptism does not provide you with any material thing, instead it gives you
eternal life. And once you accept it, you are justified.
SECOND LESSON: GALATIANS 5:24
And they that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh with the affections and lusts.
THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT:
If you do not die with Christ, how can you
resurrect with him. If you do not resurrect with Him, how can you live with
Him. If you do not live with Him, how then can you have eternal life as
expected of you? If Christ did not receive the Holy Spirit through baptism, how
then would he have been able to perform great and wonderful works? We all are
true witnesses to the fact that, Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Spirit And
any one who accept baptism has put on Christ, therefore he has to do things
according to The dictates of the spirit alone. And by then you are led by
Christ alone. That is why you are hardly harmed when the spirit is ruling over
you. You are easily harmed when the spirit is killed as a result of your
indulgence in sins after baptism. And this constitutes the problems and
troubles faced by the members of this kingdom.
Baptism is the greatest of all things found in
heaven and on earth. Because it is what changes, cleanses, and brings
forgiveness to man. That is why anyone who is baptisied and made one with
Christ, is hardly harmed.
BAPTISM FOR REPENTANCE
The magnitude of your problems not
withstanding, if you confess and repent of your sins and accept baptism your
problems will cease immediately. This is because baptism after repentance is a
means for forgiveness of sin. This therefore, accounts for why you should note
that except one confesses his sins, believes in God and accepts baptism, such
person is condemned. It is needless for one who has not mortified his flesh
with Christ to defend himself. And to such a person, there is no salvation for
him. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the first man to die, and resurrect. So, He has
no business with the second death. That is why we must all join him in the
first death, so that we would all resurrect with him. Expect you die with Him
through the mortification of the flesh, you cannot resurrect and without
resurrection you have perished. A lot of people do not believe in resurrection.
You erroneously believe that there is no resurrection. Indeed, there is
resurrection, for after all the children of God cannot die. There is no other
death for them except to mortify the lust of the flesh and its affection. If
you do this, you will live forever without the fear of death. You will recall
that when that young man demanded Christ to permit him to go and bury his
father first before coming to join Him, Christ told him that he should
leave the dead to bury their dead. (Luke 9:60). This he said
because as many as follow Him, there is no death for them. He is every thing to
them.
Do not misconstrue the mortification of the
flesh to mean murder or death on the cross. It does not mean you committing
suicide. It rather implies repentance
from all manners of sin. It is a complete change from vice to virtue. In so
doing, you would no more have anything to do with the world but rather you
would walk within the tenets of the kingdom of God. You have been singing the
spiritual chorus that says:
'The spirit of living God come and lead us a
right,' do you really
mean it? He has come to lead, teach, change and salvage but the question is,
are you ready for Him?
Mohammed affirmed that it is the Holy Spirit
that has the right of leadership. Our Lord Jesus Christ also said that, the
Holy Spirit of Truth would lead the world, and in conformity with this promise,
He has come to lead you. Have you received Him by mortifying the flesh? Note
that the era of flesh had since passed. This is the era of the leadership of
the Holy Spirit. No other force is in operation now other than the Holy Spirit.
He is in all things and He is everything. You would now realise that Christ is
the ruling force now. We are all one in Him and as such, we are joint - heirs
in the kingdom and so we are ruling with Him. There is no more division, we now
do everything in common for we are all one. The flesh does not exist any more.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has taken dominion over all things. Note, I am not saying
that everybody has this spirit. It is limited to those who have mortified the
flesh. You should recall that during the time of John the Baptist, many people
were baptised but out of the lot, it was only Our Lord Jesus Christ that the
Holy Spirit descended upon. This therefore confirms the fact that the Holy
Spirit is for those who were predestined to have it. As many as have decided to
work for Him, definitely, he will bestow the spirit on them. Without the
spirit, none can function effectively. The spirit is the separational force in
man; without it, you cannot perform. As many as have mortified the flesh, they
have put on Christ. They are no more functioning independent of Him, rather, He
monitors their activities and indeed use them to His glory.
These are the people who have died with him
and also resurrected with Him. And to them, there is no death. They are one
with Christ. That is why, in spite of the population of the world, all those
that have this hope are one. We have now put on Christ, all problems are solved
and above all, we are fortified. After all, Christ is in perfect control of
everything in the world. Read the golden text again.
GOLDEN TEXT: COLOSSIANS 3:11
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarians, Scythian, bond nor free: but
Christ is all, and in all.
THE PRICE FOR SINFUL ACTS
Have you now realized that we are all one in
this kingdom? There is no more division hence, I keep teaching you that you
should shun class and rank differences in this kingdom for we are all one and
equal. Whosoever sows the seed of discord has committed a crime. Murder,
fornication, stealing, deceitfulness, dupe, lies and arrogance are crimes as
far as God is concerned. And the aftermath of these and other such crimes is
death. Your problem and indeed the present precarious condition of the whole
world is caused by your uncontrollable interest in committing sins. And this
has gone a long way to blind you to such an extent that you cannot see the
glory of God.
There was a certain hunter who is a
Brotherhood member. Each time he went for hunting, he came back with a bag full
of animals. As this continued for a long time, his friend called him and
demanded him to disclose the secret of his hunting for him. The hunter told his
friend that he should repent of all his evil ways and accept baptism into
Brotherhood. And that would be the only way he would have good fortune to hunt
down many animals.
Having been convinced that this could be a way
out for him to be lucky as his friend. The man did not waste time. He went and
received baptism. From the day he was baptized, things actually changed for
good. His traps caught as many as ten to fifteen animals a day. But
surprisingly, the Brother that disclosed to this other man that Baptism into
Brotherhood of the Cross and Star could bring good luck started to have hard luck
hunting expeditions.
I want to illustrate to you the side effect of
arrogance, blindness and ingratitude. You have in no small measure fallen short
of the blessings of the Father because you have deviated from rectitude and
have opted headlong for evil practices and greed has taken your good part.
There are money, good health, wealth in fact, all good things of life in this
kingdom, but you cannot get them, so long as you do not understand this
kingdom. And at a point, the first-brother no longer shot even one animal. The
wife was disturbed with the unpleasant development and demanded to know from
him why he could no longer shoot game. She was irked and questioned the husband
whether he had gone back to his old habit of taking snuff. The man was angry,
because he said he could not imagine going back to snuffing which he had
discarded long ago. The wife then inquired further more the reason why the man
had hard luck in recent time. He felt so bad about the wife’s cutting comment
and threatened to beat her up should she continue asking him anymore questions.
At this moment the other brother was having a field day in his game each day.
He decided to dash his friend one animal for food.
Once again the wife of this Brother called him
and said to her husband that, it seemed he had gone back to snuffing, otherwise nothing should have mitigated
against him. He replied that had since stopped snuffing, that he could not, for
anything’s sake, go back to it.
As God would have it, daughter of this hunter
went for morning prayer one morning during which time a visioner drew the
attention of this sister to the fact that her father, like a dog, had eaten
what he had vomited - snuffing. The visioner even asked her to call her father
to come and put up a defense to that effect. Truly, the man admitted that he
had gone back to snuffing. The visioner disclosed to the hunter that it was
snuffing that had caused his hard luck.
The visioner told him to stop snuffing and go
on ministry work and to celebrate feast to normalise his condition. He did and
had his ill luck, reversed for good. The same thing applies to very many of
you. You claim to have left sins on one hand, only to indulge in them on the
other hand. You talk of ill luck, poverty, ill health, hunger, hatred etc. All
these and many more things come your way as a result of your indulgence in
sins. Do you not know that in so doing, you have humiliated God? If you get
baptized into Brotherhood but cannot control your infatuation, the essence of
your baptism is defeated because this does not portray you as a child of God.
It does not matter how many years you have been a member of Brotherhood. The
main thing is for you to practise the Word of God taught in this kingdom. A lot
of you carry your shoulders high, claiming to have put very many years in
Brotherhood of the Cross and Star. That is not what qualified you into
Brotherhood. All the newly baptized brethren do enjoy the blessings of this
kingdom more than the old ones. This is so because the new brethren have seen
the need to practice righteousness and have actually done same. Take for
instance testimony, have you seen an old member giving a soul-winning testimony
of late? It is only the new brethren that have wonderful testimonies to give.
SHUN SINS:
You would not have suffered any form of affliction or sickness;
you would not have been poor if you have put my teachings into practise.
Infact, if you practise the word of God, your Problems are gone. It is not
uncommon to find that the person you baptized testifies that his problem are
gone, but yours persist, after which you begin to question, what offence you
have committed that your problems refuse to give way. Are you true to yourself
that you do not know the sin you have committed? Have you not disgraced God in
action, thoughts and word? Your twenty years in this fold affords you nothing
so long as you have defiled yourself, and be reminded that every man that
hath this hope in him purifies himself. Even as he is pure (1st John 3:3). The
moment you come out of water, you should put a stop to anything evil. You
should be pure forever. After all He is pure, you should no more live a life
full of sins like the worldly people. Having been baptized into this fold, you
are no more of the world. You no longer live for yourself, as such, you do not
have to act, speak, see, touch, feel and tread on your personal pleasures. Your
activities should be guided by the Holy Spirit. The moment you attain this new
height, you will witness great blessings in your life. It is a sign of
derailment for Brotherhood members to go to the hospital. The Christ
student Natural Choir composed it into a song that when they had strictly kept
the commandment of the Father, they neither fall sick nor go to the hospital. A
Christ student went for an operation, when he came back I sent of the group.
And you do not seem to learn a lesson from this action. The home of the
Christ's students now is the hospitals. Many of them even have personal
doctors, who inject and prescribe drugs for them. They do this because they
have gone contrary to the tenets of this kingdom and have no fear of God again.
EMULATE ME:
Many times, I have told you that mine is leadership by example. I
do not teach one thing and do another. I have several times told you to emulate
me. Ever since I came into this earth plane, my target is to accomplish my
assignment of changing man. And I have nothing to do with sin. I have never
committed sin.
My life style is a one way traffic-righteousness to the core. I do
not want to have faith or hope in any man or the material things of this world.
This is so because I am not of the world. Getting baptized into this kingdom is
an opportunity for you to refrain from sins because you have been informed of
the attendant effects. You would not toy with this rare opportunity accorded
you.
God would have used you to accomplish great task, if you had
refrained from sins. He would have indwelled and used you to His glory for your
salvation and blessing. You suffer because you are so much in love with the
world at the expense of the love of God. Let the Holy Spirit direct you, and
you will not be the same again. Remember you have been advised:
Those who have ears let them hear. May God bless His Holy words. Amen.
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