31

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34

               Before I go on to talk about what has been laid in my heart, I would like to share this; I used to grow up liking the name Jeremiah. Back in late primary school and through my secondary school days, I would add Jeremiah to my names. Frankly, I didn’t really know why but it was always so. As I grew, I didn’t see much meanings to the name but for every time I opened my bible to glance a read, it would be Jeremiah. Somehow, I knew there was something about me and the name, so I wrote my name ‘Chizoba’ just beneath the book in my bible.

               Asides the regular and popular lines of the book like, Jere. 1:5, 19; 29:11, 20:9 and more as you know, the entire book gives me the shivers when I read it, why? “It virtually addresses everything about me”; my fears, my doubts, my pains, my present, my past, my future and not just about me but addresses my immediate society/environment. I will tell this story of one of the nights in 2017 when I was lost and in need of direction, I cried sore, I wept bitterly and it was so heavy on me that I could barely speak in prayers. I took my bible and immediately the voice said, Jeremiah, at the mention of Jeremiah, I began to cry more. The voice lead me from scripture to scripture, meeting and tackling each question I asked, one at a time. I left that moment refreshed and renewed.

               When the Spirit of the Lord moves in a man, He gives him purpose and direction. If there is one thing I have pressed for, it is for a mind that is after Jesus and His ways. When I came in contact with the above scriptures, I pitched my tent and prayers on them. There is a season coming and that is the season where God’s Spirit and Word is on the lips of everyone; not in falsity but in sincerity. A season of true manifestation of God’s kingdom. Indeed, God is moving in this generation but my soul, deep within craves for more as though it is yet to start. Deep calls into deep. God is moving, yes, He is doing more. He is raising an army unto Himself. A people totally dedicated to God and not church or denomination. A people who are set to take kingdoms by force and manifest God’s Kingdom here on earth.

Isaiah prophesied it, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel and all the prophets of old spoke of that season. In the New Testament, Jesus brought it to earth and the apostles received it and passed it on till it got to our generation. Jeremiah 31 describes a season in Israel that would not just be for a season but forever! It is coming! I hear the sound of it. Recent news has it that the capital of Israel is moving to Jerusalem! Hallelujah! This is all part of the fulfillment of the Words of God’s prophets for Israel. I being a gentile but now engrafted into the family of God by faith, rejoice that this season has started!

31, today’s date is a special day cos it’s my birthday and more so, it is in line with this scripture and it goes to show that God really has something for us all. It is the end of the year but it is the beginning of a new dawn. My father in the Lord, Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith church, themed Shiloh 2017, A NEW DAWN. To close the year, another father, Pastor Kumuyi themed the December retreat this same year, THE DAWN OF A NEW BEGINNING. It’s not a coincidence, it is divine providence. God is working!

God is putting His spirit in us all, He is revealing Himself to us all, and He is impressing His will for us all on our hearts. In Jeremiah 31, God paints a picture through prophesy of a unique people that would call on God as their father, would not need to be afraid of anything, lack nothing and expand throughout the earth unhindered simply because He has willed to be the God of all the families of Israel. The part that gets me excited is the part where God says, “There will be no need for anyone to teach his neighbor or brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know ME.” In this season, God is building a one-on-one relationship with everyone. We will be so connected that our connectivity level will be at the highest frequency! God will be walking with man and man with God! Further down the scripture He (God) now makes a vow saying, if the ordinances of heaven (sun, moon, seas and its wave), can change or will cease to be then and only then will His words not come to pass!

I have so much conviction of this whenever I write or speak about this prophesy. Why? Because God has spoken it and so shall it be! Nothing would make me happier than when this comes to pass. “GOD ON EVERY LIPS”. Not just the name of God, but a divine knowledge of God in addition to it!

I wish I could give a full description of my feeling right now. I am super-excited that God will do this and it has begun! Thy KINGDOM COME!

EXTRAVAGANT GRACE

Grace is God’s extension of His undeserved goodness to man, a form of amnesty without conditions except that of acceptance of His Son as your Lord and Saviour. Our redemption by His Blood spilled on the cross sets us up for this unmerited favour. His Grace is beyond the sparse of time and unlimited from age to age, timeless and enduring as long as man breathes and Jesus tarries. We don’t qualify for His Goodness but we get that goodness because someone paid the price for it – Jesus.

By rights we are deserved of death but in His Sovereignty and magnanimity He lowered himself to be of no pulchritude so that He could once and for all time give us that which belongs to us by His Divine Exchange where He gave us His Beauty for ashes. One cannot grasp the depth of this Grace. The concise dictionary can only give a human limited meaning to it but it takes a man who has been Graced (Experienced Grace) to tell what it truly means – Grace is undefined to the unrefined.

The Lord Our God, true and just would have judged, in fact has judged and found us guilty but Grace stepped in and said, “There is a remedy.” When all of hell had its grip over all of man, all of God took the form of all of man – Jesus and paid the price once and for all for all men and brought the sacrifice – a worthy and acceptable fragrance before God and said, “IT IS FINISHED!” that was the victory won for all men!

A thousand poems and rhymes will never be fit enough to describe the awesome sacrifice that saw God’s love spread on the cross, redeeming man, turning a woeful sinner to a joyful believer, bridging the gap between the condemned and the Father, breaking the chains and bonds over the neck of men and giving them His liberty wherein He can cry Abba Father! Love so strong that the ancient gates of hell could not stop the rising from the grave of the embodiment of Love – Jesus.

EXTRAVAGANT GRACE,the sound that we want to hear at all times so long as we have breath in us. Boundless Grace. Extreme Grace. Unrestrained Grace. These adjectives can only magnify the term GRACE but the POWER of this GRACE can never be understood. It can never be explained in its totality. If you can explain God, then you can explain GRACE. To know Jesus is to know Grace; not knowledge by study or reading but knowledge by fellowship and communion with Him who has made this Unmerited Goodness available to all of mankind.

The people of God in times past – under the clouds, met with Grace but never lived in Grace. Only a few after the heart of God obtained a limited measure of it but we in this time because of Jesus have met with UNLIMITED GRACE – EXTRAVAGANT GRACE! We have been GRACED! God has broken us with the power of love and our brokenness did not hurt us because it was done with GRACE. We were GRACEFULLY BROKEN! We were then GRACED – adorned with power! The Power of SONSHIP and we can no longer come to His Presence afraid but we come to His Presence with Boldness because OUR HIGH PRIEST and CAPTAIN OF OUR SALVATION has made a way with His Blood spilled for us!

Can we ever cease to tell of His Grace? The adulterer experienced it. The woman at the well drank from it. Zacchaeus got a hold of it. The thief at the cross witnessed it. The devil felt it when Jesus went down to the depths of hell and set the captives free. Saul turned Paul couldn’t resist it. Today we live it. We feel it. We dwell in it. We abound in it. We talk of it. We preach it. We have received it and therefore it has made us, revived us, rescued us, freed us and lifted us from the pit where we could never have come out of into HIS GLORIOUS LIGHT!

I mourn for those who have never had it. I feel for those who have rejected it. I am grieved deep within for those who walked away from it. I pity those who have lost sight of it. I cry for those who have misused it. For those who have trampled and trodden underfoot this MATCHLESS GRACE, oh what sorer punishment awaits you! I compel you today to come receive this GRACE while you may. It is still free as ever. It is still available. It is still unlimited. Come and Experience that GRACE that transformed men from PRODIGAL SONS to MANIFESTING SONS. Come and get a load of the GOODNESS of GOD and THE GLORIOUS RICHES IN CHRIST that endures for all eternity. Come for all things are now ready! No matter who you are! No matter what you’ve done! No matter where you’ve been! No matter what they’ve said! No matter the weight of that sin! No matter the voice of condemnation that keeps ringing in your ears! No matter! No matter!! No matter!!! No matter WHAT!!! COME!!!

COME RECEIVE EXTRAVAGANT GRACE!!!

PERSPECTIVE

"...Who sinned; this man or his parents?" the disciples asked.

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should he revealed/manifest in him." Jesus replied.

(John 9:2-3)

One too many times we as humans and even Christians view things with a perspective that displays how limited we can be over certain things. In the above text from scriptures, the story goes of a man born blind. As at the time, there was practically no other reason why one should he born blind except that there was sin somewhere along the line that lead to the Man being born blind. Medical science hadn't been advanced as at the time to give their long explanations as to why one could be born blind so that was the only explanation.

Our friends in the story; the Disciples had just one thing as a reason for blindness and so did others of their time believe, and that was sin. Now the question they asked Jesus could be out of compassion or curiousity. Compassion in the sense that says, 'what did he do to deserve this?' Curiousity on the other hand to know what exactly went wrong; to either justify the belief that it was sin that lead to it and probably try to know what can be done in order not to allow their sins get to the point where blindness or worse would be the ultimate punishment. (At least they acknowledged the fact that sin had devastating effects). Their question falls into either one of these lines of thought.

What was Jesus's reply?

This is not a matter of who sinned and who didn't. It's not a matter to be deliberated over. It's a matter of divine purpose. There's no earthly justification for his blindness. He was born for this day. He was born for the purpose of manifesting God's power. He was born blind so that through the miracle of his sight being restored fully, the people can believe that there is still God and He has the power to reverse adverse situations and more so that He sent me (Jesus). This blindness is an instrument the Lord wants to use prove a point!

That's PERSPECTIVE!

It takes a divine nature for one to see past human perspective. Jesus was divine and what he saw was not what they saw. What they were seeing was the condemnation but Jesus was seeing solution. They were seeing a problem and failure, Jesus was seeing healing and glory. They were seeing sympathy and justification of the power of sin, Jesus was seeing deliverance from the power of sin. They wanted to give glory to human errors but Jesus was out-rightly rewriting the errors.

The same is amongst us today as Christians. We see a situation and the first thing that comes to us is, "sin". It must be a sin that has caused this to fall upon us. True as it may be, this line of thought is not for those who have been engrafted into the bloodline of Jesus through acceptance of His forgiveness and love. No child of God who has had his mind renewed by the water and the word can see a situation and begin to count his sins (already confessed and forsaken, forgiven and forgotten). Rather, he would see another chance to glorify God. This is the mind of Christ.

Push forward years later after Jesus had died and resurrected, after He had breathed upon them and they had received the Holy Spirit. Peter and John saw a man at the Beautiful gate and instead of deliberating over who sinned and who did not, with all authority Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have I give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk". (Acts 3:6)

How about that for a renewed mind!

The reason why things look the way they look is because we've got our minds still stuck in the old way if thinking. We still think within human limitations. We still carry the old man around and claim we're Christians. Yet at the slightest provocation or situation, we are quick to glorify Satan, sin or that problem. We exalt it so much that even when Jesus steps in to take charge he wouldn't find a space to take glory.

From now onwards God wants you to stop being negative. Stop doubting. Stop fretting. Stop giving Satan glory. Start being positive. Start believing and keep believing. Start loving. Start giving God glory. Jesus is our typical example. The sisters of Lazarus saw death but Jesus saw an opportunity to give God glory. He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God... Father, I thank you this day..." (John 11:4 &41). On so many occasions where one would expect panic, He simply comes out and says, "Thank you Father" or "Father glorify your son, that your son may glorify you". He was always positive even at the point of death. At the cross in pains, He was still positive, giving hope to a dying man who was dying alongside with Him!

The mind of Christ!

I come to a close with this; for everything you see, rather than whine and complain or try to trace your problems to this or that sin, begin to speak positively. Hence you are in the right with God and He is your father, keep the right frame of mind. Never let negativity cast a shadow all over you. “If then you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Set your heart/mind on things above not on things on earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:1-2). Renew your mind. (Rom. 12:2). Remember, when the disciples hadn't received the Holy Ghost they saw things carnally but as soon as they were breathed upon and received the Holy Ghost, their mentality changed. They'd rather heal than look for sin. Forgive rather than retaliate. Die rather than live to fight another day. They became the exact opposite of who they were when they were carnal and began to command such positivity to the point that Peter's shadow began to heal the sick!

Now, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, RECIEVE THE HOLY GHOST!!!

Onyeoma

WE can never cease to tell of his sacrifice on the cross for our Redemption. Jesus paid the Price once and for all time that we may live the life He never lived on earth. Jesus loves you... All He asks for is your heart and your love in return in exchange for eternal life.



Keep The Faith!

PSALMS OF THE HERALD

Everything God made was designed to give God praise and glory. Man’s primary assignment on earth is to be fruitful, replenish, dominate and give God glory. Hence those who have formed the habit of living a life of worship and praise never get to exhaust the numerous blessings tuck away from the human realm into the spiritual.

There is a right worship and then of course a wrong worship. Worship is not just being emotional in church when the music is on and tuned to that frequency that touches the part of us that has been softened by emotions, it transcend more than that. It’s a connection with the Father and the Worshipper through the Holy Spirit not just the music. The right mode of worship is a broken vessel before the Lord pouring out the fragrance from the inside; a sweet smelling offering on the Altar of the Holy of Holies. No one enters this throne room broken and comes out not fixed up; MENDED NEW! Wrong worship is coming around the throne room and just observing instead of surrendering.

Concerts happen here and there on campuses across Nigeria but “Notes of En Hakkore”, though still climbing is one concert that is different in its own way. The program was totally not what I expected I must say. It was beyond my expectation! Awesome is the word!

All those in attendance were treated to a sumptuous meal of worship garnished with praise on the altar of the King of kings who reigns and rules forever. Psalms of the Herald was the theme of the year and the scope was wider. All campus fellowships of The Lord’s Chosen CRM in the east converged at Owerri for the first time in the history of concerting on its campus levels. Guests and Personalities from all over the South and East were present, the middle belt wasn’t left out either. As reported at the previous post, all the ministering people rev’d up the crowd of youths in the hall. There was never a dull moment!

To the organizers, one can only pray for more grace to keep up the good work!

Below are Sights of the event!

Chijioke leading worship

The Worshippers

Zumba

All States Choir

All States Choir

Drama team from Host school

Abia State Chapter

Add caption

Onyinyechi ministering

Precious on keys

Enugu Chapter

Enugu Chapter

The Awards

Bro. Enoch ministering

The Crowd receiving prayers

Philip from Enugu

Old Time Believers

Bro. Chris (TLCF Patron)

An Awardee

Bro. Samson receiving an award

The Judges

Imo state Chapter

NOTES OF REVIVAL

We want to use this medium to revive the hearts of our members that have grown cold in their faith.

These were the words of the choir coordinator of the campus fellowship of The Lord’s Chosen CRM in his brief description of what the concert was all about. It all started in 2013 with night of praise that held after major church programs, and since then a desire to do it bigger than the regular led to what we know today as Notes of En-hakkore.

It is a good thing that the youths of this great church have on their own shifted grounds and taken territories despite the oppositions from within and without to do something totally out of the box.

In 2016, the maiden edition of this concert took place and it was a huge success. Last year it was for schools within Imo state, Nigeria. The concert featured choir presentations and special presentations from selected individuals. The choirs present were rated and the better choir went home with packages.

To the glory of God, this year promises to be bigger and better packaged. Themed, “Psalms of the Heralds”, we should be expecting lots of praises and worships. One of the special tasks for the participating choirs is to compose songs with Psalm 121, a classical song and an accappella. The organizers want to do what David did which is praise so they invited various ministers to add to what they had on ground. The major ministers are Zumba Chinedu aka SINGING PREACHER, Enoch and Nonso all the way from Benue state and any more. The competitors at the concert are all campus fellowship choirs in Eastern Nigeria. Imo state plays host again and the school of Engineering auditorium Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri is the venue.

One thing is highly expected and that is revival. All you need to do is to be there live in the flesh to experience it!

See you there!

CALLER'S SPRING

The hands of God upon a man can make a man do extraordinary things. Such was the case of Samson. Born at a time when Israel had just nothing but judges to coordinate her affairs, God used Samson to be the deliverer of His people. His call was unique. He was sanctified for the peculiar purpose of deliverance. In and on Samson was God and a supernatural power that was beyond human comprehension.

In one of his supernatural feats he smote a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass (donkey). He did that with so much ease because the spirit of God was mightily upon him. When it comes to God, anything is a weapon. There is an African proverb that goes thus, “God used the basket to fetch water so as to shame the bucket”. These are the kinds of things that God can do and more still!

After this great manifestation of the power of God through him. He asked for water and from that same jawbone, God caused water to come out of the hollow of it and he drank and his spirit came again and he revived. When God has called you for his purpose and you walk within the sphere of that purpose, God will never abandon you thirty without reviving you. The first thing you should check out for is, ‘am I still within my purpose?’. If you are then He will speedily answer you when you call on Him for help. Samson drank and he was restored.

En-hakkore, translates to any of the following: “fount of the crying aloud; the crier’s fountain; fount of the proclamation; the caller’s fount; fount of the invocation; fount of the emphatic prayer. Like Samson, you can cry out to the Lord and He’ll hear you. God answers prayers especially when you are in the middle of His purpose for your life. When you get tired and you feel like giving up, cry out to the Lord and He’ll continue to show you that He didn’t just call you to use you alone; He didn’t bring you this far to let you go thirsty, He will sustain you all the way.

Nothing gives more courage than to find out that each time you call upon Father He answers. No true father will ignore a son’s call. There must be a relationship between you and Father so that your call upon Him won’t be heard as a rant. Get yourself involved with God and stick with the plan He has for you.

Note: if you call upon God within His purpose for you, He will answer you speedily.

KTF!

GOOD FRIDAY

What could possibly be good about a day that someone who did nothing wrong was killed gruesomely?

History tells of a man who lived practically sinless and guiltless in His time. He went by as a commoner and a SOMEBODY who was a NOBODY. His wisdom was matchless and so offensive that the great leaders and teachers and custodians of truth, liberty and justice were made fools and appeared to be illiterates of the literacy they professed to have upheld. For this he was Public Enemy number 1.

His claims of Deity didn't go down well with the elite of his time. No one could be God in the flesh and be so Damn broke, sleeping wherever night met him; eating with commoners and sinners, associating with NOBODY(S) and claim to be different from them and to make matters worse making Himself SOMEBODY equal with God for He said, "I and my Father are one". For this he was Enemy of the state.

PHARISEES

Back in days when I was much younger in age and in the faith, a teacher in church once described the people in the above header as “Far-to-see”. Well, that was funny. The other set of people quite like them but with different views from them called - the SADDUCEES, he described, “Sad-to-see”. He expounded on their lives as hypocrites who claimed to see everything but yet couldn’t see themselves as they were and who they were. They saw but never saw far or deep into the scriptures that they claimed to be torch-bearers of. They were sad to see because they were self-righteous; before God they were sad to behold and before men they wore long faces and were always serious and yet they could not deliver a soul or worship God to God’s standard even when they knew the scriptures. The teacher said a lot which I may not remember all ‘cos like I said, I was very young then.

In the bible, they were a torn in the flesh of Jesus Christ of whom it was prophesied in the same words that they so much held in high esteem. For this, Jesus called them many names and at some point asked the Disciples to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”, Matt. 16:6, 12. Historical records on the origin of these people by a Jewish-Roman by name, Josephus (37-100 CE), says that “the Pharisees were considered the most expert and accurate expositors of Jewish law”. The Sadducees were more elite than them as they were of the ruling classes. Whereas the Sadducees were aristocratic monarchists, the Pharisees were eclectic, popular, and more democratic. It is recorded both in the bible and from historical evidences that they were close rivals though part of the Jewish nation. While the Pharisees believed in the oral Torah, (the spoken words, instructions of the Mosaic laws), the Sadducees wanted to apply Roman ideology to it. The Pharisees were “separatist”, meaning, they set themselves aside from Gentiles, who were the sources of ritual impurity or from irreligious Jews.

Reading up the role they played in ensuring that the word of God handed over from one generation to the other was upheld and adhered to, I for one can say they - the Pharisees - did an awesome job. One would suppose that these people who knew every nitty-gritty of the laws would be able to direct men to the Messiah and point them to God, but they failed in the most woeful ways possible. This goes to show to a large extent that though we know all the laws and all the rules and regulations of religion, the best manifestation of this act is in the “living”, that is, practice. This, they were never able to do, though they were righteous, (Matt. 5:20)

Then came “the Carpenter’s Son” who began to talk plenty. He talked about the words of Moses as though he had better knowledge than them that were trained and tutored by the best historians of their time. For every time they brought up the law, Jesus always had a word for them out of their own laws which they were never able to deny. For example when the Disciples were hungry and plucked the corn from the field, they were quick to bring up the tradition of the elders. Jesus shot back at them their own fault of changing the commandments of God to suit themselves citing example with the obedience to parents, Matt. 15:1-9. They were guilty of forcing their own laws in the place of God’s. They were always quick to find faults here and there, fast at judgment. In fact, Matthew 23 gives us a full description of who these people really were. I will outline them here one by one:

They:

1. Create heavy laws they don’t attempt to keep and place it on men. (vs 4)
2. Want to be seen by people, dress to be noticed. (vs 5)
3. Love to seat above at occasions. (vs 6)
4. Love being called big names with pride. (vs 7-11)
5. Block the gates of heaven; they won’t enter and you won’t enter. (vs 13)
6. Devour (gobble, gorge, consume, devastate, overwhelm, wolf) widows’ houses, and cover up with long prayers. (vs 14)
7. Go the extra mile to convert foreigners to Jews but end up making them children of hell more than they themselves. (vs 15)
8. Blind guides, valuing material things than spiritual things. (vs 16-22)
9. Would rather attend to things of little importance than attend to justice, mercy and faith. Scrutinize a gnat (negligible things) and swallow a camel (obvious things). (vs 23-24)
10. Clean the outside and neglect the inside. (vs 25-26)
11. Appear righteous before people but inside are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (27-28)
12. Are children of murderers of prophets yet excuse themselves of their fathers’ sins by building tombs for prophets and garnishing them, making themselves appear innocent. Yet they will do more. (vs 29-35)

How interesting! These twelve things describe a Pharisee.

Now on to weightier matters.

In our churches today these set of people exist in full. As I outlined these things, I reflected on many occasions where I have seen these acts come to play. As a leader, I have witnessed so many of these acts and sincerely this led to this message. By the grace of God we will analyse these outlined descriptions and try to identify them in the present church as the Spirit directs.

CREATING LAWS:

            In the church now we see so many doctrines sprouting here and there. Some like the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, some teach not to wear shoes on certain days, some believe in anointing oil, others idolize saints and pray to them while the others are no different from unbelievers yet they are called church or Christians. These things may and most times have biblical references but in its entirety are far from what they mean or are simply misinterpreted.

For this the Apostle Paul cried out to the Galatian church and called them foolish with capital letters! We are set at liberty of the law why then do we entangle ourselves again with laws (bondage). Now there is a difference between rules and regulations governing the body of Christ and the law; these rules should be adhered to (Matt. 23:3), but before our very eyes these rules are turned to laws that are rather carnal and after the flesh than after the Spirit of Grace. The entire book of Galatians expounds on these laws that we now have in churches and like Apostle Paul, I ask, “WHO HAS BEWITCHED US”?

The law in itself is heavy and we cannot perform it and that’s why Jesus came, “to redeem us from the curse of the law” (Gal. 3:13). Where there is no law, there is no sin (Rom. 4:15). These laws set fresh traps for those whom it is given and even the giver. How can those who are new in the faith, having left the world were laws did weigh them down having found grace in Christ now begin to see laws where Grace should thrive? By these laws we have set at naught the power of grace, making it non effective! Do you find laws in your church, check very well, there are Pharisees behind it. Ironically, they won’t lift a finger to obey the same law! Isn’t that amazing? (Col. 2:16-23)

BUSY BODIES, ‘NOTICE ME’ & SHOW-OFFS:

Do you by chance notice those people who are always running around when the pastor is around? Dress so flamboyantly and walk so sanctimoniously? Yes? No? Truth is whether you like it or not you just have to notice them, it’s their ministry. They extend it from both the church to the outside world, (2 Thess. 3:11, 1 Tim. 5:13). They carry the biggest size of bibles and dress so much in a seemingly righteous way. The Bible used here in place of the phylacteries because it’s the equivalent in our time. By design the phylacteries (containing biblical scrolls) were small but because they are Pharisees, theirs had to be bigger, so Jesus says, they make it broader than usual. How can you not notice them? With such excesses? You must notice them, except maybe you’re one of them.

PROUD PEOPLE & PRAISE LOVERS:

They love to seat in places where people will get to notice them and revere them especially in public! These are those who will feel offended when you don’t recognize them in your event. They just love the attention that causes distraction. They’re stained with pride!

Just call them, Man-of-God and they’ll answer you thus, “oh, bless you, bless you…” that’s all that matters to them. If you don’t end your conversations with “sir”, you’re a proud person to them or just one of those people who will not just bend to their personality. Their love for being above you is more than the love they have for leading you!

True religion is service (James 1:27). They would rather be served than serve. Yet Jesus in all his righteousness and glory thought it not robbery to equal himself with God here on earth and in heaven despite whom He was! (Phil. 2:6-8). The same people with the Torah still skipped the portion that says, “surely he scorns the scornful: but he gives grace to the humble”, Pro. 3:34 (NKJV). If you are after self, you can’t be a child of God and if you want to really be a son of God, then you need to go to God in humility and consider yourself as nothing so that you may obtain a better prize.

Paul in Phil. 3:1-11, counts himself as yet to attain when as at that time he had done many great things in Christ! The higher you think you go in Christ, the more humble you should turn out to be; for in Christ, the greatest is the least! Mark 9:35

STUMBLING BLOCKS:

In church these days, there are some people who won’t make heaven. They don’t even care if it exists or not and yet they won’t allow those who wish to go there to make it. They may even believe in a heaven and may even know the route to heaven but standing at the gate or as the bible puts it, shutting the gates of heaven against men, they won’t enter, or get out of the gate for others to enter! How do they do this? By instituting laws upon laws, depriving people of Godly principles of living, and leading lives that don’t depict an iota of godly living!

Notice those people who will always misinterpret the scriptures and hide the truth from being expounded upon? They are the ones being talked about here. Having a form of godliness but denying the power in it! (2 Tim 3:5).

WOLVES:

These set of people, hmmm… they are the very dangerous type of Pharisees. They do worse than criminals and pretend by praying long prayers that don’t cross their lips. In the scriptures when widows are mentioned it is a very serious issue not to be taken lightly because God stands for them (Ps. 68:5), yet these people ignore them and treat them as scum and use long prayers to cover up their evil deeds. They withhold justice from them, (Isa. 10:2) and deny them help (Job 22:9), and many more.

In the church, they are the once that always take out time to talk of how to help the widows and yet create policies that make it difficult for those widows to get what is truly theirs. (Acts 6:1)

SOUL-WINNERS:

I love the way bible describes them here and I so see it in the church today. They are wonderful evangelists, going places far and near to plant churches and pride themselves as church-planters. A great job they do but there is a ‘but’. They do all these to bring up another set of themselves who though are not of them but strangers, teach these people the church doctrine and confer on them heavy titles, inoculating into them their myopic and sadist way of life! Jesus says, they make them worse than they themselves to the point of making them “children of hell” two times more than themselves!

Just imagine! Winning souls into the faith only to properly qualify them for hell or to represent hell. That’s what Jesus means. They become offspring of hell; that is to say that these people never represented God’s kingdom but hell and make others disciples of hell! How many soul-winners do you know living like this? Avoid them like a plague because the cost of a soul is not labelled.

BLIND & CONTEMPTUOUS GUIDES:

These categories of people know how to attach price to everything and value these things more than God for whom it was made. They disrespect God by honouring gifts & material things offered or things used to design God’s place, counting as valid any pledge made by these vanities and ignoring the Sanctifier of these gifts/things.

In church, they are after physical things rather than spiritual things. They are purely materialistic in their deals with the validity of sincerity. You are not taken serious when you make a vow except by one or two things that they place value on. In their blindness they misguide the people in the way not knowing the way themselves. Their doctrines are inspired by their myopia (short-sightedness) and lust of the flesh.

MISPLACED PRIORITIES:

Oh Father! Have you been in a situation when a top official in church has offended and right before your eyes, justice is averted and turns in the favour of the leader? Or worse still, a little offense is punished or scrutinized and fact finding missions are engaged upon just to uncover a little error and right there, a very grievous offense is overlooked? Yeah? That’s what Jesus is talking about.

These people won’t ignore the smallest of things but on their own part will not give justice, mercy and faith which is of greater importance! They ignore doing what they are supposed to do to do what they aren’t supposed to or change the order of doing it. In another vein, Jesus was pointing at their bribery. Oh yes, in the church there is bribery! I’m not going to cite examples, Jesus has said it all in that scripture. Anytime you see something of this sort happening around you, just know that some Pharisees are around.

HYPOCRITES:

Probably the generalized word for Pharisees, in this regard it’s very obvious that they are never up to any good. How can you watch a cup’s outside and then leave out the inside? This analogy describes the foolishness of being a hypocrite. Here Jesus was referring to a deeper meaning and that meaning boils around one being observant of the outside more than the inside. The inside is dirt and then the outside is clean. It’s just like buying a prototype car that has no engine or a showcase phone that is a model of the original thing.

In the church today we have them lurking everywhere and in different forms, but our beam light is on those at the helm of affairs yet we ought to look into our lives too as we may be called to lead someday. These hypocrites are more mindful of the outside appearance of things, indeed they are far-to-see; they are ok so long as you look like them, talk like them and act like them. In the deep sense of the meaning of Pharisee, which is, ‘separated people’ or ‘separatists’, their separation is that of the outward and not the inside. They could as well have lots of dirt inside them than even those who are not separated as they are. They observe rituals in the church and will oppose anyone who tries to upset things or claim to know more than them.

For them, ‘the old way is the only way’, as true as it is or may be, they know little or nothing of how deep that way really is. And that’s why when THE WAY (John 14:6) came to redirect them to the way, they buffeted him and wondered how this CAPRPENTER’S SON (Matt. 13:55) could say such things or do those things. The same happens in church today. They are never open to ideas or truths that they may have omitted or forgotten and when you remind them, they remind you that they wrote those laws. They care more about appearance than repentance.

CHRONIC HYPOCRITES:

At this point if I were a Pharisee I’d just tear my garments but hey, once a Pharisee, always a Pharisee except saved by grace. Why will I tear my garments? Because I was likened to a sepulchre! That’s why! A tomb for God’s sake! “Am I that bad”?! I’d ask if I were but thank God I ain’t, won’t and can’t! Jesus said they were like white washed tombs, very clean outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. Now I’m filled with pity for them.

Do we have this disgusting people in the church? Oh yes we do! From members to church leaders to pastors on the pulpit! Though similar in acts as the other hypocrites, theirs is a matter of content. They are clean and can be easily spotted as righteous people but trust me, you don’t check out the inside! Smelly attitude. Dead consciences. No goods. Evil brooders and rotten characters! What do you expect to see inside a tomb? Beautiful things? No! But to them, they are fine just the way they are. They yet again maintain their righteous appearance before men but are full of iniquity and hypocrisy. The next one will shock you!

DEADLY HYPOCRITES/MURDERERS:

Does it get any better at all? At this point, Jesus speaks with an even greater displeasure. I can feel by the Spirit the pain within the heart of Jesus right now. These men who know the laws of Moses and seat on his seat (Matt. 23:1), do much more than mislead the people, they kill those sent by God to lead the people back to God.

Jesus says,

“You build tombs for the prophets your fathers killed and refurbish it order to make yourselves free of their guilt. You make it worse by even saying, ‘if we were in our fathers’ shoes we wouldn’t have done so’. Fact is, you at least agree that your fathers are murderers and you are their children; continue, you are yet to complete the cycle”. Matt. 23:30-34 (rephrased)

Note the highlighted phrase, here Jesus spoke in the shadows, of his death and the upcoming persecution of the church. And it happened just as he said it, Matt. 27:32-44 and the book of Acts shows it all.

Deadly is used to describe how murderous they really were in the end. Jesus called them “serpents and a generation of vipers”, and true to his words they did to Him and to the apostles after Him as He had prophesied. As proof of this, when Jesus was before Pilate, to show the evil state of their heart and how dead it was, they said to Pilate, after he had washed his hands off the case, “His blood be upon us and our children”! (Matt. 27:25). Imagine the level they were ready to take the curse; for all generation!

And the Host of Heaven was watching!

Unfortunately, the same people exist in our churches today. They are ready to take your life for standing up to the truth! They are ready to do you harm by any means possible if you tamper with their religion. Some have gone diabolical about it! I remember watching ‘fighting temptations’, Aunt Sally was just as mean as the by-laws of the church. She’s a typical example of a Pharisee. They dwell among us in church, lift up hands in worship, pray the same prayers, and go about church activities but by their fruit you shall know them (Matt. 7:20).

NOW TO THE CHURCH (YOU & I)

We’ve spoken extensively on this and now we need to check ourselves in general to be sure that we do not fall into any one of the above descriptions. Do a rethink and remove the log from your eyes so that you don’t remove your brother’s eyes with the aim of removing a spec from his. Are you blind, ask the Lord to open your eyes to see clearly! Pride will destroy you like Lucifer and that’s really not God’s plan for us.

What more can I say than that has been said by the Spirit of God?

“Take heed to yourselves and beware of the leaven (doctrines) of the Pharisees and Sadducees!”

KTF!