Volume 2007/2
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"He will throughly purge his
floor, and gather his wheat into the garner”
Mat.3:12
We
are discussing the stature of Christ. In
the 1st sermon, we said God is Love.
He is calling us to come and become sons of Love. “For as many as received him to them gave he
power to become the sons of God.”
Now the stature of a Son of God is what we are describing.
Many
of us thought of the stature of Christ as the stature to perform wonders and
miracles. But you see, the wonders and
miracles follow when we are sons of God.
If you are the son of a King, automatically you are rich because you
father owns everything. But many of us
want the wealth when we are not yet the sons of the King. We want to make the lame to walk, we want to
make the blind to see, we want to raise the dead; but we are not sons of God yet! All He wants you and me to be, is to become a
son of God, to have all the characters and attributes of God.
A son of a father is two fold. “If you were Abraham’s children, you will do
the work of Abraham.” As said before, we
have the biological image, and we ought to have the character of our
father. This is what God has been
pre-occupied with, to make us like himself, to mold us in our actions and
reactions. He want us to become like
him. And what is God? God is Love.
“He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him”. (1 Jn. 4:16).
He wants us to become sons of God, sons of Love.
What is this Love we are talking
about? Everything the Lord Jesus Christ
did, we can trace back to his compassion for humanity.
“And
there came a leper to him (Jesus), beseeching him, and kneeling down to him and
saying unto him if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth
his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean”. (Mk.1:40-41)
This is an important miracle because the book
of Moses portrayed to the Hebrews that if anyone is smitten with leprosy, God
has smitten the person with leprosy. The
person must have done something wrong.
So, anyone that was a leper had practically no hope because they were
made to believe that God did this to them.
How then can they seek the help of a servant of God? They were outcasts from the city. Therefore this leper came to Jesus and said
“if thou will, thou can make me clean”.
The Lord Jesus demonstrated the will of God, and the love of God by the
answer that “I will, be thou clean”.
God did not put those plagues upon humanity, but had allowed humanity
the consequences of their choices which many times can result in troubles. The Lord Jesus demonstrated the love of
God. He is the express image of the
Father. You might say “but why did Moses
write “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth?” Humans wrote laws for one another that binds
and unbinds us. God just allowed things
to be so for a while. That is why
Apostle Paul wrote that the law (Moses law) was our schoolmaster to keep us in
check till Christ appeared. (Gal.3:24) “Wherefore
the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith.” The Lord
Jesus Christ said “all these things will they do unto you because they have not known the
Father, nor me”. (Jn. 16:3). Mankind have not known the Father God at
all. People have just followed some men
who wrote that this is how God wants us to do things. Look at many things that
Moses wrote. The Lord Jesus came and
said, “Moses wrote this precept for the hardness of your hearts, but from the
beginning it was not so”. (Mat.19:8). So you mean we can put the blame
on Moses and not on God? It means there
are many things God allowed Moses to write for the people to control their
society for the time at hand. But in the
beginning it was not so. God is
Love. You have to know that when we say
God is love, it does not mean you can just go and do anything you want, and he
will not punish your sin. He is still a
just God. He is merciful also. But his love is calling you to himself: “come
and become like me”. Come and become a
son of God.
How did Christ make the lame to walk? It is out of his compassion.
You
may try to make the lame man walk out of your ego to show that you have this
power! That is not what God is looking
for. He is looking for sons. Sons of Love.
He wants to put all his characters of love into you, to bear the seven
Spirits of God, the seven Spirits of Love!
Then, they may even nail you to a tree, you will still be praying for
them that nail you to the tree. This is
the stature of a son of God.
God is looking for sons. He is setting up the kingdom of the sons of
God. Until this love is born in hearts
of saints the rapture cannot come yet. God will wait until he gets this love in
the church. Many preachers said the Lord
is coming soon in the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, they even thought the year2000
will bring the end. No! He has not found his body, the church, full
of that love yet. We are green and not
ripen yet. This is the capstone of the
message, that God is Love. He wants you
and me to begin to exercise these fruits of Love. Let’s go again and see what love really is.
In the church of the Corinthians, Apostle
Paul saw the trend of the problem of the church by what was going on over
there. They were competing with one
another in the spiritual gifts, and Paul noted the main ingredient that was
missing in them: Love. In
1Cor.12:31 he said you may covet the
best of the gifts, yet show I unto you a more excellent way – which is the way
of Love. God’s kind of love! The kind of love Christ manifested when he
was spit upon, being nailed to the cross and he did not call fire upon them; he did not
curse them, knowing it was for them he was dying, prayed that “father
forgive them for they know not what they do”.
Look around you and see how many people
say there is no God. God does not send
thunder and lightening down on them to prove Himself. You see what I’m saying? God is love.
He wants you and me to become sons of Love that will transform this
whole world, to manifest the full character of God. This
is the age where sons of God must manifest.
Sons of Love that God is raising up, must manifest the full character of
God. And that is when the power can
follow those sons of Love. The power we
are talking about, to make the blind to see, to make the lame walk, to move
mountains out of the way. It follows
that kind of character, the attributes of God, attributes of Love. Here it is:
(1Cor.13)
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and
of angels and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” This supernatural power we are talking
about, if you have it without having love, you will be using it just for ego,
that your ministry is bigger than their ministry; that you have it and they
don’t have it! You see, Love does not
do that!
“And
though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mystery and all
knowledge, and have not love, I am nothing”. Every one of us is trying to flex our
muscle at the devil, and how are we flexing that muscle? Mostly out of pride, out of ego,
show-off? But if we don’t have this
love, we are nothing, we are going nowhere!
“Though
I bestow my goods to feed the poor”:
This is the “giving” kind that everyone believes is Love. He says we can do those “giving” and still
not have love, because it can be a show-off also!
“Though
I give my body to be burned”:
One may say, Christ gave his body on the cross, but it’s the heart we
are talking about. What is your
motive? God is looking for motives! When I feel like praying for that man so that
he can get out of that sickbed and be well, what is my motive? Ask yourself that question every time the
thought comes to your heart to do something, even something good for somebody
else. Check your motive first, make sure
your motive is right. Is it out of compassion, out of love?
Apostle Paul wrote that giving should not be
out of necessity: “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not
grudgingly , or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (2Cor.
9:7) Sometimes we parents give to our
children out of responsibility. Those
are good, nothing wrong with it, but that is not the “love” we are talking
about. When it comes out of your heart,
out of compassion, a love-driven motivation, that is when it can become a
sacrificial giving. If it is out of
responsibility, or out of necessity, all those are what humanity still have to do. God is calling for a higher order. God is higher than man. He is the high and lofty God that dwells in
the high and holy place. He sees all the
works of man and our charity which are all out of responsibility or out of
necessity: “I have to help him because if I don’t, no one else will--- I am the
next of kin to him.” Those are all
good and out of necessity. But God is
looking for compassionate love from the heart.
God himself is this Love.
How can we get this love? It is God that will drop it into your heart,
but you must be willing; you must submit to it.
It’s like the Holy Ghost. When
you ask for it and you receive the visitation, you have the Holy Ghost. This divine Love is a coming visitation by
God’s presence that will change your nature.
But He will not force himself upon you.
You must see his character and accept it and say “Lord, this is what I
want to become”. Ask him to visit you,
to take you over. The deposit is already
in you once you are baptized in the Holy Ghost through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Once you have the Holy Ghost the
potential is in you. But there are many
of those characteristics he could not manifest in you because you are resisting
him. Your attitude is resisting the Love
he wants to manifest. Your vengeful behavior,
anger, hating your brother and your spouse, fighting one another: you are not submitting to what he wants to do
in you. That is why this fruit (love) we
are talking about, seems like it’s going to come from somewhere to us. No!
The deposit is there in us, like a seed that has to germinate. Begin to let it germinate and blossom and
take you over. God has put this Holy
Ghost in us and we have to let him manifest these attributes of Love to take us
completely over so that we will be just like Christ. Then the power can manifest when we are sons
of God indeed. When we say this Love will come, It is going to blossom from
within you when you let him. “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to
every man to profit withal”.
(1Cor.12:7).. The power is resident
in you to become a son of God. Like a
seed that is put in the ground. Put a
seed (bean or corn) in the ground, if the moisture, the heat is not right, it
will just be a seed in the ground, never germinate! In the same way, the Holy Ghost has the seed
of Love in you but it cannot produce this divine love because the atmosphere,
your attitude, is not right;
your action, and reactions, your willingness is not right. The Holy
Ghost cannot produce this kind of Love, because you still have some people you hate;
you still have some tribes you don’t like! Therefore you have not created an atmosphere
in you for the seed of Love to germinate and blossom to take you over to become
a son of God. You still have some
people that hurt you and you cannot forgive, you still have
un-forgiveness. That is why God has put
ministries in the church — Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Teachers and
Pastors --- to continue to teach us how to live in forgiveness, how to put away
bitterness and pride. Apostle Paul
listed some of the things we have to put away.
“But now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth”. (Col.3:8).
When you begin to exercise to put them off, then you are producing a
good atmosphere, a good moisture environment for the seed of love to germinate
in you and blossom and take you over. Here
are the things we are to exercise, what love is:
Love suffereth long --- are you
patient/longsuffering enough? Love is kind --- are you kind enough? Not just to Christians, even to all around
you.
Love envieth not -- you are not to be envious of the other man
that has better things or the other country that has more wealth than yours,
don’t be envious. See! We are not talking of the love that comes
from the outside, but the love that comes from the inside, from the Holy
Spirit. This love is what God is saying
if you yield to it, it will blossom, overwhelm you and take you over completely
to become a son of God, a son of Love.
Love vaunted not itself – is not
puffed up - we must have humility.
Love is not rude – are you? We are to give honor to whom honor is
due. Apostle Peter wrote that “honor all
men, love the brotherhood, Fear God, honor the king”. (1Pet.2:17).
Love does not seek her own - not
self-seeking, not self-centered. It’s not: “I want this power so that “I”
can show that “I” have this power of God;
Love is not self-seeking.
Love is not easily provoked - does not get
angry easily. Your emotion is taken over
completely by this love. That is when,
as Christ said, “if they slap you on one cheek, turn the other also”; and you
say who can do that? Nobody has been
able to do that! What makes people to
fight back? The emotions, adrenaline is
pumped into your blood veins! The Holy
Ghost can control your emotions so that you are not easily provoked, when you
let him.
Love thinketh no evil – does not remember wrongs done to it. This is because you easily forgives. Some folks kept bringing to mind the quarrels
of yester-years, or yesterdays; Love does not remember wrongs done to it.
As
you exercise yourself in these attributes then you are creating an atmosphere
for the seed of divine love to germinate, blossom and take you over so as to
become a son of God indeed. Then the
full power of God can manifest because we are no more doing the wonders out of
ego, but out of compassion for mankind; out of Love. Manifestation of the sons of God, manifestation
of the sons of Love, because God is Love.
Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but
rejoiceth in the truth --- You don’t
delight in iniquity, don’t delight in the pollutions of sin that is in the
world, it makes you sad to see humanity in those immoral behaviors. Your delight is in the law of the Lord, and
in His word you meditate day and night.
(Psalm 1:1-3).
Love beareth all things -- are you
able to bear your next-door neighbor?
Love beareth all things. Are you
able to bear with your spouse? Love beareth
all things. You don’t strike back. Love beareth all things.
Love believeth all things -- some people
have already condemned a group of folks that these can never change nor get to
heaven! Love believeth all things. Believe in the best of people that God can
change them.
Love hopeth all things -- hoping that
the Lord will make a way.
Love endureth all things --- even painful things, Love endures it just for
cheer love.
These
are what God wants us to exercise to make good atmosphere for the seed of Love
to germinate, blossom and take us over, so that we become sons of Love. 1Cor.13,verse 8 said this Love never fails, because God is this
Love.
We have to come to the fullness of the
stature of Christ to be able to go away in the rapture. We must get to the “sons of God” level, “sons
of Love” level to go away with Christ.
We can do it! Begin today to
exercise these attributes of Love.
God
bless you.
(…to be continued..)
Bro. Julius---------------
“Behold, what manner of love the Father has
bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world
knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God and it doth not
yet appear what we shall be: but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like hi: for we shall see him as he is.
And Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth
himself, even as he is pure.” (1 John
3:1-3).
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offering to this ministry. Your
investment and mine send the literature to believers and send the word on
radio. That is one sure way we can send
our money ahead of us to heaven. The
Lord said: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also." (Mat. 6: 19-21). "For
we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out." (1Tim. 6: 7).