Pastor Cheri
PRAYER
Thank you Lord for the Word you have for us today, our hearts and our minds are open to receive it and we receive it gladly with faith and meekness, in Jesus' Mighty Name. Amen.
To live the authentic Christian life, we ought to look like Christ. Our lives should be a reflection of the one who made and gave birth to us, which is our Heavenly Father.
We are different from the world because we do not carry the traits of the world, we do not look like people of the world, our genes don't bear the character of the world. We have God’s genes in us because He is our Father so we look and act like Him. Hallelujah!
A godly life is a god-like life, a life that portrays God in all aspects, a life that looks and acts like God.
The godly life is the life every Christian ought to be living, people should see God’s character in you. They should want to associate with you because of your godly character.
There are traits and behaviours associated with people of the flesh which are worldly people. They are not born of God so exhibit these characters easily. Their spirit-man in unregenerated. These characters are works of the flesh.
Turn your Bibles to Galatians 5:19-21
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
These are what we find among those in the world. No matter how you try to correct it, you would still find it among them. They are not born again, their spirits have not been born of God, so they don't have His nature in them. They are still of their father, the devil. He is the father of all those who are not saved. So it's his nature they exhibit when they display such acts. They behave like him in everything and until they are born again, these traits would continue to show up. It's the nature of the devil in them. The ability to change is not in them because of this nature. So unti, they are saved they cannot change. Hallelujah!
We have the traits and character of those who are born again. We look like God in all ramification. These are the behaviours associated with those who are born again and we can find them in the next verse of the same book, the book of Galatians.
Go to Galatians 5:22-23
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
These are the traits found with us who are born again. The works of the flesh are not found with us. This is why the next verse says,
"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts."
Galatians 5:24.
We have crucified the flesh, it doesn't rule over us anymore, our spirits have gained the ascendancy over the flesh, the works of the flesh don't work in us anymore. We are superior to satan and his character. Hallelujah!
This is why, you walk in love, you don't respond hashly to others, you love them like you love yourself. This is the golden rule, love your neighbour as much as you love yourself.
"And He answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Luke 10:27.
All the commandments hinge on this rule. If I love you, I wouldn't steal from you. If I love you, I wouldn't bear false witness against you. Praise God! In a nut-shell, I wouldn't do you wrong if I love you. So when you love, you have fulfilled the commandments, you have fulfilled the law.
The law was brought as a guide to lead us till Christ comes. All that was written in the law was meant to be adhered to by the Israelites. They had to keep the whole law and not miss anyone of them so they can live right in the sight of God; but the new creation is controlled by only one law, the law of love and in the spirit realm it's actually not a law, we just live by it.
"For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." Galatians 5:6.
The Bible says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. This is found in Hebrews 11:6. So every child of God ought to have faith. Faith was given to you at salvation as a child of God.
"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than He ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Romans 12:3.
Everyone was given the same measure of faith, it's your responsibility now to grow it. Praise God!
So you have faith. All that is relevant to God now, all that we should put in use is that faith which works by love.
It takes faith for you to love someone who has been ill-treating you. It takes faith for you to forgive someone who has wronged you deeply. We operate here by that faith which works by love. If your faith is not working by love, then it's not faith at all because for your faith to produce results, it must be working by love. Glory to God.
Someone can be very unpleasant to you and you feel like letting it go, "I've got to speak to him in a way he'll understand, I have to tell him my mind!" What you have in your mind, is it worth hearing? Or you want to give someone a piece of your dirty mind? All you do to such a fellow is hold yourself in which is one of the fruits of the spirit, temperance.
You should be full of love, have Joy and peace, be longsuffering, that is have endurance (staying power), you should be gentle, good, full of faith, meek and have self control which is temperance. These are the fruit of the spirit.
The fruit of the spirit are already in you. Don't say you are trying hard to have them work in you, no! They are already in you and are working. That is why when you go against one of them, you don't feel good at all, you wish you had kept quiet, you wish you had not responded harshly, you wish you were gentle to that fellow, and so on. Don’t find yourself ending up wishing, just do the right thing, just do it right the first time. That is excellence. Excellence is doing the right thing the first time. So do it right the first time so you don't find yourself wishing you had done it right. Hallelujah! You have an excellent spirit given to you by God, your spirit-man is mingled with the Holy Ghost who is the Spirit of excellence. So you have an excellent spirit. So you just go ahead and do it right. Praise the Lord.
So you walk in faith, you walk in love, you walk in faith which works by love.
The most important thing is to get the Word in you, when you get the Word in you, you would manifest the fruit of the Spirit naturally.
Live godly, this is how the Christian is known. You should show the world what Christ looks like through your character. Let people see Jesus in you. Hallelujah!
Have you been blessed?
Lift up your hands and worship the Lord. Thank Him.
