THE SHIELD OF FAITH.

‘’Lift up over all the shield of saving FAITH upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked one’’

FAITH is a POWERFUL FORCE that can easily move the POWERFUL HANDS of GOD to one`s direction in order to produce POWERFUL ACTS. FAITH is holding on to God`s words in the midst of every circumstance of life which will commit Him to do what He has promised concerning any issue. FAITH can also be seen as BELIEVING God to a point where one can no longer doubt Him and such BELIEF is founded upon an UNSHAKABLE TRUST in Him and in His words as God and His words are inseparable. Remember that your living is connected to and tied to your faith and without faith cum absolute belief in God and His words, you can in no way please Him. The major attack of the enemy is launched towards your faith because he knows that if he can attack your faith and bring it to a zero level, he will be able to defeat you. Christ prayed for Apostle Peter that the devil was out to get Peter by all means but He(Christ) had prayed for him(Peter) so that his faith should not fail.

The devil shrinks whenever your faith tank reads HIGH but he is happy when your faith pointer deflects towards the zero level and that is the reason why all his attacks are targeted towards your faith but thank God that we can through the shield of saving faith quench all the flaming missiles of the devil. Abraham used this kind of faith to silence the devil. He believed God when there was nothing to believe and the devil could not stop him from becoming the father of nations. Noah also overcame the evil one using this raw faith. He believed God to the point of building an ark when no flood was in view and the devil could not stop him from triumphing over the destruction that took the lives of people in his generation. Joseph also flawed the devil when he believed God to bring the fulfilment of his dream to reality in the midst of all manner of temptations and invitation to sin and the devil could not stop his dream from becoming a reality. Moses also triumphed over the enemy when the enemy brought a fierce attack against him. The host of Pharaoh were trailing him and the Israelites from behind and he was face to face with red sea in front and the people he was leading were on the verge of killing him. At that critical point, he looked up to God in faith and obeyed Him and the devil including the host of pharaoh were utterly put to blatant shame. Finally, Christ was not spared from confronting the devil. The devil sent some missiles towards Christ in the form of hot dialogue/steamy conversation and Christ in turn quenched those fiery darts by speaking God`s word back to him which he believed in faith.

If you call yourself a Christian, the devil will come at you to attack your faith. If your faith level is HIGH in God, he will never triumph over you. Increase your FAITH level daily by constantly and consistently feeding on God`s word for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the WORD of God. Once your faith level/tank is HIGH, the devil will not be able to overpower you. May your FAITH level be FIRED up to a SUFFICIENT and ADEQUATE level sufficient and adequate enough to return every missile sent towards your direction by the devil back to him. Shalom! Coming straight from my heart of hearts…Dayo Oladapo…www.Facebook.com/pages/Dayo-Oladapo-Official-Page/465259763522821

SOWING AND REAPING (PART TWO).

''Do not be deceived and deluded and misled for God will not allow Himself to be sneered at. For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction but he who sows to the Spirit will from it reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right for in due time and at the appointed season, we shall reap if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint’’

There is no one greater than God. Before the beginning began, God existed. In the beginning of beginnings, God introduced Himself. After the close of the age, you will be surprised to find God there. This is the reason why God is the only one that can predict your future because He is in the future already. A day in front of Him is like a thousand years and a thousand years in front of him can be crystallized into a day. When a personality of that repute like God talks to a man, such a man has to take such God very seriously because even the life of that man hangs around God. He is the one that instituted the law of sowing and reaping and that law has been existential for many generations without losing its results. The law simply states that whatever a man sows shall he reap. Whatever means anything. Sow cowpea and reap cowpea. Sow cassava and reap cassava. Sow financial resources and also reap the same. Sow joy and inspiration to others and also reap the same. God who is the Lord of the harvest will see to it that the sower will always reap what he or she has sown as He can never be mocked or sneered at. He cannot be bribed as whatever/anything a man sows will he also reap.

When God created man, man was essentially a spirit-being. He communicated with man via his spirit. When man fell, man`s spirit was completely/totally dead to God. Man essentially lost his communion with God and man was ruled essentially by the flesh. The flesh gained ascendancy over man`s spirit. The thoughts of hatred, murder, sexual immorality, covetousness, greed and so on which are the works of the flesh replaced the thoughts of joy, peace, love, self-control, long-suffering which are the works of the spirit. The flesh through its works essentially dominated man`s spirit and man became a wicked being. When Christ came into the world, He crucified man`s sinful flesh in His own flesh by His Spirit and Christ`s Spirit (the Holy Spirit) gained His throne back over man`s sinful flesh. The fruit of the Holy Spirit that is fully at work in a born again Christian has the potential to choke the works of the flesh that is also at work in that believer. The Bible states clearly that the flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit also wars against the flesh. The battle is going to be on until we have a new body at Christ`s return to the earth. The law of sowing and reaping that God instituted in the beginning also comes into play as regards who will gain ascendancy between the flesh and the Spirit in the life of any Christian. Sow into your spirit while neglecting the flesh and you will reap a Spirit-controlled life and consequently manifest the fruits of the Spirit in an unlimited measure. Sow into your flesh while neglecting your spirit man and you will reap a flesh-controlled life and never manifest the fruits of the recreated human spirit.

The Bible also states clearly that the Christian that is ruled/controlled by the flesh can never please God and can be seen as His enemy. This means the Christian that is controlled by the Spirit will please God and be seen as His friend. We can sow into our spirits by accepting God`s word as the final authority over our lives. This will make us read it, digest it, meditate on it and be active doers of it. This will develop the fruits of the Spirit such as love, joy, peace, self-control, long-suffering and so on in us and in the end, we will also reap eternal life having successfully mortified the deeds of the flesh. Sow into the spirit and reap eternal life and on the other side of the coin, sow into the flesh and reap eternal condemnation/damnation. The enemy is an enemy to anyone who sows continually to his/her spirit while crucifying the flesh and that is the reason it takes commitment, resoluteness and determination to do this. We are expected not to faint, get tired and weary of sowing into our spirits because the Lord of the harvest will surely makes us reap the dividends of our sowings. It is well with us in Jesus precious name. Shalom! Coming straight from my heart of hearts….Dayo Oladapo…www.Facebook.com/pages/Dayo-Oladapo-Official-Page/465259763522821

GROWING UP TO ACCESS OUR SPIRITUAL INHERITANCE IN GOD.

‘’Now what I mean is that as long as the inheritor is a child and under age, he does not differ from a slave although he is the master of the estate. But he is under the date fixed by his father’’ Christianity is a call to inheritance as God has called us to inherit certain things based on His divine promises which are also based on His divine provisions unto us. He has given us all things that pertains unto life and godliness. He has also made us inheritors of His divine promises having escaped corruption that is in the world through LUST. Apostle Paul also said in one of His powerful epistles to the church(you and me) that in Christ, ALL THINGS ARE OURS. In other words, he was saying that ALL THINGS that pertains to life and godliness which can be found in Christ Jesus are ours. It is important to see clearly that ALL THINGS that are accessible through Christ unto us can only be ours via our SONSHIP RIGHTS. When we gave our lives to Christ, we were transformed from being dirty dogs to being Spiritual miracle babies. We were babies being subject to the milk of God`s word which is needed by us for our nourishment, growth and development in Christ. After being on milk for a while, God expects us to grow and maturate from spiritual babies to spiritual sons so that we can really manifest our Sonship with Christ and also in Christ. Babies will always be babies as they cannot do anything by themselves. They cannot eat by themselves. They cannot urinate and defecate by themselves. They cannot put their clothes on by themselves not to talk of thinking for themselves. They cannot make any reasonable decisions of life in life as they are needed to be guided by someone who is more matured than they are. It is not spiritual babies that will access God`s promises but fully grown and matured sons and daughters of God. It is sad to see that some people have given their lives to Christ five, ten, fifteen and even twenty years ago but they are mere spiritual babies with feeding bottles in their hands everywhere they go. They are still being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine having not being fully rooted in Christ which is a direct result of feeding on God`s word regularly and being able to rightly divide the word of truth. Such babies are not yet delivered from the works of the flesh such as malice, back biting, envy, jealousy, hatred for even fellow Christians, evil plotting, covetousness having refused to embrace the fruits of the Holy Spirit such as love, joy, peace, long suffering and so on which have the virtues of triumphing over the works of the flesh any day, anytime. We also have babies that have grown rapidly into maturity under two, three and five years after giving their lives to Christ being slaves of God`s word by regularly feeding on it constantly and consistently and embracing the fruits of the Holy Spirit and mortifying the works of the flesh on a daily basis. These set of people are the ones that are able to manifest the sonship in Christ having grown from babyhood to adulthood. These set of people are the ones we see sharing testimonies of breakthroughs and advancement in life despite the fact that some of them came to the church only few years earlier. Being a spiritual baby is not a sin but remaining a spiritual baby for a long time after being saved and established in a church is a burden. A spiritual baby is a burden to the brethren, the pastors and other people in the spiritual family. Apostle Paul that grew to become an oak tree in Christendom was once a spiritual baby but he embraced spiritual responsibility in order to grow and blossom into a spiritual son who was able to totally access his redemptive rights in Christ. He once said that when he was a child, he talked like a child, moved about like a child and even reasoned like a child but when he grew to become a son, he left all childish things and he grew to become a person to be reckoned with. A spiritual baby is not different from a slave as a slave cannot enjoy the fullness of abundance in any house. All that slaves enjoy are the crumbs when God has set a table of feasting before us even in the midst of our enemies. It is only grown up sons that can dine and sup with God on His table having have their minds renewed and transformed in Him and not crying about as babies. There is a divine clarion call from God for us to grow up in Christ and leave behind all babyish attitudes, character and behavior by constantly and consistently feeding on God`s word and doing/practicing its obligations and going further to embrace the fruits of the Holy Spirit which will enable us to mortify the deeds of the flesh which may want to hinder our growth in God. It is God`s will for us to access ALL THINGS that are ours in Christ and I see us accessing them as we grow into mature sons and daughters of God in Christ in Jesus precious name. Shalom! Coming straight from my heart of hearts…..Dayo Oladapo…www.Facebook.com/pages/Dayo-Oladapo-Official-Page/465259763522821

SOWING AND REAPING.

Remember this that he who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly and he who sows generously will also reap generously and with blessing. Let everyone give as he has made up his own mind and purposed in his heart not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. As it is written, He scatters abroad. He gives to the poor. His deeds of justice and goodness and kindness and benevolence will go on and endure forever.........................It is a known fact that as complex as life is, it answers to time-proven and tested laws. God put these laws in place to govern life as anyone who will obey the dictates of these laws will reap the fruits of what these laws have to offer. For example, on earth today, there is the law of gravity which states that everything that is thrown upward must surely come down. If a stone is thrown upward in Ilesha(Osun state, Nigeria), it will surely come down just as it will do the same in Calgary, Canada. There is the law of motion which states that everything on earth remains at rest until an external force is applied to that it which will move it from rest. This law applies to all things on earth. There is another law which states that to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This law applies to every part on planet earth. In God`s Kingdom, there is also a law of sowing and reaping which answers with undeniable results in every place of the earth as laws are universal in results. According to God`s law of sowing and reaping, if a man sows, he is expected to reap what is sown within a period of time depending on the nature of the seed sown. If a man sows a seed, he is expected to reap fruits with the seed in it in a matter of time depending on the nature of seed sown just as the reaping time of the fruit of maize is different from the reaping time of the fruit of cocoa because the nature of these seeds are different. God went further to state that he who sows his seeds sparingly and grudgingly will also reap in like manner because He cannot be mocked and also, he who sows generously will also reap in likewise manner because God is just to His laws. So, the law of sowing and reaping applies to physical seeds in agriculture such as maize, cocoa, cowpea etc and it also applies to spiritual seeds. Spiritual seeds include money, energy, time which when sown into the Spiritual or sometimes physical will yield returns in the physical as the Spiritual controls the physical. To reap a wealthy life, we have to sow money/financial resources into God`s Kingdom/agenda on the face of the earth in order to propagate God`s end-time/Kingdom agenda here on earth. God`s cogent will is to establish His Kingdom on earth and it is through prosperity that His plan will be established. When God`s people take it as a responsibility to sow into this special agenda of God, He will in turn bless the giver with wealth. To reap a fruitful ministry, the visionary of the ministry must sow his precious financial resources, energy and time towards impacting the people to whom he is sent to minister to because ministry revolves around people as there cannot be ministry without people. To reap a fruitful family life, the head of the family who is the father must sow bountifully his financial resources, energy and scarce time to the life of his dear wife and children with the motive of loving them, caring for their physical and spiritual needs so that they can turn out well in life. The mother and wife must also sow her valuable financial resources, energy and time to her husband in full/total submission to his authority/leadership and to the children with the motive of reaping a fruitful home in terms of producing responsible citizens for the nation. To reap a strong physical body, spirit and mental system, the owner of these vital assets must sow good/nutritional food, diet, rest and physical exercise to the body, the word of God and a daily/fresh communion with the Holy Spirit and a good knowledge bank from good books and communion/communication with like minds/good friends to the mental system. These will create a total and complete man in terms of a functional physical body, viable spirit man and workable/fit mental system. To reap a productive relationship among singles and intending couples, both parties involved in the contractual relationship must sow a good amount of their financial resources, energy and time towards the success of their relationship thereby avoiding break-ups. If we can sow generously into all areas of our lives with our made-up-minds, we will surely reap generously because God who instituted the time-proven/tested universal law of sowing and reaping is surely committed to see that you reap a harvest of whatever you have sown into all areas of our lives. By two immutable things by which it is impossible for God to lie, whatever a man sows will he also reap whether good or bad, whether sparingly or generously and whether grudgingly or with absolute cheerfulness. God bless you! Coming straight from my heart of hearts…Dayo Oladapo…www.Facebook.com/pages/Dayo-Oladapo-Official-Page/465259763522821