₦airaland Forum

My dogs also got up this morning and are in good health

If you read your bible properly with faith in your heart, you will understand it fully.

God is not offended that we are working miracles in His name.

Seun,

Were you refering that post to me? Just in case you were, my advice is that you drop all that religiousity and face the truth. Did i say it wasn't God that healed the people? When God gives you a gift, it's yours. It is not humility to try to deny that fact. Of course God, the giver of the gifts and the supplier of the Spirit is behind those miracles, but it takes a man annointed with the spirit of God to do them. The miracles are to bring him glory because because they were performed in the name of His son Jesus.

Do you know what that means? To Pray or act in the Name of Jesus means you are acting in His stead. It is as though Jesus himself was doing it.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Heal the sick, cast out devils..." He did not say," pray that i might come and heal the sick". This is righteousness conciousness i am sharing with you. This is based on the work of christ for us . We are seated with Christ at the right hand of authority and we operate from there. Glory!

Even if you are looking for faults in the church, please dont start from the name 'christian' because that carries little or no weight at all.

By the way, i did not say the Holy Spirit is the origin of the name ....i said He is the origin of the phenomenon. Please read my fromer posting carefully. Besides, i do not think that is a bad name afterall. Since it only tells of our similarity and union with the master -Jesus

1cor 12:8-10

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

Any christian can pray and have answers to his prayers because God has promised to answer prayer. But there are specific callings as regars healing and miracles as there are for other gifts of the Spirit.

It cannot be denied that Pastor Chris has the gift of working of miracles ...Or maybe you can try and minister to a crippled man and watch him get healed through his own faith.

1Jn 5:11,-12 -"And this is the record, that God hath given to  us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." This is what christianity is all about. That a man can have the God-life in him. This life is not subject to sin, disease, defeat or death. This is the gospel. Nonsensical you say hun?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.     No hard feelings plsss.

Can you explain that to me? Did he give us life by taking away the original sin by dying on the cross? It really seems quite nonsensical to me. I just cannot get my head around it.

Not only did he take away iooriginal sin,; He gave us the life that is in the father. That is eternal life. The very essencce of life that makes God God. For which reason he is called God. He did not just save us from original sin. But he destroyed the power of sin thereby leaving the christian with dominion over sin, condemnation and death. This is what the gospel is all about. I t is not mere religion. It is the pulsating life of God in Man.

let him speak 4 himself.

Rhoda,
You asked: "Where in this verse does it say Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, named His Church christian or even was the originator of christainity?"

It is true that Jesus never called His disciples Christains. They were first called that name in Antioch by unbelievers who observed thet they were just like their master.

When Jesus was alive he operated under the old covenant. And most of what He taught, he taught to people who were under the old covenant. And whenever He spoke to them concerning the new testament, the kingdom of God, they did not understand Him.

JOHN 16:12-13
12"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

Until the Holy Spirit came, it was impossible to be born again. There could be no new creation before the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. He is the one that baptises a person into the body of christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13 (Whole Chapter)
"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. "

That is why Jesus said:

Acts 1:5 (Whole Chapter)
"For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. "

This is the new birth...this is the Born-again experience. This is only by the Holy spirit. So before penticost, before the Holy Ghost was sent, there was no christianity. So the Holy Spirit may not have coined the name 'Christian', but He sure is the origin of the Phenomenon called 'Christianiaty'.

That was a long one o!

You see, the reason it seems as though i am not answering straightforward is that you really cannot put God in a box...of sense knowledge. So trying to carve my belief or rather this discussion in those outlines, questions and/ sentenses just wouldnt work for me. Jesus was that way. His words sounded like parables to those that did not believe. i am not a theologean. i am a christian.

However, let me respond to some of them:

1. What we cherish in chistianity is not just the traditions or religion. It is more than that. Christianity is not a religion...it is the pulsating life of God in a human person. There is religion in Christainity... but christainity is not a religion! This is all that pure religion is about:

James 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Jeus did not come to introduce another religion to us. He came to give us life: "i am come that they might have life and that they might have it to the full."

2. The bible contains the Word of God. Men of God spoke as they were moved of the Spirit of God. Jeus, Paul, Peter and the rest of the Apostles esteemed God's Word highly as authority and quoted from the same. We cannot do less. Infact, we are told to stick to the sciptures as a light that shines in a dark place.

2 Peter 1:19
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.

3. Have you read the gospel of thomas before? I have said before that the reason many of those books were not recognised is because hey did not have any evidence of divine inspiration. No prophesies concerning the messiah. There were no connections to or quotaion from any of the known prophets of God. The Jews themselves never considered these books to be God-inspired. There were seveal poetic books at the time which contained contemporary wisdom written by poets of their time. (REf: write to Loveworld School of Ministry- www.loveworldchistiannetwork.net)

They were introduced and added much later ...several years after the books as we have in the King James version of the bible were chosen as canonical. Only the catholic church recognised those other books even as at the time.

john. 1:12-13:
But as many as received him(Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

James 1:18
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.(King James Ver.)

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures(New Int. Ver.)

1pet. 1:23
You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.

I know i cannot communicate with those people like that. That is why we were commanded by the scriptures to preach the Word, not with mere words but with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

What if i demostrated the power of what i believe for you to see?

I guess you will call me a magictian.

You do not know God's will just because He created you. Some were created, others were born of Him.

To know his will, you must have a living relationship and fellowship with Him. His Word is His will. His words are His thoughts clothed in vocabulary.

Do you?

How do you know it is the same experience?

And besides, god's Word commands us to follow th written Word as a light that shines in the dark. If not, how can we know the way...or how can we distinguish b/w what is right and what is wrong if the scriptures do not shed light on it?

Thw Word is as light to our path.

Amen

What bothers me is the soul of this country and its people. I was amazed to see in the papers the govenor being hailed and cheered by his kinsmen who came out in large number raising his praise.

This is one country where criminals are celebrated and good people are criticized and destroyed. We do not have living legends in our country. We only celebrate good people after they are dead and after a short while, they are forgotten. Whereas, when they are alive, we destroy them.

All this must change. We must begin to praise what is good in this country and support  good things so that evil workers shall be ashamed and disgraced.

Because we know His will. We His children are partners together with Him.

I feel you joftech. You see this is the reason i continue to pray for my country Nigeria and its people. Because God is the one who can give them a new sense of worth and a determination and drive to aim for the best in life thereby maximizing the potentials He has put in them.

It is wrong to say that despite the many churches we have, there is still a lot of curruption...as if the pastors are preaching corrution. That is thinking in a negative way. I will rather say, because of the great evil we have in our country today, God has raised many more men of God to combat the evil. I am howver aware that there are those who are not called amongst the fold and who are in the ministry to make a living or because of some quarrel they had in the church where they belonged. All such are risking being condemned to hell.

Some have accused us of not preaching salvation and the second coming of Christ as if they know what these signify. Salvation is all encompassing, signifying, freedom from sin, enslavement , self-pity, ignorance, poverty, sickness and affliction. This is total salvation.

When a man gets to understand who he is in Christ, it changes eveerything. He is not the one who says , "let us leave  all for God" 'because he knows himself and God are actually in partnership to make the world of men a better place. God annoints the minds of his kids with supernatural widom causing them to achieve with their minds what others taught impossible. God makes His children masters in life, teaching them to live selflessly for the benefit of humanity.

That so-called gospel of "we are saved to make heaven" is not from Jesus. This is the gospel of selfish christains who are only concerned about themselves and not about the suffering and lost millions in the world. They do not yet know the meaning of their salvation. We are saved to save the world; to make such great positive impact in this world so that by the time we leave this world by rapture, the world will miss us! We were saved to shake this world for Jesus. The Word tells us:

1 Peter 2:9:
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own [a]purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."

That is why there is provision for divine health and prosperity in this gospel so that we will be without excuse.

As for politics. It is only a matter of time. Things will change for good in this nation. Evil and Godless men shall be ashamed. I was listening with joy to some declarations made by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome this last National Youth conference. He said:

"We will not be quiet come 2007...We are watching all the aspirants closely...We will swing the votes come 2007...We will all register and we will vote... by november, we will be 2.5 million members in our ministry, and by 2007 we will be 5million members...we will have a say come 2007...we will swing the votes." he prophesied, "There shall be no rigging"

And i believe him... even as i believe in the God that answeres the prayers of Nigerians who cry out to him. He is not a man of empty words. Those who think power is their birthright will be suprised.

And... just for the records... Pastor Chris Oyakhilome is not interested in contesting for political appointments. In His own words he said, "I am a man of God and not a politian...that is not where my grace is...and besides, i don't think i like that kind of demotion".

If it were just for the written Word, maybe i will not be as sure as i am now. but you see, i have the Spirit of truth whom Jesus promised to come and guide us into all truth, living in me. He confirms the written Word in our hearts.

You ask me to prove that? It is like asking me to prove the exixtence of God. I will not need to because it takes the same Spirit of truth with his convicting power and with the miracles that he does to convict any man of his reality.

God is the God of the nations. He had these things all planned out. He is not supprised at all. This civilization we have so far gotten is not a suprise to Him at all...in fact, it was his plan and working. So rather than cast blames here and there, let us think of the way forward.

Oh how i weep as i bow my knees in  prayer for my dear country, Nigeria. May God take away this reproach and shame from us. May truth, justice and righteousness abound in our land, as our people look towards the future with hope and determination in their hearts to bring about the Nigeria or our dreams.

May influence be taken away from wicked and selfish leaders who do not have the fear of God in their their hearts. May they be replaced with enlightened, God fearing Nigerians so that our light may shine forth before all nations and that your glory may be seen in our land again.

In Jesus' name, Amen!

Let me tell you guys something of a truth... you can do a research on this if you like:

Those who pay their tithes do not have a problem  with paying of tithes they are not the ones complaining because they are actually getting blessed. But it is those who neither pay their tithes nor give substantially for God's work that are the greatest opponents to the doctrine of tithing.

I wonder why they are angry about tithe-paying when they are not the ones paying the tithes.

Tithe is tithe; offering is offering. They are not the same.

The Holy spirit and not Paul was the originator of christianity. Christianity actually began on the day of pentecost. You cannot posses knowledge of truth without the Holy Spirit of truth.

John 16:13 
"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."

So you have nothing of spriritual  significance to impart without the Holy Spirit in your life as your teacher.

They were killing each other before the eoropeans came.

It is funny when we blame europeans 4 our misfortunes.

The Europeans never went into the bush to catch slaves. It was the Africans themselves that caught these slaves and handed them over to the Europeans in exchange for fabrics, gin or whatever they wanted from these white folks.

We fought for our independence and having gotten it since 1960, who do we blame for where we are today? Our military leaders? Mind you ...they are not Europeans.

That they did not have access to the bible shouldnt be seen as a recommendation but as a subject of great concern requiring swift response/action.

The truth my friend is not always bitter, it makes men free and causes the heart to rejoice. The truth is the gospel of Christ!

You see that's the problem with Nigerians. They fight to destroy anything that is good. They think that anything that seems good in our country must have some  deciet or some fraud in it. They think there must be something the man of God stands to gain (financially or otherwise) in what he is doing. They  do not rely on the inspirationof the Holy Spirit.

See how christians of other nations embrace the man. See how much they are  blessed by him. The white people always praise and support what is good. They do not seek to destroy good things. That is why they prosper always.

Oscaruk,

Do you think that those people you see on TV are there just to shout or to be healed ...We have gone past that level. Mind you, those you see on TV during his teachings in church(not crusades) are mostly soldiers for Jesus shaking the kingdom of darkness in their various locations, and many of those that you see on TV who get healed in special meetings or crusades are members form other churches including those churches whose pastors criticize Pastor Chris and his miracles.

Those who are true members of Christ Embassy have learnt how to use God's Word for themselves as well as minister to others like jesus did. They are not in need of healing, they just love Jesus.

If you think it is easy to preach and get people excited about Jesus or that miracles are things any man can just conjure up as he likes, then think again. Because if it were so, it will be common place. But it pleased God in his Righteousness to put His stamp of approval on Pastor Chris' ministry making His prsence so manifest in their midst and confirming the words of the man of God with astonishing signs and wonders thereby silencing his critics.

I tell you, many of those who say he does not preach salvation do not know the salvation message in the first place. They are themselves, confused.