It’s still our Month of Growth and Pastor reemphasized the importance of paying attention to the words that we speak. Reading from James 3:1, “For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body”, Pastor clarified that the passage clearly referred to “not offending in word” which is different from not offending in speech. She explained this to mean that the focus is on whether the words spoken are consistent with or offensive to the word of God and not merely referring to perfection in speech or grammatical construction. She reiterated that the perfect or mature man is the one whose communication is always in line with what God’s word has shown him. She charged us that as Christians, we can measure our growth by carrying out a self-evaluation of our day to day communication, and checking to see how much of it is consistent with God’s word.

Thereafter, Pastor read from Galatians 6:7-8, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” The danger of sowing to the flesh is that you only reap corruption. Corruption refers to waste and so, sowing to the flesh is a waste of valuable time. All of our actions in life can be classified as either an investment to the flesh or to the spirit and every of such investment yields results. For a man who wakes up in the morning and starts the day with playing video games rather than studying God’s word or praying, he is sowing to the flesh and wasting time. On the contrary, the man who wakes up in the morning and begins his day by spending some time speaking in tongues will reap eternal life; that is, his results in life will be characteristic of eternal life, far exceeding the ability of the human life.

Pastor made an illustration to show that the human life has a self-healing ability, an ability to repair itself. Certain wounds or injuries repair themselves and people don’t get so concerned when they have these cuts or bruises knowing fully well that the body would repair itself. By this, Pastor pointed out that God’s intent and design in making man was that the body would be able to restore itself whenever there is a damage. In explaining how some major injuries don’t get to heal naturally, Pastor taught that the ability of the human life to repair itself has been weakened by death which passed upon all men as a result of sin coming into the world as seen in Romans 5:13, “..as by one man, sin came into the world and death by sin and death passed upon all men”. In contrast, Pastor showed us that there is no such limit with the divine life. Pastor showed us a glimpse into what the divine life can do as seen in Luke 22:49-51 where Peter cut off the ear of one of the servants of the high priest who had come to arrest Jesus. The level of damage done was not one that could be repaired by the human life but Jesus in manifesting his divine life picked up the ear, slapped it back on the servant’s head and he was restored completely and instantly. With this example, Jesus proved that the divine life yields results which far exceed the ability of the human life in speed, excellence and effectiveness. Pastor taught that man who sows to the spirit has left the level of operating with the human life to becoming more conscious of the things of the spirit and as such, will begin to manifest the divine life in his health, business and everything that affects him.

Pastor gave one more illustration of how different people in the bible handled the same challenge. Moses got to the red sea, commanded the children of Israel to stop and cried out to God (Exodus 14:1-3). He saw the sea as a limitation but had God rebuke him for telling the Israelites to stop, command him to tell them to go forward and to stretch forth his hand and divide the sea. God did not see the sea as a limitation to their journeying and expected Moses to think likewise. Elijah and thereafter Elisha also saw the sea as a limitation but having learnt from Moses, they didn’t cry to God, rather, with the use of Elijah’s mantle, they divided the River Jordan (2 Kings 2:8) but we see Jesus, the very representation of eternal life having a similar challenge. His disciple had left him and there was no ship to take him to the other side. In responding, he didn’t recognize the sea as a limitation, he got to the water and just kept walking on. The divine life does not recognize the limitations of the human life. For the man who dedicates his time to investing in the spirit, things that would appear to be limitations to the natural person would pose no challenge to him.

In concluding the message, Pastor read from Luke 1:80 and Luke 2:40 where it was recorded concerning John the Baptist and Jesus respectively that “the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit..” showing us that God’s expectation is that as we grow physically, it doesn’t end there, we ought to also wax strong in spirit and we do this as we focus on our spiritual development through studying God’s word, speaking in tongues, speaking the right words and having the right responses. In doing this, we reap the benefits of the eternal life we have received.

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