The only way devil can defeat Adam and Eve is by putting strain on their relationship with God. And once he achieved that, he swung into actions; Adam and Eve began to understand the true meaning of sweat, the pain of child-birth; imagine how beautiful it would have been for a woman to deliver a child without labour pain? I have witnessed my wife went through delivery twice and it wasn’t a beautiful experience (Though the cry of newborn put an end to such unbearable pain). That is one of the pains sin caused man! Devil cannot attack a man who is in right relationship with God, he must obtain permission first from God, as it happened in the case of Job (Job 1:6-12).But he can molest and oppress a man who lives away from God.
The fall of Adam brought God-Man relationship to a new level – a veiled was raised between God and Man. The sin created a barrier as devil planned. Before man can communicate with God in the Old Testament, it involves lots of complicated processes. But thank God for Jesus Christ, those barriers have been lifted when He gave us Jesus Christ. The birth of Jesus brought back the relationship status God want to have with man when he created man – no middlemen! But anyone who wants to come to God must understand it cost God a lot before such relationship was re-established and must never take it for granted. Our new-found relationship cost God His only begotten Son – Jesus Christ! So, therefore God seeks only those who can serve in spirit – mind you, not in flesh but in spirit. (John 4:24). And the divine sacrifice gave birth to new sets of species called “Christians”
But tragically, many Christians don’t really care about this anymore. There are sets who are the late comers; you will see the men gliding to church like pregnant snakes while the ladies will skedaddle like drunk grasshoppers! And they dare not go late to their workplace or airport but they treat God with disdain and rudeness. You find believers in church today who are more conscious of how they appear in physical than how they appear in spirit. They can spend hours preparing clothes, jewelries and even painting of face (that is called make-up by ladies). While there is nothing bad in coming to church looking gorgeous and fabulous, you must never appeared tattered and irritating in spirit because that is the most important part – that is what God looks at, your spirit! You just committed all manner of terrible sins and you have no remorse or godly repentance and because of your status in church, you felt is not a big deal because nobody know about it, well, the bad news is, God knows about it, and is a big deal because your service that day is non-existing as far as heaven is concerned. And if you continue in that act of service you are risking missing the most beautiful place God prepared for you – eternity with Him.
Some Christians are not even growing spiritually! Once you are not growing at a level that commensurate with your spiritual age, then, something is amiss spiritually! Some Christians are like 40 years old who is still in the kindergarten in the spiritually realm! Five years ago, you cannot pray for more than twenty minutes and the same thing continue this year; your spiritual status needs to be reviewed! You need to decide which side you want to belong and stay on it actively! There is no point professing Christianity and acting otherwise! It is not an acceptable standard of living as a believer, if you have to introduce yourself as a Christian before people can identify your faith. People must be able to denote from your acts, speech and dealings that you are a Christian!
Look around today, Christianity is losing face. Some Christians are not even bold enough to share their faith with others! You can hardly differentiate some churches and night clubs when singing praise and worship! And you imagine worse scenario when those Christians are outside the church! And I wondered aloud sometimes; “Are we reading the same bible! Or my own bible contained words which are missing in their own bible?”. If you are a Christian and cursing comes to you naturally as breathing then you need to pray for revival. And if sins still have power over you, then, you are not yet in faith because being a Christian is beyond bearing “Paul Matthew Jesus” as your full name. It means living a life of power under the grace of God.
Therefore if heaven is your final destination, you must live a life that pursues that goal. You must live a godly and holy lifestyle. When you live holy, you are honouring God and God will also honour you! Isaiah used to think he was in faith, until he saw heaven and discovered his name is missing (Isaiah 6:18) and he repented. That is exactly what God expects from all His children (Christians) whenever they erred. Just in case you forget, the first species called “Christians” were named by unbelievers (Acts 11:26) because they manifested Christ-like attitude and this is the place God has called us to be! Quit living like others, you are not others, you are called Christian and you must exhibit the status of God’s ambassadors wherever you find yourself!
Quit bringing shame to the body of Christ, quit being ashamed to share the gospel and let the world start seeing the light of God in your act, speech and daily dealings!
Oyeniyi Peace Taiwo
