We had a freshness of God’s presence this morning, and again, we can prove that His mercies are new every morning. The servant of God started off today by doing some reviews of yesterday’s sermons and he expounded on the need for Christians to have balance, we are not suppose to hold on to scriptures in order to satisfy our lustful acts.
SCRIPTURES: Isaiah 9:6, Matthew 16:18, Psalms 18:23-26, Genesis 29:27, John 20:19-22, Hebrews 13:17
We then move to the topic with an understanding that there’s power in the church of God, the bible said that “the government shall be upon his shoulder”, and we know that the shoulder is not the head, the Head is Christ, while the shoulder is the beginning of the body (the body is the church of Christ).
There’s something about the scriptures when God speaks through his words, we need to understand that He communicates his mind, and we need to understand from those words what is his mind. Like we said that the church has power but God is a God of order, the authority of the New Testament church is given to the Five Fold Ministry. (The twelve apostles were the foundation layers).
For the entire Gentile age (Ephesian to Laodicea), Paul is the father of the church, he was the one that espoused the church to Christ, more so, he was one of the foundation layers of the church.
As God is a God of order, so is his church, the authority must not be contradicted by her members, God has placed his sheep under authority (the five fold), and authority decision is placed under their care, the member have no right to appoint a Pastor over them, the body of Christ has been blessed with the five fold ministry, the authority is given to them to come together and appoint prayerfully who should be the Pastor of the church.
Being the church of God, it has to run according to His modus operandi.
We had example to better explain this:
- The church in the house of Isaac: (Rebekah being the church, Isaac being Christ, while Esau and Jacob were the church members). The church had a prophecy that the younger will serve the elder, and she tried to helped God in fulfilling the prophecy with a very wrong approach. Genesis 27:37. Though God promised this, the method of approach is wrong, both Rebekah and Jacob deceived the prophet, Isaac. Isaac requested for venison from Esau before he’ll die so that his soul can bless him. But cunningly Rebekah went to meet Jacob and they got their way with Isaac not knowing that there’s a repercussion for what they are doing.
HOW DID THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM GOT TO JACOB?
Like the Bible said, Isaac needed a meal (offering) from Esau, so that his soul can bless him. And if we carefully look at that chapter of Genesis, we will discover that Isaac blessed Jacob with three blessings. The blessing of Abraham and Isaac got to Jacob at the third prayer when his soul was blessing him after he had eaten the meal. There is an offering you can give to God and it will either shift you more closely or shift you off, God knows your worth. There’s a blessing attached to every need of God, and if you begin to contemplate upon whether or not giving to Him when a need arise, probably because you’ve been giving, someone’s else sincere offering will shift you away from the blessing.
The offering of Jacob was what made him got the blessing. The blessing Jacob received in the name of Esau never was for him, they were for Esau, because Isaac blessed Esau, but the blessing that his soul blessed the giver of the offering was the one that went to Jacob.
Yes, the God of Israel was to be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but because Jacob got it cunningly, he paid for it. After he got the blessing, Esau was looking for him to kill and he had to hide himself for 37years, after the years and he was to marry, he was also duped the way he duped, Laban requested that he serve him 7years to have Rachael which he did, but he received Leah instead. He had to fulfil the one week of Leah before he could have Rachael, and although he loved Rachael more than Leah, God closed the womb of Rachael.
Jacob lived in distresses and pain all through. He married at the age of 84 while Esau married at the age of 40, when Jacob was 77, he had to go back to Isaac to be prayed for again. You cannot help God to achieve his work, his ways are not your ways, don’t make your life miserable, Jacob lived a miserable life. Her mother Rebekah who spare headed the act had a miserable life herself: Esau married the daughters of the Canaanites who would not respect the their mother in law, and it was a woe on her part that she screamed out that her life would mean no good to her if Jacob should marry from Canaan.
To the froward, God will always show himself to them as froward, and to the merciful, God will show himself to them as merciful.
You should not be one causing problem in the local assembly God has placed you, you cannot fight God’s authority and see God at the end of your life. The shepherds God has placed his flock under are the ones to give account of you on the last day, you cannot speak for yourself, so the power to bind and lose is given to them, they are the authority of the church, and that is why it is very imperative for us to humble ourselves before them and amend our ways as they stand in the position of authority representing God.
If we are cast out of the church by these men, we have been cast out of the heavenly position where we sit in Christ Jesus, you cannot disagree with the church on earth and agree with the church in heaven. Every soul hence should humble themselves. We are walking through Immanuel’s ground, we shouldn’t walk carelessly, God is a consuming fire.
Shalom!