THE WHOLE TRUTH
Truth that’s so bitter, so poignant and so impelling for Christians to know and keep
Get that deliverance you’ve ever longed for; read PATRICK HENRY EDET’S treatise on salient Christian truths ignored and trammeled by many denominations. He delivered them at First Love Foundation’s Transformation Conference recently.
John 18:37-38 (KJV) Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault [at all].
This is a case of a trial Of Jesus, Jesus stood before someone who was a Governor, a Governor in the sense of someone who had absolute power, the Jews brought Jesus to Pilate because they did not have the right to kill somebody, they did not have the right to give a death sentence, they passed it, but they wouldn’t execute it, at the Sanhedrin they looked for reasons, until at some point, they said, what else do we need, this is an evidence, this man deserves to die, but they didn’t have the right to execute, so they took him to the one who had the executive authority, which was Pilate, he had the right, according to the roman government, to spare a man and to kill another, that was his right, so they brought Jesus to Pilate, and Pilate was in this dilemma, he knew something, he knew the truth, the truth was that this man didn’t have any reason to die, but he wouldn’t face the truth, he needed approval from the crowd for the truth to be told, in verse 37 , Pilate was tired of the entire drama, he wanted to dismiss him, he wanted a closure to the situation, so he asked Jesus, he said to him, ‘’Are you a king then?’’ because this whole issue is that you are a King, that’s why your people want to do away with you, they say you claim to reign, to rule.
Do people rule the way you are? These soldiers slapped you, they mocked you, and you are bleeding, is this how you rule. It was more like a mockery, ‘’Are you a king then?’’ with this swollen, bleeding face ‘’Are you a king then?’’, so if you tell me you are a king, will find out what type of kingship is this, what type of king does not have a kingdom that defends, that protects, that saves. I’m a king, I rule in this place, no one would do this to me, so you tell me, what type of kingship do you have that they do this to you, lets pay attention to these words, ‘’Are you a king then?’’ this is a rhetorical question, a comic question, a question that is derogatory and actually insulting, so you are a King? You tell me. Jesus was stripped bare, He was rejected, dejected, all His friends rejected Him, Peter was not there, John the beloved was not there, those who ate with Him denied Him, He was just on His own, and Pilate saw that everybody was against Him and not even one person stood up to say I know Him, He has healed me, people who were there, He had healed them, some of those people had eaten His bread, the bread He multiplied, but nobody stood for Him, every of them remained quiet, those who spoke were those who spoke against Him, those who answered were those who didn’t want Him alive, so Pilate said, nobody as spoken for you, everybody is speaking against you, but with the way I look at you, I don’t know what to say, because I don’t know, now tell me, you are the one to tell me, a scripture says ‘’we overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony.’’
What you say, the blood alone does not bring victory, what you say about the blood, at every point in time, situations will put you in a tight corner expecting you to say something, so it matters what you say when nobody speaks for you, when nobody speaks for you, what do you speak for yourself, when your husband no longer says anything that is pleasant, what do you say? When all your wife tells you is that you are a poor person, but what do you say, because salvation is not in what another person says, it’s in what you say, ‘’With the heart you believe unto justification but in your speaking, there is salvation’’. What do you say? The Pilates of this world are interested, they want to hear your confession.
Many of us come from the rural community, we come from villages, some of us share the same compound with witches and wizards, it’s not as though witches and wizards are not in the city, they are. I was born and brought up in the village, I spent the first 21 years of my life in the village; so in villages as early as 6pm, witches would start their incantations, with strange sounds and things falling on the roof at night. But what would you say? You would hear some who are fearful say, ‘Ah, they’ve come oh! and truly the enemies would come to steal, kill and destroy.
So, every trial wants you to say something, trial wants to hear what you say, the sickness that has refused to listen to medication and prayer wants to hear what you say, after all the treatment. Do you still have something to say? Pilate said ‘’Are you a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king.’’ For the first time, Pilate is right, and this should shock Pilate, because Pilate should have expected that given the fact that He looked rejected, dejected, alone and lonely, what kind of king, no bodyguard? So, Pilate would have expected that He would say, ‘Well, that’s what they say, but I didn’t say so, but He said, yes! ‘In this mockery, in this death, in this blood, in this shame in this pain, the testimony remains the truth, you are right at this point.
Let me tell you something, if Christ lives in you, it does not matter how many people have forgotten you, rejected you, the truth is you are still a king. That’s the truth, it does not matter if you have the bodyguards or not. What do you say in depression, in rejection? Do you abdicate your throne and walk away from your rulership in the Christ? It is true things are not the way it should be, it is true I have nothing to eat, it is true my husband doesn’t like me anymore, it is true my wife doesn’t look at my face anymore but I still reign in Christ.
Jesus said, ‘’To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.’’ This point is what led me to this passage. Pilate didn’t ask him about the truth, he asked if He was a King, He said, yes you are right, I am a king, I was born for this reason, to bear witness.
The word ‘’witness’’ comes from a Greek word Matos, the name Martins is related to witness, it is from the word Matos you have martyr, Muslims now use the term, martyr. Many Christians don’t even know there is a word Martyr or, Martyrdorm but Muslims use the word a lot. A martyr is somebody who witnesses to the truth, to the shedding of his blood, to suffering punishment in other to affirm that what I say is true and what I do is true.
So, a witness is someone who carries the mark of the event, a witness is someone who is an evidence, an exhibit, a witness is not somebody who heard that something happened, a witness is somebody who was there and was affected. (I saw how the wife was beating the husband, I went to hold her, but her hand hit my head, this why I have a swollen head since then. The mark on my head is a witness that she beat her husband, her hand was strong, she beat her husband, he can’t walk anymore). Jesus Christ said, “for this reason I came to bear witness to the truth,” meaning, I am an evidence of the truth, it means if you look at me I have the mark of the truth in my life. it means even this pain that I go through is a mark that I am a true king.
Now this is a king that is contrary to the kings of the world. President Buhari, in order to be the president of this country, several people died, also in our state, the media may not talk about it, but for Udom Emmanuel to be a Governor, people have died, but Jesus Christ is a different King who died for the people He came to rule over, He bled so that those He came for will stop bleeding, He saw shame so that those He came for will be delivered from shame. So, He was a witness to the truth that the Government of God is a Government that comes down so that those who are down will come up, so when He said for this reason I came to be a witness, He was saying; just look at me, you will see the evidence.
The reason why He was alone, He didn’t need anyone to speak for Him, he was the witness of the truth, He was the witness that ‘God so loved the world, He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall no longer perish,’ why? The only Son perished for him, therefore he can live forever.
Jesus Christ said, ‘’I came for this reason; to bear witness and this is where the problem begins. I witness to the truth, ‘’everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.’’ Pilate is confused now, he said to him, ‘’I was not expecting this, so what is truth? I’m confused.’’
Pilate who knew a lot about the law was confused about the kind of truth Jesus was talking about. Pilate thought he knew the truth, at this point he was lost, seeing a King bleeding and naked, yet He was talking about the truth. So, what is the truth? Pilate asked.
John 14:5-6 (KJV) Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
After Pilate asked Jesus what is the truth, he did not wait for the answer, he walked away and went to the people and said, I don’t see any reason why this man should die. Pilate didn’t wait for an answer, because the answer was standing in front of him. The Christian truth is not theory and theology. I have come to know that there is a difference between what we know and who we are. The truth is not what we say, the truth is who we are. Jesus Christ said, “I am the truth,” so the first thing about the whole truth is not a portion of the Bible, the truth is a person, the truth is Jesus Christ, the only Son of God.
Prelude to the Four Corners of the Truth
John 1:1 (KJV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14-17 (KJV) And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, [but] grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
The Word that was God, that was with God by which everything was created, that same Word became flesh and dwelled among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Being full of grace and truth suggests that if you meet Jesus, He contains the whole truth, He is full of the truth, He has the full measure of the truth. Paul writing to the Corinthians says, ‘We see in part, we know in part, our prophesying cannot be full yet, no prophet is perfectly a prophet, our prophesying is in imperfection that’s why we need complementarity as in the sense of all the prophets, no man has it all; there is no superman of God who has everything.
Such a man is a lie, every man of God as it in parts. The arrogance of men of God beginning from me, is that once you are given one (revelation), you think one is all. So, sometimes you talk with absoluteness as if you have it all. It is called charismatic arrogance. It doesn’t worry God, because God knows us, so God still uses us. Sometimes, you hear some men of God teaching and he teaches like he knows everything such that every other person should come and learn from him; it is arrogance, they don’t know it all: revelation is in parts.
Humility begins when you know you don’t have it all and you need to listen, arrogance tells you don’t listen, instead tell others to listen to you. Humility tells you, listen. If you find it difficult listening to others because you have it all, you have a spiritual gene of arrogance operating in you and you need deliverance.
Only Jesus is full of the truth. Our knowledge is in parts, in everything, we are given imperfectly, only Jesus has it all, that’s why the arrogance of religion sees only your church to be right, every other church is wrong.
I was brought up a catholic, my father made it as a rule, Jehovah Witness never entered my compound, I didn’t enter any church until I was about 5-6 years in the seminary, that means I was above 30 years before I ever stepped into another church to worship, and I hold my father the highest esteem, the great hero, I learnt faith from my father, the first spiritual healing I witnessed was from my father, he was a charismatic man who believed in God with raw faith. As a lad learned how to pray under him, it’s so easy for me to pray for somebody to be healed, it comes so normal because I saw it in my father. But my father made me realize, outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation. It was not his fault, he was taught in the old theology, we are talking about religious arrogance, it is what the church teaches and till today, mighty denomination, they make it in such a way that you cannot marry from another church, that if you should leave there and go and get a wife somewhere, they would say, ‘you don’t have my coverage.’ Now, it’s no longer God who covers us as it’s in Psalm 91, it’s no longer about dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty, but under the shadow of your Pastor. Psalm 91 has been rewritten. The damage this has done is that instead of the advancement of the kingdom, we see the fragmentation and weakness of the kingdom.
The truth is not a church, the truth is not a denomination, the truth is not the doctrine of any denomination, the truth is not even the sum total of all our doctrines, the truth is a person, and He is the only Son of God.
THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE TRUTH
- Truth in the Flesh
John 1:14-17 (KJV) And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, this was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, [but] grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
John 14:5-6 (KJV) Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
We are talking about the truth in the flesh; the birth, the incarnation, the carnality, permit me to use the word carnality, carnality in this sense is not like when we talk about a canal man, generally we refer to canal as an immoral person, a fleshly moral person, but carnality is beyond that, carnality is first about the flesh, so the flesh is used in the scripture not to describe the flesh to be bad but the principles of the world that uses the flesh is what is referred to, when I say the carnality of the truth, it means the truth became carnal, most times a bad brother, a bad sister all we think about when we hear the word carnal, but the truth became carnal, just accept it, I will explain later.
1 John 4:1-3 (KJV) Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Every spirit that confesses that the truth became carnal, that the truth took this carnality, this flesh is of God, the word carnal from the Latin word that we use carnality and other words is actually referring to the flesh primarily before it becomes flesh as sinful nature, so the word took on flesh, it became carnal, took on carnality because of His carnality, I, Patrick Henry Edet can fellowship with Him, so the first corner of the truth is that, the truth became flesh, was born.
In the Catholic tradition, that I know so well, I have lived all my life, there is an obsession about the Mary, such that a lot of people use that to measure whether you are a Catholic or not, whether you pray the Rosary, refer to the Virgin Mary, and all that. The Church is actually right, except that it is taken too far. Now the opposite of it, in the Pentecostal world and the Protestant, they don’t even want to hear anything Mary, once you mention Mary it’s termed idolatry, it is also true, but it is taken too far. Both are true but they are taken too far. (1John 4:1-3).
In the Pentecostal, in other to attack the obsession of the Catholic Church with the issue of the Mary, there is a big mistake made, the issue of attacking the only yardstick of knowing whether you have a true spirit, that scripture says, ‘’Everyone, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the fresh is of God,’’ now the issue of Virgin Mary, the only importance and the greatest importance and the only way that that will remain important forever, Virgin Mary is the only connection with the humanity of Christ, in the whole universe, not Joseph, not any human on earth. Virgin Mary is the door way through which the word became flesh, take Virgin Mary away, Christ does not have humanity and if Christ does not have humanity, He cannot save you. Genesis 2:7 (KJV)
And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 1:26-28 (KJV) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Now if you connect that to Genesis 2:7 that talks about making of man and breathing into man, you will now understand something, Adam was the Christ. The meaning of Christ is the Anointed, the one on who dwells the spirit of God, what makes Jesus Christ different from any other human being that came before and after Him was that in Him is found the fullness of the spirit, in Him is the fullness of divinity in the flesh. Romans talk of Christ as the second Adam, sin and death came into the world through the first Adam, and salvation came into the world through the second Adam, what they share in common is Adam, why did the second Adam come?
Because something went wrong with the first Adam, what is it that went wrong with the first Adam? The image of God, the Bible says that Christ is the image of the invincible God in whom dwells the fullness of divinity in bodily form that’s the second Adam which means in the first Adam, God dwelt in the bodily form, (back to Genesis 2:7) ‘’And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.’’ What did He breathe into that dust, the breath of life, God is life, Jesus Christ said in Him was life, so Jesus as the perfect image of God is life, therefore God is life, He said as the Father as life in Himself, He has given His son life in Himself, so the Father breathed Himself into the dust to make it a living soul.
The problem I have with the church sometimes is that we are afraid of who we are, there is a revelation God has given me, that I cannot preach to everybody because you can stone me to death, that’s why when Jesus Christ said I am, they said let’s kill this man, you cannot say, I am, only God is, but that was God in front of them and till today it happens. If you know who you are, no witch will make noise in your environment, poison will not grow in your body, if you know who you are, you will walk into a place and the place will find deliverance, just because you have come in, things that do not belong to the God who dwells in you will pack and leave without you saying a word of prayer.
Adam, the original man was nothing than God in the flesh walking the earth, he was representing the majesty of God, the word image and likeness, I have studied it in the original Hebrews, it means representative figure, the one that when you see him, you see the one that he represents, once you see him, you don’t need to refer to another, why, because he is the ambassador and carries the full power and authority. That’s why God brought things and told Adam, what name do you call this and whatever name Adam gave, God said its ok by me. There was no division between the two, because the one that was on earth carried the image of the one that was in Heaven, so the one in Heaven ruled the earth through the one on earth.
That’s why Jesus said in His prayer, ‘let it be on earth as it is in Heaven. The day you wake up as a child of God and become on earth who you are in Heaven, everything changes. Colossians says, ‘In Christ we are at the right hand of the Father, far above principalities and power and names that can be named not only on this age but in the age to come,’ that is who you are in the Heaven, but who are you on earth, who do you say you are?
So, the first corner is that Jesus or the Word that became flesh was to come back so that the Adam that lost the original mandate, that ordinary man like me from a hopeless foundation can now have the God of Heaven dwelling in me.
The first corner of the truth is that as a believer you are the representative of Yahweh on earth. Jesus Christ used the word light to refer to Himself. He said, ‘’I am the light of the world.’’ Next time He used the word light, He didn’t use it to refer to angels, He said, ‘’you are the light…’’. He referred to you and me, who is now born again and in whom dwells the fullness of God in Christ.
If Christ carries the fullness of God and that Christ dwells in you, that means you carry the fullness of God in Christ, now it means you are the restoration of Adam that went astray, that means you are the reason why the world became flesh, so that when you receive the word in your heart, like Colossians 3 said, Let the Word dwell in you richly, you are the Adam, that means you are the second Adam alive to fulfil the mandate that the first Adam could not fulfil.
The scripture in the Psalm says, ‘’You are fearfully and wonderfully made…”
This is revelation of who we are. The devil knows who you are, and he works hard 24/7 to make sure you don’t know this. The only one who doesn’t know who you are is you. Many people never knew about what an attack was until they got born again, some people never saw attack, some never had issues with Satan until Christ dwelled in them. Do you think that when Christ is in you, you are immune from attack? When Christ was born, King Harold killed hundreds of children Christ came to die for; why? Because the birth of Christ was the new dawn of victory that man would rule and reign as kings. Jesus came as a king and another king heard about it; and the whole of Jerusalem was in trouble, there was no sleep in the palace. They decided to search for him in order to kill Him. Every time Christ is born in a soul, Harold is at rampage, Harold goes amok, he wants to kill the Christ in you. The reason fornication is sweet is to kill the Christ in you; it’s the reason you are comfortable with adultery and still preach, why immorality is still acceptable in the new generation grace doctrine. This new generation grace doctrine is that you are already forgiven, and they quote the Colossians 1:14, ‘In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sin.’ But before the forgiveness of sin, there is repentance.
Jesus began preaching in Mark 1:14-15, saying; “The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe.’ Grace doctrine doesn’t talk about repentance, it is assumed that we are forgiven. It is a lie! Without repentance, forgiveness hangs in the air, otherwise everybody would have been healed. But the scripture says, ‘’By His stripes we are healed.” There is a distance between His stripes and you, the connection is your faith, the same way there is a distance between His forgiveness and you and the only connection is repentance.
Now, why is this new generation grace doctrine so attractive? The devil makes it very attractive because it is aimed at killing the Christ in you, destroying the divinity in you because you are God in the flesh. But you are blind and deaf and dumb; you don’t know who you are. You cannot operate in your full capacity. Being an eagle is not equal to flying, it’s a free eagle, healthy eagle that can fly. An eagle that is in a cage is still an eagle, a child of God that is in sin is still a child of God, just that he cannot fulfil the mandate of God on earth.
The first corner of truth which is the truth becoming carnal and the secret in that is that, the truth became carnal so that you as a carnal man for the first time can become God in the flesh walking, which means because the truth became carnal, a man who lives today in fornication can tomorrow become God living in the flesh, as long as he would allow the truth to come into the flesh. This means there is no one who is too immoral for salvation. Jesus Christ demonstrated the audacity of God’s salvation, that as He was dying, just before He died, He took the worst criminal of the century with Him, and the only thing was that the man just had to acknowledge Him, ‘’When you come in your kingdom, remember me.’ Then Jesus replied, ‘Today, you shall be with me in paradise.’
Who baptised that criminal, who gave him communion, who discipled him? Nobody! He met the fullness of truth, he didn’t need a preacher, he didn’t need a teacher, he didn’t need baptism, he didn’t need to eat the last supper, he didn’t need an apostolic calling, he didn’t need an ordination, he went from the cross to eating from the table of the divine. Why? Because he met the one in whom dwells fullness of God. This means, no matter how carnal you are, once you allow Him to come in, heaven dwells in you, God dwells in you. So, when you take a step there is a God in you who is walking in you, so you will walk into a shrine and nothing happens.
When I went to Ibom hall to preach after I left the Catholic Church, few people around me, intercessors, some spiritual people warned that Ibom Hall was a wrong place to do church service. They suggested it was where all the demons are celebrated in Akwa Ibom state. I laughed! So, who owns the earth? This is how to prove if I am preaching Christ and if my claim that I represent God on earth and that He dwells in me is true. The shrine is the best place to preach. So, if you say Jesus is Lord, take it to the evil places to confirm it.
It is our gathering that makes it church, it is not the church that makes us holy, we are the ones that make a place holy, that God is in us, that makes a place holy. When you begin to get revelation about you, you will be amazed. If I tell you more about you, you might stone me. How can you say that this me that has been struggling with sin, that God dwells in me? Yes, it is because you don’t know. Jesus Christ didn’t say, It’s the truth that will save you, He said, it is your knowledge of the truth that will set you free. So, who you are is, God dwelling in the flesh. If Christ is the fullness of the divine and He was born in the flesh, was too give a hopeless Adam a second chance. That is someone from a useless, unproductive, unprofitable family can be a champion of hope, can become an apostle of glory.
God came in the flesh so that the hopelessness in the flesh can come to an end, so that there is no excuse of saying, ‘Because we are in the flesh, we cannot overcome sin.’ Shut up, God lives in this flesh in order to give victory over the flesh, and if that same God is living in you, you will have victory over the flesh. Now, you will choose which one you will accept, whether to continue in fornication and adultery and give excuses that you are still in the flesh, or to accept that God lives in you and if He dwells in you, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; you cannot join it to evil. So, you have to choose what you accept and that is what you will become.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Romans 6:6-8 (KJV)
His birth was to give flesh opportunity to be God, to become one with God and to live like God again, and to have victory. His death was to kill the power of the flesh, that’s the second corner of the truth. Jesus Christ didn’t just die because He was weak, by His death He made atonement for sin, His death is a ransom for sin. He satisfied divine justice, He paid the price for our redemption. Whoever as accepted Him, like Paul will say in Romans 6, ‘’Don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ was baptised into His death?’ That means because He died in the flesh, everyone who accepts Him also accepts death in the flesh, therefore you cannot continue to live the life of the flesh.
What grace doctrine is teaching our young generation is, just pray the prayer of a sinner and then you are born again. They are workers in church, brother and sister and are fornicating. And then the preacher says, ‘You cannot live in guilt consciousness, our sins have been taken away, once you are saved, you are saved.’ It’s all nonsense! Jesus died in the flesh so that you can die to sin, if you have not yet died to sin you are not saved; salvation as an evidence, salvation is not theory, it’s a person, truth is a person. He was born, He died. What is the evidence that you have died? If before you were born again, you used to get angry and beat up your wife, now you are born again are you still beating up your wife? Where is the evidence of your being born again? Somebody must be lying, either God is lying or you are lying, and God cannot lie, so you are a liar!
So, your preacher who will tell you, no matter what you’ve done once you are born again, you are born again, and that fornicating and adultery in the church cannot take away salvation, that by faith you have been saved. Yes, salvation is by faith! But the implication of faith is obedience, that’s what faith brings. The evidence that you believe in God is that you obey God. Jesus Christ said those who love me are those who will obey my command. So, you cannot say I have faith and you have faith and you don’t obey His command; it’s blasphemy!
This is an uncomfortable truth for the preacher of my generation who looks for members who will fill the church but no heart is circumcised, who preach easy gospel to keep young girls and boys in trap, so that you come to church, the church has become a disco-tech of immorality. The only difference is that they are born again sinners. Salvation has evidence, you cannot be saved and hide in sin. The scripture says, ‘A house set upon a hill cannot hide.’ Once a terrible girl has repented, the mother will be the first to know, there will be a mark, an evidence, it means her daughter has become a witness that God saves, that God was born in the flesh so that God can dwell again in the flesh, that God died so that the power of the flesh can die and then someone can live a new life.
The truth is being compromised in my generation with useless grace doctrine that is taught to young unstable children to remain in the condition of slavery to Satan. Jesus Christ said, ‘Whoever is commits sin is a slave.’ You cannot be saved and there is no evidence.
Romans 6:6-8 (KJV) says: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified” with [him], (which means by His death in the flesh, once you have accepted Jesus Christ, you have also died. If you touch or beat a dead man, it doesn’t affect him. The same thing here, once you are dead in the flesh, when fornication afflicts you, you don’t turn, whenever the devil suggests immoral things, you don’t turn, that means you have died in the flesh, being dead in the flesh doesn’t mean you don’t feel it, it is that you don’t respond to it, you don’t live by it.
As Christ was crucified, if you accept Him, you are crucified in the flesh, which means you are no longer under obligation to the flesh, you no longer live according to the pattern of old. Now, these days, preachers will tell you, once you are born again, there is nothing like ancestral curse and all that. What if you are born again but you still live like your ancestor, your ancestors didn’t greet their brothers, you don’t greet your brothers, they married one wife and had many concubines and you are doing the same, the only difference is that you go to church and they went to shrines and if our salvation is just that we go to church and not in a change of life, I think either Christ is a liar or that He didn’t die. This is the second corner of the truth.
The easy truth is that once you are born again, whatever we do doesn’t matter. This is why the gospel is weak now-a-days, that’s why this generation is not going to church: how many of your children follow you to church? A lot of people see their fathers who are preachers but they know the kind of ugly lifestyle they live. They know the father is a hypocrite, he is oppressing the mother, he is not taking care of them, he is not showing them example. Once they reach the age of reasoning, they no longer go to your church, that’s why a lot of pastors’ children are rebellious, they are in protest against the hypocrisy of their parents who preach on Sunday, but on Monday evening he is a different man. So, what the useless grace gospel is doing is that it uses weak Christians who cannot stand the test of time, and because you cannot stand the test, you cannot raise another soul, it takes a heart on fire to set another heart on fire, a man that has not been circumcised cannot bring about the circumcision of another person.
Galatians 2:20 (KJV) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
As a believer, Christ lives in you, and if you have been crucified, the things that have been operating in you before Christ came into your life have been crucified. It is like saying, ‘that was how I used to be but after Christ came, this is who I am.’ That was how the movement of the charismatic and the Pentecostal swept the world. The assemblies that came together; all the believers, the missionaries that came over, were people who genuinely repented. They preached salvation messages to people, and people were repenting. These days, who repents? Repentance this day is that, ‘I wasn’t used to go to church before, but now I go to church.’
So, now a brother will put on tie on the neck and carry a Bible, but yet he is disrespectful to his parents, sleeping with women everywhere, yet he is a choir director. Who are you going to preach to? Who are you going to reconcile to Christ? What is the sign that you have been reconciled? It’s painful that these sort of characters have spoiled the gospel. Who are the born again in church? We need lives transformed, we need people to walk into assembly and feel convicted, feel convicted because these are transformed souls.
The whole truth is that you are the changed person the world is looking for. Stop praying for light, Jesus Christ said ‘you are the light,’ start shining. Isaiah said, ‘Arise, shine for your light has come!’ So, take responsibility to shine. God has planted you as the representative of the light, you will not shine in immorality, you will not shine in hate, you will not shine in unforgiveness, you will not shine in bitterness, you will not shine in lies and deception.
God will judge our motives, when we live in the truth, we have nothing to fear. Truth will set you free.
The third corner of truth is resurrection
The truth resurrected! The truth was born, the truth died, the truth resurrected.
Acts 3:14-15 (KJV) But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
The implication of the resurrection
Romans 6:1-4 (KJV) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
What is the proof? He was born in the flesh so that He can live again in my flesh. He died in the flesh so that I die to principalities and power, and I die to the working of the spirit of rebellion in the air. Thirdly, He rose to live. What is the proof? That you are in the risen life, that you live a new life.
When a husband repents, the wife is the first person to know. A pastor’s wife will know if the pastor is a man of God or he is a liar. If he is a man of God, his wife is the first convert or the first protester. Once that man is born again, the wife is the first evidence, because there is a change. The Bible says, ‘Whoever is in Christ Jesus is a new creature, the old is gone.
Saint Paul said, some of us are denying that Christ rose from the dead because we are living a life that contradicts the resurrection. What is the evidence of the resurrection? Some years ago, I preached that you cannot prove resurrection in the Bible and somebody called me from Port Harcourt and said that I was talking nonsense. I told him, I was not talking nonsense. I said, you cannot prove the resurrection in the Bible.
Sincerely, I challenge every preacher, go and study the Bible, the whole four Gospels and consider the letters; you cannot prove it. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John don’t agree on the resurrection. This one says a different thing, this other one says a different thing and so on. There is a place of agreement; Paul talked about resurrection, he did not refer to any woman. But Matthew, Mark, Luke and John referred to Mary and Mary Magdalene. No woman is in the story of the resurrection, according to Paul. So, which one do we believe?
This means the only agreement that Jesus rose from the dead is the new life of the believers. That’s why Jesus Christ told them, you shall be my witnesses. He didn’t say a book or your book will be a witness but ‘you are the witnesses.’ When someone sees that you used to live in death, now you live in life; you are a witness. This means because of you, I know that there is new life after death. The Bible gives different perspectives about the resurrection because the Bible was written by different people from different times with different perspectives. The only perspective that cannot be denied is the perspective of your new life – you can boldly say, ‘I am a proof of the resurrection, I am a proof of the resurrection because I knew me some time ago and I know the me now, by the grace of God, not me but the Christ who lives in me, so I know that He died and rose so I die in Him, so now I reign in Him. So, this life I live is by the faith in the One who died and gave Himself for me and was raised to life.’
The number three corner of the truth is that the Christian life we live is a victorious life. He died and rose! The scripture said that the grave could not hold Him captive, it was impossible for death to hold Him captive. As a child of God, if Christ lives in you, it will be said of you, ‘Death could not hold you captive, darkness could not hold you captive, sin could not hold you captive, witchcraft could not hold you captive.’ As He rose, if He lives in you and He reigns through you, you rise above things.
So, the evidence of the resurrection is that flesh cannot hold you bound. As He rose, you rose! You rise in the face of temptation, you rise against immorality, you rise above death, you rise over witches and wizards. Many believers are just church goers in the morning, in the night they do assignment to appease witches and wizards. As a child of God, because of you, witches around should actually die without you praying, people invoking your name should fall and die, you don’t need to pray, ‘Let my enemies fall and die; no, it’s not necessary! The fact that you are in that office, a witch is likely to die young. It is written on your face, ‘touch not my anointed and if you touch, you are liable to die young.’ There is a death sentence on anybody who touches you because you carry the glory of God in the flesh, but if you don’t die, you cannot rise.
The fourth corner of the truth: He Shall Come Back
Acts 1:5-11 (KJV) For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
The fourth corner of the truth, the truth shall come back, he shall come but not for everyone, He shall come for those who are living by the truth. His coming will be the destruction of liars, His coming will be the elevation and lifting, the salvation of those who live in the truth. He will come again no matter what occult men and women are doing in the church to manipulate the Gospel, Christ will return. No matter how we use church to do religion and divide and rule and make people look like our property and make people obey us as men of God more than they obey God, Jesus shall come again. He shall no longer come as a merciful lamb, He shall come as a merciless Judge.
Live in anticipation that He shall come. There is going to be judgement, that’s the whole truth. He was born in the flesh, you have capacity to die to sin and live a righteous life, because He rose, you can live a new live that people can point to you and say that this is an evidence. Believers in Antioch didn’t have to tell people they were Christians, the people said ‘these are Christians’ because they saw their newness of life.
The fourth corner of truth is, He shall come again. So I ask you; In your place of work are you representing Him? Are you expecting His coming?
