Meeting: Sunday Service
Date: 24th May, 2026
Topic: Tutelage of Discipleship
Minister: Pastor Laide Olaniyan
When Christ fills our heart, we have love shed abroad in our heart (Rom. 5:4-5). We must be wise because not everyone is of faith. It is when the Lord heals the world that we can say I love you purely. Satan did a very bad job such that people think sensually when we say we love them. We should not be love-starved. We should be love beings. We should get comfortable with being loved and not see it as something out of the box or something special. Genuine, unfeigned love can be found in God.
Love should be communicated everyday of our lives. Some people don’t believe it when they are told they are loved. They always believe there’s an ulterior motive. We should believe that genuine love exists. The society is so broken such that we read meaning to something sincere and pure (Titus 1:15). We also read meanings to innocent gestures. The word is building a community of believers who will grow out of the world and have an economy of faith that is governed by the laws of the Spirit. Many of the things we see around us are not what they should be. There is no pure brother to sister, or brother to brother relationship, and vice versa. Everyone is suspicious of one another.
We shouldn’t be suspicious of ourselves. Suspicion is not a fruit of the Spirit. It is not discernment. It is a seed of the evil one. There are thoughts that come to our minds that we need to bind and reject. Demons love the suspicious kind of heart so they use things that are innocent to do things that are disastrous. When some of us come into faith, this nature might still not be removed and can grow with us into old age.
Titus warned against being a false accuser. Being a false accuser is an accusation grown out of suspicion (Tit. 2:3). Suspicion is an accusation that is without substance. Suspicion is not a fruit of the spirit. Trust should be born out of love, and should flow from our heart as against suspicion. Suspicion flows out of self-preservation. We want to outsmart other people so they don’t take advantage of us. This is a wisdom that flows out of flesh. That is why we struggle to obey God by faith because flesh has been empowered to preserve itself (Job 13:15). We will be led in some places and if we are suspicious, we will cease from following the shepherd. How God trains us to trust Him wholly is by making us trust in men. This trust is not being reliant on men or making men our confidence but in that we do not fear what man can do to us.
The reason some people are not free in church or with the brethren is suspicion. Guarding our heart diligently is to guard it from this world, not from brethren, nor from preserving our life. Some wisdoms are not from above and we must learn to jettison them. If we continue to use them, we might look wise but will not appreciate in life.
We should believe the best of everybody for our heart sake (1 Cor. 13:7). A heart where there is suspicion is hostile to the Holy Ghost; He can’t survive there. We should get used to being told that we are loved. If the world is not giving us enough love, we should give it because we are love beings (Rom. 5:5). We can’t give love and we won’t find a recipient. We have an abundance of love. There is so much hurt around, and enough love to give, we just need to yield to the Holy Ghost. Even if people hurt us, we shouldn’t allow their hate to overcome our love. We should overcome hate with love. When people show us hell, we should show them heaven. We give where we are going, not what people are showing to us (1 Pet. 3:9). We do to people what Jesus has done to us which is to forgive (Prov. 12:20). Heaping coals of fire is not revenge or hate. It is purification of those who have hurt us through our actions of love. We can buy gifts for people who hurt us (Rom. 12:20-21).
We shouldn’t let the world numb our sense of love. Don’t let the world turn you into a bitter and angry person. We shouldn’t let our love grow cold, that is, our love towards God and people. If someone hurts you, go out of your way to overcome that hurt. We can pray and buy gifts for those who have hurt us. Do them good, ensure that love wins (1 Pet. 4:8).
Our hearts must be enlarged because the Lord will bring people who look too broken for life. We should be ready for our politicians to be born again and follow Truth. If we shut our hearts towards them, He will raise another person who will believe Him for their salvation. We have no right to be against another person’s salvation. God also saved us when we weren’t even looking for Him. Even though we have laboured, we should be large-hearted to get the same reward as those who will come in at a later hour. We must enlarge our hearts. God will crumble some perspectives in our minds that makes us miss God. It is not only us God loves, God loves everyone including those who have hurt us. They won’t die by fire because they hurt us, they will live.
What God is doing is retraining us and giving us another sense. David used his heart to lead Israel before his skill (Psa. 78:72). All the people that came to him turned out to be mighty men (1 Sam. 22:2, 2 Sam. 21:15-). Some of them even looked like they did more exploits than David but they had the sense to realize that David was the light of Israel. Even when our leader is weak or looks weak in our presence, we shouldn’t despise grace. We must learn the wisdom to cover them (2 Sam. 21:17-22). It is discipleship that raises us to become giant slayers.
(2 Sam. 23:8-39) We shouldn’t only learn skill from our discipler but we should also learn their heart. What makes a mighty man is the heart. Their heart comes first before their skill. David killed Goliath by riding on the wings of grace. That’s why we don’t succeed by hustle; though we are to work because God blesses our work (Prov. 23:4-5). Hustle spirit is not gracious, follow Jesus then He will instruct you. We shoild ride on divine guidance from the Lord.
As children, we should not be too hard for our parents both natural and spiritual (2 Sam. 3:39). We should not be stronger than our biological parents. We shouldn’t be a hard soul to convert.
We see that the sons of Zeruiah did not take after David’s heart even though they were skillful. While David wanted to preserve the life of Shimei (2 Sam. 16:5-13), they did not have the same mercy. For a believer, death is not loss but security and gain (Phil 1:21). They are heaven’s gain. This is why God can give up the life of a believer for an unbeliever, even though it might not be God’s pleasure. This is a reasoning that David had but Joab hated that reasoning. We are quick to eliminate anything that threatens our natural; our business, our comfort, etc, we are not always concerned about heaven’s gain. They followed David but did not experience any conversion of heart (2 Sam. 19).
We must learn at every level. David had judgment but the sons of Zeruiah did not take of his judgment. The judgement we refuse to learn is the birth we refuse to be birthed of. The use of the judgement we learn is what will be used to birth us.
(Acts 16, 1 Tim. 1:2). Timothy went from being a disciple to being a son. If there is a begatting, there is a word involved (Jam. 1:18). He was begotten by the word of Truth, same was said for Titus (Titus 1:4). They give a word and we are to use the same word to live and to do service and to become a son. This is how we are born into different names (Matt. 28:18-20). Immersing is by word and service. We should do service by serving the life in the word; being obedient to the life that is in the word.
A person can be begotten by the gospel of Christ and by the everlasting gospel (Gal. 4:19, 1 Cor. 4:15). To be begotten at any level is a baptism. The technology of baptism is the same technology of death and resurrection. When a person is baptized, he is born. A person is immersed into a life or submerged into a process and by the time we are being raised, we have become a changed person.
God can subject a person to a season of strong immersion for years under oversight, and we are expected to use the word to live during that season. By the time we finish, a new man will be born. Our person would have been altered, wings broken, ways deleted, attitude changed.
(Col. 3:10, 2 Cor. 5:17) God wants our change but it is a process that leads to it. The new man which we have in our spirit is not the final destination. The new man changes image. The new creation is supposed to evolve. It is a metamorphosis (Rom. 12:1-2). To be transformed is to move from formation to formation and those transformations are images (Rom. 8:29-30). The destiny that God prepares for us is to be conformed. The prefix “con” means to adapt to something. Conformation talks about the specification in quality. Transformation talks about movement.
(2 Cor. 3:18) Our new man is supposed to change as his image is changing. It changes by being renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him. The spirit of God is engineering conformity and transformation to ensure the movement and quality/substance of the person we are supposed to resemble.
Baptism or discipleship is supposed to take us from the name of the Holy Ghost to the name of the Father. Baptism is the giving of images after the order or dispensation of their names. It births us into every word and life that God brings. We are subjected to the life of the word until an image is formed.
Husbands should not joke with their wives. There is serious warfare and we should not complicate things with unguarded words. We don’t know the battle people face until they fall. We should not be critical of the people we don’t understand. When we are critical of a person’s situation, we would soon fall into the person’s situation. When we become critical, grace is removed. If we don’t know what to say, we can pray.
Young ones should not criticize their parents. If we have criticized them in the past, we should ask for forgiveness from them and from God. We should fight to hold on to our spouse. Satan is the one accusing our spouse just to break the institution. It may not be easy but we should war to hold on to our spouse (Gal. 6:1). Fight to stay in covenant with your wife to keep the covenant. Fight not to stray in heart from the marriage. Our heart should be present in the marriage. Labour to keep your garden, build the fence, throw out foxes and we will have grapes in our vine.
Many people are not willing to put in the work to make it work. Go on your knees, learn, unlearn, relearn. To find a treasure in our spouse, we have to endure many things and when we find the gold, it is always worth it. If we see any marriage that is working, someone is making it work: many forgivings, many prayers, many no evil speakings. You’ve made your choice. Make it work. Marriage thrives on at least the effort of one person. When it breaks down, it is never one person’s fault. Children shouldn’t dabble into their parents’ conflicts. We should pray for them and follow God’s plan for our own lives. We have to be wise. We should forgive them, pray for them but follow Jesus.
THE END.