Meeting: Sunday School
Minister: Pastor David Kilanko
Theme: Understanding the Whats and Hows of Growing Up Spiritually
Topic: Understanding How Lines Translate into Change of Nature in our Soul
Text: Romans 1:5, Romans 8:14, 16, Acts 14:22, John 21:18, Romans 8:36
There is no way a soul can inherit God’s nature except by the revealed word of God and following the instructions and commandments that proceed from it. The purpose of revelation is not to shine but to fetch instructions and commandments to keep and do, to inherit God’s nature.
(Proverbs 14:12) — “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, But the end thereof are the ways of death.” The enemy makes the way of death appear right but when one follows and gets to the end, you will discover they are actually the ways of death.
The sign of growth is that a soul can be led. The places we don’t want to go are places contrary to our nature; we will be made to do things that we won’t naturally want to do. We are being asked to carry out commandments or instructions by the Holy Ghost because we can’t naturally do them. This is why we must learn not to argue with the Holy Ghost. When He is prompting us concerning a thing, we should do it (1Cor. 2:11).
(Isaiah 53:6) — “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
(Isaiah 55:7) — “let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
We have been scattered in our souls, and we must be gathered. Salvation in all its levels is returning back to God from where we have journeyed. The purpose of sin is to drive the gap between us and God so wide that it’s almost impossible to recover from, but every time we repent is a returning.
The Bible, the revealed word of God, is the way to God (John 14:6). Jesus is the only roadmap to arrive at God.
Spiritual things are better experienced than explained. Without yielding to the Holy Spirit, we will always misrepresent what we are hearing. Many at times, we don’t look like or behave like what we are hearing because there is a contrary nature inside of us. When situations arise, we don’t depend on what we have heard; we don’t wait to be guided, led or refer back to what we are hearing, so we behave otherwise.
Lines are measurements and standards of life that emanate from the Holy Ghost. They are the intelligence of the Holy Ghost to make a soul know how to live life to experience a change of nature from a fallen man’s nature to God’s nature. When we hear things, we must not assume that we know how to carry them out; we should wait for the Holy Ghost because it’s not every way of life that works a change of nature. Any instruction that is self-generated will not lead to a change of nature (James 1:20). Everything we do should be birthed from the prompting of the leading of the Spirit; this is what will birth a change of nature. The life of a believer is a spirit-led life; there is life in the spirit, and to live out the life of God’s kingdom, we have to follow the leadings of the Holy Ghost. We are supposed to fetch out life from the Holy Ghost. If our nature is to change, we must not continue to do things the way we have been doing them. Whatever is self-generated will hinder us and others. Most of the self-generated instructions are from emotions, not from the Holy Ghost.
(1 Cor 2:11)— “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” When we hear the word, we make resolutions. But if it doesn’t come as instructions from the Holy Ghost, it still won’t change our nature. The Devil through self-generated instructions/resolutions, wants to further put us in bondage. If the Holy Ghost will never lead us astray, it means someone can lead us astray. There is no free thinker. We are all under a leading depending on who your shepherd is. Sometimes, it looks like we are not changing; this is because we have not followed the leading of the Spirit well (Gal 5:16).
We must walk our way out of condemnation (Romans 8:1). It is possible to be in Christ Jesus and yet be walking in the flesh and not the spirit. But we must know that we can’t sing our way out of condemnation; we walk our way out of it and the nature of Satan that is within us. There are things we have as moral codes naturally, but our change of nature is not in these moral codes. We shouldn’t validate our growth by the things that we can do well naturally. It is possible that as brethren, we can still generate dealings for ourselves, but this could only lead to anger and offense. Satan hides there and ensures that we never arrive at change of nature while we continue to give ourselves accolades.
The reason for faith is for life; it is for us to obey it. Everything we are hearing has its life expression, which is love at our different levels of growth. “The just shall live by faith” equates to “the just shall walk in love.” The life that is in faith is love. What will show that we are obeying faith is how we love at our different levels. The demand of love that the Lord will put on us per time is based on our level of faith and based on what we have heard. We may hear what our parents preach, but we might not have heard what they hear. Beyond the things our parents preach, there are deeper things not said that are hidden in their manner of life. God gives our parents permission to share their life experiences to fetch instructions for us. The reason for faith that comes to us per time is for a love we need to evidence.
If we try to obey faith without the Spirit, we won’t be purified in our souls (1 Peter 1:22). When we copy and paste instructions that heaven did not give to us, it will end in offense if we don’t have the stature for it. It won’t work for purification in our souls. It is good to admire and aspire to do other people’s instructions, but we need to wait on the Spirit to lead us. The only way to arrive at a change of nature is for the Holy Ghost to lead us.
(Phil. 3:9) — “and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:”
There is who charity is (1 Cor. 13); if we are not who Charity is, whatever we do will not work righteousness in us. We don’t know ourselves. It is the Holy Ghost who knows us well and can tell us what to do per time.
The Holy Spirit instructs us, in and through scriptures, for living (Psalm 23). The Lord has to be our shepherd, leading us through contrary situations so that we can be safe and righteousness can be wrought in us. If we enter into the valley of the shadow of death without being led, we won’t survive. That things are in the scriptures doesn’t mean we should carry them out blindly. We should still wait to be led; everything we do should be from a revealed life that heaven is opening unto us.
We are a progressive people; the Lord is always moving. The adversary of what God is saying now is what He has said before; when the light of the Lord shines on our path, we must be willing to move. We need to journey. It is possible for God to journey and we are still stuck at the last place. He asked us to settle; this will only make us sin against Him. We are a dynamic people and must constantly journey. We must be flexible around our movement in the spirit so we don’t build monuments around what God has said to us previously and refuse what He is saying Now. If we are not careful, yesterday’s bread (instruction/dealing/leading) can be poison for today (Luke 11:3). We must be a people constantly yielding to the Spirit. What God provides per season is only sufficient for that season; it might not be for other seasons ahead.
Rules are good, but Satan can also stay around the place of rules to work death. We need to always check our spirit so that the instructions the Holy Spirit gives us will not become mere rules. Satan generates rules for us to follow, from bad experiences we have, because he wants to retain his nature in us.
Heaven stages scenarios around us so that what is in us can be revealed. Some decisions we make out of these scenarios are usually from our emotions, and they are filthy rags before God. The Holy Spirit knows our souls individually.
Round up by Pastor Niyi Otunaike
Knowledge is both theoretical and applicable. There is a life application for every piece of theoretical knowledge. It is always difficult to translate theoretical knowledge into practice, but it is in practice that we find life. We should be more concerned with how every situation and opportunity we face will add life to us rather than benefit us on the outside.
What is inside each of us is different based on our backgrounds and upbringings. The lessons we get from a particular dealing are not lifelong lessons for other situations. We should always go back to the Lord to fetch the instructions for each season. We should be people who live by the Spirit. We shouldn’t be led by experiences from bad situations, other people’s experiences, or previous leadings.
THE END