Greetings, my dear friends!Praise God for this wonderful day God has given us! Thank God for one more opportunity to be filled with His living word! We have been talking about the multitude that follows God only when it is convenient and profitable, while true disciples follow Him because they love Him and have dedicated their lives to Him.We also established that God desires for us to be like Jesus. When we grow in the likeness of Jesus, then all things that we need in this life will be added.God is able to entrust big money only to the person that has been delivered from stinginess, greed and excessive thrift by the renewing of his mind through God’s Word. God can do it because He knows that the heart of such a person is not attached to money.If you want to change you need to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. To be a disciple of Jesus means to be disciplined – to learn from Him all the time and to follow His example in all things. Disciples changes not because they are filled with the knowledge of Jesus and His lifestyle, but because they make an effort to apply God’s Word to their lives so that the Word would become flesh. That is the only way how a believer can be transformed into the image of Jesus and to become a living epistle of Christ read by all men.Many people love to study and gain new knowledge, including the knowledge of God, the Bible and the faith. But knowledge alone is not enough for a person to become a true disciple of Jesus. There is a category of people that continually seek for new information about God, but it does not reflect on their lifestyle. Apostle Paul speaks about them in the 2nd Epistle to Timothy:
«..always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth» (2 Timothy, 3:7).
People like that always study, but never come to the realization of the truth. What does it mean? The people who study and study, but do not apply the knowledge to their own life will never understand the truth.Jesus said that only the one who desires to DO the Father’s will be able to know and understand His teaching: «If anyone will to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority» (John, 7:17).
If a person only wants to know about God and His will, but is not making an effort to apply this knowledge to his life, he will never be able to discern and know the truth. We know that only the truth can set us free: „Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, „If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John, 8:31-32).
The Bible says that God’s Word is full of truth and grace (John, 1:14). When we accept the truth of God’s Word, God’s grace is released in our lives; it helps us to do things that are humanly impossible. God’s grace totally changes us and changes us into what we need to be. The changes in our lives take place when we become the doers of the Word. «Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does» (James, 1:21-25).
We will continue tomorrow!Be blessed on this wonderful day!Pastor Rufus Ajiboye
