

THE

LIVING

DEAD

Romans 6

The journey of dying to sin and living in Christ through Holy Spirit

Holy spirit
THE LIVING DEAD

.....The journey of dying to sin and living in Christ through Holy Spirit

This book is a project written from the direction of the Holy Spirit and it is hereby given our for free. However, any content in this book must not be reproduced without the prior knowledge of the Bible Scholar Networks through the writer Brother Olowolayemo Tope Joseph and you can contact him with his phone number +2349057459053 or email him at teeymoni@gmail.com

Most scriptures quotations are taken from ESV and few from AMP except otherwise indicated

Bible scholars network
TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION 4

CHAPTER 1: THE EXPERIENCE 7
CHAPTER 2: ARE WE TO CONTINUE IN SIN? 14
CHAPTER 3: DEATH 23

CHAPTER 4: THE DOUBLE SPIRIT 64

CHAPTER 5: THE LIVING 105

CHAPTER 6: THE LIVING DEAD 150

CHAPTER 7: HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR ENVIRONMENT 155

CHAPTER 8: THE POWER OF RESURRECTION 157

CALL FOR SUPPORT 175
Introduction

The bible is a written word that God want to communicate to mankind, it was written by inspiration from God. As the bible teaches us about God and engages our spirit with deeper revelations so also are some life experiences made by circumstances and controlled by God to teach us the reality of God's word and make us feel the power in it.

This book was a revelation made alive by real experiences, it was felt and it made a landmark in my life. It was not something, i initially have an intention to write something about because when the experiences happened i never have the real understanding of it. I never know the in-depth of God's revelation in them and the power of knowledge it communicates. They were so powerful, when God start ministering its understanding to me, i felt an unimaginable presence, and it focused right in front of me the awesomeness of Christ death and resurrection.

It all happened on a beautiful Saturday towards afternoon, i took my bible holding it in an upward position and resting horizontally on my table, i placed my hand to any position decided by the spirit and i open as i do regularly. Lo and behold i have my bible opened wide to Roman 6, i was not excited opening this particular place of the bible again, not that i hate Roman 6 but i am tired of it.

For a while now, i have been on the luck of opening the same place almost every day. I have read it several times, meditated on it countless of time, i have exhausted reasonable teaching on it and i have drawn the best knowledge of it from different preachers and teachers of God's word.
I was tempted to close my bible and open a new place as i always do before until i felt a restraint in my heart like something holding me back, it was so strong and i can't reject its bidding so i have to take a pause and read through it again with the encouragement of strengthening my knowledge on the previous days preaching which i heard, so good that its bible text was taken from the same Roman 6.

When one keep doing same thing over and over again same way there is depreciation of interest that it birth in the heart, it get to an extent of getting bored with it, there is a familiarity attached to it and one can easily narrate every detail in it off hand. This shouldn't be with the word of God, every encounter should be a moment of renewal and a moment of refreshment especially when done with the company of the all-wise friend; Holy Spirit.

This is exactly what i felt that day. Holy Spirit made Roman 6 a brand new scripture like it came straight from the factory, it was so refreshing. It made me feel i was just reading the outer part of it all this while and i have not gotten to the real content until this day. The presence was overwhelming and the revelation coming felt like i stumbled on a gold mine.

Holy Spirit started tagging those old experiences into it and i got better understanding of them. I got the essential reason i had them.

Roman 6 is a not too long chapter of the bible with endless knowledge on the death and resurrection of our lord Jesus Christ. It explains what supposed to be a Christian real state to sin and engage us with the knowledge of who we are in the new life in Christ. Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the sufficient knowledge that will transform righteousness and refine the true sons in God.
I won't be able to explain this until you go along in reading and meditating on the revelation in this book with the companionship of the Holy Spirit. I wish we could do it together to share the excitement, Joy and the unimaginable presence hidden in the awesomeness of God's word in this book.

Of course, i won't be right there beside you but i exist in between the words as i share the identity Holy Spirit had made me with his word and revelation.

Let's take the ride of dying to our destination of living.

Chapter 1

The experience

As I said before, the writing of this book was borne from a first-hand experience and I will be starting this book by sharing the experiences which will be a path that we shall thread all through the studying of it.

## The horrendous dream

It was a wonderful night like any other night, I got on my bed to have a nice sleep. The sleep was going on fine until I got myself into the world of dream. It was a very strange dream. It always paints the picture of fear whenever I remember it.

The dream was a continuity of an occasion, a very terrible occasion I must say. It was me and a friend stalked up in a terrible location ravaged by war and at the point where the dream started, there was an explosion that hit me and my friend badly. We were seriously hurt, there is no way someone could have survived that injury. I look at my friend he is cold already, he is dead. Then I looked at myself, I ask myself how on Earth could i have survived this horrible impact. The big part of my skin is torn and blood flows all over me like sweat, I know if I live on this flesh I should have been dead by now.

I looked around hoping to see people like me but everyone has been wiped out by the explosion, i came to realise this was not an explosion from a grenade but an atomic bomb, everywhere has been destroyed no visible life again. At a point I have the thought of this is the end of the world because the crisis was everywhere.

What kept ringing in my heart at that moment was; it is the end of the world, saint has levitate to the sky, why am I still on earth?

I was so scared that day, I saw no reason to still be alive then I looked around and I saw a knife, very sharp knife and I don't know where it came from, without thinking twice I drilled the knife into my already pierced stomach, I twisted the knife inside me so deeply, no blood was gushing out which means the blood in me is already gone but i am not dead yet, I was so scared maybe I have turned to a zombie.

How come! I am still alive, i don't need you again Mr Life, i want to die. So i retried what i did before but this time with more determination. I looked at the knife very angrily and with hatred like we are having a quarrel and i stabbed myself again, this time very hard and I thrust it in so deep but no, I felt no pain and no feeling of weakness that can incapacitate my brain.

If i can't die by harming myself, i should die by making myself like it so I fell on the ground, I closed my eye, thinking maybe if I fake death, it will come slowly. Wow! I am dead, really, am i deceiving myself. How can i be dead and still narrating my death? hu.....n, figured out it was a sleep, maybe slept off as a result of the stress of my suicide that wore me off, i don't understand how suicide should consume such time and energy, something that supposed to be very easy. I think it is time to wake up to my new reality and move on.

Now I am very sure I am immortal. I looked again at my long gone friend wishing I was lucky to have died so easily like him.

I couldn't continue to stay in this position, I need to take a walk. The more I move on, I keep seeing different terrors. I saw shootings, hearing bombings, anyone sighted is immediately gun down, what a precision! War tank moving in front of me and soldiers running around, yet no one touched me, it seems I am untouchable.

The most dreadful part was when I move forward again after some minutes' walk, I saw giant dinosaurs, very giant and some other terrible, fierce and indescribable horrible animals killing men.

At this point, although I thought myself to be immortal but I was scared, it escaped the fear in me from its prison. There was a gate along the way but there were gigantic animals moving around the gate like they are on a parole, everywhere was vibrating even mother earth couldn't comfortably receive the weight of the moving foot of these never seen before animals, my heart was panting so heavily and vibrating like a sounding woofer, anyone who dare near the gate pays with his or her life.

Although I was scared I still want to pass through the gate unlike other men who were taking refuge, you shouldn't forget i really want to end my life before just that the death in front me is too scary.

Behind, there is human controlled destruction and in front there is biological controlled destruction. If one escaped the war, the terror waiting at the gate cannot be escaped, which was the plan i guess.

But I pressed on, the dragon saw me, gaze at me fiercely, i was shivering already and I thought I will be burnt up in fire but the dragon just looked at me like it did not notice me, seems it has business with the person behind me. When I move further I got beside an animal, very tall one, very huge that I was not as tall as its feet. It made me a dwarf although am not because am moderately tall. As I walk around this gigantic animal I thought I would be stampeded, but no, nothing happened and I got out of the gate miraculously unharmed.

Outside the gate was another life entirely. Here people are not really affected by the military war although there was mild impact however; there was life and people around.

Yet I can see tears and could feel people sufferings. Behind, we have military war while here we have economical war. I saw people living in a house with no roof, I saw children whose skin has lost vitality so it rested on their skeleton. I saw people fighting serious sickness with the blinking strength of their life, it was a greatly horrible experience, couldn't explain it better.

I felt great pity for them and I don't know how the power came, I began to do mystical things which gave roof to houses, food to the hunger, joy to the broken hearted and I discovered that life was recovered back to people as I moved through houses and community. Jesus Christ said in the book of Matthew 5:13 and 14, "we are the salt of the earth....."You are light of the world...." Only those who are dead to sin can take this position, we will get there soon.

## The unforgettable experience

There are some experiences in life that can hardly be forgotten. They becomes the unforgettable life story and a transition point to a new life, there are lot of different unforgettable experiences here and there however, there are few which will stand exceptional no matter what and this experience I want to narrate now takes the perfect fitting for this definition. It wiped everything I once doubted and breathed in me a new reality.

It was a wonderful day, this particular day I committed myself into a day and half marathon fasting. I did the fasting in fear because i have little problem with ulcer and i think i am in its season, i can feel the pain already. Maybe i should dare the fasting and rely on the healing power of God, I thought and I did.

Fasting actually moved fine with no complications, even at place of work where I am a teacher I felt no weakness or fatigue. Everything was just normal as it has always been every day. In fact, it got to a point where I can't remember I was fasting.

Then night came and it was almost 10pm almost the time I use to pray but I felt bored and I decided to take a quick nap before 12am. As I slept I had a powerful dream where I saw myself having two skeletons in me, one was old and the other was new, I don't know how possible was that, of course it was a dream so anything is possible.

The old skeleton was actually disturbing the new skeleton like the two were against each other, a little moment after, I miraculously took the old skeleton out of me and i bent it like I am arranging cloth then I placed it in a bag and the big skeleton fit in to it. I kept the skeleton intact in a place like I kept it for future use instead of disposing it off since I have a new skeleton already. Anyway, I felt better since I have only one skeleton in me, so no more clumsiness.

It is already 12am so I need to go outside to start my prayer. The beginning of the prayer was ok until it was around 12:10am if am not wrong, I started feeling weak. When the weakness started, I was not surprised, I immediately took it as an effect of the fasting, I stepped down a little to conserve energy and i make the prayer low-key, instead of moving about I stood in one place although I am scared of sleeping off.

Yet the weakness keep getting worse, within two minutes I couldn't stand again, I needed to lean against a wall to pray, I still think all this was happening to me because of the fast. Three minutes later, I could not even lean comfortably on the wall again so I have to sit down. In my life I haven't feel that weakness even the first day I ever observed marathon fasting.

It seems the thing keep getting worse each minute. At the forth minute I couldn't sit by myself again so I have to forcefully walk inside the room to lie on the cushion chair. All this were happening and I did not stop praying and I was not scared, my brain was totally wiped off to believe everything was happening because of the fasting.

At the fifth minute, it got very worst, my body system have no energy to function again. I can't even independently rest on a cushion chair any longer. Therefore, I tried my last energy to get on the bed and I just collapsed on it. At this time I couldn't carry any of my body again. All energy was lost, like I am about to shut down. Amidst this I was still not scared. I had to lie down flat on the bed lifeless.

At the seventh minute I felt an energy running through me, starting from my leg and I could feel the energy moving to other part of my body. I felt the energy as it was moving from one place to the other. When the weight of energy has gotten to almost all my body I got up too early by not waiting till the weight of energy get to all over by body, my left hand I guess.

I ran out and started rolling on the ground to give thanks to God. For once in my life I have never believe in miracle but that night miracle was so real to me at the front of my face. Within ten minutes I virtually died and came back to a new being.

After giving thanks, my spirit told me to open my Bible and as I opened my Bible that night, it was Roman 6 staring at me but unfortunately I cannot get anything from it, not just one. Obviously, the joy in me masked my eye of understanding.

However several months later, after continuous opening of the Bible, Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the things I need to know concerning the experience.
Chapter two

Are we to continue in sin?

Rom.6.1 - What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Rom.6.2 - By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Sin is a total contradiction to God while grace is an entrance to God. When sin is committed the relationship with God is already destroyed, grace automatically stop working.

By God's plan of creation, man was created to dominate over all things and rule over all creatures however sin stole the privilege. Sin created a barrier between man and God.

Continuing in sin means engaging in the same thing which deprived mankind of its freedom and brought them condemnation.

# The glory brought the sin

After the creation which bring another kingdom and another being into existence. God made man the mini god to overseer the affairs of the new kingdom, the reason why God made man in his own image. God put his presence into man and the manifestation of God's presence in man is the ability to rule, control and to create.

In order to build a system to conform man to authority, God created the tree of knowledge as a test of man obedience and allegiance to instruction. However, this new position of man was never joyously accepted by some angels as it made man live superiorly and more important than them in which Devil was part of them and also the leader of this group of angels this reason brought up war of contention between man and devil. Devil did not actually contend God but rather contend the position of man and their relationship with God.

He knows the falling of man will cause a vacancy in position and will also spite God therefore devil understand that winning over men will automatically place him over men and hereby subject men to slavery like every other creatures created under man.

At the beginning, man was automatically dead to sin because he lives in the obedience of God, this was the time man was living as the image of God, it is like a typical father and son relationship where a son is regarded as the image of his father because he acts as his father. In this view, it can be understood that Jesus Christ was the image of God and He came on earth to give us the opportunity to regain what mankind lost by giving us the total exemplary life which will make us God's image again. Devil kept on with his plans and unfortunately man fell by eating the forbidden fruit.

The fruit man ate activated a new option in man order of thought which is the thought of doing bad. By default man was created to think right and truthful things and also please God. Please understand that man cannot independently think righteousness that is why they depends on God so therefore God share his thought with man but the moment he ate the fruit of knowledge he became independent from this reality.

Since man has another thought working in him, total obedience cannot be guaranteed any longer which will pose more danger than that of the devil and that's the reason in the book of Genesis 3:10-11, man has to run away from God presence on the fact that he was seeing what God did not order him to see. Of course our God is a very loving father, the same way He gave mankind second chance during the time of Noah and reversed the curse so also He sent his son as the last Adam to replay the story in the garden of Eden and gave each man the grace to decide his fate personally instead of being automatically condemned of a sin that each souls alive today did not know anything about but life will be used as the price to buy back the lost grace.

From the beginning, man was not blind to recognize he is naked but nakedness was never considered a problem which means no matter what happens to man at that time there is never negativity or problem. They actually live in automatic adaptation to their environment, nature takes over everything. Only God sees or recognizes man's problem, this is why it was God who brought the subject of man's loneliness. Even if there is no food to eat, their mind automatically adapt to it and also their body system. At this time man lives in God so whatever that does not affect God does not affect him, it is just like Christ illustration of the relationship of God, Jesus and man in John 15. God created the plant because He felt man will need something to get them alive.

This can be simply explained by using man and robot as an example. A robot engineer creates a robot, the robot has no life or existence apart from the engineer, the engineer decides the new code the robot needs or the best battery that will keep it going. The feeling of the robot, its needs and desire is systematically an extension of that of the engineer.

Unfortunately, As soon as the fruit of knowledge was eaten, man start generating problem for themselves and start prioritizing what need not to be prioritized because they are already living out of God already.

Therefore if man cannot think like God any longer, act like God any longer and also live like God, then their service is no more needed and the privilege of God controlling their needs and desire has been compromised. But we thank God, we have the Holy Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 2:10 to teach us the deep things of the father and also give us his mind.

Sin means thinking and doing things against God's will and purpose. Most of the problems on earth are brought by sin. If sin means going against God, that means we are going against the creator, the nature itself and hence we are going against our existence. So in essence, God is not going to be the one to destroy the world but the climax of men dangerous activity will destroy the world.

Men obedience to sin, sold them to difficulty. People always think the difficulty man is experiencing nowadays is an outcome of Curse, no, the difficulty is a result not a curse. Man's glory brought contention with the devil while man foolishness made them lose the glory.

## Alive in the spirit exist in the flesh

Adam was endowed with the opportunity to be an intermediary between the spirit and the flesh and that's the reason why Adam never considered his nakedness as a problem.

By default, the flesh is made to cover the spirit so whatever the flesh does or whatever the flesh looks like is never the problem of man. Man's life was in the spirit and that's what takes our priority. The moment man transgresses, the first thing that happened was man hiding from God and the reason for such was because man has lost the existence which connects them to God.

The flesh can only be controlled by the spirit, the understanding of this will enable us to figure out why law had a serious shortcoming which man cannot adapt to. The law supposed to enable man the ability to control flesh which is too hard to achieve.

Our freedom was in the spirit, our power was in the spirit and this is like that because the spirit connects to God, to his infinite power and knowledge. Let's go a little back to the creation of man, God created an object, a beautiful and high functional object but that object has nothing and could do nothing until soul and spirit was breathed into it. This makes the body nothing but an empty container waiting to contain the content which is the spirit and soul. This two are what really add the real value and make the container function the real thing. A man living in flesh is a man living in slavery and lives a valueless life, Apostle Paul was so careful through the help of the Holy Spirit to identify this reality in Roman 6 and 8.

Let's go a little bit more realistic about this; we have a phone; the hardware, the one that can be seen and can be held in the hand to be operated. That beautiful and adorable designed phone is nothing but a plastic or whatever material used in making it without the software and the most interesting part is that the phone hardware can never do anything out of the control of the invincible software. Now imagine having the most beautiful and adorable phone on earth with the capability of a calculator, at a point it will make sense because of the beauty but when a phone made with something very ugly could do everything a smart phone does, that is the day one will understand the reality that it is not by the appearance but by the content. The content drives the appearance so also is a man living in the spirit and that is the position Holy Spirit has taken over in us after the coming of Jesus, this was the fulfilment of the wonderful prophecy in Joel 2:28-29 " and it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh..." Jesus Christ did all the signs and wonder because he did not live by flesh and he was not limited by it, he lived in the spirit and he promised us to do better in John 14:12 if we can also live in the spirit as he did.

King Saul became extraordinary the moment prophet Samuel anointed him which means the anointing was actually an opening portal to the spirit. David conquered Goliath and become extraordinary after the anointing which activated a presence in him. After Moses encounter with the burning bush, a spirit was discharged into him.

The day Adam sin, he lost the automatic portal to the spirit which means his power to control flesh was lost and in essence man becomes a slave to the existence that he becomes.

## Dead to freedom, alive to slavery

Gal.4.1 - I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything,

Gal.4.2 - but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.

Gal.4.3 - In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

The day man ate the forbidden fruit which was proposed to them by the devil, a poison who will abort their existence in freedom start running in their blood, Man sold their place to the devil and devil becomes the new master. Man as an image of God which means authority, power and glory got delegated to the devil. Therefore, the true existence died and the fake existence took over.

## The living dead

Several times have we heard the phrase the living dead. The phrase means that a man can be walking from street to street, eat and talk but yet he is dead, this is because man exists in two forms. Let's have a look at the two forms;

  * Life internally

  * Life externally

Life internally: This is the life in our body; it contains our body system, our spirit, our mind and everything that pertains to us personally.

Life externally: This is the life that connects the body to other bodies i.e. it connects us to other people. What connects us to other people include purpose, dreams, vision, ideas, character, attitude and lots of things. It is the external body that defines who we are in the relationship with other people.

A man can have good functioning body but lack connection with other people. Which is due to either loss of purpose or loss of destiny or probably loss of sanity, we call those people the walking dead.

The day man start committing sin, the power over other creatures was under threat and hence lost God's assigned authority over them then the devil hijacked it which led to the origin of man's problem.

Man who supposed to occupy top of the ladder of authority got dropped down and become uncontrollable exposed to sin that is why Paul said in Roman 7:15

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

The life in flesh have direct contact with sin, it is weak to overcome sin because it is part of it. Man lost dominion over their flesh which birthed the struggle to fight his desire, his belief, his thought and his character till the battle is lost.

An analogy of man slavery is a man who has a car but cannot drive it, the question to ask is; what essence is the car? The same question goes to asking ourselves; what essence is our body if we can't totally control its desires and needs. That is the level almost every humans are today

## Continuity in sin

Continuity in sin means continuity in slavery, it also means continuity in rejecting God's plan for humanity. It is unreasonable to continue in sin and expect God to save us, for it was the same thing that destroys the relationship with Him in the first place. The day Christ is accepted, time is reversed to life before Adam ate the apple, the time when Adam lives in the spirit but exist in the flesh when sin has no existence in man. A dead body doesn't feel anything and this translate to life in Christ; a life in Christ shouldn't feel sin talk of considering it.

Chapter three

Death

When I was in secondary school, I remember the teacher definition of death. The teacher defines death as the total absence of life which makes death the direct opposite of life.

Everybody knows that when something is dead it cease to exist. I once made an illustration about death during one of my teaching. I tried to relate money and death because I know people's rapid response when money is involved.

I said that; to understand the extremity of the lifelessness of a dead body, millions of dollars should be placed on it, it won't move a finger to touch it even though the body always desire such opportunity in its lifetime.

The moment millions of dollars is seen, I know many minds and desires got alerted. I know some people even in their sleep could smell such money as it approaches them, now imagine it being placed on them, something will certainly wake them up. No need to worry or be too anxious of millions there is more than that awaiting the dead in Christ in the kingdom of God

At the state of death, nothing has value or exists again.

It won't be funny when a dead body that is about to be buried just wake up and said this; "hey, people, please can you give me just a minute, there is something important I left behind can you please help me or can I go myself" I know by now that the dead will be soliloquizing because even the priest in charge of the service will by that moment either trying to jump the fence if the gate is locked or hiding somewhere till things get more real.

Even the relative of the dead will run away. Do this means the relative prefer the person dead or they hate him or her? The answer is a no obviously. However, if someone is dead there is no more expectation for them to come back to life especially when all actions done to make them come to life brought no result.

At death there is no more hope

When Lazarus the brother of Mary and Martha was seriously sick, Mary and Martha had strong faith in their brother being healed and they called Jesus Christ to help them out. They were so enthusiastic about the healing of their beloved brother but Jesus did not come at the time they expected.

When Jesus later came they have already lost faith, one could be surprised what led to the lost faith. Is it not the same sisters who want their brother healed in the first place? Realistically, no one will have a dead love one and won't lose faith in seeing them again, such was the case of Mary and Martha. Their case was even worst since Lazarus is not only dead but he has died for four days and should start decomposing already. According to scientific research carried out on dead body, decomposition starts few hours after death, making the cells getting uncontrollably damaged while some bacteria who are held control by the immune system set themselves loose since the immune system is dead and they move around every other part of the body surviving on the cocktails of energy coming out from the damaging cells. Those enzymes in the stomach become hyper active that they eat into the organs.

Imagine Lazarus experiencing those damaging process for more than four days, obviously by then the big part of Lazarus would have decomposed and most of his vital organs is gone so at this point Mary had no hope again and this was her conversation with Jesus;

John.11.23 - Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

John.11.24 - Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."

It got to an extent where her hopelessness made her reluctant to follow the instruction of Jesus

John.11.39 - Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days."

John.11.40 - Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" (ESV)

It will be totally inappropriate to assume Mary hated his brother for acting such faithlessly, her action was due to her understanding of one of the attribute of death which is hopelessness. However, we thank God that Jesus did resurrect Lazarus.

The question that might come to our mind especially those who have keen interest on details and fact is; how did Jesus raised a four days dead body? Jesus Christ could have healed the blind and make the lame to walk which is an act of repairing a particular place of the body and reviving just a group of cells by scientific knowledge but here the case is totally different, we are having a full dead body with virtually all organs dead and almost totally rotten, what could have happened?

Understanding the mystery of the living dead

After the explosion which took away my friend, I discovered that I am good as dead since all my body organs are impacted by the explosion. I looked at my leg, the tissues has been crushed and the bones misshapen, there is no way I can walk with this leg, every of my body systems should be on total breakdown. At this point my problem shouldn't be about feeling pain but it should be about dying but yet I am not only free from pain but I feel normal and strong so what is happening?

The previous part ended on the mystery of Lazarus resurrection. Considering scientist research about death there is no way Lazarus could have been lucky to stay for four days in the tomb without being decayed, there is no logical explanation capable enough to demystify what happened in Lazarus resurrection and that is why the Bible said in I Corinthians 3:19

For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness,"

The introductory story put us into the same disposition of mystery.

How does the dead lives?

By the order of existence, man supposed to live in the spirit while flesh is just a container. That's, the origin of life is determined in the spirit, it should be known that the spirit does not die.

A better way of explaining this is comparing flesh as cloth and spirit as the body.

When a cloth fades or the cloth tears it doesn't affect the body, it can only expose it. Therefore our flesh is just an ordinary covering to our spirit. Our flesh consists of the cells which make up the unit of life, our tissue, organs and system. All these can just be exemplified as the buttons, pocket, seams, and every patterns that makes a cloth however when any part of this gets worn out which might disfigure the whole cloth all we need to do is either repairing the particular place or getting another cloth.

The spirit supposed to be the regenerative energy of our flesh

The moment Jesus Christ called the name of Lazarus, He wasn't calling Lazarus as flesh but he was calling the spirit of Lazarus which has the power to either repair the worn out body or reproduce it.

The same thing happened in the introductory story, although the skin was almost totally destroyed by the explosion, the person in question did not die because his existence is not defined by the flesh but by the spirit.

When Jesus was experiencing the sacrificial stage of his existence where he was horribly dealt with and was finally crucified, he was actually changing the order of living. He was giving off the flesh to give power to the spirit, and this was the interchanging of what Adam did when he committed the sin of disobedience.

No matter the perspective or view this reality is looked at, all mankind will still end in the description of living dead. Only the end of time will reveal those who will live and those who will die.

It is important to note the fact that only the dead in Christ can live in the spirit in eternity but those who died in flesh in sin will not have such privilege.

Dead, no more feeling

After I thrust the knife in my stomach and force it into the deepest part of my flesh, I deliberately fell down to experience the process of death, I closed my eye to stimulate it then at a point it seems I have shut down because I couldn't feel anything again but some minutes after, my body resume back to feel things so I scream "oh, I am not dead"

The indication of death is the total stop of sensitivity. When human is alive, the adrenaline react when there is danger, the skin feel all sorts of sensation but the day life goes out those things stop functioning. Wherever the body is placed, it maintains such position even when fire burns.

This was my thought when all those things happened to me, I expected to stop existing and feel nothing but here I am still having feeling and reacting to it.

This takes us to the awesome day a sinner give his life to Christ, that glorious day. The day he realized his life is useless and discover how important Christ is needed to save him from the worthless life, then that day he confess Christ as the Lord and personal saviour, saying the most significant word of all "Lord I give my life to you".

### The significant of the word: lord I give my life to you

Life is the commodity to buy life to the spirit and when the spirit is active, the flesh automatically dies. The more the spirit in a man, the more the flesh dies

Rom.6.6 - We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

The day a sinner say the word "lord I give my life to you" death to sin is automatically initiated as elucidated earlier. It should always be remembered that whatever is dead cannot respond to anything again. A life should not respond to the temptation of sin again or be subjected to any sin no matter what it is. Viewing the popular word "am born again" what does it mean? Being born again means to take on a new body entirely and when a new body is taken, the old body and its activities must be forsaken, better understanding of this will explained later in this book.

In essence, sin shouldn't be felt again but rather, righteousness should be the only feeling existing in a man sensory organ for every believer has taken a new nature.

And this no matter how easy it sound, it is a transition that is not easy. How can you tell me that I should stop feeling the big part of the past that make me who I am today?

I remember in those days when I have lot to struggle with for righteousness, my friend who was a strong believer then told me I have to stop doing some things including not listening to some genres of songs like hip hop and I should tone down my flamboyant life like I should stop Barbing some particular hairstyle, I should stop using some vocabularies and all sort. Even though I adjust to most things he told me but I discovered that it was everyday struggle.

I remembered that I told him i can't stop listening to hip hop song and start acting calm and gentle separating myself from having fun in the worldly means, to me life becomes very boring without them and I am not ready for such reality. I can't see my friends having party and you expect me to be indoor reading the Bible or just sitting there looking.

To me, partying, dancing to weird song, drinking little alcohol and grooving into songs with awful lyrics is life. I can't imagine stopping all those things, what will I be doing. So I will be drinking some sweet things, be conservative with my word and hence loose the playful part of me, I can't dance weird dance again to express my burning craziness and I cannot feel my soul with great beat and soul lifting songs. It looks so impossible to me, stopping it does not measure the totality of my disgust for this new lifestyle but hearing there is no direct replacement makes me feels I want to die instead. I can't, I can't, I can't. Although I was a Christian but I keep battling with this thought. My old life became an immortal body that couldn't die

# Not totally dead

I remember a day like that, I followed my friend to attend a drama concert. The drama acted that night was so real that it ministered to my soul and on that seat the energy to kill my old life came upon me and I was so determined to do it rightly on that seat that night. So I start making lot of decisions, I will stop doing this and I will stop doing that. It was so real that day that as I got home I deleted up to 80% of the hip-hop in my phone though I have to leave some because they are my favourite, my very favourite and I gave reason why I have to let them be on my phone, the lyrics is moderately cool and besides I don't really listen to their lyrics just the melody and beat, I will caution myself with them.

The "ands" continues, I have forgotten that we can't have 80% death like saying we have a dead body although it is dead but it can still eat some light food when put in its mouth, no matter how funny it sounds that is the state of most believers death in Christ, their death is a partial one.

When a doctor approves someone clinically dead, it means the brain has totally stop functioning and the body system is on a halt, nothing can revive it again.

Back to my story, the 20% that remains on my phone is a small fire that can ignite something bigger but I did not know. Even human being with very low activity in their heart and insensitive brain are still regarded as living, it doesn't matter how insensitive they are when you touch them or their fixed position, for the fact that there is a small activity of life going in them they can still be regarded as living. I have heard people who have been in vegetative state without been able to respond to anything, even to eat or move an inch to pass excreta and they have been preserved in this position for decades while their love ones is waiting for a day when their brain will be revived again.

There was a time when I was reading about a very wealthy man some years ago they call him the ice man, James Bedford, his body was preserved in ice in a cryopreservation. He had kidney cancer which metamorphoses into some serious illness which cannot be cured during his time and even till now. Before he died or before he was shutdown he made provision for some money in his will which is estimated to be 100 thousand dollars to carry on this preservation till the time He come back to life or the time when the cure for his sickness is discovered. Unfortunately, none of the two options has been met and hence he remains in the ice for more than 50 years now.

This entire struggle to make a death come back again and feel things again, none has worked till now. So that explain what our death to sin means. It means total collapse from sin; nothing can revive sin in us again no matter how long we live after.

Again to my story, days later after this decision I relapse back to my old life. Then my old life became immortal again. I came to understand that my repentance was not borne out of sincerity, what do you expect from a decision made with lot of compromise, my death was feigned.

Feign death

There are some animals that when you try to kill them, they fake death in order to overcome been killed, some animals are so perfect in it that it works for them while some might be a little bit unfortunate. I read a funny story sometimes ago where a fat man and his slender friend went to a forest to hunt and as they were carrying out the activity they encountered a wild pig, a wild pig is not like the normal pig that we know around.

A wild pig is a very ferocious animal and very deadly in every definition, as the two friends sighted it, running for their life become a decision with no option and we know when in such situation it becomes everybody for himself. The slender Man took on to the climbing of a tall tree because of his enabling body but the fat man cannot try such and the wild pig is almost approaching to come and unleash it's tyranny on the fat man. At this delicate point, the fat man remembered a popular saying that wild pig doesn't feed on dead animal so he immediately fall on the ground and feign dead, then the pig came around the man, hoping to see a man who is alive, it toured around the man and place his nose close to the man nostril to ascertain his death but this man was so smart to cease his breathing for that little moment. The wild pig made up its mind and left so the fat man was saved.

This story defines how many people received Christ. Our repentance came from fear of the destructive power of sin and the eternal damnation. At this point we become so afraid that we abruptly made up our mind to receive Christ in which the decision is not made on real acknowledgement of Christ love but of sin terror and that is what happened to me after I watched that powerful drama.

However, man is built in a manner whereby they later adapt to their fear and conquer it. Fear is just like a storm, sooner or later it will cease. Jesus Christ recognized this reality in his preaching of the parable of the sower.

Matt.13.5 - Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,

Matt.13.6 - but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.

A rocky heart is not literally a strong heart because a strong heart will obviously not receive the word in the first place but a heart that is not prepared enough to sustain the growth of righteousness. It will receive it with so much enthusiasm or fear but when the driving vehicle of enthusiasm and fear gets packed out, nothing will drive them again. These are the category of believers who feigned the death but never died. Their perfection in doing it, is not the problem for it is a matter of life and death, even the fat man did it perfectly. However, it is just temporary and the truth will come soon.

Troops of people that comes out to give their life to Christ in a crusade or a ministration is not usually my problem but the numbers of people who really come out to make a decision for a total death.

I remember one of those outreached that we did during my one year compulsory service organized by a youth fellowship organization. During my evangelism I came in contact with a moderately old woman and also a very old woman, they stay together in a somewhat secluded area. Thank God for His boldness in me that day, i wouldn't have approached them. After I preached to them in which they were moved by the spirit, the moderately old woman appreciate our presence and good work for Christ even at our very youthful age and she continued talking by recognizing the many effort of several churches who has come to that community for crusade and all sort of Evangelical activities. She said; she has lost count but quite unfortunately evil has refused to die in the community, people continue with their diabolical act after every encounter. The word of this woman explains the hypocrisy of many people when they come out for altar call, most times it pains me.

In the second day of our outreach when we usually do big crusade, people troop out for altar call but my spirit spoke to me in the corner where I stood that most numbers of people here doesn't truly understand what it means to die while some other numbers are outside to have a feign death. They know what they are really out for which repentance is not part of it. Just a splinter of the number out there will come out in sincerity.

People keep feigning the death of their old life however, they forget to understand the crucial fact that they can't hide from their own impending catastrophe.

The day when I dropped my feign death was the day I truly recognize the real meaning of Christ love, it's real essence and the need for me to grow in it. Then that day, the grace to kill my old life came upon me and it was that grace that made my holiness endures till this day.

I willingly stop listening to those wrong song while those I refused to stop listening to, Holy Spirit had a way of forcing me to stop it and also I discovered how bitter alcoholic drinks becomes when I drink them, they become so bitter that when I force myself to drink them I sometimes feel like vomiting. The old life I cherished before start looking valueless and at a point grew detestable to me. I gave my life as an absolute project of the Holy Spirit and I keep growing in the love for Christ till today.

Living in the death

After the stressful work of more than a month I discovered that we are 99% completion of the contract, nothing could make me feel more relieved than this. Before the project could be approved completed, there need to be an inspection by the supervisor to check how well we have done with the job. So the day came and the inspector arrived to access our work. Although we are two who did the job, I was only sure about my own job so I gave the supervisor mine which was against what the spirit wanted me to. She check my first file and there was an error, I was so surprised and angry at the same time seeing errors discovered in my work even in the very first file that she will check, I don't know that I have more to be angry on that day.

She keep checking and virtually seeing error in all the files I have done, this was so frustrating and at the same time it was killing my "Mr perfect ego". She was so disappointed with the work done and I am so worried because I am actually the presiding supervisor of the project there. Then she asked me for another files but this time she was specific about the year, the year which was asked for, it was only my partner that did it. As I give her the file, I was so scared that she will discover more errors because I never totally believe on the work of my partner all the while.

She started checking it and fortunately no errors were discovered, the one seen were inconsequential ones. At that moment my ego dropped but this is the part am more concerned with, she said that we should re-check all the files over again to verify the error work and we should correct them. Seriously, how can we re-check more than 9,000 files so easily and expect us to finish within a day or next. I understand that nothing can make us recheck that file because if we do, it will take days and lot of work but I am tired of the work already. Although I gave my word to try my best but I know I can't do it so I was scared in my mind that what will I do the second day if she ask about it. Will I lie to save the job or will I surrender to make a recheck which will mean extra work and extra money. The recheck is impossible so I plead with the Holy Spirit to give me the grace to overcome this because I don't want to lie and the next day came she didn't ask about the work again, in fact she called telling me how good our job was and the little thing we need to do to perfect it. The next day I went to the office I perfected everything and that was the end. Grace saved my imperfection and it sustained my death to lie.

The story up there sums up the serious challenges believers encountered with their old life. Normally I could have decided at the instant to lie to the supervisor and not do the work, in fact am once a good and perfect liar however, since I have given my life to Christ one of those things that I choose to die of is lies. It became something of great worry to me as there is no way to approach the situation wisely than to lie. The decision could have been easier if the work was done by only me, I could have decided to make the recheck and make the sacrifice but this matter is totally different because my decision to make any recheck will bring total inconveniences to the other person which I don't want to happen either. The simple matter gave me headache that evening, something that will never be a problem if it was to be my former life in sin, a simple lie is enough. So I have to surrender everything to God hand and I lean on his grace then the second day God did it.

As simple as this may sound there is actually a mystery around it.

Two questions came up and will be answering them subsequently:

  * What if I decided to lie at the first instance?

  * What took the mind of the supervisor off the matter?

## What of if I decided to lie at the first instance?

One thing we must quickly understand is that devil is a master of lies and deceptions, he have a way of bending the reality with tricks only the wise and those in the spirit can escape its tricks.

That day I asked myself why should my error work be the one to come out since the errors are not what I deliberately make, in fact I was so careful with the job that I device many routine systems to scrutinize error although it slowed the job but I make sure to make the sacrifice. When the supervisor was seeing errors in my work I was so surprised how did that happened. I came to later realize that there was a trick here played by the devil, devil is a good strategist, it doesn't create situation but it can bend situation. Devil doesn't create life but it bends it. Let's read Galatian 4:1-3

Gal.4.1 - I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything,

Gal.4.2 - but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.

Gal.4.3 - In the same way we also, when we were children, we are enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

Devil has nothing, it only feed on our power then it accumulates them together to torment us. It deceived Adam to take away is authority and become master over him. Devil is just a senior bully who knows more than us and so it uses that privileges on us, it feeds on our ignorance.

Devil went to meet Jesus and it promised to give Jesus the same thing Jesus has already, you can see it's mastery of tricks. If he could win over Adam, he thought it will be another victory over Jesus but glory be to God it failed. We have to understand the mastery in devil tricks and how it play those tricks with our flesh, he is very audacious in his tricks like everything is real and could challenge anyone. Devil has gone totally advanced with the tricks he played with Adam and Eve and over time as man evolve and grow in knowledge, devil devise better and more perfect tricks, as I said before, he is a bully big brother. It feed wholly on our ignorance.

What devil wanted for me that day is to destroy all the work I have done over the integrity on the job that day. Devil knows human is imperfect and it will use maybe our 10% imperfection to destroy our 90% perfection only if you agree. The devil came to test my first decision that I made at the beginning of the project which is; I will uphold my integrity till the end of the job and I will not lie

I remember a day, the night before that day I pray so energetically on Divine favour and the atmosphere of prayer was so good that I believe that my prayer is answered however the second day I experience a total divergence from favour. Devil pulled a trick to kill my faith and get the negative word from me and the devil will in return take that same negative word against me by taking by matter to God and that is the trick that deprives many believer from answered prayer.

Thank God I made up in my spirit not to lie and as we said earlier that the spirit control the physical. In the spirit there is never a limitation and that is why Jesus Christ walked on the sea like no man's business because he was actually operating through the spirit. Flesh is the big contender to the spirit, any believer who still waits on the flesh to make decision in faith will always struggle with righteousness and that's why the law is flawed, law has everything to do with flesh and no man can conquer flesh with flesh. There is this rule in power that says that "we cannot change what we are in", it will become a challenge.

So I conquered the sin already in my spirit the moment I made up my mind not to lie and I recognize my weakness unto God and I did not release it as a tool unto the devil.

One thing we have to understand about living as the dead is that we must totally live by the spirit; the spirit is the life to our death. The moment you said that you are dead to sin, it is not that you cease to exist but you transcend to another existence where you need to start all over the journey of growth that is why Apostle Paul said in book of 1 Corinthians 3:1-3

1Cor.3.1 - But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

1Cor.3.2 - I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,

Apostle Paul also has something to say on this matter in the book of Hebrew 6:1-2

Heb.6.1 - Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

Heb.6.2 - and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

In the two scriptures up there, it is evident that Apostle Paul seek group of believers who need rapid growth from their infancy in Christ to maturity. Jesus Christ has made a fixed pregnancy to born the sons of God, the day we received him as our lord and personal saviour, that day we are born as a child into the existence of holiness and at that stage we are still prone to be deceived by our old life, so we still need to be taught basic things of the spirit as a toddler will be taught how to walk and speak. Like babies are usually given very special attention because they are not far from where they came from, any carelessness with them can take them back. As the infant in the spirit, Devil still wants them back to their old ways.

Until you grow to attain maturity, you are not far from your place of death. Hence to live after the death you need to grow in the new existence of the spirit

The moment I made up my mind not to lie, I re-emphasise my decision of death to sin and the Lord of the life who controls life took over

What took the mind of the supervisor off the matter?

By now we should have understand that whenever we give our life to Christ, it means we transfer life from the flesh to the spirit and the spirit occupies the top of the power pyramid. When I made up my mind not to lie which means I acted in the spirit then my spirit abolished all the tricks pull up by the devil. The supervisor was just unknowingly being use as puppet for the devil. All those errors were just the manifestation of trick.

I surrendered my imperfection to God and He gave me grace

Another thing we must understand about living after the death is that we transcend to a life where our effort don't totally gives us result but the grace.

If there is anything a believer must totally work on, it will be building the structure of our faith. We live in the new life in faith. The book of Ephesians 6:16 and 1 Timothy 6:12 said that;

Eph.6.16 - In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;

1Tim.6.12 - Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (ESV)

There is always a war against the flesh when we die in it and it takes faith, the strong weapon of faith to conquer. Devil only fights your faith, it fights what you believe in and it doesn't fight your body or whatever you have. The fight against Job was not actually the fight against his life but the fight against his faith in God.

Paul said; for we aren't wrestling against flesh and blood but against principalities and power and the princes of the darkness

So what you believe is always your reality in the long run

I believed that I won't lie, although that belief look so impossible but since my faith is on it then it became the reality. Devil could only manipulate the heart of the supervisor but my God owns her heart, for it is written that our God owns the heart of the Prince and Kings (Proverbs 21:1). So He can change it whenever he wants to, he did exactly so in my case.

******

From the above story and study, we can derive the exemplary reality of how we need to act when living in the dead. It should be understood that the things that take us back to our sinful life are tricks of the devil, the good knowledge of God's word is needed and the willingness to live in it to overcome and most importantly our faith in the word of God and his revelation will be the anchor that will hold our life firm to God when the storms of persecution and trials rage heavily.

Not a sweet death

Rom.6.5 - For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

I hope the scripture up there gives a proper welcoming to the topic. The scripture was exact on the particular way we must die

## Death like his

As a believer we cannot choose our death, it is already predefined to follow the same pattern of Christ death. In order for you to die like Christ we must understand what Christ's death was.

What was Christ's death?

In order for us to understand Christ's death we will read further to see what Apostle Paul talked about it in verse 6

Rom.6.6 - We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

In reference to the scripture we can understand that Christ death was the interval between his persecution and crucifixion.

Have you ever wonder why Christ was not just killed in a calm way since what they want is to eliminate him. This question makes us to identify that there is significance to the gruesome death of Jesus Christ. His flesh must be totally mutilated, condemned before he dies.

Let's rewind a little to our story to see the similitude of Jesus Christ flesh destruction

From our story hope we remembered the part where the appearance of the skin was described after the explosion. Let's look at it again.

......then I looked at myself, I ask myself how on Earth I could have survived this horrible impact. Most of my skin is torn and blood flow all over me like sweat, I know that if I live on this flesh I should have been dead now......

The description in the story painted the same appearance of Jesus after the Jews flogged him and made him suffer on the way to the Calvary. Therefore, what was seen in the dream and what happened to Jesus was not just a coincidence but something of significance.

Why should the flesh be destroyed before death?

The only thing that can make man to be subjected to the devil is flesh. Every tricks and action of the devil ends with the flesh and that is why God instructed the Devil during job case that everything about Job you can touch except his soul. The soul and the spirit is that precious thing in man that God does not joke with because those two things came out from the profoundness of his breath.

If God doesn't die which means his breath remains so also will spirit never die. Devil has no power over the spirit and hence what conquers devil is the spirit.

There is nothing that can make devil more furious than seeing man not living on the desire of the flesh but on the existence of the spirit. When the anger of the devil becomes unbearable, it will take all means to scourge the flesh with fire and pain like the tormenters do in order break down the person, it knows that no matter how, so far we are still in flesh we can't prevent ourselves from feeling the pain, discomfort and pressure when it comes and it knows only those that are very strong could withstand such excruciating pain. Therefore the persecution and the suffering of Christ was an attempt of the devil to overcome Jesus Christ.

Devil operate in two ways to convert believers to his fold and the two ways are

  * Temptation

  * Persecution or suffering

##  Temptation

Temptation is the mild means of devil converting men to his fold. Devil will come to test man knowledge and use it against him. You can read in the scripture that God will provide all our needs according to the riches in Christ Jesus and you are so excited over the scripture then the devil will come to test the knowledge over that scripture by giving you a business proposition, a very profitable one with a BUT of corruption behind it or hindrance to serving God, at that moment devil will start playing with your intelligence and conscience hitting on the word "provide need" and "riches" as a weapon against the thought.

Devil is a good editor in the sense that it will totally delete the part where Jesus was mentioned in the scripture. Devil takes advantage of the scripture, delete the perfection in it and draw an imperfection out of it to make a weapon to destroy the mind. It is a typical warrior on a battlefield, a warrior will be given a spoon to eat but in another moment he is seeing the spoon as a sharp object that can help in crucial time of battle.

Devil played the same game with Jesus Christ after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting but we thank God devil lost however, devil never relented, it reserved its last card ahead over Jesus at the time when Jesus start enjoying ministerial success on earth and what is that last card?

## Persecution or suffering

The reason why Jesus persecution was not to make him have just gruesome death but it was an act by the devil to play his last card of conformity with Jesus. It knows that Jesus is in flesh so every beating, humiliation, kicking, pressure and insult will register powerful feel of pain on him. Jesus knows how painful the experience will be and that's why he never relented to pray for a shift of situation even to the point of his sweat turning to blood. For someone to pray and pray to an extent that sweat turned to blood it shows the indescribable determination and agitation towards the prayer however, God never approved that. So every persecution we experience on our journey to die, God will never approve of an exemption.

The Pharisees and the Jews were not beating Jesus just for fun neither were they humiliating him for enjoyment but they were all acting to the master script of the devil. Devil use the flesh as a battle ground for the faith of Jesus Christ. What happens to a battlefield during war? We have everywhere getting tattered, ravaged, torn and emptied, until destruction ends the war will never end.

It means that until devil battle your flesh that you feel excruciating pain and pressure till your sense organ becomes numb to such pain you have not die yet. That is why in the story, the guy had a torn skin, worn out flesh, ruptured blood vessel and yet felt no pain. He did not feel the pain was the result of being subjected to a prolonged pain to the extent that the pain has no effect again.

Therefore if someone cannot withstand the pain you can never overcome the death

When I hear preachers painting Christianity as a journey of comfort and splendour it takes me by surprise. It seems to me they did not read the advice of Jesus in the two scriptures below.

John.15.20 - Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Heb.5.8 - Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Therefore the calling into salvation is not a calling to merriment although it is if we can see from the realm of the spirit but quite unfortunate we still exist in the flesh and could be tied with some limitations that come with it. Preachers should not be too overzealous to increase number by painting a perfect world while making their speech a future hindrance for the sustainability of the convert's faith.

When people come into fold of faith with the excitement to enjoy and be comfortable and they are not getting it as they expected they will question your word and will compromise their faith. Instead of preaching the good things that they might not be having as they thought in correspondence to time and desire, just preach Christ love, for in the love of Christ comes the spirit and the true decision to die, suffer pain for the death and persist in the persecution.

A lot of pain lurks around on our journey to die as Christ did. You should expect people to reproach you because you are not following their standard. You should expect trials because you refuse to change numbers in the office. You should expect to be secluded when mentioning names of celebrities because you are not keeping up to the world trend again. You should expect people to ignore you because you once correct them of their bad acts. You should expect total aggression from people because you fail to conform to their plan. All these discomforting things that are happening to you are the equivalence of the flogging Jesus Christ suffered on the way to Calvary, it is equivalent to the insult, humiliation and insult he had before the crucifixion. Then your decision of not sinning no matter the pain and pressure is you replacing Jesus on the cross of Calvary and dying like him. The death in Christ is not a sweet one but a very painful one.

## Dead and dying

The two words up there can be explained grammatically by saying that the word dead is an adjective while dying is a verb. The word dead describes a state while the word dying describes an action.

The two words up there have very deep meaning in the view of the scripture. To understand better let's go back to our scripture

Rom.6.1 - What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Rom.6.2 - By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Rom.6.3 - Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

The symbolism of death in faith is an action we take when we decided to give our life to Christ and at that moment you enter a realm of death which makes you dead to the order of earthly living. The word dead defines your state to your old lives and sins while dying defines how you exist in this new state.

By the normal definition of death it means that one cease to exist i.e. the thing or person is totally wiped out however in the spiritual context it means a transition. That's why even in other beliefs they believe that if someone is dead, the person goes to the other world and becomes a spirit and what that means in a simpler explanation is that death only make our body cease to exist and hence opens our spirit to another world where they can exist without flesh. Our body defines us as human being, so when the body dies our existence dies so we become inexistent but the spirit is alive somewhere or hibernating.

A realistic explanation of this is when a foreigner goes to a country, their Visa defines their existence in that country and when the Visa expires such person loses its existence in the country so they can be sent away and that does not mean such person doesn't exist again. The inexistence only ends in the country the visa expired, he can go back to his birth country to continue living.

In that understanding, our death to sin does not means we cease existing it means we transcend to another realm and what would sustain our stay in that realm is to keep obeying the rules and law of the kingdom and by continuing to die to every lawlessness from the former kingdom where we have died.

A visa can accommodate you in a new country so also the Visa can expire which means your stay has ended, the next action is to go and order for a renewal but a wise person would had rather renew the Visa before it expires in order to stimulate smooth running. That is why the scripture says that we should keep renewing our mind.

Dead in Christ only exist if you keep dying in sin. You can't die in something and still lives in it, it is not possible, in fact God would not accept such confusion and that is why he said He will spit out the lukewarm in Revelation 3:15. It is either you are cold by being in sin or you are hot by living in righteousness, it is not possible for you to be at the middle or be at the fence.

Christ opens us to double existence which is not supposed to be if the error was not made in the beginning while sin get us just an existence. Christ takes us to our real destination while sin is the starting point.

Immediately a child is born, a track to live by the spirit of God is laid, we are born by the flesh which is not our fault but it will be our fault if we grow not to overcome flesh and die in the spirit. Jesus was born in flesh, so he was not automatically doing signs and wonder until the age of 30 when he had grown to totally overcome flesh and the confirmation of the spirit during his baptism gave full entrance to the life of the spirit, we can conclude on the truthfulness of that with his victory over the temptation of the devil which were actually final test to verify Jesus power over flesh so after the temptation he becomes very powerful that he began to do unimaginable signs and wonders and at the climax of his living in the spirit he faced the final test of perseverance against the flesh and he died in the climax of living in the spirit while in flesh.

The climax of living in the spirit while in flesh is when your desires and body becomes totally insensitive to the need of the world and it becomes numb to any pain or pressure the world persecution brings, quite unfortunately, such level is attained after some serious price is paid.

The phenomenon of dead and dying can be viewed in two perspectives which are

  * Before death

  * After death

## Before death

There is nothing frustrating in life than to see a love one on the sick bed deteriorating in health with the medical verdict of death. Such situation is what people with chronic cancer are subjected to. I have read stories of how people had to watch their love ones on the sick bed approaching their moment of death. Life lives them little by little till it comes off and the next is death, it is usually said they are dying. The duration of the sickness till final death can be explained as dying to dead.

Another case here is a victim of a fatal gunshot or accident, so fatal that there is no way the person will survive it except through a great miracle. Such experience from the aftermath of the accident to total is death can be explained as dying to dead.

The journey of repentance varies among many people. Inasmuch as we have people who got lucky to stumble on a good preaching and through the help of the Holy Spirit gave their life to Christ and ever since grew undying love for Christ so also we have people who journey of true repentance took a gradual process. The gradual process is usually the most common.

You can see people coming out for altar call and from the numbers recognize someone who came out with a genuine heart and you think the journey of his repentance came from your good preaching that night, no, you might be wrong. That same brother that came out that night might be the same brother who several pastors has preached to but refused to repent however, Holy Spirit had sown the seed of repentance in his heart which you are lucky to harvest that night. Jesus recognized this phenomenon in in John 4:37-38

" _For here the saying hold true, 'one sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour; others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour."_

My journey of repentance was also a gradual process. I remembered the day I firstly came out for altar call, I was so young but I was caught by a preaching who registered fear of hell in my heart, i was so scared that day, after the crusade I have to meet the presiding pastor for a talk. That particular day initiated my journey with Christ, since then I developed the conscience of recognizing Christ and seeking repentance regularly however, the repentance that day was born out of ignorance so it wasn't real. To me it was real but based on the scripture which defines repentance has being dead to sin I know that it was not real. Obviously those times I have the consciousness of Christ however i was not dead to sin, my consciousness of Christ only tone down my desire to sin.

After that night repentance I made series of other unreal repentance until a day came, more than a decade after my first repentance, there was this awesome powerful lady who came to where I stay with God's brethren, this was during my service year and I stay in a fellowship lodge. That evening preaching was a long one but I sat down at a corner looking sternly at her and paying attention to every details of her word, it was so surprising that day that I can sit down for a preaching of over three hours without blinking my eye to sleep, when normal preaching that last just an hour makes me doze off except the preaching is arranged with some joke in line to attract my attention. Her preaching all through was about the love of Christ and she keep talking on and on till I was filled with the real zeal of loving Christ and I made the genuine decision of repentance within me by dying to sin that night and ever since then I has been experiencing massive growth.

The first preaching that brought me repentance came from fear while the second preaching that gave me real repentance came from the love of Christ. Although I can attribute my real repentance to the lady however it wasn't like that, it took me almost two decades of dying before I finally made the decision to be dead to sin that night. Those processes were never a waste but it was a transformation moment.

As someone could be on a dying mode for months so also could people walk through the journey of repentance for years. With this reality we can have Christians who attends church for years, call themselves believers but yet are not real believers. This is one of the biggest problems of the 21st century church, we have big number of church attendance but we have few real believers. However, we cannot disregard the possibility of people coming to church to die till they become dead but as Paul said in the book of Hebrew 6:1-2.

We need more than Christians who will just come to church to fill the bench and still be fed with basic doctrine of the kingdom when they supposed to have gone higher. We need believers who will ascend to the position of a priest as Paul said in Hebrew 5:1. The reality still stays that most churches doesn't recognize the fact that the majority of their members are yet to experience the death of Christ and without the death of Christ there will never be resurrection.

Pastors tend to trivialize the basics of faith and emphasize on teachings which supposed to be an extra and when we have that, we won't be far away from having church attendants and not believers.

The process of dying before being dead is an interval of killing all the cells, paralyzing the necessary organs before the life system shut down. Dyeing can be done wholly and also in part.

Sometimes preachers expect rapid result when they preach to souls not considering how hard it will be for people to leave their addiction in order to fit into the life in Christ. I know how many years that it took me from deriving fun from things of the world before I choose the Genuine death, now let's imagine someone who have been addicted to smoking for more than two decades and we expect them to be transformed within a day, it will only take the mighty power of the Holy Spirit for that to happen which I cannot deny it's possibility however, it will take some people series of struggle to get over that addiction. Church must acknowledge the moment of dying to sin and integrate this reality in their program.

## After death

Another way we can view the phenomenon of dying and dead is looking it from after the repentance angle. Repentance means being dead to sin and having transition to a new life in Christ. The new life in Christ is a life in the spirit however, human exists as a flesh. After repentance we are opened to a new existence, we need to sustain the consciousness of continue death to our old life and substituting it with the new life in Christ.

The point of repentance opens us to a new track, the distance we left behind is our dying to who we are before and the distance that lies ahead for us to cover is the living in Christ.

******

Flesh is the only great contender with the spirit. Death only opens you to the realm of the spirit, it does not entirely kill the flesh. Death is a decision it is not an occurrence until the day Jesus takes the saint or till the day you finally die physically, before then you need to keep making the decision and keep dying till it is over.

# Victory over death

Rom.6.9 - We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

When we see someone taking the challenge of running a very long marathon what will come to our mind is; what really prompted this person to engage in such energy demanding task. There are some situations that will suddenly happens that will need someone to run maybe a fire outbreak or an alerting catastrophe, at the short distance ran, i know how some people will pant and brace their back with their hand. Now let's imagine someone who is running a distance sometimes longer than interstates, race that takes hours. Definitely there is something great attached to such race for someone to invest such great energy and strength in it. At the end there will be a trophy and other wonderful benefits attached to it.

I discovered something about humans, human rarely do things just for fun of it, usually there are benefits attached to it. The bigger the challenges, the bigger the benefit in order to attract interest. I have heard stories where people put their life on the risk to engage in a challenge just because of the enormous benefit attached to it.

So, as we continue, I want to throw a challenge to someone reading this with an enormous benefit attached to it, the benefit attached is more enormous than what you have ever had before.

My challenge

Can you stay away from danger throughout your life on Earth?

Benefit

If you can successfully do it, you will become immortal

Do you smile to my challenge when you read it or you look at it as no challenge at all or maybe you see it too easy that you regarded the benefits as a charity.

Have you ever think about Christ life for us in this manner. Isn't he dying for our benefit, gave us an instruction for our benefit, gave us Holy Spirit for our benefit, promised us great power and manifestation for our benefit and at the climax of this, promised us dominion over death. Obviously, all the chain of action of Christ for us, everything is for our own benefit.

There is nothing someone can ever do to worth total dominion over death as a reward. You can save a very wealthy man life and he promised you half of his great possession but yet the billions can't buy life even just seconds or something close to it like good health, there are couple of very rich people on the sickbed with all the wealth in the world seeking to make an exchange of good health with millions in their account.

God made Christ a total full package of blessing for mankind. What man couldn't do by himself God gave us Christ to enable us to do it. Our death in Christ is not even strenuous as that of the runner that ran marathon or someone that put his or her life on the line for monetary benefit, it is all about doing the right thing and being rewarded over it as Elihu said in the book of Job 35:6-7. Nothing we do benefit God rather they benefit us totally.

Job.35.6 - If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him?

Job.35.7 - If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?

Dominion over death shows to us God magnanimous love for mankind. If there is such benefit waiting for believers who decides to desist from sin and all its accompanying negativity, there is really lot to gain from God than we could have in multiple of millions in sin and obedience to the devil.

How dominion over death does happen?

The book of 1 Corinthians 15 gives us the total knowledge needed concerning the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of mankind. One of the first things Apostle Paul did in this scripture is to clear every standing doubt concerning the resurrection of the saint at the appointed time of Christ coming.

The word dominion over death is a word that is too good to be true to two categories of people

  * Sinner

  * Scientist and logical thinker

A sinner possesses little knowledge of the mystery in God's word, when they are told about resurrection it sounds fictional to them. You imagine a scenario of a condemned criminal awaiting his death sentence and you preach to such person that they have hope in Christ of not dying, even if they die they will rise up at the end of time, Such criminal will just laugh and doubt such claim. It takes the knowledge of God and grounded faith in Him through the quickening of the Holy Spirit not to contend with the revelation in God's word.

Scientist and logical thinkers are people who live based on fact and proof. How can we explain to them that mankind who lived and died for so many years past with inexistent body will one day resurrect in a new body. One of those things that will come to their mind is; how will that happen and where will that body comes from?

### The answer

There is a place in this chapter in a previous topic that the mystery of resurrection was explained however we are going to look at it in this part with the view of apostle Paul

### The growing seed

I know the sinners, the scientists and the logical thinkers have an operation to do with a growing seed.

A full grown maize shrub plant grew from a tiny maize seed but how does that happen?

We will get a very dry maize seed, dig a shallow hole or we just throw the maize at the desired place of planting. Within 6-8 days the maize will sprout from the soil but before the maize sprouts what happened within the 6-8 days in the soil.

What happens to the maize in soil between 6-8 days?

The maize will absorb water and swell a little and with proper temperature, the seed will transform into a plumule and the plumule will follow the directions of the red light to sprout out of the soil.

When the maize sprouts out, it starts series of other growth to become full grown maize and bring out a cob of maize which will bring more than the multiple of 500 of the little corn that was planted within 3 to 4 months.

The question is: what transform the single seed into a plant and what brought a cob of maize from that single little tiny maize?

Now imagine if just soil, water, sun and microorganisms could do such magic that we can give definite answer to and we use our manual manipulation over it how much more will Christ who has power to die, resurrect, and discharged Holy Spirit to believers as He promised. Holy Spirit itself is a sign that Christ is capable to fulfil his promise.

Although a dry seed germinates a new corn however, a dry cooked seed will never germinate a new corn. The difference between an ordinary dried seed and a dry cooked seed is the same difference between those that died to sin and those that died in it. When we die in sin without acknowledging Christ and keep our regenerative spirit in his hand, Devil takes over it and cooks the life out of it when we die. Dry maize actually stored its regenerative life somewhere for the right moment when it will get contact to a good environment and then it will come back to life again.

We also do the same thing with Christ when we surrendered our life to him; we became dry to things happening in the world. We gave Christ our life to keep it for us for the right time so when the call is made he will give back to us our life transformed to an imperishable life just as the maize became multiplied after the growth. You can't give Christ something and take it back the same, that is why at Cana, in the wedding, when they give Christ gallons of water they received gallons of fresh special wine.

The same situation happened when the small boy gave Jesus the five loaves of bread and two fishes, Jesus gave him back a basket loaded with fishes and loaves of bread after making provision to feed the five thousands with it. Therefore, you can't give Christ your life and never receive it back afresh and renewed with power over death same thing when you give Christ your time, energy, effort and resources you will surely have them back in multiples. No service for God is ever a waste.

1Cor.15.45 - Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Christ was the last Adam who came to give man what the first man Adam couldn't. The first Adam failed because he ate the fruit that doesn't only do good but do bad, if the fruit only makes man to do good there won't be a problem but the fruit actually gave us the capability to think evil and do it. This is the reason why even the evilest man still do good sometime, in them is the potential of being good so also a good man can be evil if he gives itself to it.

If the forbidden fruit stole from mankind comfort and everlasting life as a result of the evil in it, Christ have to come to earth to take away the bad part in us and substitute it with his love. For the love of Christ will connect us to God, when we become totally right with God by doing the good, Christ taught us while on earth, Christ will be given enabling opportunity to stand in gap between man and God as a mediator for our judgment, then instead of condemnation we would have glorification.

Therefore our victory over death is totally possible through Christ. If we all believe death even when we are alive and healthy why shouldn't we also believe resurrection when we also die? If we can believe that seed planted will come back alive why shouldn't we believe that a soul buried will come back alive one day.

The reality of our total victory over death lies in the reality of faith and believe in God who made us, makes us die and who is also capable to make us live again.

## The end line

When we are in Christ although we are dead to sin but we are alive in Christ and we are also alive in the assurance of the benefits in Christ. Stephen during his last moment on earth, he looked at the heaven with Joy forgetting the death he was facing in his physical body from the pain of the hailed of stones thrown at him but he was glad for he will be wearing a new appearance in Christ.

Apart from Stephen, I have read different accounts of people last minutes on earth at the border of death. I understand that people who died in Christ usually sees vision of them seeing Christ beckoning them to come thither or we have accounts of people entering a long white tunnels with an end having a shining light. Our death and resurrection in Christ is not a waste of effort whatsoever but it is the most profitable decision we can ever make.

Have never heard about people dying to sin with the feedback of ease, so also I have never heard about anything being achieved on the planet Earth whether good or bad without a sacrifice of effort and pain put into it. As we face the pain and pressure we need to remember the benefit of eternal life attached to it like the runner who runs a race although they are tired and feel like giving up but the view of the trophy waiting for them after the finish line will be their motivating energy.

Chapter three

## The double Spirit

In this chapter we will be examining the existence of human and the mystery behind it for us to pin out the complexity behind living as a dead being and a living being in Christ.

I will start by making a deep study into the existence mechanism of human beings. Man exist in three existing functions by the understanding of the scripture

  * The flesh

  * The life

  * The destiny

## The flesh

The first existing function is the flesh. By the account of the creation, God firstly created the flesh. The flesh consists of the body, its desire and the environment. The flesh is our physical presence on earth so when the flesh gets destroyed man automatically dies. Although this claim has been refuted by great and powerful people who have the opportunity to have slight encounter with another realm of existence, this group of people believe men doesn't stop to exist when they die but they rather travels to another world or kept waiting in another realm. This reality enabled Enoch to disappear and made Elijah to ascend to heaven in a chariot of fire and also made men to rise from death through different form.

The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ help us to totally solidify the fact that; there is other existence apart from this earth. The scripture said the Jesus went down to the hade and collect the key of life from death. This means death itself is a prison where souls exist as a prisoner and this indicate an existence in death. Therefore death does not mean cease of existence but transfer of existence.

The flesh is the extra power that makes man supersedes the angels, for our skin and body system make man exist in a physical realm. We also need to know that the skin is made to be a garment and this is the reason why Adam and Eve never saw anything wrong with being naked, for the flesh itself is a cloth to the nakedness of the spirit. We actually exist in the spirit but make our presence with the flesh.

Spirit on earth without a flesh is akin to someone in a very dark room, when you look into the room without light you will never see anything. This make me remember when I was small, there is this big house where we use to play due to the fact that most children in the street lives in that house although I don't live there but I go there to play, we usually call the house barracks because of the many occupants in it.

At night when there is no light and everywhere is dark the children will hide in the main building passage and place barriers on the floor for incoming person to unknowingly hit with their leg, as children we do this successful because it is dark and no one will know if we exist in that passage. They did not know we exist there but we know they are coming, they did not know someone is there but our action affect them. This also explain the awesome power of the spirit and how they function

After the fall of man, the flesh becomes the centre of our existence and hence man need to respond to the need of his environment. This firstly manifested when Adam realised that he was naked. At the moment, Adam start living in relation to the environment therefore the environment defines who human will become and that is why sin is said to be inherited. The environment where we live will determine what our desire will be and in our desires lays different temptation, for us to overcome such temptation we need to make flesh inexistent.

Therefore, when we die in flesh our body still works and our environment still exist but the third component – desire– which determines our relationship with our environment is killed and made inactive. That is the biggest struggle ever.

## Flesh made alive

The flesh was made ordinary in the beginning, its function was also restricted. God knew man is not capable to live in two existences at that time. There is still much to learn before having such capability. This can be compared with giving birth to a baby with strong and sharp teeth like that of the adult. Although such teeth are good but to a baby it will be a weapon of evil to them, it will destroy them. There is no reason for the baby to have such teeth though is part of their body modification but when they grow more and the function to need it comes then they can have it.

Flesh is too complex for man to handle hence, it immediately destroyed them. The knowledge man was exposed to, was too overwhelming, they lose control and became subjected to the knowledge. Man will always find it hard to control their environment and live in the right sense of existence if they continue to live in flesh.

## The life

Life is the existence container and the life activator. A body could look so beautiful without damage both to the internal and the external organs but when there is no life in it, it will be useless. A phone is good as dead when there is no software installed in it. Software is always from a source which is passed to many new devices. Android has its source from Google who develops it however, many phone companies get this operating system from Google with just a little customisation work on it then installs it on their hardware phone. So the hardware will determine the efficiency of the software. We need to also note that the software is made before the hardware.

Let's look from that angle to explain how man was created. Many people will think that man's body was made before life; just like thinking hardware is made before the software. Although from the story of creation we saw God making man from clay on the sixth day and the last operation of God over man is to breathe in him and in that breath we have life However, we might be wrong in this regard. The breath God gave to man has been existing in God since the beginning of creation. So everything God created starting from the firmament to give habitation to the breath, to the sea and the land to give environment to the breath then to plant and animal to give food for the breath and finally the body made from clay to give container to the breath therefore we can see that every process of creation was directed to accommodate the breath, they are all made to sooth the configuration of the breath. The breath which truly defines man, existed before all the other creature and this means man exist before all other creature. That breath is an extension of God in man and that is what made man His image.

The body is made from a defined system and that is why a man needs to meet with a woman to get a child, when every necessary requirements is made the birth of a new body will come. By this effect, God does not determine how our body comes out but the circumstances and randomness of the system. When we see people with deformities, people do blame God for creating such when God is in not in direct control of the process; it was just a random situation. However, life only has only one source which is God for this reason each soul will go back to their maker to make an account of their existence while on earth.

The only Body God created was Adam and Eve why the other human being where fruit of the multiplication system of reproduction. However the life comes solely from a source which is God. The grace for man to independently customise this life by what they live and believe brings difference to the appearance and functionality of the life.

Have we ever have an opportunity to see how a tech geek will manipulate the functionality of the same phone you use with different installed application and you will stand wondering on how that happened. This same grace is giving to man for his life.

The components of life is divided into two, we have the soul and the spirit.

The soul is the breath of God; it is the life image while the spirit is content in the soul. We will still use the software to explain this better. The soul is primarily the operating system that runs the phone, it is the language that speaks life to the phone and carries its functionality.

The spirit is the application that manifests the functionality of the phone. Most phones do comes with a preinstalled application like the call, message, file manager, settings etc. Those applications will never work if there is no language which is part of the component of the operating system to operate it, the same way every soul comes with an inherited spirit of good and evil like the preinstalled applications.

Another better way to explain this is to use a vehicle for an illustration. We all know that the mechanical and the electrical engine part of a vehicle define its life. In that engine what represent soul is all the engine components and the petrol that runs it why the spirit is the person driving it.

With this explanation, we all know that the soul is the carrier of the spirit. As we said before that life is a breath of God which is a material from God, if God cannot die, life will continue to exist.

When we understand life and how it determines existence we will be able to comprehend the mystery of switching existence.

## The destiny

The third component of man functionality is the destiny. In the book of Jeremiah 1:5 which says that ".... Before you are born I knew you..." Man is created to always fulfil a destiny. The destiny is the result of the mixed functions of the flesh and life. The flesh and life determines your destiny. Jesus Christ was prophesied to be born by the prophets and was sent to earth to save man from destruction.

Jesus Christ lived in this destiny with the conformity of His body and life in him and that is the reason why Jesus wasn't born of man but by the spirit, this happened to optimize the body of Christ for the coming assignment. After the baptism, the spirit entered into him and he was launched into realm of unstoppable power, the spirit activated his soul for greatness.

Let's continue by looking into how destiny is made

1. Predestination

2. Choice

## Predestination

There are some men who their birth defiled the order of creation, these men are destined for greatness.

Rom.8.29 - For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

The fate of Esau and Jacob has been predestined before they were born. In the case of predestination, preference is made from the form of the body and the growth of the spirit, such people live to fill a path. But they are very rare, as they usually have a very special assignment to achieve. Another example of people under this category is Samson, Elijah and Moses. Such people are divinely built for their calling with the preference needed to be effective in it.

## Choice

More than 90% of people fall under this category. In this situation destiny is not predetermined but determined by the capability forms of your body and the state of your life. One can be chosen base on skills possessed, based on faith, based on moral, based on location, based on availability and other factors. This system is either determined by who you are or who you choose to be.

For example Noah was chose not because God made him upright but because he made himself upright. Solomon was chosen to rule Israel not because he was predestined but because David preferred him and that merge with God choice. Saul was made king of Israel not because he was created for it but because he was one of the lucky choice and he was available. Elisha took double portion of Elijah anointing because he pushed himself for it.

*****

A good understanding of destiny and how it is determined will enhance our knowledge in understanding death and living. There are some people who have been created to enjoy massive grace which will always conform them to always be at a constant point of death to sin. When Moses got it wrong by disobeying God which led to his disappearance, devil wanted to hijack his soul but angel Gabriel fought over Moses soul, this happened because Moses destination after death has been predestined. However, predestination is determined by God solely and it is never a cheap avenue to enter the kingdom, people that are predestined always value their end with all effort and hard work therefore they don't only rely on grace, they work for it.

## Spirit and souls

Spirit and soul has been slightly explained previously, in this part we are going to build on that understanding.

The spirit and souls are the components that make up life. Soul comes automatically while spirit is either built or invited.

We can have multiple spirits living in a man and this is the reason why I had two skeleton inhabiting within me in that story, those two skeletons means two spirits, the old skeleton means my old life while the new skeleton means my new life in Christ. Although a body can have multiple spirits but it can't have multiple souls.

As we said earlier that spirits are contents of the soul therefore what a soul contains determines what happens to the body. During some of my ministrations, I have seen people who are possessed and how they react at the outburst of the explosion of the spirit then the fight that ensue within the body.

I have also experienced what we call deliverance and I know what it means to be possessed first handed. It feels like two occupants are in one body, during the deliverance the ever gentle second occupants take over the normal body and overrides the body causing an awkward reaction. My deliverance was different because I can feel the both spirits in which my original body has the real access to my brain knowing everything that happened only that whenever the other spirit is strike it override my body.

To me I feel like I have two bodies in me, the other body with its own brain while my own body with my own brain. This situation takes us to understand that spirit is an independent entity on its own who needs a body with a soul to exist or perform anything on earth. A spirit has no business with a dead body because even if they possess it, it can never function. Only God gives souls to a body.

The angel who came to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah came with a body that is why Abraham could see them. They were able to use a human body because God authorises them and gave them access. I have sometimes heard about people who died showing up in other places, it is either is a lie or the devil is playing pranks with a soul and body.

The possessed man at the tomb who was healed by Jesus had legion of spirits, which means a soul can contain not only one spirit but multiple of spirits. Although the spirit might be up to a thousand in a soul, they only manifest in one uniform that is they will have a leader in which all the other spirits will be subjected to. Therefore the number of spirit in a group will determined the power and the energy of the spirit. The man at the tomb of Gerasene was very mad and aggressive because there were too many spirits of the dark in him.

We should understand now that the soul bodies the spirits. The spirits in a soul and its strength will determine the action of the body.

## Soul and the body

In the previous part we point out that the soul contains the spirit and that defines the relationship between the soul and the spirit. In this part we are going to progress by examining the relationship between the soul and the body.

The soul is greatly important to the body. Without the soul the body is useless but without the body the soul can still exist. Even as the soul has lot of importance over the body, we can still see that the body greatly controls the soul. This is the reason why Apostle Paul made a statement in Roman 7:15 on the controlling power of the flesh.

By the order of creation, body was supposed to be controlled by the soul however, this could only happen if the soul has the spirit of God. The spirit of God which makes man to do good connects us to the realm of the spirit where we commune with God hence we are not affected by what happens in our environment.

Having the spirit of God there is a backend which is the access to the spiritual realm while having the spirit of the evil is the inverse because the flesh itself is a backend to the frontend of demonic works.

Therefore, only the spirit of good can connect us to God because our God is good. Since Adam was created by the breath of God which gave Adam a soul, the soul also came with the spirit of God and made Adam to think and act in righteousness and enjoys continuous relationship with God.

However, the day Adam ate the cursed fruit which made him independent from God's spirit, Adam soul accommodates another spirit which was the spirit of evil and this spirit relates to the environment. That is why the first thing that happened to Adam after the eating of the forbidden fruit was reacting to the environment and distancing himself from God, he became confused since that is the first time his soul will be accommodating two spirits.

After that matter, we know that Adam was sent out from the beautiful garden of Eden which is decorated with grace and sent to a new place where Adam need to start things on his own. Man response to the environment build evil in man overtime.

Although the body controls the soul, the soul still has a way to override the body through their point of connection which is the brain.

According to scientist, the brain is many groups of neurons working together in harmony. A human brain makes it possible to do complex actions because all our body is wired with diverse nerves that respond to anything. With this research on brain scientist still find it hard to understand the higher complexities that make man to think and act. Although I read about scientist developing bionic hands which are robotic hands develop to be controlled by brain through different stimulated artificial nerves and AI codes however, these hands are still not capable to achieve the little percentage of what a real hand does.

Just like a phone with a memory card and storage system, without the software and data that drives and makes the storage system or memory card function the both will just be useless. The brain is a complex wind up of nerves as the scientists has said but it contains more, and the missing part is the soul.

Scientist even tried higher by doing research on head transplant in which it was successful on the animal used but the animal couldn't live long before it died. IPhone and android phone might have similar hardware modification, you can't because of that install IOS on Android phone hardware, there is actually a difference in specifications. Same thing for each brain and each soul there is always a defined specification behind them.

The soul activates the brain and the brain controls the body. The brain also controls the soul in the sense that when the brain is faulty it impairs the connection of the soul and the body. Another thing that affects the dominance of the soul over the body is the flesh.

If the flesh can be conquered through the death in Jesus we would stimulate the situation back to when man was without sin. As the soul can control the flesh so also the flesh can control the soul, the one that is closer to the brain win the battle of dominance.

John.1.14 - And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

If the word of God could become flesh to make Jesus, it can also make a new flesh in us if we surrender ourselves totally. That is why the book of 1 Corinthians 5:17 says that "he that is in Christ Is a new creation, behold old things are passed away and all things becomes new". When we come to Christ, we receive the word that will give us a new flesh which will obey to the command of the soul.

## The war of the flesh and the spirit

The flesh cannot contend with the soul. No sane person will contend with its maker but the flesh can contend with the spirit in a soul. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden the war between the flesh and the spirit has been activated. That is why Apostle Paul made in his statement in Romans 7:18

Rom.7.18 - For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

The compromise that gave the flesh an upper hand over the soul is the accommodation of another new spirit in it.

The voice of the spirit in man usually comes through the conscience, there is always this loud conscience that is always aggressive and there is the other calm conscience which is quiet. The truth is that the two consciences operates with the same voice, it is the emphasis from the flesh which gives the impression that one is more aggressive than the other I.e. the desire of one of the spirit fit in more to the needs of the flesh.

Therefore the war of the flesh is against just a spirit and it is the spirit of God. A man has categorically two spirits which are the spirit of the evil and the spirit of God.

The spirit of God connects us to the heaven why the spirit of the evil connects us to the things of the world which is dominated by the devil. The book of 1 John 2:15-16 and James 4:4 elaborate more on this

1John.2.15 - Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1John.2.16 - For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world.

Jas.4.4 - You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

The two Bible scriptures point to one thing that the flesh is a big contender of the spirit. Flesh always desires comfort and luxury but quite unfortunate those things doesn't come cheap but yet, the body wants it easy and this is the contending choice which makes people to either lie to get the shortcut or they involve in one thing or the other against the norms.

The reason why the flesh fails the test of hardship is because it wasn't created for such. God made Adam in a Garden of Eden where everything was readily available and things come easy. If God want to make man to live in difficult situation he wouldn't have created plant and animal before he made man but rather created man then give man the directive to hustle their food alone.

In fact, in the food chain man is placed at the last, that is, we are meant to consume all the energy generated from the other food chains. Only plants make their food and God did not make plant a living thing that get tired or have a brain to counter-react. Therefore everything was completely planned unfortunately man disorganized everything.

In the book of Matthew 6 verse 33, Jesus Christ said that "we should seek the kingdom of God first and every other thing will be added to us" however, before we got to that place Jesus was using some examples of things of the nature that doesn't need to work hard but yet blossom. He talked about the bird in the sky who doesn't have food bank but yet they feed, he talked about the beautiful lily flower who doesn't bother on getting the latest cloth to wear but yet it blossom with good appearance. Jesus Christ use this example to revert to the life that God planned for humanity before the wrong was made, while what man needs to do is just to seek the kingdom of God i.e. man is expected to reciprocate the same kingdom that was in heaven where man should work in authority and not in subjectivity. Man cannot have such kingdom except he has the spirit of God and that's why devil was bent in making man eat that forsaken fruit, his plan was to devalue the spirit of God In us.

Unfortunately, the devil succeeded but Jesus Christ came to earth to redeem us and give us a new hope but it has to come in a slight hard way, in contrast to the way the first Adam lost easily. And the way is: live a spiritual life in a physical body. Of course if there won't be Satan to counter that reality it could have been better, the devil is still out there with its trick making sure it reinstate the success it had over Adam on man every day.

Devil might give someone money or get the person the luxury of this world, his plan is not to really make the person happy but the plan is to make the person the marketing display to deceive gullible people, the same it did with Eve where he used Eve to convinced Adam to market the negative fruit as the good fruit. Eve was not the target but the marketing tool to buy Adam, he knows when Eve eats the fruit nothings happen until Adam takes his bite of it.

The contention of the flesh and spirit will continue so far there is a promised glory to those that overcome flesh. Devil won't make it a simple battle for he knows that man who lived in the spirit of God is man who lives in superiority to him.

That is why the book of Ephesians 6:12 point out that we are not actually fighting against flesh and blood but against principalities and power. Temptation of sin is not the weakness of the flesh ordinarily but the war strategy of the devil against humanity to fail our promise with Christ. And the book of 1 Timothy 6:13 urge us to fight the good fight of faith for in it lies our victory against flesh and sin. If Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, we are actually fighting our place in Christ.

For in Christ we are more than conqueror and that is what the book of Romans 8:37 says. Our victory lies in Christ. The flesh will have no power over us when we stick to the love of Christ and lean on his grace. It all starts from making the decision of killing the flesh and putting our mind in Christ. Fighting a war starts with envisioning victory, the day we say Christ i give my life to you, we have just taken a step of victory and the next thing we need to do is to hold on to that victory and strive for its reality.

## Two channels in a soul

The first thing that came to my mind when I read the story of the demoniac at the tomb of Gerasene was how many demons can exist in just a man. The demons that were inside him are so much that when it was discharged into the large herds of swine, the pigs couldn't contain them and they need to rushed down into the river and get drowned. The Bible described how fierce the demons made the man to act, they were so fierce that no one can pass through the tomb, is that not serious?

I can recall a day during deliverance session, there was this big girl that was possessed and the fire from the prayer torment the spirit in her, she became energetic that it took many people to hold her down, the spirit became so fierce that they made her to do unimaginable things.

I can recall also during the deliverance session done on me, there was a time I stood up with force when the fire was too much and I decided to run but the pastor held me back, I know this because I was conscious of what is happening.

Let's start with question of can we have many demons in a man? The Bible says that

Matt.12.43 - "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none.

Matt.12.44 - Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.

Matt.12.45 - Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation."

Demons do multiply, especially when they are evicted in a body and the body is empty, they will surely come back and when it comes back it will come back with many more demons to increase the stronghold over that soul.

Demons are spirits and as we explained earlier that soul is a container which is filled with spirit in order to enhance the functioning of the body through the brain. Hope we know that word itself is a spirit, as Jesus said in the book of John 6:63

John.6.63 - It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Every word travels to our mind and in that mind we have the spirit in which the word is being fed. The word ordinarily is not a spirit but the word actually carries power that energises the spirit in man which means a negative word will energise the evil in man and hence cause him to destruction while positive word will travel to the good spirit in man and makes them act in righteousness which will make them holy. The reason why the scripture says that we don't need to prepare for any word in our mind to say when faced with persecution for Holy Spirit will put in remembrance the right word in our heart and he will hereby give you the right answer. This does not happen automatically, Holy Spirit is an archive of the word of God we have study and he ferment those word and increase them like a yeast, this explains to us that the more of God's word in us the better we operate in the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit won't replace study of God's word but it will rather improve it, this is a advice to some lazy Christians. This takes us to the two channels of spirit we have in our soul.

We have the channel of good and the channel of evil. Man was made to possess one channel which is the channel of good that connects us to our Father in heaven but since Adam ate the forbidden fruit a new channel was opened in our soul and this channel brings evil to us and connects us to the devil. That is why the devil does not need a permission before it sends his demonic messenger to possess anyone in fact a pastor can be possessed don't be surprised.

All through my life I never know I could have a demonic spirit in me, I have never acted evil since I was born or act under possessive power, I am always that normal good guy. I always believe that people who are possessed usually acts awkwardly or they behave uncontrollable or they know themselves as being possessed, I never know that someone can be possessed and yet look so fine and act normal.

The only difference between someone that was possessed and act awkwardly and the person that was possessed and does not know is the permissive power given to those demons in their lives. They can be in someone and act so independently that he won't know they are in him till when God is ready to deliver him or the good spirit in someone is so weak that the evil so much dominate the soul, they take over the person totally and make the person act at their impulse like the men at the tomb of Gerasene.

There was a girl that I conduct her deliverance and the spirit left but we need to struggle to prevent her from looking back to the spirit as they call her even though they are outside of her, we tried that day but she kept looking back and it got to a point that we became tired, although the spirit was sent away but the girl is so comfortable with the spirit even with the evil they are doing in her she doesn't want them to leave and you know after the deliverance there is nothing we can do again during her private time, which means she can be re-possessed.

Will is the first and the strongest weapon that one use to conquer evil and sin

Someone can be possessed yet act normal and good because the person did not give the demons the will while the person who gave the demons the will become their slave. And this is the reason why Apostle Paul said;

Rom.6.16 - Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Rom.6.17 - But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,

Rom.6.18 - and, having been set free from sin, has become slaves of righteousness.

Our decision when we say that I accept Christ as my lord and personal saviour have no supernatural covering against sin, it just describe our will but most people doesn't understand this fact. They just speak the confession word casually and expect some supernatural power to pull them away from sin.

Therefore let's get it straight now; our decision to accept Christ was our choice and that word supposed to be spoken with solid will. Death to sin is actually a will and not you closing your eye to die, it means you have a will never to commit yourself to anything that involves sin again.

The forbidden fruit that Adam ate gave man a will to either be good or be evil. Therefore will is the gate of the soul permitting or hindering evil or good in man. If the will is so powerful to decides for the spirit where does the will exist to enjoy such freedom. We will discuss that in the next part.

The soul only have two channels, no matter how many are the demons possessing someone they can only operate in two channels where the good spirits manifest in the good channel and the evil spirits through the evil channel. Every spirit in man is identified under a leader, for a believer, all our good spirit is classified under Holy Spirit. With this fact we can agree with me that no believer without Holy Spirit. For the fact that a believer does not manifest any of the gift of the spirit yet does not mean they are void of the Holy Spirit, if a believer can read, think and act righteousness, it did not come coincidentally there was a spirit prompting the person and storing those things into their life.

We have the evil spirit with the identity of sin. There are some people who are so addicted to stealing that they become addicted to it whereby they unconsciously steal at some point. I remember during those days, I was so addicted to lie that I can't utter up to three sentences without sliding in lies jokingly in it, the lies has transcend normality to a spirit being in me. All those negative spirit works under one leader which we call sin or evil.

A spirit or skills

During deliverance, a girl confessed that she has sent the spirit of stealing into another girl and she also gave the girl the spirit of brilliance. At this point I was confused; in this case we have two spirits involved. Spirit of stealing and spirit of brilliance. The spirit of stealing as we know is negative while the spirit of brilliance is positive so can a demon give good and bad simultaneously that was the question on my mind that day.

I came to realize that, it was just a trick, although we understand that there is a power called the power of knowledge, wisdom and understanding like the one that came over Solomon but with that power over Solomon does it stop him from acting sinfully to God who gave him that power or did the spirit not almost led him to destroy the kingdom of his fathers at the latter days of his life.

There are lots of powers in that order. But the truth is that those powers as some part of the Bible says or we might believe are not spirit but they are gift and gift is a skills. When we call something a spirit, one thing we need to identify is that they are autonomous and they exist complete in someone and what did I mean by that is that spirit does not need to grow by the input of the host for spirit itself are complete in their own, inputs can only energise them i.e. bring up what is in them. I remember then when I was used to lie, I don't need much rehearsal before I drop a good lie however brilliance doesn't come like that, you need to grow it till it becomes more effective. Brilliance is just like a magnifier and a speed booster to connect to the spirit within. Brilliance can work for either good or evil and that is one of the laws against the spirit where it needs to be subjected to a master however, brilliance and other skills do work in that way. Brilliance enhance the connection between the spirit and soul, it sharpens it.

The evil spirit only gave that girl the spirit of stealing while brilliance was a gift for accepting that spirit.

The soul works in two channels in which every spirit is categorised to either of the channel and to prevent confusion every categories of spirit work united through a controlling spirit in them. Demons work in unity under the channel of evil while holy Spirit work with the accompaniments of other good spirit through the channel of good.

# The more the spirit the more the strength

Comprehensively we have two channels in man which group the possible spirit in man into two however, what is impact of the pile up of spirit in man?

Evil spirit in a man can measure up to thousand, Holy Spirit strength in man is not measure up by number but how we surrender ourselves. If we can have such reality why are those spirits piling up in man, are they just there for fun or to be useless?

No, the more the spirit in man, the stronger they are in the group they belongs to. We could have encounter some people in our life and we wonder why they are so evil, everything about them is just plainly evil, such person is overwhelmed with evil already and this was so because the numbers of evil spirit is such person is very much.

The demoniac at Gerasene was so brutal and very fierce because there are many numbers of different spirits in him. Those spirits build up a tough strength in the possessed. Strength is a force cushion of magnitude in the case of numbers, weight or size. We can have three people pushed by just a hefty person, therefore it is not based only on the numbers but on many things.

When the scripture emphasizes to us in Roman 12:2 that we should always renew our mind every day, it wasn't just giving us a passive advice but it was speaking to us a reality we ought to consider in life in order to thrive well in our journey of faith. The scripture says that we must pray constantly, this not a command that we need to take with option rather they are things we need to focus on. The prayer we pray and the word of God we study through words and revelations are the building strength to the spirit of God within us.

The war of Christian is a war of spirit to spirit and that is why Ephesians 6:10-20 gave us the weapon we need to win the battle. Sometimes we find it hard to overcome our old lives maybe smoking or drunkenness, what such means is that darkness is overcoming the light in us, it means evil is overcoming good in us. We don't need to be depressed over that or be too worried, we just need to take our Bible, study it with focus and determination. Continuous doing of this gives strength to the spirit of God in us. Life has been divided into two based on the study in this book, it is either you win with in spirit of God or you are conquered and enslaved by evil spirit, you have your choice to make.

## The order of the spirit

The other crucial thing we will be considering is the order of the spirit in man, as simple as this topic is, it can decide who we will become with God.

A man has a soul and in that soul lays two channels where the spirit in him is identified. When there are two active things with same aim, there will always be a continuous war of dominance, therefore the question is; what spirit dominates a man?

This book started with the story of me where I had an encounter in a dream and also with a reality. In the second encounter which was a real experience I talked about how I had a vision where there was two skeletons in me, the two skeletons were working in contradiction till God intervened and took away the old skeleton in me, leaving the new skeleton to be in me. By the virtue of the revelation that has been given here, we can understand precisely that those skeletons represent two spirits, in which the old skeleton represent my old life and old reality with the devil and the new skeleton represent my new life and my new reality with Jesus. This encounter was the manifestation of the word of God in the book of Ezekiel

Ezek.36.26 - And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezek.36.27 - And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

The new heart we are talking about here also means a new spirit. Every believer needs a new spirit in order to overcome the devil and Glory be to God for enabling the privilege to possess it through Holy Spirit.

We need to understand at this point that; it isn't the work of the new spirit in us to define our righteousness rather our yielding to the spirit. Apostle Paul gave the Romans church an advice in the book of Romans 6:13

Rom.6.13 - Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

I will use the bible verses up there as a guideline to explain spiritual arrangement. But before i get to that, we need to understand what the word ordering really means.

Order means getting things well arranged and well classified based on different factor which involves value, size, weight and priority

From that definition it can be understood that ordering is done based on many factors as pointed out above although there can still be more due to individual preference but we are good with those ones mentioned

  * Value

  * Size

  * Weight

  * Priority

## Value

The value given to God or the devil will determine who comes first in influencing the situations in our lives. When a problem is encountered what comes first in our thought is it God, the knowledge of Science, philosophy, business etc. from that you can figure out what you allot more value in life. Knowledge of science, philosophy, business, economy, health etc. Is not bad, don't get me wrong but it is good to put God at the top of the chart in order to use those knowledge in the right way. That knowledge without God is very dangerous for Devil can manipulate it to get into us since we did not apportioned God the permission of restrictions.

There is no problem encountered without a solution, God is needed to direct us through the solution. One of the things that kill men will to die to sin lies in the value attributed to God. It is time we wake from that slumber and we make the decision to correct such mistake by putting God at the place of high value in our life, by thinking about him first before thinking about others and by considering him to take the overall priority in our life.

## Size

The size of something determines where we place them either in the descending ordering or the ascending ordering. What size does God have in you, is it a Big God to you, a gigantic God, a great God or a small God. There is this song we do sing in church and the lyric goes like this;

You are God

You are not just big oo

You are not just large oo

You are a big God

Chorus:

You are big big big big big big

You are large large large large large large

You are great great great great great

You are a great God

We usually sing that song with gladness and when it gets to the chorus there is a particular dance we have for it, where we widen our arms so large in expression of the God's mightiness.

It is easy for believers to sing that song and dance its dance step than for them to make God that great. When God is of a mighty size in a soul, no one will consider backbiting against his neighbour, as funny as it sound people engage such thought right in the church. Another thing Someone who have God in a mighty size won't do is giving up on the struggle against the old life.

People will advise a new convert to forsake their old ways in such a simple tone that it seems it is a onetime decision done and achieved on one trial, the new convert will get home burn all those cigarettes hoping that is over however but he will discover the desire to go back to the cigarettes and to smoke is still there. Correlating the trial with the Swift preaching, it will be discovered that there is a big failure which gives birth to the fear of never winning the battle against the old life. That frustration won't save, the giving up won't do any good.

The only solution is to examine the size of God in your heart. If God becomes so big in a life, Devil will have no chance in such life again, flesh will become a total failure.

Increasing God in a life works in two actions; first of all there is a need to shrink the heart from the slackness of the oversize of sin placed in them through prayer then filling them with God by studying the word of God.

The procedure up there is more efficient because it is easy to fill up a small cosy room as an inexperience person with less resources than filling an already big room, such will make someone to be overwhelmed and confused.

The journey with God is gradual. There is no need to rush too much so that no lesson is skipped just because of making comparison with others. An empty vessel comparing itself with a tank is just wasting it's time. What the empty vessel needs doing is to get filled before thinking of comparing itself to the large tank. No one should be too excited by the destination when the journey is still at the starting point it will led to being derail from the thought of the challenges waiting ahead, this is a rule of life to always hold on to.

##

## Weight

Heavy things are highly considered when transporting loads, they are either transported differently if the weigh is much or they are placed at the first.

Have we ever realised that life is a journey. When we realised that then we need to ask ourselves the question?

How heavy is God in me?

The heavier is God in a person shows the bigger size He occupies. Our soul is a single container with a one turn long journey, when God is so heavy in a soul and highly prioritized, you don't have to be told when you need to jettison something out of your soul.

When the ship Jonah took to run away from Nineveh was faced with storm, the crew on the ship threw lots of goods into the sea to make the ship light, but they never know that Jonah was the real weight, until lot was casted and Jonah surrendered himself to be jettisoned, nothing happened. When God becomes so heavy in a life, you won't have no option than to order him first in your life. In fact Devil will see you as an occupied vessel and it have no option than to flee. The scriptures said in the book of James 4:7; "resist the devil and it will flee from you''. The best way to resist the devil is to be filled with the content of God's word to become occupied.

## Priority

One of the topics in Economics that I will find hard to forget is scale of preference. Scale of preference was a solution developed to tackle the problem of limited resources. Everything in this world is limited, nothing is unlimited except God. Even the oxygen that we might say is unlimited will actually get limited when in the water or when in an enclosed room with no opening. With the established fact of everything being limited same goes to the soul, the soul is definitely limited to contain all things.

Even if the soul can contain many spirits, it is obvious that just two will be active at a time while the others will just be a backup. When God is highly prioritized in a life every other things becomes dead. It prevents from the headache of deciding between two choices where there is huge probability of being drowned with the trouble of making the right choice especially when the things considered are very important.

Let's put the challenge on here;

  * Between Heaven and earth which one is to be chosen?

  * Between everlasting life and timed life which one is preferable?

  * Between everlasting suffering and temporary suffering which is more fitting?

  * Between a hundred years enjoyment and a timeless enjoyment which one is more soothing?

I know most people will choose the everlasting life and heaven. If that will be the common choice, how hard should it be to die to sin and live in Christ? We shouldn't at this point have problem in sacrificing our flesh to give life to our spirit. It won't be hard to put God at the top of the ordering of the spirit in us. It will be our choice not to act like Adam who failed to prioritize God in place of just a fruit who will destroy him. Let's make ready to put God first in our life by yielding to him no matter the circumstances.

## Will - the gate to the spirit

The one power mankind was given was the gift of will. The power of will become important the day we have two choices existing within our soul. Without the power of will, man won't be able to control their life. Lack of will is what differentiates a mad man and a sane man. Anything that drops into the mind of a mad man, he does, that is why they act strange.

Human mind is an open channel to various kind of thought whether foolish, sensible, healthy, right, wrong and useless. Have you ever climb the top of a very tall house and you look down having a thought dropping in your mind like a voice "what about if you jump down this tower?" If there is no will, such voice would become a commanding voice and what happen next will be disastrous.

There is this enchantment from where I come from called "Asasi" when someone is enchanted with such curse and it works, whatever the person is commanded to do, the person will certainly do it. Most of the suicides that happen in my community are usually ascribed to the curse even those that came from deliberate act of depression. Everything can't be always right anyway (take that as a rule of life).

The Will can be symbolised as a gate. A gate is that stopping point that checks whether something comes in or goes out. No one put gate at the middle of the house; it is always put at the end of an opening, junction or outside of a house. So man's will is not in the soul but it is in the conscious cerebrum and thalamus part of the brain. As it has been said before that the brain is the display theatre of whatever spirit that is in a man soul, however the will is the gate that opens and closes the theatre.

When people blame the devil for their mischievous acts, I see someone who is just lying and not ready to take responsibility of their wrong. God gave man the will to either choose wrong or right, He did not create humans as a puppet or robot who need to be pushed or programmed before acting. Even the first Adam before falling was never a puppet, he was only different from the fallen Adam because he has a limited choice of only being good.

God wouldn't have program Adam so much that he would have him name the animals, cater for them and till the ground base on a programming and bit by bit instruction, Adam wasn't a puppet after all. Another situation to understand that the Adam before fall was not a puppet was his encounter with the devil, Adam has authoritative the will to choose yes or no independently without God but we all know Adam chose wrong. God did not create Adam to be played with as a puppet but he was created to take dominion.

Our will is our dominion; a man without a will becomes a slave. And that is what makes man a slave to sin and darkness. Let's give ourselves a simple question to answer

If man's will make him dominate over all things but we are having men scouring the face of the Earth without dominion, can we say that they have lost their will

Man can actually lose his will due to so many reasons. We shouldn't see the word will as something that is all powerful that cannot be hacked and overpowered.

How can man loose his will?

The answer to this question will be categorised into two

  * Hijacked

  * Overpowered

## Hijacked

The word hijacked is an action that is achieved with force and cushioning, we need to also understand that something can be hijacked from someone through deception. Like the way the devil did with Adam. The objective meaning of hijack is something taken away from someone without his or her full and right consent.

When something is taking from someone through deception, there is a crucial detail hidden. Considering the hidden truth from that person we can say the consent was not on the right mind, it can still be categorised as being hijacked.

The story of Esau and Jacob is another story of a will hijacked based on mixture of deception and force. At the first time when Jacob played his trick of supremacy using porridge, he actually deceived Esau to make him release his birth right.

Jacob deceived Esau by taking advantage of Esau uncontrollable hunger which impaired his sensible decision and he cushioned Esau to give him his birth right, I think we can sense small dose of force on that. Jacob knew Esau was at that moment weak so he deceived and simultaneously force Esau to give him his birth right.

The second which was the final hijack between Jacob and Esau had the equal mixture of deception and force.

Rebecca started the hijack by playing the deception of making Jacob to look like Esau to Isaac in order to hijack Esau's blessing. It worked, Jacob took what belongs to Esau but when Esau came back to realise what had happened, he became so furious and vindictive.

Let's try to examine the reaction of Esau to the two hijacks that happened to him and that of Isaac too.

At the first hijack which was through deception, Esau did not react aggressively. He did not react to it not because he was not angry for he was willingly overpowered. From this we can understand that hijack done through deception is to enable smooth and peaceful operation without confrontation.

The second hijacked had a forceful effect over Esau because the blessing was taking from him against his consent, he was short-changed. Rebecca knew this was the only time for her to make Jacob superior to Esau and hence fulfil the prophecy.

Due to limited time and a slim opportunity the whole operation to hijacked Esau's blessing was acted on force, playing deception on Esau this time won't bring such result. When Esau realised the whole thing that happened to him he couldn't drew back his anger.

Isaac consent was also hijacked through deception. It was willing action for Isaac that is why he couldn't curse Jacob for such wrong act when the truth was revealed to him by Esau. They couldn't have forced Isaac to get his blessing for it needs his happy consent.

The story of Jacob and Esau explains to us the logic of how man's will can be hijacked. It is always firstly through deception. Devil will come with his arrays of temptations but when deception fails it will act with force using torments and persecution in order to make us feel pain and be pressured to surrender the will.

Anyone that cannot overcome these trials will certainly loose his will to the devil then the devil makes the person to sin continuously in order to live a somewhat comfortable life. But we need to know that, there is nothing that the devil gives that last forever.

## Overpowered

The word overpower have to do with number, whoever has the highest number wins. Since, will creates balance between the two channels of spirit in us. What of if there is only one channel that stay active, the will has no option than to authorize no matter what. The demoniacs had no will against devil again, because devil has overpowered his heart totally. Devil thinks like a virus, it rapidly multiplies in number at every given chance.

Eph.4.27 - Leave no [such] room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him].

Never give devil any opportunity in your life else it will maximize it to engage its destruction. The book of Matt 12:45 shows us the multiplication mind-set of the devil. Devil enters its victim with many backup in order to overpower the restraining might of man. The earlier believers realise this action of the devil they will be up and running to ensure they strengthen their relationship with God.

The process of overpowering is the easiest way the devil steals man's will and there are many people under this evil. That's why God calls people to the office of deliverance, men of God who have the special capability to expel devil from people soul however, the biggest deliverance lies in the conscious acknowledgement of devil and building the spirit to overcome them which pastor is not needed to engage hence, everyone can deliver himself or herself before being absolutely overpowered. For wherever there is light, there can never be darkness. Believers need to deliberately build up their light so that darkness will not overpower them.

That day we make the decision of accepting Christ as our lord and personal saviour, we have made the decision to make a will against devil and its cohort. Even if devil is in us, we can hijack it's will over our life by increasing our faith in God and confronting the devil. The book of James 4:7 summarizes it all

Jas.4.7 - So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.

The will is the gate to the spirit and as the gatekeeper does, it permits the right things in and prevents wrong things from coming in so we need to be like the door keeper by guiding our heart so tightly and making our will the gate that opens only to righteousness.

## The double spirits

In this chapter we have so far seen how man came about to possess two spirits in them, we have dig into revelations that explains to us the mystery of double spirits and by now I believe that we have understood that every man has the potential to possess both the spirit of evil and good and we have the autonomous will to make preference on the spirits that drive us or we choose to be hijacked by evil time to time or continuously. However this chapter will not be concluded without going back to the story in order to seal our understanding on this topic.

The story again....

Almost to the end of the first day of my one and half marathon fasting, at almost 11am when I took a short nap before my prayer at 12am I dreamt about me having two skeletons in my body, the both skeletons were contradicting each other which make me very uncomfortable. A spirit came and took out the old skeleton out of me miraculously and I became very comfortable. I took the old skeleton I arranged it like I have a plan to re-use it again. Then in the midnight everything I dreamt came to pass.

That was the story, let us analyse what happened in that story based on the knowledge that has been discharged.

By revelation we all understand that the two skeletons in that body represent two spirits in a soul. The old skeleton is spirit of sin that every man automatically inherited from their environment, while the new skeleton is the new spirit that Jesus gives to us the day we give our lives to Christ. There was contradiction between the skeletons because the two spirits have different missions and are parallel to each other which means they can never come in agreements. The scripture says that what association does light have with darkness in the book of 2 Corinthians 6:14. Therefore, there can never be an agreement between the two and they will always be in continuous war however you have the power to overcome the war by the power of your will and belief.

God took away the old skeleton out of me because I surrendered to make him my lord so He destroyed the old spirit in me by taking it out of me to decide what to do with it. However when the spirit was placed in my hand instead of me dismantling and destroying it, I rather chose to keep it intact.

What I did in this situation can be assumed as the story of Elisha and Joash. Elisha gave Joash an arrow to strike down his enemies, the arrow given to him was meant to be the arrow of victory over the Syrians but something happened Joash could not take the victory into his hand absolutely.

2Kgs.13.18 - Then he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, Strike on the ground. And he struck three times and stopped.

2Kgs.13.19 - And the man of God was angry with him and said, You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had destroyed it. But now you shall strike Syria down only three times.

Joash supposed to have envisioned and ascertained how many times he needs to strike the Syrians to have total victory before he takes the arrow and reciprocate it in his action. Victory actually starts within the corner of our mind, in the factual understanding of what it requires. I repeated what Joash did in the treating of the old skeleton. The sensible me need to have totally destroyed the crap and take it to an incinerator if possible to burn it but look at me, failing to complete the victory God started with me, I use my hand to shorten the victory.

The victory of every lives start on the day we kneel on our feet or whatever posture we took that day when we gave our lives to Christ but quite unfortunate, we shortened that victory by not letting go of our old lives totally. We needed to have dismantled and burnt it instead we kept it well arranged, for what reasons? I might still need it. You don't need your old lives again, the scripture said in John.8.36 - So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free. You have to totally put your faith in God and take away every doubt whatsoever that takes you back to the old life.

God does not want any believer to live a double life which is possible through the double spirits in us. For in the beginning he only gave man a spirit which is the holy Spirit but the forbidden fruit that man ate gave man a new tenant which the new tenant was evil and since, man began to struggle between the two contradicting channels made in them, actually you don't need that stress of struggling if you can follow the steps of dying to one and living to the other.

I have seen hardened criminals who live such reality by totally killing the good spirit in them and make themselves to be totally possessed of evil, if such could happen to those who nobody died for like Jesus Christ, why can't we that believe in Christ who wait for his coming not exemplify love as Jesus Christ to those who had no defined faith and hope of a bigger place like Jesus gave to us, to those whose life have no everlasting peace and joy as Christ gives us - why should that not happen to us who Christ beckons every day.

Double spirit will take you nowhere unlike living in a spirit only which is the spirit of life.

Chapter Five

The Living

This book is written with total consideration of sequential growth. Following the topic you will understand the structure of knowledge planned to be build. Starting from death to double spirit and now we will be progressing to the next action which is living.

The journey of righteousness rightly starts from dying, knowing the reason of our death, understanding the situation gotten into and being treated with the knowledge of surviving in the new reality.

Giving life to Christ is a decision that brings transition to a new life. The old us becomes the dead body and living in Christ becomes the new existence. The next baggage of worry is how to thrive in that new life. There is no much struggle to learn when a man lives in flesh, it comes automatic, it is a default, no strive or struggle to learn, the environment teaches us by itself.

As simple as that will be, life in the spirit is totally different. Learning is earned from the environment that is not seen. What makes the problem more complex is the fact that we are still in our old environment with no available visible system to enhance growth.

However, Christ has simplify whatsoever that can be seen as insurmountable problem, his coming to earth was a learning or apprenticeship period for man to learn living in the spirit, the scripture revealed this to us in John 14;

John.14.10 - Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

John.14.11 - Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

John.14.12 - "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. (ESV)

Look at Christ the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrew 12:2). These scriptures and more validate the facts that Christ is the total package needed to please God, in this chapter, the path of Jesus existence will be trailed to enable the understanding of living rightly in Christ. Therefore let's follow through

# It starts from the baby

"On a visit to a family that just gave birth to a baby, at the touch down of my feet in the house like a landing aeroplane, my body was launched into a special environment that ignited all the sensory organs over me with the charging ions of Joy, the atmosphere is overwhelmed with joy. I passed through different body of souls that came to share the common joy of childbirth. Some steps further took me to the mother and I have the opportunity to see the cute baby. At this point I wonder the mighty inexplicable joy people who saw Jesus Christ will feel that fateful day of his birth."

That same feelings described up there, is the glorious feeling the heaven feels when we have someone new who just completed signing life contract with Christ. A new convert to the fold of Christ is like the birth of a new born baby.

Luke.15.10 - Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

3 John.1.4 - I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

At the point of repentance there is two occasions that happens simultaneously. We have the parties of the spirit of darkness who are mourning for the soul that just died in their midst and we also have the part of the light where we have a happy atmosphere.

The birth into Christ is a birth into a new life. When we talk of a new life there is also need to have a look at the development stage. Christ won't go against the order of nature which explains that new birth start from babyhood till adulthood although it won't take many years as we have it physically to grow to a maturity in faith in Christ, the decisive factor here is determination and hard work.

Before we press on further it should be understood that the stage of babyhood in Christ is just few steps away from our point of death from sin, devil is never happy over any new soul that leaves its fold as the scripture pointed out that devil is a roaring lion looking for one to devour (1 Peter 5:8), therefore the Devil will never relent, it will rather try to revive the soul from the place of death or it will attack the soul to kill it.

Therefore, the point of death is not a point to rest for the end of a race but a point to increase our energy to run more in order to be at good pace to winning. The point of childhood is a dangerous time hence it is needed to put all our available strength in growing in order to quicken our maturity to a safe position. Book of 1 Peter 5:8 started with two key words needed to overcome the challenges of this stage; sober and watchfulness.

## What happens during the babyhood?

Visiting a family who nurse a baby is not just a moment to mix with family and friends or a moment to only entertain each other and enjoy like any other visitation, it is a time to learn about baby, it is not that I am doing being a daddy apprenticeship, I discover there are many things unique about babies.

The number one important uniqueness I see in them is the unrelenting struggle of becoming. Babyhood is a transition period of the old life in the womb to becoming a real human being. The womb is a small cosy place where sitting, crawling, standing, speaking and all others is not needed. Everything that happens in the womb comes uncontrollable, they come automatically and at that stage our will is limited to a choice.

Life after the womb is a whole new reality where one needs to struggle to get things on track, decision of who and what to become is intentional. It is intentional struggle that will make the baby sit, crawl, stand, talk and do lot of things. I have seen parents who complain of how lazy is their baby to taking new challenges of crawling, standing and walking. The difference in the level of the intentional will is what differentiates a healthy baby who started walking at age of nine months or below if possible or below a year from a child who walks few month or weeks after a year or a child that did later than that.

The journey of new birth in Christ thrives well in having an intentional will to grow. During the old lives in sin everything comes automatically because the environment supports its growth just like a womb, however when we are in Christ there is no physical environment that is easily accessible to enables easier learning rather, we need to keep striving to make the life unseen a reality.

Babyhood is never a stage that defines inferiority in the journey of faith. It is a very significant stage for every believers, Jesus totally value this stage in the scripture

Matt.18.2 - And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them

Matt.18.3 - and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matt.18.4 - Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Again.....

Luke.18.16 - But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Those scriptures validate Jesus love for the infant in faith. They are the foundation of the everlasting structure. The same way parents are happy to have a baby and they are happy to take care of them, helping them to correct their failure with love when they try to walk, stand and crawl so also Christ has become our father to help us through the stage even more loving that our earthly parents.

As mentioned earlier, there are lots to do in the stage of infancy in order to keep our faith fastened to God. As a baby learn basic action of survival as a human so also an infant in Christ must learn to sit fixed in Christ, stand firm in Christ and also learn to walk in Christ to gain higher energy. At this stage there are other important things we must be careful of apart from the one in 1 Peter 5:8

Eph.4.14 - so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

The possibility of different variant of doctrine is pointed out and the scripture identified two major problems that can make childhood in Christ a waste of time which we are going to look into.

## Uncertainty

Just like the plant in the sea, we shouldn't be tossed up and down with varying doctrines and teaching. If one continues like this it increases the chance of being served with the wrong doctrine that will mislead. There are lots of wolves in human covering (Matthew 7:15) who are out there to deceive believers, the reason why the scripture instructs us in the book of (John 4:1) to always test the spirit.

Let's learn to maintain our feet in Christ and look at him as the author and finisher of our faith. Moving up and down searching for what is not lost will never make us grow from infancy in Christ to maturity. Let's keep holding to the profession of our faith without wavering (Heb 10:23).

2Tim.1.13 - Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

The scripture sees apostle Paul giving Timothy the order to follow his particular pattern which was not found in his own human knowledge but tested in the faith in God. We need to be careful of who we listen to and make our teacher. Any teaching that Christ cannot be filtered out is totally wrong.

## Prolong infancy

We are not to remain at the stage of infancy forever. No matter how loving and caring a mother can be she will never love having a healthy child that failed to grow and develop. The best time a child should struggle with walking should be some months after a year or worst still two years, when a child of three years still struggle to move a step to walk, it is either something happened to the child or the child is trying to be lazy. At that stage the child has elapse his grace period what happens next is the parent acting strict on the child in order to walk.

The same thing happens in the journey with Christ we can't continue to be baby. Baby in the faith is surrounded with many traps and temptations, the reason why babies always fall and rise. Christ won't continue to assigned people to watch your weak step when you are supposed to be capable to join the salvation armies. You can't continue to fall and rise so that the skeleton won't be fractured and standing won't be possible again. The Message Bible version of Ephesians 4:14 was more precise with the word prolonged infancy. Let's see it;

Eph.4.14 - No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors.

Apostle Paul also address this same issue in the book of Hebrew 6:1 (MSB version)

Heb.6.1 - So come on, let's leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on "salvation by self-help" and turning in trust toward God;

More revelations from the scriptures up there make us to understand that it is not the will of God for men to remain an infant in the knowledge of God's word. If God could enable us to undertake the process of childhood in our growth in Christ in order to obey the law of nature, He will also consider the law of nature which does not permit people to remain a baby forever.

As funny this phenomenon will look, one can be tempted to ask the question of; is it possible for someone to remain an infant forever? The answer to the question will always remain a positive yes.

In the church of the present generation, people celebrate number growth and become so busy with the trivial aspect that spiritual growth becomes totally neglected. Only few people cares about believers who haven't conquered the principle of faith after their many years in church, so far they come to church, regularly ask forgiveness, then the church is fine. The church might be fine but Christ is not fine with it

Little consideration do we give to growing ordinary people in faith to become Fisher of men quickly as possible to join the labourers who are few working presently on the vineyard. So we will never conquer the prolonged existing problem of; the labourer is few but the harvest is much (Matt 9:37).

There can never be excess labourers, if that is almost possible in the urban which is truly not, it has never been possible or near it in the hinterland and villages.

## Living on the principles of faith

One of the law of growth that has never fail and will ever failed is; starting small to get big or start simple then move complex. Anyone that plans to do something great with the hope to start big is not ready to take on the challenge of the reality, he needs to wake from that long fantasy dream.

In the journey of faith, there are principles that have been made to propel growth to maturity. Apostle Paul mention this in the book of Hebrew 6:1-3, let's have a good look

Heb.6.1 - Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

Heb.6.2 - Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

Heb.6.3 - And this will we do, if God permit. (KJV)

The principles of faith are the basic materials we need to build a solid structure of faith. As one will need great condiments to get a good soup cooked so also we need to select for ourselves wonderful principles to build us to maturity.

When Paul was highlighting the principles of faith he made mention six important things which we will look into

## Doctrine of baptism

This is a principle that guides us in the knowledge of Christ death and his resurrection. His death explains to us dying to sin and his resurrection teaches us the salvation in the new life in Christ. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of our faith in him, its understanding will monitor our growth in him. Apostle Paul identified this in 1 Corinthians 3:11

1Cor.3.11 - For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

The first thing a believer must do is to recognize the deep love that Christ showed to humanity through his death and the great hope he gives us in his resurrection.

## Laying of hands

The early apostle usually impact Holy Spirit to new believers through laying of hands, although that is one of the common way of endowment of Holy spirit but this days we have different ways whereby people get endowed with the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the laying of hands draws our mind to the presence of Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is the best partner a new believer needs and should depend on to walk through the spiritual growth with ease.

## Resurrection of the death

Resurrection of the death eases our mind on whatsoever pains or persecution that we might be facing through assuring us of the trophy which lies ahead. Whenever a marathon runner thinks of the trophy ahead, no matter how tired he is, he will keep running. The resurrection of the death ignites our hope and gives us strength to strive on no matter the challenges, trials or pain on the road of faith

## Repentance from dead works

The point of repentance is the point of death and funeral to the old life. The old life becomes the dead works and it is important to establish a shield against them in our heart, we must not go back to them no matter how tempting they look. Repentance from dead work might not be at the instant as we think it is when we made our confession however, we must strive every day to shed away the old life and put on the new life.

## Faith towards God

The doctrine of faith towards God is a lifetime doctrine any believer will keep working on. You can never get to the climax and you must never stop; only death stops it. We need to keep holding our faith to God and also keep strengthening to move with the dynamism of changes of life situation. The faith in God is like sharpening a cutlass to a farm. After a day usage the cutlass becomes either blunt or slightly blunt depending on the amount of work done.

Faith sharpening comes with studying Christ the author and finisher of our faith and seeking deeper revelation of him through Holy Spirit while circumstances of life at any given point is the work done. Sometimes circumstances of life might come mild while sometimes it will be hard that it will almost drain or totally drain our faith, whenever that happens it is important we sharpen our faith regularly.

******

These are the basic principles of faith, the good understanding of them hold us to God. Other important principles is law of commandments, they align us to what God desire of every mankind. Jesus has simplify the ten commandments into two compact and more easy law which is love your lord God and have love for your fellow men and this two instructions direct to one thing which is love. We must learn to love in order to keep our faith steady with God.

## Life of the spirit

Man is permitted to live in two realms which are life in the flesh and life in the spirit. The life in the flesh is a contradictory life unto God; we can't be in the flesh and ever please God.

God wants believers to live by the spirit. Living by the spirit implies that you are not moved by what happens around, rather you are attached to the life of Christ which is totally different from the normal orders of life. Life in the flesh will want to lie because it feels good to do such and it is the way to go but the life of spirit will tell you that, lying to other people hurts and you must resist from doing such.

One of those important scripture in the Bible that transformed my life greatly is Luke 6:31

Luke.6.31 - "Here is a simple rule of thumb for behaviour: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! (MSB)

The scripture up there is one of the great scripture Holy Spirit uses to control me in my relation with others and it restricts me in taking some extreme actions. Sometimes people will do very annoying thing to me and I will be so angry, then when I get to my closet, Holy Spirit will tell me calmly haven't you done worse to others or can't I do worse to people. Immediately Holy Spirit ministered that to me, I calm down, regretting my action and I take the decision to forgive the person.

That scripture taught me that humans are not perfect. It usually mirrors people through me. The scripture said; "lord forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespasses against us" (Matt 6:12). That scripture also speaks on considering others as we consider ourselves. This belief will help humanity to consider things before they act. Imagine before a thief steals something, he ask himself what of if I am the one they want to steal this from, How will I feel, will I like it? This question will go a long way in helping us to make beneficial decision that will help others and also help us to live peacefully with others. However it must be done with sincerity.

Living in the spirit is more advanced than what have been explained earlier. Apostle Paul gave the fruit that we will exhibit if truly we are living in the spirit in the book of Galatian 5:22-23

Gal.5.22 - But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Gal.5.23 - gentleness and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.

The fruits mentioned by Apostle Paul in that scripture are things that can be rarely found in people without Christ. It is very rare to act in those things without having someone you learn from and who to guide your heart.

Even if someone exhibits such fruit naturally, happenings of the world will never enable consistency. It's a matter of time those things will fade away in such person. Except we put our faith in Christ who will fasten us to hold on to the right life, we won't stop falling back to the life in flesh and how can we know if we are in the flesh, let's take a look at its indication in the same Galatians 5

Gal.5.19 - When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure,

Gal.5.20 - idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group,

Gal.5.21 - envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

The flesh is a total contradiction to God, we must strive always to know God and understand his instruction for our life every day, only that act can make us to live in the spirit and grow in him daily. Life in the spirit is living to please God and not flesh.

Our life must not bear the fruit mentioned above. We must keep loving others no matter the circumstances. Our worship to God and relationship to fellow men must be built on the strong foundation of faithfulness. You shouldn't be a seasonal Christian. Consistency must be engage in the belief in God. Men should readily trust you and attach great standard to righteousness and good morals.

## Possess the Fruit of the spirit

Joy, peace and gentleness shouldn't be a result that is rare in a Christian. Holy Spirit itself is a spirit of peace and gentleness surrounded with Joy. I remembered a day when I got really drunk in the Holy Spirit, I cannot explain the inexplicable Joy I felt that day, everything look like they are tickling me for Joy, i was just overwhelmed with happiness and I couldn't hold my incessant laughter that night, at a point I looked at myself and I asked myself; am I mad?

There are sometimes I feel down in me after a long day work or probably I felt frustrated due to a fail day, those days I will seek Holy Spirit to help me out from the dungeon of sorrow and sadness that life threw me within another moment I get attached to some sweet imaginations of what my future will look like in contrast to what I face now.

I see myself travelling to many nations, putting smiles to people faces. It gets so real that I feel the same atmosphere as that of the imagination and it becomes sufficient to take my sorrow and sadness away. I feel so happy and Joyous, peaceful and so calm. There is no better word that can describe it. I figured out that, this was the same feeling Stephen got into that made him Joyous amidst persecution and it sustained him when he was supposed to be in agony of pain.

Self-control, goodness and kindness are more like a total package we need to maintain good relationship with others. When people hurt you, self-control restricts you from acting bad rather it will maintain you on the steady line of being good and kind. There are lot of things that stand as barrier to derail our faith towards God and make us act evil, we need the increasing dosage of self-control, goodness and kindness to stay healthy in faith.

All these fruits of the spirit are like a character we are conformed to by Holy Spirit. You behave like who fills or controls you. You can't be called a believer and fail to bear some good fruits of the spirit, it is not possible. Holy Spirit makes a new creature from every man who surrendered to him, it wears you a new life and gives you a new appearance.

It will be so real that people's view about you will be totally altered. They come closer to you and ask; is this you or someone else. Peter and John were asked the same question;

Acts.4.13 - Now when they saw the boldness and unfettered eloquence of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and untrained in the schools [common men with no educational advantages], they marvelled; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

When Holy Spirit absolutely engages a soul, it amazes people of who you have become. There is this total transformation; you become who you are not before. The old life becomes the opposite of you. These are changes that are glaring and visible which people can read in you. In fact, the consciousness we must take into Christ is that; i want to become like Christ and act like Christ.

Such consciousness when engaged sincerely will make a once arrogant person to become humble within a short period of time, a liar to become a lover of truth as quick as possible. It will change you totally like a body was shed off you and a new body is giving to you just as we have it in the story.

Do you know that; it is possible to experience this? Just surrender yourself totally to the leading of the spirit to continue with the surgery. Make sure you sign your death and lie obediently in the theatre for the operation to continue on.

# Instrument of righteousness

Rom.6.13 - Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

Too bad, I don't know how to play any instrument although I can still try a bit with Keyboard but I see people when they play it almost every Sunday at church. I discovered that the output coming from the instrument is determined by who plays it.

In my church we have a fairly good drummer, his drumming works with network, sometimes he would drum and he will be so good while in another moment he will drum and I will be like what is wrong. I concluded on his matter maybe he drums as the mood or spirits leads.

My church drummer might be another funny drummer you will be hearing about but if we look into our lives; aren't our lives making beat in such manner. As it was said earlier, who plays the instrument determines the output of the instrument. It is either you are a pro, a rookie, an average or you are unstable like our drummer.

This reality can be chained with our spirituality. Our life is an instrument of the master we give it to. It is either God plays it or the devil plays it. You need to ask yourself a question of who plays the instrument of your life for you to know the sound your life emits. I have heard people complaining of being tone deaf and beat deaf which depends on the category defined in the music terms. I am sure of something no matter how beat deaf or tone deaf you are when I take the drum sit and I drum, I am sure your deafness will receive healing and tell you that; who is that guy playing that nonsense?

When God plays the instrument of a life, his righteousness will show it and when devil plays the instrument of a life we don't need to go far finding evil. However we might get a little confused with people who act like my church drummer, the confused set of people. Have you ever look at your life, analyse or estimate it and you are so surprised about your spiritual instability.

People tend to be righteous in the morning, our mind and action is so fresh and everything about us defines righteousness from the social media profile, dialogue and behaviour. As the day fades everything depreciates and the righteousness get wash away by stress at the place of work. It gets so bad to the extent that the life that was fresh in Holy Spirit in the morning becomes an instrument of unrighteousness due to stress and lots of other reasons. People get easily conformed by their environment which should not be for a believer.

*****

There was this good Sunday and the church need to test a new drummer who just joined the church. During the worship everything moved in perfect synchrony and it took a tap on me to get my soul back from the seamless smooth journey that my soul was disposed to with the great voice and perfect instrument coming in, I was totally out of the church, I saw myself in the Heaven in a white garment soaring my angelic wings and joining the sweet melody choir singing hosanna to the one on the great throne embellished with unspeakable gems stone and vision blinding shining lights.

During the moment of praise, it was joy untamed and outburst of gladness overwhelmed my heart and we so much dance that our sweat flows like a gushing spring, imagine that could happened because of good instrumentalists and the instrument of good voice.

Let's imagine if every lives are played by God, those lives will bring joy, love, peace, holiness and lot of good things that are overwhelming.

The physical instruments cannot decide who plays it which is a total contrast to human who has the total authority of deciding who plays the instrument of their life.

Going further to compare life as an instrument, we can discover another wonderful similarities life shares with the physical instruments. Musical Instrument brings the direct output of whoever plays it, when a bad sound is inputted to an instrument, it must give out the same exact sound. And this is the same thing with our body, our mind and our action, they represent the direct output of the one who controls it.

When a choir sings so well in church but go home back to her privacy to become a fornicator, we know that such choir is nothing but a deceptive tool of the devil.

Ninety nine per cent of sins are intentional; most of them have already been resolved in our mind either some years, months, weeks, days, hour, minutes ago or maybe instantly. We don't act at the goad of the spirit that lives in us but at the execution of the things we permitted in our mind. Let's read what the scripture says about it below;

Luke.6.45 - The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Prov.4.23 - Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

Prov.24.12 - If you say, "Surely we did not know this," Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?

Taking responsibility of action really matters a lot when considering mental growth. When caught lying or the spirit condemns a wrong thought in a heart, there is no need to blame it on the devil or the reason behind what prompted it. Just accept the fault, kneel down to God, plea for mercy, recognise the weakness and what brings it out then decide on preventing it from happening again.

That's it, you have blocked your life from being played in the wrong sound and you have developed a step better. This great technique was what David used in his relationship with God and God recognize David as man of his heart (acts 13:22, 1 Sam 13:14).

When Apostle made mention of instrument, he was also passing a message of the sound people enjoys from it. It is most likely not appropriate to play an instrument just for your personal hearing except you are either practicing or just having a fun time. The main uses of instruments are to entertain people with good sound. A drummer can be drumming a beat which to him makes sense while people listening to it might not enjoy it hence call it nonsense. Believers must check their instrument and understand how it affects others. Jesus said in Mathew 5:16 "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven". We can as well modify the verse by saying "let your instruments sounds so well that it gives a pleasing sound of righteousness to men and give glory to your father who is in heaven". You can see that it is still on the right track.

Sound righteousness so well that people who moves around unconsciously dance or shake to its rhythm. There are times i walk pass a music shop and they play this good songs, before i know i start moving my head to the beat unknowingly, I don't think I'm the only victim of this, right? When a life becomes so deep with God, it will scent the aroma of righteousness that when people stay a little bit around, they are intoxicated.

Peter become so deep with God his shadows, just his ordinary shadow ministers healing (Acts 5:14-16). Paul emits God's power that his Apron or handkerchief ministers healing (Acts 19:11-12). Elijah in the Old Testament became overwhelmed with God's presence that his mantle ministers God's power (2 Kings 2:9-14). These are great men like us who surrendered themselves to God and everything about them speaks power.

A pastor said that when Reinhard Bonnke came to Nigeria to minister, He told the manager of the hotel where he stayed during the few days of his missionary in Nigeria that they should not bother cleaning and arranging the place after he leaves. And after the man of God left the room, the pastor entered the room as rough as it is then laid flat on the bed where Reinhard Bonnke slept, after this there was a connection of power. When God becomes so deep in a man, he takes over him and everything that he possesses represents God.

It is just like an instrument, when an instrumentalist plays an instrument so perfectly, the listener will record it on their phone so that whenever such good sound is needed it is re-played. I know how people get intoxicated with songs and beats that they become so intoxicated and acts weird, this happens especially in the secular world. One of the avenue devil prioritize and use efficiently in diverting or keeping soul to its kingdom is music, the day I realised this, I became very careful with what I listen to.

Believers should be careful of the sound their lives give out. Although an instrumentalist is free to explore deeply into sound and be creative, it won't be good to play high and rocky sound in a gathering where solemn sound is needed. The audience preference must be greatly considered.

It will be very disappointing to play energetic sound to an Audience dominated by the elderly, it will look like someone is making an unbearable noise however, such sound will be appropriate among the youth and will drive them into gladness, at the end of the show there will be a strong accolades. This is what Apostle Paul was trying to address in the following scriptures below;

Rom.14.13 - Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. (ESV)

Rom.14.15 - For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.

Believers need to be careful of the impact of their actions over others. God really cares about that. A sound may be pleasant to you while to another man it is totally unpleasant. We must not make the instrument of our life a threat for the salvation of others.

## Who lives in me

Gal.2.20 - I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now lives in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

During my childhood when I was very young there is this big house filled with families and lots of children living in it, my parents usually warns not to go to the house to play. This same advice of my parent is the same advice most God fearing and good morals parents usually advice their children. The advice and the strong words were not effective enough to restrain me from sneaking to the house though.

When I get to the house I smile and laugh trivializing my parents words saying "is this not the house mum and dad said I should not come, where are the ghost that they fear will eat me or where is the evil that they say will destroy me, oh, I think my parent want me to be a boring lonely child who will be missing this great fun".

It wasn't my fault then, my parent never explained the reason why I shouldn't go to the house, even if they explained I might not understand. They just said I should not go because the place is bad and if we see you in that house you will be flogged".

During those time that I play in the house there is a room I observed, the two little boys in that room have never come out to join us to play, they are always indoor with their parent, although they are of another tribe and they speak English so fluently, I thought maybe the parent deliberately restrict those children indoor so they won't mix with us and their English will be polluted, since we only speak local language. Their parent were so strict on their restriction that I remember a day when none of the parent were around maybe the mother didn't go far and she can't take the children along because the children are like handbag that follows their mother everywhere so their parent locked them indoor with padlock, leaving only the two boys to be inside, at a point when their mother left I think they were asleep, later they woke up leaning on the window to look at us as we do our nefarious and our immoral play, I felt pity for them that day.

Many years later, I came to realise the reason why my parent does not want me to go to the house in the first place although they later became soft on their order because I was so adamant on going there and they got tired of beating me always. The house was not the actual problem but the people who live in the house and their children. I discovered that within the little time that I was exposed to going to that house I have done so many bad things and I could have been worse as the other children if not for the church which my parents attends that suppress me and my parents lifestyle which unconsciously conforms me.

In that house the children steal, have child sex, speak obscene words, lie, watch adult rated video and listens to immoral songs, practice smoking with Paper, begs and do lot of worst things. I later realised the landlord of the house engages in lot of dark things which indirectly affect the children in the house.

All this makes me understand the reason behind the strictness of the family living in that house and why they went extreme on their children, they were actually protecting them but we, we thought we are enjoying life rather, we were destroying ourselves, thank God for grace.

That little story up there refers us to our heart. Our heart might be busy with lots of things and we feel happy with that, the question we need to ask ourselves is; to what reason?

There are some backsliding believers who think the Divine laws and commandments are too extreme and somewhat impossible to abide in, the truth is; there is nothing like such. Like the parents who locked their children inside the room, i see them as a wicked parent which I know the children's description will be worst when looking at us who play and act free however, on the long run I discovered that the so called wicked parent was the best and the most caring parent keeping their children from destructive danger. It is all about seeing from the wise perspective and being careful to learn then one will realise the great benefit of being righteous and loving kindness of our God.

It is possible to easily deceive people with outward appearance, the holy and gentle look that only ends with men, for God sees the heart. An appearance can be turned into a television switch which one switch here and there, the heart still remains the same.

Whatever fills the heart will determine how we will act, that is why Christ said in Matt 23:26

Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. (NIV)

When Christ lives in a man everything about him will represent Christ. As it was said earlier in the book that the soul is occupied with spirit and the spirit influence the thought from the brain. Now let's imagine if Christ is the only spirit living in a soul how will such life be?

Acting and working in righteousness will be unimaginable easy. What makes it hard for people to walk in righteousness is because of the spirits who lives in them and hereby direct them.

Who is in you will determine who you are

When I am in that house, the bad behaviour in me comes out. When I am at my house I take back my good behaviour. The reason is that, in my parents' home you are not allowed to act bad while at the play house we have an accommodating theatre for our bad behaviour. People whose lives are so calm, holy and filled with love are not born with such character or they are gifted to act that way. Their decision made them act that way and the constraint imposed on themselves to follow the decision and their willingness to open their mind for Christ to dwell in it.

You won't see them smoking not because smoking won't be fun to their flesh but they choose not to smoke and because it will irritate the spirit in them. They are not stealing or lying not because it won't bless them but there is a spirit in them that will be greatly hurt if they do such.

Following Christ is like taking a very dare person into our home, let's say a wife. When a husband deeply love his wife he will go to work to get money so his wife will be comfortable, he will make sure he doesn't do things that hurt the wife, he will make sure the wife is always happy.

The death of Jesus Christ is to evoke a genuine love in our heart and his resurrection is to build a solid hope in us. This is the foundation that genuine belief can be built on. When you love someone so much there is desire to keep being on their good side and when you have hope in them you will maintain your stay with them no matter the storm that rage even to serious numbing pain. All what a believer needs to be perfect is the real and deep understanding of his death and resurrection for in it, is hidden our success. Joshua 1:8 said;

Josh.1.8 - This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

The coming of Jesus has caused a change to that scripture and now we have;

The death and resurrection of Christ must not depart from your study, but you shall meditate on it day and night that you shall derive the true genuine love of Christ and attach to live and die in its teaching. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success in the journey of faith and your life.

It is important to learn how to value the presence of Christ in us, until that is rightly done will Christ extend to a life and take over it totally. At that point, we will overcome the deception and tricks of the devil so the devil won't speak to us and we think it is Christ.

We need to focus on drawing in our heart the image Christ should appear in us through knowing him in the Bible scriptures and Holy Spirit, merge the defined image into our lives, making sure his image perfectly fit-in into everything concerning us from business, academics, spouse, marriage, family, financial goals, career, certificates, dreams and vision etc. Then keep adding details to that image everyday till Christ comes out clearly in us, when people walk pass your business they see Christ, when people comes to your house to greet your family they see Christ, when you pursue any career or academic and professional qualifications they see Christ.

It will get to an extent people call your attention and ask you a question; have you not gone overboard in Christ, are you not too drunk of Christ and your answer will be yes. Then few years later your life becomes sign and wonder, you begin to do the unspeakable and the unthinkable, you become a deposit of power and knowledge to the extent that those who ask you some questions years back will return to knock on your door begging to be like you and begging to let them shelter under the big mighty presence you carry. Because why? CHRIST IS IN YOU.

The scripture says;

Col.1.27 - God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message.

The joy and the glory believers will evoke lies in how deep Christ lives in them and how strong we acknowledge that.

## Weak believer

Rom.14.1 - As for the one, who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

Rom.14.2 - One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.

A weak person is an individual who is susceptible to fail challenges a little bit hard. The age of susceptibility is babyhood or old age, at this age reliance on others is needed for survival.

In the journey of faith we also have this category of people, they are the new set of believers whose feet are not strong to withstand the wind of challenges coming. Quite unfortunate that the journey of faith is tied with lots of challenges which if not careful enough can get people overwhelmed and overpowered.

The scripture says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word of God (Rom 10:17). This means that the more study of the word of God, the more strength is absorb to build protective fence around our faith. We can say that people with weak faith are people who have little exposure to the word of God.

One great magic of life that I observed is learning a skill. During the period of learning as you observe how the boss operate the machine, manoeuvre it and get the result one will have the belief that you have known it and this happens because of regular exposure to the process of the work.

The first day that the boss explains the process it will look confusing, second day it will look a little bit confusing while progressive learning through observation, everything becomes easy. It becomes easy that you are motivated to do it by yourself.

However, problem arises that day you take up the task to reciprocate the easy process learnt from the boss. Strangely, everything that was so easy becomes magically hard. The reason is that; practical is way different from theory. Theory comes with assumption and knowledge while practical comes with reality and experience. You might read the scripture so well and get lucky to be exposed to great revelation through different means and the assumption of knowing it all comes.

This happens especially to new believers, when they study the scripture to some extent and have gained many revelation they become so agitated ready to face any challenges but when those challenges comes for real another story comes up. Stability in the faith in Christ is built not only on your knowledge of the scripture but also on your experience.

Peter was so sure in the gathering of the apostle during the last supper that he will never deny Christ. If he can be permitted, Peter would have sworn with anything that evening. When the day came we all know how Peter conveniently denied Christ three times, he could have done more if not the cock that crowed. No one can get stability in the faith in Christ until your knowledge is tested with very tough experience.

Knowledge is tool in the hand, only experience will empower with the capability to manoeuvre, manipulate and be able to use it appropriately and more efficiently. Knowledge is very limited, experience is the only key that can expand it and stretch it further to occupy the coming reality of life.

Holy Spirit functions in two great tasks in every believer's life. It function in helping believers understand the scripture (1 Cor 2:10) and it also functions in making believers remember those scriptures when time to use it comes (John 15:26).

Weak believers are not believers without faith as some might say, far from it, they are believers with unsustainable faith, faith that cannot sustain continuous trials. We are going to use Peter again to explain this fact. When Peter saw Jesus walking on sea, he bade Jesus to make him walk on the sea as well.

This action points us to the fact that Peter had a ground faith to sustain his belief, it was not only the calling of Jesus that make him walk on the sea but his initial strong faith. Peter had that faith to walk on the sea based on the belief he had on Jesus through his teaching and his life experience but that won't sustain Peter for long, will you ask why?

Peter is shortened with first handed experience. He doesn't know what happens when things become shaky, he doesn't know how to control joy when result start proofing good, he doesn't know how to manipulate and manoeuvre ahead of situation instead of within the situation. When the storm did came, Peter had Jesus in his front, the one who bade him to come in the first place and Peter at that moment was wet in fear and the fear took over his faith so he lost connection with the word that brought him to the middle of the sea and he gave focus to fear instead of faith.

I remember when I learnt Fashion designing. Over time when I became bored with learning same thing continuously everyday, I have this assurance of knowing everything and I can virtually do everything my boss was teaching. The enthusiasm was so high I couldn't wait till the end of apprenticeship to get a sewing machine. I really want to practice what I have learnt and let my boss know I am better than what he thinks.

I got the sewing machine, got my first cloth to sew, arrogance that comes with knowledge of things you are so sure of made me not to seek the help of my boss in this my first project. Lo and behold, everything that looks perfectly easy before I got my machine and before I got my first cloth to sew fade off like they were all mirage at the first place and I begin to cut and cut and cut and making frustrating mistake, sew and keep sewing till I wear myself out and the final outcome cannot be described enough with the word awful, it was so unimaginably awful. I was so disappointed and I hated myself, I was frustrated, very frustrated and I had to hide the cloth from people, later people saw it and they made jest of me but when it got to a point everything became a joke to me and all what I did just make me laugh. That day I understand that learning is easy but practical is totally different and hard.

Believers are also chained in between this reality especially the new converts. It is very unfortunate because it is in between this reality that hypocrisy of belief is built. People will make righteousness an instant thing to new converts, they will paint it so easy and not only that, they will attach rule to it to make it fast forgetting that everything in life that involves reality must be subjected to process. For theory can be crammed without understanding and good result will certainly be gotten but practical doesn't work that way, if you don't know it, you don't know it.

The only way out is to jump process and that is the root of hypocrisy in faith. You will see people who you can define total righteousness and soberness in their face but the hidden truth is that their inside is still very rotten. That is why Jesus advised the Pharisee to first clean the inside of the cup before touching the outside (Matt 23:26), this part will be discussed next.

Having weak faith is never a curse neither it is something weird. It is the beginning experience we have in our living with Christ. If we acknowledge this stage truthfully and we engage to improve ourselves, the weak faith today will be a strong faith tomorrow.
Building up our weak faith comes in two stages.

  * Learning

  * Acting

## Learning

The scripture says that study to get yourself approve (2 Timothy 2:15). We might say that practical is hard, that should not mean theory isn't hard either. In fact the two have their own challenges and are needed. We might just emphasize on the practical part based on the fact that people tends to focus more on learning, neglecting or trivializing the practical which always leads to their failure but unknowingly they think it is from God. Learning is very important, you need to study the scripture in order to understand every challenges that comes your way. What you don't know, you can never face it. Knowledge is the tool while practice is the usage. Can usage exist without a tool? We have to get that straight.

Jesus studied the scripture and prophesy that has been made for him for many years before he started full manifestation at age 30, he also repeated this with his disciples by personally giving them serious teaching and separately explaining his parable to them so they will have higher knowledge than the others then Jesus Christ said to his disciples; "... To you it has been assigned to know the secret of the kingdom..." (Matt 13:11). Jesus was not partial about this, he was just building his disciples so that they will be of higher knowledge than the people they teach scriptures, it is actually one of the benefits of discipleship and one of the many benefits you will gain from deeper fellowship with Holy Spirit.

Learning is very crucial to build and strengthen faith with God and the Holy Spirit is always available to give solid understanding of the scripture.

## Acting

Acting as the word implies means taking action. Action is fully needed in order to build a strong faith. The scripture said that; do not be the hearer alone but be the doer (James 1:22-24). It is from the acting we refine the word in us and we build its power. No Gold can be truly valuable except it is refined under fire. Our word must be balanced with our experience in order to wield the power in it. Learning is not complete until it is being put in practice.

We can believe ourselves to be self-sufficient in faith due to continuous and effective study however, the strong faith we think was built in us can be trampled underfoot with just a little challenge, it is that funny, simple and true. That is why Jesus said

Mark.2.19 - And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

Mark.2.20 - The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

That scripture is just telling us how easy it looks when someone is still under the roof of the parent who provides everything needed and pays all the bills but when that person moves out to face the reality, life will come real to him or her. When we continue to dwell within the four corners of church cathedrals or we are still under the fence of immunity of grace we won't know how weak we are. Don't be too excited for now that the day hasn't come yet, it will surely come.

Have the deliberate consciousness to work on your faith by firstly recognizing your weakness which can only be done through going out there to act on the little that is already known, doing this you shall discover where the weakness lies and where work is needed to get strong.

Failure and weakness doesn't happen to bring hopelessness and frustration, they are there to open our real self to us and our decision to solve it will matter a long way. So I want you to be strong and keep fighting the battle against whatever sin that makes you weak for the victory lies ahead.

## Inner serenity

Matt.23.26 - You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

There are lot of believers moving in and out of churches, crusades, concert and different faith programs having concealed appearance. If heart can be revealed we will know the heaps of lies that are erroneously celebrated. People look so good outwardly but just a second into their heart you won't be able to withstand the oozing stench of rottenness, it is so devastating. They take the position as the holiest but inner into them they are sick. The scripture draws our attention more to the evil content of man in Jeremiah 17:9 it said "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"

Hypocrisy in midst of believers is not something that is strange, it happens among apostle even in the early church concerning the subject of circumcision and inclusion of the Gentiles to the fold of faith (Galatians 3:11-15). There shouldn't be confusion in the body of faith but diverging individual interests and opinions arising and the determination to uphold them made it exist.

Inner serenity is the process of creating a beautiful ambience that will accommodate the truth of God's word and its resulting presence in our heart. Inner serenity is a process and not a magical moment of disappear and appear as people expect. It is a process of heart preparation which prepares human heart to be holy and hence be a valuable vessel of use as the scripture identified in 2 Timothy 2:20-21

2Tim.2.20 - Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honourable use, some for dishonourable.

2Tim.2.21 - Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonourable, he will be a vessel for honourable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

From the scripture, it is understandable that whatever a heart is prepared for will determine the function it is used for. Now let's consider the process needed to ensure inner serenity

  * Cleansing

  * Filling

  * Renewal

## Cleansing

Cleansing is like a site preparation process that introduces the building of the structure. Cleansing is very important in ensuring inner serenity and it is not a day process as people thought. Although, people have luckily observe the process of cleansing very rapidly than expected, in fact people have done it within a day through the help of Holy Spirit and the advantage of their not too bad and short past.

The truth is here is that, past history adds to number of days that cleansing will undergo. In fact most believers that become strong today, it took them years to experience a substantial result of their cleansing. They never waited for cleansing to be totally done before they start the filling process, it was done simultaneously that is, if they have 20% victory over lies today they substitute it with the spirit of truth in order to make their transformation fixed and the spirit of truth in them make them a stopper that prevent going back or prevent any form of relapse.

Please note that the long years was not a personal decision or it was deliberately projected which could cause a slowdown but it was due to the natural situation of things .i.e. they always have it in their mind to overcome their past in a day if possible but we all know that a warrior can only decides when the battle will start but they can't decide when it will end. The entire forecasted time of ending the battle is just a permutation which it will or not end at the speculated time.

Cleansing is a period needed to be done in truthfulness. No need to rush in response to people pushing, take it gently in order to prevent skipping a process.

It starts by looking deeply into one's life mirroring it with God's word (2 Cor 3:18). When the life is seen through God, the dents and dirt in such life will surface. The next action is to arrange this dents and dirts by their order of magnitude, take the biggest and the most challenging one then start cleaning.

The starting of the process might consume much time and frustration to ensure those old ways is wiped off because those things have been psychologically integrated into the consciousness and unconsciousness of the mind. Overcoming the consciousness might be a little easy but winning over the subconscious don't seems so. There will be several fallings but never give up in the war against your old life. The thought will keep coming up when the opportunity to engage in it comes, try your best to starve it your attention and when it keep coming stronger, suppress and kill it with tongues and Holy Spirit.

It is a moment of refinement and it doesn't come so easy. It is an internal war you can't be destructive therefore victory lies in being cautious, truthful to yourself, be determined, deep study of the scripture to lubricate you and prayer to energise you.

For the fact that others overcome their past within the short possible time doesn't mean you will. Everyone has their own history and it varies based on the time and exposure. You can't compare someone that is battling smoking addiction of two years and another person battling smoking addiction of 20 years. 20 years addiction is more like spending a big chunk of one lifetime to something and overtime those things become part of us, they become part of existence. It takes a whole twenty years for it to build in you, so it shouldn't be expected to totally get off within a day. That 20 years has caused a space in your body system that survive for it and hungers for it.

There was a day when a man was sharing his experience of when he wanted to conquer the smoking of Indian hemp, he said he has been smoking it for more than 10 years and his body has adapted to it. The day he escaped not smoking at all he fell seriously sick and he almost died, after his recovery he resulted in taking gradual approach by reducing his marijuana dose and substitute the smoking with licking menthols candy, He did this till addiction became something of the past.

I also remember when I decided to stop my addiction to worldly means of entertainment like the hip-hop music, dance and wild party. I thought I could stop it once. When I tried it, life becomes so unimaginable boring and depression starts creeping in, it got to an extent that I cannot withstand it again so I gradually went back to it till I was fully back in it and I had to re-download all the songs I deleted with my hand and revisit all the places I made up in my mind never to go again and I went back to keep up with friends who we rock the old world together.

Righteousness to me at that time becomes something I do when I am in the mood and not the lifestyle I suppose to live, who can see the height of my hypocrisy? I took up this war many times and I keep failing until a day I was truthful to myself, I defined the need to truthfully change and I lean everything to Holy Spirit and also making my mind to yield to the transformation. Then Holy Spirit gave me a new spirit that does not need to survive on those things again and it teaches me the patience to gradually transform.

What I envision to be achieved within a day took me weeks and months. However, those moments build in me true love of Christ and dispose in me the true transition. After this time I was totally saved. It all started from being truthful to myself, following the pace of the Holy Spirit excluding myself from people who will push me, I yielded and I started cleaning my old past gradually and permanently.

Most of them are all gone and that does not stop new ones from coming. As they comes I conquer them, while some are stubborn some are also easy. The days I used to conquer the big part of my past were really helpful in building a strong immunity against any sin through the love of Christ and it gave me strength to hand pick the little ones easily.

## Filling

As the cleansing is going on, there comes the moment of filling. During the cleansing time, we take out and there comes a vacuum, the vacuum is the space that will be decorated to bring the serenity of true righteousness. As the word of God is studied it brings two effect in us, it cleanses and it comes with content that our deliberate action will bring life to in us. The mind must be decorated with the word of God in order to substitute the rottenness and spoilt that is taken out.

As I made up my mind to stop dancing to immoral songs, I fill the vacuum by dancing joyously in church. The new life should substitute the old life.

## Renewal

Serenity comes with renewal. What looks so beautiful today can lost its beauty tomorrow for it can fade out. Water will have a fresh look today but if such water remains stagnant, the freshness will be lost and it becomes dirty and unhygienic. The rivers of life flows, it doesn't remain stagnant. That you are a believer today does not mean temptation cease or urge to sin ends rather, you are open to more temptation set in place by the devil to raise back the old life in you. Bad thought will still come in response to the environment that we live but we are no more affected by what happens around us and we have a better environment for ourselves within our mind it won't have effect on us.

There was a battle against immoral spirit that I was fighting for a long time and I got tired of it at a point, so I prayed some lines of serious prayer against it and it stopped. I was so happy because I didn't experience this encounter many nights, although the spirit tried to carry out its operation but I thank God for his overcoming power in me.

The victory was sustained for a long time and I started sharing the testimony to others until one day I slept as I always do, woke up early morning at 5:30am for prayer and I went back to sleep at 6:00am. As I slept back I was feeling this sensual feelings and my mind was overcome with thought of sensual and immoral feeling. I was so lucky that day that I wasn't deep asleep. I woke up because I couldn't control this negative feeling again, as I woke up I felt a strong wind blowing off me, at that moment I realized that all those feelings came from a demonic power who want to overpower me. Before the victory, the whole situation happens 2:30 am. This means the spirit had to re-strategize, anyway I was grateful to God for giving the grace to overcome that day.

The second day I was not so lucky, the spirit came back a little later than the previous day, around minutes past six, you can see the change of time as it moves from 2:30am to 6:00am to minutes past 6am, it shows the devil renews his plans. However, this time i am deeply asleep and these negative feelings came up again and before I know I was carried away by it and I discovered that my trouser was wet. I was so angered in my soul, why should God allowed this to happen after all my struggle with this spirit? I was so angry that day. I keep complaining to God and saying nasty word that He doesn't love me, God has neglected me and other not good word. However, at the midst of my lost faith, Holy Spirit keep putting my mind to the story of Job because I just read the whole chapter of Job not quite long and it keep putting in my mind the supremacy of God, no matter any situation that happens to man, He is God by itself and He can do whatever pleases Him and no one can question him.

That word suppresses my anger a great deal and it made barrier around my actions that early morning. Later in the day Holy Spirit opened my eye to my weakness that permitted the evil spirit to overcome me and at that instant I became sorry of my earlier actions. Actually I was the cause of my problem, what I count inconsequential was what the devil used as a weapon to fight me. Now let's imagine me not reading the whole chapters of Job few days before that situation happened, what could have stopped me from acting overboard? The devil is really a roaring lion seeking who to devour and just a weakness and a temptation is all what it takes if you don't adhere to the instruction passed by Apostle Paul in Roman 12:2 which says

Rom.12.2 - Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Any believer who failed to renew his or her mind will automatically be conformed to the world. A mind that is not progressively tidy up will at some point grows weeds and accommodates rot. By default, human mind is supposed to grow sin as a weed, however good upkeep of the mind will suppress and kill the wrong reality.

*****

Serenity of the mind is an activity that span throughout our existence on earth. Continual washing of the mind and substitution with Christ life makes us to live a befitting life of holiness. Righteousness is not a lifestyle to please anybody who rushes you but a lifestyle to please God and impact lives with the results. So no competition in it and your connection is with God and not man. When hypocrisy is allowed in our faith we deceive ourselves on the long run because nobody can actually deceive God. Focus on cleaning the inside of the cup (mind), when that is rightly done our life will truly represent the trueness of Christ presence in us.

## The living

In this chapter we have studied many great topics which will help us in our living with Christ. We need to understand that righteous living is not a journey of a day; it is a lifetime battle that will span through many different part of our life. Of course it is a battle which means there will be wins and failures, we still need to know that in our battle against the Kingdom of darkness we are more than a conqueror (Rom 8:37)
Chapter Six

The living death

This is the last part of this book where we are going to merge together all what have been talked on in the book.

Rom.6.10 - For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

Rom.6.11 - So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Death to sin has been explained already and we have been disposed to the reality that man can have double existence. Death in the spirit is not a total disappearance but a transition into another new reality.

A believer dies to sin and move to a new reality of walking in righteousness in God. As we consider our death to our old lives we must also consider our existence in the new life. Remember that no one that put his hand on the plough and look back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62).

Our motto should be dead to sin and alive in Christ. We carry double existence the day we ride into Christ faith, as we move on in that faith the double existence is merged into one. We become the living death.

Reverting to the story, the figure in the dream became untouched by death or affected by pain and unseen by evil happening around because the figure is a dead body to the environment and his flesh but alive in the righteousness in Christ. Believers don't sin not because they don't have the urge to do it but they are dead to it, so they can't respond to it again.

Rom.6.17 - But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,

Who we surrender ourselves to as slaves become our master. If believers decide to live with Christ they cease becoming a slaves but a son. When we are in sin, we have no option or opinion to decide against the desire of our master the devil. However, in Christ we enjoy endless freedom only that we must not use the freedom as a tool that will destroy us as the book of Galatian 4:13 advised "for you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh...".

We could have lived our life without considering death only we live entirely in the world of the spirit but we have two add extra baggage of death due to the reason that we still live in the physical world which enables extra spirit into us. The scripture says in Roman 8:6 "...to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace..." If flesh gives death we need to give it its total dose of death in order to overpower it and have the freedom to thrive in the spirit.

Our first death is submission to God while the second death is submission of flesh to destruction i.e. giving devil all its total possession in us.

According to the scripture, it was pointed out that the spirit gives life hence we must feed it with life. This mystery means that life is taken from flesh and given to the spirit. In that manner, it means that the success we achieve in giving life to the spirit means our continuity in making the flesh dead. Where life is attached to will determine where we exist. There must be a substitution according to Roman 8:9 "but you are not in flesh, you are in the spirit..."

In the realm of the sprit there is a re-ordering of event. By the order of the flesh man live to die while in the order of the spirit man die to live, this reality can be seen in the book of Romans 8:13 "...for if you live according to the flesh you will die but if by the spirit you put the death the deeds of the body you will live..." In order word, we are going to die anyway so far we are in flesh but it is better to decide on that death and give our life for an assurance or we let flesh makes the decision which means forever death.

The easy death only lies in Christ. The hard death comes with sin, it will come with pain of fire and very serious sufferings till life are compress out and man exists in the forever world of painful death. The pain that would be experienced while on earth in flesh when dedicating ourselves to follow Christ won't be up to 000.1 of the serious pain that will come in hell.

The death accompanying the living does not means our destination is death as the normal word could mean, it means our spirit is living within a dead body. No matter what happens to our body it doesn't affect us.

Our body and our environment is actually the weapon the devil use against our faith and our spirit in God. The reason why Devil suffered Job body with serious infliction of pain and took away his possession. The reason is not to make Job body suffer or make him an object of scorn but it was an act to use his flesh as a weapon to fight his faith and conquer his spirit. Job was seriously shook by this process that he couldn't bear the pain without complaining unto God however, devil couldn't overcome Job because He did not trade his faith and surrendered his spirit to the devil. Job weakness does not cost him his faith it only brought little rift between him and God which was settled and Job was reinstated.

Jesus was also tested in this order, devil also tried to use Jesus flesh to battle his faith and spirit. Jesus knew ahead that is why he prayed the world most brutal prayer where his sweat turned to blood, that should be a very strong prayer. The truth is that when we are in flesh we are limited to feel the pain and pressure inflicted on it. Only those that are strong, I mean rigidly strong can feel such pain and not waver in their faith or are tempted to substitute their spirit as a tool of exchange. Devil is a great tormentor and he usually torments more people who their existence serves as the pillar to others faith and righteousness.

You can't be in flesh or have a faint existence in it and live in the spirit, it is totally impossible. Do we think Stephen was enjoying the hail of stones threw on him, do you think he wasn't feeling any pain or he was a kind of supernatural. Stephen knew the decision he made in the first place by committing his life totally to Jesus and he never relented on that promise even to his death. Devil will scourge our flesh so badly that pain will almost overwhelm us however, a compromise is totally dangerous. Hope we remember that a dead body can never feel the heat from fire or scared of any threat. Believers can uphold their promise with Jesus while living the hardest trials of life.

No matter what happens to you in the journey of faith in Christ through your body always make this your response:

I am dead in my flesh and I am alive in my spirit, whatever happens to me in this flesh against my righteousness I am dead to it and in Christ righteousness only I shall live till I die for we are the living dead.

So welcome to the big ever increasing family of the living dead.

Chapter Seven

Holy Spirit is our environment

Rom.8.5 - For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Rom.8.6 - To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

By default, man lives in response to the demands and the situations of his environment. Sin is a result of alignment to the environment, one thing that brings our immediate presence to the environment is the flesh. Therefore when we die in the flesh it is expected to relocate to a new environment for accommodation.

The spirit gives us that opportunity. When there is a stop to the existence in the physical environment, life is shifted to the spirit. The same way flesh is needed to relate to the physical environment so also Holy Spirit is importantly needed to relate to the spiritual environment.

Holy Spirit is the body in our new existence as the living death. In him lies our mind and in him lies our body. This makes us to live in the needs and desire of him and everything needed is already provided in him. See the scripture below

John.16.13 - When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

John.16.14 - He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John.16.15 - All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Like the earthly father will share his possession in his will so also Holy Spirit is the will of Jesus Christ and his total possession for us. You really need the Holy Spirit and before it comes into you, what about checking into your life first to ascertain your salvation? You need to accept the Jesus Christ as your lord and saviour before you welcome Holy Spirit as your friend.

If you are ready? Let's pray........

Jesus Christ I confess you as my lord and personal Saviour. I choose to forsake my old ways and die to them to take you as my new life and my existence

Then invite the Holy Spirit with this prayer........

Holy Spirit i surrender myself to you and I invite you into my life as my friend, companion, possession and everything. Take over me totally in Jesus name amen.
Chapter Eight

The power of resurrection

Assuredly, to get this far I know you have understood the various processes needed to truly die. In fact by now you are dead already and have been welcomed into the kingdom of God and you have been prepared with the basics of living in this new environment for you not to feel strange before the Holy Spirit takes you by hand to guide you all through.

At the very early of Christ exit from earth, I noticed this unique process of ministration from Apostle Peter (the rock that Christ said the church will be built on) through the study of the scripture. Apostle Peter's teaching emphasizes on the dead of Christ, the situation that led to it and he peaks the preaching with the resurrection of Jesus, whenever he gets to this point Holy Spirit manifests

Acts.2.36 - Let all the house of Israel therefore knows for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

Acts.2.37 - Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

They were cut to the heart means the word penetrated in a sharp force into their heart. How possible could a word do such if not being backed by a force which is Holy Spirit? To be sure of the force let's see the repetition of the similar event in Acts 10:44

Acts.10.44 - While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.

This scripture went precisely on the action that happened with the word. The preaching on the Persecution and death of Jesus Christ or the knowledge on them prepares the mind, it synchronizes it, it calibrates it to the destination of resurrection. There can't be resurrection without death. The short word of accept Christ as your lord and personal saviour is a code word that covers the long teaching of Christ dead and Persecution. Many people doesn't understand this at their point of repentance and this is reason why they haven't got to the point of resurrection, they have missed the path therefore they have no hope to attain the destination. However, we appreciate God for his word in this book to clear such error. The question we need to ask is what the point of resurrection is.

## The point of resurrection

The understanding of the point of resurrection will take us back to the Garden of Eden. Resurrection became a topic the day Adam got himself a nature that cannot totally align with God's will, this means something must die in us to get back to real nature God wanted for man. The question that will be asked is; what added nature took us away from God real nature. I know by now we can have the hint of where I am driving at but i might be seeing it this time in a higher perspective so let's go on.

Adam existed in flesh but essentially lived in the spirit before the fall, note that the flesh at this point was ordinary with nothing to drive man or affect him. Man desire was determined in God i.e. man lives his mind in God.

Gen.2.18 - Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."

It was not man that said; God it is not good for me to be alone, God saw it himself. The question that will be asked is; how did this happen? Let's go to Romans 8:27

Rom.8.27 \- And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will. (AMP)

From the scripture we can figure the connection. Man has many desires in his mind, The Spirit of God in man identify the best desire while God connects to the spirit to retract the best desire to be worked on. Before Apostle Paul got to verse 27 he said the spirit help man in his weakness for we don't know how to pray. This means that a man without the spirit is a confused man. This means that God did not dictate for man that he was lonely or made Eve from nowhere rather God worked on the right desire of man through the spirit. We can now understand that Adam always has desire even before the fall but the difference is that Adam desire was in God because He accommodated just the spirit of God. This time man was still in the perfect image of God, at this stage no need for resurrection.

Another factor that took man away from God was the environment. At the initial, Adam was not affected negatively by the environment because he lived in total adaptation to environment provided by God. Adam was naked but did not see himself naked due to the fact that he was not getting satisfaction from what happens around but what is given by the spirit. From the previous explanation it is figured out that the spirit controls the mind of Adam in other word, what does not affect the spirit in Adam does not affect his body.

From these two points, we have seen the extra baggage in man that took them away from God's nature. Therefore the point resurrection will be built on them.

## Resurrection of God's will

Desire is the component of flesh that gives flesh uncontrollable power over human. For every human there is a need while desire attracts or pushes man to get the need. In temptation of Jesus Christ, the devil knew Jesus has fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and there will be some need with desire backing it. Therefore devil brought some suggested resources to provide Jesus needs, it remained for Jesus to execute the desire or not. But before Jesus go further he would have ask this important question; where does this desire comes from, is it from God or from devil or from me?

Jesus Christ was able to differentiate where the desire comes from through the intent of the need. A better occasion to clearly explain the hidden narration of the action that happened in the temptation of Jesus is the situation that happened between Adam and devil concerning the forbidden fruit. Have we ever wondered why did the devil not suggested mango or any other fruit to Adam and Eve why specifically the forbidden fruit. It is because there was no instruction from God against the other fruits except the forbidden fruit. Therefore the intent of the devil was not the eating of the fruit but making Adam to go against God's will. This open our mind to the possibility that God and Jesus could have communicated where some instructions has been passed therefore the coming of the Devil is to topple that instruction. We must understand that the devil doesn't have time to tempt us against our own desire. Maybe you don't like mango, the devil will come and tempt you to eat mango. What will that earn him? But the day the devil got it clear that God have instructed you against mango, the door of temptation opens that day.

When Jesus affirms to the devil he has died to his desire. It marked the day Jesus made alive God will, he validated it to the devil. The moments approaching the Persecution of Jesus Christ when He said Lord let your will be done after the long prayer identifies another situation of Jesus resurrecting God's will.

Therefore the first point of resurrection is the point where the will of God takes over a life. Wherever there is a will of God there is power.

The book of Joel 2:28-29 was the place where God made his word clear through the prophecy of Joel about the open allocation of Holy Spirit to every ready mankind and what come after was what will be the manifestation of the spirit. The word "I will pour out my spirit" is a phrase with a very deep meaning, let's talk a look at it.

The spirit represents the mind of God which resurrects the will of God in man. The reality of this phrase can first be examined in the life of King Saul.

1Sam.10.6 - Then the Spirit of the LORD will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.

The similarity of Joel 2:28-29 can be seen also in the verse up there. The power of prophecy was attached with the unction of the spirit. This is so because when the spirit of God enters a man, he is transformed to have the mind of God and from the mind of God he speaks the profound instruction of God and this can be called prophecy. Another important point to notice in the scripture is one at the tail of the Bible verse which says "and be turned into another man" this hint us that when a man is filled with the spirit he lost his former identity i.e. he becomes dead and a new spirit is resurrected in him. We should go further in that chapter of the Bible to understand more

1Sam.10.9 - So it was, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him another heart; and all those signs came to pass that day.

By the symbolism of the word heart as used in that scripture it means a new life. Even in the medical world when someone is given a new heart it systematically means a new life. No humans has two hearts, we all have one. When a new heart is transplanted to a dying person it means the life of someone else has been transferred to that person life. It is a sacrifice. This mystery explains deeper why Jesus has to die for us to live, even in his word we can sense it

John.16.22 - So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

The sorrow represents the point of Jesus Christ death while the point of rejoicing is when his death gave man access for new heart which birthed a new existence in man. Another symbolism of the word heart is a new desire, it is believed that in the heart is seated the mind. With the trueness of such believe mixing it with the understanding that every desire and action of man comes from the mind, we won't be wrong when we say a new heart means a new desire. This reality was more revealed in Ezekiel 36:27

Ezek.36.26 - And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezek.36.27 - And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

The prophecy of Ezekiel went more direct and précised. The spirit initiated the desire to follow God statues and obey his rule, I.e. the spirit give man the privilege to own the heart Adam had before corruption. To further understand this reality let's fast forward to the new testament, the era where the spirit was identified as Holy Spirit and see what similar phenomenon is on ground. Before Jesus Christ death, he gave the disciples an assurance of the Holy Spirit therefore let's draw knowledge from what Holy Spirit is said to do

John.16.13 - When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

John.16.14 - He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John.16.15 - All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The careful reading of that scripture word to word will re-explain everything that has been talked on. It is worthy to note that after Jesus Christ overcame his temptation, it opened into him the channel of the spirit in him and what happened afterward was manifestation of power.

Matt.4.11 - Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Luke.4.14 - And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.

The two scriptures up there validated the manifestation of power after the resurrection of God's will in a man.

And I pray and declare to you reading this right now as you have decided to resurrect God's will in you receive God's power now in Jesus name, let the power of resurrection start working all over you and your life and everything that concerns you by the power in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

## Resurrection of the spirit

Another extra baggage that the flesh carries which makes it hard to be controlled is the environment. God nature in man was to make man live in the environment of the spirit in order to control his physical environment, this implies that the natural environment is not meant to affect man but to be affected by man. This is the reality that contains the dominion of man over his environment. Man lost this privilege in sin however there were great men who clearly lived this life.

Elisha gave us a clear contrast of the physical environment and the spiritual environment during his encounter of the Syrians army. Elisha is a great prophet of God who lives in the spirit and sees from the realm of the spirit but his servant is not yet capable for that grace, now let's examine the difference in their view to understand better

2Kgs.6.15 - And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?"

2Kgs.6.16 - So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

2Kgs.6.17 - And Elisha prayed, and said, "LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

From the scripture it can been seen that both Elisha and his servant saw the Syrian armies while the servant was afraid of what will happen Elisha was on a place of dominion because he also have the opportunity to see in the dimension of the spirit where lies power over the physical. Until the servant saw from this perspective he couldn't overcome the attribute of flesh which is fear. In the physical there were armies with chariots and horses while in the spiritual the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire, we should know the most supreme already.

Another notable people who operated clearly in this dimension are Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego. Their confidence in front of the king didn't grow from the mist rather it grew from the faith of the revelation from the realm of the spirit which means they are seeing things others are not seeing even in the midst of trouble

Dan.3.17 - If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

The king and other people couldn't perceive what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were seeing because they are not capable to view from the realm of the spirit. However, the realm of the spirit was yet still shown in their physical view and then they understood the whole confidence and faith of the three men

Dan.3.24 - Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, "Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?" They answered and said to the king, "True, O king."

Dan.3.25 - He answered and said, "But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods."

The scripture up there verified the God the three men claimed will save them in fire. The king said he saw a fourth person. From the word of the king it could be understood that it was only him who saw the fourth person which means the fourth person did not exist physically but spiritually. In essence, what the king saw was actually a trance, a vision, a spiritual view and God gave him such golden opportunity to make him understand what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego told him earlier. Another situation to extend this explanation is the story of Stephen in Acts 7, in the midst of danger and death he also had a confidence and was joyous which is a contrast feeling for a human with flesh. Stephen didn't have extraordinary flesh but what he sees gave him dominion over his environment

Acts.7.55 - But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Acts.7.56 - And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

This view of Stephen gave him strength to overcome the fear of the environment. There are lots of saints in the scripture who clearly manifested in this realm but we can't conclude without exemplifying the spectacular experience of Jesus. The story where Jesus walked on the sea is a spectacular experience to explain this reality. The appearance of Jesus according to the view of the disciples explain the realm that enable Jesus Christ in such wonder

Matt.14.26 - But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, "It is a ghost!" and they cried out in fear.

Jesus walking on the sea was done from the view of the spirit. He was not walking on the sea with the power of the physical. Peter could relate with this reality, he aligned rapidly to the realm of the spirit while the others are still shaken in fear. Peter alignment differentiates him from the other disciples and this made him conquer the limitations of the flesh. He walked on the sea with Jesus Christ but as he lost grip of the existence that enabled him and transcended to flesh which indication was his fear, He started sinking. This clearly explain that Jesus spiritual feet was the one moving while the physical feet is just following.

From these explanations, the resurrection of the spirit can be explained as enabling the spirit to manifest in us and when that happens we become dead to the physical realm and whatsoever it contains especially those that are against the reality of the spirit. The examination of Peter in Acts 1 and Peter in Acts 2 will explain the transition that happened. Therefore, the point where the flesh ceases to be affected by the happening of its environment is the point of resurrection of the spirit.

## The power of Resurrection

The power of resurrection starts in manifesting God's kingdom either in our personal lives or importantly to others life. It is the act of bringing into life who God really is, in our will and existence. It is also taking back what Adam lost after we discard the extra baggage Adam acquired in sin.

The story of Lazarus will be the starting point in explaining the power of Resurrection. Lazarus was dead for four days, Lazarus death is ordinarily like any other death that have happened nothing different but Jesus made it extraordinary because there are lots of faiths attached to it so the resurrection of Lazarus indirectly means the resurrection of many faith into the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ viewed from this perspective because He possesses the will of God. To understand this better let's see the resurrection of Tabitha which was done by Peter

Acts.9.38 - Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, "Please come to us without delay."

Acts.9.39 - So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them.

From the situation surrounding the death of Tabitha, her resurrection will affect lot of people into the kingdom of God. We will validate this assumption with the effect of Lazarus resurrection in bringing life to God's kingdom as accounted in the scripture. Let's see what happened after Lazarus death for more clarity

John.12.10 - So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well,

John.12.11 - because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

Therefore anything done to bring life and glory to the kingdom of God is backed with the power of resurrection. The power of resurrection in this regard can be explained as bringing the realm of the spirit to reality in the physical. In the spirit there is no death only the flesh dies therefore, any death that is resurrected means the kingdom of God was established in the physical on such body.

The first rule to follow to manifest in the power of resurrection is to be in the kingdom; you cannot bring to life what you are not. For you to overcome headache you have to be healthy spiritually in order to manifest the healthiness of your spirit realm to the physical. So it is all determined by being at the point of resurrection. Power of Resurrection is not magic that is, things that comes from an empty realm. Who you are in the spirit defines the reality you transfer to the physical which is regarded as power.

Our being in the spirit is the Holy Spirit while our faith is the portal which opens the spiritual realm to the physical or the current that carry the power. Living in the power of resurrection means establishing our personality in the kingdom of God to the physical realm. What you know you are in the kingdom of God will determine the thing you will bring into life in the physical, if in the kingdom of God you understand there is no poverty and a word has been declared to you to live in prosperity by the spirit because the spirit identified it strongly in your mind what next for you is to manifest the reality in the physical as power.

Therefore the two condition needed to manifest the power of resurrection is assurance of the attainment of the point of resurrection and Holy Spirit.

## Manifesting the power of Resurrection

Let's go back to the concluding part of my dream

I felt great pity for them and I don't know how the power came, I began to do mystical things which gave roof to houses, food to the hunger, joy to the broken hearted and I discovered that life was recovered back to people as I moved through houses and community.

The situation that happened here was after the person has experienced death and lives in the spirit. The same situation above is similar to that of Jesus Christ, let's see

Matt.9.35 - And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

Matt.9.36 - When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus began to do signs and wonders as the Bible accounted it, the moment he overcame Satan temptation after the forty days and nights fasting which means something resurrected in him. Our focus right now was what Jesus was doing with the power in him. From the scripture it can be seen that Jesus was moving around in the territory given to him to proclaim the gospel, heal every disease and every affliction from the compassion he had over them.

After Jesus second death where he lost his flesh and overcame the physical environment totally, He rested 40 days with the disciples doing the same thing of speaking the kingdom of God to them and he did this with the proof of signs and wonders as one of them was accounted in John 21:6

John.21.6 - He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.

It is evident that Jesus manifested the power of resurrection to glorify the kingdom of God. Therefore the manifestation of the power of resurrection is the working for the kingdom of God. Apostle Peter also identified with this reality immediately Holy Spirit came upon him, the more he worked hard to established the kingdom of God I.e. preach the gospel, the more enabled he is to manifest the power of resurrection. Let's use the scripture account of Paul to explain more the reality.

Acts.19.10 - This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Acts.19.11 - And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,

The scripture said "this continued". What continued? The following phrase after this phrase explains what the scripture hide in the word "this continued". For the resident to hear the word of God both Jews and Greeks means the word "this" coded Apostle Paul teaching and preaching. Apostle Paul continued preaching and teaching the word of God and was doing extraordinary miracles through his hand. You can see the progressiveness meaning in the verbs.

The more believers spread the word of God through any means available, the more the power of Resurrection is charged and manifested.

By now, you should start experiencing the power of resurrection working all over you because of the breath of God in this book. If not yet pray the prayer below

Lord, as my life is establishing your kingdom in everything I represent, lord let me experience the power of resurrection greatly in Jesus name.

I congratulate you for the testimony that is happening in your life and I want you to send the testimony to us to help in the reinforcing of the power in the book to others and also pass this book to someone else to enjoy more testimony and the kingdom of God.
Call for support

We are happy for dedicating your precious time to read this wonderful piece from the Holy Spirit and we are sure of the immense blessing you have derived from the deep revelation of the spirit. By the covenant behind this project, it is certain that your life will never remain the same and by now the spirit to die to sin and be alive in Christ has entered into you.

As we have congratulate you of the richness of blessing derived from reading this book so also we want to congratulate others. In this regard you can support the spread of this book by transferring it to family and friends and also help in evangelising the gospel by giving a copy of this E-book to new converts or any believers struggling in life in Christ, we trust Holy Spirit to continue his work from where you stopped.

This book is a free project and it needs financial support as the spirit prompts you. With your support more books like this will be written and also by your financial provision they can be printed into hard copies to engage more people in reading it.

If you have the will to support us you can email me at teeymoni@gmail.com or call me on +2349057459053 or send any financial assistance anonymously to my account:

Account name: Olowolayemo Tope Joseph

Account number: 0690044533

Bank: access bank

I remain Brother Olowolayemo Tope Joseph, a servant working for our father in heaven. You can also join me to reach and bless life.
