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Poju Oyemade - Conversation with My Friend Part 5

  • April 27, 2017 9:29 AM CEST

    Conversations with my friend on grace (part 5)

    These conversations occurred sometimes in 1990 when we began to grow in Christ and came upon certain challenges. God led us to some literature that began to open our eyes.

    My friend was tired of the discrepancy between his theology and his experience. He could not just dismiss what was going on with a shrug of the shoulders, he knew he needed to ask for light and guidance on this all-important problem. The realities he saw himself in the Word and then the contradictions in his daily existence.

    Jesus didn't just come to be his Savior but also his Lord. Was this a type of salvation so arranged that Christ's Lordship was exempted from the package through His redemption? The answer was plain No. We can't continue in a life of disobedience to prove the quality of His salvation. That will be a failure on the part of the sacrifice to eradicate all that entered man through the fall.

    Truth is, there really is no joy in not living in obedience to God he always said. As a newborn baby desires and expresses growth so does the life of God seek to express itself in our mortal flesh. His basic question was this since he was a new creation in Christ with the best quality of life inside of him and those who lived under an inferior covenant with an inferior life could do certain things that were really astonishing shouldn't he be doing much more than they all. If they with God on the "outside" still communed with Him received clear cut direction years ahead of time about things that were to happen how much more him who had God residing in him. He needed more than the theories of his new creation status they had to be translated into his life.

    Jacob operated in such a level of wisdom that he literally made animals regardless of their color produce any color he so desired of them at his will. He eradicated the effect of hereditary. It was something he knew how to do and he repeated it at will anytime. No man till date has matched that feat and this was an inferior life to the one he now had in Christ.

    Joseph had impeccable standards of honesty and integrity same for Daniel, Joseph also solved a massive economic problem of his time by wisdom. Men who answered every question the king brought on economic and political matters you couldn't lose with such men in your organization. Practical stuff.

    Solomon answered every question he was asked by Sheba leaving her dumb founded. The list goes on and on. Christ said He greater than Solomon was now here and since He has now become our own wisdom through His redemption shouldn't great things emerge.

    Then he saw it, the missing link was this thing called grace. The Spirit of grace is the One who enables the realities of the finished work to be made visible. Grace can never be present and one finds rest in a lower level of existence. No wonder Paul used strong words "God forbid" in answering the question should we continue in sin that grace may abound? He understood he had his position in Christ a work the Father did in Christ on his behalf and then there was the condition of his life, the Spirit was sent to make manifest(visible to all) that life of Christ. Grace will make the condition of one's life match up to the glorious realities of our seated position in Christ. This wasn't going to happen by self-effort but through grace.

    It was going to be a life long experience of daily growing in the temporal condition of his life as it takes the shape of his eternal position in Christ. The riches of Christ were going to be daily poured into his life. He then realized that the very thing he detested, the difficulties and failures were the instruments through which he was going to experience this grace. Like Paul once detested a condition in his life and prayed for God to remove it, God answered by literally saying that's the key right there to experiencing grace.

    2 Corinthians 12:8-10King James Version (KJV) "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong"

    Once we see what is already ours in Christ, practical needs will emerge around us and this should cause us to receive a supply of the Spirit for Christ to meet this need and so Christ is magnified in our mortal flesh. Rejoice therefore at every contradiction to the word of God in your condition for great grace will flow through you shortly transforming you into the image of Christ in that area.

    Grace is not about living in a defeated condition saying it doesn't really matter. It matters to grace that you live victoriously. Life my friend discovered is meant to bring a succession of discoveries of our need of Christ, and with every such discovery, the way is opened for a new inflow of supply. This he found to be the explanation of so much that we cannot otherwise understand-this plunging into new tests.

    My friend understood how one begins to experience this grace of Christ. What test/s are you facing today? Rejoice and pray, the Spirit will do two things, first He will show you the things that the Father has freely given you in Christ by causing portions of the written word to literally "jump off the pages of the book, reading your situation" then settle down. What He showed you, He also will manifest it in you as you behold Him.

    2 Corinthians 3:17-18King James Version (KJV) "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" 2 Corinthians 4:17-18King James Version (KJV) "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal"

    Once the Spirit shows you the reality of your position that speaks to that situation, take your eyes forever off the condition and fix it on your new found position and as you do you will see His silent work in totally transforming your life. This is where demonic forces fight the Christian, to distract to keep you from beholding. They know once your eyes are off, they have you.

    The process is what we will look at next. This generation shall enter into the fullness of Christ's grace. We will not be distracted the outcome is already written.