Resonance

Category: Doctrine

  • Making It To Heaven

    Making It To Heaven

    All doctrines are from a Holy Book. Every Christian doctrine, including the false ones, has a Bible verse. “Making it to Heaven” is no different and by far, one of the most misunderstood concept.

    The fear of sin, the fear of hell, and even the fear of God’s wrath never saved anybody. You didn’t save yourself in the first place so don’t think Christ has left it to you to “maintain” your salvation. If you fear “losing your salvation”, then you never understood what Christ did on the Cross.

    Psalm 118:14 reads, “He has become my salvation”. It means salvation is not a thing. Salvation is a person. That person is Jesus, and as long as He lives in you and will never leave you nor forsake you, you have life. Salvation is not a possession; like a substance outside you like money you have. Christ is Salvation. And how seemingly impossible it is to lose Christ. No wonder the Gospel scares many Christians; because it’s too good to be true. It totally sets us free from even our own thinking. But no! We want religion, which is a prison.

    The leavens of the Pharisees is slowly rising in what’s meant to be the Unleavened Bread in the saints

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    Christians are so stingy with Heaven. They think God is so stingy with Heaven that He doesn’t want just anybody to go there. In Jesus’ parables, it was common people in the streets that entered into the banquet, not the “chosen” ones. Some Christians even lowkey believe some people have been predestined to go to hell because they are not part of the “chosen”. Jesus didn’t save you to put into the “saved category”. It will really shock many Christians to know the kind of people in Heaven; that there are more people in Heaven than in hell. The prodigal son is still a son even if he’s eating pig’s food somewhere. It’s of no wonder at the end of the story, the second son was enjoying and the first born was sad.

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    Nothing of God is earned. It is all a gift freely given. Once you think you can earn anything from God by what you do, you have missed the whole point of Grace. God’s awards super-exceeds His rewards. He has already blessed all men with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. And this gift of salvation was freely given to all humanity. Your self-righteous works does not make you worthy of going to Heaven. All men were forgiven on the Cross whether they themselves believe it or not. Their accepting is accepting what is already a fact.

    When Paul told the Ephesian church to “live a life worthy of your calling”, he is not saying justify your salvation, he is simply saying we are not unworthy anymore so they should stop the false humility and live the God-life to the fullest.

    The Bible does not even teach us about making it into Heaven. The whole point of life is not to die and go to heaven. That is not the main point. If your reason for doing good is to make Heaven one day, you don’t understand the Gospel. The Bible rather teaches us how to live life more abundantly. The Bible rather teaches us to love one another, live according to the Will of God and fulfill His purpose for us. Not so we could make it to Heaven. Focusing on making it to Heaven is totally different from focusing on Heaven. All religions believe in the former, but not true Christ-living. It comes as a shock?

    Actually, just like the Jews awaiting the Messiah, many Christians pray “thy kingdom come” without knowing that the Kingdom is here, within us. (Luke 17:21). “Focus[ing] on things above” means living from Heaven towards earth. This is what victorious Christian living means.

    “Making it to Heaven” means we are not there in the first place; which is contrary of the finished works of Christ that “seated us in heavenly places with Christ” and made us “citizen[s] of Heaven”.

    Making it to Heaven also means awaiting a world that hasn’t come so there’s no point living the abundantly life in Christ here; contrary to the mission of Christ stated in John 10:10.

    Eternal Life does not begin when we die. There are no promises in the New Covenant. Christ is the fulfillment of every God-given promise. This means once I’m in Christ, I have access to any promise that has ever been made. Jesus told Nicodemus, “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life”. John wrote to the 1st century church, “He who has the Son has life”. It has always been the present. God of the present.

    The I Am not I will be. So when people say Heaven is a lifestyle, don’t get annoyed. God intended everything to be a lifestyle. This is even way better than seeing Heaven as a destination.
    I don’t need to die to activate eternal life. I need eternal life to deactivate death. When death thinks it has got a hold of me, the Resurrection and the Life sustains His Life within me. Hallelujah! I personally don’t believe in death because “the last enemy to be defeated was death”. Jesus’ finished works include the death of Death. “Now death, where is your sting?”

    So before we go around condemning people with our Bible verses, know for sure that the reason why many people are not Christians is because of the lifestyle and condemning ideologies of Christendom. Christians today are arguably the most condemning people in the world. We must go back and check our foundation and belief systems. If it segregates, brings fear or makes us “holier than thou”, then it’s not from God. The Truth is not about who is right. Truth is about what is right.

    It’s about time we went back to Christo-centric living, Christo-centric doctrines and Christo-centric mindsets where is about what all about Christ from top to bottom. Why have we set Christ aside and gone back to Old Testament lifestyle? Life is about recognizing Jesus at the center of it all, from salvation to rulership.

    I love you ♥

  • God’s Best Model

    Every creator’s fingerprint is evidentially left on his creation. Everything God created manifests His Glory. Every living thing teaches one thing or another about God. God is seen in all He created. His creation was made in His likeness, but guess who is His best model? You guessed right! We are His masterpiece.

    Jesus said you shall be witnesses unto me, not witnesses unto the world. Witnessing is not just evangelism. It is a legal term.

    In the law court, when I choose a witness to support my stance, the person is a witness unto me. What does the witness do? He comes as an evidence that what I actually say is real and true. The world will believe if we live the life we promise they’d have if they believe in Christ.

    We are a living evidence to the Kingdom of God. We are called to live the Kingdom life. You can only teach what you’ve experienced. You can give only what you have. You can impact what has been impacted on you. Walk the talk. Even children follow your example, not your advice. If you truly believe what you confess to be, then it must reflect in your life.

    We’re a living epistle of Christ. This is the life. Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Let’s be true models to the world.

    I love you ❤️

  • The Foolishness of God

    The Foolishness of God

    God’s first foolishness is seen in his outpour of free will to His creation. Why give all heavenly beings free will if it can bring about the possibility of a devil? What makes it an even harder pill to swallow is the fact God knew it would happen. And He literally sets up the stage for it then watches it happen.

    God’s second foolishness is seen in His creation of man. If God ever had a weakness, it was us. That’s why the enemy spends all his time trying to destroy us. God literally said that “…whoever touches you touches the pupil of my eye”, and that’s exactly what the enemy wants to do. Human beings are so dumb in the eyes of the powers of darkness. To them, we look like a prince who doesn’t know he’s a prince and lives like a pauper. They’re literally always licking our brains to believe in the dumbest things.

    God’s third foolishness is putting that tree in the garden. He put right in the middle, where it cannot be unseen. Then, He tells the man not to eat from it. It’s like telling a kid not to switch on the TV and putting the remote right next to him. It only sparks more curiosity. Did God actually expect Adam not to eat from the tree? If He didn’t, why did God put the tree in the garden?

    God’s forth foolishness is dying for the sins of humanity and giving us grace. God must be pretty dumb to think we wouldn’t abuse Grace. Now instead of praying to God for a car for many years, I can steal one in a day then ask for forgiveness. The picture of God in our minds has moved from an always-angry, l-will-strike-you-with-thunder schizophrenic to the Mr Nice Guy literally everyone takes advantage of.

    But here is the Truth; God doesn’t need anyone to defend Him. He doesn’t need anyone’s advice. He doesn’t need to explain Himself to anyone. We are too finite to understand His infinite picture. He knows exactly what He’s doing. His Love cannot be taken advantage of and His Grace cannot be abused. The fact that he gave all of us minds of our own and even the ability to argue with Him that he’s wrong doesn’t mean He sometimes doesn’t know what He’s doing.

    There’s nothing that has happened; that is happening; that will happen that has taken, is taking and will take God by surprise. He cannot be blamed for our own demises because of His foreknowledge of all things. Sometimes our way of thinking actually equates God to the devil if we think about it carefully. He has the right to punish yet He chooses to admonish love. He allows our mistakes and gives us time to mature. He’s not accountable to anyone but everything is accountable to Him. Though we may be His weakness, He is our strength. Though He gives us the free will to push Him away, He will always hold us close.

    “because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

    He loves you ❤️

  • A Good Example of a Bad Example

    Life is a paradox and so is truth. The only person who can step on your feet is the one closest to you. The only constant is change. The truth is, we can’t avoid all the mishaps in life even if we made all the right choices. Every choice we make, regardless of the motive, has both good and bad repercussions.

    There IS right and wrong. But they are not necessarily at both extremes. There is actually a thin line between them. In our world today, it is increasingly becoming difficult for people to define right and wrong. What was generally considered to be wrong 50 years ago can easily become an acceptable norm 5 years from now. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe right and wrong are not meant to be defined. Maybe they are meant to define themselves.

    We are not powerful enough to control the balance of ups and downs, highs and lows or even foreknow if the good will outweigh the bad in any decision we make. However, we are powerful enough to choose right over wrong and good over bad with our limited discretion.

    Most often than not, the decision is not necessarily between right and wrong. It’s between good and best. But wait, what if we make the wrong decisions because we cannot foretell which one would be a better decision in retrospect?

    Assuredly, the more bad decisions we make the better the chances of making the right decisions in future. We make good decisions from the experiences we gained, and we gained those experiences from making bad decisions. Failure can surely lead to success. Nothing and no one can be utterly useless. If anything at all, it can be used as a good example of a bad example.

    We are all not perfect, not because perfection doesn’t exist, but because we are too imperfect to understand how paradoxical true perfection is. Nature is perfect because of its many imperfections. Even bull shit fertilizes the soil.

    At the end of the day, we are well able to appreciate the effects of our decisions and know for sure if we made the right decisions or the wrong one in retrospect. But even with the wrong decisions we made, there is no need to regret. “For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

    Don’t be afraid to be wrong. Be rather cautious of thinking you’re always right, because you definitely shouldn’t be. So live life, being rest assured in the fact that God can take our mess and make it His masterpiece.

    I love you ❤️

  • Remember Your First Love

    Remember Your First Love

    “But this is what I have against you: you do not love me now as you did at first.” Rev 2:4‬ ‭GNB‬‬

    The most difficult thing to overcome in our walk with God is not the temptations of the devil, the world or the flesh. It’s not the weakness of our soul but the weakness of our spirit. The flesh is weak and cannot thrive in spiritual things unless the spirit is willing. But what if the spirit is no longer willing?

    There’s a fiery passion in any strong believer who dwells in the secret place of the Most High. I’m not talking about a display of spiritual gifts, a good grasp of theology or being regularly part of church activities. If you’re not intimate with God, you’re not walking with Him.

    There are three dark nights: testing of the flesh, soul and spirit by the Lord Himself. The test of the spirit is certainly the most difficult. The test of the spirit is when God asks us personally, “do you love me?”, a question that will bring you to tears.

    What do you love more than God? Has that fire within you died out? Where’s that passion you had to obey His voice and do His will? Where’s that desire to seek God? Is that even your priority anymore? Are you indifferent toward God?

    “Remember how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first”. Rev‬ ‭2:5‬ CJB

    He loves you ❤️. Do you love Him?

  • Why Would A Loving God Send People to Hell?

    Why Would A Loving God Send People to Hell?

    “Who created hell in the first place?”

    “God”.

    “But why would a Loving God throw you in hell for not believing a set of beliefs? That’s insane.”

    “That’s a possible way to look at it, but that way would never make you understand. Let me give you an analogy;

    Accusing God for sending people to hell is like accusing a high court judge for sentencing someone to prison. What landed the person in prison; the judge’s verdict or the crime? The crime. The judge didn’t throw the person into prison, the crime did.

    God’s system is not flawed. Man’s system rather is. With man’s system, if you commit one criminal offense, you can end up in jail. However, if another with 1000 crimes cannot be proven guilty, the person goes scot-free. With God’s system, no sin can outrun God’s overlook. However, God doesn’t just dump you in hell after giving you just one shot.

    Our sins, which are rampant and continuous, have made all of us deserve imprisonment. The Judge, instead of pouring out the full sentence of our evil on us, decided to pardon us and offer us a better life. This offer was available for everyone, for everyone was at fault.

    But some still refused the offer because they were angry with the Judge for having a justice system. Others were offended by the Judge’s available pardon for everyone. Therefore, anyone who’ll serve the full sentence of their punishment are not those who committed many sins, but those who rejected the Judge’s grace. Did you get it?”

    I love you ❤️

  • The Mystery of Revelation: Whatever Doesn’t Change You Unmakes You

    The Mystery of Revelation: Whatever Doesn’t Change You Unmakes You

    The purpose of revelation is not to get us all hyper and enthused of how deep it is. The purpose of revelation is for transformation. Whatever revelational knowledge that doesn’t change you makes you religious.

    It’s not that there are two sides of the same truth, but there’s the complementary side of it that makes the whole truth look contradictory. For example, Grace gives us what we don’t deserve and Mercy doesn’t give us the demise we deserve. Yet, we ought not to be deceived, for we reap whatever we sow. Contradictory? Not! Complementary.

    Truth is One, but not all truths are the same. Some truths are greater than the others. Therefore, it is necessary what we emphasize. The truth is One, but within truth, there’s an order. This order of Truth is as important as the entire Truth itself. For example, prosperity is important but not as important as salvation. Therefore, if prosperity becomes the foundation upon which salvation is built, the essence of the Truth of both salvation and prosperity is lost.

    Always remember that there’s no bigger revelation than the Cross, for every new revelation emanates from there. The Truth must be laid brick by brick, precept upon precept; built on the right solid foundation. Otherwise, any deeper revelation would rather destroy us and lead us astray rather than take us deeper.

    Selah ❤️

  • The Revelation of Mystery: There Are More Questions than Answers

    The Revelation of Mystery: There Are More Questions than Answers

    It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. Proverbs 25:2

    Mystery is not the opposite of revelation. It is the complement of it. What leaves us in awe of the God we serve is both the Revelation of Himself and the Mystery of Himself. God is an open secretive person. The more He reveals Himself to you, the more mysterious you’ll find Him. The hidden things of God in Christ are not hidden from us. They are hidden for us.

    It’s easy to have the notion that when we go to heaven, we’ll ask God a lot of questions. Because, yes, this realm limits our capacity to fully grasp anything of God although we have received the FULLNESS of the Spirit to know ALL truth. As Paul rightly said, we know in part and see but in a dim reflection as in a mirror (1 Cor 13:9,12).

    Going to Heaven will not automatically put in us the full knowledge of God. That is NOT the problem since this full knowledge of God, which is Christ, has been fully revealed and given. What it will do is increase our capacity to fully grasp, though we may never fully grasp.

    God is an unchanging dynamic God. Every day is a new day to understand something different about Him that He has always been and will always be. Heaven will not mark the end of Mystery, for there will always be more questions for more understanding. It’s an unending learning experience about a Mysterious God who loves to reveal Himself to us.

    The more God reveals Himself to us, the more we conform to His likeness. For when we see Him, we shall be like Him. It’s not just an eternal learning experience; it’s God’s Love story of how He draws His Lover into a matrimonial oneness.

    He’s intentional ❤️

  • God’s Sovereignty & Man’s Responsibility

    God’s Sovereignty & Man’s Responsibility

    God’s sovereignty goes hand-in-hand with man’s responsibility. It’s not that God is incapacitated. He desires partnership. Therefore, he leaves certain decisions to a man that has an everlasting effect. He ordains man’s actions and establishes it.

    “Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:19‬ ‭NIV‬

    One of such ordinances is marriage. Inasmuch as God knows the end from the beginning, no one is predestined to be your spouse. Aside from God’s Sovereignty, God allows for your choice and ordains it.

    “No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭17:5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

    Another of such ordinances is your name. Our names aren’t just for this life. It’s forever. No one calls Abraham Abram anymore. His name was changed and established forever. The names we place on people are ordained up until another ordinance is made. A king can only change a decree by making another decree.

    Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭18:18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

    What Jesus said is an ancient, old mystery; that man has a God-given partnership deal to establish everlasting decrees and have them ordained by God. Now my question is, what are you going to do with it?

    I love you ❤️

  • Is Jesus The Only Way To God?

    Is Jesus The Only Way To God?

    If God wanted everyone to come to Him, why would he create a narrow path that only a few can thread on? Why won’t He make Himself more accessible?

    The problem is not God. Man failed and fell short. We broke our partnership with the divine and tried so hard to be God. We have each turned to follow our own downward path. Each time God tried to establish a way back to Himself through one man or the other, they failed Him and directed everyone to themselves.
    So guess what? God decided to do it Himself. Since through one man – Adam – man fell, it was only through another “Adam” that man could be reconciled with His Creator. So the Son of God became the Son of Man so that the sons of men will become the sons of God.

    Jesus was the only man who fully walked with God and obeyed every ordained Word of God, thereby establishing the path back to God. By reconciling everyone to Himself, He had reconciled everyone back to God, for He is God Himself.
    But hei…this is the Good News; there’s only one way to God: Jesus, but there are many ways to Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
    I love you ❤️

  • The Faith Of God

    The Faith Of God

    “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith…”
    Hebrews 12:2

    Faith in the Greek world basically means “God’s persuasion”. Faith isn’t man’s work. It is God’s. He’s the author and perfecter of your faith. He believes in you and that’s how you’re able to believe in him.

    And also, everywhere that says “faith in God” actually translates as “faith of God” in the Greek (Mark 11:22). Not that God needs faith but that your faith in God is sourced from His faith in you.

    This is why Paul says there’s “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph 4:5) and that’s because it’s Christ’s faith we all have. You don’t take part in perfecting or puffing up your faith. Christ does it for you in you. Remember, He is the author (He gave you a measure of faith: Romans 12:3) and finisher (perfecter, completer: Phil 1:6) of Faith.

    “…even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not (visible yet) as though they were”.
    Romans 4:17

    Faith isn’t a magical substance. What we understand as faith is merely waking up to a reality that has always been here.

  • The Realities Of Faith

    The Realities Of Faith

    “For we walk by faith, and not by sight.”
    2 Corinthians 5:7
    “the just shall live by faith.”
    Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38

    Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

    Faith is seeing with God’s Eyes. The LORD, the timeless God, sees not as man sees. Everything that is happening or will ever happen has been planned and prepared beforehand, even before the foundations of the world.

    For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
    Ephesians 2:10 NKJV

    God not only knows the future; God in reality is the future. (Rev 1:8)

    Don’t live from earth towards heaven, live from heaven towards earth. Why? Cuz you’re a citizen of Heaven.

    We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven.
    Philippians 3:20 GNB

    God’s Word is settled in Heaven (Psalm 119:108). In God’s time, there is no future. Therefore, when we see through God’s eyes, we speak from the future into our present realities.

    This is the true meaning of prophecy. Prophecy is not speaking from the present into the future. It is rather speaking from the future into present realities. And there is an evidence, a knowing, a confident assurance, that it will come to pass. That is Faith.