Living by The Faith of The World to Come
Minister: Rev. Diran Ajimati
Satan seeks to discourage our hearts by reason of our experiences in the natural. One comfort I received from the Lord in the season of my trials is that the miracle comes as we continue at our duty post.
“And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course.” (Luke 1:8).
Zechariah could have been discouraged by the childlessness of his wife, but he remained righteous before God, walking in all commandments and ordinances of God blameless (Luke 1:6).
It is my prayer for us that no yoke of the enemy would be able to survive under this atmosphere. The yokes dragging us down and holding us back from continuing in the will of God will be broken.
Yokes can only be broken by reason of the anointing (Isaiah 10:27), not by the mere pouring of oil on the head. The word “anointing” means mentality. Those challenges will always be there, but they cannot hold us down any longer.
At a particular time, I prayed to the Lord to take away a difficult situation from me and He said, “look to Me”.
“They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.” (Psalms 34:5).Everyone that looked up to the serpent in the wilderness was saved (John 3:14).As we look unto Jesus, yokes are dissolved; they lose their mastery and power of control over us.
Most times, the devil seeks to make us look at our situation but we must refuse to and instead focus on Jesus.
The burden gets heavier when we look at our situation. However, as we look unto Jesus, our eyes are lightened, which means our countenance changes (Psalm 34:5).
There is the power of the Spirit in the house today to lighten up our countenances. As such, challenges become nothing, mountains become like low lands and giants become nobody because we are seeing through the eyes of Jesus.
The threat of the enemy becomes nothing because the Lord, our God is with us.
Every harassment of the enemy will cease in our lives! Satan is a schemer and is tactical, hence, we war against him with spiritual tactics (Ephesians 6:12). We need to take him to a much higher mountain than him, for that is where our victory lies.
Jesus looked unto the Father but did not seek for His personal salvation. This was how He broke the power of the enemy.
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil…” (Hebrews 2:14).
This is a season of disarming of the devil in our lives and all artillery he uses against us will become ineffective.
We should not bow to the threat of the enemy; he always comes as a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). The devil is a bully; he is brutish, but we will not submit to his harassment because we have made up our minds that God is our God and He is the only One we will worship (Matthew 4:10).
The devil wants worship so he brings situations around us to make us submit to him, but we will not succumb to his harassment, rather, he will submit to us.
We will not give ourselves over to the situations Satan creates around us; those situations will not be able to contain us. Every demonic containment in your life will not be able to hold you back.
I hear “containment, containment”! You are hemmed in on every side. It is like your hands are tied; you are almost being forced to compromise your values and work against what you claim to believe.
The devil wants worship, but we serve God and God alone. Strength is ministered unto us today. Grace is released upon our lives. Amen.
We say no to sin! We stand as light for Christ (Philippians 2:15), shaming the devil and making God proud! In this season, we will arise and shine and shake off ourselves from the dust.
The devil and our situations will not get the better of us in the name of Jesus! I see yokes broken; I see prison doors open and I see chains falling off. Your hands are not tied any longer, for you are the Lord’s freeman in the mighty name of Jesus!
God will deliver you from your hands being tied. Receive strength! Receive grace! We have come to receive grace in this meeting and this is our portion in Jesus name! Amen!
God said I should tell us: “Do not leave this meeting today, to go and do what God would not do.” This word is probably for someone who came into this meeting with an ‘after-church’ plan and put it on hold till after service.
God said, “Strength is ministered to you and grace would be imparted upon your life. You will not go ahead and do the same thing. Yokes are destroyed, chains are broken in the mighty name of Jesus.”
(Message begins…)
One of the things God would have me do today is to encourage our hearts. One of the things God taught me is that our eyes must not remain on our situations, rather, our eyes must be on God, for that is where we derive strength.
God is the one who gives strength. An analogy that the Lord brought to me was the story of Zechariah in Luke 1.
Zechariah continued in the order of his priesthood, irrespective of the barrenness of his wife and his miracle came as he continued; he got to a point where his eyes were no longer on that situation.
Zechariah must have conducted a lot of naming ceremonies and he had a cry in his heart unto God.
God sees and can hear the cry of our hearts. Notwithstanding the pain in his heart, Zechariah continued in his order of service.
Many would get to this same point as Zechariah and give up on trusting God; they begin to compromise because of their unfulfilled desires and expectations from God and give God a half-hearted devotion.
There is an order of priesthood and Zechariah followed this order of God. For some, the situation they go through affects their timeliness for meetings and their commitment to the unit they are serving in. Such situations have become the person’s worship.
Satan likes attention and worship, so he will distract us in order for us to give him attention. If we deny him attention, he loses his strength and power of control over us.
We do not follow God just because of healings, miracles or natural blessings. Even if we do not receive these things from Him, He has given us something greater! “Doth Job fear God for nought? [10]Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house…” (Job 1:9-10).
We are not serving God for things, rather, we serve Him for who He is to us. Thus, we must know who God is to us!
I was in a health situation that deteriorated until the consultant attending to me said nothing could be done unless I was flown out of the country, which would come at a great financial expense.
That felt like a death sentence. The Bible asks us to fight to lay hold on eternal life (1 Timothy 6:12). Such situations present an opportunity to give up on life – not in the sense of natural death, but abandoning the way of life.
One must fight to hold on to life. In those conditions, I continued to preach, fighting the good fight of faith, for it is better to die in faith, holding onto life.
I held onto life, choosing not to give up on God, even when the devil tempted me saying, “Curse God and die”.
What benefit would that have been to me if I cursed (renounced) God and died? I would rather die in faith. Within a month, God orchestrated the finances and raised support for us and I successfully underwent the surgery.
God will show up for us in whatever situation we are going through and as we choose not to abandon God, He will not abandon us! Today, I am a living testimony of what God alone can do.
I want to encourage our hearts; do not give up on God, just as He has promised never to give up on you. Our faith must rise to a new level where it can conquer our fears, anxieties and worries.
There is no other faith that can do this asides the faith in the scriptures.
The theme of this year’s Season of the Spirit “Prophets of the world to come” will be confusing to many from where I am from due to their religious beliefs and diabolical notions.
To really teach about the prophets of the age to come, we have to simplify it and that is the kind of apostolic work we are doing; it is a pioneering work.
Prophets are advocates and administrators of the things of the age to come. The age to come is not referring to this present one. What really adds value to our Christian walk in this present world is our faith in the world to come.
Those who have faith in the world to come are made stronger than their situations in the present. The summary of it all is our faith walk. All that was spoken of regarding the patriarchs was their faith (Hebrews 11).
However, what the devil has given to us is the glory of this present world. This is why many Christians live for the now and not the world after.
God wants us to migrate from the life of the present and become mindful of the life to come. The reason God gave us the opportunity of a lifetime is to prepare for our tomorrow.
This is why we must have a firm grip over this life so that the opportunity of a lifetime would not slip out of our hands. Our lifetime has been given by God to secure a future in Him.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).
Many believers are in Christ not for the promise of everlasting life. Pastors need to be careful not to fall into the same temptation as the ten spies, who brought back an evil report (Numbers 13:26-29) because we are talking of a world that is not tangible to us.
There are others who are talking about the present world that is tangible. The promise that the gospel presents is not of a better life here, but a new life.
Many preachers use the hope of the present to preach Jesus, inviting people to the Jesus of their imagination that may give solutions to problems, but does not equip a man to live above his problems.
The fact that a man had his problems solved does not mean another problem will not arise in the future.
Therefore, we are either in for Jesus or out. There is always a crossroad in our lives when we make up our minds to follow Jesus. This is the point of our resolution, for our focus must be on Jesus who is our rest.
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28).
Jesus is the only One who can give us rest from the mental agitations and pressures of life. There are things that take our time and energy without giving us the respite we desire. Thus, we must keep looking unto Jesus until we find rest.
Men typically like to explore, taking Jesus as an option but applying our strength through other means and searching for answers. We want to hold on to Christ and other things all at the same time, but we cannot find rest in such a manner.
This is an act of wickedness and there is no rest for the wicked (Isaiah 57:21). We brought nothing into this world and we will take nothing out (1 Timothy 6:7), but we must leave this world with a better hope, for without it, we have no future.
“[8] For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [11]For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:8, 11).
Though we have brought nothing into this world, we must use our entire lifetime to get the things that make for our entrance into the everlasting kingdom. This is why we use our entire life to chase after Christ.
Hence, anyone who is truly born again should have a change of desire.
One who is born again is baptised with a new desire and the true test of one’s desire is pursuit. As such, one who has a true desire is identified by his pursuit of Christ. As believers, we have all of our lifetime to seek after Christ, in hope that we may find Him (Acts 17:27).
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6).
God rewards those who seek Him, not those who seek things. There is no rest for our souls until we find Christ because He is the rest for the soul (Matthew 11:28-29).
Today, many come to God not seeking Him and that is why they do not find Him. Hence, the gospel today is one that exalts natural blessings. Thus, where God does not bless one according to his definition of blessing, such would seek a way out of the path of life.
God has already blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). God has never been wicked to us, therefore, we cannot afford to turn our backs at Him.
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: [4]In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
Satan is hiding something from us. He may allow preachers to preach every other gospel except the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the image of God.
The image of God is an incorruptible, undying, ageless and eternal image. God is bringing us into something that is eternal in nature, lest we be deceived. This is why faith remains the key to our freedom.
The devil will continue to lose his power of control over our minds and lives. Every blindfold of the enemy is removed from our minds and every veil of darkness is rolled away. Now you have access to God in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen!
The present has blinded our minds to the future. When something is close to us, it can prevent us from seeing what is ahead. As such, as we turn to the Lord in repentance, the veil will be removed (2 Cor. 3:16).
There must be a turning which only happens in Christ and ultimately, tears the veil. It is after the tearing of the veil that we will be able to see the inheritance, which are the fabulous promises of God.
The men that help us see into these promises are the advocates and administrators of the world to come. We are not only discussing the prophets of the world to come, but also the apostles of the world to come. The prophetic and apostolic ministry work together.
Prophets have an ordination of God to see while apostles are the builders (1 Corinthians 3:10). The apostles of Jesus operated with the prophetic ministry, as they used prophetic wisdom to build.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).
We need faith to access the unseen realm, which is a place of the magnificent promises of the Father. I call it a walk of faith because we must behold the magnificent promises of God in order to follow Him.
“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?” (James 2:14).Faith is a conviction, persuasion or inner assurance that births the confidence in us to live the life of faith.
Therefore, we must be intentional in order to follow God. We should not live by faith occasionally, for God’s commandments are not suggestions, but a way of life and there is nothing that can power this new way of life except faith.
A man who is not convinced has not been persuaded of what God promised. Abraham was fully persuaded that God was able to fulfil what He had promised (Romans 4:21).
God has not only promised, but He also has the power to fulfill it. God demonstrated that power by raising our Lord Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1:20). Thus, what God cannot do, He will not say.
My challenge to us today is to see how far we can go for God. The depth of our faith will determine how far we can go for God so that we can go beyond our breaking point.
Everyone has a limit of human endurance, but our faith can carry us beyond that point. If we will walk with God and follow Him to the end, we must be fighters (2 Timothy 4:7). It is a fight to finish and it is a good fight.
Some people fight their spouses while some for their privileges and natural substances, but these are not the fight of faith.
The fight of faith is to conduct ourselves in a manner that is worthy of the gospel. Even when we are aggravated and tempted to speak wrongly, our decision to stand in obedience to God by not speaking wrongly is a fight.
To keep doing good and not be weary in well doing is a fight (Galatians 6:9). We must fight not to become like that church that the Lord said was miserable (Revelation 3:17)
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:19). This is where the devil sets a limit on us. We keep moving, but nothing is driving us.
We have to keep doing good and walking in the ways of Christ. The ways of Christ are not easy. Loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us is the way of Christ (Matthew 5:44).
Our life must be driven by a higher promise, and this is what the devil tries to hide from us. We must continue to build ourselves up on our most holy faith (Jude 1:20). We cannot manage our lives without faith. The life of faith is the life of the commandments (Romans 16:26).
One can be rich in scriptures, but may not be growing in faith. We grow in faith by experience and practice. Our faith is our sixth sense, and it has to be developed.
“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, [21]Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” (Jude 1:20-21).
It takes faith to keep ourselves in the love of God. Satan does not want us to grow in faith; he would rather have us increase our religious knowledge. However, God wants us to grow in grace (2 Peter 3:18).
There is always an opportunity to grow in grace. We must be determined to give room for the expansion of our faith and we do so by redirecting our minds to what God says in His word.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Romans 5:1).
To be justified is to be discharged and acquitted. By faith, our sins have been cancelled and taken out of the way. The proof of our faith is the work of faith being done in us (James 2:18).
“What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:28-29). The works of God are not miracles, signs and wonders. To express the life of Christ, one must believe.
Without believing in the hope of everlasting life, we cannot surrender our lives or follow God in obedience unto death. To live the life of the vine, something must die inside us.
It is all about the life of the vine. We are being withdrawn from our normal life to live the divine life. If we have faith, the works must be evident and divine life must show forth.
Many times, our ways do not seem wrong to us. Nevertheless, it is not just about our ways being wrong, but that it is not the way of the Father. Hence, there must be genuine repentance in our hearts.
We must acknowledge that our ways are not the ways of the Father. It is not what we are able to do for God, but what God is able to do through us.
God lived through the patriarchs (Hebrews 11). Jesus did not live His own life, rather, He expressed the life of the Father (John 5:30).
We often love to express the power of God via miracles and signs, like Elijah of old, but the power Jesus gave to us is the power to live in the newness of life (Romans 6:4). We must give room for the life of the Father to find expression in us. Jesus was willing to go to the cross because of the Father’s promise to raise Him up.
If God has given a promise and we believe it, we can go ahead to face the enemy at the cross. Jesus had faith in the promise of the Father. Even when it seemed like the whole world was out against Him, He held on to what the Father had said unto Him.
“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: [15]And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
Our faith must get to a point where it begins to compel us to take a stand. Our faith must get to this point such that irrespective of what we go through, the opinion of men and our feelings or fears do not move us. This does not mean that we would not have fears, but our faith would have become stronger than our fears.
“[14] What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? …Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. [18]Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” (James 2:14-18). One who is not good to the brethren is dead in faith. Faith makes us selfless.
When faith shapes our lives, it becomes our way of life. Christianity is a way of life and not just a religious practice; thus, making us a people whose minds have been shapened by the truth of God’s word and whose perspectives to life are on the world to come.
There are priceless inheritances awaiting us. Being a child of God is the most honorable position to have, but we cannot be children of God if we are not like our Father in heaven.
God is raising His own sons and prophecies are being fulfilled in our lives. Thus, we are the generation that will cause the enemy to weep; though he may come with tempting offers, we are content with God’s offer. We must be satisfied with God’s promise of everlasting life.
We need faith for what God has promised (Hebrews 6:12). The world owes us nothing except persecution and hatred (Mark 10:30). We should not allow what the world withholds from us to impede our faith.
Our faith should be solely dependent on the promise of God. Our destiny in God is not to inherit earthly possessions. Thus, we must cease from being cerebral Christians like the workers in the field who questioned the owner of the field on his initial promise (Matthew 20:10-13).
The reason we think carnally is because we have not chosen the life of the Son. The greatest honour God can give to us is to make us sons (1 John 3:1).
We want the world to treat us by our earthly status, but when we are being treated as children of God by the world, we try to call up our earthly status. Our life is being governed by things incomprehensible to a natural man (1 Corinthians 2:9).
What God has prepared for us will make us endure. God has promised us His life and He is not a liar. God is determined to give us life. Faith is freedom from doubt.
Thus, our faith must go beyond the level of nominal christianity. Faith is beyond our thinking, it is a settled matter. Faith takes us beyond every reasonable and unreasonable doubt, having come to a place of conclusion and resolved the direction that our life is in God.
It takes courage and resolution to fulfill God’s purpose. Faith makes us become confident in God. When we practise faith, we act out of conviction. It takes courage to stand up to the enemy.
Courage is different from boldness. In everything we do, what is most important is that God is winning. Satan fights us to turn from the way and do things in our own way, but we must stand in faith.
The shaping of our thought pattern is by faith. Without the truth of God’s word in our heart, it would be impossible to keep steps with God for the transformation of our minds, for the pressure of this world will try to conform us otherwise.
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” (Romans 1:8). Their faith being spoken of throughout the whole world is a new way of life that they have embraced, which is the life of the Son.
The life of Jesus was a mystery to all; Jesus embraced the life of the Father, He gave love and forgiveness. In the same way, as sons of God, our lives would not be understood by natural men as we have left behind the things of this world.
Faith will birth in us the stability of character that makes us take steps for the hope of our calling (Ephesians 4:4). Christianity will not become a way of life until we allow God’s promise to shape our lives doing the same thing again and again because we have a hope.
The reward of righteousness is everlasting life (Romans 6:22). We should continue this journey in joy.
Faith in God will humble us and make us trust our lives in His hands. If we cannot trust our lives in God’s hands, we cannot be joyful. Paul declared that his life was safe in God’s hands and God was able to live His life through him (Galatians 2:20).
Paul did not just live his own life but he lived the life of the Father. To come into this dimension of life, we must be ready to give up our own life. God is the One who grafts us into His own life and whoever must be grafted must be cut off from a former life.
Our joy is in the expression of the new life, and this expression of life is by our choices. The life we have embraced is the life of the Father, so this is not the time to be afraid (Romans 8:15).
We cannot find the life God wants us to live until we come into Christ, firstly by being born again (John 3:3).
The plan of God is being revealed to us by His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11); His Spirit is the vocal side of the Father. God engages the Holy Spirit to reveal His mind and intentions to us.
We are enrolled in the school of sonship and we must not deregister ourselves because we know what He is making of our life.
Paul was looking to be comforted by the mutual faith of himself and the Christians in Rome(Romans 1:12). We owe those around us our love. Faith will ensure that we are consistent and intentional in our love walk because of God’s commandment.
When we walk with God, He inclines us to walk in the path we are not used to and in a way we would normally resist.
Satan has taught us his ways but the ways of God are different. God’s commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:3). As a Father, He uses His commandments to redirect our lives.
In being consistent, we are being intentional, as our conviction is in our faith. We can do good things, but we should be able to do them consistently. Without having a strong base for our faith, we cannot be consistent.
God’s promises do not change, they are ye and amen! (2 Corinthians 1:20). The apostles embodied the life and the hope of their calling. They came to a breaking point but they did not give up.
The world lies to us and questions our faith, but the world needs sons of God to resolve its issues.
Our obedience of faith must go beyond the Church to the world; we must be crucified with Christ to the point where the world sees us as being different from itself (Galatians 6:14).
We have seen the patterns of men who embodied the life of faith like Paul. If Paul did not have faith in the hope of the calling, he would not have embodied the life.
We must trust and obey, for this is the only way (Proverbs 3:5). All things work out for the good to them that love God (Romans 8:28).
We are the product of what Jesus did. Jesus will see us and declare that we are indeed His products. The faith of God will shape our lives and change our thinking.
We will do good things long enough and endure to the end. The way of Christ is the way of tribulation, and we will go through the troubles with joy, having been made heirs and qualified for the hope by Jesus.
We are not like them who have no hope; we are not like those who cannot see beyond this present world, for our minds are set on the future (the world to come).
The prophets of the world to come can see ahead and despise the shame of the cross (Hebrews 12:2); they can endure because of what is ahead. Without faith, we cannot be patient (James 1:3).
We must conform to Christ, so we must be patient. God will receive nothing less than the stature of His Son. God may give you natural possessions, but above these, you must have the image of Christ.
We should not deny the reality of what God wants to do in us. It takes sincerity and honesty to walk with God, for our wrong natures are exposed as we walk with God.
Faith helps us to know our realities and our true level in the spirit. Our promise is not of the things of the present. God wants to restore our lives now and separate us from things that have separated us from Him.
The only way out is to surrender ourselves to the life of God. We must allow God to do a thorough work in us, that we may lack nothing. God wants to sanitize us from uncleanliness, that our head will not lack oil.
The devil tries to make our lives look complicated, making the things that are clearly revealed in the word of God regarding our lives seem confusing. Some of us seem to have lost a lot, but not our faith.
We see the life of Joseph as an example of a man whose life was full of inexplicable situations and this should give us confidence that God has a plan for our lives.
We cannot instruct God on how to orchestrate our lives. As such, we must trust Him, for this is the only way we can find joy.
Every spirit of anxiety is brought under the truth of God’s word. What God has promised us is greater than every trouble around us. The enemy will no longer have his way around our lives and we will stand to the end.
Message Ends
