Two weeks ago, we began looking at the Kingdom. We knew that we have some residual understanding of the Kingdom, but in spite of the residual understanding, there is a need for rediscovering. You rediscover what you had discovered but you needed or you need to rediscover again. So, if you have known something and you are being reminded what you know, that’s rediscovery. If you found something at the beginning, but due to one reason or the other, you cannot explain where the thing is again, and then you happen to stumble on it, what happens? You have rediscovered it. That’s not your first time, but it may be the time that you will need it. If you look at yourself for instance, there are certain things that you are exposed to now in the word of God, and you tell yourself “I have been reading the Bible for a long time. In fact, this particular one, I have seen it several times but the way it is clear to me now, it has never been clear before” what has happened is, you are rediscovering.
So, we are rediscovering the Kingdom and we began looking, we were introduced in the first edition, and the week after, the Lord brought us further because we were expected to go through CITIZENSHIP of the Kingdom, the CULTURE of the Kingdom, the SYSTEM of the Kingdom and then the STRUCTURE of the Kingdom. But by the grace of God, we stopped at the Culture of the kingdom; knowing fully well that you must be born into the Kingdom; Kingdom citizenship for you to be able to have access to the inheritances of the Kingdom. Let us go to the book of Colossians 1:12 to be reminded of where we stopped. That passage shows us a picture of what happens that culminate into Kingdom citizenship. The Bible says: “Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. In whom we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sin.”
“Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us…”, and I want us to note the word, the Father, you know when you hear the word “Father” it means you are getting introduced to the source of something. The Father of Gboyega Adedeji is the source humanly speaking of Gboyega Adedeji. So, when you hear the father, there are assumptions that there are children, because you don’t become a father until you have a child. The least that must happen in your life, for you to be called a mother is that you have a child. So, when the Bible shows us that “giving thanks to the Father” it’s an assumption that we are now children. You can never become a child, if you have never been born. So, birth is a necessity.
Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. In whom we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sin. “In whom…” who is the “whom?” The Son of His love. The whom there is talking about Jesus, the Son of God’s love, and God is seen from that Scripture as the Father. So, there are things that are available for the children of the Father, that we are also made partakers of. A partaker is one who partakes, a partaker is one who takes a part in something.
You remember the Scripture about Judas. The moment Judas betrayed Jesus and before the Spirit came in Act of Apostles 2, the Bible talks about how the disciples led by Peter agreed that Judas, had a share of this ministry, and he had gone. And there is a need for somebody else to take his place. The one that will take his place must be someone who was around when Jesus was getting baptized in the period of baptism, and who also followed Jesus to the time that He was taken up. Such a person could then be qualified when God choses, don’t forget when they prayed, they asked that God, you are the one that knows the heart of people, tell us who among these people is qualified. So, it is the Lord that qualifies. It is the Father that qualifies. So, the Bible says “thanks be to the Father who has qualified us…” how? We are born unto Him, through Jesus, and so we are now members of the family of God, therefore, qualified to inherit the things that belongs to the Father. So, these are important, you must be born into the Kingdom, before you can lay claim to the things in the Kingdom.
So, Kingdom citizenship is not the one that happens because you travel to Korea, after spending ten years in Korea they now make you a citizen, this is Kingdom citizenship by birth. For those of us that studied Government, we know there are various processes for becoming citizens, you can become a citizen by birth or by naturalization. In the Kingdom of God, it is not how long you have stayed that makes you a citizen. You don’t become a citizen of the Kingdom of God because you have spent twenty years in the church, it is that you are born into Christ, you are born unto God through Christ. Do we remember that? Alright. And so, we concluded with Kingdom culture. Haven been born into the family of Christ, into the family of God through Christ Jesus, there is a way you must therefore behave, there is a way the children of this house behave.
I’m sure we admit that children behave differently based on their family. That’s why when we talk about marriage, every time marriage is considered by people that love to talk about it, they say “a man is coming from a background, and the woman is coming from another background” these are two backgrounds, meaning two different cultures. They could be same tribe, but since they are not the same family, they have different culture, so they will behave differently. They must therefore understand the differences of their behavior. Now in the family of God, in Christ Jesus, there is a way we must behave, so if you have been born into the family, you are born as a child, I’m sure we admit, children don’t know how to behave do we agree? Children only get to know how to behave by reason of use by age.
I was telling my wife today that, I’m so excited, I’m relishing the experience of seeing my last born as old as my first born. You know he looks small, but I will love it. So, that we can reason together, like, “the last born, let’s talk. This is what you should do, this is why you shouldn’t do this.” I’m sure we can see that my first born is sitting down in this meeting not making noise, my last born can’t do it. So, behavior is not because of birth, you don’t know how to behave simply because you have been born. Don’t say “I’m a born again, I know how to behave.” It’s a lie, you don’t know how to behave, you are a babe. Haven been born into the family of God; have you been brought up well? Do you have the right manners of the Kingdom? Do you have the right Spirit?
I gave an example, when James and John got angry with a people in Samaria, they did not receive Jesus the way they expected. They said, Jesus, “do you want us to call down fire from heaven just like Elijah did”, they wanted to behave like Elijah. They did not know that they are not following Elijah, they are following Christ. They’ve not been born unto God through Elijah; they’ve been born unto God through Jesus. Let’s give another instance, for some of us that were born by parents that were in a polygamous set up. You know, the likelihood is for you to have one father, but minimum of two wives. Do you know that even though the husband is the same, as long as the mothers are different, you cannot expect the children to behave the same way? They came from the same father but they have different mothers, that’s how you must see it.
You know there are some children, some mothers will pamper them, do anything, but there some mothers, they don’t take nonsense from their children. So, they could all have the DNA of their father, but they carry the discipline of their mother. They carry the attitude of their mother, that’s it. That’s why they also talk about our mother’s tongue, it is not about our father’s tongue, we can all have the same father, but we differ by the tongues of our mother. The attitude, some mothers are dirty and lazy, their children must follow the same. Now, you have been born unto God, not after the models around you but after Christ. So, you cannot produce a behavior that is inconsistent of Christ. So, when men see you, they must see Christ behaving through you.
When the Scripture talk about the disciples, after Jesus left, when the people observed them, they knew they were unlearned men, they’ve not gone to universities, they’ve not graduated from Harvard and all those universities, but they were demonstrating good things, they were doing great things, they were talking well, they were relating well with people, there was joy among them, there was peace, they loved themselves, they honored themselves, because we don’t normally look at those things. They honored themselves, and then the Bible says they concluded that these ones must have been with Jesus. They concluded. So, at what point will people see you and say “omo lagbaja leleyi” this is “the daughter, this is the son of so and so person”.
If people know the mothers of children, they know that all these children have the same father, but the mothers that gave birth to them are like three. They know their mothers very well. If all the children of one father are in a place, those who know their mother will say, after observing them “this is the son of this woman.” Don’t forget that Solomon was the son of Bathsheba. We know the story of Bathsheba. In case we think Bathsheba was a nonentity, she just happened to be lucky to give birth to Solomon, it is not like that. There were some values with her too. There was a way she handled the manner, that made the kingdom to be transferred to her son. There was a way she composed herself. You will see that even though she was also old, when she came to talk to king David there was an attitude with which she communicated with the king. No wonder she is the mother of the king. You think it’s normal for you to give birth to a king, it’s not normal, you must have the attitude that can produce.
So, don’t just think that anybody, anything can produce quality in you, it is Christ that can do it. You can’t suddenly become a king, until you have been raised up by someone who has the spirit of kingship. So, we have been born unto God by Christ, we are so privileged. That’s why the Bible says “we are a royal priesthood, a special people, a chosen generation.” We are a set of people that God chose, why? He gave birth to us through Christ. It’s a spiritual birth, but it’s very real. The DNA of God is in us, right? The same DNA that we could say is in the Pharisees but they differ by how they’ve been born unto God. There was a time that the Pharisees told the man the Jesus healed, when the man asked them: “do you also want to become His disciples?” they said “No, we don’t want to become His disciple. We are Moses’ disciple; you are His disciple” so what does it mean? We have been born unto God through Moses. We will behave after the order of Moses. You have been born unto God through Jesus; you will behave after the order of Christ. And Jesus said “out of all those who were been born before He came, there was none that was greater than John the Baptist, yet the least in the Kingdom is greater than John” what Kingdom is He talking about? The Bible says in Colossians 1:12 “God has conveyed us from the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.” So, when you are talking about been born into the Kingdom, you have been born into the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love and the least in that Kingdom is greater than the best of that Kingdom.
When they were praising Solomon, Jesus said “greater than Solomon is here.” In the generation of Solomon, those who were born unto God through Solomon, they could never be greater than Solomon, and yet Solomon was not perfect, and Jesus said, “greater than Solomon is here.” So, when you are studying the Bible and you are receiving grace from God, understand the channel that God has instituted for your build up. Some people will be reading “the seven books of Moses,” don’t go and sit down on Moses and say “I want to behave like Moses” the best that you can be is still not perfect. You must set the right model, because behavior, culture is after models. You behave after the mold that makes or molds you.
Let’s look at Peter very well, Peter was not an unbeliever, he was not a gentile, he was a Jew, passionate Jew. Apostle Paul even said before he met Christ, he was not an unbeliever, he was a Pharisee. A Pharisee was somebody we could call today a “theologian.” A professor of theology, somebody who knows God and who helps others to know God, a teacher of the law, a lawyer of the law. So, this people that come to Christ they were not in the world, as in people who never knew God. And I want us to note. These were not people who were Gentiles who didn’t have God in their lives, these are people who knew God. Apostle Paul even said he surpassed the people of his generation in the zeal that he had for God. He was born unto God but through Moses, so, he behaved in a manner. The Pharisees also, but there is a different experience.
You know when Nicodemus came to Jesus, John 3, “no one can do the things you do except God is with him” even Nicodemus was godly, but we are not dealing with godliness alone or just being religious, we are dealing with Kingdom. What is God’s provision for the earth? What is the way out that God has made available for salvation of everyone? Not just like, “I’m born again”, but “I am in the Kingdom”, It reflects in my life; it determines my destiny. Nicodemus said, “except God is with him.” Jesus said, “calm down, except a man be born again, except a man, a woman becomes a citizen of the Kingdom, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Except you are born of water and the Holy Spirit, you cannot enter, it can’t become your reality. So, you could be in the church, but you are not in the Kingdom. You could be a Pharisee; you are not in the Kingdom.
Jesus was angry with the scribes and the rest, He said, “they refused to enter the Kingdom, and they lock the door” that was the pain; that they refused was not the big deal, but that they locked the door preventing others from entering. Some people will not enter into what God has made available for them. The next phase they must enter, then they don’t want you also to enter. And let us be birds of the same feather, we are flocking together, doing religion together, but there is an experience. This message is not to you because you are an unbeliever, it’s to you because you must become born into the Kingdom, that’s the only thing that will mark your difference. That’s why the Bible says “nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure. The LORD, the King of the Kingdom knows those who are His.” He knows.
So, now we’ve seen that there is away we must behave, and we also saw the link between our behavior and the one that we are born unto God through, like a mother and we saw Jesus Christ, as one. So, when the disciples were like, “should we call down fire?” Jesus rebuked them, a good mother; so to say. He said “you can’t do that, you do not know the manner of Spirit that you are of, the Spirit that you are of is not the kind of Spirit that love those kinds of things, there are spirits that loves to do that, but the manner of Spirit is a different manner, it behaves in a different way.”
So, today, we are going to continue with KINGDOM SYSTEM, and then we will conclude with KINGDOM STRUCTURE. Kingdom system is our focus now. Looking at the dictionary, looking at the online source, the system is explained as: “a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done.” Another definition is: “a system is a set of things working together as part of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex whole.” It’s another way of saying something that is one, but that is made up many parts. It’s a complex whole. You know there is a place that Jesus said something in the book of Matthew 16:13-20. It is good place to start looking at Kingdom System. The Bible says:
“When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not [a]prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”20 Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.”
“When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”14 So they said, “Some say…” I want us to note the word “they said” not “somebody said” because we can conclude that not just Peter that was stealing the show, it was a joint thing. So, when we are also noting the word “upon you” we can tell ourselves the real truth. What did we see there, in verse 14, the first phrase, “so they said, some say John the Baptist?” The word I want us to note is, “so, they said” the disciples. The Bible said, “Jesus asked His disciples” all of them, and so they said “some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them…” Again, can we see, He said to them… He didn’t talk to one person, “but who do you?” So, when He was saying you, He was saying you to them. But who do you say that I am, Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you, can we see the you? If we follow Jesus, we can say that He was talking to Peter, right?
But from the beginning, when He was talking to you, He was talking to them. He has addressed Peter, He said “blessed are you Bar Jonah, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.” He now says, And I also… in addition to what I have said to Peter, I also say to you, to them, that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. If we still narrow it to Peter, the question is: who was Jesus talking to in verse 19? and He says, “and I will give you….” was it just Peter? We are reading translations, the word came in different language, and translated to different language, we must be sensitive to the Spirit before we block ourselves. “ah! It was only Peter” no, it was not just to Peter. And I will give you the keys, can we note the word? The keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth, there is an assumption that you will bind them with the keys, right? Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
So, Kingdom keys was not exclusive of one of them, it was something that was available to all of them, it was not exclusive to one of them, it was made available to all of them. No wonder when the Spirit came upon them in the book of Act of Apostle 2, the Bible says “the tongue of fire came upon each one of them.” They were one-hundred and twenty there, and the Bible says “the Spirit came upon each one of them and they began to speak in other tongues.” So, we can know that the experience was not peculiar to one, it was not to Peter, James and John, it was for all of them. And He gave them responsibilities via the keys. He said, I give you the keys, as long as you have the keys you have the responsibility and the authority to bind things on earth. The keys I’m giving you is not a religious key, it’s a Kingdom key.
If Jesus gives keys to a people, like Peter, James and John, was He giving it to the Pharisees and the Sadducees of their time? So, if He says “I’m giving you keys” it means some people don’t have it and some have it. You who are in me, you who are born unto God through me, I give you the keys. I’m sure we can see what marks differences, they were all of God, do we agree? There was even a time the Bible says, one of the high Priest, either the Chief Priest, He prophesied that “don’t you know”, before Jesus was crucified, he said “don’t you know it’s expedient for one person to die for all?” And the Bible says “this he said in His capacity as the Chief Priest” he prophesied about the death of Jesus. Have we read it in our Bible? He said it in the capacity as a Chief Priest. He prophesied, so he was not somebody that God did not know.
When Jesus was talking to a people He said, “ah! and He was weeping over Jerusalem. He said, they did not know the hour of their visitation.” So, it means God came on earth to visit them, God came for them, they refused God. God was their God, God brought Jesus to them, to translate them from a level another experience. They were not having a sense of God, to the degree they had it, until Moses came and brought the law for them. Now, haven followed Moses, God made another alternative or another step for them; what must translate them into a higher level in Him, He made Jesus available, they refused Jesus. So, haven refused Jesus as many that have now accepted Jesus; the Bible says “He has given them the right to become children of God.”
You remember when I said God knew them before, but how will they functioning? These were people who will never come to the presence of God. We know the story of Zechariah, it was his turn to appear before the presence of God, and it doesn’t come easily, and usually they could come like that once in a year, and then you have to ask for forgiveness for the sins of the people and your own sin, before you enter the presence of God, once a year. Does it look lovely? Would you love your son or your daughter to come to your presence once a year? But do you know they knew there was a God that they could approach, there was a temple they knew belongs to God, it didn’t belong to an idol, it belongs to God. So, these were not people who didn’t know God, who didn’t experience God, but they experienced God from afar, occasionally.
When we talk about Jesus, we are talking about God coming down into man, the Bible called His name Emmanuel, God with us. Hitherto, we go to meet God in the holiest, or in the temple once in a while, but now God decides to come and dwell in you, and the fulness of that experience is when Jesus left. He said, “it is even to your advantage that I leave. Because if I don’t go, the Holy Spirit can’t come, but when I go, I will send Him, and He will be in you forever.” So, that’s the Spirit of God remaining in you. And He says, “if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” There was a time He said “the Kingdom of God does not come by physical observation.” He said “the Kingdom of God is within you.” Every time God lands in you, God dwells in you, God resides in you. The Kingdom of God is in you because wherever the word of the King is, there is power.
So, with the presence of God comes the Kingdom of God. There is nowhere God goes that His presence doesn’t go with Him, that His glory doesn’t go with Him. You remember what God said to Moses, “I will make all my goodness to pass before.” When God descended upon Sinai, there was so much, even when God decided to appear in a form to Elijah, there was fire, earthquake, God was not in the earthquake. There was wind, but God was not in the wind, but He was in a small still voice. We can see what attains the presence of God. God does not stroll our empty handed, He walks in the fullness of His majesty. So, when God comes down into your life, the Kingdom has landed in you. So, we can see what separates the Pharisees, the Judaist from the Kingdom. It was not because God is different. It was because they refused God’s way into the King. Jesus said “I am the way” the experience you are looking for resides with the Father, I am the means which you can get connected to that experience.
They said, “they will not want Jesus, who is Jesus?” They refused the means that God has made available for their dominion, and so they remained in a place that God didn’t want them to remain. The children of Israel were not expected by God to spend four hundred and something years in bondage, but because of the reasons best known to them, there was additional years, it was supposed to be four hundred years. Do you remember what Apostle Paul said concerning the Jews, He said, “in time to come they will be saved” it just delayed salvation. The Jews will be saved, it just that they’ve refused salvation God has brought salvation for us to provoke them to jealousy. God loves them, the way God loves you. The way God has great plan for you, He has great plan for them. But the means through which they can enter into the package of God for them, they’ve refused it. So, to as many… do you note that word as many, billions and millions has received Him, as have been born unto God through Him, to them He has given the right to become children of God, and as children of God, they are now partakers, so that’s when you can call it a “complex whole”. It’s a whole, but it’s made up of many parts, we are one yet we are many. We are talking of one body, but many members. You cannot see my eyes and call it another name, you will say Gboyega’s eyes. When you see my left leg, you will say, Gboyega’s left leg. My right hand, you say Gboyega’s right hand. There is nothing you see in me, that has a different name outside of me. They are parts of me, they function distinctly but they function as a whole in me for the glory of my body.
So, the way God ordained it, He ordained it that as many as have received the grace of God, the free gift of God, they should form oneness and they should work in such a manner that even though they are many, they work as one, that’s how the Kingdom works. It’s a privilege that you are hearing this, even Jesus said “blessed are your ears that hears these things.” There was even a time they said “Abraham, your fathers they desired to hear these things, they couldn’t hear it”, and they said, “blessed are your ears that hears it” because by the things you hear, you are translated into an experience.
“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: 2 You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.4 There are [d]diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit…”
1 Corinthians 12:1-8
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: You know that you were Gentiles, can we see that word? Gboyega Adedeji was a gentile do we see that? carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. No one can acknowledge the Kingship of Jesus except the Holy Spirit that lives in such makes him to acknowledge. So, the experience in the Kingdom, is privately for those who are in Christ Jesus. In fact, Jesus emphatically said “the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit” and by the Holy Spirit, we enter the Kingdom. He said “born of the word, born of the Spirit” do we still remember that? So, you can’t say Jesus is Lord without the Holy Spirit, and you can’t have the Holy Spirit in you and you are condemning Jesus.
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all… it is showing us the system of the Kingdom, I’m sure we are seeing it already. I remember when I was younger, playing football growing up. In those days, when you form a small football team and you play against another football team, and you now beat them like 4:0, 5:0. You will now say, “what did we play with them? Ball! Football! What did we use against them? System. How much did we beat them? We beat them 5:0.” You require a system; you must use a system to achieve success or victory in any endeavor. There is a way the Kingdom behaves, when we were looking at the word, “system”, we saw it, it’s a set of principles, a set of keys, a set of secrets, you could also call the mysteries according to which something is done, according to which we wage our wars. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, the weapons of our warfare, the tools through which we war, they are not carnal but they are mighty in God, or mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds”. So, the Kingdom has a system of working.
Let us jump to verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 12: For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, can we see that word? By one Spirit. The Spirit of God, we are all baptized into one body” that’s why we call the body, “the body of Christ” whether Jews or Greeks, or Nigerians, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God, let’s see God at work here, but now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
You know somebody asked me recently, I think last year, “Sir, which church are you affiliated to?” I said: “I’m affiliated to Christ.” So, he was looking at me. I think I now mentioned, “I am a member of Christ.”. He now said “oh! I get it.” See this, verse 27, it says “now”, Yoruba Bible will say: “ni sin sin yi” – meaning, “at this particular time”, Gboyega Adedeji is a body of Christ. But I’m sure here is not talking to one person, He is talking to everybody. Now you are the body of Christ and members individually… So, you are indeed a member of Christ. You are not a member of Redeem, you are not a member of Centre for New Dimension Leadership, you are a member of Christ. Because you could not say in those days that a believer was a member of Paul. Paul started many churches; nobody was a member of Paul. Apostle Paul said “don’t say, just in case we are disagreeing” in the book of 1st Corinthians 3, when the Bible talks about sectarianism in the church, it says “don’t say you are of Paul’s, or you are of Apollo’s” don’t say you belong to this church or this ministry, no! Did Paul die for you? Because this is critical. Did Paul die for you? He said “we are just like servants or the vessels, the real thing is Christ.”
1 Corinthians 3:1-9 says: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you, and I want you to note this, this were a people who have been in Christ, they have been in the church, I could not speak to you, as to spiritual people but as to carnal, like unbelievers, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? As if you are not in the kingdom, for when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos…” in those days, when you say you are of Paul, it could look like you are of a denomination now, for when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field; you are God’s building.”
You are God’s building… so it is God that owns you, because His Spirit tabernacles in you, so you are not of men, you are not of organizations, you are not of denominations, you are of Christ. So, if we go back to that 1 Corinthians 12, it says “we are many”, that’s the reality, there are diverse gifts among us, but the diversity of our gifting does not show the diversity of our source, we are gifted differently but we are not sourced differently. You cannot tell me the reason why you behave like this is because of the nature of your own God, your God is my God, but He flows into us in different manners. Diversities of gifts, diverse of ministries. The fact that you have a different ministry from mine does not mean that we should be divided. The fact that my hand does different things from my mouth, does not mean they shouldn’t work together because in reality look at me now, I’m going there, my mouth is saying, I’m going there, my hand is going there, are they not working together? That’s how God has ordained it. God ordained it, in such a way that there will be beauty in our diversity. God ordained it in such a way that you will never tell yourself, “I don’t need so, so and so.” Because, when you want to be sincere with yourself, in your secret place, you know there are many things that are missing in your life, you will always have lack in the body of Christ if you close your mind against other people’s ministries.
There are ministries today, that don’t allow their members to learn anywhere outside them, their members must lack, because one person cannot supply everything. God didn’t ordain it. You can’t be a ministry of hand, and you are the same one walking, you can’t do it. The same ministry of hand is the same ministry; it doesn’t work like that. Check your life, let me check my life, when was the time that you grew most? You grew most when you were exposed to many things. God was reaching out to you in diverse ways, God was building your faith, God was building your character, God was building your confidence, God was building your attitude, different things. So, when Bro Biola comes, he does this to you, when Bro. Gbile comes he does this to you, when Bishop Oyedepo comes, he charges you up but if you stay under the charging, charging, charging, you will get over charged… You won’t explode if you get over charged, you will need grace then. Some people even take it to the extremism of doing mannerism, copying people, “I just want to talk in a way” that’s not the ordained, the ordination of God.
Somebody posted something on Facebook, and it was something I knew before, but the way somebody else reacted to it, I love that. He just said “Apostle do this, Prophets do this, Teachers do this. Evangelists, they gather, the teachers, they ground, the pastors, they guard”, so somebody now said “I hope copying is available, can I please copy this thing that you wrote and adapt it to my wall?” The man said “Please go ahead”. Note that somebody wrote it, for the person someone else, he was seeing it for the first time. He didn’t want to take credit for something he did not originate, and he said “Sir, can I copy what you have pasted, or can I use it?” and the guy said please, use. That’s how God has ordained it. That’s the spirit of freely, freely you have received and freely, freely give.
Now look at it, if all you’ve been getting is as an apostolic ministry in your life, what about the guard, what about the grounding, what about the gathering? Do you need other things, you can’t tell me your life moves in such a manner that, it is only one ministry that must minister to you, it’s a lie. Because in reality, let me burst some people’s bubble, the men of God and the women of God that say you must not listen to other people except them, they listen to other people. Then you just need to mistakenly stumble unto them in their houses, they watch, they buy, they download, they do different things. How should you now subject yourself? God has ordained it. There are graces in the body of Christ, there are gifts. You need it, go for it. That’s why we have to honor ourselves. I remember in those days, when we used to say, “it only our church that is holy, their church is not holy”. But we must honor ourselves. Imagine a situation where each one esteem the other one, God made us to be different. When you notice a marriage that works, the husband and the wife don’t do the same thing every day. Being different doesn’t mean you should divide, go your different way, no! Being different means, you do something that I don’t do, I do what you don’t do. In the long run, things are done. That’s being different.
But in our situation because of many things, many of us that still have issues behaving in the culture way, the culture of the Kingdom, you will notice that some people are born into the Kingdom, they skip the culture phase, that’s why they will misbehave in the area of system. Because if you don’t have the Spirit of the Kingdom, the culture of the Kingdom in you, when God is telling you this is how you should relate with people in the body, you will struggle with it. The truth is, you need every other person in the body of Christ and every other person needs you. Whether they like it or not, they cannot throw you away. The Bible says “God has set in the church, first Apostles”; again, what God set up you cannot reject. If you reject, you reject at your own expense. And don’t wait for people to accept you, before you manifest. The Bible says, “the manifestation of the Spirit is for the profit of all” knowing fully well that there is somebody somewhere that must benefit from what the Spirit is brewing in you, you must manifest. For the
