Monday 18 April 2016

THERE IS A PATH(part1)


Text: Job 28: 7-8

“There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen. The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it” KJV
The first topic we will be considering for the first few weeks in this series is: “There is a path”.
If you take an inventory of the creatures mentioned in the verse above that do not have access to the path, you will find creatures that are detailed and diligent. If you cast a grain of rice to the ground in the midst of rubble,the fowl, if it is really determined, it has the working tools. The feet are like rake. It can isolate every other thing that is not the grain and reveal it. But the Bible says the fowl, in its diligent activity of searching out a thing in the midst of a rubble, has not by any means stumbled upon this path.
The Bible reveals that the vulture’s eyes have not looked upon it. The advantage of the vulture as a scavenger is its height advantage. It lifts off the ground and stabilizes itself in a dovetail kind of flight mode and it views. Oversight is part of its advantage. The Bibles says the vulture’s eyes have by no means beheld that path.
It says the lion’s whelps have not trodden it. When lions give birth and the cubs come to hunting age, they are taught how to hunt by the lions. And one of the things they get to learn is how to discover the secret paths of the pride land because when lions invade a particular place they cut out a region. The lion as the attitude of increasing its perimeter so that its enclave is enlarged; through such enlargement it wonders into deep aspects of the territory. In their searching, the Bible reveals that by no means have they stumbled upon this part; even the fierce lions never passed by this path.

The truth of the matter is that given these four creatures that have the capacity to search for food, we can conclude that the path of which the Bible speaks is not natural. That path is a spiritual path and that is the path that is unveiled in the book of Romans. That is what the entire book of Romans is about; the path of spiritual progress. The scope of our study is the discovery of the path of spiritual progress.
When somebody gives his life to Christ, what are the things that should find expression?
What are the things the person should expect in order for the person to be delivered from the invitations of the enemy to embrace religion and embrace the path of spiritual progress towards advancement and towards perfection in Christ Jesus?
You will notice that when Paul hears about Churches that embrace Christ and are sold out to serve His will, he goes there to encourage them giving them some apostolic tips. Why does he do that? He does that because he is aware of the fact that it is possible for religious people to come and prescribe a pathway that is not consistent with the path of spiritual progress to them and they will be derailed and will be walking a path wherein they cannot gain Christ. And that path will lead them to a place where they will never be able to attain to maturity and never be able to discharge their destiny in Jesus.
So the leading apostles of those days whenever they hear there is revival somewhere they shut down their itinerary and they move over to that place so that they can bring discernment to the people as to how to keep pace on the path of spiritual progress because the devil will send people that will come and sow seeds to ensure that you can never find that path.
There are many Christians that have been in the Lord for so many years but when you look upon them you will know they have lost sight of the path.
And with the increase in the kind of preaching and teaching that majors in the minors in our time, if something drastic does not happen to the church (in Nigeria) soon we are going to suffer a great loss especially at this point where the powers of Islam seeks to encroach the entire territory. We need to understand what Jesus called us into.

Jesus’ curriculum, as seen with the disciples, is that any feeble Christian that remains on the path of spiritual progress and is consistent should be ready to be released into ministry after three and half years.
Charlatans and fishermen after three and half years of being on the path of spiritual progress took cities, rattled the foundation of nations, and took control of the dominion of the territory from Ceaser. The power of the sword was not able to quench and discomfit their faith. There was something deeper than the fear of death that propelled them. These were common fishermen that Jesus harvested from different places.
By the time John was speaking in the book of first John1:1, he said “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of life”. Was it a fisherman still talking? He was on a path and at that point on the path he was speaking kingdom things like a son; a joint heir with Christ in the kingdom of God.
It happens to be that the kingdom to which we subscribe is not a kingdom of kings and subjects; it is a kingdom of kings and kings so what John was saying, he was speaking like a king. He had entered into some dimensions of our heritage in Christ Jesus. He was not talking about something he picked up from Bible school or Sunday school. He said we saw eternal life manifested and we are witnesses to it. That is what we call you to fellowship with. That was not a fisherman talking; it was a joint heir talking. He was talking about secrets in the kingdom of God. Only partakers can talk that way because he had touched the things. He spoke from the point of originality. He was not working on duplicates.
It is good to say so and so man of God says this but if that is all you have in your archive, making references to people, you are not on the path.

We will go into further details of what this path entails as we advance in this study by God’s grace.

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