NO HOPELESS SITUATION II

In every cathedral or congregation, there are four classes of people; these people can be classified into two major groups:

1. Believers
2. Unbelievers: the Church is an open place and so every Church has unbelievers as part of the crowd.

Believers have two subdivisions –

1. Carnal believers.
These are those who though have left Egypt still have one foot there and desire the garlic and cucumber of Egypt. They can mature if they decide to yield their will to the Holy Spirit and accept the word of God. Over time, the word of God can convert them and make them progress but they are carnal. Their appetite, their pursuits, their desires, their communications, their volitions and aspirations, everything about them is carnal, carnal, carnal. The adamic nature is very strong in them; the nature of the fallen man is still very active in them. They make up close to seventy percent of the congregation. They struggle with all manner of things. They find it difficult to take definite position on the word of God; they struggle with the word of God. They can be very religious and ready to attend all Church programmes but they are not ready to give up their carnal nature. They have only given part of their living room to Jesus but the bedroom and other parts of the house still belong to them. If he is not the Lord in all, he is not the Lord at all. They are always quick to respond, ‘hallelujah, praise the Lord’ during service.

2. Spiritual believers (spiritual Christians).
They are always in the minority. You will be lucky to have them up to ten percent in a Church. They have made up their minds to follow Jesus. When a spiritual Christian tells a lie, he is always quick to admit because the Holy Spirit convicts him.

Unbelievers in the Church can be subdivided into two –

1. Benign unbelievers –
They cannot harm but they have not given their heart to Jesus. Perhaps with a very strong message and great move of the Holy Spirit, they can surrender. Unfortunately, most of the messages preached in the Church today do not give room for repentance because the Pastor believes that everyone is saved. Some of them are even in the error of once saved, saved for ever, grace takes care of the rest regardless of how you live. That message is incorrect, it is not the message of the Bible. Grace can never be a licence to sin. True grace is an empowerment to overcome sin, an empowerment to say no and flee from every appearance of evil.

2. Malignant unbelievers –
I have had several encounters with them. They are called the satan’s crowd. They are agents of darkness with a mission. They specialize in seducing weak pastors, they defile, derail and attack the Church. When they attend vigils, they have the ability to make people sleep through the vigil. They are not ready to be delivered. No one can deliver a malignant unbeliever because they will always go back. A pastor can succeed in casting out the devils in them but before they get home, a legion will enter into them. The unfortunate thing is that many of them operate freely in many congregations today because of lack of fire of the presence of God. Most of the messages preached in the Church today are designed to make Church goers comfortable and not to ruffle their sensibilities. The crime is not in the fact that an unbeliever went to Church, the crime is that the unbeliever returned home an unbeliever.

Pray –

• Everlasting and most merciful Father, I thank you for sending your son to die for me. Grant me the grace to live for him all the days of my life, and to grow into spiritual maturity. Empower me to live above any carnal appetite capable of derailing your purpose for my destiny in Jesus’ name. Amen.

TO BE CONTINUED…….