The Manifestation of the Children of God – Part 4

‘For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are’ (Rom. 8:19, NLT).

In this final post on the series, The Manifestation of the Children of God, my prayer is that we have learnt useful lessons concerning our place in the Scripture. When the Bible refers to us as the "Salt of the earth" and the "Light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-16), that is because those are the transforming elements of the God-nature which the world needs and highly expectant too. Let's examine those things that may inhibit our desire to manifest the nature of God.

Hindrances to our manifesting the God-nature

1)      Negative Peer pressure. Undue peer pressure is an enemy to watch out for. The pressure to conform to the dictates of our peers can be excruciating, whether positive or negative. When positive, its power can sway toward good behaviour, wisdom in speech, decency, and moral character. When negative, it can lead to poor conduct, attitude and behaviour. Unfortunately, it is the bad aspect that carries more weight in the lives of our young ones. For resisting negative peer pressure can lead to ostracism, ridicule, and victimization. Most teenagers are not prepared to suffer such at all.

Negative peer pressure distorts vision and re-orders priorities. If you must manifest the God-nature and be what God wants you to be, you must overcome this pressure. Negative peer pressure makes a particular individual/trend your standard instead of Jesus Christ/word of God. Those who yield to such may never achieve their God-given goal or destiny because they will have no goal of their own.

Negative peer pressure puts material things above spiritual things. Those who yield to such cannot set their affections on heavenly things. Such people will be carnally minded. Negative peer pressure is all about “measuring up” and making people see that you are conformed. The one who yields to such can never please God. 

The scripture says, “Do not be deceived: evil company corrupts good habits” (1 Cor. 15:33). Negative peer pressure is a hindrance to the manifestation of the God-nature.

2)      Stealing. To steal is to take what does not belong to you, without the express permission of the owner. Young people steal for reasons ranging from extreme deprivation to career criminality. To manifest the God-nature is to heed the divine instruction, “You shall not steal” (Ex. 20:15).

Stealing is an unacceptable behaviour before God and man. That is why we have all sorts of laws against stealing which is regarded as a criminal offence. Stealing has a ripple effect – it brings public odium, not only on the perpetrator but on the whole community (Josh. 7:1-7) and causes a lot of destruction. 

Ephesians 4:28, “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need”.

3)      Lying. A lie is also referred to as ‘dishonest speech’, falsehood, etc. The goal of telling lies is to present the matter in an opposite manner with the intention of pleasing the hearer and receiving a reward (Prov. 26:19-28). 

    In Acts 5:1-10, Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, lied to the apostles concerning their pledge – they died instantly. The Almighty God hates it when we tell lies (Prov. 6:17b) and warns us to desist from false witnessing (Ex. 20:16, Prov. 12:17). We cannot manifest the God-nature in a temple of untruth.

4)      Immorality. Immorality is considered to be any behaviour or conduct that is unacceptable in the society and inimical to the wellbeing of the community. We tend to focus on the sexual aspect of immorality but in truth, immorality covers wickedness, corruption, dishonesty, iniquity, depravity, debauchery, wastage, cultism, etc. 

    Immorality has permeated society with so much ferocity and impunity that our young ones have become victims as well as willing advocates. Immorality does not glorify God because it is sin (1 John 3:1-10) and everything we do must glorify our Father (1 Corinthians 10:31).

 Conclusion

The world is looking forward to the evolution of the children of God – the ones who will come and change the world for good, from the homes, schools, governments, and the church. A tough expectation, no doubt, but ‘the journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step’.

Our walk with God should be a marathon, not a dash. In a marathon, you get to regulate your run, to ponder over your winning strategy, to appreciate the scenery and the people encouraging and cheering your effort. You receive plenty of help on the way.

The run is well publicised and participants are registered and given jerseys and identification tags; local authorities provide security, traffic controllers, and medical personnel with accompanying ambulance; fellow runners are willing to help their colleagues along their way. This is the way our spiritual lives should evolve.

First, we indicate our willingness to let go our former lives and register in the Jesus-Club. Then we receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit to help us along the way. On the journey, we get to confront our weaknesses and to overcome them through the help of the Holy Spirit and fellow brethren. We have a host of angels at our beck and call to fight the many ‘oppositions’ (family, friends, and foes) and the opportunity to be an inspiration to others.

This is slightly different in a dash – a 100m or 200m race. As soon as the ‘gun’ is shot, every participant engages in such supersonic speed, heading to the finish line. It’s so fast that there is no time to take note of anything around or bear in mind the next runner. All the attention, energy, devotion, and goal is dedicated to winning the race at all cost…nothing else matters.

So, while the spiritual marathoner 'walks' with a 'growth' attitude - to get close to God, to frequently 'prepare' himself fit for the Master's use, and to support fellow men; the 'sprint' man runs, not with the consideration of others but to win selfishly. He reads the Scripture - not with the goal of gaining anything from it or to share with others but to 'fulfill all righteousness'. He pays his tithes - not because he believes that he should contribute to the physical needs of the church but 'to keep the devourer away'.

The world awaits the appearance of the loving, kind, committed, trustworthy, sincere, decent, upright, noble, pleasant, skillful, useful, and well-behaved children of God. Are you one of them?

Prayer Bible Verse: Joel 2:28, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions”.

The Manifestation of the Children of God – Part 3

‘For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are’ (Rom. 8:19, NLT).

Manifesting The God-Nature - Lord Jesus, our perfect example

He is always referred to, throughout the Scripture, as the Son of God. As new creations in Christ Jesus, we occupy the same position of children with the father that Jesus does. There are certain rights and privileges that come with being a child of God;

1)   Authority and Power. You get to exert dominion over Satan’s entire kingdom. Luke 10:19 says, ‘Behold I give unto you power (authority), to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy….’ This power He is speaking of is the positional power as His child.

2)      Enjoy every promise of God. This comes as part of your inheritance as a child of God. You don’t have to pray for it, or fast for it, or be good enough for it, or earn it. You just have to take your place as His ‘child’ and receive it. 

    2 Peter 1:4-5, NLT says, ‘And by that same mighty power, He has given us all of His rich and wonderful promises… So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life…’.

Manifesting the God-nature, Live the Jesus Lifestyle!!!

1)    Through Righteousness = Right standing with God. Right standing with God means being restored to the position Adam originally had in the garden as a scion of God. Luke 3:38, KJV, lists out the genealogy of Jesus; ‘Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. And Beloved Now are we the Sons of God’.

Did Jesus live a righteous life? O yes, He did. That is why He came to teach us how to do just that.  Titus 2:11-12 tells us, ‘For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world';

2)      Through Excellence = the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. ‘Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm’ (Daniel 6:3). 

     Excellence is a spirit and it is given to an individual by God. Daniel possessed an excellent spirit and it brought him authority, influence, power, favour, promotion, character, recognition, and elevation. Jesus is an example in excellence. In His conduct and teaching, he radiated excellence. 

     Are you manifesting excellence – in word, in conduct, in your talents, etc?

3)    Through Wisdom = the ability to use knowledge to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting. True wisdom comes from God (James 1:5, 3:17). The Lord Jesus possessed divine wisdom (Matthew 13:54, Mark 6:2). 

    Psalm 111:10 tells us, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise’. 

     Divine wisdom is expressed in obedience to God.

4)      Through Commitment = Commitment is a strong belief in or devotion to an idea or system. If you make a commitment to do something, you promise faithfully that you will do it. The Bible teaches that the chief commitment of our lives is to God Himself. Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38). John 14:15 says, ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments’.

In essence, the true cost of commitment to Christ is one’s total self-denial, cross-bearing, and continually following Him. These imperatives call us to sacrifice, selflessness, and service. The Lord Jesus was completely committed to the things of God. He believed in them and He was devoted to achieving them (John 4:34, 9:4).

5)    Through Service = the action of helping or doing something for someone. Christian service is the act of doing work for God with a willing heart. The Bible is replete with the good works of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 9:35, Acts 10:38) and how we should replicate the quality of His service (1 John 2:6). 

    Apostle Paul told Timothy, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12, NIV).

6)      Through Courage = bravery, boldness, fearlessness, or fortitude; the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Courageous people are those who not only have opinions, but develop convictions as well. When their convictions are threatened, they deal with their anxiety and fear and live out of their convictions anyway. 

     Daniel was a young man exiled in Babylon (modern-day Iraq), in the inner circles of the King’s palace with all of its perks of power and lavish living. But when he was asked to essentially stop practicing his religion, to stop being Jewish, he refused to obey the order. He chose to risk losing material wealth, being in the right circles, and eventually he endured torture. But through it, his integrity became an example for other people.

As a teenager, you need godliness to live and defend your Jesus-lifestyle, including the conviction to say ‘No’. You may end up being unpopular, lose your friends and fans, and be virtually, ostracized. Truly, the road to righteousness can be very lonely. But just because other people are doing the wrong thing doesn't make it right. You must choose to do the right thing even if you are the only one.

The Lord has promised to stand by us when we do so (Deuteronomy 31:6, Isaiah 43:1-7) and we can trust Him.

The Manifestation of the Children of God – Part 2

In today’s post, we will examine the lives of two different sets of teenagers – the ones who manifested the God -nature and those who didn’t.

There are certain notable teenagers in the Bible who, in the depiction of their story, manifested the God-nature. They include the following;

1)             Daniel, Meshach, Shedrach, and Abednego. They were Hebrew teenagers who were taken as slaves from Israel to Babylon. But despite their situation in captivity, they manifested the ‘God-nature’.

“Now at the end of the days, when the king had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. Then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they served before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm” (Dan. 1:18-20, NKJV).

2)             Joseph. After suffering cruelty and betrayal in the hands of his brothers and slavery in Egypt as a teenager, he somehow found respite in the house of one of Egypt’s important government officials. But no sooner had Joseph settled down than his master’s wife began to make amorous advances to him. And Joseph, though confused and frightened, manifested his ‘God-character’.

“But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her” (Gen. 39:8-10, NKJV).

But there were other teenagers who did not manifest the God-nature. They could not rise above their humanity to achieve their divine calling.

1)             Cain (Gen. 4:1-9). He was the elder son of Adam and Eve, the first family. While he was good as a farmer, his younger brother, Abel, excelled as a shepherd. The bible records that both brothers gave offerings of their vocation to God but God accepted that of Abel and rejected Cain’s. Instead of Cain to engage in deep self-reflection and heed divine counsel, he boiled over in anger and killed his own brother, becoming the first murderer in history.

The scripture tells us, “You shall not murder” (Ex. 20:13, NKJV) and “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). When Cain abdicated the latter and committed the former, he lost all opportunity to manifest the God-nature.

2)             Esau. The first son of Isaac and Rebecca, he was a talented hunter and a shepherd. Unfortunately, he was a man without vision – he allowed his weakness for food to ruin him. He focused on the present instead of the future and this prompted him to give up the ultimate (his right as the first son and leader), for the immediate (one single meal). He was that self-centred. He could not appreciate the responsibility and authority endowed in his position as a first son.

The scripture says of Esau, “looking carefully … lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears” (Heb. 12: 15-17).

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15, NIV).

The Manifestation of the Children of God – Part 1

‘For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God’ (Romans 8:19, KJV).

‘For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are’ (Romans 8:19, NLT).

Introduction

The world is waiting for God to reveal those who are His children. The important word here seems to be ‘manifestation’.

What does it mean?

It means ‘a public demonstration’; ‘an act of display’. To manifest means, ‘to be made known’, ‘to show forth’, ‘to reveal’, ‘to unravel’, etc. John. 1:12 tells us, ‘But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name’. Jesus gave ‘power to become’ = the ‘means’, ‘right’, ‘authority’, and ‘privilege’ for us to be identified as the ‘sons of God’.

Who are those referred to as ‘the sons of God’?

To be a son (or as in our theme, ‘child’), is to be the offspring of a being. We call the Almighty God, our Father ‘which art in heaven’. That is the relationship. The link between a father and his child is in their relationship. That is why bastards are not included because their ownership is always in contention. They cannot expressly manifest the nature of their father.

The ‘sons of God’ are those who have a relationship with the King of all kings. How? By acknowledging His sovereignty; accepting our shortcomings; confessing and regretting our sinful nature; and surrendering and dedicating our lives to Him (1 John. 5:1-5).

The whole purpose of Jesus’ coming to this earth was not just to save the lost, but to restore us to our rightful place as the children of God which we have become by virtue of the indwelling spirit of God (Romans 8:16). To manifest as a child of God involves the bringing to light, the nature, character, personality, and attributes of the Almighty God. God wants mankind to come to the knowledge of His person through His sons (Habakkuk 2:14).

As teenagers, you may be pointing at others to ‘show forth’ their ‘christian-ness’; expecting others to do all the work required; and be all the ‘goody-two-shoes’. The reality? You are part of the “others”. You were created by the Almighty God, just like the others. You are part of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), just like the others. And you are the ‘Bible people are reading’, just like the others. The world is looking forward to your divine manifestation. Remember, you are a child of God!!!