As we coast home, let us consider this final aspect that is often lost on the Church because of stunted growth and a predisposition to remain at the gospel of grace and bread and butter type of Christianity. The gospel is not meant to liberate individuals alone, but also the environment including the land, the waters, the vegetation, animals, plants, and all other creation including the entire universe.
“For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Romans 8:19-22
Sin and the fallen lifestyle of mankind impact negatively not only on man but also on the environment. Scientific reports show that the vegetation in most parts of the nation is going dry. The seas are drying up in some places and overflowing and causing havoc in other places. Erosion, floods, and other natural disasters are defacing the environment. Fishes and other sea creatures are reducing in number and strange changes are occurring in weather patterns around the world.
All these things are not just happenstance but the effect of sin on creation. Man was put in charge of the earth and when man is in misalignment with his maker it tells on the environment. That is why all creation groans waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.
IMPACT OF THE GOSPEL ON THE WATERS
The earth was called out of the waters. Genesis 1:2 describes the condition of the earth after God judged the rebellion where Lucifer led one-third of angelic beings in rebellion against God.
“And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”From that background of darkness, chaos, and flood, God commanded the earth to come forth from the waters. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:9-10
After God had placed man in the Garden of Eden, He blessed the nations of the world by means of a river that parted into four heads and became channels of His blessings to the different parts of the earth.
“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel (Tigris): that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”
We know that Euphrates and Tigris are physical rivers still known by that name in the Middle East. Both rivers originate in the mountains of Eastern Turkey and cover most of the Arab nations including Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, and empties in the Persian Gulf. River Gihon is the Nile River that starts in Jinja Uganda flowing from South to North and covers about eleven African nations before running a long course through Sudan and terminating in Egypt.
River Pison on the other hand is present-day River Niger that starts in the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea near the Sierra Leonean border and runs a course through Mali, Niger Republic, Benin and passes through Lokoja to Onitsha/ Asaba in South Eastern Nigeria before emptying in the Atlantic ocean through one of the richest deltas in the world known as the Niger Delta.
After the judgment of the rebellion in heaven, the angelic spirits that led the rebellion were ejected from their place of service in heaven and some of them settled in the planetary systems including the sun, moon and stars and some of them found their abode in the oceans and waters of the world. At the belly of the oceans of the world is a rebellious kingdom in opposition to God and the operational base of some disobedient spirits that trouble the nations of the world.
The Bible mentions some of the spirits that operate from the waters as marine spirits, especially two that have a controlling influence on the nations of the world: Leviathan and Mammon. (See Psalm 74:13-14; Ezekiel 29:3-5; Luke 16:13). When you read Revelation 20:13, you will see that there are devils living in the sea that have the ability to trap the souls of the dead. And the sea gave up the dead which was in it.
In his encounter with Moses at the time of the plaques, Pharaoh always resorted to his altars in the waters from where he drew strength. God was aware of this strategy and always directed Moses to wait for Pharaoh on his way to the waters; the place of his strength.
“Get thee onto Pharaoh in the morning; lo he goeth unto the water.” Exodus 7:15. And the Lord said unto Moses, rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh; lo he cometh forth to the water.” Exodus 8:20
To set the dominion of God in any nation, you must have a people that are able to deal with the waters. That means God must have a people who have journeyed with him through their consecration, sacrifice, covenants, and order of Priesthood – the order of Melchizedek whom God can pass through to judge the gods of the lands and the deities that Satan has raised in the nations through the mystery of iniquity. Psalm 82:1-6 makes this clear: “God stands among the congregation of the mighty. He judgeth among the gods. I have said ye are gods and all of you are children (or sons) of the most high.”
The reason God has not judged the nations and especially the nation of Nigeria in the manner He desires is that He is waiting for these sons to arise. All creations are also waiting to be brought into liberty through the arising of sons in different spheres of society (Romans 8:19-22).
Most altars that trouble the nations today, especially in the area of governance and the economy are marine altars. Money-making rituals and sacrifices all over the world are carried out in the waters and by riversides. In 2012, while we were praying concerning certain situations in Lagos state, the Lord commanded us to visit some bodies of water in the state to pray and deal with some altars there.
Even as early as 7 pm on one of the beaches in Lagos, we saw that the whole waterfront was almost taken over by dark priests of different hues conducting rituals and burning candles for desperate people seeking especially wealth from mammon and water spirits.
Our ‘French suit-wearing what’s up priests’ who are pleased to forever remain on the surface of the bread and butter gospel do not even understand what is going on not to talk of dealing with it. Most churches around Nigeria and other nations of the world are polluted by marine spirits. They sing in our choirs and bring massive pollution and spread immorality among the brethren and we are still clapping and singing because we have numbers and people turning up for services every Sunday. But lives are not changed and sin lies in wait at the gates of these mega-churches.
Go near some pastors and see the issues churches are dealing with and you will marvel that we are still celebrating and singing when we should be lying face down in repentance crying for mercy. Homosexuality and immorality of the most obnoxious type, occultism, and witchcraft are common in most Churches, and most times the order of the day is to cover these sins so that the boat is not rocked. All these go on because sons have not arisen in the order of Elijah who can confront things head-on and bring judgment on the altars of Baal that pollute our landscape.
Some are predicting that a massive revival will sweep across the nations just before the return of Christ in glory. I believe there will be a revival but not necessarily in the way we expect it where massive numbers of people will turn to the Lord. The scripture in fact warns us of the opposite.
“And many false prophets shall rise and deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold.” Matthew 24:11-12. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
Are we not seeing this falling away where people have departed from true faith and are following after fables and sweet tales and strange doctrines and strange pastors whose foundations are not in Christ? What gospels are we preaching that make people flock to churches on Sunday? Go to those churches and preach repentance, emphasize separation, righteousness and holiness and find out how many people there are prepared to pay the price for true discipleship (Matthew 16:24-25). I believe the type of revival that will happen is a teaching revival, a revival in knowledge. God will raise sons here and there through whom He will model kingdom life and kingdom power.
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.” Isaiah 2:2-3
There will be a massive failure of world systems and nations will be forced to turn to people who are instructed in the way of the Lord to be taught the kingdom’s way of doing things. In that way, God will win peoples and nations that will be part of the configuration of the kingdom age. But even in the midst of that, there will still be gross darkness around the world but God will have a people who shine brightly in the midst of that darkness. (Isaiah 60:2-3)
The greatest need in the world today is for the sons of God to arise. All creation is yearning for it and waiting for these sons to arise in the various spheres and bring them out from bondage into liberty. Will you pray and ask the Lord to make you a son and deploy you as part of his solution for the ills of this age?
DEALING WITH FOUNDATIONS
The most critical need of the Church at this time is to have sons that are able to handle the complex challenges that will face mankind as this age comes to a close. Scripture clearly teaches that as the present age comes to a close, darkness and wickedness will increase.
As I meditate and pray about this, the Lord has shown me some interesting things that we should all consider. One of the major issues is the issue of foundation. The way I understand it, there are three foundations that must be solidly laid for a believer in order to live a victorious Christian life. The three foundations are:
The foundation of Christ. Having a proper scriptural understanding of who Christ is-GOD Himself, who came in the flesh to redeem man from sin.
The foundational doctrines of the faith as espoused in Hebrew 6:1-2
The foundation of the father’s house.
Concerning the foundation of Christ, no person can serve God effectively without knowing him. I call this the Samaritan dilemma. Jesus confronted the Samaritan woman with this reality; you Samaritans worship what you do not know. (Jo.4:22)
One of the most destructive concepts that undermine true knowledge of God is the Trinity concept of God that has been passed to the church as a legacy, through the destructive years of state control of the Church and religion. Churchianity holds dear to this concept, baptizes into it, and builds institutions around it thereby reinforcing it even when it flies against scripture: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord.” Deut. 6:4
The result is that many people assume that they know God but they don’t really know Him. They don’t have any encounter with Him or any experiential knowledge of who He is.
The result is that when the storm comes, they fall flat on their face, being that their foundation is built on sand. I want to recommend this book that is available on the Internet: THE ONENESS OF GOD BY DAVID K. BERNERD. (If you can’t find it we can send a PDF version if you request it. You will do yourself a lot of good if you will take time in this season to read this book and prayerfully seek to know the Lord.
We did some work around this in our forthcoming book, The Gospel Battle of the Last Days, which will soon be available. We trust that this will be a good resource for the Church.
The second foundation that must be properly laid is the foundation of scripture outlined in Hebrews 6:1-2. The scripture describes the Christian life as a building project (See Col.2:7; 1 Pet.2:5-6). In building a house, the most critical component is the foundation. The Bible recommends some foundational doctrines that must be taught to a believer and worked into him at the initial stage of his Christian life. The doctrines are listed in order as:
The Doctrine of Christ: This entails having proper knowledge of the Godhead, and having a revelation of who He is. God is known through revelation and encounter. (See Matt.16:13-18).
Repentance from dead works: Dead work, is primarily sin, but includes anything we do apart from the leading of the Holy Spirit. This includes good things like evangelism, giving, or any Christian service or ministry.
Our model is Christ. Jesus never did anything including praying for the sick, apart from what His Father asked Him to do. His motto was, ‘I do nothing on my own.’ We must be taught again to hear and obey God because this is our righteousness otherwise we will waste our time doing dead work, which will NOT attract any reward.
Dead works are most times obstructive to the genuine move of God. Have you considered the implication of this scripture? “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10.
This means we are primarily called not to invent our assignments but to discover what God has ordained for us to do. One of the most effective means of discovering this is to spend time waiting before the Lord and also by praying in the spirit.
When we spend time waiting before the Lord, He writes instructions on our hearts concerning our assignments and also gives us strategies to accomplish them. As we pray in the spirit, we activate the ministry of partner angels assigned to help us in our assignments.
Faith toward God: Biblical faith is grounded on obedience to God. This American teaching of faith to grab things, or name it and claim it is destructive. If you are a Pentecostal, chances are that this is what has been planted in your head. You must find somebody to teach you, and teach you properly. Read Hebrews 11 and you will see that most of the people commended for the faith were people who suffered on account of their faith. If your concept of faith does not include that, it is deficient and will not stand the test of trial.
The doctrine of baptisms: These include water baptism, baptism into the Church, Baptism into the Holy Spirit, and Baptism of fire or suffering. Scriptural baptism is into Christ and NOT into a denomination. Baptisms are foundational and lay an altar for you.
So the person who baptizes you is important. The Bible says if the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do? My answer is that the righteous should lay a new foundation before proceeding. Seek God in this season whether you need to be re-baptized by a proper person having a righteous priesthood before God. I have had to be re-baptized on three occasions before I can be able to go further in the Lord.
Firstly, I was baptized by sprinkling as Catholics do. When I had further light I had to be re-baptized by a denomination, but it was still done in the name of the ‘trinity – father, son and Holy Spirit:’ When I saw from proper teaching of the word of God that scriptural baptism is done in THE NAME OF JESUS, I also had to find a proper person who had a walk with God that baptized me into Christ.
You may need to do so otherwise you will be limited in some areas. All you have to do is to look at all the occasions in the Book of Acts where the Apostles baptized. If you do this, you will discover that even though the Lord mentioned that they should baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Matthew 28:19, in executing this instruction they baptized in the name of Jesus.
They had a perfect understanding that He was referring to the name JEHOVAH or YAHUSHUA. (See Acts 10:47-48, Acts 16:31-33; Acts 19:5).
Laying of hands: The Bible contains this warning: “Lay hands suddenly on no man (1Tim.5:22). Spirits are transferred through the laying on of hands. Many people are entrapped in religion today because religious people have laid their hands on them.
Most of the tongues spoken in many Pentecostal circles are not Holy Spirit-inspired, but religious spirits. The true indicator of the Holy Spirit’s presence is the striving to live a life of holiness. How come many tongue-speaking people are still routinely living in sin and do not even feel the pang of guilt.
Something is definitely wrong with most Christian profession and the foundation can be traced to this. Many demonic people have laid foundations in us, which must be uprooted and a new foundation laid in us and for us if we are to move forward.
The resurrection of the dead: Some teachings that have emerged in Christian circles around the issue of the rapture is misleading and based on injurious presumptions. Many Christians tend to think that they will be whisked away before things get really bad but this is misleading.
The truth is that believers will be saved out of the tribulation, and not from it. Presumptions can be costly and we need to pay the price to have a proper understanding of what scripture actually teaches on this subject or else we will be deceived.
Eternal Judgment: There are two aspects of judgments that have a bearing on our lives as Christians which are often confused: There is judgment in history. This is the aspect mentioned in Exodus 20: “Thou shalt not bow down to them (idols) nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
This means in history one generation can pay for the sin of the previous generation. That is why the issue of scriptural deliverance is important to untangle us from the chords of previous generations. Then, judgment in eternity: This simply means that no person can go to hell for the sin of the previous generation.
Ezekiel 18:20 puts it this way: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”
Apart from being taught these scriptures they must become life for us and be engrained in our foundations. This is best done through relationship and discipleship as these truths may not be passed through seminars or the time conscious thirty minutes Sunday, Sunday exhortations that have become the pattern in our churches today. Truth is like gold and we must dig deep and pay a price to acquire them.
Let me recommend two resources that will help you in this area:
Foundations for Righteous Living – Derek PrinceChristian Foundations – Audio CD by John Adejoro-Oluwa. (If you desire it, we may be able to help pass this your way.(Concluded next publication, Culled from The Gospel of the Kingdom by Bro. Isaac Ezeh)