Jime Isaac

Reading books and sharing what I learn.

[Gideon Odoma @gideonodoma]

FEAR GOD o!

There really is no context where it is biblically accurate to say "Jesus is not better than the believer."

Jesus as the head of the church, for instance, is not an exact parallel to husband as head of the wife. Both the husband and the wife are creatures. But both Jesus and the church are not creatures. Jesus exists by the necessity of His own being. The parallel therefore, though incredibly illuminating, has colossal limitations.
No matter how you situate our relationship with Jesus, one critical difference is that whatever (attribute) Jesus gives or even shares with us, He has such attribute necessarily, but we have it contingently. Read it again.

Secondly, Jesus may give me His righteousness, yet I cannot transmit it to others, but He continues to be the only one who can transmit it. So, you see, righteousness in me is not an exact mirror of righteousness in Jesus. Also, righteousness in Jesus is not merely a status. It is exhaustive. Jesus' righteousness means that He can not do (I don't mean He will not do, but I mean He can not do) anything wrong, because His righteousness is not just a legal status. It is not imputed. Righteousness is grounded in His beign. I hope you know what that means. The believer however CAN do things that are unrighteous, even though she is legally righteous. So, while righteousness exists in both cases, they are not identical in every sense. More, Jesus is the explanation of the believer's righteousness, and yet the same Jesus is the explanation of His own righteousness.

Thirdly, I need Jesus to sustain whatever I receive from Him. I continue to need Him to keep me in His righteousness, in His grace, in eternal life, etc. If Jesus were to leave me at any point (blessed assurance, He will not), I will lose everything He has imputed to me. He upholds all things. I don't. I stand because He is able to keep and continues to keep me. He has no keeper. No one sustains Him in eternal life, or in righteousness. His righteousness does not need any support to stay intact. Mine needs to be sustained. It is wrong therefore to say His righteousness is NOT better than mine. More, I think it is meaningless to say so.

Besides, according to scripture, the root and the branches are not the same simply because they both share in a common life (sap). As Paul said in his Roman correspondence, "remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you." If you are being upheld by another – one who is self-sufficient and needs no upholding – it is both inaccurate and irresponsible to say your Supporter is not better than you, particularly with reference to the very attribute by which he holds you up.

It is also sloppy to say because Jesus is our righteousness, and our sanctification, He is therefore not better than us. That same passage says He is our Wisdom. Is Jesus better than us in wisdom or not? If you say 'Jesus is not more righteous than me,' can you say 'Jesus is not more wise than me'?

I saw someone making a money analogy. It fails. If I have ten thousand Naira and I give it to you, it is no longer available to me to give to another person. And if you, the recipient, are generous, you can gift it to your friend. Jesus being our ransom is something infinitely richer and different than the money analogy suggests. The same Jesus is the ransom for us all. He does not diminish through donation. But whereas I can give you the ten thousand I was given, if I chose to, I can not transfer the righteousness I've received. Nevertheless, Jesus can. How then can I be as delusional as to say He is not better than me, even in righteousness!?

Okay, "As He is, so are we in this world." Yes, but it is: AS He is; not WHO He is.

Heb 7:7 (NKJV) says, "beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better." We are the blessed. We are lesser than our 'Blesser.' And He – Jesus – is better than us.

Again, 1Pet 2:17 says you should FEAR God.

[Gideon Odoma @gideonodoma]

BIRTHDAY THINGS...

Finally, I get to start something of an explication of the doctrine of salvation, and something of a response to some of the contortions being peddled against those of us who push back at hypergrace.

To be clear: the problem with hypergrace is not simply the belief in OSAS. Properly qualified, Calvinists believe in OSAS. So the issue is deeper than that. OSAS is just a convenient pretense, a cunning smokescreen with which hypergracers seek to arm-twist the church into ceding them a seat at the table, and thereby bully the bride of Christ into investing hypergrace, even if unwittingly, with legitimacy.

It is in the text that Jesus is the author of "eternal salvation." No Christian should deny that. So, believing in eternal salvation is not the contention. The contention is something as sly as it is sinister. It is the sleight of hand, the sophistry by which hypergrace smuggles aberration into the faith. It is the hermeneutical move that flattens the nuanced landscape of biblical doctrine into a strangulated and sterilized wasteland. The land is lush-green, but hypergrace makes it anemic. At its best, hypergrace would plant a full stop where God, in scripture, ordains a comma or a (semi)colon. These are the issues.

It is a matter of doctrinal responsibility to unpack and clarify them. It is incumbent on those of us burdened with the sacred privilege of teaching to hold up the banner of true witness in this day of Marcion-like maneuvers and empty novelties.

There are easily a dozen critical points of departure in hypergrace – points of departure from the historic apostolic faith we inherited, as it came to us through the godly, faithful testimonies and labours of Prophets, Sages, and Martyrs. The vacated and limp novelties peddled by hypergrace must be identified for what they are. Another gospel! Yes, hypergrace is another gospel – one that is (for instance) reluctant to accept God's unambiguous, personal self-identification as both the God of Love and the God of Justice.

All I intend to do for now is not to lay a finger on every one of the myriad errors at the heart of hypergrace. I want to look at the doctrine of salvation, and use the exercise to refute the faulty soteriology of hypergrace.

You are welcome to join us.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

Kingdom people do not call everything a blessing.

One of the greatest signs of spiritual maturity is that you have learned to distinguish between what is beneficial and what is merely attractive.

In this Kingdom, we do not define blessings by increase alone. Increase can come from GOD. Increase can also become a distraction.

We do not call every open door a blessing. Not every opportunity was sent by GOD. The enemy has no problem giving you something that keeps you from the One Thing.

The devil does not always fight you with suffering; sometimes he fights you with success. He does not always attack with persecution; sometimes he attacks with promotion.

He does not always destroy Men with poverty; sometimes he destroys Them with abundance. Many have left the place of Their divine assignment because they mistook The promotion They Got for a divine leading.

Jonah found a ship without praying for one. Everything aligned. The fare was available. The journey was smooth. But GOD was absent.

Kingdom people are not moved by what is available; they are moved by what GOD has spoken. If it increases your influence but diminishes your intimacy with CHRIST, it is not a blessing.

If it enlarges your bank account but shrinks your prayer life, it is not a blessing. If it makes men applaud you, but costs you your consecration, it is not a blessing.

If it demands you compromise your consecration to sustain it, it is not a blessing.

The true blessing of GOD never requires you to violate His Word in order to preserve it. Beloved, stop calling everything that comes into your hands a blessing.

The greatest blessing a man can ever receive is that he walks with GOD, hears His voice, obeys His will, and finishes his assignment.

Anything that strengthens your communion with CHRIST is a blessing. Anything that weakens your devotion to CHRIST no matter how impressive it looks is a loss.

Anything that costs me CHRIST cannot be called a blessing. Anything that weakens my devotion cannot be called an increase.

Anything that draws me away from the altar cannot be called favour.

For in this Kingdom, we do not measure our blessings by what enters our hands; we measure our blessings by what keeps our hearts burning for GOD.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

Your soul is not changed by regeneration.
It is changed by transformation.

Regeneration gives you new life in CHRIST.

Transformation renews your mind, reshapes your thinking, and conforms your life to the image of CHRIST.

You are born again in a moment, but your soul is transformed as you continually submit to the Word of GOD and the work of the HOLY SPIRIT.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

According to The Scriptures, GOD created and blessed two genders: Male and female.

From that biblical perspective, Scripture does not recognize other genders as part of GOD’s created order, and it does not speak of a creation blessing upon categories beyond those HE created.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

Where is the Hannah Generation?

It is becoming increasingly difficult to find women who understand that the greatest thing GOD can entrust to them is not merely a child…

But a generation. Children were never given to us simply to preserve our family names. They were given so that the testimony of JESUS CHRIST would continue in the earth.

Every child born into a believing home is Heaven’s declaration that another witness can yet arise.
Yet somewhere along the way… We stopped raising children for GOD. We began raising them for ourselves.

We pray for children… But rarely pray that those children would belong entirely to CHRIST.

We ask GOD to make them successful… But scarcely ask HIM to make them holy. We dream of doctors…
Lawyers… Engineers… Politicians…

Yet who is still asking GOD for prophets? Who is still weeping for evangelists? Who is still travailing for shepherds after GOD’S own heart?

The Problem with our generation is not merely that Hophni and Phinehas are multiplying. The Real isssue is that Hannahs are disappearing.

We lament the corruption in the Church. We speak endlessly about compromised pulpits. We grieve over men who have turned the Holy Place into a marketplace.

But who is asking GOD for their replacements? Who is willing to carry the burden before Heaven until another Samuel is born?

The answer to a corrupt priesthood was never another complaint. It was another Hannah. Samuel was not Heaven’s accident. He was Heaven’s answer.

An answer that first existed as a burden in the heart of a praying woman. Long before Samuel stood before Eli… He had already been offered to GOD. Long before he heard the voice of the LORD… His mother had already surrendered his life.

That is how GOD has often preserved HIS purposes in the earth. HE first finds a woman HE can trust… Before HE raises the man the world will eventually see.

The Church keeps asking why darkness is increasing.
Perhaps we should first ask… Where are the women who are still weeping before GOD?

Where are the ladies who understand that motherhood is not merely biological… It is deeply theological. Where are the mothers who see every child as an offering?

Who understand that the womb is not merely a place where babies are formed… But a place from which generations can be gifted back to GOD.

The greatest gift Hannah ever gave Israel… Was not Samuel. The greatest gift she gave was her willingness to let Samuel belong to GOD.

That is what made the difference. Our generation does not simply need more children. It needs children who have already been surrendered before they arrived the World.

Children who belong to CHRIST before they belong to the world. Children whose lives are already laid upon the altar before they ever stand upon a platform.

May GOD raise ladies who will make covenants before conception. Women who will say, “LORD, if YOU place a child in my womb…

That child will never be mine. HE will be YOURS.”
May HE raise mothers whose tears will become the birthplace of another generation of Samuels.

A generation that will restore honor to the Holy Place.
A generation that will replace the Hophnis and the Phinehases of our day.

A generation that will once again make the voice of GOD precious in the earth. Heaven is still searching.

The question has not changed.

Where…

Is…

The Hannah Generation?

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

There is a story of glory that the Church is yet to tell.

A day is coming when the weight of GOD will once again rest upon His people, and the nations will know that the LORD dwells in the midst of His Church.

LORD, prepare us for what You are about to do.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

One of GOD’s greatest structures of preservation in the earth is another man.

Very few people survive the purposes of GOD in isolation.

HE hides men under men.

HE preserves destinies through fathers, mentors, shepherds, friends, and covenant relationships.

Many of the battles you never fought were fought because GOD placed you under the covering of another.

Only the arrogant despise this arrangement.

Only the proud mistake independence for maturity.

When GOD wants to preserve a man, HE often sends him to another man before HE sends him into his assignment.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

GOD does not always provide where you are.

Sometimes, HE keeps your provision where you are supposed to be.

Many people keep praying for open doors while refusing to obey the direction GOD has already given them.

Not every lack is the absence of provision. Sometimes, it is an invitation to move.

Your next instruction may be carrying your next supply.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

Satan is not only after today’s Church.

He is after tomorrow’s Church.

That is why he wages war against discipleship, corrupts doctrine, distracts young believers, and keeps a generation shallow in the knowledge of CHRIST.

If he can weaken the next generation, he has already begun attacking the future of the Church.

The greatest gift we can give tomorrow’s Church is to faithfully build today’s disciples.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

SOUTH AFRICA…

The Church in Africa, especially the Church in Nigeria, must arise and travail for the Church in South Africa.

South Africa is no longer merely a nation. It has become a gate. A prophetic demonstration gate.

A territory where the spirit of the age is testing the architecture of a New Africa before exporting it across the continent.

Do not mistake what you are seeing. Nations are not only conquered by armies. They are first captured by ideas.

The future has chosen South Africa as an experimental field. A laboratory where new definitions of family, morality, governance, economics, worship, identity and human purpose are being normalized until they become unquestionable.

The intention is to produce an Africa that no longer needs GOD, only systems. An Africa that no longer bows to CHRIST, but bows to progress.

An Africa where efficiency replaces holiness, intelligence replaces wisdom, technology replaces dependence, and abundance replaces righteousness.

This is not modernization. This is a replacement project. The old foundations are being dismantled while the masses celebrate development.

What many call advancement is, in many cases, the careful removal of every structure that once made GOD necessary.

The chaos you presently see in South Africa will settle. But it will settle into an entirely different civilization.

When the dust finally disappears, many will discover that they did not merely survive a season of instability.

They entered another age. An age where CHRIST is tolerated but no longer enthroned.

An age where the Church is permitted to exist, provided she no longer possesses prophetic authority. An age where religion is welcomed, but LORDSHIP is resisted.

This is why the Church must pray. Not because South Africa is weak. But because gates determine what enters continents.

If the gate falls, the territory behind it will eventually drink from the same river. Nigeria must not watch carelessly.

Nigeria is another template nation. Another prophetic gate. Another territory whose future is being negotiated before the eyes of a sleeping Church.

The methodology may differ. The political Style may differ. The economic strategy may differ.

But the destination is the same. To produce a civilization that can flourish without acknowledging GOD.

To create a generation that possesses everything except the fear of the LORD. To redefine freedom until rebellion becomes a virtue.

To redefine tolerance until truth becomes violence. To redefine prosperity until worship becomes unnecessary. To redefine humanity until man forgets he was made in the image of GOD.

Church, wake up. What is happening across Africa is not merely political. It is priestly. Altars are contending. Spirits are legislating.

Principalities are negotiating the destiny of nations while the Church debates irrelevancies.

There is a reason darkness fights so hard for gates. Whoever controls the gate eventually influences the continent.

If South Africa becomes the successful prototype, the model will be replicated. If Nigeria falls, the ripple will shake generations.

This is why intercession is no longer optional. We are not merely preserving countries. We are contending for the inheritance of CHRIST.

Africa does not belong to economists. Africa does not belong to politicians. Africa does not belong to global systems. Africa belongs to JESUS CHRIST.

The Church must return to her knees before she is forced to live under a civilization she failed to confront in prayer.

History is being rewritten. The spirits behind Babylon are speaking again. The towers are rising again.

The image is being erected again. Will there still be men who refuse to bow? Or will the Church become so intoxicated with the language of the future that she forgets the Ancient of Days?

The battle has never been for a land. It has always been for worship. And every nation eventually becomes the reflection of the altar that prevails within it.

[Alex Onyia @winexviv]

The wait is over.

We have 2 golds: Chimdiebube Onwubiko and Don Anele Munachimso.

We are the best in the world!

Egejurum Onyedikachi’s name was omitted. He should have a gold.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

Not everyone who speaks in tongues is a Christian.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

We have mistaken Christian vocabulary for Christian transformation. A man quotes Scripture… And we assume he knows GOD.

He speaks in “Christianese”…
And we conclude he is spiritual. He shares sermons…
Posts Bible verses… Says “Praise the LORD” after every sentence… And we never stop to ask the harder question: Who has discipled his mind?

Do not be too quick to measure a man’s spirituality by what he says when the subject is GOD. Almost everyone knows how to sound holy in Church.

The real examination begins when the subject is no longer spiritual. Listen to him discuss politics. Listen to him speak about money. Listen to him respond to injustice. Listen to him describe success. Listen to him talk about women. Listen to him address suffering. Listen to him speak when someone offends him. Listen to him discuss power, influence, ambition, and enemies.

That is where the true disciple is separated from the religious man. Because what governs a man is not discovered by how he quotes Scripture…

It is discovered by how he interprets life. The Pharisees quoted Moses… Yet crucified CHRIST.

Satan quoted Scripture… Yet remained the devil.
Knowing Bible verses has never been the evidence of possessing the Mind of CHRIST.

Brethren…
The Gospel did not come merely to change our language. It came to overthrow an entire way of thinking.

Until CHRIST becomes LORD over a man’s reasoning…
HE is not yet LORD over his life. Because the Lordship of CHRIST is not first revealed in what leaves your mouth during worship…

It is revealed in the Mind by which you interpret reality.
Many believers have biblical information… But worldly assumptions.

Biblical expressions… But carnal conclusions. Biblical terminology… But secular philosophies.

They speak like Zion… But they think like Babylon.
We have taught men how to sound like Christians…Without teaching them how to think like CHRIST.

So they enter the sanctuary speaking the language of Heaven… Then leave the building making decisions with the wisdom of the age.

The HOLY SPIRIT does not merely teach men what to say. HE teaches them how to see.

When CHRIST truly governs a heart… His Word becomes more than memory. It becomes instinct.
More than quotation. It becomes perception.

It becomes the very architecture of the man’s mind.
You no longer need to ask him for a Bible verse. His conclusions will already smell like Scripture.

His values will expose the Kingdom he belongs to.
His worldview will betray the Throne that governs him.

For the greatest evidence that JESUS is LORD over a man… Is not that he can speak about the Bible…

It is that he cannot think outside it.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

The painful truth is this…

If the average believer in Nigeria were to read the Book of Acts without the influence of our present culture, he would almost conclude that he was reading about an entirely different religion.

Somewhere along the journey… we changed the tune.
The Church in the Bible sang one song. The Church in Nigeria has gradually learned another.

The Church in the Bible sought conformity to CHRIST.
We seek acceptance from men. They raised disciples.
We have become experts at raising audiences.

The sound coming from our altars is no longer the sound that echoed through Jerusalem… through Antioch… through Ephesus… through the Church that “turned the world upside down.”

The frightening part is this…

A generation can become so accustomed to a substitute that it mistakes it for the original.
And perhaps that is where we are.

We have become familiar with a version of Christianity that the Apostles would scarcely recognize.

One of the greatest judgments that can befall a people is not that they abandon the Bible.

It is that they continue holding the Bible while no longer allowing the Bible to define them.

I fear this is where the Church in Nigeria now stands.
We still raise our Bibles. We still quote the Scriptures.
We still end every sermon with, “GOD bless you.” But somewhere between the Upper Room and our generation…

We changed the tune. Read the Book of Acts carefully.
Read the Epistles slowly. Read the words of our LORD without trying to defend our present condition.

Then ask yourself… Who changed? Because it certainly was not GOD. The Gospel has not changed.
The HOLY GHOST has not changed. The demands of discipleship have not changed.

The cost of following CHRIST has not become cheaper. We changed. We altered the sound.

If you are reading this, can you make a solemn vow to the LORD. Tell HIM, “You will commit Your entire life to ensuring that this Gospel will not change in your hands.”

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

The True Church..

[Gideon Odoma @gideonodoma]

GENERALIZED CONSIDERATIONS – with a cry.

The public perception of Christianity, even four decades ago, was beautifully different from what it is today. Jesus had more honour on our streets then than He does now. It meant something to non-Christians to hear that someone was a Christian in those days, because Christians, based on whatever the church was teaching at the time – were better representatives of Jesus in and to the world than we are today.

In those days, people could safely assume that if Laoye was a Christian, your teenage daughter would be safe around him, your money would be safe in his custody, and he would not sell you a fake product. Such assumptions, even about believers, are unsafe these days, generally speaking. (I know there are brilliant exceptions here and there, but they are the exceptions now, not the norm.) This is why I believe we should humbly admit that whatever we are teaching today is not altogether as spiritually transformative as it ought to be, in the overall divine scale of things.

Yet it was our Lord who said:
“…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
No candle was meant to be lit only to be placed under a cover. Salt should not continue to claim to be salt when it has lost its edge, its savour. Christianity, by design, is meant to be definitive and consequential, not banal and conformist.

Jesus, please, we need a revival!

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

The highest revelation in the Christian life is not that JESUS can give you everything you want.
It is that after seeing HIM rightly, HE becomes all you truly want.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

Many believers do not actually desire JESUS as their treasure. They desire JESUS as their advantage.
The distinction is important. One man follows CHRIST because he has seen HIS beauty. Another follows CHRIST because he believes CHRIST can improve his circumstances. The first seeks GOD. The second seeks himself through GOD.

[ToluwalogoAgboola @RevToluAgboola]

CONCERNING THE CURRENT PLAGUE UPON OUR NATION

Blind Bartimaeus teaches us something powerful about prayer: desperation alone is not prayer. Many are desperate before GOD, but very few are specific before GOD.

Faith is not the intensity of your cry; faith is the clarity of your request.

Do not assume that what is obvious to men has automatically become a petition before GOD. Bartimaeus was visibly blind. Everyone around him knew his condition. Yet when JESUS stood before him, HE still asked:

“What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?”

Why would JESUS ask a blind man what he wanted?

Because in the economy of GOD, prayer is not built on assumptions. GOD desires that a man articulate his burden, define his expectation, and present his request before HIM.

Many believers spend hours in prayer, yet never arrive at a definite petition. They speak generally when GOD is waiting for specificity.

Bartimaeus did not say, “LORD, bless me.” He did not say, “LORD, do something in my life.” He said, “LORD, that I might receive my sight.”

There are answers reserved for men who know exactly what they are asking GOD to do.

Prayer is not the pouring out of emotions; it is the presentation of desires before GOD. Until your burden becomes a definite request, it may remain only a burden.

And this is where I believe many of us are concerning the current plague upon our nation.

We are praying. We are fasting. We are gathering. We are grieving. But are we being specific?

What exactly do we want JESUS to do?

Do we want HIM to expose the wicked?

Do we want HIM to frustrate the operations of terrorists, kidnappers, ritualists, and bloodthirsty men?

Do we want HIM to raise righteous leaders?

Do we want HIM to grant wisdom to those in authority?

Do we want HIM to preserve innocent lives?

Do we want HIM to bring genuine repentance to our land?

Do we want HIM to send labourers into the harvest fields of the troubled regions?

Do we want HIM to heal the wounds of families that have buried loved ones?

Do we want HIM to break the altars speaking against our nation?

Do we want HIM to awaken the Church from slumber and restore her prophetic voice?

The burden is real, but burdens must become petitions.

The grief is genuine, but grief must become intercession.

The tears are necessary, but tears must eventually find words.

When Bartimaeus met JESUS, he knew exactly what he wanted.

Perhaps the question GOD is asking the Church in this hour is the same question JESUS asked Bartimaeus:

“What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?”

And when JESUS asks us This concerning our nation,
May we have an answer.