SALVATION IS NOW AND CONTINUOUS......See how to 'hold on' till the End!

Salvation is defined as the deliverance from sin, sickness, and death! 

Though salvation is deliverance, many people are saved and yet they remain sick and hungry.  This is partly because they need to grow in the spirit to know God the more and the way things operate in God's kingdom.  When a believer understands how things work in the kingdom, then his freedom and breaking-out is near.

Salvation is in three dimensions and the first stage you obtain simply by believing in your heart and confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, while the remaining two stages are actively worked-out.  Those remaining stages are continuous in nature till the end of your journey here on earth.

Christianity is a personal relationship experience with the Almighty God through His Son Jesus Christ,  who died to reconcile us to God.  For while other religions are attempting to reach God by their own efforts and traditions. God in the bible, who created man and loved him is the one reaching out to people in love, to bring man back to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ and salvation is the entry point to this re-union with God.

The first stage of your salvation is completed the moment you give your heart to Jesus in prayer, He gives you a new spirit - the Spirit of God enters into you, but your soul and body remains the same.  The soul will be transformed and reformed by the Word of God over time.  When the Word of truth dominates your heart and you become a Word-doer, your soul is saved or being saved, while your body is the last to be redeemed, and it must be saved as well!.

With your body, you touch and relate with the world.  But the Lord said we should present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service - Rom 12:1.  

By the mercies of the Lord means that as the Lord make his grace and mercy available to us, we should not make provisions that will satisfy our own lust and flesh.  This is why Paul advised us not to be conformed to the world.  Don't be enticed, don't join the band-wagon, rather be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove that which is good, and acceptable and perfect, will of God.

Without the renewal of your mind, you are still in Egypt.  The quest to get rich quick, live a good life and enjoy every thinkable pleasure will remain your priority.  If they say the latest game and fun is in Dubai - off you go to Dubai, If it is in Hawaii - or the Caribbean, you must go and see and enjoy your life. But when you live like a stranger in this world and minding the things of spirit like the prophets of old, your priority is eternity and the preaching, teaching and spreading the gospel of righteousness and holiness unto the Lord.  

Your body is delivered from the corruption that is in the world - From Tattoos, marks of Satan, pollution arising from evil desires like enhancement of any part of your body for beauty, changing your face , hair etc through surgery for beauty. A strange lady went in for surgery of the breast to add additional breast, making her a woman with three breast - the question is "for what purpose?"

Presenting your body as a living sacrifice means a lot of sacrifices and self denials.  These sacrifices and self denials does not make sense to an average worldly person.  Why suffer yourself?  Why suffer in silence, especially when you have the resources to indulge yourself, but when a child of God remembers what Christ went through at the cross just to save him from the same earthly fun and enjoyment and the consequences of  using his body to serve the devil, which is eternal damnation, he restrains himself and endure the mockery of friends and relatives.  This decision is not possible if such a christian has not grown through the Word of God.  

Without the Word of God inside of you, you cannot discern what is good, acceptable, perfect will of God for you.  You will think that since everybody is doing it, it is the will of God...NO!  Without the word of God inside of you, you cannot empty yourself of your ego, pride and position.  I knew a fine gentleman that loved the Lord before and started out being a Pastor in Baptist church.  But this man was also very intelligent, he speaks the truth and had integrity that people respected.  

Over time, he became a managing Director of a thriving bank in Nigeria those days.  He took his truth and integrity into the Board meetings and before long, he became  a Boardroom guru.  With influence and with enormous goodwill, he left preaching the gospel....And it was so till his death, he never came back to preaching and teaching the Word of God again.

Whenever the word dry in you, worldly wisdom takes over.  Human knowledge and intellect will begin to dominate such a person and before you know what is happening, thing you use to ignore in the past will soon become important to you.  Jesus said those that endure till the end will have their names written in the Lamb book of life - which means many will not be able to endure loneliness, staying away from smoking, drinking alcohol, immorality and all other vices, which the world practice. 

If a child of God recognize that his body is the 'house' holding his spirit and soul, and also the temple of the Holy Host, through which Christ lives in us, he would do everything to keep his body holy, otherwise the temple becomes contaminated and the Spirit of God will leave.  The believer is expected to continue serving the Lord with his/her body as a living sacrifice until his last minute on earth - This is why the bible said those that endure till the end, shall be saved!

Brethren, the reason why a person is saved...at least in the first instance of giving his life to Christ and the sickness in his life remains could be many.  It could be that such a child of God is not growing in the spirit - He is not studying and practicing the Word of life, so he does not know how to deal with the Accuser or the strongman of the father's house, resisting his salvation.  

Yet, it could also mean there is a covenant existing in the family or blood line, which has not been broken.  This is very dangerous,  because when there is a covenant in place, God's hands are tied down until such covenants are broken completely.  If a man is locked up in the spirit, nothing comes to him in the physical.  Also, if a man's glory is captured by the enemy, all his labour will be in vain.  

These are the reason why people are saved, yet they continue in a life of suffering and struggling.  You can even be speaking in tongues and seeing vision, as long as you are tied down in the spirit, or your glory has been stolen or there is an evil covenant in place, your labour will not yield anything meaningful.

Child of God, all these and more options I will discuss in another piece.  Remember that I shared with us today, the three dimensions of salvation.  How you are saved, you are being saved and how those that endure till the end shall be saved.  Now, you know how to work-out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that the reward is great - Eternal life in heaven!

Beloved, the time is short, and God has fulfilled His part of the bargain by sending His only Begotten Son to die for our sins.  Your salvation is in your hands and no one can blame God. 

Salvation - What the bible says about it.

1. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

2. Titus 3:5 - He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

3. Romans 10:9 - Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

4. Acts 4:12 - And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

5. Ephesians 2:8 - For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

6. John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

7. Matthew 7:21 - “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

8. John 6:44 - No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

9. John 15:1-27 - “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ...

10. John 3:16-18 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

11. Acts 2:38- And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

12. Romans 10:9-10 - Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

13. Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

14. Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

15. John 3:5 - Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

16. John 3:36 - Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

17. John 1:12 - But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

18. 1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

19. 1 Peter 2:24 - He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

20. John 11:25-26 - Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

 Receive Him Now:

Give your heart to Jesus Christ today, don't wait another day, if you have not done this before.  Today and now is the acceptable time and Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart...Will you open the door of your heart to Him?  If you are ready, say this prayer with me:

"Lord Jesus Christ, I come to you as a sinner, please forgive me and wash my sins away with your precious blood.  I believe you are the Lord, who died for my sins and rose again on the third day.  Come into my heart, be my Lord and saviour, give me the grace to serve you all the days of my life. Thank you for saving me.  Now I am born again" Amen.

Receive the grace to endure till the end through Jesus Christ!

Shalom.

FIRE...