How Come you are Saved.............Yet Sick and Hungry?.

Salvation is deliverance from sin, sickness, poverty and death!

Introduction

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, and what he needs to do to obtain the promises of God for his life...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.

Salvation is the Beginning
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.

Renew your mind with the Word
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?"

Your body...Now the Lord's
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.

Present it a Living Sacrifice
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.

PROSPERITY IN THE KINGDOM:

Poverty is a complex matter, because of the many factors at work. There are human and spiritual factors working against peoples prosperity.  The believer is personally responsible for his prosperity in the kingdom.  The choice of leaning on God and asking for ideas and inspiration or going the worldly way, using human wisdom.

The bible says the poor will remain with us till the end of time, so it up to each person who is born in poverty or who slided into poverty by circumstance, to determine in his heart that poverty will not hold him down.  You must be determined to escape from the claws of poverty.  Prosperity in the kingdom is worked out, it does not answer to prayer and fasting alone.  You will pray, but you have to do something to create wealth, do a business or provide services.

You are in Charge

You are ultimately responsible for working out your finances, but if you believe the Lord and walk in obedience, you will receive the wisdom to get wealth.  The bible did not say God will give you wealth but He said He will give you "the ability" to make wealth. Don't be deceived or misled that the Lord gives wealth because if you still have that mindset you might end up being impoverished.  

The Lord gives us the ability or power to make wealth and not wealth itself. So this is the secret of the power to make wealth ..."remember your GOD..." in all that you do and commit your ways into His hands.  There is two powers that God give His children in order to prosper them.  The first power is given to you, when you receive Christ as Lord and Saviour.  For the bible says to them that believe in His name, to them gave He the power to becomes sons of God.

Ask for Power

It is your duty to pray and ask for wealth after receiving Christ.  You will do better asking for wisdom to get wealth, than asking for wealth. Remember that everything you need from God will require that you receive the power or grace to obtain it.  If you are sick, you need power to get well - Healing.  If you are jobless, you need the power to get job, a good job.  You also need the power to get favour from people far and near.  

Wait for this...You also need power to connect to destiny helpers that will help you achieve your dreams.  You cannot achieve much alone, especially of you have big dream or big assignment which the Lord has asked you to do, you need destiny helpers that will stick to you untill you get to your destination and remain committed and loyal.

Brethren, you also need power to manage people well.  If you can manage money and cannot manage people, your money will soon finish and you are back to square one.  I am going this far because I am looking at how to acquire divine wealth and how God releases the grace for wealth to people.  Ask for power to manage your finances, different from the power to manage people, because you will need to know how to plan, budget and prioritize your expenses from day to day. When you have  made these requests, I want to assure you that God is ready to bless you, even more than you can even imagine, but you must have His Holy Spirit working in you.

Know the Holy Ghost

The gift of the Holy Spirit in indispensable in the life of a child of God, because He is the power of God to do all things here on earth.  When you are born again, you receive a new Spirit inside you.  But for the Holy Spirit to work maximally in your life, you will have to yield your life to Him, and He will start the work of cleansing and purifying you.  

This is done through the way He will expose your sins to you for you to repent and desist from evil ways.  The Holy Ghost will also rebuke you when you do or say wrong things, so that you can correct your mistakes and avoid the same error in the future.  The Holy Spirit will warn you of things you should not do and say, and if you will accept his rebuke, warning and prompting and change your way, your life will be transformed and when you ask for wealth, it will be easy for the Spirit to also guide you into wealth.

You must receive the power to be called the son of God before you seek power to get wealth.  God is good and kind, so not only will He give you power if you request, He will in addition give you the Holy Ghost.  To prosper under Christ or from Christ, you need the power to get wealth, and that power is released to you through the Holy Ghost.  The Holy Ghost is the power of God working in you, that is able to make you do all things and achieve all things.  Without the Holy Ghost guiding, advising and directing you, you are far from success, whether big or small.

Establish a Business or Trade, Service etc

God will bless you through the power that is at work in you, but you must discover where your talent lies, what business or service, you can do better than others and establish.  You should never be discouraged by the initial failure or suffering involved. Establish a service or business after hearing from God and follow through have it started. 

Then you need the Holy Ghost to guide your way, from what to do, how to do it etc. if you don't have the Holy Ghost, you have limited your christian life as well as the kind and level of success you can achieve here on earth.  Any christian who is waiting for God to rain manner from heaven for them will end up disappointed.  We are expected to use the wisdom,  God gave us to create solutions that will bring the reward called wealth.  Riches and wealth is a direct result of the solution we provide to the needs of people around us.

Wealth comes from well defined work path, it is not a transfer.  A transfer cannot be sustained, but a well defined process, business or trade will continue to bring financial inflow as long as you are doing the business.  That is sustainable.  You need strong faith in God for both salvation and prosperity to be sustained in your life and journey.  Lets look at what the bible says about faith.

Faith in Hard Times

Jesus tells us that we will have troubles in this world, it's a guarantee. However, He also promises that we have victory through our faith because Jesus Christ has overcome the world. If you are facing hard and uncertain times, you can be encouraged to press on knowing that you are an overcomer! 

Use the below Bible verses about having faith in hard times to lift your spirits and to share with others questioning God's goodness. 

1. Deuteronomy 31:6 - Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

2. Isaiah 26:3 - You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

3. Isaiah 41:10 - So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

4. John 14:26-27 - But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

5. Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

FIRE...