WONDERS OF SALVATION..........Grow in the Spirit and Stop Blaming Others!

INTRODUCTION:

Salvation is a gift of God and is received through personal faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice at the cross of Calvary. Salvation  encompasses many profound concepts...like deliverance, healing and divine restoration.  Salvation is a package full of benefits cutting across the three spheres of human existence: the spirit, the soul and the body (1Thessalonians 5:23). When you experience salvation, the life force of God is released to you. 

You will begin to have a strong desire for holiness. Rather than condemnation, you will receive justification. Instead of punishment for sins committed, you will receive a credit of righteousness into your account. The new man in you has a lifestyle patterned after and controlled by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter promised by the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives man total victory over sin and empowers him for service in God's kingdom.

Salvation is deliverance from hell fire, it is an insurance to eternal life as well as deliverance from demonic oppression.  Through the miracle of salvation, a sinner yesterday, a murderer, a Prostitute becomes a saint today. With his spirit, he begins to relate with God. With his mind, he receives inspiration on issues. With his body, he carries out the dictates of the Great Master. As a child of God, you have tremendous opportunities that others do not. With the assurance of full salvation everywhere you go, goodness and mercy will follow you.

What is Salvation - God's Promise:

In Mathew 1:21, The bible says "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall his name JESUS for He shall save His people from their Sins.

Jesus Christ, the son of God is called Saviour because of your sins and no man can deal with sin without the blood of Jesus and there is no salvation without Jesus, The bible speaking in Act 4:12, the bible said "Neither is there salvation is any other name, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved"

Jesus came to give us salvation and hope for eternity and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour, we are washed and cleansed with His blood and the spirit of iniquity and sin is washed off our lives.  So no matter how long you have been enslaved by that sinful habit, no matter what evil the devil have used you to do on earth, the blood of Jesus is more powerful than sin and the motions of sin.

RECONCILIATION

To reconcile means to change from enmity to friendship. Reconciliation by the death of Christ means that man’s state of alienation from God is changed so that he is now able to be saved (2 Corinthians 5:19-21). The basis for our reconciliation is the death of Christ (Romans 5:10-11). We must point out that only man is changed. God never changes.

What does this mean to us today? God is not our enemy. He is our Friend. He wants us to trust that friendship. He will never turn away from us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ.

PROPITIATION

What does that mean to you and me today? We don’t have to think of making up for the bad things we have done. Our motive for doing good works or giving money or self-sacrifice will not be to appease God but because our hearts are filled with gratitude. God is completely satisfied with the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Salvation demands evidence of Transformation

A common mistake made by men sometimes is to blame others for their misfortunes in life.  Some blame their relations, others blame their husbands, wives and in-laws.  But do you know that you can be your own worst enemy when you ignore spiritual things or refuse to grow in the things of the spirit. Salvation is a life long race that requires that we remain connected to Christ and walk in obedience till we are called to eternity

Salvation requires that we continue to abide in Christ.  If we do, we will always flourish. It is time for believers to wake up. God does not want His children running from pillar to post. The mind of excellence is in you. You have the mind of the Son of God; therefore, enter into your inheritance. It is time to balance our growth. In every area of your life, there should be full evidence that God is in charge.  This is a call for believers to use their faith and do the uncommon.  Your faith is required for you yto walk and operate in the supernatural.  If your bank account will adjust for better, your faith is required apart from hard work.

Until you speak to that problem in faith, it will never move.  Many problems resist the command of people because of lack of faith, so believers should raise their faith levels, if they desire to experience the uncommon breakthroughs in life.

Walking by Faith

Believers should come to terms with the provisions of the Lord and how to possess them.  As far as God is concerned, the table is set and ready, what is required is for you to draw by faith what has been provided.   You can go as far as you can see. In Christ, there are no limits to the heights you can attain except the ones you set for yourself. We should be envied by non-believers and not pitied. We should be mobile signposts of signs and wonders. As a child of God, your salvation makes you a candidate for miracles. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is still very much alive. 

We must stop relying on ourselves and the people we know and are connected with.  Let us obey the word of God and do what the word says. Let us seek to hear His voice daily and be ready to obey what instructions the Lord will give us.  Remember that two people cannot walk together unless they agree.  If we are not obedient, then there is no relationship.  If we cannot obey His word and voice, then we cannot submit to His will and without submission, there is no relationship.

But if we humble ourselves before Him and submit to His will, He is willing to turn every hopeless and unpleasant situation in your life into a great testimony. Stop relying on your senses. Focus on the Word of liberty that is able to set you free. As a believer, is your business crippled or do you find it difficult to make progress in anything you do? I ask you to check your love and obedience levels.  Limitation of hindrance is never from God, but the devil or due to our sins.  Whatever it might be, I command that God make a way for you in Jesus Christ name.

THE BENEFITS OF SALVATION 

Salvation brings peace of mind, the kind of peace that money cannot give.  Peace is one of the evidences of being saved. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. The peace that comes from the Lord is different and assuring.

The peace from the Lord is what makes your heart not to tremble or be be troubled. His peace dries up every fear from believers because He is always with us every where we may go to.  The following are some of the benefits of salvation. neither let it be afraid.  

We Are Saved - Salvation is the general term that describes the miracle of eternal life we receive through Jesus death at the cross.  It is the greatest event in our life.  

Indwelling Spirit  - The Spirit enters the believer at the moment of regeneration  and never leaves. He enters our whole being, even our body. The Holy Spirit begins to expose our weaknesses to us and ask that we amend our ways.  He begins to work in us and through us in order to transform us into that new man that the scriptures talked about.

Mind of God - With the Holy Spirit living inside of the believer, he has the mind of God and one that can also relate with God the Father, so every believer can know and experience God personally.  Christian knows God personally. This is true knowledge. It is a  heart-to-heart personal relationship. It is part of having eternal life (John 17:3). God granted us this privilege (Matt. 11:27). We know Him because He first knew us (I Cor. 8:3, Gal. 4:9). It is a personal, deep and intimate knowledge. We are friends. We are also lovers. And we grow in this knowledge deeper and deeper (Phil. 3:8, 10).

Adopted into God's Family - Once we were children of the Devil. God took us out of that family and made us His own children. Now God is our Father, other believers are our brothers and sisters, and Christ is our elder brother. Being His children, we are also His heirs. We can now call God "our Father in Heaven". Adoption is not the same as regeneration. Regeneration affects our nature; adoption affects our relationship.  Regeneration precedes faith, which precedes adoption. But it happens in a moment, with no interval or exception. So, we are doubly God's children.

Reconciled to God - Salvation reconciles us back to our heavenly Father in heaven.  This is a great benefit of salvation that we often overlook. 2 Cor. 5 is the great chapter on it. We were once God's enemies; now we are His friends. We are reconciled. It is more than a truce; it is the end of hostilities. The war is over. We have peace with God. We were once against God and God against us. Now He is for us and with us, and we with Him. Properly speaking, it is we that are reconciled to God, not God to us. We apologize, not He. Yet, on His part, the righteous enmity was removed when His wrath was appeased when Christ died for us.

Delivered from Wrath. - We were once sinners under the wrath of God - condemned, doomed, facing judgement. All that has changed. Through salvation, we  justified and therefore no more under the wrath of God.

Cleansed From Sin -  The motions of sin has no hold on us any more after our salvation. All the worldly drinks and wine and other pleasure that drive people into error has no power over us.  The blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin and we are no longer a slave to sin.

Hindrance to Salvation:

By Satanic Agents - It is not as though evil people do not hinder the progress of others...NO.  They do, And they would most times begin at home before locating someone outside to hinder.  When you do not study your bible and pray daily, you are far from the spiritual power to influence things in the realm of the spirit and so your relations who are in darkness can exercise demonic power and hinder you greatly.  

How?  The eyes of agents of the devil are opened in the spirit to see certain things by the devil their master and who ever can see in the spirit can influence and control what is happening in the physical....Your lethargy has therefore made you your own worse enemy.

Sin and Its Consequences:

Going back to the book of Genesis, we will discover another reason why yoiu may be your own worse enemy and not the witch that is troubling your life.  In the bible, everything was going on well for Adam and Eve until they sinned. With sin came guilty conscience and hiding from God.  When God visited them and realized they have sinned and began to ask them questions, It was Adam that started  by blaming his wife for eating the fruit, instead of saying I and my wife have eaten the apply.

He blamed the wife and laid a bad precedent which many are still following till today.  Sin is hindrance to success of any man connected to God.  Sin scatters and disorganizes and infact disrupts God plan for man as can be seen from the bible. With sin Adam and Even were removed from their garden of comfort to go into the wilderness and suffer, till the ground before they will eat bread. It is the same thing today for all man, sin is another enemy of a man;s progress with the Lord.

Death:

God had created man to live for ever more, but due to sin, death came into existence, and man can no loner live indefinitely.  The reason is because the Lord had made a decree that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of \god is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Salvation was never an after thought as some people would think, No... No, the Scripture teaches us that God planned our salvation before the foundation of the world, because in His omniscience, He knew that mankind would desperately need it.

When man disobeyed God and obeyed Satan, man surrendered the crown of his dominion on earth to the devil, became sinners by nature and the consequences of sin is death.  Remember, that God in warning Adam about the fruit told him that the day you shall eat of this food, you shall surely die. Though the devil deceived Eve that she shall not surely die after eating the fruit, we know today that they died in the spirit - which is to say, they were separated from God in the spirit, though they were yet living.  So, in clear perspective, we have two kind of death as follows:-

1. Spiritual death-separation from God (They hid and were afraid.)

2. Physical death

This is why we have many people who are spiritually dead, while they are still living in the physical realm. 

What to do:   

Until a man is born again, his life can hardly be straight and even if he serves in the house of God, he is not yet a son of God. Only the help of God can you have victory over sin - whether it be lying, cheating, stealing etc. 

Many people are serving God in different areas, when they are not born again, such people do not realize that the Lord is more interested in their soul that their service.  The Lord expects us to do the first things first.  Salvation is more important that your services or money/.  Repent of your sins, give your heart to Jesus Christ today and the services and offerings you give to the Lord will be acceptable.

FIRE...