ACTIVATE YOUR LATENT POTENTIALS II (Eph. 5:8-17)
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
Talking to a living being to rise from the dead may sound as if something is wrong somewhere. The truth however is that some people are still alive but they are as good as dead for some reasons as it concern their personal life. Let us consider one example from the bible, in Genesis chapter twenty, God spoke to Abimelech that he was a dead man because he took the wife of another man who happened to be a prophet of God, the man Abraham. This is what the bible says in verse three: But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman." For us as human beings, the man was alive as at the time God was speaking to him but for God he was as good as a dead man. We saw the reason in verses 17 and 18 of the passage. God closed every womb in the family of the man, so that one day they would all be wiped away from the surface of the earth since they could no longer reproduce. Some Christians are like that today, though they have been created in the likeness of God with certain potentials but some of them are latent, they are inactive, they are dormant.
Let us look at more characteristics of living things as we begun last week.
4. Irritability: - responsive to stimuli – something that encourages an activity or a process to begin, increase or develop. As a living being and a Christian for that matter, one must be encouraged by his environment to take certain positive actions. You cannot continue to say that this is how our fore fathers used to do it. You must respond to your immediate environment otherwise you will be left behind others and even a church run in that manner may soon go into extinction. We must adjust and begin to make use of the technological advancement now in our world.
5. Reproduction: - reproducing one self- what have you been doing to reproduce yourself? The functions you are performing, should you be taken away from where you are now, who will carry it on in your absence? The church of God must also see to it that workers are going through training and retraining from time to time if the church must survive in this globalized environment.
6. Growth: - growth in the area of development, numerical strength and even achievement – if one is still living we must notice physical growth i.e. there must be changes even in appearance of a living being. A child of five years old must not be crawling he must have started running about. Christians must also grow in every area. As a church of God, what improvement can we see? Has the growth, numerical strength remained biological? Are you still winning souls to the kingdom of God?
7. Death: - one thing that is sure is that we will die one after the other. But where shall we spend our eternity? How are we preparing for this eternity? Hell is real and heaven is real. Only those who are in Christ Jesus will make it to heaven. Is your name written in the book of life? Accept Him as your Lord and Savior today so that you will not end up in hell. Remain blessed in the Lord.
PRAYER POINTS FOR THE WEEK
Monday: - Thank you Jesus for calling me to order always IJN
Tuesday: - Father, help me so that I will be alive to my environment IJN
Wednesday: - Lord, grant that I will live a productive life in every aspect IJN
Thursday: - Lord, where ever I am experiencing staunch growth revive me IJN
Friday: - Father in heaven, let the fire of revival in Seed of Life continue to glow IJN
Saturday: - Father, let there be peace in Nigeria IJN
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
Talking to a living being to rise from the dead may sound as if something is wrong somewhere. The truth however is that some people are still alive but they are as good as dead for some reasons as it concern their personal life. Let us consider one example from the bible, in Genesis chapter twenty, God spoke to Abimelech that he was a dead man because he took the wife of another man who happened to be a prophet of God, the man Abraham. This is what the bible says in verse three: But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman." For us as human beings, the man was alive as at the time God was speaking to him but for God he was as good as a dead man. We saw the reason in verses 17 and 18 of the passage. God closed every womb in the family of the man, so that one day they would all be wiped away from the surface of the earth since they could no longer reproduce. Some Christians are like that today, though they have been created in the likeness of God with certain potentials but some of them are latent, they are inactive, they are dormant.
Let us look at more characteristics of living things as we begun last week.
4. Irritability: - responsive to stimuli – something that encourages an activity or a process to begin, increase or develop. As a living being and a Christian for that matter, one must be encouraged by his environment to take certain positive actions. You cannot continue to say that this is how our fore fathers used to do it. You must respond to your immediate environment otherwise you will be left behind others and even a church run in that manner may soon go into extinction. We must adjust and begin to make use of the technological advancement now in our world.
5. Reproduction: - reproducing one self- what have you been doing to reproduce yourself? The functions you are performing, should you be taken away from where you are now, who will carry it on in your absence? The church of God must also see to it that workers are going through training and retraining from time to time if the church must survive in this globalized environment.
6. Growth: - growth in the area of development, numerical strength and even achievement – if one is still living we must notice physical growth i.e. there must be changes even in appearance of a living being. A child of five years old must not be crawling he must have started running about. Christians must also grow in every area. As a church of God, what improvement can we see? Has the growth, numerical strength remained biological? Are you still winning souls to the kingdom of God?
7. Death: - one thing that is sure is that we will die one after the other. But where shall we spend our eternity? How are we preparing for this eternity? Hell is real and heaven is real. Only those who are in Christ Jesus will make it to heaven. Is your name written in the book of life? Accept Him as your Lord and Savior today so that you will not end up in hell. Remain blessed in the Lord.
PRAYER POINTS FOR THE WEEK
Monday: - Thank you Jesus for calling me to order always IJN
Tuesday: - Father, help me so that I will be alive to my environment IJN
Wednesday: - Lord, grant that I will live a productive life in every aspect IJN
Thursday: - Lord, where ever I am experiencing staunch growth revive me IJN
Friday: - Father in heaven, let the fire of revival in Seed of Life continue to glow IJN
Saturday: - Father, let there be peace in Nigeria IJN
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