HOLINESS is a product of righteousness. When we receive righteousness as gift, we get born again. We received the empowerment to become children of God.

In another word, we receive the empowerment to live Holy because nobody who has not received the righteousness of God through salvation will have the capacity to live Holy. And so Holiness is a product of our utilizing the righteousness which we have received as gift. 

The ability to become sons of God; for the bible says “as many as received Jesus, where given the power and authority to become sons of God”, meaning it was salvation that empowers us to live according to God’s standard; and Holiness is living according to God’s standard. 

It is only the man who has received righteousness as gift that receives the empowerment to live a Holy life. And so, righteousness produces holy life whereas righteousness is received as a gift from God by reason of faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. 

Now people of God, because this is so; because our relationship with God is not based on work or what we did, it is based on what Jesus did and our faith in what Jesus did, many people have come to regard that as almost as a license to live the way they want; To live without regards to the principles of biblical morality. Even in the church, so many people think because we are in the dispensation of grace, where the blood of Jesus is available to speak forgiveness and cleansing for us, and then it has become a basis for going in out of sin without regards for God’s standard because we are forgiven and we will always be forgiven. That is a wrong idea of about how we ought to relate with God.

From Pastor Mike Onyeka.

Victorious People Assembly Int'l Inc.

How Do We Thank God? : Psalm 116:17 & 18; 50:14 & 15.

Now People of God, concerning offering whether it is thanksgiving or general offering or whatever form of offering it may be, I would like to make you understand that the thing that matters to God is not just what you have brought. What is important to God is you make the offering worship to Him. 

Many of us have the wrong belief or notion that when we bring an offering to church and we give God something, that we are helping God or helping the church or the Pastors. Well people of God, you don’t have the capacity to help God; you can’t help God. And if it is a question of your helping God, God will not touch what you bring with a 100feet pole. God does not need help from anybody; God can take care of His Church with or without you. 

God can take care of His genuine Servants with or without you. But God receives your offering from you as an act of worship when you present it in reverence and with the right motive. And He makes your offering upon His altar a point of contact for returning blessing to you. That is why God said so much in Psalm 50:14 & 15. 

If you read the earlier verses before verse 14 & 15, God was telling Israel, He said “if I am hungry, I will not tell you. You’re not bringing these things to me so that you can feed me. For I own all the animals; they all belong to me. You can’t even feed me; the whole heaven and earth belong to me. But what I want you to do is to give me an offering as thanksgiving and pay the vow you made to me”. 

Many of us make these vows even without remembering them: “Father if you do this for me, I return in with this or that in thanksgiving to you”. Most times when God does those things; when we escape from the circumstances and challenges of that forced us into this vows, many of us forget what we have said. And so, what God is requesting of us is to fulfill our vows in thanksgiving as we did vow and then call upon Him in times of trouble and He will answer you, deliver you and you will honor Him. 

Therefore people of God, He does not only receive our offering, He first considers our hearts. Therefore none of us is capable of giving God anything. He needs your thanksgiving offering as a point of contact for blessing you. Give in Gratitude to God.

Copied from the title The Power of Thanksgiving: (to be published soon).

By Pastor Michael Okwundu Onyeka

When Should We Praise God?

 

What occasions do we praise God? Now the bible said from morning till night. The bible said so in Psalm 113:3 and Psalm 71:8. One says praise God from morning till sun down and in the other one that we will praise God all day long. 

Therefore we are suppose to praise God from the moment we wake up from sleep in the morning till we go back to sleep again next night. God’s praise ought to be at our lips.

 We need to praise God from sunset to sundown and throughout the day. Even in the times of difficulties, we ought to praise Him still.

That’s what David said in Psalms 42:11 “even when my spirit and soul hurts, I will praise Him for He will eventually bring my salvation”. Therefore, it doesn’t matter the circumstances. So the simply means that we need to praise God always. In the morning, in the noon, in the evening, in the night, in all circumstances and all situations we need to praise God. Don’t stop praising Him. Hallelujah. 

Copied from the book titled “Wonders of Praise (to be published soon)

By Pastor Mike Onyeka (@Victorious People Assembly Int’l Inc)

Who is a Born Again Christian?

In John 1:12 & 13, the bible explained that as many as received Him, become children of God and to those who believe on His Name (referring to Jesus). In other words, those who are born again are those who received Christ and who believe in His Name. And these people (as it where) are spiritually born of God; just like their physical fathers were responsible for their physical birth, God is responsible for their spiritual birth. 

In John 3:3-8, Jesus explained the concept more, talking about the need to be born again.  The birth Jesus was talking about wasn’t the physical birth that Nicodemius was talking about. In this one, the instrument or the seed for this birth is the Word of God referred to as water and the Holy Spirit in the verse we just read. 

Now Jesus said that without being born again, it is not possible to see the kingdom of God. And He wasn’t talking about the physical eye, He is talking about perceiving; you cannot understand or perceive or be part of the kingdom of God. And except you are born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That is the necessity for the new birth; learn the procedure.

Jesus said “these ones that are born again (born of God), they are born of the Spirit”. Now when you combine this with what we read in John 1:13, you now see that the process described in John 1:12 & 13 is the process of being born again that Jesus was referring to in John 3:3-6. And what exactly happens? The first thing that happens is the truth: that the person that is born again is a spirit. Even though you possess the physical body, you possess blood and water, the person that is born again is made up of a recreated spirit that is made in the Name or the Nature of the Spirit of Jesus. 

Now in John 4:24, the bible says “and God is a Spirit”. Then if God is a Spirit and those who are born again are born of God and that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit (according to Jesus in John 3:6), then it means that everyone that is born again is a spirit. 

People of God, remember that we started by saying that anybody who is a Christian and is ignorant of his/her real identity in Christ will live in the flesh; will live a carnally minded life in-spite of being born again. That is why we started by showing first, the nature of the born again as person. So, by reading John 3:6; 1:12 & 13; 4:24 together, you must come to the conclusion that everyone born of God or born again possesses the nature of a Spirit; and that spirit is God that reproduces them. 

Reproduction means producing in the nature of, producing similar to, producing with the life that is inherited, that is got from the Father. And so, the man or woman that is born again is primarily a spirit produced like God. Which is one of the reasons why the bible said that we are like Jesus; as Jesus is, so are we in this world. 

Meaning we possess the same characteristics in the spirit that He possesses, otherwise why will Jesus say things like He said in John 14:12? You can only say such when that person shares your nature, your capacity. And so the truth is that if you are born again (when you are a spirit), you must allow that truth to sink into your spirit before you begin to ask other questions about how to operate like a spirit. Because first and foremost, it must be embedded, it must sink into your spirit of that being the truth before you can begin to get the other information about how to operate as such. 

copied from the book titled: Life In The Spirit (coming up soon).

By Pastor Mike. O. Onyeka

 

God Can Use Any Person As An Instrument To Promote Another.

 In the case of the promotion of Joseph in Egypt, God used Pharaoh; how did it happen? God gave Pharaoh a dream which only Joseph can interpret. 

 Before it occurred to the butler to remember Joseph and recommend Joseph to Pharaoh, Pharaoh had called all his wise men and magicians to interpret that dream which was a worrisome dream too him; but none of them do so.

And suddenly, God cause the butler who was once a prisoner in the same prison yard with Joseph, to recommend and mention Joseph to Pharaoh. And God used Pharaoh when Joseph came, interpreted the dream and recommended solutions revealed by the dream and asked Pharaoh to select a man to do that. Of course, God caused Pharaoh to say “As long and as much as you are the one God had given the interpretation of dream; and as long you’re the one that has preferred the wisdom for the solution, nobody else is more qualified than to occupy the position of the commission for food that you are recommending”. And now, he declared to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh and I declare that as from today that nobody will do as much as lift up a hand without your consent and permission. I make you the next person the throne; only in the throne shall I be higher than you” and he put a signet of authority in the hands of Joseph and that was it.  

So God can use even your sworn enemy to promote you; whether he knows what he’s doing or not. That is why it is a waste of time to spend all your energy praying for your enemies to die. Am not saying it is wrong to pray for enemies to die; no, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m not one say if you pray for someone who is looking to pay with their own life, then you have committed an offense. But what I’m saying is that their presence does not stop God from lifting you up. 

David in Psalm 23 said “He prepares a table before me, in the presence of my enemies”; and so God will promote in the presence of enemy and also use your enemies as instrument of promotion for you. When the wife of Portipha frames Joseph and caused him to be put into prison; she thought she was dealing with Joseph for refusing to sleep with her but people of God, we will get to point in teaching on the characteristics of Divine Promotion where Portipha’s wife who was an adulterer was converted into an instrument for the promotion of Joseph. She framed Joseph up; Joseph was put into prison and in prison Joseph the two servants of Pharaoh. He interpreted their dreams; one died, one went back to work. When it was difficult to interpret Pharaoh Dream, he remembered Joseph. So supposing Joseph had not gotten into prison and how else would he have gone to prison without that framing up from Portipha’s wife.

Therefore, God can use anybody, He can use any situation or circumstance as an instrument for bringing your promotion. Therefore, don’t think that everything that you don’t understand in your life is negative. It is not everything that you don’t understand about your life that is negative; some of them are part of the set up (destiny set-up) by God to bring you to a place of ordination as he has ordained. Therefore I prophecy to you today that in that prison, you are not going to die but God is going to take you out of that person and He going to send you to the seat or the throne of a Prime Minister, in the name of Jesus. I prophecy to you, that the obstacle is not going to kill you (that problem right now is not going to kill you); God is going to convert it into a stepping stone for your promotion which He has ordained according to His own grace of election, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Copied from the Book titled Divine Promotion by Pastor Mike Onyeka (coming up soon).