Walking in the Spirit 1 | Rev. COS Fawenu

Don't be left in the dark. Get proper understanding of life

through the Word of God. My people perish for lack of

knowledge. The Word of God is an

illumination which gives direction.

Remember, place as Reverend was far and illuminates your mind

with the Word of God with all simplicity and clarity.

Let me read for us quickly. You can have your seat.

You're welcome to God's presence.

God bless you. Let me read quickly for you a

few verses that represents the commencement of the ministry of

Jesus and educators on the mission of Christ.

Matthew 419 And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make

you feces of may, or the line that praise, follow me.

Matthew is my thing. And in certain script came and

said unto him, Master, I will follow thee, wheresoever thou

goest. May we be ready to follow, and

may we be fully prepared to pay the price of following Him in

the name of Jesus. Matthew 822 But Jesus said unto

him, Follow me. Now this phrase, follow me is

becoming more and more consistent in the commencement

of the ministry of Jesus, which introduces an educators to his

mission. He said, But Jesus said unto

him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead, that nothing

can stand, no matter how important it may appear to us,

between US and the followership of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 99 And Jesus passed from dance.

He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of

custom. And he said unto him, Follow me.

And he aroused and followed him, So follow me again.

Matthew 6024 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man

will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,

and do what? Follow me.

Matthew 1921. Now we are just taking a

representation of the commencement of the ministry of

Jesus that introduces us to His mission and what our

relationship with Him should be. Jesus said unto him, Matthew

1921, If thou will be perfect, go and sell that thou us, and

give to the poor, and thou shall our treasure in evil, and come

and follow me. If you read other gospels, it's

the same praise the name of the Lord and the topic we begin to

explore from this Sunday and for a few weeks to come is titled

Walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit.

But to start with, we are going to examine Christian Faith

Foundation, Christian faith foundation.

So to walk in the Spirit as a basis, that's a foundation and

that's the foundation we are going to examine today from

those texts of the Scriptures. We are afraid.

It's so clear that Christianity is a followership feats.

Christianity is a followership faith from A to Z.

It is about following Christ. If you don't understand that, if

you don't embrace that, if that is not the basis of your being a

Christian, then you have missed it.

So Christianity is a followership faith.

A to say of the Christian faith is about following Christ.

So Christianity is an active faith is not a passive layer.

One came and said I want to follow you, but first and

foremost I want to bury my dead. Said no, let the dead bury the

dead. If you want to follow me, push

every other thing aside and make following me your singular

vocation. A rich man came and said, what

do I do to make it to eternal life?

Those are the backgrounds of some of the places I just read

to us. I just said to him, yes, you are

a wealthy man, go sell all that well, because it will constitute

a destruction by virtue of your mind attachment to those

material things. Go sell them, give the proceed

up from it to the poor and come and follow me taking up your

cross. So Christianity is a demanding

field. Many of you all that you know

about Christianity is that it's a rewarding feat.

But before it becomes a rewarding feat is first and

foremost a demanding feat. It's an active faith.

It's not a passive player. From those scriptures we read,

he called the disciples to journey with him and not to

jolly with him. To jolly means to party, so he

called the disciples to journey with him.

To advance with him. Himself was not standing pasty,

OK, He was active. He was a man on a mission and

anybody who will keep his company must be ready to journey

with him. So he called us to journey with

him, not to journey or party with him.

That is why I said earlier that the Christian faith is an active

faith is not a passive player. We are to journey with him OK,

if at all there is going to be a season of merriment that will

happen afterward, but not from the beginning is demand from

everyone or every would be disciple was constant follow me,

follow me, follow me. So salvation is not a one step

program. Salvation is not a one step

program. That the day you give your life

to Christ, then you have concluded all that it takes to

make eternal life. No, so we don't argue that you

don't, that there was not a day that you gave your life to

Christ. But what did you do afterward?

How have you been living your life afterward is a big

question. So if you consider salvation as

a one step program and you drop it there, you will discover that

you have not fulfilled the demands of following Christ.

You have not fulfilled the demand of making it to eternal

life. So is the demand from every

would be disciple was very constant.

Follow me for the fact that salvation is not a one step

program. Salvation is a progression.

It's not just a situational event.

It's a progression. It's a progression.

Tell somebody there is room for growth.

That's what there is room for growth.

Those they are just one level. Those they are just one level,

Hallelujah. So you don't come to Christ with

your couch. You don't come to Christ with

your server. You don't come to Christ with

your comfortable chair, OK, where you will sit down.

No, so you don't come to Christ with your couch.

You come with your canvas because you are about to set out

on a journey. When you come to Christ, you

come with your canvas that will make the journey easy for you.

You call with your Sanders, not with your mouth because you are

not coming to sleep. OK.

You are coming to embark on a journey.

So following Jesus is the standard, a standard that cannot

be subjected to the creativity of man.

Hello. Following Jesus is the standard.

It is the standard that cannot be subjected to the creativity

of men. Following Jesus cannot be

reinvented by human ideology. Hebrew 12 I read verses one and

two. Wherefore saying, We also are

compass about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay

aside every weight. So in this journey you travel

light, you don't load yourself with conscience of this world,

you lay aside every weight and the scene which thought easily

beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set

before us. So we are called unto a journey,

not unto a journeyman. Verse 2 looking unto Jesus, the

inventor that invented the faith that cannot be reinvented by

human ideology, the author and the finisher of our faith.

It's not. You see, the race is different

from the ministry. Hello, it is the ministry, the

ministry site of Christ. OK that we can say we are you

stop, we take it off from there. But the race, OK, He started it,

He completed it. The faith itself, He started it.

He did what? He completed it.

So you are not contributing any idea to your salvation.

Am I talking to somebody? There is nothing about the faith

that can be reinvented. It's a standard.

So Our Calling is on to compliance, not on to

contribution. So looking unto Jesus, the

author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was

set before him endured the cross, despise the shame, and

sat down at the hand at the right hand of the throne of God.

So what essentially does this mean?

It means when you meet Christ, you have to walk with him on the

way. So you don't meet Christ and

walk in your own way. The topic we are considering is

working in the Spirit, and we are starting from laying the

foundation of what the Christian faith itself is.

So you don't come to Christ to invent your own way or your own

style or your own method of practicing the faith.

So you don't meet Christ and walk in your own way.

You don't meet Christ and walk away from Him.

For everyone that He makes. What He demanded from them is to

follow Him. So the direction must be the

same. There must not be distraction so

you don't look elsewhere and copy what is being done there.

I'm bringing, I said. Since they are doing it that way

in the other way, then let us also follow the same method.

No, so you don't meet cries and walk away from him.

You are not permitted to watch him afar off.

What Christ followership demand is intimacy, because without

intimacy there can't be bonding. We are the sheep of this

pasture. We are not free range animals.

You know free range animals. They can grace on any feet.

Are you with me? We are called sheep are not

goats. We are the sheep of his pasture,

His pasture. So we have our territory.

So He demand of us intimacy, and that intimacy will create

bonding and the body will result into Christlikeness.

The reason your lifestyle is far apart from the standard of

Christ is because you are watching Him afar off.

You are not close to Him. We are expected to become like

Him and to become like Him we must be with Him.

Becoming like Him is a product of being with Him.

The reason you are not becoming like him is because you have not

been with him. You have met him, but you have

not stayed with him. So you don't make Christ to

pathway with him. You meet Him to stay.

You meet Him to abide. Say are we abide?

I can't hear that brother. Do I have sisters in the Church

in verse four and five of Gospel according to Saint John, Let's

hear him abide in me, and I in you.

Bond with me. As the branch cannot be a fruit

of itself, except you abide in the vine, no more can ye except

you abide in me. Verse five I am divine.

Ye are the branches, ye that abided in me, and I in him.

The same bring forth more fruit, for without me ye can do

nothing. Let's add verse six and seven.

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and his

widow. And men gather them and cast

them into the fire, and they are born.

Seven. If ye abide in me, and my words

abide in you, you shall ask what you shall ask what you will, and

it shall be done unto you. So when you meet him, you meet

him to walk with him. Every of your movement is

within. Every of your movement is in

him, with him. Hello.

So that's why I said the Christian faith is a

followership. Faith here to say of

Christianity is to follow Christ is about following Christ.

So when you meet Him, you should prepare your mind that you are

setting out on a journey with Him.

So you meet Him to work with Him.

Every of your moment is with Him.

That is intimacy. Every of your movement is in Him

and with Him. Act 1728 For in Him we leave.

So in which world are you leaving?

The world of movies or the world of Christ?

Am I asking this an intelligent question?

Is somebody reflecting on that question?

In which world are you living the world of fashion?

The world of movies? The world of slangs?

The world of cultism? The world of things invoke novel

things or the world of keeping step with Jesus, That's Our

Calling, is the followership thing.

Keeping step with Jesus, not following him afar off.

You are not to be pee pee into the things of Christ.

You are supposed to be with him and see clearly.

So for in him we leave, we move. That's why I said every of our

movement is within. Every of our movement is in him

and within you are the sheep of this pastor.

You are not a free range animal. You can't be everywhere.

Not every function is meant for you.

Hello. I hear short people say they go

to nightclub when I will not there to drink and wine.

We are there to pick. What a misunderstanding of

identity are you looking for there?

How would you become a victim of what dinner the daughter of

Jacob experience when you don't understand that you're calling

OK is to ensure that every of your movement is with him.

Every of your movement is in him and with him.

In other words, when he's standing, OK, you are moving,

you are moving him, and when he is moving, OK, you are moving

with him. The children of Israel in the

wilderness understood that perfectly as they comply with

the movement of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of light

that gives them the signal. We have to settle, OK, and we

have to advance. I pray that God will grant you

grace to keep steps with Jesus in the name of Jesus, for in Him

we leave. That is our word.

That's what's our word and move and have our being the a part of

Acts 1720. And when we are in Him, what do

we do? We are in Him to learn at His

feet because when we learn at His feet that we can walk in His

steps, of course we are going to be expected to eventually work

on His feet. But before you start to walk on

His feet, you must first learn at His feet.

The reason many of us are performing unacceptable ministry

is because we don't prioritize learning at His feet before we

jump to walking on His feet. Are you with me?

Say, Lord, give me the patience to learn correctly at your feet

so that I can perform acceptable ministry on your feet.

So Christianity again on the second note, the first note is

that it's a followership faith. Then the second side to it, that

Christianity is not an activity driven faith, but a knowledge

driven faith. That's where the issue of

training him to learn as you ought to learn comes in.

Other faith is about activities, it's about what you do, it's

about obligations. Hello.

The Christian faith is not first about obligation, is first about

devotion. It's a faith of devotion, not

just about rules and obligations.

So it's not an activity driven faith, but a non net driven

faith. That is why some people will

come on the last day and they will narrate the activities, the

various dimensions of assignment they have done in his name.

And then it will tell them, go away from me, you workers of

iniquity, because all that they did OK did not happen in

compliance, which is standard. John 832 Ye shall know the truth

and the truth shall make you free.

So it's a knowledge driven faith and no any amount of genuine

activity that you bring to the table.

We compel God to suspend His demand for knowledge no any

amount of genuine activity, religious activities you put up

when I impress him so much that he will not be compelled to

suspend his demand for knowledge is demand for understanding

faith. Comment by hearing hearing by

the word of God and not by performing rituals.

So it's a knowledge driven phrase.

That is why the scripture is very emphatic about prioritizing

obedience above sacrifice. Let me cite the example of Mary

and Mata to protect the fact that no matter how genuine

religious activities may be, matter how profound religious

activity may be, such will never compel God to suspend His demand

for knowledge. Let's jump read that story of

Mary and Mata, the sisters of Lazarus, Luke 1038.

We jump to verse 40 and verse 41.

Those 3 verses will summarize the story for those who knew the

story before. Now it came to pass as the wind

that he enter into a certain village and a certain woman

named Mata received him into our house.

The same way you receive Jesus into your life, and the next

thing we find you doing is jumping up and down without you

first and foremost, learning at his feet without you first and

foremost subjecting yourself to be discipled, to be thoroughly

baked, to be taught to receive Jesus into his house.

Make Jesus sit down then jump into the kitchen to make food

for Jesus, but matter was Kumba about much saving and came to

him and said Lord, dost thou not care that my sister had left me

to serve alone be therefore that she helped me.

So this matter that we're talking about as a sister or had

a sister and the name is what Mary Mary when and sat with

Jesus and Jesus was teaching her and matter was so concerned that

how are we going to have a guest and the next thing is for you to

sit down with the guest and you are talking with the girl

instead of joining me in the kitchen to prepare meal OK for

our guest. Verse 41 And Jesus answered and

said unto her, Matter matter, thou are careful, and trouble

about many things. We read from Hebrew.

Putting aside those wits that will not allow us to be able to

travel with Him. Thou are trouble about many

things said, But your sister Mary has to say that which is

good, and nobody can take it from us.

So if you look at this story from a strictly human

perspective, Matter was domestically correct, but she

was divinely wrong. When you applied the rule of

hospitality, she was correct, but when you applied the rule of

spirituality, she was down to wrong.

So from hospitality perspective matter was correct, but from

sociality perspective, Jesus matter wrong.

You know, when Jesus was here, every of his mission were meant

to set the standard of the faith, how the faith should be

practiced afterward. So even his visit to the home of

Mata and Mary must be filled and interpreted as a divine nation

and not just a mere social visit.

In that case, what could be judged as an excellent

hospitality in human estimation was disdained by Jesus.

Why? What could be judged as an

excellent approach to hospitality was brought into the

same space with the teaching and learning of the Word of God.

But Jesus will not want to accommodate that because the

Christian faith is a faith that practices learning above action

or demand learning before action.

So we are called therefore, to prioritize working with him, are

both working for him. We are called to prioritize

working with him, following Him, advancing with Him, being with

Him, abiding in him, are both working for him.

Of course, the work that we do for him, we be valued based on

the consistency of our work within.

The acceptability of the work that we do for him we valued on

the basis of the consistency of our working within, based on the

consistency of our unbroken fellowship within.

The topic we are considering is working in the Spirit.

So the Christian faith is a walk is not a fork.

Tell somebody the Christian faith is a work is not a fork.

Am I talking to somebody? It's a progression.

It's not just a confession. With the heart we believe unto

salvation, with the mouth we confess hello.

So it's a progression. It's not something that stop at

merely confessing that Jesus is Lord.

So you believe with your heart, you confess with your mouth.

But it does not end there. All of those are the

commencement stage of the journey of faith, The

commencement of the journey of faith that you cannot undertake

independent of the Holy Spirit. So it's not a journey in the

flesh. It's not a journey you can

undertake independent of the partnership of the Holy Spirit.

In him we live. Romans 8.

Let's not establish the place of the Holy Spirit in this journey

#1 the Christian faith is a followership.

Faith is a faith that demands followership.

Followers worship of your hero, of your godmother, of your

godfather, fellowship of your idol.

No followership of Jesus looking onto Jesus the Author and the

finisher of our faith. Not looking onto your General

Vashir unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith #2 it

is a knowledge based faith. It's what a knowledge faith base

a progression, not just a convention.

And the third leg to this matter is that this journey cannot be

on that took without the partnership of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 30. Romans 8.

For if you live after the flesh, you shall die, but if you

through the Spirit do modify the this of the body, you shall

live. For as many as are led by the

Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

There's no confirmation OK to your claim to salvation when you

are not being led by the Spirit of God, because it only implies

that you stop at the convention stage.

You didn't embrace the progression stage after

confession. There must be a followership of

Him. You advance with Him, you take

steps with Him, you walk in His step.

You don't invent your own way. You don't meet him and pathway

with Him. You don't meet him and still

continue to walk in your own way.

You walk in the way with Him. So essentially Christianity is a

working with God through the help of the Holy Spirit.

It is this work with God that will eventually lead to working

with Him. May I tell you or let you know

or draw your attention to it? In case you don't know that it

is much easier to work for God when you are not working with

Him. The flesh can work for Him, but

He cannot work with Him unless it is modified.

That's what I'm saying.

That's why you must prioritize working with him.

Are both merely working for him, singing in the choir?

When you are not born again, you have not started the journey of

followership, preaching on the pulpit, OK?

When you have not modified the deeds of the flesh, we're told

in Romans 8, Modify the flesh and you will not fulfill the

desires of the flesh. Father, we'll thank you for this

much. We can travel on this road

today. We ask, O Lord, that will help

us to be genuine followers of the way.

You help us to abide in You. You help us to make progress

with you. You help us to keep walking in

Your step, not inventing our own ways, not pleasing ourself.

In the name of Jesus. You have called us to journey

with You, not to journey with the world.

But here we are, many of all. Instead of joining with you, we

are full of journeymen in the world.

I ask, O Lord, that grace will be given to us to carry our

cross and to follow you accordingly in the name of

Jesus. Thank you Lord, for answer

prayer. In Jesus mighty name we have

prayed. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. We believe you'll be blessed by

the ministry of this message. You will do well to be the doer

of all you've heard. For further inquiry and

spiritual help, contact this number is 08035685882 or worship

with us at Oasis of Wisdom Bible Church or Justin's University of

Ellorin Teaching Hospital. OK OC Ellorin, God bless you.