The Gideon Army for Missions and Evangelism

05/10/2024

DIVINE FAITH: THE STAYING POWER IN MINISTRY
When we say we are called into the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are saying that we are so convinced of the efficacy of the gospel to not only save us, but all mankind from our sins, and make us qualified to reign with Him in heaven; that we are prepared to commit all our lives to making that happen in the lives of as many people as possible anywhere and everywhere!

This was implied in the confession of the revered apostle Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians:

'It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.' (2 Cor. 4:13-14)

But when that conviction is in our expectation to become more prosperous and famous in this world; we have missed the essence of the gospel altogether. It's this type of calling now being answered by many men and women, that has brought much confusion and opprobrium to the body of Christ. To many people out there, and unfortunately, to some even in the church today, all that matters to anyone in the ministry is making ends meet.

Professing God's ministers have become so enamored with this vision of ministry that they would do "anything", and I mean "anything", to "arrive" in the ministry!

But the vision of the apostles of old were much different:

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."(2 Cor. 4: 16-18)

This was why the apostle Paul quoted from the Old Testament Scriptures in the book of Psalms:

'I believed, therefore I spoke..."' (Psalm 116:10)

I. We Need this Faith to Answer God's Call

Many people would like to be addressed pastors, prophets or even apostles for so many reasons: some see it as a way of being revered among other Christians.This is the case with those in the established churches, who see being addressed by these ministry titles a status symbol! Some people, in and out of the church, see ministry as a way of attracting financial help from unsuspecting donors: tithes and offerings have become the chief motivation for them answering the call into the ministry!

Paul, the apostle, succinctly described them in Philippians 3:18-19: "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things."

Genuine call and mission in the ministry is borne out of a very deep conviction in God's word. If we so believe God's word that no sinner: no matter how highly or lowly placed; no matter the race or culture; no matter the danger and difficulty in taking the gospel to him/her where s/he is; no matter the amount of financial involvement and personal sacrifice demanded; will escape God's judgement without the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God; we will not see any other thing being more important than commiting to the task of reaching as many people as possible with the gospel. We will want to spend and be spent commiting to that mission!

That's when we hear and answer the call to ministry in whatever capacity. If for whatever reason we are not going as ministers and missionaries, we will send some people or support those who are. We would be praying for them and encourage them the best we can.We would wish we have other faithful people working side by side us, reaching as many people where they are with the gospel. In short, the evangelization of the whole world, at whatever cost, would be our business.

This was how apostle Paul and the others saw the work of ministry and missions in their days. Paul could not see anything more important: "woe unto me if I preach not the gospel", he exclaimed to the Corinthians. He could also think of nothing more urgent: "preach the gospel in season and out of season" he admonished his beloved Timothy. He could not see any other thing as more consuming: "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear into myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." he declared to the elders of the church in Ephesus.

If we have the same spirit of FAITH, we would commit to preaching the gospel like Paul.

(Adapted from the article: "Divine Faith: the Staying Force in Missions - Gideon A. Oladepo" in this ministry's Newsletter Vol.7, No. 2, April-June 1997.To be continued...)

04/09/2024

Please join us this Saturday at our monthly CSR Progamme: REFORMATION and EMPOWERMENT for ADVANCEMENT and PROSPERITY (R.E.A.P.) Seminar.

“Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (Acts 3:6)

12/06/2024

GROWING INTO SPIRITUAL MATURITY...

In my last post, "Between the Spiritual, the Mental, and the Carnal Minds", I expantiated on the working relationships between our spiritual and mental being on one hand, and between our mental and emotional being on the other. I also highlighted how these interplays determine our decisions and actions, and our rationality, in the final analysis.

Here we see that it's through our spirits we perceive "God-consciousness" in our minds, influencing our cognitive thinking, and by implications our emotional intelligence, thus informing our decisions and actions. The "God-consciousness" in us is described as "the fear of God" in the scriptures. While the scripture is primarily responsible for our rapid advancement in "God-consciousness" or "the fear of God", our primary source is nature.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, wrote: ‭‭
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, for since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." (Romans 1:18-20)

We as humans derive our knowledge of God primarily from nature: God's creation.

The psalmist wrote:

"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.

"They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world...." (Psalm 19:1+4)

Nature is speaking all around us and in us, hence Paul concluded that we humans, with logical cognitive mental faculty for distilling and discerning knowledge from our contact with nature, are "without excuse' (Romans 1:20).

But the reading and studying the scriptures are to us what the "literature review" is to the academic researcher in his quest for gaining more knowledge in his field, for the benefit of humanity. When we read or study the scriptures, we are learning about God from the experiences of those who had gone before us: Jesus Christ and the people of His days used their knowledge of the old testament scriptures to teach and learn about God; while we, in this dispensation, have the benefits of learning from God's dealings with the peoples of both the old and the new testaments: the Bible.

With our understanding of God through our reading and studying the scriptures, we are, like the academic researcher, better positioned to understand what He's saying to us from our interactions with nature all around us: people, places and things. This improves our relationships with God and, as it quickens our ability to look into the invisible from the things that are visible around us: the development of our spiritual minds and, hence our spiritual maturity.

This, Paul the apostle, expantiated on in the same letter to the Romans, when he wrote:

".. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." (Romans 10: 13-17)

We therefore have a lot to do to develop our relationships with God through our spirits. The initiative to call on God for the re-ignition of the fire of that relationship belongs to us, as we call on Him for our salvation. But developing that initiative requires that we first have adequate knowledge of God to believe that He is. "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Heb. 11;6)

In summary, developing our spiritual maturity depends on our cognitive ability to know God from our experience with nature, which is rapidly accelerated by our reading and studying the scriptures. And which enables us to improve our relationships with God by our spirits, resulting in our ability to trust God as the One who rewards the decisions and actions we accomplish in our body; and who through Jesus Christ had made it possible for our sins to be forgiven, when we call on Him and continue in His teachings: our salvation!

10/06/2024

Between The Spiritual, the Mental, and the Carnal Minds

Man, according to the doctrine of the mainstream Christianity from the Bible, is a tripartite being. By this, we mean that his personality comprises: spirit, soul and body. These three components of his must function together in the right way for him to keep his sanity intact. In fact, the average human being operates in-between the extremes of these personality components, which determines, his rationality, that is, how far his spiritual and intellectual minds moderate his carnal mind, which in turn influences his behaviors to the outside world, who then adjudge him sane or insane, as the case may be.

Our carnal minds are naturally influenced by our emotions. The signals we receive through the physical gates in our body: the eyes, ears, nose, touch, and taste, instinctively trigger our emotions, informing our carnal minds the decisions to take and, as a result, our actions. We become hungry, happy, sad, angry, fearful, furious, excited, etc., as a result of this process. But when these automatic reactions are informed by our spiritual and/or mental minds, our reactions and actions can be different; and we are seen to be rational or more rational in our approach, which earns us the societal approval of a sane and ethical behavior. The contrary is also true when the instinctive reflexes of our flesh on our emotions take the upper hand.

A situation where our emotions are allowed to run haywire, not being correctly influenced by our mental faculty, could result in bizarre behaviors that could be interpreted as insanity. This is either because our mental faculty is relatively dormant or inactive, or is being fed with such knowledge, which makes it exert inappropriate control over our emotions (the carnal mind); or becomes too weak to exert the necessary influence on the emotions, and, as a result, on our actions.

Meanwhile, we must understand that our spirits have no direct control over our emotions. They must work through our souls, our intellects or mental faculty, to influence our emotions. It's through the spirit we receive the revelations from the word of God to feed our mental faculty, even when we read or study the bible. This is because it's that part of us that is in the image of God, through which we could have interaction (fellowship) with God, as did Adam and Eve, before the fall. It was that opportunity that was lost when both of them died spiritually after the fall, and were subsequently evicted from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8-19).

The door to receiving inspiration and revelation from God became restored through Jesus Christ who satisfied the demand for our restoration through His death on the cross. When we accept this gift of God, our privilege of fellowship with God, which we lost through the fall of Adam, is fully restored to us. This is when our God-consciousness becomes alive, and our spirit enjoys mutual interaction with God's Spirit. We are then in a position to allow God's Spirit control our spirits, and consequently our mental faculty, which can now control our emotions, and by implications, our decisions and our actions. (Romans 5:9-15)

17/11/2023

BETWEEN FAITH AND MERE COINCIDENCES

We Christians have to be careful not to misrepresent the truth while contesting for the truth. The issues here are twofold: the first question is, was Pastor Adeboye's account of the phenomenon being reported factual? And the second, proceeding from the first is, was he right to attribute it to the answer to his prayer, if factual?

Apparently, by attributing it to climate change, Pastor Adelaja is not contesting that it actually happened, as reported by Pastor Adeboye. My understanding of his ground for criticism is in attributing the phenomenon to God's answer to his prayer. This is a matter of opinion, which is based on individual's level of faith.

I had a similar experience when I first started to learn to walk by faith, as a new believer around 1982. I was a trainee accountant with Peat, Marwick, Ani, Ogunde (now KPMG). I lived opposite Saint Jude Anglican Church (a popular church) in Ilasamaja. As a trainee accountant on N350 a month, without any allowance for transportation, apart from the N1 daily lunch allowance; I had to fashion out how best to get to my office, deep inside Surulere, at Imam Dauda Street, Iganmu. The only route by bus was like "the Israelites' journey" through Mile 2, then by another bus to Orile. At Orile, I had to trek across the carnal on a plank foot bridge to my office. But a taxi trip from my house would have been shorter and less stressful, but for the cost.

I therefore devised the means of first trekking all the way to Idi Araba bus stop, to pick a taxi with my N1 lunch allowance. On this very day, the cloud became heavy on my stepping out of the house. I then sent a flash of prayer to God not to allow the rain to beat me, even though I had neither an umbrella nor a rain coat! As soon as I came to the junction, on my way to Idi Araba, I spotted one of our Audit Seniors going to the office in his Peugeot 504 car. He gave me a ride in his car to the office, just at the nick of time to avoid the rain beating me! I never knew him taking that route to the office, and he, in fact, confessed why he took that inner route that day, which was unusual of him: he had to call at a relation's house on his way!

That miracle however elevated my faith so much that it enabled me to "risk" my employment, combining my training as an accountant, writing the ICAN final professional examinations, with a four year L.I.F.E Bible College evening programme, and a load of activities in my local church: Gneral Sunday School Superintendent, Sunday School workers' trainer, English Yoruba interpreter, Church Council Secretary/Financial Secretary! It was a risk because, all it took to lose my employment, was to either fail or be referred in any one subject in my ICAN examinations for three consecutive times! But I made the two levels of the examination at my first attempts!

This is an expanded version of my earlier comment on the page where this post first appeared. What we believers see as miracles is what non-believers see as mere coincidences. Everything depends on our level of faith. Our faith is definitely needed to constantly experience such an affectionate relationship with God, hence we have to constantly preach faith (Romans 10:14-17). This was why the people of Nazareth missed out on some of Jesus's supernatural miracles, when compared to what the Lord accomplished in places like Capernaum, etc. (Matt. 13:58; Mark 6:4-13).

It should be also noted that our worldview determines our understanding of the phenomena of faith. What some of us, who believe, regard as miracles, are mere works of nature, coincidences, to the non-believers! With the European background in the matters of faith, it might sound outrageous what we in Africa, with our myriad of challenges, achieve in the realm of faith!
https://fb.watch/on7O8YTL50/?mibextid=RUbZ1f

05/11/2023

The Gideon’s 300 choice men are, judging by their activities, the best in their generation. God specially made them for His special purpose of accomplishing some of His most audacious tasks. And the process by which God chose them is instructive of how God brings out the best (0.9375%

03/11/2023

Have we ever wondered why Judas remained for so long in the company of Jesus despite his well known perfidy? While it was well known by His disciples that he was not as trustworthy; he was apparently held in exceptional contempt by John (the beloved), who outrightly unmasked him in his gospel. But he was especially tolerated by Jesus for the following reasons:

https://anchor.fm/gideon-oladepo/episodes/Why-there-Must-be-Judas-e2be9ll

31/10/2023

https://www.facebook.com/100044440633890/posts/887887436035936/?mibextid=CDWPTG

If I had 300 men who feared nothing but God, hated nothing but sin, and were determined to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we would set the world on fire.

22/10/2023

The Gideon’s 300 choice men are, judging by their activities, the best in their generation. God specially made them for His special purpose of accomplishing some of His most audacious tasks. And the process by which God chose them is instructive of how God brings out the best (0.9375%

The Gideon’s 300 choice men are, judging by their activities, the best in their generation. God specially made them for His special purpose of accomplishing some of His most audacious tasks. And the process by which God chose them is instructive of how God brings out the best (0.9375%

18/10/2023

There are things we need to know and pass to as many as are in our spheres of influence, as soon as we can: we are not born into this world by chance. Each one of us is uniquely and wonderfully made for a purpose by God, the Creator. We are here to serve that purpose.

There are things we need to know and pass to as many as are in our spheres of influence, as soon as we can: we are not born into this world by chance. Each one of us is uniquely and wonderfully made for a purpose by God, the Creator. We are here to serve that purpose.

18/10/2023

Everyone has some secret: even God! (Deuteronomy 29:29). But it's no more a secret whenever we have cause to reveal it to whoever we choose. It could only then become private to us, and confidential to those we share it. But anything private and confidential today, would eventually become public knowledge tomorrow! Every shared secret is just a matter of time... But this could later change other people's perspective about us, whenever it comes into the open. This was why Jesus warned us against beng hypocritical in our thinking, which is the only antidote.

Everyone has some secret: even God! (Deuteronomy 29:29). But it's no more a secret whenever we have cause to reveal it to whoever we choose. It could only then become private to us, and confidential to those we share it. But anything private and confidential today, would eventually become public kno...