Spiritual Exercise - Pastor Akinkuotu Boluwatife V

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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotation are taken from the King James Version of the Bible Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplied Bible and MSG as the Message Bible Copyright (c) 2021 Seed of Greatness Ministries through Herald The Faith Publications Reproduction of text in whole or in part without the consent of the author is not permitted and is unlawful Nigeria: +2348066837603 Email: akinkuotuboluwatife@gmail.com Facebook: Seed of Greatness Ministries Twitter: Bolu_Akins ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) Table of Contents Dedication ............................................ ................................ iii Appreciation ......................................... .................................. iv Introduction ........................................... ................................. 05 Module One ........................................... ............................... 07 Module Two ............................................ ............................... 44 ii ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) Dedication This edition been my first sole publication is dedicated to my beloved mother Akinkuotu Funmilayo Ololade for her support over the years, for her words, prayers and sacrifice that has enabled us to carry out he work of the ministry easily, she is God's gift to me as a person and to Seed of Greatness Ministries as a family. God will not forget her labour of love I pray she is able to do much more to add more value to us In Jesus Name Amen iii ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) Appreciation My heart felt gratitude goes my Almighty Father who have raised me, chosen me and equipped me for His divine will, i certainly would be nothing without Him, all the good things we have has been given by Him, sincerely no Father like Him. I would also love to appreciate my beloved wife Olabisi for her support and our Editorial team for their seless labour for this work to be edited. Thank You Sincerely Grateful iv ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) Introduction This book metamorphosed from one of our online meetings, I saw the need to deliberate more on this teaching, and to pour out my heart on the subject matter. There were many things the Lord told me to emphasize. I would also be directly lifting those instructions and its implication to our Christian life, because the subject matter directly inuences spiritual growth which in turn affects the quality of our Christian life. It is expedient for us to look into these areas with keen interest and watch what the Lord will say to us so that we can make decisions that will affect our growth positively. One of the instructions the Lord gave was to emphasize on the subject of consistency in spiritual exercise in piety towards God. To walk with God is beyond few minutes, days or year; it’s a daily thing. Many of us have once in our life time had honeymoon with God. By that I mean an expensive or protracted time with the Lord, let say forty days prayer and fasting or at certain time in our lives we gave ourselves to the ministry of the Word. While that is good, God is looking for a daily enraptured time with him, where you can know Him and hear from Him daily. Many of us are only running our spiritual life on the fuel, light or re we got some years back. Now the re is gone and we are left with ashes to prove that we were once on re, not knowing that the ashes can neither withstand rain, re or wind. What we think we know has quietly slipped out of our minds as smoke out of a long quenched re. The reason is that we failed to walk with the Lord daily and only trust in encounters in years gone by, however God requires that we are consistent and faithful disciples and sons of Him. Many of us had seen God but now we are not seeing Him. We have known His ways and heart but now we do not look like it just because we slide back to make our life look worthy without Him. Even though we have earthly possession of some sort, until we see ourselves only in Him and nothing without Him, we would have other options than to walk with Him. You see, some already trust in bows, spears and sword so there is no space to trust in the Lord. This is what they don’t know- machines, bodyguards, Boluwatife Akinkuotu 05 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) armoured vehicles only stops death to an extent, Satan in his cunningness is creating more weapons of mass destructions that don’t look like agent of death to us. In ministry, Satan is devising more spiritual methods to kill. Few years back it was popularized that it’s either Gold, Girls or Glory kills one, so, one is to watch out for them fervently. While this is true, do you also know that a lot of ministers of God die because of stress from unrest, nancial pressure and all sort of pressure, lack of been taken care of by the church and competitive spirit, hatred from deacons, members and other pastors? You see that there are many ways to be eliminated and you will be if you don’t walk with God consistently. Many have only learned to trust the arm of esh which will fail in due time but you must relegate your other options in your heart. If you can listen and trust in business forecast why then do you need to pray to take decision? If you can see with your physical eyes only, then why pray instead of pitching tent near Sodom and Gomorrah? Why pray concerning a life partner? As you erase all your natural options you will begin to see the need for a daily walk with God and the price of consistency. In such, you will understand that walking with God is not just something that’s supposed to be on your wishlist only but something you must exercise yourself daily to. In the next few pages I would be discussing the principles and practices that we need to exercise daily or as a routine to help us keep spiritually t in order to exercise ourselves constantly unto godliness. In fact, the practice of these things is the exercising of ourselves unto godliness. I also encourage you to read between the lines. Your brother in Christ Bolu Akin Boluwatife Akinkuotu 06 Module One BIBLICAL CONCEPT Boluwatife Akinkuotu 07 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) As there are activities in the physical for the maintenance of the body and our immediate environment, even much more benecial activities are there for spiritual growth and enforcement of God's will in the spiritual that governs the totality of our lives. Do you know a lot of physical and chemical activities are going on around you but you are not aware, same as spiritual too. In fact I believe it’s the wisdom of God to conceal some things if not we may not even want to relate with natural things at all. Also I want us to do away with spiritism and over spirituality. Part of over spirituality is neglecting totally the physical and focusing only on the spiritual, not to touch, eat, sleep, wash, be clean, look good etc. Neglect of the natural will kill you quick because the physical or natural body houses the spiritual. When the natural gets tired of inconsistency towards it, it will give way for your spirit to come out before you can nish your assignment. 1 Timothy 4:7-8 But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness [8] For bodily exercise proteth little: but godliness is protable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This does not suggest that you don't do exercise at all. In fact, it acknowledges its little prot in the sense that it is natural, the result are physical, temporary and not eternal. He rather points you to a spiritual exercise. Apostle Paul frequently borrowed metaphors from the athletics track - see 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Galatians 5:7; Philippians 2:16. The picture here is the Greek gymnasium, with grounds for exercise, running, wrestling etc. It was a place for bodily exercise and competition. Now see what Paul says to Timothy -“You, as a Christian, must exercise your soul as carefully, regularly and rigorously as the worldly Greeks exercise their bodies. Those that exercise their bodies do it rigorously that they sweat, they pay attention to it. I once saw an athlete dragging a caterpillar vehicle Boluwatife Akinkuotu 08 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) tyre tied with rope to his waist while on a journey in a commercial bus in Lagos State Nigeria. I initially thought he was under punishment until I saw others with their ‘cross’. Some carried little weight, some were just jogging. It’s not easy to be an athlete, to build muscle or lift weight. It takes consistency, commitment and devotion to sustain tness, same as spiritual too. If they do this thing for temporary things, how much more we can exercise ourselves to godliness and spiritually fruitful activities. Theirs is a physical exercise only while yours is a spiritual exercise. Theirs makes the body well and develops it, your objective must be to keep your soul t and to develop it unto godliness, in order that you may become a godly person, growing in spiritual maturity and Christ-likeness. You must develop spiritual stamina and strength. You must be thick, you must be spiritually built in order to carry out divine assignment. See, in the world of today, a believer who wants to stand in the evil day must feed his soul well. The issue is, to gain spiritual weight you must shed physical weight, One must go for one at certain point and the other an alternative forgone for that season. There must be a trade-off between natural things and spiritual things. If you want to be a man of the spirit or spiritually matured, you must be prepared to let go of natural things and ideologies for spiritual things that can permit you to grow and you must prepare your heart to be consistent and diligent at them. They must be consistent activities to avoid reversal or pseudo kind of growth. An example is the church in Galatia which had been established in the doctrine of grace through Christ our Lord. As long as they fed on the right diet consistently through the Apostle Paul, they grew but immediately their diet changed to another kind of gospel or rather, faith in the mosaic law that has been done away with, they began to draw back. Galatians 3:1- O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucied? Let me ask you; have you see a man who used to train his body few years ago that gave it up? I have seen brethren. Boluwatife Akinkuotu 09 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) All their six packs, muscles and big chest have vanished. They now have a pot belly. Those chests have become breasts. They used to be hard on themselves in self discipline to train their body but they gave it up. This is exactly what is wrong with some Christians. At the beginning of their Christian life they read the Bible, prayed, fasted, attended meetings, healed the sick and the likes but after a while they let go of the discipline of doing these things especially reading and meditating on the scriptures, then what they used to conquer now conquers them. When you stop doing spiritual exercise you have stopped watching. Watching is not with the senses or physical eyes, its spiritual. That's why Jesus said watch and pray. A spiritually dull person can’t watch and would always swim in the pool of temptations. In fact, he or she may have gone so far that it would take days or months to show the person that you have sinned. The more spiritually dull an individual is, the more time it would take you to try to bring such persons out of the deceitfulness of the pleasures of sin. There are certain people, immediately they stumble - it may not even be what we count as offence, maybe they didn’t walk in love-, they would say like David, ‘Oh I have sinned’. But you would see some person caught in the very act of smoking, fornication, adultery or drinking. ‘Brother, this character is unlike a new creature’. Then you will hear brother show me the scriptures that says don’t smoke and drink. Even when you show them they have been separated and made holy and those things by implication and biblical examples do not glorify God, they still need exegesis to repent. To others sexual sins such as fornication, lesbianism, gayism have been redened to be accepted by their own version of the scriptures and because they gave their bodies and their mind to be besieged by lust and spiritual dullness, they are carried by the wind of strong delusion and deception, morally they begin to stink that even unbelievers begin to correct their moral judgement of good and bad. You are not trying to grow your spirit man, your spirit is perfect. It’s already joined with God's spirit, but your mind, heart or soul must develop Boluwatife Akinkuotu 10 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) to catch up with spiritual realities and the body must be subjected with all gravity. 1Corinthians 6:17- He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit, but your body must be retrained and set on display as instrument of righteousness. You must grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. As a matter of fact, your spirit knows all things. If Jesus appears to him without Him introducing himself he would know. If it’s a fake Jesus He would know. Your spirit has come to the awareness of spiritual understanding of God’s nature and love, but your mind and body have to grow into that reality. Your spirit cannot be joined with the precious Holy Spirit and it remains unchanged or in darkness. The Holy Spirit is the light of your spirit - co-joined and sealed in there as a guarantee of the quality of Christ nished work from the cross to the throne. No darkness of any sought in there but the mind can be darkened by several philosophy, thoughts, external inuence and words. In fact, the rst time light would have ooded your heart was when the Word of Truth - The gospel was preached to you. Colossians 2:8 – “Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ’’. Then you receive the light, believed and began to see that you are saved by grace through faith under the light of God’s word. As you have received the light of the gospel through his word, you must begin to see every area of your life under the light of God’s word in the face of Christ. Spiritual growth for a new man in Christ does not only come by learning how Israel moved from Egypt to Canaan land or good biblical examples, because all these knowledge were available to the Jews. Jesus never discouraged nor spoke ill of those teaching. He even cited them Luke 4:26(1King 17:9), 4:18 (Isi 61:1), same as Apostles Acts 2:25(Psalms 16:8), 1Peter 2:24(Isi 53:4,11) but He explained concerning himself from the scriptures because that knowledge is the bedrock of their salvation. Luke 24:25 Then he said unto them, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: " 26 "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? " 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he Boluwatife Akinkuotu 11 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. 44 And he said unto them, "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fullled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. " Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, 46 And said unto them, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: " 47 "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” I believe Isaiah and Psalm are the most quoted scriptures in the Old Testament and they are the most messianic (this in no way suggests the inferiority of other teachings apart from salvation, it only instructs that since there is a strong emphasis all through the scriptures then it must be the rst teaching in the ladder of priority as Jesus also conrms it by putting the salvation of souls rst and then other teachings followed and not the other way round. I put you to remembrance how Christ said, “What shall it prot a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” Salvation is the point of entrance to everything God provided in Christ Jesus. To miss salvation is to miss God. Furthermore, a lot of spiritual realities were brought to light concerning Christ and His church. For example, in rst Corinthians, sixteenth verse of the third chapter, it says ye are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwell in you, so are you still looking for God’s house, you are now! Same way the temple was, now the physical temple is God’s property bought by the church with money provided by God, but you are God’s own property bought, washed and cleansed by Christ’s precious blood that far outweighs perishable things. So, God bought you to reside in you, glory! You are looking for God’s House, look, here we are! Hallelujah. It’s more than information; it is a fact and revelation. But when are we going to simply believe this? There are some sects of people struggling to believe this but as soon as they nally believe this, the devil through religious people quickly tells them that the Holy Spirit has not come to reside permanently or fully, they quickly quote how Boluwatife Akinkuotu 12 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) David said take not thy spirit from me. Wake up brothers and sisters. Did David have an advocate just freshly slain for his sake? - A new way and access to God! The Holy Spirit has come to stay; exactly why he washed, cleansed, puried and justied us (Titus 3:4-7 1Corin 6:11, Eph 1:13, 4:30, Heb 10:1-22) 1Cor 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 2Cor 6:16 - And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. It is as we grow in true spiritual knowledge concerning Christ that we can say we have grown. You may grow in wisdom by reading proverbs but that doesn’t mean you have grown spiritually. It only means you have grown in certain wisdom for living or been instilled with the fear of God, because any unbeliever can accept certain wisdom of God that helps good conduct and general faith but spiritual wisdom is beyond that. Right living that stems out from right believing is the true sign of spiritual growth. The highest form of spiritual growth is concerning Christ, the new creation and the reality that follows (that you see God in Christ, and you see yourself in Him, can you truly say myself and God are one in my spirit! That’s not a joke; that is what God made possible in Christ), the argument is not ‘can we neglect other wisdom for living in the Bible?’ If you neglect it, you would pay dearly for it because these things were written for an example of things to follow and avoid. 1Cor 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Boluwatife Akinkuotu 13 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) Rock was Christ. 5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. 10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Every canonized writings of the Bible- not just the books of the law- qualies to be God’s breathe or inspiration because they all agree to a central theme of Jesus either in prophecy, types and shadows or plain speeches. 2Tim 3:16- All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is protable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. This example tupos greek teaching in form of analogy to us, but there are certain knowledge we ought to live in as children of God. The Christian life is beyond leaving or following things, it’s a Life, a life that Christ shared and the result that follows. Now your exposure to that life determines how you have grown in the knowledge of Christ. There is growth in natural wisdom and there is growth in spiritual wisdom. 1Cor 2:1- And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucied. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, Boluwatife Akinkuotu 14 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 6 We speak wisdom, however, among them that are full- grown: yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nought: 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory: 8 which none of the rulers of this world hath known: for had they known it, they would not have crucied the Lord of glory: Jesus is The Wisdom of God Glory! The Wisdom Hidden as a mystery. A mystery is not something mysterious even though it is astonishing. A mystery is a hidden secret. I Corinthians 1:24- But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 1Pet 1:18- Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 1Pet 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. When we say spiritual wisdom we are not just talking about good advice, we are talking of wisdom not revealed to the world, hidden from the foundation of the world until Christ was revealed. It was a hidden mystery to the prophets as God spoke through them but to us it’s a light, a shadow to them, a reality as bright light to us - light of life. It’s a knowledge hidden from the most scholastic doctors, nobles and professors in the esh Boluwatife Akinkuotu 15 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) today but rightly understood by a humble believing illiterate. The highest form of spiritual knowledge, that of a truth Christ died, was buried and raised back to life, as Christ is the wisdom and power of God so is the preaching of the good news of Christ the wisdom of God unto salvation. 1Cor 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew rst, and also to the Greek. Where else could we have found out that He Jesus was the Son of God and that the Son of God came that He might bring many Sons to Glory and that we are sons of God? Where else could we have seen that we have eternal redemption which is eternal forgiveness of sins through Christ blood? Where else could we have seen that we could pray in the spirit and live a life of the spirit? Where else could we see the demonstration of power in Christ’s name? Where else could we have seen the order in and power invested on the Church? Where else could we have seen the message of salvation and substitutionary works of Christ explained from Calvary to God’s heavenly throne? Where else could we see where it is said to plainly and boldly call God our Father? It’s a spiritual knowledge. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18 If you don't grow you would never have spiritual boldness to command authority even though all authority to effect changes in heaven Boluwatife Akinkuotu 16 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) and earth has been passed on to you in Christ Jesus. In fact, for you to know you have one authority in Christ somewhere means you've received a form of knowledge - that is you have grown to an extent because when you were in the world you didn't know that. You couldn't even use it because you never even had authority in Christ because you were not in Christ. The body of a man is not the man as 1Thess 5:23 gives the spiritual order of the faculties or constituent of man; it is only the house in which the man lives. Spiritual exercise, however, prots and benets the soul and expression of the spirit man, the inward man who lives in the body (2Corin 4:6, Rom 7:22). Thus, Hendriksen renders 1 Timothy 4:7, “Train yourself for godly living”; and J.B. Phillips makes it read, “Take time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually t”. 1. It is a Personal Decision The apostle says, “Train yourself.”This is something we must do for ourselves - Just as how Paul points Timothy to personal practice that would benet him and others in the work of the ministry. 1Tim 4:16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. There are lot of Christians who love to push responsibilities to others. Some may even say I cannot form a good habit without the support of others. While God has envisaged this and provided the local church and ministry gift for this purpose, it is clear that we have a responsibility to full. We must be personally driven and embrace a heart and attitude of self-directed learner who has taken a journey of learning a course with zero external motivation. Spiritual growth is not a point only we desire to reach, it is a lifelong journey so also is the spiritual exercise. You see, the demands Boluwatife Akinkuotu 17 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) will keep going high daily as we progress this journey. Following the Lord is your cross to carry. While Jesus has borne all our sins, it’s our responsibility to pay the price of knowing him which of course can never match up to the price He paid to grant us direct access to the Father. For example, He has inspired this written word several years ago but it’s your responsibility to study, meditate and rightly divide the word of truth. You see, because the word of God is in literature form does not mean only logical studies will do, thus giving us another responsibility to pray of revelation knowledge, deep and concise insight to the things we read as Paul prayed in Eph 1:15- Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that lleth all in all. A lot of people read scriptures and it is still bit by bit in their mind. It’s like a scattered letter or puzzle and they still cannot grasp it or know what to do with it, thus the fruit of the scriptures is not evident in them or through them. They have known many things in the scriptures except for the riches and spiritual wealth, the sacrice of Jesus confers on them. Col 2:1- For I would that ye knew what great conict I have for you, Boluwatife Akinkuotu 18 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the esh; 2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; 3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge., they read it but they are not ooded with its light, they still nd other insight worth looking into other than Christ and the more they read or commit to memory the less they know, this was the problem of the Pharisees and doctors of the law. John 5:39asv- Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me. John 5:40- and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life. They were searching the scriptures but miss the testimony of Jesus. They read the witness of the prophet but could not come to terms with it. They saw the works of Jesus and his message but rather went cold and carnal about it. How many of us are like this today trying so hard to misunderstand the gospel of grace and eternal redemption? We are unable to come to terms that we have obtained eternal redemption which is forgiveness of sins or reconciliation of debt. We have refused to advance in spiritual knowledge, claiming that the blood of bulls and goats that can cover sins for one year is far better than the life of Jesus taken to give life to everyone who believes. We bring up lame carnal examples to disapprove of the spiritual wealth that Jesus paid dearly for with his life and rather than to submit to God’s word, we pick schools of thought and divide the church of God into sects as the Pharisees and Sadducee did to the temple. ‘We cannot help God’ gives the excuse that if we preach, these people will be licensed to commit sin. Do people ever need our permission to sin? Did God not think of that when he inspired the text or when He sent Jesus to die so that through his name, there would be forgiveness of sins? Of course, he might have, but the Lord’s portals of remoulding the believer’s thought are Boluwatife Akinkuotu 19 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) His word and Spirit. Using the liberty God has given in an unconditional love and looking at God’s word which is the believer’s tool of renewal enables him or her act godly not a fear-driven motivation of missing hell or abandonment by the Holy Spirit with which the believer is sealed unto the day of redemption (Eph 1:13, 4:30) as no scriptures in true contextual analysis points to Holy Spirit leaving the believer, Hebrews further say of its impossibility- Hebrews 6:4. Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, 2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this will we do, if God permit. Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. 7 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: 8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. 9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. 17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, conrmed it by an oath: 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have ed for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after Boluwatife Akinkuotu 20 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) the order of Melchizedek. We are persuaded of better things not just because of our goodness but by the faithfulness of our High Priest, whom we are justied by His Faithfulness as our eternal representative. So many times our religious mind bars us from knowing God or progressing in our intimate knowledge in the face of Christ. The scriptures above speaks of it’s impossibility of losing one’s salvation and having a sure anchor in Christ not the impossibility of becoming a saved person again after the impossible thing has happened. This is the strong consolation this author tries to show us, He tries to persuade us of the better things that accompany salvation in Christ as opposed to the covering of sins under the mosaic law before it was done away with. Don’t struggle with revelation knowledge in God’s word, you can never grow by struggling with God’s truth concerning Christ and the believer (In Christ Reality). 2Cor 4:5- For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So I can counsel you that if you really want to know God, don’t look at religion; look at Christ. Don’t just read about him or hear his message only, do that and look at the His Life as a whole because Jesus is God becoming esh (The God Incarnate - Put on esh or simply put came as a Man). John 1:1- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. 14 And the Word was made esh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. So Jesus been God the Word or The Word of God the Father who has been with the Father from the beginning must be the most Boluwatife Akinkuotu 21 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) accurate representative of Him. John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him, the perfect representative of the Father Heb 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; :3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person…amp: He is the sole expression of the glory of God [the light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty of high. So, learning of Christ will terminate your struggles of knowing God. Religion further separates Man from God; it doesn't separate God from Man. God is not bound by religion but man is; religion is men’s opinion of God but knowing God is life eternal. Knowing God is in His word and via His Spirit. Can you believe till date some believers still feels they are not qualied to call God ‘Father’ even when the scriptures says as many ‘as believed to them he gave them ability, right or power to be called sons of God’. John 1:11asv- He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name. It’s not about feeling brethren. He says ‘Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is’- 1John 3:2; not when you feel like it. A lot of God’s children feel abandoned because they don’t know or recognize God as their Father. You see God revealed himself personally to me as the Almighty in an encounter, so, I see Him as that. But not just that only; because everything God is, it is for His children. That God is Almighty is not news. If He created the heavens and earth, host of angels and Boluwatife Akinkuotu 22 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) everything in heaven and under heaven, then nothing would be greater than Him. This is simple to understand but to understand that this mighty God is for us and that He is our Father, that as we have come through Christ at the point of salvation we have access because of the blood of Jesus Christ, meaning His life was taken as ransom to give life and access, we have access 24/7 to this mighty God, no religious mind can bear that light until that religious mind quit placing God as an inaccessible person to the reality that we are in fellowship with Him and that we are in Him and He is in us. 1John 1:3- That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. John 14:16- "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; " 17 "Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. " We must receive the Word of God in faith and with all readiness of heart, its a personal decision that you must make as a person and as a church, to not treat the word of God with contempt or with religious mind. There are lots of people today who are vehemently opposing themselves in religious error. They think they are standing for truth while others are trading the truth for other things. See, you may read or misread a scripture a million times, until you allow the light and life of that scripture affect you, you are moving no forward. You may have millions of fans, supporters, donations, or whatsoever don’t let that deceive you. There are many people like this deceiving others and been deceived. The truth is not known by its harshness, hardness or sweetness but in the spiritual fact it presents with proper study tools and sound conclusion. A lot of people read Bible commentaries, apply all the proper bible study techniques even corroboration, contextual analysis, grammatical analysis and others but still end up and veer off in their conclusion. They still end up in the dark rather than in the light because their mind was darkened from the Boluwatife Akinkuotu 23 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) beginning with pride and all sort of debris, rather than to study with cloak of humility. A Minister of God may make the Bible interesting to you because of his or her level of knowledge or teaching ability but it is left for you to open yours. Your parent may take you to Shiloh where Prophet Eli preaches but it’s your decision to respond to the call of salvation via the gospel. Even though The Christian Faith is collective or what is referred to as common faith, its walk and working are mostly personal. The decision to grow also and the steps or exercise required too is personal. There are many wonderful believers who are acting up because they have refused to grow. No one can shove teachings down your throat or drug you with revelation knowledge; you must constantly exercise yourself unto spirituality. Spirituality is not a spiritual gift. Spiritual sensitivity or spiritual discernment may not be as a result of spiritual gift of the prophetic but a result of walking with the Lord by constantly exercising ourselves in The Word and The Spirit. Spiritual growth is the accumulation of everyday growth in our walk with Lord. Everyone who knew the Lord intimately either in the Scriptures or in previous generations or ours took intentional steps. A supernatural encounter is only a means to an end. It’s to draw you to fellowship with God via His word and His Spirit. It’s a great deal but not the main deal. Everyone who walked on the face of the earth and pressed on to know God intimately took steps. While access to God is by grace, divine encounter is by divine prerogative not by human choice. The training of walking with God in the school of the spirit by exercising your divine faculty is by choice. If God wants to use you He rst calls you to Himself. He enters an active relationship with you where He teaches you His ways and his precepts, then He launches you to His harvest eld. You can’t be born again yesterday and occupying a ministry ofce today just as you can’t be a new born baby six pm today and by 6pm tomorrow you are already an adult. I feel like repeating these words a thousand times would not be enough. Divine encounter is only an introduction to deep Boluwatife Akinkuotu 24 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) revelations of God. God may never reveal all about himself and his Son in a twenty four hour vision but will release certain substance or graces through that medium. In the place of encounter, He increases your zeal and zest, and gives you a burning desire to follow Him. He shows you a side of Him and releases instructions to you or even ordains you to the work of the ministry but Who He certainly His is in His Word, and His desire is that you keep following after Him wholehearted. The place of knowing Him by encounter may not be by choice; it may be sporadic. But the place of following Him is a cross you must be willing to carry and a price you must be willing to pay. You must be willing to sacrice time, resources, carnality and obedience to the Lord. This is what differentiates matured Sons from sons, this is the dividing line. Encounters are not the dividing line but the willingness to press on to know the Lord. Everyone that knew the Lord followed this principle. King David knew the Lord but you must understand that he was a man after God’s heart who said, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my esh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satised as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.” (Ps 63:1,2,4-8) Ps 119:163 I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love. Ps 119:164 Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. Moses saw the burning bush but said I must now turn aside to see what this means (Exo 3:3). The place where God met Moses supernaturally was just the beginning in His walk with God. The place we meet God Boluwatife Akinkuotu 25 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) supernaturally or the place where we became New creatures, believers or born again is only the beginning of knowing the Lord. What you were granted was eternal life, access to God, faith via the gospel. You became a new born babe in the Lord no matter your chronological age. Now you are to desire to grow spiritually. You ought to be progressing in your knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is your decision, no one can account for the hours David sought God in his whole lifetime. Many of us have not spent one tenth of our life in following after God by spiritual exercise, yet we want to be spiritual giants; we want to be commenting about every issue in the body of Christ. Our attention is everywhere except on our spiritual life. We must learn how to commit ourselves to the Lord in devotion and consecration. We love to enjoy the benet of certain level of spiritual growth of ministers of God but we are not ready to commit ourselves to it. We are not ready to stretch ourselves spiritually. Some are not even ready to look into their spiritual life with the intent of reviewing, repenting or making an appraisal to see what ought to be done and what ought to be put away. Imagine your spiritual life is a bank account, how much investment do you have there? To seek God is not to look for God; He is not lost. He is found of us in Christ Jesus. Thank God we are in Him and He is in us. He has his quarters in us for we are His temple. To seek God in the New Testament language is to fellowship or commune with Him, via His Word and His Spirit. As Paul rightly said ‘that I may know Him’, He also reveals what we have reduced to closing prayer of meetings. Here He talks about Grace, Love and Communion. Many of us have gone forward to know about God’s grace extended to us through Christ Jesus. Others have gone forward to understand the God’s Kind of Love - Agape and other types of Love but few have sat with this communion (fellowship of the spirit) business; maybe because it is more practical than theological; maybe because some things have to leave us that we don’t want to part with; maybe our time! Hallelujah, we have been called into fellowship with His Son- that is incredible. It is true just as it is Boluwatife Akinkuotu 26 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) written in the amplied bible in the ninth verse of the rst chapter of rst Corinthians “God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended upon); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Communion is not just what we do it’s where we live. We live in communion and partnership with the Holy Spirit; it’s a walk! As long as we are in this body we are in union with Him not just here but eternally. We have the privilege to speak to Him and to hear Him speak to us. We have the privilege to submit to His leadership and voice as citizens and sons in His Kingdom. We are not just part of Him, He is part of us. We are the God kind because of His divine life and righteousness overowing in us. To commune is to talk, hear and walk with Him. It is a form of one person having the closet form of relationship with another and it’s a reality not a mental problem. We have to get the difference between hearing God and hearing voices; the sweet communion of the Spirit and satanic inuence posing as the atmosphere of the Spirit. To commune suggests a kind of bond that will require the species or partners to be the same so as to eliminate all form of inferiority. Of a truth, our fellowship is with the Father through the Holy Spirit. He gave us His spirit and His Righteousness. He made us as righteous as He is in our spirit, as He became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, a state and perfect nature so that we can bond regardless of our earthly frailties. It's our understanding of this that quickens us in our mind as we were made alive in the spirit to aid us in our relationship with the Father. You see that it’s not just covering of sins but we are been made new creatures in His image which is Christ so that we can commune with the Father as Christ would have. We would go deeper in our relationship with Him; from been religious to an individual who truly knows God in the spirit. To commune is to allow ourselves align with the Holy spirit in Boluwatife Akinkuotu 27 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) partnership thereby practising the presence of God. Communion is practising the presence of God and as you set apart your time to bring the reality of our present spiritual Communion with God in our spirit to the physical reality, the presence of God begins to become tangible in the atmosphere we carry in the material world. It begins to increase to the degree we know Him, our audacity to talk like Him and act like Him increases, not because we want to sound deep or spiritual but because two has already become one. The more communion we have, the more divinity we express; the more possibilities we see in impossibilities; the more light we can see in darkness and the more ability to have what we say in a dark, void and shapeless circumstance. Communion is what imparts and confers the life of the Spirit to us in respect to our everyday life in the natural world. We are in no doubt that we came alive spiritually at the point of salvation to what end did we come alive? To immortality only? No! Much more to fellowship with the Father through our recreated human spirit which has become one with His Spirit. He didn't just die to create people to bow to him in heaven alone but to walk with Him on earth beyond how Enoch walked. The men that walked with Him exceptionally did so because He imputed Faith and Righteousness to them because they believed in the typology of the Gospel preached to them not because they were perfect in the esh. Much more have we been justied by Grace through Jesus’ blood, not so that we can draw back from knowing Him but that we would draw nigh to Him In fellowship. That's the essence of Christ’s death to bring us to the Father, having removed the barrier of sin and tore the veil in our heart that separates us from God. Assuming the outer court is our body, the inner court is our soul and most holies is our spirit, where the ark which signies the presence of God is, covered from the viewing of all worshippers, if the veil of the temple is now torn signifying that all would come to stay who will believe through Christ’s blood, now the sinner can come in not with fear but boldness because Christ's blood was shed as a sacrice given by Boluwatife Akinkuotu 28 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) the Father for the remission of sins. Now Sin had been dealt with so that every believer, not some believers but all believers can come to offer sacrice to God as priest of the most high. In fact, they are so qualied that not only can they talk to the Father themselves or about their cases but they can also decide to stand on behalf of another in intercession, just as the priests under the mosaic law do. But now much more having to stand on better promises in Christ, you see the extension of privilege of communion that it's not just a pity thing but beyond pity, a love thing, an unconditional love and affection that every believer is now in relationship with God and they have access not only to talk about themselves or ask for themselves but they have unending slots to stand on behalf of others. So, as they grow in communion, the Lord begins to relate to them how to pray and help others too; how to carry out his will on earth and everything that concerns both parties are shared. This is where we discover the heart of God and passion to win the vilest offender at the greatest cost of giving his Son. As we grow in our walk and relationship with God we will discover and know God for ourselves progressively than we rst knew Him when we began to know Him by receiving the life of Christ. All this comes when we begin to exercise ourselves unto godly activities. It's not a circus show but a walk and a journey, whose progress is not dened by mystical experiences but by the fruit bore by such knowledge. When you reach a level in Communion, you hit the deep realm. In Communion nothing else would matter to you. Although you are still in your body you will feel enraptured It would look like you don't even need food to survive. The manifested presence of God becomes your sustenance- how Moses was enraptured in Mount Sinai that the glory of God sustained and inuenced his natural body that his face shone beyond that former glory. We have something much better which is the new covenant. As we relate with the Father himself we begin to glow with Joy, Righteousness and Peace in the Holy Ghost, in the realm of deep waters. You've left the shore of Communion to the ocean oor of communion. Boluwatife Akinkuotu 29 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) Then your eyes begin to behold the wonders of God. At that time a knock on your door is silent to you, a phone call is dim to you, your worries and anxiety are swallowed up in his presence, your needs become met and your mountains melt like wax. It's a realm where you pray beyond words. Those words are not from your brain but your spirit and the easiest way to touch this realm is to pray in tongues- undistracted communications that is erce but yet heart-warming- a realm of deep things. When you get there your burdens are dropped. It’s like when you seat in a bus, you don't put your luggage on your head. You drop them on the oor or in the trunk- why? Because the burden bearer is there with you; who breaks chain like cutting wool. Only spiritually dull people lift their burden in the presence of the Lord. Smart people drop it there. In this realm, God becomes all that matters. Your Heart leaps at His essence and your heart melt at His voice. This is where you get acquainted with His voice. It may be while eating His word by reading or meditation or while praying or in the gathering of believers, you are catapulted to another realm. You may not feel it; it may not be as experiential as you desire but He captures your heart in less complicating ways and He shows you where to put your foot when next you slide into fellowship. When you get to this realm and you speak of His Words, it sounds unbelievable to a man who has never been there. Your words begin to sound ridiculous to a natural man. Why? That's how exactly the words of the Lord Jesus sounds to the natural man. It’s a realm of unbelievable things in His word where you behold unspeakable things. How could you believe someone spoke to the wind, drove out legions of demons and those devils were careful to answer Him? They couldn't harass Him. What realm or dimension did Christ speak from?- the dimension of God and He desires that we put our footprint where He puts His, walk where He walked and do greater works. If we are to do greater works, it means we must enter into the dimension of fellowship Jesus was, in so much that He said what I see Boluwatife Akinkuotu 30 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) my Father do I do. It's a perfect sync with the Father. Jesus had grown so much that He relied on the sight and sounds of the Father. As you progress in your walk with the Lord, you will see that it's very possible to be totally reliant on God in partnership with Him twenty four seven as you are in your spirit. You will see that His voice will not just be pooping out once in a while but He will start expressing His ministry in full to you. The Holy Spirit has a teaching, a guidance, a revelation and prophetic ministry to you. He has a personal responsibility to take care of you. When you get deep with God, prayer will not be a burden but an excitement; fasting will not be a war but an adventure; studying God's word will not be a heartache but an heartthrob for you because your Love and Joy is stirred. Your love letter between you and the Lord would be deeper than Songs of Solomon. You will just discover that you are addicted to Him and His voice have become just as the voice of a friend you've constantly heard. When He says ‘rise’, you know. When He winks, you understand. When He moves, you know. What He wants you know. It's a product of walking with God daily. It's a realm where you are deep with God. You are so sensitive to His presence in your life that you do not want to do anything offensive to Him. Godliness, to you, becomes a must and a prerequisite not because you are afraid to miss heaven but you want to represent everything He represents (He meant it when He said to walk in holiness because He who lives on your inside is holy - it’s an instruction). You don't want to misrepresent Him. His correction and instructions becomes your life Line. His interest becomes your interest. His heart, your heart that while you work with your hands your heart is connected to Him and His love ows through you. In that realm you have become an agent of his company, an ambassador of His kingdom. It’s a realm that no beauty of art or no language can qualify. We can only manage to say you are enraptured by God. It's another light you see and live by. A deep sense of Love, Joy and Peace overwhelms you. You are even tempted to say, ‘Lord take me home’. I feel it’s better to be absent in the body from all these worldly Boluwatife Akinkuotu 31 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) troubles and pursuits. You may begin to sound like the disciples of Christ on the mount of transguration whose heart desire was presented by Peter, ‘let's build three tabernacle here one for Moses, one for Elias and another for Jesus’. Don't mind other disciples down there; it is better to live here in this atmosphere. I never knew there could be somewhere so cool and comforting like this; ‘I am not going to work, go for evangelism, class or anywhere, I will remain here’. It means you have been enraptured into the deep realm. When you want to quit you may even nd it difcult and like a hand restraining you or a cloud of pillar or re on your head burning for days as I felt during praying in the spirit for eight hours for thirty days. You may even hear ‘amen’ to your prayers from angelic beings. You may witness a change of tongues and strange ow of the gift of the spirit. My brethren we have been surged, we have move from one depth to another...Glory!!! This is communion, drunk in his presence, lled afresh with His Glory, inundated by the word, full of the Spirit and His might as mighty armies whose thirst have just been quenched, a weak battery which has just been recharged and a broken wall that has just been xed. Our radiance and beauty buds forth like a ower in its season. Then, we will surely know that not only have we prayed or carried out spiritual exercise but we have been enraptured by His glory. Do you know some believers still look foolish to themselves when they pray for a long-time if they will? They just can’t understand what others do in prayer for eight hours plus or even an hour. Yet Jesus communed with the Father for long hours in prayer. Communion with God is to fellowship with God. It is the process that two becomes one - where one pours into the other like wine or how a newly wedded couple pours passions into themselves as they seal their wedding vows on their matrimonial bed - it’s not the place that determines their matrimonial bed, it’s the people. You see, our spirit is in union with God, conjoined with the Lord as a recreated human spirit. We are alive in the spirit but many of us are still far from that reality because we are not in constant communion. Boluwatife Akinkuotu 32 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) God can wake you up to pray with the strongest sense of urgency but you can decide to sleep back thereby missing a life time opportunity. The more you commune with God the more of Him you manifest. It’s not everything impartation can give you. There are certain things you can only receive in your walk with God. II Corinthians 13:14- ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all’. If you fellowship enough with the spirit your life will be a proof. It would be self-evident that you walked with the Lord. Communion is fellowship, intimacy. Instead of running after God, decide to be intimate with Him. Nothing can stop you. You are qualied by Grace and you understand that. You know about God’s unconditional love and you know how to conduct yourself in the place of communion and in your everyday life. You can launch into the deep and God will respond. You can decide to stay in the place of prayer and He joins you in it via the same spirit also known as spirit of grace and supplication. You can decide to open your Bible and He gives you illumination through the same also known as the spirit of revelation; that you begin to jot down spiritual truth. Yours is to take that personal step in response to His invitation of knowing Him deeply. Remember Saul’s encounter of Christ on the road to Damascus was only an invitation and access to know Him. Remember that Paul having written certain deep revelations hidden from the foundation of the world, still cried out, ‘Lord that I may know Him’. There are depths in God that scholastic work on the Bible cannot give you. Scholastic or logical works are good but not good enough. Spiritual hunger must rise up in you. You must not be satised with knowledge of religion but you must swing deeply and thrust yourself on God. You must come down from the mountain of unbelief that surrounds us in this natural world to a realm of faith and possibilities in God. God wants to teach you how to walk on waters, how to move mountain, how to cast out devils, how to discern His voice, how to understand mysteries and hidden secrets in His word but He can’t do that if you are unavailable. Perhaps why we nd it difcult to trust Boluwatife Akinkuotu 33 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) God is because we don’t know Him. We have heard about Him, we have read about Him but the veil of unbelief via the ve senses still covers our heart. Until we seat with God in communion we are still going to remain spiritually sick. We would still be carried about by every wind of doctrine and every crazy assertion. Every wind will blow us off and every temptation will cause us to stumble. We would be often embarrassed by the devil and the situations he creates. We would be scared and affected by everything until we make communion intentional and put it rst. All these spiritual exercises are all forms of God-related communion; ways given by God to know Him more, some personal, others Congregational but they are all ways to fellowship with God. Are you not amazed that when we fellowship together as believers in respect to the Lord it is also a form of communion with God and He also proves it by speaking in such meetings as we gather unto the Lord. Such example is seen in Acts 13:1- “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” He responds powerfully because He is right there with them and in them. Acts 4:23- And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. 24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: 25 Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? 26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Boluwatife Akinkuotu 34 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. 29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, 30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. 31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all lled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. As from today this is what happens when we gather, glory! Everywhere quakes with the power of God. We have this ow, this atmosphere and this mindset. 2. It is a Protable Activity: 1Tim. 4:6-10msg- You’ve been raised on the Message of Faith and have followed sound teaching. Now pass on this counsel to the followers of Jesus there, and you’ll be a good servant of Jesus. Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God - no spiritual abbiness, please! Workouts in gymnasium are useful, but a discipline life in God is far more so, making you t both today and forever. You can count on this. Take it to heart. This is why we’ve thrown ourselves into this venture totally. We’re banking on the living God, Saviour of all men and women, especially believers, 1Tim 4:1-5kjv Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 5 For it is sanctied by the word of God and prayer. Boluwatife Akinkuotu 35 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) 1Tim 4:6- If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. 7. But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. 8. For bodily exercise proteth little: but godliness is protable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This scripture above shows us that the training of ourselves unto godliness has advantage or is helping both in the now and in eternity. Such virtue cannot go unrewarded in eternity because our Christian life transcends beyond us. The effect of the true practice of Christian faith and benet positively impacts everyone around us, listening to us or been imparted by us; it does great job beyond imaginary stories and endless genealogy. Life is all about inuence, so how are inuencing others with this light? There are lots of believers that with their conduct if they were the only believers, sinners would prefer to be herbalists. Other Christians would prefer to do business with unbelievers because of ungodliness and we defrauding one another. A lot of court cases that would be closed if one of the parties could just say the truth. Before we go on in the numerous prots of godliness in the now, we have to see that the eternal reward far more outweighs the present advantage. As much as godliness can give good conscience and good inuence and examples on earth, the Lord will reward according to his system in eternity. Before we delve deeply into these advantages, I would love to stay a little on some words and expound them a little. ...Exercise thyself rather unto godliness. So what does it mean to exercise? And why exercise? We would need to look into the Greek word from which it was translated to English, so we could better understand and cross reference it to other scriptures where Boluwatife Akinkuotu 36 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) this word is used, so we can get the implication of this word. Now the word gumnazo (pronounced as goom-nad’-zo); this means to exercise vigorously, in any way, either the body or mind. So in essence, guratively it means to TRAIN. Let’s take a word out of this entire essay; it means to train. What then is the implication of training? It’s simple. You cannot grow beyond your training. You cannot do beyond what you are trained to do because as you train you stretch your capacity. Perhaps this is why many fall at the same point of sin, not because they were not given victory over sin as other believers, but all their life they have only trained the members of their body how to yield to that particular sin and now they are used to it. They think they would effortlessly change like a magic wand is been used over their mind. They’ve not seen that they have to exercise or train their members to be yielded at every given opportunity as instrument of righteousness. This we can do because the spirit lives in us and we have the capacity to align to God’s word. Let me show you how those who are mature arrive there. The term full age is teleios (mature, completeness) Heb. 5:11- Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. 12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the rst principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use(hexis - by implication PRACTICE) have their senses (aistheterion pronounced as ahee-sthay-tay’-ree-on - faculty of the heart for perceiving, understanding, judging) exercised (train) to discern both good and evil. So how did they move to maturity? They trained themselves by been skilful in the word of God. They practised and got trained over and over again. Many of us only see and want the advantage of spiritual maturity but we don’t want anything to do with it’s process. So here, we see the Boluwatife Akinkuotu 37 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) implication of training as an advantage because of what was exercised or used as a medium of practice. Let’s see it in a negative light. 2Pet 2:12- But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: 15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. These are not descriptions of angels but of human beings who sit in feast with God’s children. Now, how did they get to this point of moral and spiritual bankruptcy? It says they cannot refrain from sinning. We may say, ‘alright they are possessed with demons’. Not so my dear, maybe not initially. The scriptures clearly told us they are exercised unto covetousness which is also a form of ungodliness. It’s a simple equation- they set their heart away from godliness, they quit it’s practice, if they keep their heart on ungodliness they keep training themselves with the wrong equipment as believers, and we know that sin does not bring life rather it brings forth death and condemnation. Let me share with you another scripture on exercise of fruit unto righteousness. Heb 12:11 Now no chastening (Grk: paideia, pronounced as pahee- di'-ah: tutorage, i.e. education or training; by implication, disciplinary correction:--chastening, chastisement, instruction, nurture) for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Now I must clear the fact that Christ’s yoke is not burdensome but Boluwatife Akinkuotu 38 ...Spiritual Exercise... (Volume One) easy and light with God’s help. I must also clear the air wave that God’s method of correction or training is His word and not evil occurrences. II Timothy 3:16- All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is protable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Having established this, we see that the advantage of yielding to God’s training is the showing forth in the physical the result of God’s kind of righteousness of course, which is a nature, it is the aftermath of exercising ourselves in God’s training and correction. So you see the Christianity of do nothing and be nothing is not balanced. We have seen that Salvation is by grace through faith. We've see that faith in God is what we need to please Him. We've understood that salvation or justication is not by what you do but what Christ did. It’s about believing but spiritual growth is not the same. It’s a different context that requires effort and exercise to yield result. …protable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Now, we ought to see that the word has been given in a context which is life that is now and that which is to come. The world now must be talking of the advantage on earth, the exhibition of the fruit of righteousness, the peace and virtue that follows, while that which is to come is reecting on eternity when all of us as believers will stand before the judgement seat of Christ, having escaped the judgement unto condemnation or spiritual death. John 5:24- "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Boluwatife Akinkuotu 39