Expressing God

S. Sekou Abodunrin

I remember the story of a fellow who was encouraged to take a particular cough mixture so as to ease his dry throat before he ministered. The friend forgot to tell him that a side effect of taking this drug was that he’d feel dizzy. The young minister took the drug and midway through his sermon he started feeling light headed. The young minister assumed that it was the anointing and so he paused asking all that needed ministry to come forward – there were tremendous miracles afterwards. The young man made a habit of taking this drug before he ministered and felt more confident as he preached as he had little or no reason to have to clear his throat while ministering.

Each time he had this light-headedness he stepped out and always experienced outstanding miracles. Cases involving demonic oppression and depression were resolved in a jiffy – the demons obeyed him.

One day his friend came by apologized for not telling him about any side effects and then proceeds to describe to him how it is that some people feel dizzy after taking the drug. He now knew why he started experiencing the light-headedness. It wasn’t exactly the anointing but his body system reacting to a drug that he was taking to deal with dry throat.

The fact remains that the demons did not ever challenge him that it wasn’t the anointing but dizziness induced by drugs! Firstly you need to realise that demons are not all knowing. their comprehension is bounded and limited. They go largely by how we act. If the demons could they would have. They were whipped by a fellow that acted on things that the word had said. You know you could feel fear and yet laugh in the face of the devil. You'd give him fits of confusion!

The man went by a dramatic feeling in his body. The feelings were everything to him. He believed it to be the anointing of God and on the basis of this started acting on the word by laying hands on the sick and expecting to see instant or near instant miracles and he saw them. He had moved into confidence unconsciously. This confidence placed on tap the anointing that was available all the while.

The secret was not the feeling or in reality what induced the feeling but the fact that he had stepped into a place of confidently acting expecting the cooperation of the living God.

Samson was a fellow who was no stranger to the anointing. We can learn some important lessons about the anointing by certain facts that we glean from his life.

And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol Judges 13:24

I want you to notice that it says that the Spirit of the Lord moved Samson all the time. Did you see that? No you didn’t.

We are told that the Spirit of the Lord moved Samson at times. Samson did some of the silliest things one could think of. You see, the anointing will not take everyday decisions for you. Some people want a “thus saith the Lord brush your teeth” but thank God he isn’t like that at all.

Say it out loudly – God is not a puppeteer.

Samson kept company with a woman that had given him ample evidence that she didn’t mean him well. She wasn’t silent about it. She diligently and systematically showed him time and again that she wanted to have him become the laughing stock of the philistines. Was Samson expecting the anointing to make up his mind for him?

Yet, when the Spirit did move upon Samson tremendous acts of power took place. You need to realise that Samson was not muscular. If he was, Delilah and the leaders of the philistines had a low IQ and there was no need for Delilah to ask for the obvious source of his power – right? It would have been obvious with the 7 or 8 pack muscles and all. Samson was a usual man until the Spirit moves upon him and even then the secret wasn’t his muscular development but the anointing that he responded to.

And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him. Judges 16:20

Wist is old English for know. In that verse it is really past tense, so it is “knew not”. I want you to read that slowly. The Spirit of the Lord had departed from him as a matter of fact but Samson did not know it. How come Samson did not know it?

We have read severally of the superhuman feats Samson performed when the Spirit came upon him. He clearly knows something about the Spirit of the Lord when it comes to acts of power. Think about it – if he did not know that the Spirit of the Lord had left him, it must mean that he was not going by feelings.

Lets assume that he used to go by feelings. Whatever feeling it is, it must be a feeling that was obvious to him otherwise the feeling served no practical purpose. If he still felt like old times then it must mean that the feeling was still there otherwise he should have felt different. If he had felt any different he would have a sign that the Spirit had left. We are told Samson did not know that the Spirit had departed. The implication is that Samson did not go by feelings.

There are many people that wait for a feeling before they step out to minister to anyone. They rest in this feeling more than anything else. We usually call this “feeling” the anointing. In reality the anointing rests upon the spirit of man and it is neither a hot or cold feeling. The effect of the anointing though as it flows through the body can be hot or cold, but that is the effect of the anointing and not the anointing itself per se. Some of the most amazing things happen when we have no feelings to go by.

One of the big hindrances to seeing more of God in manifestation are the traditions that we have submitted our minds to. If I am persuaded that I can only administer the Spirit when I feel a particular way, my experiences will support my belief system and it will be true that there will be more of God expressed when I have these sensory evidences.

Hebrews 11 gives us a clue about Samson.

32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens Hebrews 11: 32 – 34

We have the witness of God for it; Samson acted in faith when it came to the anointing of the Spirit of the Lord. Samson therefore gives us a strong hint. The thing to note is that the Old Testament doesn’t say things like “and Samson acted in faith” – you wont find it in the Old Testament. That we do not find it there however does not mean that it is not the case. The New Testament takes us behind the scenes.

We see a fact that when it comes to supernatural manifestations of God, man must give God expression. God supplies the power by the anointing of his Spirit and MAN supplies the action.

Samson shook himself. Notice that he didn’t shake heaven; neither did he shake God for there was nothing in God or in heaven that required such a shaking. Today, we largely are waiting for God to do something. We call this revival – we say we are waiting for revival. Some folks even talk of a great move of God in the past and say that God is not moving now. This would imply that the scarcity is because God is not willing to move in our day like he moved in yesteryears. If the truth were told revival is not the move of God, but men shaking themselves under the influence of God!

Revival is men responding to God.

That which we are waiting for to “drop” out of heaven is already on earth. We are the temple of God therefore we can and we will manifest him. I do not want you to rush over what you just read, you see there is a theory of faith, a set of creeds that we are ready to use as a batting stick to out-argue other believers in defending what our group or denomination believes. In reality we are the temple of God ad this is the genius of the new creation - God is available in you right now. It is traditions in thought, belief and lifestyle that rob the word of its power. We must adopt a tradition of belief, of promptly acting on the word and of believing that the anointing we need is not out there somewhere but abiding in us already. What remains is acting on it.

The true measure of what we know is what we are everyday. Just watch your everyday life, it is an accurate summation and reflection of what you really know. What you know you are is what you’ll do.

disarming habits

S. Sekou Abodunrin

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace Rom 6:14
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any 1 Cor 6:12

It is true that Jesus died in your place. It is equally true that you were crucified with him. There is a faith that knows this and rests in such glorious truth. This is the basis for the statement that sin shall not have dominion over you. [see Romans 6:6 – 8]

Sin had dominion over mankind until Jesus came. When the bible says that sin shall not have dominion over you, is it saying that the flesh has gone on holiday and given up finally? The reason why sin shall not have dominion is not because something changed in the flesh, but that your relationship has changed and you no longer rest on the law, but you now rest on God’s grace. There is profound power in grace to unseat the rulership of sin through the flesh.

I have some good news for you from God’s word. You can walk out on your habits whenever you are really ready. Trouble is very few Christians believe that and so few ever act on it. We have come to respect the audacity of the habits that we want to get rid of to such an extent that we forget that the word of God can re-arrange the molecular structure of any addiction. The word that rearranged the atomic structure in nature so as to produce planets and all that we see around us can definitely alter the chemical balance of your life.

Like Abraham you will have to break out of the mould of hopelessness and helplessness by calling the things that be not as though they were. You have to believe that you are actually free. Well, how do you know that you are free? Whatever you base your answer on is an indication of where your soul really finds rest. It tells you what you are resting on. So, I ask again – how do you know that you are free?

In reality when it comes to habits, the grace of God will extend to you an open door of escape out of the hold of the habit and for as long as we stay in that grace-empowered freedom the habit is unseated and dethroned. The flesh will rise up to lead you down that old road but you will maintain your faith resolve. If you give in to the sales pitch of the flesh you step out of the sufficiency of grace.

You can walk out on your habits whenever you are really ready. This readiness is empowered by your awareness of the ability residing within your spirit to bring forth the fruit of righteousness and peace. You do not draw out of your spirit what you need the most. You can only draw out what you believe for. God has provided the freedom that you need to you through your spirit. The more you shun your spirit in this area the surer the guarantee of failure.

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Heb 4:11

Faith is spoken of as a fight and a labour. The beginning stages of faith require schooling your soul with these redemptive truths of union and oneness with God in your spirit. There will be evidences and facts that assure your soul that the thing you believe for is unreal. This is where labour is needed. It is schooling and bombarding your soul with the word that cannot lie. To declare as true that which your experience declares to be untrue is like leading your soul up a mountain or swimming against the tide of the river. Unbelief will rise up and declare you a lunatic in this pursuit. This is where you must fight. This is the ground of labour.

I suggest that you read through and confess Romans 6 a lot. It takes you into identification proper. This feeds your emotional realm and the realm where habits take dominion with the image of God. The truth is that we often give up because the answers or required freedom doesn’t come into manifestation all at once. There is staying power available in your inner man. This supplies the patience required to manifest the freedom that you believe for from the habit. If I excuse the habit, I effectively disarm my spirit from expressing dominion in that area. I must labour against the soul and rest in the reality of God in my spirit.

I remember counselling a Christian lady, years ago, who was having cigarette cravings. I told her that each time she is about to have a puff, she should hold up the cigarette and give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus before taking it. She was to affirm that according to God’s word she has dominion over this habit in the name of the Lord Jesus. I knew that if she did this often enough the grace of the Lord whom she acknowledged would take her past that habit.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Rom 6:12

The truth is that unless you resist against the flesh, sin will attempt to reign. According to God’s word sin shall not have dominion through your mortal body. The reason is because the life and character of God is not only in heaven, but also in your spirit nature. Your spirit carries the holy nature of God. You have to plant into your soul the awareness that the power of God is within your spirit already. This will grow like all seeds as you water it and allow the word provide light. The key is you have to allow the awareness of this new creation life of God to grow in your soul.

The habit keeps manifesting so as to limit you from receiving, retaining and resting in the revelation of God. The greatest challenge that many Christians face is at this level. It is deeply personal and many folks never seem to rise above it to bring forth the fruit of revelation. Once you get past this, the next level of challenge is to hinder you from operating as the agent of revelation providing windows through which God’s light is brought into dark places. Dark places simply means areas where the revelation of God’s grace is not reigning. We take the word into these dark places.

What is the evidence that you need in order to know that you are free from the power of a habit?

You recall that according to the Lord his grace is sufficient for you. You must rest in the power of his grace to take you past the barrier of whatever habit has you bound.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. You are hoping for or desiring or imaging the end of the habit. You cannot see this in the natural day-to-day exercise of your walk. You will have to retain your faith in the power of grace to overhaul you and dismantle the power of the habit enforced by the flesh.

When you are faced with a habit you know too well the power of the habit and so you rest in the stronghold enforced by the habit. However faith is the evidence of the things not seen. In that situation what is not seen is your freedom from the hold of the habit.

You are free because the word says that you are free. You are not free because your feelings agree or you feel like it. Your feelings will go like a yoyo, but the word of God is established and firm in its victory.

…to be continued