Transcript: The Mystery of Sacrifice

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The experience is a meeting organized by the Disciples Christian Network, where men encounter God, His presence and His power in an atmosphere of worship and the word. Join Apostle Emmanuel as he leads us into an experience with God. Thank you, Jesus. Today we are going to be talking about the mystery of sacrifice. And to understand this, I would want us to start from the beginning. Because when we talk about sacrifice, what a lot of people picture is Cain and Abel with their fruits and lambs or Israel with cattles that they are slain, animals being slaughtered, or even Jesus on the cross or something uncomfortable that Christians do. And all of this is of course sacrifice and we will get there. But if we begin there, we begin too late in the story. Because sacrifice you see, did not start at an altar. Sacrifice did not start with the advent of sin.

In fact, sacrifice did not even start in time at all. So the question is, where does sacrifice come from? Is it something that God invented after the fall? As an emergency measure to deal with the problem of sin? Or if it's something that God demands of us because we owe him something? Is it something that God needs? That God requires of us because we are his creations? And so God somehow needs our sacrifice. To be empowered, to be strengthened. Because we have all kinds of warped ideas about sacrifice.

Or anything that causes a believer to give himself and to give sacrificially. You see, many of us have watched a lot of movies where all kinds of mythologies, Egyptian mythologies, Greek mythologies. And what this all suggest is that there are Greek gods or Egyptian gods, and they have temples and people worship them in their temples. And people make sacrifices to them in their temples. As people make sacrifices to them or worship them in those temples, the stronger the gods become, the stronger the deity becomes. And we carry this same idea, and if you want to make the deity weak, then what you do is stop worshiping, stop giving the sacrifices, then the deity becomes weaker and weaker. So they depend on the worship of the creator, of the creation to be strong. Right? Or to be gods. This is what these stories and these books pass over to people's head and understanding.

And so when they're relating with God, they somehow or somewhat believe that this must be the same thing too with God. And so they see God as a being that requires our giving or our sacrifices as though it does something to God. Or they see the act of sacrifices that believers do as an act of mediation. Because when people picture sacrifice, all they see is sin. And what the Israelite had to do to escape the clutch of sin and death. And so they think that giving a sacrifice would mean that you are trying to come out of the repercussions or the consequences of sin or maybe a curse or something or maybe an unpleasant situation is happening, then you give a sacrifice to change or turn things around. Now, if your understanding of sacrifice pegs at that, it is still misconfigured. It's the proof that you don't even know precisely what has been done. A lot of believers actually already have found themselves in places where they had to give sacrificially, Had to give their time, had to subject them their themselves to discomfort, some in the service of God, some in their finances. And when you check the operating system that powers this, what you'd find is that a lot of people who are doing these things, good as what they are doing is, actually do not understand powers what they do.

Are you with me brothers and sisters? No. Whereas you have believers who cannot even think or conceive the idea of subjecting themselves to any kind of inconvenience. Anything that would take something from them. Anything that would demand something from them. Demand their time. Demand their money. Demand their strength, their energy, anything that would mean that they are discomforted or whatever it is, the treasure or the love is given for the sake of another, some believers cannot even picture themselves doing that. Some believers have not even brought themselves or cannot even bring themselves or conceive the idea of doing that because they live for themselves. That's another side of the extreme entirely.

Are you with me? But you see, long before sacrifice was ever a thing that we do, Long before sacrifice was ever a thing that human beings in general do, it was a description of who God has always been. Hence why I said sacrifice did not begin in time. And to understand the hack of giving sacrificially, I'm not just talking about giving. What came to my spirit so strongly even as I prayed was sacrifice. The mystery of sacrifice, especially as an act of worship to God. Stay with me. Can you bow your head in one moment and pray for understanding? Listen, there's a difference between knowing truth and understanding it. You can know something.

I mean, you can know something to the point where you even teach someone what you know. But it's a different thing altogether to have understood it because it is what you understood that ultimately produces results in your life. And it is what you understand that you also practice. So if understanding is dead, there can be no application of the truth. And it would mean that whatever is required or whatever the result that the principle or that the oppression of that truth is meant to bring to your life will be ultimately missing in your life. When you read Mathew 13 and Jesus was speaking about the parable of the sower, note that the first seed falls by the wayside, and the implication of the seed that falls by the wayside is that the birds of the air comes to pick it up. Is that not so? And in verse 19, when Gethos was giving us the meaning of that parable, Jesus said that anyone... If anyone hears the word and understands it not, note that he does not say and knoweth it not. And understands it not, it means you hear the word, you still know it, in fact, but you understand it not.

The wicked word comes and snatches what was sown where? In his heart, not in his mind, not in his brain because understanding happens in the heart. Receiving knowledge happens in the mind. It happens in the intellect. Understanding you see happens in the heart. It is deeper. Are you with me? And so what we need to contend for is not just the knowledge of truth because a lot of people know what they are not. Do you understand what I'm saying? You see, if what is happening to you every Sunday is that you are knowing, you are knowing.

Last week Sunday, I taught on the prosperity lessons from Solomon. Now you know what Solomon did. You can even teach somebody else, but does not mean you prosper. Because the power is not in the knowledge, it is in the understanding of the thing. You see, spiritual truths are a lot different from mathematics, English, and physics. That to pass an exam, it doesn't matter whether you understand it or not. All you have to do is know. And people can say things again and again and again to put it in their head so that when they ask them the question, they can just put it down and they pass. And they think that spiritual truth operate in like manner. Spiritual truth is not operate like that.

Are you with me? Yes, sir. You can know something, and what you know is useless to you. The Bible says, ever learning, but never coming into the knowledge of the truth. You see, The coming, the becoming happens in understanding. Happens where? In understanding. I was talking to someone recently, right, in a meeting that I was having with a group of people, and the person told me something that came from his mind, you know, whilst he was thinking. And I had to I had to tell him instantly that this means that you know this truth, but you've not understood it. The gap between the mind and the heart is a very huge gap.

Something can remain in your mind for ten years and never travel into your heart to become understanding. And that's the problem with many believers. Because when you teach them that there is prosperity in God, and you want to start telling them the laws of prosperity. Have you seen people like that? They can be quoting back the scripture to you. Even before you finish talking, they've completed what you wanted to say. So there is nothing you have to say that they don't know. Yet, what you are trying to say is not in their life. For the pride in the fact that they know. You wanna start talking about prayer, and the guy tells you, see, I know what prayer is.

And it defines prayer for you. He quotes several scriptures for prayer for you, but his prayer life is dead. Do you understand what I'm saying? Don't be that kind of believer. I tell you, you will suffer a lot because you will be in a state of cognitive dissonance, because you would know so many things that are not in your life. And you would not be able to juxtapose why you know, and what you know is not your experience. And this is the gap. I have a old teaching called the power of understanding. Very old teaching. If you can find it, you should listen to it.

Because until a man understands, truly, he never becomes. Truly, he never becomes. So in Ephesians chapter one verse 17, the prayer is that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Verse 18 says, that the eyes... Is it the eyes of your knowledge? The eyes of your understanding being enlightened. That's the prayer that the eyes of your understanding is enlightened. Before sacrifice was ever a thing that we do, it was a description of who God has always been. Let me charge your heart. Listen.

Don't come to church and nothing is happening to you. Please don't. Especially a place like this. Don't just say oh, I have a church that I go to, you see. And nothing is happening to you. Is a terrible thing. It really is a terrible thing. Especially if God has planted you in a place like this. And you have access to receive this kind of truth. Week in, week out, Sundays, Tuesdays, and you have nothing to show for it.

Because you refuse understanding. Don't be that kind of believer. Because you refuse application. Because you refuse practice. Because you refuse to engage the word. Don't be that type of believer. Don't be. People's life don't change just because they appeared before the presence of God. People's life don't change just because they heard the word of God. People's life change because they engage the word that they heard.

It is your engagement of the word that makes the word produce for you. And it is understanding That brings about the engagement. Otherwise, I promise you, you can be in church, even be in the very presence of God. And nothing changes in your life. I wish this thing were automatic, but it is not. Did you not hear what Paul told to those people? Paul said, you ought to have been teachers by now. Given the quality of the word you have received. It means we've always fed you. You are not barren of the word.

But we check your life and we see that the word has done nothing to you. You are still babes when as yet you should be teachers. Insist. Insist that a year from now, you will not still be where you are now. Insist that there should be notable progress in your life every single month. Something different about your life. There should be obvious transformation in your life because of the decision you have made to engage the world. Don't call me and what you're doing is big boy or big girl, Drop all of that outside. This is not a church for big boys and big girls. It's a church for kings and priests.

Kings. What you are listening to is not turning into a big boy. If that is what you fancy, I'm sure that there is a church for you. I'm sure. But it's not this one. Insist that your life changes. Please do. Please do. Give the word of God your full attention. When the word comes like this, when we are praying, when we are worshiping, all of this together is what makes a full believer.

So when the world comes like this, bring out your writing materials, your notepad. Don't just be looking at me like a fool. Your brain cannot remember everything I'm saying to you. Be a scribe. Write down. The holy spirit will speak to you. God will minister to you. When you come like this and you don't bring a note or something, it means you don't even have expectation. You are not expecting God to speak to you. Do you know how slippery the things of the spirit are?

The holy ghost can drop an idea in your mind right now and say, oh, I'll jot it later. And in less than five minutes, you've forgotten it. It's no longer there. The things of the spirit are that slippery. Don't be reckless believer. It is wrong to come to the house of God and there is no note, there is no diligence to show that I am intentional about my life. Don't Don't be the same person. A year from now. Two years from now, and you have been coming to this church. Ah, something is wrong.

Something is really, really wrong. Don't be the same person that you are with Jesus for three and a half years, and you can still sell him. You attended all these conferences, all these seminars, all these... You saw his miracles, and yet you still have the boldness to collect 30 shackles of silver. What did you now see? What did you now hear? What did you now receive all the time you were with him? Ask Jesus. Insist. Make it a personal division that see, if people's lives are changing, mine will be the first.

Mine will be the first. If I'm coming to church and God is ministering to people, he will not skip me by. I'm coming with my expectations burning hot. My life will change. I won't go to my children with stories of how we went there and nothing happened to us. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir. You can be that intentional about your life. You can be. You can be.

There is nothing that makes me different from you. I was intentional about my life when I had access to places like this. The moment God opened me and I was privileged to be amongst people that pray. During my time then, was just about these people that pray. The fervency. I was intentional about my life. When they say, you know what? There's another book I read. Oh, what's that book? Let me read it.

I was intentional about my life. When we come for meetings like this, myself and those three guys, before the service starts, you will never see us jisting. And it's not because we were close friends. It's not because we don't have things to jist about. Each one is in a corner somewhere praying in tongues. Because what we are seeing is different. I can't imagine or conceptualize the idea of gifting before an encounter. Does the service mean nothing to you? Does the presence mean nothing to you? Do you think that is how casual you can be in the house of God to receive from God?

Come on now. Stop joking with destiny. Stop it. One of these interesting young ladies in church sent me a message and said, Apostle, you know, every time you teach things like this on Sunday and you teach us what we have to do to be great and to prosper, I'm always fired up in my spirit. But then the following day, I just lose everything, but I'm sure as it continued to teach it, I will get it. I said, Kai. Kai, that's foolish talk. That's very foolish talk. It's not as I continue to teach it, I will get it. It's in the day you decide to get it that you get it.

Otherwise, your life will remain exactly where it is with nothing at all changing. That's foolish talk. Nothing more foolish than that. I hope you hear this and be corrected. I should see changes. I mean, this is what? June? By December, we were sharing testimonies here. What will you see? That's the question.

I mean, that is six months. A lot can still happen in your life in six months. A lot can still happen. A lot can still be built. Houses can start and finish before December. How much more your life? Properties can be acquired. Projects can be started. Transformations, genuine, tangible transformations. Let's come back to what I was saying.

Thank you, Jesus. So before we started doing anything, right? Sacrificial giving was first the description. Of God. First John chapter four and verse eight. The Bible says, he who does not love does not know God. Can we read that next line together, everybody? For what? Love to God. Does it say for God loves?

As though loving were one of the things that God does? It says God is love. You see, love by its very nature cannot be self contained. Love is not love if it only ever points back to itself. For love to be love, love must have an object. Love must move outward. Do you understand what I'm saying? Love must give. A love that only love itself is not love. It's selfishness.

So the moment scripture says God is love, it is saying at the center of all reality is a God in who, in his very essence, pours himself out. So self giving is something God is. If the Bible says God is love and love by nature must pour out on something, love by nature must give out to something, it means God himself is self given by nature, is sacrificed by nature, is given by nature. Do you understand what I'm saying? Because he's love. So if you are someone that thinks a lot on scriptures, there's a question that comes to mind when you hear me say that God is self given by nature. If God is love and love must have an object, love must be poured out on something. Is that not so? Then whom did God love before there was anything to love? Remember that love must have an object.

So before there was the heavens and the earth, before there was the angels, before creation, before man, before a single thing existed outside of God, who was the object of this love? Because love by nature must pour out. And it's important to understand this. Look at what Jesus says in John chapter 17 verse 24. Jesus says, father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Did you see that? You loved me. Who is speaking here? Jesus is speaking here. The son is speaking here, and the son is saying that you loved me.

That is the father loved me before the foundation of the world, before the foundation of the world, before anything was made, there was already loving going on. The father was loving the son. Are you with me? There was already a giving going on. The father was giving glory to the son. Did you see that? Yes, sir. So not only does this shatter the idea that the trinity is a New Testament concept. Because when you read this, immediately you'll find that the trinity is not a New Testament concept. Because here is the son saying that the father loved him before the foundation of the world.

So the son is not a new testament idea. Do you understand what I'm saying? But it also tells you that God did not need to create in order to love. Because within the one God, they have eternally been father, son, and spirit pouring love on themselves, pouring themselves into one another in this unbroken self giving love. The father give himself holy to the son. The son gives himself holy to the father, and the spirit is the very love proceeding between them. Now I said that God does not need creation to love, but the fact that God is love compels him to give of himself. Are you with me? Yes, sir. And it's the reason why the world was created.

Because the fact that God is love would compel him to share of his glory, Share of his kingship. Share of what he is and who he is. His nature would compel him to give. His nature would compel him to sacrifice. Are you with me? So when such a God who is love creates, what will his creation look like? It will look like him. A self giving God will create a self giving world. A sacrificial God will create a sacrificial world. A God who lives and gives of himself will create a world where everything and everyone that he has created would need to give of themselves.

And he would seem exemplifying this in Genesis chapter one from verse 27 down to verse 29, the Bible says, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, see, I have given you every house that bear seed which is on the earth, every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be for food. Look at the posture of God in creation. From the very first moment, God is giving. What is the first thing that he gives in verse 26?

He gives man his own his own image because he must share of himself. Are you with me? Yes, sir. He gives man his own image. He gives them blessing, and God bless them. Then he gives them dominion. Then he gives them every herb and every tree. The first thing that God does towards humanity is hand things over to us, is to give us things that we never heard, that we never worked for. You see God saying, see I have given you. What did man do?

I mean, man had just been created, and a being that had just been created is receiving dominion, receiving image, receiving likeness, receiving authority, receiving fruits, receiving a whole garden, receiving everything in the garden, the fish, the herbs, and and God is saying, I've given everything to you. What did he ever do? Think about that for a moment. What did Adam have to earn? It means there was no quota system with God. It wasn't the thing of when you walk this long, I will now give you this. It wasn't the thing of when you walk for thirty days, I will pay you a salary. I will pay you a wage. God gave to man an abundance when man has done nothing to him. When man has done nothing even for him.

This is so you see, if your mentality about God comes from these mythologies, This should instantly correct it to show you that God did not create the world in order to take from the world. He created the world in order to give to the world. God did not create man in order to take from man. He created man in order to give to man. That's the very posture you see at creation. God given to man, giving man his image, giving man his blessing, giving man dominion, giving man authority, giving man the herbs and the trees, the birds, everything being subject to man. Yet man has done nothing. Man, he don't even ask for it. So what God is doing is giving. What God is doing is what now?

He's giving. He called stars into existence and then handed a garden to a man. He breathed his own breath into dust. And it wasn't because he was lonely. It wasn't because he needed company to complete him. It was because love overflows. It is the nature of love. Love by its nature spills. Love by its nature gives. And because God is a giving God, he built that giving into the structure of what he made.

He built that giving into the very creature as you know it. Into creation as you know it. He made a world where the sun does nothing but pour out light. It will never get back. He made a world where seeds multiply only by being buried. He made a world where a tree makes fruit and does not eat of its own fruit. It made a world where human beings need oxygen so they breathe in oxygen because plants give oxygen. Plants need carbon dioxide. Human beings give carbon dioxide. In the very creation you see, self giving.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. You see love, you see sacrifice playing out in creation in the most amazing ways. When you study the wildlife, you see this even more apparently. Even more apparently. I was watching a documentary on buffaloes and on Ipobotamus and all these other big animas. And specifically for buffaloes, there are times when certain parasites begin to eat into their skin. And usually when you find a herd of buffaloes, you would find certain birds. You'd find them gathering around buffaloes or hippopotamus. Is that not so? And you would see them barking on them.

Barking on them. And you would think that they are hurting them. But what they are doing is eating the parasite. Because the parasite on the buffalo is the bird's food. But the bird eating the parasite is healing the buffalo. Look at that, God. It's almost as though you cannot but give. Look at the wisdom of that God. Do you understand what I'm teaching you here? You see all of these wired into creation.

Because when a self giving God makes, when a self giving God creates, what it creates is an extension of himself. So the whole creation is wired to give because it came from the hands of a God who gives. The reason why creation preaches sacrifice is because the creator is sacrifice. The pattern that you see in the world is the fingerprint of the nature of God. So if sacrifice and giving is the eternal nature of God, then when sin entered into the world, God did not have to scramble for a solution. You see, he did not have to become something that he was not already. He simply had to be what he had always been. Only now turn towards a world that has broken itself. So when you look at revelations, you see in chapter 13 verse eight, the bible is saying, all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Can you see this?

The lamb slain from the foundation of the world, not the lamb slain at Calvary, even though he was slain at Calvary, not the lamb slain in the death of Caesar, even though he was. The lamb slain from the foundation of the world before the world was ever founded in the council of eternity, the lamb had been slain. The lamb was already as good as slain. Had been slain even. So you see, the cross was not God's reaction to the sin of Adam. Before Adam ever sinned, the cross was already in the heart of God. When God said, let there be light, the shadow of Calvary was already on his heart because that is his nature. He created a world and he already knew that that world he created will cost him his son, and he still created it. He gave man will in order to choose. And he knew in his wisdom and in his foreknowledge that man would not choose it.

And he still created man. Can't you see how crazy this is when you think about it? The easiest thing to do as God is to remove will. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. To make it so that your creation has no choice but to choose you. But that's not what he did. He gave man will. He says, choose me or choose something else. All of these I've given to you.

Look at everything that God made available to man. Look at everything that God gave to man. He gave man his image, gave man his his likeness, gave man his presence, gave man dominion, gave man authority, gave man the guarding, gave man everything that was on the earth. In fact, the bible says the works of my hands are yours. Everything that was on the earth was man's to command, but he told man, only this one thing is not yours. Every other thing I've given to you, but this one thing, this one thing. A man by reason of choice chose the very one thing that is not his, rebelled against God by an act of his will. God, knowing this, still made demand, still created demand, still left the will there. And to remedy for that situation, the bible says the lamb was slain even before the man was made. So the cross was not an urgent reaction to the man's sin, you see, to the man's fall, you see.

It's only love that can do that. You cannot comprehend it in your finite mind. That's why when aphids speak, they speak fully because their mind cannot comprehend how does God know that man would fall and still go ahead to make the man. It's called love. It's called love. Please understand what I'm teaching you. It's called love. It's called love. Because that is who he is. The slaying of the lamb was not a departure from God's nature.

That was the fullest revelation of God's nature. What happened at Calvary was the whole world now experiencing the eternal self giving that had flowed between the father and the son since eternity. So the cross is not God doing something out of character. The cross is the eternal character of God made visible in time. Because before man was ever made, this love had existed, pouring out from the father to the son, from the son to the father, from the son to the spirit. Do you understand what I'm saying? And that love still compelled God. And Eli said, let us make man in our own image. It's not enough that we're making creation. Let's now give him our image.

Let's give him our life. What did man ever do to deserve that? To be in the image of the invincible being, the immortal invincible God, the God that needs no man to exist, the God that is God in himself. Do you understand? Do you know what self existence mean? You see, everything that was created, as long as it had to be created, depends on other things to survive. That would mean that if creation does not have what it relies on for survival, creation will break including the sun, the galaxies, the moon, the earth. They all are reliant on external circumstances being perfect So that if something happens to the gravitational field of the earth, what happens to you? If the gravitational field becomes heavier, becomes weightier than 9.81 that it is, what will happen to you that you will flatten on the surface of the earth? You will be smashed like mosquito on the floor.

That means your being alive is dependent on circumstances beyond you being constant, even the ones you are not aware of. Do you understand what I'm saying? What happens when oxygen is taken away from you, please? What happens when you are locked in a room and there's carbon dioxide everywhere or carbon fog that everywhere? You are dead. You are dead because circumstances beyond your control have been manipulated. It means everything that is created is dependent and reliant on another thing, including the sun, including the moon. Astrophilosophists will tell you this again and again. There is a specific precision needed for the balance. This very, very, very fragile balance of the galaxies, of the earth, of cosmos.

There is specific precision that must always remain constant. Otherwise, the earth as we know it can explode. Are you with me? For there is one that needs nothing and needs no one. That means without you, he's still God. He didn't create you because he needs your worship. That would not make him God. It means he needs you. That would not make him self existence or self reliant. He's God because he does not need anything.

He's God because he has no end and no beginning. He's God because nothing is needed for him to be God. Creation exists because of him, but he exists because of nothing. That means you can't explain his beginning. You can't explain his end. He has no beginning. He has no end. It's simply his. Everything that was created has a beginning. It does not.

It was before the beginning began. In fact, it is the beginning of the beginning. There can be no beginning without God. There is a beginning God is a God. Do you understand what I'm saying? It means if you remove God from the equation, there is no time. There's no eternity. There is nothing. That is what it means that is self existence. It's what makes him God.

It's... The bible called it unsearchable. Unsearchable. You you can't travel to the hand of God. You can't travel to the beginning of God. It's simply his. That's why when he was introducing himself to Moses, he says, I am, not I was, not I will be. I simply am. I need no one to exist. I simply exist.

I simply am. Do you understand what I'm saying? I need nothing and no one. Only him exists in that class. Only him. Only him exists in that class. There is only one being, and that is why it can be called God. So when that God says, let us make man in our own image, hour is not speaking about hour there is not angels because angels are created beings. So God cannot say hour for what he created. It's like it's like I created a television, and I'm speaking to the television to say, let us make a speaker in our image.

It doesn't make sense because I made television. So our there is a plural term when the word God also in the Hebrew is plural. It's the word Elohi. Elohi is the word used there. It is plural. Elohim being singular. So Elohi said, it means God is the one speaking to God. Do you understand what I'm saying? That's why it's called God in three persons. I don't have time for this.

I'm sure I have time. God in three persons, you see, because God is speaking to himself. Son, father, and spirit communing together in that state of love, in that sharing together, in that awesomeness, in that fellowship, in that divine self giving, the father loving on the son, the son loving on the father, the son say you have loved me before the foundation of the world in that state of fellowship. Then love spoke, and love said, let's make man in our own image. Let's give an entity this image of ours. Let's give an entity this likeness of ours. Oh, God. Oh, God. No wonder the psalmist said, what is man? That you are mindful of him.

What exactly is that man? What did you see in him? You made dust. You gathered clay together, and then you look at clay as though clay was some beautiful artwork. And you say, you know what? I will put my breath in clay, in clay. And you gave yourself to clay. What wisdom. Only love can do that. Because if you want to even give yourself at all, shouldn't you give yourself to one of these cherubims?

One of these seraphims? Have you seen the descriptions? They are made with gold and dasper stones and barric stones and all kind of beautiful stones. These guys are beautiful. They are they are glorious looking creatures. The Bible describes Lucifer as being made with jasper stones, hornyx, bennix, all kind of beautiful stones was his makeup. Musical instrument of all sorts was his makeup. So if you want to give yourself, why not look at these beautiful things you have made and say, my goodness. Look at how glorious this one is. Look at how powerful this one is.

Let me endure this one with myself. Why come to earth and gather dust and gather clay and craft for yourself something and say, want to invest myself in this one. The only thing that can explain it is love. It's that it is a nature that is compelled. He doesn't love. He is love. So his actions cannot be understood by finite minds. Who is not love? Because you are not love. You are man.

So it is difficult for you to understand the ways of a God who is love. Because what compels his action is love. If you understand scripture from this perspective, you realize that every single thing that you read, even in the old testament, were expressions of love. When we sing that song, the highest peak of that love was seen on the cross but did not begin on the cross. Did not begin on the cross. Why still put up with man? Have you thought about that? Yes, sir. Why not just end it and start afresh? Why not just do a reset?

Why still preserve Noah and his family? And say, you know what? Start this thing again after just saying that just Peter will no longer strive with man. The only thing that explains it is love. It's love. So you see God sacrificing. You see God giving. It is who he is. Understanding helps a man in ways you cannot imagine. Helps a man in ways you cannot imagine.

The cross is the peak. It is the eternal character of God that is made visible in time. That's why when John was defining love, look at the definition that he gives. He doesn't define love as a feeling. He doesn't talk about butterflies. I mean, when you're talking and you reduce this thing we are talking about to butterflies, you know nothing. Butterflies. What a pity. Look at how John defines it. In first John chapter four from verse nine to verse 10.

It says, in this, the love of God was manifested towards In this, the love of God, the word manifested is the word apokalupsos. It means the love of God was revealed towards us. So how was the Lord God revealed towards us? That God has sent his only begotten son into the world. Not that God said he loved us. Not that God sang for us. He didn't say, and this is the love of God made manifest in that he sang for us. In that he felt something for us, in that he in that he in that he wanted good for us. Let me show you how God revealed his love towards us. That God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.

And in verse 10, it goes on to say, in this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is love in its truest definition. In the giving away of what is most precious is only begotten son. You see that? It's only begotten. This is how he manifest ed his love for us. In that he get his only begotten son. And the father had nothing more precious than the son. Nothing more precious than the one that he had loved from the foundation of the world.

That's what the son said. The son said that you have loved me since the foundation of the world. Before the old world was created, I was. And there was a fellowship that we shared. And when the father decided that the son would be the sacrifice for the sins of humanity, that was the highest expression of love. Understand what was happening. This was God dissociating himself. This is the first time that deity had to be separated. So much so, the son stood on the cross, looked onto the heavens, and cried with a loud voice. Father, father, why have you forsaken me?

And you have to understand from when he was speaking because this was from a place where they shared love. This was a love that existed before the earth was created. Before the earth was created and for the first time on the cross because of you and I, there was a breach in deity, a connection that existed since eternity was disconnected. The father had to turn his face away from the son whom he had loved from the foundation of the world, had to give his son to die and go to hell because of you. And guess what the Bible says? The Bible said it pleased him. The Bible never said he was crying. Bible never said it was a painful thing. It says it pleased the father. It pleased the father.

Because of you to give his son. It pleased him because it is the highest expression. It pleased the Lord to bruise him for your sake because he loved you and the father could think of nothing to redeem you back to himself than to give what is most precious to him, which was his son. So before we begin to talk about love from the standpoint of what you do... Sorry, sacrifice rather. From the standpoint of what you do, you have to first understand the mystery of sacrifice as who God is. Look at how deep it goes. Look at how deep it goes. The same love that flowed between the father and the son in eternity is the same love that sent the son to the cross. God did not love the son with a lesser love than he had for us, and God did not love us with a lesser love than he had for his son.

He loved us with the very love that he had for his son, and he proved it by giving us that son. So you see, the cross is an expression of love, the highest peak of love. But you see, sacrifice did not even begin at the cross. Because it had always been an expression of who God was. When you travel back to Genesis, God's first expression of sacrifice was in the Garden of Eden. When man fell, man had to, by his own effort, create something because he was feeling shame and guilt. A man used leaves and fig leaves to cover themselves. This is describing self righteousness. Your own attempt at perfecting yourself. Your own attempt at saving yourself.

A man's best attempt was to use leaves. Are you with me? And when God came, in verse 21, this was after God had recited all the consequences of the the fall of man. After cost is the ground for your sake, after all the consequences of his rebellion had been recited to him, God, in verse 21, the Bible says, also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Where did the skin come from? Verse 21 in NLT. NLT says, the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. Adam and Eve had sewn fig leaves together. Their own covering was vegetable, the works of their hands. And God looked at their covering that they made for themselves and said, You can't help yourself like this.

And he made tunics of skin. That skin came from an animal. And an animal does not give up its skin whilst it is alive. Something died in the garden that day, and God was the one that killed it. You need to understand this. In an attempt to cover man... Because we imagine sacrifice as something that begins with man. You're already missing it. God was the one who made an attempt to reach man. That man who attempt that righteousness cannot even cover you.

Fig leaves will dry. That is how your righteousness will dry. It is our own righteousness is like fielding rags before him. So what God did was kill an animal to show you a typology of what is to come. That in the same way that this... A blood had to be shed for your body to be covered. That's the same way blood will be shed so that this glory you have lost can now unwrap you once again is why the bible says you have been baptized into Christ. It was first the typology that existed in Genesis in the Garden of Eden. So the first sacrifice the first sacrifice in the bible was not offered from man to God. The first sacrifice in scripture was offered from God to man.

Cain and Abel weren't the first to give a sacrifice. I don't wanna go ahead of myself. Or I I have shown you how that even Cain and Abel's sacrifice was a response to the first sacrifice? Because the Bible says by faith, Abel gave a more excellent sacrifice. The Bible says faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. It means you cannot have faith except there has been a hearing, a revealing of the word of God to you. So faith is a response to the word of God. It means for Abel to have faith, there is something God has revealed to Abel. And that is why when Abel was given a sacrifice, he gave the first fruit of the same thing that God sacrificed for Adam and Eve. The first born.

See, we tend to imagine sacrifice as something that a man does to appease a reluctant deity. We see it as something that frightened believers do when we are throwing offerings at an angry God in order to calm down that angry God. The same way the pagans do. But the fourth time that blood was shared in scripture, the direction is the exact opposite. It is God moving towards man. It is God covering man. It is God absorbing the cost so that man can be clothed and brought back into his presence. So you see, before sacrifice was ever something that God asked of us, before sacrifice was ever something God demanded from us, it was something God did for us. And that sets the tone for everything that follows because it tells you the heart behind the altar long before you understand it, the mechanism of the altar. The God who demands sacrifice is first the God who makes it.

The God who demands sacrifice is first the God who is sacrifice. So now the answer to the question that we began with, where does sacrifice come from? You see, sacrifice comes from the nature of God himself. From a self giving that is older than the world, that is deeper than time, that is woven into the very being of the father, the son, and the spirit. Sacrifice is not for something God demands of you. Sacrifice is for something God is. So when God later asks you to lay something down, You have to understand that it's not just some distant deity who is extracting payment from you because of what he wants to do or because of what he has done for you. No. You have to understand that God is still the same self giving father, and he's inviting you into the family of his likeness because we were made in his image. We were made in his likeness.

In other words, apart from the fall, man actually was made with this same self giving nature, this same sacrificial nature. That was exactly how God made man as a sacrificial being. Wired into our DNA was the ability to give like God gives, was the ability to sacrifice like God sacrifice, was the ability to love like God loves because we were made in his image and in his likeness. So when God makes a demand from us, you have to understand that he's inviting you into his likeness. What God is saying is, be like me in experience. Learn to pull out as I pull out. Step into the oldest rhythm in the universe. The rhythm that was beating in my heart before the stars were made. Are you getting this thing I'm teaching you? No.

So why does God ask us to lay something down? The fall of man did something to the image. The fall of man did something to the likeness. The fall of man made man lose the image and the likeness of God. Just in case you are here and you think that the image and the likeness of God is how you are in your body, how you are in the physical realm, how that you have eyes, you have ears, you have nose, you have legs, you can walk, you are an intelligent being, you have hands, you can carry things, and you think that the image is how that you are different from a monkey or from a dog. You can't be further from wrong. Are you with me? The image and the likeness has nothing to do with your physical being and how you look and how you appear. Are you with me? The reason is because the one who made you in his image does not have a body himself.

The one who made you in his likeness does not have a body himself. The Bible says God is spirit. God does not have a spirit. He is spirit. Jesus speaking, he said the spirit has not flesh and bone. So there is no flesh nor bone with God, and yet he made you in his image and his likeness. So it can't be referring to his physical flesh and bone. Are you with me? He was referring something deeper than that, and that thing that he was referring to was precisely what man lost when man fell. And now because man has been redeemed and because the the the blood has been shed and because of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus, that image and that likeness has been restored.

And now it is perfect in your spirit, but your soul has lost the essence of image and likeness. So God has to teach your soul once again what it means to be in the image of God, what it means to be in the likeness of God. Do you understand what I'm saying? Because it is still in you, but a lot of people struggle with it. We struggle with love as God loves even for ourselves, even between siblings, even between brothers and sisters born of the same father, born of the same mother, they cannot love themselves as Jesus loves. Even between husband and wife, even between people that you think that there is a kind of bond that will create love to exist by default. Yet you still find that the soul has been so detached from the image and the likeness of God that what the soul wants right now is to please its own self, to worship its own self. Do you understand what I'm saying? And so God has to retrain man and his soul. Now if love for ourselves have become so difficult that we have to learn it again, what God means when he says he's love, how much more love for his spirit?

How much more love for God? You didn't get what I just said. Jesus was the one who said, if you cannot love your brother whom you see, how can you claim to love a God you cannot see? That means if you fail so miserably in practicing love to your own brother, to your own sister, to your own husband, to your own wife, you fail miserably in loving God. Do we have a foundation here? Yes, sir. Thank you, pastor of holy spirit. So why does God ask us to lay down? Why does this God demand anything from you? And if you have been following what I've been saying, you can already answer this question.

There's a difference between the need of God and the demand of God. God demands sacrifice, but you have to understand he does not need sacrifice. They are not the same. They are not the same. Psalms 50 verse nine to verse 13. Can we read it everybody? I want us to read it very fast everybody. You move fast. One, three. Go.

This is God speaking. Last verse. Stop there. Do you see what God is doing here? He's dismantling this pagan idea of sacrifice. He's saying, don't imagine for one moment that you are fitting me. Don't you imagine that the blood of bulls had anything to me. If I were hungry, I won't even ask you. I won't even tell you. I won't even inform you.

Have you heard people say things like, praise is what God hates? What nonsense. You think if you are praising God, you are helping him? We need to study God. We need to understand God. You think that's what happens when you're praising God? Come on now. Come on now. We're joking. I don't have any other thing that...

Because you don't eat this, you don't eat that. What you eat is my praise, and so I will give you my praise. What? So before you were formed, what was he eating? Must be starving. That must have been an eternal fast. That would mean that God needs you. Can't you see it? He said if I were hungry, I would not even inform you because the world and everything in it belongs to me. Belongs to me.

Do hear what Jesus said? When people were prisoners, people were thinking they should keep quiet. Jesus said, if these ones don't shout, you will be amazed that the stones will cry out. Because they they they are my creation. The psalmist is the one speaking. He says, even the trees magnify his name. Don't you think you are the only one who's eating your praise. Humble yourself when you realize that even the trees praise God. If I were hungry, would not tell you. So God is not eating your offerings.

God is not enriched by your giving. God does not sit down in heaven diminished, waiting for you to give to him to now top him up like a God that is starving. The God of the Bible has no needs at all. He's complete in himself. He's full in himself. He's sufficient in himself. Before anything was ever created, God had existed. So before you were ever made, he had been fooled in himself. He had existed in himself. He was satisfied in himself.

So whatever sacrifice is for, it is definitely not for feeling a lack in God because there is no lack in God. Are you with me? So the question now is, if God does not need it, then why does he demand it at all? That's the question. If God does not need it, then why does he ever demand it? And you should see something here. Because if the sacrifice does not change God, if the sacrifice does not add anything to God, yet God demand the sacrifice, then it stands to reason or it stands to mean that the one who is changed when he sacrifices is the one who offers the sacrifice. So if a believer gives sacrificially, you have to understand it's not giving for God's benefit. If a believer gives sacrificially, he's giving it for himself. The only person that sacrifice had something to is you.

The only person that sacrifice does something to is you. The only person that sacrifice changes something in is you. So when we give, we give for our own transformation. Because God does not need your burr. God does not need you to even give it. The altar was never built to feed God. It was built to form you, to transform you. The cost is not there because God is hungry. The cost is there because there is something in the human heart that only surrender can reach. Because, you see, the human heart and the human soul has been so trained by the fall to dissociate itself from God.

And so when your spirit man is saved, your soul and your... Even your heart has to be retrained by God. That's the process of transformation. That's why it is possible for a man to say that he loves God. Yet, because of the frailty of the human soul and the frailty even of the human heart, which can deceive the man himself. The Bible says the heart of a man is wicked. It's capable of deception, even deceiving the owner of the heart. And because of that, a man can say that he loves God. A man can say that he loves me. A man can think that he loves you.

You can say you love God. You can say you love your wife. You can say you love your mother. You can say you love your sister. You can say you love your brother. Are you with me? Yes. But the Bible says the truth is not in you. And the one who is saying that he loves you or I love God, does not even know that the truth is not in him. Because the heart can deceive the owner of the heart.

Are you with me? So you can give anything to God. Love is not giving. Love is sacrificial giving. That's the biblical definition of love. God did not just give, he gave his only precious, the only thing precious to him. He gave his only begotten son. So you, love is not just giving. Listen to me. A gift that cost you nothing changes nothing in you.

You can hand over what you don't value and then walk away exactly the same person. But the moment God asks you for something that cost you, something that is woven into your security, something that is woven into your identity, something that is woven into your future, something that is woven into your sense of affection, then that giving, the giving of that thing does a surgery on the inside of you. That's why you feel wounded when you sacrifice. There's like a scar that opens up. It is because the heart of a man is has been so far from how God originally designed it. So God must retrain the heart until you get to a point where to sacrifice is your second nature. Where God can tell you, give your house, and you say, yes, sir. And you live as though nothing has happened to you. You built the house, back out of the house, moved to your rented apartment, hand over the keys of the house, and people look at you and be, are you mad? He said, I'm not mad.

God said I should give it. If God said I should give it, what is there? What I'm saying now will look as though, that will be me someday. It's a lie. You are lying. And I will tell you why you're lying now. All these deceptive things we say, I'm a kingdom finance And when we say, kingdom financier, they will now flutter the power and be crying in one place. You are lying. Are lying. When you understand this that I'm teaching, you will realize that there's no special grace of kingdom financier.

Every believer is one. The problem is that we have not understood this. That's the problem. Do you know how it sounds like when the power of God come and then somebody says, oh, I've received the grace to be a kingdom financier. It's like husband and wives coming to church, and the power of God comes upon the wife, and she says, I've received the grace to love my husband. Think about it. Because it's not a exclusive reserve for some. It's meant to be a response of every believer who has understood the love of God. Do you understand what I'm saying? As well, when God makes demands from you, it pry your finger off the thing that you were gripping, the thing that you were owing on tightly to.

When God makes a demand from you, it it relocates your trust. It dethrones the idol that you did not even know that you were serving. That's why the demands of God always seem to land on the expensive things in your life and never on the cheap ones. And by that, I'm not talking about material things alone. I'm talking about things of value, things that are costly to you. That's where the demands of God often lies in because your security is woven to it. Some of you have woven your identity to things other than God. You have woven your future. You have woven your security to things other than God. There is a man listening to me who has woven his security into a savings account.

And it is obvious in his life that what he trusts him for security, for a guarantee of his future, is his savings and not God. And so when he says I love you, Jesus, Jesus says, you don't really mean what you are saying because I don't check what you are saying. I check your heart. And in your heart, there's an idol sitting down there. You might not know, but I know because that's where I interact with. My business is not with your mouth, it is with your heart. And I can see an idol there. That idol is in the savings account somewhere. And as you are fellowshipping, hear empty that thing. And as you hear empty that thing, you are wondering, what does God need this thing for?

Absolutely nothing. The question is, what do you need it for? Because what God is doing is removing an idol from your heart. How many of you have had an experience where you were wounded in your leg and they used... What is it called? Say, cutting wood or something like that to... Maybe not you. Can you imagine what I'm saying? Use cutting wood to just put upon the wound. Is that not so?

And then you leave the cotton wool there, maybe out of carelessness or whatever for like two days. And then you come back to the wound. What happens when you want to remove the cotton wool? Will you leave the cotton wool there because it is painful? But what happens when you attempt to remove it? That's it looks like when God says remove the hide door. It has attached itself to your heart by removing it. It is peeling something away from your heart. That's what causes the wound because that's how you even know there's an hide door. Because the pain you feel to let the thing go is the attachment it has to your heart.

And God says, I'm the only one that should be ever attached to you like that. There is nothing, I'm no human being, that should ever hone your attachment like that. Nothing. Nothing that is so attached to you like a cotton wool that has spent two days on a wounded leg that to remove it is now causing problem. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. The only one that should take that space in your life is me. And when I check your heart and I find that there are things, things conflicting with where I'm supposed to be, I make a demand. I say, put that in on the altar. It has nothing to do with what I need.

It has everything to do with realigning your heart. That way, both of us can fellowship, both of us can commune, both of us. I teach you the path of genuine spirituality. Please listen to what I'm teaching you. The path of genuine spirituality. When a man gives that thing, it does a surgery on their inside. It pry their finger off what they are gripping. It locates your trust. Your confidence is no longer in your security that you have crafted by your own hands. It dethrones the idol that you did not know that you had.

Look at how David understood this. When David sinned and wanted to bring God an offering, he stopped because he realized God was not after the honey man at all, and we've misunderstood the scripture. Psalms 51 from verse 16 to verse 17. This was David speaking. This was after he had sinned and then he thought that all he had to do was just bring the sacrifice and that was it. Now watch what David confessed. Watch the reality he had. Watch the understanding he had. He says, for you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You do not delight in bond offering.

Watch this. The next verse. It says, the sacrifices of God. That's the same David who had just said, you don't desire sacrifice. You don't desire burnt offering. He then goes on to say that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. You don't desire sacrifice. Now it's not saying that God has not commanded sacrifice because God clearly has. He's saying the sacrifice was not the point. He's saying the Hanima on the altar was not the point.

He's saying that Hanima, the sacrifice itself was pointing past itself to something happening inside the man so that the real sacrifice wasn't the burnt offering. The real sacrifice was what the burnt offering was doing inside the man. The real offering that God was reaching for was the broken spirit, the surrendered heart, the inner self laid down before God. That means that the outer sacrifice was the visible sign of an invincible transaction. And where the invincible transaction was missing, the visible sacrifice was worthless. Do you see it? Yes, sir. So God designed sacrifice as a language, a physical, costly, unmistakable language by which the heart of man says to God what words alone are too cheap to say? There's a superior language that heaven understands. It is called sacrifice.

That's why Jesus said, if you love me, you will not sing to me. If you love me, you will not dance to me. If you love me, you will obey. The King James version, you will keep my commandments. This is what I want you to understand. That sacrifice is a divine language. When you cannot find words deep enough to express love, you give something that cost you. You give something that cost you, and that cost speaks. It speaks a language. It speaks.

There is a vocabulary that what you have given speaks to heaven that your words cannot speak. When you want to declare... Remember I told you that it is a language. Right? Now read it for me. One, three. Go. Pause. Look at what God testified about that sacrifice. One, three.

Go. Through it. What is the it? The has a language that it speaks. A language that even speaks in eternity. That even it outpaced and outlived the man that gave it. It means the blood of Abel wasn't speaking because his blood was so special. The blood of Abel was speaking because of what he did with his life whilst he was yet alive. His sacrifice went and was still speaking even after he had died. Even after he had died.

And this was God testifying. God is the one making the testimony that what this person gave, what this person gave, even after he's dead, was still speaking. It's a language you must understand in the realm of the spirit. That when you speak words, spirit don't speak words. I love you, Lord, is not what spirit speak. I love you, Jesus, is not what spirit speak. There's a language that spirit speak. In the same way, God did not look at dying humanity and say I love you. He gave. He gave the most precious thing to himself.

It is in the same way when a man says I love you, God says then, what do you have? When a man wants to declare that God is worth more than money, you lay the money down. And that laying down speaks. When you want to surrender, truly surrender, not just in word but in truth, you keep that thing on the altar and the altar speaks. So when you sing something more than gold, I have something more than gold. Ensure that you have given gold, otherwise you lie. Sacrifice is how love, value, surrender, worship are spoken in a language that cannot lie. Because anyone can say I love God. Anyone can say God is first in my life. What is the most precious thing that you own?

If it cannot be laid on the altar with the knife above it, then your words have not become flesh. The sacrifice is your heart made visible. It is the posture of your heart before God made visible. And sometimes when God wants to really conquer your heart, he keeps on making demands of you. He keeps on making demands of you. He keeps on making demands of you. But Genesis 22, we read from verse one to verse two. It says, now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. Next verse. Now watch this use of language very, very well.

Watch how God phrases it. God does not say, take Isaac. God piles up the words very slowly. God said, take now your son. And just in case you are not sure which one I'm referring to, Your only son. That statement alone is staggering. It is staggering because Isaac was not his only son. It means if God had said take now your son, Abraham could have by calculation taken a son that counts nothing to God. Whereas, God knows which one was sitting on the altar. God knows which of the sons was sitting because there was something God wanted to do here.

You see, take now your son, your only son whom you love. And they just became, I'm still not clear. Isaac. God is naming. One one layer at a time everything Isaac is to Abraham. He's making sure Abraham feels the full weight of what is being asked of him. He's not letting him hide from it. He's not letting him pretend that it's a small thing. He's painting the full picture so that you understand precisely what I'm asking for. This tells you that God is not unaware of what Isaac means to Abraham.

He's underlining it. He's saying your only son. The one whom you love. And it tells you something that when God reaches for the precious thing that a man loves, he is not blind to the preciousness. He's asking because it is precious. He knows exactly what it cost you. He knows. And so he names it. He's asking with the full knowledge of the weight of that thing, which means there must be a reason worth that weight. Why Isaac?

Why Isaac? Of everything Abraham had, why does God reach for this? And the answer begins to open when you understand what Isaac had become in Abraham's heart. Because Isaac was not just a son. Isaac was the promise. That means Isaac was the thing that Abraham had waited twenty five years for. Isaac was twenty five years made flesh. Isaac was what Abraham had expected, anticipated, hoped. Isaac was the manifestation of the promise. Isaac was the laughter of his old age.

Isaac was even the future covenant. He was the guarantee of the future covenant that God had had with Abraham. Isaac was the meaning of his entire existence because God had told Abraham that in your seed... That seed was Isaac, at least to Abraham. So the believer in Christ now we know it is Jesus. Are you with me? Yes, But it still had to flow through Isaac because even the seed had to be preserved, it and will be preserved through Israel that would come to be in Isaac. So any which way you look at it, it is still the promised seed. Everything Abraham was, everything Abraham hoped for was now bound in this boy. The gift had grown so large in Abraham's heart.

That it quickly took the place of the giver. There's difference between possessing a gift that God gives you and worshiping that gift. The very blessings that God gives you are the things that are most likely to become your idols. And it's precisely because we love them, and we love them because they came from God. A good gift that is held too tightly has the tendency to slide without your notice into the place that belongs to God. God and God alone. And God loves Abraham too much to let the gift sit on the throne that belongs to the giver. That's why very often God will place His finger on what you treasure, especially because when what you treasure has started taking its place. And you have to understand that when he places his hand on it, he's not after the thing. He's after the throne, the throne that the thing is sitting down on.

He's testing whether the thing has quietly climbed unnoticed into the place that belongs to him. And he's reclaiming that place for himself. Because he knows that anything other than himself on the throne of your heart will eventually destroy you. Your heart is only meant for God. Let me tell you something. The idol always betrays the worshipper. And anything that you make an idol will eventually betray you. So when God reaches for your Isaac, he's not trying to improvise you. He's performing surgery on your affections. Is prying your grip.

Of the thing that was slowly becoming your God. So that you can now have that place in your heart that no created thing was strong enough to hold. So the test was not whether Abraham loved Isaac. Of course, he loves Isaac. God already told him, your son whom you love. The test is whether Abraham loves Isaac more than God. And Abraham himself may not have the answer until God tells him, give. Give. You may not have the answer. You may not have the answer.

I remember I was praying many years ago. I had listened to a teaching like this. And I was searching myself. I searched myself. I realized, ah, is there anything that is too big for me to give God? And I that there was nothing. And I was just praying because I didn't want to be too self confident in myself. So like David, I said, search my heart, my heart, know my inward part. If there is anything that is occupying your place in my life, has COVID now, and it is yours. And you would not believe what the holy spirit told me to give.

And I was amazed at my own resistance. I was amazed at my own restriction. Just when I had looked at myself and I had thought there was nothing. What God did to Abraham is the sacrifice of affection. The sacrifice of a future. Even the sacrifice of his identity. Everything all at once. Everything all at once. From verse 10 to verse 13 of Genesis 22, says, and Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.

So he said, here I am. And he said, not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and offered up the ram instead of his son as a burnt offering. Something striking. As Abraham was about to slaughter the son, God stops the knife. Or stops, and Isaac doesn't die. The moment Abraham's heart had truly let go, the moment the surrender was complete on his insight, God provided a substitute. I don't know if you see what this tells us.

That tells you that God was never after the death of Isaac. There was nothing God wanted to use the death of Isaac for. God was after the heart of Abraham. So the test was never about getting Isaac to the altar and slaughtering him. It was about getting the idol off the throne of Abraham. And the proof is that the instant the throne was cleared, God said, don't lay your hand on that child because the real transaction was already finished. Abraham had already given Isaac in his heart, and so he received Isaac back. Now when he received Isaac back, he's now holding Isaac in his hands. But now he's not holding Isaac again as a God. He's now holding Isaac as a gift from God.

That's all. That's precisely what God wants to do to you. This should tell you that when God is asking you to sacrifice, the thing that you have sacrificed will always return back to you a multiple fold because he's gonna give it back to your hands. But first half that you have released it so that when it comes back to you, it comes back to you as a gift, not as a God. It is at that point that a believer can say, we shall lay up gold like dust. That's the abundance the believer lives for. That's where God wants to take the believer to. That's the wealthy place, the place where we lay up gold. And the Bible says that we will lay up gold, but it it typifies it as dust because there is not a single human being who lays up dust. When you see dust, the first thing you do is sweep it off.

And yet the Bible says, we lay it up as gold. Do you know why we sweep it off? Because it is worth nothing. You see dust, you are not thinking of selling it. What you want to do is just dispose of it. Yet the Bible says that is how we will lay up gold. Like something has become worthless. Something that has become worthless. That means money cannot mean so much to you. And you will think you are the one God wants to lay up gold for.

Don't you see how hard it is for you to let go? No. No. There is obviously an idol in your heart. Obviously an idol in your heart. Until my holy gates is you, spirit keep rolling over me till I look just like you. You need to understand, listen, the song you are singing because it brings you to the altar of sacrifice. Because that's the very thing God is doing when he demands from you. It is so that you look like him. And when you say spirit keep on brooding, you are telling him don't stop.

Don't stop. Don't stop. Even after the first tasks, no matter how painful it was, like you were pulling off that cotton from a wound, no matter how painful... Don't stop. Don't pity me. Pull it off. Until my only gaze is you. Pull it off. Pull it off. Pull it off until I'm your perfect reflection.

Until you look at me in the mirror and what you see is Christ and him crucified. Pull it off. Pull it off. You see, when a believer gets here, loving your sister is easy. Loving your brother is easy. Loving your husband is easy. Loving your wife is easy. It is from this place that Jesus tells the husband, love your wife as Christ loves the church. That he gave himself. That means if you don't know this, loving will be difficult for you.

Loving your fellow human being will be difficult for you. A young man came to me and was sharing with me how selfish his partner was, saying all kind of names. She's so selfish. She's so selfish. She's so rude. She's so... And I was smiling at my... I was just... I didn't know how to communicate to him that the selfish one is you. The thing...

You see the thing about selfishness is this. It would justify itself. That's the thing about the self. You will always look like you are the one that is wronged because you don't know how to pour love on others. You don't know how to love like God loves. I didn't know how to start explaining that young man, it is you who is selfish. You are the selfish one. Can't you see can't you see the stupidity in what you are saying? Everything you have said there is foolish, I just... I didn't know what...

Where where do we start from? I just left it alone. God will help. What do I want to do? God will help. That's why marriage is a break. I can see the future of a marriage when this kind of love does not exist. From the man to the woman, from the woman to the man. Two selfish people where love only exists in their mouth and has butterflies in their stomach. Then they come together and say, we want to marry.

And all that you have is butterflies. Have you checked for the lifespan of a butterfly? That's precisely why marriage is last two years before it breaks. What led them there is butterflies in the belly? Butterflies don't have a long lifespan. You didn't even say an animal or something that has a long lifespan. You say it's a it's a butterfly, you said. It's a butterfly. That's what got them to marriage. And when they were asking them to love and to hold, I do.

Do you understand what you are saying? When you were saying in sickness and in health, I do. Till death do was passed, I do. So after two years now, you fighting to break yourself a mirror. Has death done, you pass? What happened to the confession you made? When you hear, She did not do this, she did not do that, she did this. Not Where is the love of Christ? Whilst we were yet sinners. Where is the love of Christ?

Where is the love of Christ in the man? Where is the love of Christ in the woman? Married couples, please. Married couples. I'm talking solely and specifically to married couples. The reason I have to be specific as for married couples is because some people will now be inside relationship that is leading them to their destruction, and they will say, Apostle has said why we were yet sinners. The bible also says, a companion of fools is destroyed. Sailor. Somebody is in a relationship that will definitely lead to his doom, but he's still entering a relationship in the name of love endures all things.. Glory to God.

That's why the balance had to be very specific. So that when God gives you back what he demanded, and so at times when a man enters into a season, that all God is doing is making demands, making demands because where he's taking you to, he can't afford that anything material shares you with him. There are some of you that will have so much influence that you can't be attached to influence. There's a lady I know like that. She is extremely ambitious at the expense of God. And I know that as you walk with God, God will make demands from you Because that ambition is starting to sit down in her heart taking the place of God. Is it that God is against ambition? No. Is that there is a place ambition must not sit. That's the problem.

You think God cannot give you the things you are looking for? But why is self so attached to it? So drunk, so grooved to it that it is difficult to let go. It's difficult to let go. When we were students, right in Cambridge, even to university, this was always our posture. We wanted good results. We read like mad men for good results. I mean, was reading for sixteen hours, twelve hours because I wanted to pass an exam. But it was never at the expense of God. Never.

In fact, we read that much because we spent so much time with God. So that when our mates were reading, we were with God. And we had to make up for that class one way or the other. We knew it will cost us much time studying because when we were praying, they were reading. So now we have to meet up. So we sit down. Sometimes when they are playing, we are reading. We are studying Because we can't make excuses. And when it was obvious that our strength had failed, I remember an exam I had written. It was obvious I was going to fail.

You know when you are staring failure in the face. You know when you write nonsense. You don't... That's one thing. Listen to me. That's one thing. If we even write nonsense, we should thank God you wrote something. I went to an exam. I read sixteen hours for the exam I was having the previous day. I was having two strong exams back to back.

So I read a lot and my plan was I would drink everything I can drink to stay awake, drink my coffee, the black one, the sweet one, mix everything together. By the time I read sixteen hours for this first one, I wrote the exam, went back, was staying awake, read again. I barely slept. Went to the exam and said, let me just fire this this thing. After it, I can now rest. I got to the exam hall, wrote the first question and slept off. Now I had read. But now I'm writing in the drip. I woke up when they said five minutes more. I looked blank paper everywhere after twelve hours of reading without giving my brain rest, my body rest.

I knew that that was not wise that day. I knew. I knew. What do I want to start writing in five minutes? I was still having paralysis. Stop. Stop. Pencils up. I still write. As though that thing you are writing now is what will now make you pass.

Because you do not have stop, you now remove 10 mark join. What you write, you have the right. What you write, you have written. Like somebody who is having seizures. I wrote the tear, left the thing alone, covered it and just slept. They woke me up five minutes after they collected my script and I went out. Emmanuel was somewhat brilliant, so everybody looked at Emmanuel. What did you get? What did you get? I just left everybody, picked the bike and went home.

I I don't even know what they... Don't ask me what I... I didn't even write anything. So you can't begin to ask me what I got. Staying there will even depress me more. What's the point of staying there? You can stay there to argue because he even wrote something. You will now cry that what you wrote is rubbish. When somebody got four, you got here, and then you are wondering, how am I getting a letter and getting a number? Are you sure we read the same question?

But I wrote nothing. There was no babies to even argue. The following day was fellowship. We went to fellowship and prayed and preached as though nothing happened. No one knew until the God came out, and that was my highest result. How do you explain that? How do you want to start? What... Where do you want to start from? You see such things.

They just go on your knees. What prayer do you even want to pray? God, write for me. Feel for... There... I didn't have prayers to pray. You don't understand what I'm saying? I was not expecting my faith. But I knew that regardless of the faith, it will not take the place of God. Do you understand what I'm saying?

I had no prayer. I had no words. Results came out, and that was the highest result I had. Even the other ones I knew more than that were still not as high as that. I looked at it, and I was I I was amazed. Tears rolled down my eyes in ways I could not imagine. I knew you can't give your life to God, and he will cheat you. It's not possible. I know this by experience, that which our eyes have seen, that which our ears have heard, that which our hands have harmed. This is an international exam, not the not the Nigerian exam to say they made mistakes.

Whatever miracle happened till today, I cannot explain. I cannot explain till today. But you cannot give to God. You cannot give to God and He will scam you. He can, He has never. He has never. He has never. He will never. I remember times in my life when all I'm doing is giving like a fool. And I don't want...

Even when I don't have money. I'm not looking up to heaven as though heaven see now, see I gave, I don't have money. It shows that you are still obsessed with money. It shows what God is doing in your heart is not yet successful. That's the meaning. Be rest assured when the money comes, they will still ask you to give it again. Because there is no peace in your heart. There's no settledness in your heart. Some people don't have money and they lose their peace, lose their everything. They are destabilized because that is their sense of security.

Some people is their pursuit. It's their pursuit for a better life. They've made their pursuit for their PhD, for first class, for all this nonsense to sit in an altar where God is meant to sit. And God is saying, why have you dusted me somewhere? Don't you realize that what you are allowing to sit, that that throne is too heavy. It's too heavy for even your career to sit down. Idols betray you. Idols betray you. Idols betray. I have found that idols betray.

And in Genesis 22 verse 14, Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide. What were Abraham learned that God is the provider? He did not learn that God is provider in the place of comfort. He learned it on the altar, in the place of total surrender at the very edge of the knife. The revelation of God as Jehovah Jireh, the one who provides, was given to Abraham when he let go of Isaac. In fact, it was when Abraham let go of Isaac that he discovered that God had already provided himself a ram. The ram did not get stuck there when God said, look, the ram had always been there. God, he was just waiting at the end of surrender. He was just waiting at the end of surrender. The greatest spiritual realities in this kingdom are assessed on the altar of sacrifice.

The deep things of God are not picked up cheaply by casual passerbys. Just just pick them up. No. There's a law in this kingdom that the most valuable things are reached only through the door of sacrifice. The pattern repeats itself so much. It can't be a coincidence. Abraham reaches the fullness of the covenant when he sacrificed Isaac because the moment Abraham laid down Isaac, what God told him is I swear by my name. And God repeated exactly the same thing he has told him all the while, but this time the difference is I swear by my name. What was a promise became a covenant on the altar of sacrifice. There are realities that only those who have laid down their lives in surrender to God ever truly know.

That's why there are results in the lives of certain men. You should not just covet carelessly because you have no idea what blood is on the altar. You have no idea what blood is on the altar. That's why Paul said, let no man trouble me. I bear in my body the marks of Christ. And when he was speaking, go and read his resume. I count it all lost, he said. For Israel to be preserved in Egypt When the firstborn were being killed, a lamb had to be slain. David will not even approach God with what cost him nothing. And God himself redeemed humanity by offering his only son.

There's an exchange built into the very structure of the kingdom. You lay something down and you receive something far greater. You submit something and you receive something far greater. There are people that what God wants to give to you is not just wealth, it's an inheritance of nations. Do you know that what Solomon had wasn't just that he was a king? The bible says that after the encounter that Solomon had with God, one of the things God gave to him wasn't just riches, wasn't just honor. The bible says that the wisdom of the East. Oh, God. Do you know what that means? That means all eastern nations put together.

I want us to read it together. One, three. Go. This was the wisdom that God put in him after he had sacrificed. Watch this. Solomon could have held on to whatever it is he had, and he would be... I I would have been a great king. But at the altar of sacrifice, God put something in Solomon, and the bible says, it exceeded the wisdom of all the men of the East. Mind is what I'm looking for. One, three, go.

So even if a person is dealing with a small mind, it shows what that small mind is gravelling at, is groveling at. Because there's no way your heart will grovel for God and your heart to be small because God is not small. If your heart is clutched on God, if someone cannot see big, it is because there's an idol in the heart. The idol might just be money. The idol might just be resources. It might just be the material properties that they have. The bible says on that altar when Solomon sacrificed a thousand offerings, one of the things God did for him is to enlarge his heart and then to give him a wisdom that surpasses the wisdom of the East. That means you put all the nations, all the Eastern nations together. If they ever have a problem, their answer is in Solomon. That's a reality in scripture that God can take an entire cardinal point and the nations in a continent and put the solutions in that nation in one man.

And God is saying, just lay down your gold. I want to give you the wisdom of the yeast. You say, no, I like my gold. And God is saying, can't you see what? Think now. Think now. I like my good. I like my good. Because we're gonna pray now. And the prayer symbol really is help my heart.

Search my heart. I found out that usually what we clutch onto the most becomes our own doing, becomes our own becoming, what we clutch onto the most. I found out. And we think we are wise when we do this. We think we know what is best. Like the widow of Zarephat who was told, the prophet told her give me what is in your house. He said what I have is just one of my family we eat. I don't want to eat it and die. So would you rather die? Would you rather die?

Or would you give and say what God can do And the moment you laid it down the Bible says the flour multiplied, the flour and the oil did not finish. Whilst everybody suffered and died, what you had given multiplied greatly. And many a times you have no idea what God wants to hand over to you. You have no idea what your stubbornness and what your hard heartedness is stealing from you. For some people, many things have clutched onto your heart and God would have to make demands of it. And you might see yourself might not know. You might not know what you have attached your security to, attached your future to, attached your hope to. It might be one uncle somewhere. Might be one auntie somewhere that has become your God because all your future plans are hinged on the words of a man. So where is the place of God?

It's just to come and sing and sing praise and offering Sing praise and dance in church Some people have made other men their idols A girl came into your life, a boy came into your life and took the place of God in your life and God will make a demand, God will say give me, give me and your allegiance you will let go because the individuals have occupied a place that only God should occupy God will say drop it on the altar. Until you get to a point in your life where it means nothing anymore. It means nothing anymore Money means nothing Resources means nothing Houses and properties means nothing Means nothing means nothing I was telling somebody there are properties I have I did not buy with money I was not even thinking about a property The goodness of God can be real and tangible and manifest in your life Stop holding God back from manifesting. Let God lose. Let God lose. Someone wants to pray in another one minute and the prayer we're praying now is search my heart for whatever is an idol. Whatever I've put my trust in, whatever I've put my hope in, that is not you. Make a demand of it. Pray. Pray.

There is nothing I won't give to you. There is nothing I won't give to you. There There is nothing to is nothing I I won't won't leave for you. There is nothing I won't leave for you. There is nothing I won't give to you. There is nothing I won't give to you. Amen. This kind of prayer is not what you pray in tongues, it's what you pray in your understanding. Don't pray in tongues. Let me give you one more minute.

Search my heart. And whatever is at high door, make a demand of it. I offer it to you now as a sacrifice. I know it's a response of Thank you Jesus. Thank you. Thank you. The book of Psalms, the bible says, gather unto me my sins, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. There's a way a man lives his life in this manner and God makes a covenant with that man. And when God makes a covenant with a man, it becomes a reference point in his generation. I believe that this teaching is specifically because there are people that covenant to be made with, that God is going to by himself on the altar of sacrifice, make covenants with men that other men will make reference to.

In the same way, the Bible says look unto Abraham because God unveiled a dimension of himself to Abraham. It is in the same manner that a dimension of himself will be revealed unto you on the altar of sacrifice that your generation would need to make reference to you. It might be a dimension of the wisdom of God like it was revealed unto Solomon but greater than Solomon. It might be a dimension of the power of God. It might be a dimension of the healing anointing, the dimension of the of of increase, of prosperity, of abundance. But there is something that God will reveal to you specifically on the altar of sacrifice that becomes a covenant. That son, this is the covenant I will have with you, you as a person. And the covenant, a result will begin to flow from your life. It will be obvious this one has met this dimension of God. And men found wide will come and travel from all hands of the earth.

To know and to learn from this dimension of God you have met. In the same way that the queen of Sheba alongside kings of other nations had to travel to Solomon. Because the wisdom of the East was upon Solomon. It is in the same manner that God will have covenant with men. On the altar of sacrifice. That your generation, a people you have been sent to. For some people, it might just be women. For some people, it might be children. For some people, it might be married couples. It might be a demography, and God will...

He will make a covenant. So you'll see that what God is demanding for is more than what you are holding because he wants to give an inheritance. An inheritance that a nation will feed from, a generation will feed from, territories beyond you will feed from. So that even after you go, a legacy has been left behind. That your children and their children are still failing from. Bring on your tithe and offering and let us give to God. Rise up on your feet as we give. The Lord said I should tell someone that I'm... He's making you a land owner. This will happen before the end of this year.

Just see it in my spirit. The Lord said I should tell someone that you are becoming a landholder. Lord said that he's giving you the grace to build. Father, we bless the offerings that are being given right now. There are three individuals that the Holy Spirit is working on. And what is the Holy Spirit is doing is making them into potholes of encounters is what I'm saying. And the description of that is that there is a dimension of God that has been missing in this generation. And the last person that I'm seeing that is holding that dimension of God is this lady Maria Woodward Eater, where you come for meetings and people begin to see God, see different dimensions of God, see encounters because you are speaking, the hand of God is upon somebody like that. Is a a portal of encounter. What will happen is on the altar of sacrifice.

What will happen is that as you stand to speak to people, they will start getting launched into encounters, launched into encounters. People slain for three days, two days. Lord said I should announce that that dimension is coming back to the earth. Is is finding expression again. Is finding expression again. Father, thank you for the givings. We thank you for the offerings. Thank you for the tithes. We declare that they are blessed in the name of Jesus. We declare that by reason of these givings, we are multiplying, breaking out on all sides.

In the name of Jesus. Gather unto me my saints, those who have made a covenant with my sacrifice. There's something that God will show someone. I don't know if it is with respect to the anointing, or I don't know if it is with respect to medication or a drug or something. I don't know if it's a dimension of the anointing, the in anointing, or if it is wisdom in medicine, but all I'm seeing is a cure. I'm saying that there's an operation that will be so strong in someone's life. I just see people lining up with a particular type of sickness, and God is telling me... A particular type of sickness, and God is telling me that he's handling the answer to you. So I don't know if it is an if it is an anointing, if it's wisdom in medicine. I don't know.

It can be anything. But I just see a line of sick people, and God is saying he's giving the answer a type of sickness. I don't want to mention it. A type of sickness. Mining up like that and then getting healed, getting healed, getting healed. As those are the kind of strange covenants that God begins to have with men on the altar of sacrifice. And some will be so young. Some will be so young, but they'll be everywhere. I see gold falling down like coins, like gold coins falling. And Lord said that there are many shooting into covenant of abundance.

Wealth and prosperity. Lord said he's given you the wealth of many lands. We thank you lord for what you've done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We bless you for what you've done. In Jesus' name we've prayed. Let us share the grace together in fellowship. Thank you for listening to this message.

We trust you have been blessed. You can get more life transforming messages from apostle Emmanuel Boluatife on our Telegram page at DCN Media channel. You can also stream the messages on Spotify, Ocho Mac, and Apple Podcast. Connect with us via our social media platforms on Instagram at DCN underscore nations, on Facebook at Disciples Christian Network, on X at DCM Central and on TikTok at Disciples Christian Network. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at Disciples Television. If you have a testimony from this message, you can mail us at disciplecngmail dot com. God bless you.