Transcript: Unmasking Religion; Rediscovering The Kingdom

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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. Genesis chapter one from verse 26. Please stay with me as we attempt to establish a matter of doctrine and as I attempt to challenge our understanding of certain subjects in the Christian faith. We'll try as much as possible not to be controversial, but please just pay attention. Because this will challenge your thinking, it will challenge your thought, it will challenge what you've always known or what you've always believed or what you've always held there to be true. But it is to the end that the kingdom of God is established And so that every false foundations can be broken. Is this understood? Yes sir. So when you study Genesis chapter one, I believe it is right for us to begin in the beginning.

From verse 26, the Bible says then God said, popular scripture, let us make man. 26, in our own image. After our own likeness. Let them have dominion. Let me pause there a bit. These words are amongst the most important words ever spoken in scripture because they reveal God's original intention for humanity before sin entered into the world. Because These words were spoken before nations ever existed. These words were spoken before government existed, before corruption existed, before poverty existed, before oppression existed, before even religion, which we'll be speaking about in great detail today, existed. So if we misunderstand Genesis, we will misunderstand everything else that follows in scripture. That's why it's called the book of the beginning.

If we misunderstand the beginning, we will misunderstand the purpose of redemption. If we misunderstand God's original intention, we will misunderstand why Jesus came. Do you understand what I've just said? Most people approach the Bible with a flawed approach. We approach the Bible looking for a religion. And so they open Genesis and they are expecting to find instructions about worship, about sacrifices, about rituals, ceremonies, and all kinds of religious Genesis immediately is a king that is creating a realm and placing representatives within that realm. The language of Genesis as you study Genesis is a governmental language. It's a political language. It says, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue the earth. All of these are administrative words.

These are governmental words. Are you with me? All of these are language or words that demand responsibility. They are words of stewardship. They are words that reveal God's intention for man. And that shows you that God's intention for man was never just to have creations or creatures that gather to sing songs. You know, and all of that. As good as that is. God's intention was to have sons who represented him in the world. Be fruitful, multiply, subdue.

That was the charge that God gave to man. And that was the very thing that Psalm eight and verse six declares of man. It says you have made him have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet. Dominion over the works of your hands. This is the original intention of God. So when God created man, he did something that he had not done with anything else in creation. The sun was not made in God's image. The moon was not made in God's image. Animals were not made in God's image.

The oceans were not made in God's image. Only man was made in the image and the likeness of God. And that is very important in scriptures because image there is not just talking about the appearance of a thing. Image is talking about representation. An image always points to the original. An image exists to reveal something about the one that it represents. So when God placed man on earth, he did that as... He placed man on earth as his visible representative, as his visible image on the earth. Are you with me? Man was meant to reveal something about the invincible God.

That's why Jesus is called in Colossians chapter one verse 15 because man failed in that assignment. So Jesus is called the express image of the invincible God, the firstborn over all creation. Are you with me? So man was meant to administer the will of heaven on the earth, being the image of the invincible God. Man was meant to extend the culture of God's kingdom into creation, being the image of the invincible God. Please stay with me. I'm building something here. That's the reason why dominion appears immediately after image. The two cannot be separated. God did not merely say, let us make man in our image and then stop there.

No. No. No. He immediately followed it up with, let them have dominion. It means representation and dominion always belong together. Authority flows from identity. Image, dominion. It means dominion always comes from image. Are you with me? Responsibility always comes from the depth of relationship that man has with God.

God was not simply creating worshipers. He was creating rulers who rule under his rule. Let them have dominion. He was creating a vice regent that will rule under his rule, that will execute his council, you see. Are you with me? It was creating representatives who will carry his character, who will carry his will, who will extend his influence throughout all the earth. This is the very destiny that was restored in Revelations five and verse 10 when the Bible says, he has made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign in the earth. That was the original intention of God that he gave to Adam. He was to be a king, a vice regent in the image of God to have dominion. Stay with me.

I'm going somewhere. Maintain the discipline to push through receiving the word of God, especially when it is being taught to you. Maintain the discipline to receive it. Now think about what God could have done differently. God could have governed every detail of creation directly by himself. I hope you know. He could have administered every aspect of the earth without any need for human involvement. Yet, he deliberately, by act of his will, to walk with man. He chose to walk with man. He chose to walk through man.

That reveals something profound about the nature of God. It tells you that God delights in partnership. Bible calls us co laborers together with God. You remember that scripture? It means from the beginning, he chose to accomplish his purposes on the earth through human representatives. He chose to accomplish his purposes on the earth through man from the beginning. He created man and entrusted man with responsibility from the beginning. That is the very stewardship that the Bible shows us in Psalm one one five verse 16 when the Bible says, the heaven of heaven are the Lord's, but the earth has he given to the children of men. So the garden was not just a place of enjoyment. It's also a place of responsibility.

It was a place of assignment. He gave the earth to man and gave man an assignment with the earth. There was something man was required to do on the earth with the earth. Adam was not just a resident of Eden, you see. Adam was meant to steward Eden. He was meant to do something in Eden. That's why Genesis two becomes very important in our study. Because when you move Genesis two, God then places Adam in the garden and immediately gives Adam work. Verse 15, the Bible says, then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and to keep it. Notice what happens here.

Sin has not yet entered the world. The curse had not yet entered the world. Yet, God already gave man work. Responsibility was already given to man. Stewardship was already given to man. It means work is not the consequence of the fall. The concept of work, the concept of responsibility, the concept of of having something to do is not a consequence of the fall because this all existed before the fall. The frustration that is associated with work came through the fall, but work itself existed before the fall. In Genesis chapter three and verse 17 to verse 19, the Bible says, cost is the ground for your sake. In toil, you shall eat of it.

In the sweat of your face, you will eat bread. You see? So the frustration came after the fall, but work itself came before the fall. Work itself is a part of God's original design because dominion requires responsibility. When God says let them have dominion, it requires responsibility. It requires stewardship. It means you cannot be a kingdom citizen and only be an observer. You cannot be a kingdom citizen and only be a spectator. The moment God made man, he gave man work. He gave man responsibility.

Stay with me. Man became an active participant in God's agenda instantly. One of the greatest tragedies of this modern day Christianity that we have is that many believers unconsciously assume that spirituality and responsibility are opposites. They imagine that the most spiritual a person becomes, the less interested he should be in the affairs of the world. Yet, when you read the Bible, the Bible presents the exact opposite of that, especially in the beginning. The beginning showed us that the reason why God made man in his image was so that man could be responsible for the earth, was so that man could walk, was so that man could have dominion, exercise authority on the earth. Glory to God. So Adam's relationship with God did not remove him or excuse him from assignment, from work, from responsibility. His relationship with God, in fact, empowered that work. It means your relationship with God and your responsibility on this earth are not mutually exclusive.

They're never meant to be enemies. Fellowship with God and responsibility on this earth, they come hand in hand. Glory to God. They are designed to function together. That's the pattern of the faithful servant we see in Matthew 25. If you have a relationship with God, it should show in the responsibilities committed into your hands. If you have a relationship with God, it should show in you being fruitful, in you being productive, in you doing something substantial with your life that contributes to the eternal purpose of God, that contributes to the eternal counsel of God. Stay with me. That's the reason why we must understand this subject of dominion properly. Because dominion, especially when you remove dominion from image, what happens is that it births exploitation.

Dominion does not mean oppression. Dominion does not mean that one person is in control and it begins to meander the office to himself. When you see God's dominion being exercised by a man, it is exercised through stewardship, through righteous stewardship. Adam was not called to abuse creation. Adam was called to tend, to keep, to cultivate it. He was not called to destroy it. He was called to cultivate it. He was called to develop it, not to consume it carelessly. He was called to manage it faithfully. Are you with me?

But when you see a man who is walking in dominion, any kind of dominion, any kind of exercising of power that is not in the image of God, then what happened with oppression? In Matthew 20 verse 25 to verse 26, Jesus was the one speaking, and he said the rulers of the Jews lord it over them. That's exactly what happens when a man exercises dominion outside of image. What makes dominion safe is that the man exercising dominion is in the image of God. That's why the Bible says when the righteous reign, the people rejoice. But when a wicked man reigns, you see, reigns, dominion, but outside of the image of God. Are you with me? What happens is that the people groan. The people groan. So when God commanded man to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, to subdue it, to have dominion, it was revealing a strategy for the expansion of the kingdom.

That this is how my kingdom will be expanded. So the culture of heaven was to spread throughout the earth, through human beings who live under the government of God perpetually. So the garden was not intended to just remain a garden. The boundaries of Eden were meant to spread, were meant to expand through all the old earth. I've taught you this before. Man was meant to take the influence of God's kingdom from Eden and spread that influence all through the earth because Eden was only a part of the earth. That's why in the book of Abacchaud chapter two, I believe, verse 14, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters covers the sea. Are you still with me? As the waters covers the sea. So that is your original mandate of God, that the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters covers the sea.

And that was the mandate he gave to man upon creating man. Man was meant to be fruitful. Man was meant to multiply. Adam's assignment was not just personal holiness. Adam's assignment was not just to worship God and to be in the garden and to just maintain his devotion with God. That was not man's assignment. He had to take what God had established in Eden and extend what God had established in Eden throughout creation. Now, this is one of the most important concept that a believer must know in scriptures because everything that follows in scripture is connected to this original mandate. If you don't understand this original mandate, you have already missed the foundation of everything that you study in scripture. You would not know why Jesus came.

You would not know the importance of redemption. You would not know the purpose of salvation. You would not know why you even had to be saved. Everything in scripture points back to it. The prophets point back to it. Israel points back to it. The coming of Christ points back to it. Even redemption points back to this. The existence of the church points back to this. Even the final chapters of the book of the Bible in Revelations points back to this.

In Revelations 21 verse three, the Bible says, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. So the Bible is ultimately the story of God restoring what was lost in Genesis because that original mandate God had, that original intention that God had was lost in Genesis. And that was what necessitated the coming of Jesus. Stay with me. So it means before we can understand salvation, we must understand the purpose of salvation. Before we can understand redemption, we must understand what what exactly necessitated redemption. Before we can understand the kingdom that Jesus preached, we must understand exactly what Adam lost. Because the first thing that scripture reveals about humanity is not that man is first a sinner. The first thing scripture reveals is that man was created by God as a representative. There was something that man had.

There was a way God created man. There was an intention that God had for man. Are you with me? Yes, sir. There was a responsibility that God gave to man. There was an assignment that God gave to man. God's original intention was never just to populate heaven. No. God's original intention was to fill the earth with people that reflected his character, with people that reflected or that carried his authority, with people that will then use the reflection of his character and the carriage of his authority to extend his government upon the earth. That was God's original intention.

It means if your idea of Christianity or you think that what we are running towards in Christianity is to go back to heaven and to end up in heaven and then rejoice and worship God forever and ever. If the escapist doctrine is what you ought there as a believer, is the foundation of your Christian experience as a believer, you are already on the wrong foundation because it means that you don't even understand the beginning of scripture. If your original intention of God was to make heaven a place that man would dwell, then what God would have done was just make man in heaven. If our race, our Christian race is to hang back in heaven, then there was no need for man to even be greater than half. Are you with me? That's why we speak about the rapture and we say, oh, we go to heaven and we do all of these things. That is very, very true. But when you study scripture, you'll find that your eternity does not end there. The Bible speaks of a new heaven and a new earth after the rapture that there will be a new earth, that Zion will prevail once again. So all of this race will still lead us back to this same earth, but different, more glorious, more perfect than the one we currently live in.

That's the end of the Christian race. Is that much so? Scripturally speaking. So your understanding of scripture cannot therefore end in the idea that, oh, well, let's just leave this race. Let's run this race to make heaven and to do this. It means that you have not carefully studied the intention of God for the creation of man. You have not carefully studied precisely what had and lost. Glory to God. Glory. Where the story begins is God's intention for man.

That's where the whole story begins. That he created man in his image, in his likeness, and he gave them dominion the earth. And he said, be fruitful, subdue, have dominion. This is where the whole story begins. And until you understand that from the beginning, like I said, we will never fully understand what was lost. You'll not even understand why religion emerged because religion was never God's intention as well. And that's where I might begin to sound controversial to some people. But if you stay with me, I'll show you this in scripture. That God's idea was never a religion. But to understand it, we should know what Adam lost.

We should understand very carefully what Adam lost. And to understand what Adam lost, you have to understand what Adam had. A lot of believers believe that the primary consequence of the fall was that man lost access to heaven. And of course, that is part of the story, but it's not the whole story. If we reduce the fall to just a ticket to heaven problem, then we've misunderstood the depth of the fall. And we've misunderstood the scope of redemption. What happened in Eden was way more devastating than people realize. And when you can understand it, you will now know what devastated redemption. Adam didn't just lose a location. What Adam lost was a government.

What Adam lost was a kingdom. He didn't just lose a garden. Mm-mm. He lost a kingdom. What heaven committed into his hands, what heaven entrusted into his hands, the kingdom, the rulership, or the responsibility of being the representative or the ambassador of the kingdom of heaven on the earth. And the assignment of being the one to carry the influence of that kingdom and the relationship he had with the king of the kingdom that made him a viable candidate to extend the kingdom of God, That this was all that Adam lost. So what Adam lost was a government. What Adam lost was a kingdom. What Adam lost was a responsibility, was a relationship. Glory to God.

He didn't just lose blessings. No. He lost the authority and relationship that made those blessings even possible. And he didn't just lose it as well. He transferred it to Satan. What happened in the Garden Of Eden was an exchange of rulership, an exchange of dominion. Because when God said, be fruitful, multiply, have dominion. Psalm one one five verse 16 shows us what God was actually doing. That what God was doing was willing the earth to man. In other words, God was saying that the heavens are mine, the earth is mine, everything is mine.

But I've chosen to will this portion of my real estate to you. And in my choice, I have made you a grand regent. I've made you a representative so that what is in my own dimension becomes reflective in this dimension that I've handed over to you. So rule over it. I've given the earth to you. Have dominion over it. Rule over it. This was the extent of man's dominion. It was a huge responsibility because the whole earth was given to man. So what Adam lost was more than just the Garden of Eden or access to heaven.

Mm-mm mm-mm. It was a transfer that happened in the Garden of Eden. Because the moment Satan deceived him, there was a seat of power and authority that Adam had in the Garden Of Eden, reflective of his rulership on the earth. Are you still with me? When he made that transaction with Lucifer and he ate off the fruit of the garden, it was a rebellion that made him transfer his right to rule to Lucifer. So he didn't just lose it, He transferred it. It was in that day that everything that Adam was meant to have upon the earth, all the dominion he has upon the earth was transferred to another. Glory to God. Glory. And Jesus testified of this in, I believe, John chapter 12 verse 31.

Yes. Jesus is the one speaking. Oh, let's read it together, everybody. Look at Jesus calling Lucifer the ruler of this world. That's meant to be the assignment of man. That's meant to be, that's the name tag that man... That God gave to man in Genesis when he says have dominion. Man was made to be the ruler of this world. So when man fell, this was what man lost. Do you understand what I'm saying?

It was it was a heavy responsibility that was fat upon man. And there are many portions of scripture that confirms this. In second Corinthians chapter four verse four, Paul calls him the god of this age. In Luke chapter four from verse five to verse six, when Lucifer was tempting Jesus, the Bible says that the devil taken him up behind mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and in a moment of time in a moment of time, and the devil said to him, all this authority I will give to you and their glory for this has been what now? Notice terminology. It was delivered to me. It was given to man, but delivered to me. It wasn't said given to me. Do you understand what trying say? It means Psalm one one five verse 16 shows you that it was given to man.

Man, however, delivered it. And the devil was claiming ownership of it. He said, listen, it was delivered to me, and I can give it to whomever I wish. So if you would bow to me, I can give you this thing. It came to me on a platter of gold. Genesis three is perhaps one of the most tragic chapters in scripture because it records the fall of humanity when humanity rebelled against the government of God. And when the serpent came to Eve, look at what the serpent told Eve. In fact, he didn't even attack Eve, so to say, or attack our worship. What he attacked was the authority of God's word. What he attacked was the trust that Eve had in God's word.

What he attacked was a submission to God's word and the authority of his kingdom. Are you with me? What he said was as God indeed said. The question was very simple, but it's actually an attack on the right of God to govern. In other words, what did God tell you? And when man chose to believe him, man was rebelling. You see, every sin is a governmental issue. Every sin asks the same question of who has the right to rule. God or man? God or Lucifer?

And the essence of rebellion is not just breaking a rule. It's rejecting the authority of the king who gave the rule. So the essence of rebellion is something that you did what God says should not do. It's that you are rejecting the authority of God himself. That's why it was a rebellion. What man did was an absolute rebellion. It was an act of rebellion. Man was basically speaking declaring independence. Man was telling God that I don't need you to rule me again. I can now rule myself.

It was what happened in 1960. When Nigeria gained independence and Nigeria told the Britain government that we don't need your influence again. We don't need your rules again. We can now live life by ourselves. We have matured enough to know what is good and what is right. Are you seeing that? And that was what man wanted because what the devil brought to man was that you would have the wisdom to know what is good and what is right. What is good and what is evil. Instead of depending on another. So it is self government, self rule that Satan came to come and project to man.

Stay with me, please. So every sin that you see is a governmental issue. The Bible says rebellion is a sin of witchcraft and stubbornness, is as iniquity and idolatry. When Adam and Eve ate that forbidden fruit, they weren't simply committing an act of disobedience. It was independence from the government of God. They were choosing self rule over the rule of God. They were deciding right there that they would define what is good and what is evil for themselves rather than receiving the definition that God gives. And that was what the disciples told them actually, that your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So what they wanted was to be like God, not to have God rule over them, but to have independence, to rule by themselves, to know good, to know evil. Now in the moment when they ate the fruit, the entire order of creation was disrupted.

The representatives of God's kingdom had rebelled against the king. The steward had rejected his owner. The creation had rejected the creator. The governor abdicated his throne. He revolted against his throne. And God was speaking in Osea chapter six and verse seven. And God said, but like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. There they dealt treacherously with me like Adam. It was a transgression against the covenant. So what Adam did was a transgression.

What Adam did was a rebellion. That's why the consequences of the fall spread so far beyond Adam alone. Are you with me? The consequences of the fall did not camp only on Adam and Eve because Adam and Eve were representative of humanity. All of humanity was in Adam. All of humanity, they were embodiment of mankind. So when they fell, everything fell with them. Creation fell with them. Humanity fell with them. Cosmos fell with them.

There was a huge disruption on the whole earth when man fell because the king of the kingdom, that is the king of the earthly kingdom, the ruler that God placed over the earth had fallen. So the earth fell with it. The consequences of the fall is not isolated on Adam alone. It spread across the whole head. Are you with me? Yes, sir. Far beyond Adam and Eve. And in Isaiah 53 verse six, the Bible shows us this. All we like sheep have gone astray and have taunted everyone on his own. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The iniquity of us all. All of us have turned astray. That's why we were not there when he was going astray. And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all because one man embodied humanity rebelled against God. The moment that man rebelled and God's government was rejected in the heart of man, disorder instantly started spreading across all spheres of influence. The relationship between God and man became damaged instantly. The relationship between man and himself was even damaged instantly. The relationship between man and woman was damaged instantly. The relationship between humanity and creation was damaged instantly. Between people and society, damaged instantly.

What began as rebellion against God eventually manifested as disorder everywhere because all of the kingdom was inched on this vice regent. That that was what Paul was tracing. In Romans chapter five verse 12, when Paul says, therefore, just as one man, sin entered the world and death thru sin and thus death spread to all men. So all men, including creation, benefited. Well, it wasn't the benefit really. It was a terrible thing. Are you with me? And this happened very, very quickly. Before Genesis period ended, Adam and Eve were already hiding from God. The intimacy that once existed between God and man had already been fractured.

God would normally come to fellowship with man. Man would hear the voice of God walking the cool of the day and would enjoy fellowship and intimacy with God. But even the intimacy, the relationship that God had with man had been fractured. In verse eight of Genesis three, the Bible says they eat themselves from the presence of God, living amongst the trees of the garden. Before you complete Genesis four, Cain has already killed Hebrew. Violence has entered human. Look at how fast this thing spread. Like a virus that was spreading so fast. The first thing it damaged was a relationship with God. Instantly, it entered into their children.

In nature and an impulse, they could not explain. Creation was benefiting from the same. Corruption entered into the world. Within just a few chapters of Genesis, as you continue to read, wickedness has covered the earth to such an extent that judgment comes through the flood. Chapter six verse five of Genesis, the Bible says every intent of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. Look at how fast it was spreading. It was a degradation. A corruption that was spreading so fast when you read through the book of Genesis. By the time you get to chapter 11 of Genesis, the bible says that humanity gathered in Babel. And in verse four, they were saying, let us make a name for ourselves.

Let us build a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let's make a name for ourselves. Lest we'll be scattered abroad the face of the earth. You see, the rebellion just keeps becoming deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper. If we open up this statement, it is against everything that God told man to do. Because now they are saying, let's make a name for ourselves. We can pick that alone and spread on it. That alone is an act of rebellion. But he said, listen, we have chosen not to scatter despite he said be fruitful and multiply. They are saying, lest we scatter abroad the face of the whole earth.

Let's all encamp in one place. Another act of rebellion against against God. We want to rule ourselves. We want to make a name for ourselves. We want to become God. We want to become idols ourselves. And it just keeps on spreading like that. That's why the bible consistently presents sin as just more than a wrongdoing than an individual does. Sin is cosmic rebellion. It is the disruption of God's intended order.

That's why first John chapter three verse four, the Bible says, whosoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. It means when sin entered the world, lawlessness also entered the world. So if you say Nigeria is a lawless country, how you know what you're saying? When God's government is removed, there can be no vacuum. What fills that vacuum is chaos. What fills that vacuum is corruption, is poverty, is death. The moment you remove the government of God from any place, what fills the vacuum is always chaos, is always destruction, is always famine, is always pestilence because the devil has nothing good to offer. Are you with me? It is true in families.

The moment you remove the government of God from your family, what happens? It is true in the heart of a man. The moment you remove the government of God from the heart of a man. It is true in universities, in secondary schools, in cultures, in nations. Wherever God is rejected, disorder follows immediately. James chapter three verse 16, the Bible says, for where envy and self seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. Confusion and every evil thing are there. And knowledge of God cannot be in a place and self seeking will also be there. Because self seeking is an act of rebellion. It means instead of seeking God, you are seeking yourself.

That was what Adam did. And where that exists, the bible says confusion exists. Every evil thing exists. I found this play out even in educational institutions. The moment they decide to ban the government of God, what you find there is evil prevalently. And if the people that hold the educational system don't really care about what people are becoming other than what they are teaching in classrooms, they will not notice the evil that is prevalent as long as students are passing. They will not notice the chaos that is forming. They will not notice that demons are entering into the hearts of people as long as people are passing exams. Because why does the school exist to teach people this subject and this subject? Whereas, the government of God has been removed from the institution.

Are you with me? This thing helps us understand immediately the origin of the problems that we see in the varieties. That these things are spiritual before they become social. Corruption is not merely just a political problem. It's a spiritual problem expressing itself politically. Injustice is not just a legal problem. It's a spiritual problem expressing itself legally. Poverty is not just an economic problem. It's a spiritual problem expressing itself economically. The same way oppression is not just a governmental problem.

It's a spiritual problem expressing itself through government structures. That's why Paul reminds us in Ephesians chapter six verse 12, for we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against rulers of darkness of this age. It means even when we think that our battles are against structures made by men, our battles really are spiritual. It it it originates from the realm of the spirit and then overflows into human structures. And we must be wise to understand this. Now that does not mean that every problem can be solved by preaching alone. It just means that every lasting solution that we must recommend must first deal with the spiritual root behind the visible fruit we are seeing. Otherwise, we will only create temporal structures, temporal structures, temporal structures. Are you with me? Yes, sir.

Temporal structures. What man lost was the government of God. What man lost was the government of God. And guess what? When man lost the government of God, he didn't stop governing. He simply began governing without God. You see, when man lost the government of God, he didn't stop gathering wealth. He just started gathering wealth without God. Do you understand what I'm saying? The domain...

The desire for dominion was still there because it's part of humanity's original design. The problem was that dominion now became disconnected from God. Humanity still wanted power, but no longer wanted submission, no longer wanted obedience, no longer wanted covenant. We still wanted influence, but we no longer wanted to obey God anymore. We still wanted authority, but we no longer wanted to be accountable to a king anymore. And as a result, what happened was that the potential that God gave man, the very gift that God gave man, that man should use to steward and to bring to bear the expression and the expansion of his kingdom. Now became tools that now started servicing oppression. Are you with me? Now became tools that others service no oppression. So men still desire power.

There's a desire, an innate desire in man for power. An innate desire in man. No man likes oppression. No man likes to be oppressed. No man likes to be objugated. That's the reason why something in men will always rebel against oppression. If you oppress a man long enough, a time will come. You might oppress him for many years. When a time will come, they will decide enough is enough. Because something in man yanks for dominion.

Something in man yanks for power. Something in man yearns for influence. It is part of man's original design that the problem becomes when man pursues it, gets it without God. Because it was... The principle was meant to be image and dominion. Let us make man in our own image. Let them have dominion. So when a man who is no longer in his image has dominion, it becomes a problem. Dominion in any way, in wealth, in power, in government, in leadership, in any way, It becomes a problem. Glory to God.

Glory. Ecclesiastes eight verse nine says, at the time in which one man rules over another in his own heart. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory. The same capacity that was meant to cultivate, the guy now used to exploit other people. The same authority that was meant to serve, he now used to dominate other people. The same creativity that God gave to him to glorify God now exalts himself, now exalts man. Glory to God. So humanity retained all its original capacities but lost the government that was meant to guide those capacities.

The result was disorder on a very massive scale, and the disorder is what we are still seeing in our world today. That's the very state that Paul was describing in Romans chapter one and verse 21 when he said because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God nor were they thankful but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. In fact, Romans eight give us a remarkable picture of how far reaching the fall actually was. Paul was the one that said that creation itself was subjected to futility and now groans waiting for redemption. Think about that, that the consequences of sin were not confined to the human soul. That is humbling when you think about it. Creation itself was affected. The earth was meant to flourish under righteous dominion. But the earth now experiences frustration, experiences decay, experiences disorder. Why?

Because the ruler of the earthly realm had fallen. Thank you, precious holy spirit. That's why salvation is powerful. It's more powerful than an individual. That's why when we talk about salvation, you cannot be limited in the scope of your thinking. And if you don't understand what man lost, like I said, you can't begin to understand salvation. If you don't understand the repercussions of sin and the consequence of sin, you can't even be... Begin to comprehend the benefit rather of salvation. Glory to God. Glory God.

Thank you, pray to the holy spirit. So when when when when salvation came, when Jesus came, he wasn't just saving us, he was restoring us. He was restoring us to his original intention. The gospel is not just about forgiveness of sins. Even though forgiveness is essential, the gospel is about restoration. It's about bringing humanity back on that God's government. It's about restoring what was lost. It's about recovering the original design that God had for man before man lost it. That's why Jesus came in Mark chapter one and verse 15, and the Bible record this first message. The bible says the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in this gospel. It's not introducing a new idea. It's not saying something new. It's restoring an old idea. When he said the kingdom of God is at hand, it's more a new thing he was preaching. It's not creating a new agenda. It's recovering an agenda that was lost in hidden. That's the very reason why in first John chapter three verse eight, the bible says, for this purpose rather, the son of God was made manifest that it might destroy the works of the devil. We must now begin to open up what is the works of the devil. The works of the devil is everything that he has done with the earth before it was restored back to man.

Are you with me? Because when the earth was delivered over to him, that guy messed up the earth. That guy went to all the seven mountains of influence and built structures in each and every one of them. And Jesus says, this cause, the son of man was made manifest to destroy these works of the devil. Now listen to me because all of this is not even where I'm going. Listen to me. One of the most remarkable things about humanity is that even after the fall of man, man did not lose completely the awareness of God. Man lost fellowship with God. True. Man lost submission to God.

True. He lost the government of God. That is true. But he never completely lost the awareness that there was something beyond himself that existed. That's why in Ecclesiastes chapter three verse 11, the Bible says that God put eternity in the hearts of men. There is something within humanity that continually reaches beyond the material world for something bigger than himself. There is something within man that knows that it was created for more than food, for more than money, for more than pleasure, success, possession, survival. There is something within man that that awareness remained even though the fellowship with God had been lost. Man was created by God and even in his fallen creation, even in his fallen state, he still carries traces of that reality. He knew.

That is the grouping that Paul was describing in Acts 17 verse 27 when Paul says that, so that they should seek the Lord in order that they they might grope for him. In order that they might grope for him and find it though he is not far from each one of us. But they were... They did not know the fellowship of God that they had with God had been broken, but there was still a grope in that they had, an awareness of a divine being that existed. Are you with me? Yes, sir. That's groping launched them into a search, a search of this divine being, a search of something more than them. And every man is still searching for something like that today. That search becomes one of the most defining stories of human history. And it is from that search that religion emerges.

That's why throughout human history, every civilization has searched for something divine. Whether you travel to Africa, whether you go to Asia, The Middle East, Europe, America, even the ancient Middle East, you discover the same pattern everywhere. Different languages, different cultures, different customs yet everywhere, humanity is searching. Everywhere you find altars appearing. Everywhere sacrifices are appearing. Everywhere pillars are being made. Everywhere people are gathering in large numbers, worshiping their whole idea of a deity because humanity kept on searching. They knew they had lost fellowship with God, but there was still an awareness, a hole that was inside of them that would not be filled. Are you still with me? Yes, sir.

So everywhere you find humanity searching for something greater than itself. Paul observed this very thing in Athens when he go to Athens. In Acts chapter seventeen twenty two, look at what Paul says, I perceive that in all things, you are very what? Religious. Next verse. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown god. These were already people that had plenty gods. And they had they had a building dedicated to each god that they had. Despite they had plenty gods already, there was still a hole that the plenty gods could not fill. It was as though there is still a...

There is still something we have not seen. There is a god we have not yet discovered. So they sent excavators to go and search for hidos. And when they find the idols, they will dedicate all kinds of altars to them, all kind of structures to them. But these people still knew that despite fulfilling all the rights, all the sacrifices, all the rituals, there was still a gap in their hearts. Eternity was still yearning within them. And they said, you know what? Whilst we are still waiting for the identity of this God, let's just create an altar for him and call him the unknown God. It is therefore the one whom you worship without knowing. Glory to God.

I think when you study Romans one, you'll see the clearest explanation of what happened. Men knew that they had lost something. The problem that man had was that he no longer knew how to recover what he lost. But he knew he lost something. He knew there was a gap in his heart. The moment Adam disconnected, the moment that thing was lost, the moment man fell and Adam lost that relationship, there was a hole. A hole that only one being in the entire universe can occupy. God is not the name he bears for identity. God is a functional name. It's the name he bears because of what he is.

I have a teaching called the doctrine of God. As we go on in our syllabus, we'll get there. The doctrine of God. Your head will scatter because you cannot possibly comprehend it without the holy spirit. Inside the doctrine of God is the trinitarian gospel or the trinitarian doctrine. That alone. We can attempt to use several illustrations to explain it. But when you sit down with the knowledge, when you do a deep study, you would find that all the illustrations we can use to explain it does not do it justice. So I can say that, for instance, water is solid, liquid, and gas. And because water can exist as three states, you should be able to understand what it means that God is spirit.

God is son. God is father. Is that much so? But when you understand trinity, you will know that even that is an helpless analogy. It doesn't it does not even come close. Doesn't even come close. We can say that I am a man and I'm a I'm a man now. I am one person. And as I'm one person, I can be a father if I have a son. And my son calls me father.

I can be a husband if I have a wife. And my wife calls me husband. I can be a boss if I have a company. And my employees call me boss. Is that not so? So I'm one man, but I'm existing. That still does not do it justice. You are... We are still still floating in the air. It has still not captured God in three persons.

One being, three personalities, one being. He's a teaching for another day. He's teaching for another day. Seeing all through scripture, existing all through scripture, captured all through scripture. That being is the only one capable of inhabiting eternity. As a matter of fact, the Bible says, Messiah does say that I am a lofty one who inhabit eternity. So eternity in the heart of man can only be inhabited by a God that inhabit eternity. So when Adam fell and declared independence, he did not know. But in as much as he can get the money by himself, in as much as he can fill... There are plenty gaps he he could have still filled by himself.

The gap of hunger could have... Do you understand that losing the Garden of Eden meant losing plenty things? Is that not so? For instance, there was food in the Garden Of Eden. There was food in the Garden Of Eden. There was water in the Garden Of Eden. Everything Adam could need was in the Garden Of Eden. When he was sent out of the garden, it would mean there were plenty things he lost. Are you with me? Yes, sir.

There was shelter, plenty things that was in the Garden Of Eden already existed. But when he was sent out, there were things he lost that now he had to get them by himself. It means when he lost God, the mistake he would make is to think that God is the same or in the same category as all the other things he lost. As to think that in the same way I can work for the money I lost, I can work to find a God. Do you understand what I'm saying? There is a a holy man that no money can fill. A holy man, a gap in man that nothing that he looks for can ever fill. Yet the hole remained. Yet the gap remained. A man knew.

Paul says that although humanity knew God, it did not glorify him as God nor were they thankful. Instead, their thinking became futile. Their heart became dark. And Paul now makes a remarkable statement. He says, they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for images made to resemble man, birds, four footed animals, creepy. They exchanged the... Oh, God. And they thought in their own understanding that eternity could be occupied by these things. Now how I began, this is very important to you. Because he made man in his image, the God, the king of kings, this God we're speaking about made man in his image, in his likeness, gave man relationship, gave man access to himself, gave man access to his will, his character, his desire, his agenda so that man, through that access, through that image, through that representation, can now become an extension of his kingdom on the earth.

Please note where they're coming from. Do you remember? Yes, sir. Man now became God's vice president on the earth, ruling over the earth because this is not where we are going. Ruling over the earth. And man fell and the fall of man was an act of rebellion. Man was declaring independence, telling God that I no longer need your rule to exist. I can live by myself and exist by myself and rule my life by myself. And the moment man fell, it would mean that the agenda, the original intention for which God made man fell with man. Not just that, the relationship, everything man needed to do it also fell with him.

The connection and the access man had to God fell with man. The relationship that man had with God fell with man. God built man in his image so that man had the capacity to carry God. That's why man is spirit, soul, body. That's why God put a portion of himself in man. He breathed. Remember to him? Remember? He breathed his breath into man, and man became a living soul. So man had the capacity to carry God on his inside.

When man fell, everything was lost. Man became an empty shell. An empty shell with an awareness that there is something more than him. With an awareness that there's a realm beyond the material that I was once connected to. An awareness that there's a realm beyond me. Man looked around the earth and said, no. All of this did not create itself. Something formed this. Something created this. Man knew he had lost something, but then he was a yearning man to find what he had lost.

What man did was to then get images of idols, of stones. In other words, humanity did not stop worshiping after the fall. They only replaced worship. Worship of God become worship of other things, and religion began. So religion is not Christianity. Are you with me? Religion has an origin. That's what I'm trying to show you. Religion began with man trying to find God. And when man could not find God, they used everything that they could find to replace him.

That was the origin of religion. And Paul attested to it when he got to Athens and told the people that I know that you are religious. And they were not believers. They were not Christians, yet they were religious, yet they had worship. Because in the next verse, he said, I see your items of worship, your object of worship. It means they were worshipers. Do you understand what I'm saying? That tells you it's not a blessing to be religious. But stay with me. Stay with me.

Going somewhere. It's one of the most important of divisions we must make. So the poem after the fall was not that man became irreligious. The poem was that man became religious without truth. Man remained conscious of a realm beyond him, remained aware of a higher reality. But because he was disconnected from God's government and revelation, he began inventing substitutes, began searching for God through his own wisdom. He began constructing systems that reflected human imaginations rather than divine wisdom. And that emptiness is what Isaiah was talking about in Jeremiah chapter two and verse 13. When Isaiah said, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Look at the work you have to even do to heal yourself a system. Only to realize that the system you have hung yourself cannot even hold water. But he says they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. This is where religion begins. Religion at its very core is man's attempt to reach God through his own efforts. It is humanity searching for what was lost whilst lacking the power to recover it. It is falling man trying to climb back to heaven. Because he's searching for God. And sometime that search led him to hide us. Sometimes it produced philosophies.

It produced rituals, produced myths, produced entire civilizations organized around false gods. Egypt at a particular time had about 5,000 gods that they were worshiping in scriptures, In scriptural days, 5,000 gods they were worshiping. What do you think leads a man to worship 5,000 gods? That already shows you the incapacitation of each of them. And the idea that they have is that in each of them, they would find something sufficient, but one still cannot sustain. The knowledge of one still cannot sustain. So the only thing they could do was the 5,000. India right now has thousands of idols too. The very fact that you need thousands show you they are all powerless. You would think that it is logical.

Are you with me? That search produced different kind of things. The forms varied, but the root was still the same. Humanity was searching. Proverbs 14 verse 12 tells us of this effort. There is a way that seems right to a man, the hand is the way of death. And people were searching along that way. That's why the worship of idol was so widespread in the ancient world because they were searching for something. People worship the sun. People worship the moon.

People worship stars. They worship rivers, animals, and your ancestors worship stars. People even worship kings. Human beings like them were worshiped at some point. There was a time where pharaohs were considered gods. Are you with me? Countless other things that people worshiped. Now when you think about it in modern times, that would look irrational to you, but it becomes easier to understand when you recognize that humanity was trying to find God. Man was searching for the divine, but had lost the true knowledge of God. So he replaced God with anything he could find.

He was trying to reconnect back to heaven while connected from the government of God. The psalmist exposed the futility of this. In one one five and verse four to verse eight of the psalms, it says their idols are silver and gold. The work of men's hands. Next verse. They have mouths but did not speak. Eyes they have but did not see. They have ears but did not hear. Noses, have, did not smell. They have hands, but did not handle.

Feet, they have, did not walk. Nor do they mutter through their throat. Verse eight says, those who make them are like them. And so is everyone who trusts in them. If those who make them are like them, then what does that tell you? It means even those who make them have eyes but did not see. Sir. Have ears but did not hear. Are you still with me? Thrones and dominion will bow to you.

The kings and the kingdoms will fade away. The best of men will pass away, but your kingdom will reign forevermore. Thrones and dominions will bow to you. I think the Torah of Babel provides one of the clearest biblical pictures of this process. Genesis 11 records humanity's attempt to build a tower that reached into the heavens. Now look at what is happening here. What is happening here is not just an engineering project. This is a religious project. They were building a tower reaching the heavens. That means humanity is attempting to ascend.

Humanity is attempting to reach upward, reach up to something. Is that not so? Humanity is attempting to create access in their own power, by their own effort. Access to the divine by their own effort, in their own power. He said, come let us build a city for ourselves. A Torah who stop riches the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves. Babel becomes a picture of religion itself. Men trying to reach God without surrendering to the government of God. Trying to build a tower into heaven, but wanting to make a name for themselves.

But the story becomes even more interesting when God began to reveal himself again because God did not leave humanity alone. At some point, God started revealing himself again. There were plenty men before Abraham who had knowledge of God as well. Men like Enoch, men like Job. But when you study from Abraham, God started to actually reach out to men. Abraham's story captures the first outreach of God to man intentionally after the fall. God calls Abraham, and then he raises Israel. Is that not so? Through Abraham. Then God gives his word, and God reveals his law, and God reveals his character, reveals his purposes, tells them what he's trying to do with them, tells them that they are to become an holy nation, a royal priesthood, preserved for his excellency.

And for the first time in generations, humanity is no longer left to speculate about who God is. God begins to speak for himself through prophets. So the Bible says in Hebrews chapter one verse one, God in various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets. God started raising emeritus because he was reaching out to men back so that men can know that what you've been searching for, I am he. So when God was sending Moses to Egypt to deliver Israel from Egypt, this was still God revealing himself. It was still in that era where God is reaching out back to humanity and revealing himself to people. And he was sending him to a system that worshiped thousands of idols and gods that made all kinds of rituals including human rituals to satisfy these idols. And they believe that each of these gods represented several things to them. God of fertility, god of war, god of this, god of that. And all of this was being done in search of the real God.

And when the real God appeared unto Moses, you will then understand the encounter of Moses when Moses asked that question that I now know beyond all doubt that you are God, but I still don't know who you are. And I don't know what to tell people when they ask me who sent me. Because it is important that I know because you are telling me to go to a place where over 5,000 gods are worshipped. Which one of them would I tell them sent me? Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir. And when God thought about that question, God said, where do I begin to classify myself from? How do I define? What definition do I bring? He said, you know what?

Tell them I am. In the doctrine of God, that name must be opened up. Tell them I am. I am who I am. This is when you get to them, tell them, I am sent you. They've not heard that one before. They've not seen that one before. In all their journey of reaching out to God, that I am. Why of all the things they could call himself? I am.

I don't have time for this. I wish I had time for it. Oh, God. The bible is interesting if you just study. Bible is very interesting if you just study. If you just study, if you just stick with it. It begins to open up to you. Things like this interests me. When I'm studying and I get to places like this, I begin to ask question, why? Why I am?

What is the meaning of I am? What is the meaning of I am? Who I am? Then the question is, who are you? I'm really tempted to deviate, but I would not. But for the first time in generations, humanity was no longer left to guess who God was. It was now revealing himself, now introducing himself. But what interests me as God was reaching out back to man, which is where I'm going in my teaching and where we draw it to a close. What interests me was that even when people started encountering the true God, they started bringing into their relationship with this true God. Their previous religious assumptions.

Into that relationship. That's the part that many believers miss. Because religion is not just the worship of false gods. Religion is a way of thinking. That means it is possible to know the true God and still relate to him through religious thinking. And there's no difference between someone that worships an idol and someone that worships the true God because both of them are religious. It's a manner of thinking. Are you getting this thing I'm saying? It's a manner of thinking. The only difference would be that one would go to heaven.

But with respect to the fulfillment of the agenda of God, because you see, there is a reason for which God still appeared unto Abraham. When God was reaching out to man, God was not reaching out back to man for the sake of reaching out. There was still a reason. There was still a purpose for which God found Abraham. Abraham. When God found Abraham, what God told Abraham was in you shall the families of the earth be blessed. So there is a reason why I found you. There's a reason why I have appeared to you. There is something I'm going to do with your life that will extend to the families of the earth. There is something I'm going to build with your life that will extend to the families of the earth.

God began building a relationship with man again, but giving man a responsibility again. So it was it was a thing once again of image and dominion. It was a thing once again of having an encounter with God, but another encounter producing a responsibility. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is always God's idea that when God finds or starts revealing himself to a man or when a man finds the true God, there's always a purpose. It's the it's the original intention of God. But the problem is people miss out this intention or people don't study or people are not careful to study exactly why is the true God reaching out to us again. So what they did instead was to just import their belief system from whatever system they were, from whatever idols they were worshiping before, and then they say, oh, now we have found the true God. We now know who to direct our worship to. So we just pick things we're doing before and then import it into this new system.

The difference being that we are not doing it for the true God. Are you with me? But the true God has an idea. The true God has a strategy or an an agenda, a purpose, a council, a will that he wants to see manifested upon the earth. It is possible to leave idols behind, worship the true God, and then we call ourselves believers, but we still have that religious mentality. It is possible to know scripture and still think religiously. It is exactly what we begin to see throughout the history of Israel. Again and again, God call his people into a covenant relationship, into stewardship, into justice, into obedience, into representation. That is God's original intention. But yet again and again and again, they reduce that relationship into rituals, into ceremonies, into laws, into external external observances.

They begin focusing on sacrifices whilst neglecting relationship, whilst neglecting righteousness, whilst neglecting obedience. They began emphasizing ceremonies, whilst neglecting justice, whilst neglecting the mandate of the true God. They began maintaining religious activities whilst abandoning the larger purpose of God. First Samuel chapter 15 verse 22. Bible says, as the Lord has great delight in burnt offering and sacrifices. Look at that. As the Lord had great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. But this sacrifice was what they were doing. Do you understand what I'm saying?

There was not really much that they hired or demanded of them, obedience wise. But this God now has an agenda. This God now has something he wants to do, and he demands obedience. He demands submission. You see, because he's a king now. And when you read the prophets, you read the frustration of the prophets when they are speaking to the children of Israel. I read one records God rejecting sacrifices that were not accompanied by justice. Chapter one verse 11 of Isaiah, the prophet was speaking. It says, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? Question mark.

Says the law. God was still speaking. He says, I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I don't delight in the bird of bulls or the lambs or goats. Are you seeing this? Yes, sir. Amos even condemns religious gatherings that were disconnected from righteousness. In chapter five and verse 21 and verse 24 of Amos, look at what it says. I hate and despise God speaking, your feast days. I don't serve all your sacred assemblies.

God speaking, verse 24. But let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. It means they didn't pay attention to learn the ways of this God. They just imported ideas, imported thoughts and patterns that they had from their initial pursuit of whatever they could call God. And then when they found the true God, they thought the same thing would fly. Are you with me? Micah was even asking whether God desire the thousand sacrifices. Whilst people were neglecting justice, mercy, humility. In Micah six and verse eight, he has shown you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God. Again and again, God is confronting the people who have reduced what is meant to be a covenant into a ceremony.

This was the very state or the heart distance that Jesus was quoting in Matthew chapter 15 verse eight when he said they will draw near to me and worship me with their mouth. They honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Because they did not know. Because the Gods they found when they were seeking for God never demanded anything from their heart. When they found the true God, there was a whole ecosystem that did not pay attention to learn because what Adam lost was a government. It means that government had constitution, had laws, had ways of running. And when they found the true God, instead of paying attention to learn the ways of this God, some of them thought that this God was still someone they could they could partner or go and some go and order things with, the same way they could do so with others. And there was no envy. God said, no, no, Listen. The God you have found, I, the Lord, am a jealous God.

You will love me with all your heart. I demand everything from you. There is none other that will compete with me in this ecosystem. And God was introducing them again to rewire their memory back into kingdom thinking because they have lost it. I'm going somewhere. Stay with me. Because they've completely lost it. That shows you something. Religion focuses on activity, focuses on what to do to appease God or to appease a deity and what that deity by what you are doing can give to you. That is what religion focuses on.

Religion focuses on performance. What you must do and what the deity does to you or gives to you based on what you do. And religion believes that the more you do these things, the more the deity responds to you. But when you come into the ecosystem of the kingdom, the equation differs extremely. Because in religion, it is after ceremonies. What ceremonies must I perform again? What must I do again? What must I do again? But in the kingdom, it's more of how can I represent the king? Because what the king is looking for is not just people that will come and sing songs to him, it's people that can stand to represent him.

That is his original intention. Do you understand what I'm saying? The purpose of the relationship is representation. I'm going somewhere. Just stay with me. How do I advance its purposes? But in religion, the only thing that the religious believer is concerned about is how do I secure blessings? What can God do for me? But in the kingdom, the question is what can God entrust into my hands? Now look at this.

You are coming from a system where you are always concerned about what the deity can do for you. Into a system where the dietit now demands something from you. Where the dietit now says, listen, the purpose of this expression is not just so I can do something for you. I actually demand something from your life. I demand something from your life so that you can look at the kind of Christianity you are performing and check where you are. And check where you are and immediately understand where you are sitting. This does not mean that the ceremonies, worship, the prayer, the sacrifices, the devotions, it does not mean that they are wrong. No. No. No.

No. Issue is what they are producing. Because in God's design, worship should produce obedience. Worship should produce humility. Worship should do something to you. Devotion should produce stewardship. It should produce representation. It should produce responsibility. Do you understand what I'm saying? Your relationship with God should produce impact in the world, in God's design.

That's why Daniel says those who know their God, they shall do exploit. Can you see again? Image and dominion. Those who know... Can you see this thing appearing in multiple places? They shall do exploit. It means in the kingdom, your knowledge of God translates to exploits. There's a responsibility that God gives the believer who knows him. It means as you know God, the deeper it is you know God, the more you understand that there is something God demands from your life. Exploit that is demanded from your life.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes. Stay with me. Exploits. I call them God sized accomplishments. Go get my message. God sized accomplishments. There's a demand heaven makes on your life. In this kingdom, it's a different ballgame entirely. God says, hear me.

Hear me, brother. Hear me, sister. In this, you are not just coming to worship a deity, then leave the deity and go and live for yourself. Then famine breaks out or something happens and then you come back to the deity and you are offering sacrifices, offering worship, offering ablutions. I'm doing everything that you can do to secure the favor of deity. And you keep on doing this thing. And when people ask you, so what are you doing about your problems? Oh, I'm praying. I'm praying. I'm just praying.

We are believing God. Trust in God. And God is saying, no. No. Listen to me. Have you forgotten that in this system, what happened was that the heaven belongs to me. The earth I gave to you. Do you understand what this means? It means when salvation happened, the earth was taken back from Satan and delivered back to the children of men. It means a believer now takes possession of the earth.

That means when a man says I have found God, God expects that man to rule on the earth. That means that man cannot hold God responsible for anything that happens on the earth whilst he is there. Whilst he is there. Because the purpose of relationship in this kingdom now is you know him so that your world can feel his benefit through you. So that your world can be impacted through you. Do you understand what I'm saying? In this kingdom, the scope is different. In this kingdom, the expectation is different. This conversation is really deep. It's really deep.

And I'm just attempting to introduce it to you because you will now understand why Nigeria is the way it is. Because we have religious believers. There's insecurity in the nation. What do we do? We pray. People have been abducted in another land. What do we do? We pray. People are starving and they are hungry, what do we do? We pray.

And I'm not against prayer. Oh, I'm a man of prayer. But religion has destroyed us. There are conversations we must begin to have that religious people will begin to fight us. Because a person can attend meetings regularly and never influence anything around him. The tragedy occurs when spiritual activity becomes disconnected from kingdom purpose. A person can pray regularly and never take responsibility for what God has called him to build. A person can sing so passionately in church, but never carry the burden of God for his community. And then we see people hungry, and they will go in church and gather in churches, and we begin to pray. And the government and leadership in this nation is bad and terrible.

And you'll see Africa is a blessed nation. Nigeria is a blessed nation filled with resources. We should not be poor as a nation. Our economy should not lose its value. If you know the investment God made in Nigeria as a nation, the resources that has been given as a nation, you'll be amazed. I don't wanna go into all of that right now. But we would have to talk about it, but not today. You'll realize that there is no reason why anybody should hold God responsible after everything that we are blessed with. The problem is the unavailability of men who realize there's an expectation of God on their life. What they've done is the Christianity that was conferred upon them was brought in by their fathers and by their forefathers and by their own forefathers who once practiced idol worship, who were once worshippers of Ogun and Obatala and all of these things.

And there was a way, a system they were worshiping these things. And whenever there is problem in the land, nobody takes responsibility of fighting the solution. What they do is go and offer a sacrifice. Is that not so? And hope that the gods will have mercy upon us. Is that not so? Then when Christianity came, many ideas like that were imported. Several ideas I could I could list them out for you. Were imported into Christianity and that became the system. So much so, we became more concerned about activity and we could not tie that activity to purpose, to kingdom purpose, and to kingdom responsibility.

For instance, the average believer takes love not the world, neither the things of this world. Is that not so? And then he stays on that message and uses it to tell people that see, this world you are in, you must not you must not blah blah blah. But then you go into your bible and find for God so loved the world. And and you started wondering, where where then? What are you saying? The bible says love not the world, none are the things of this world. But then for God so loved that same world that he gave his only begotten son. So we are gonna be tied together. If you're telling me that the reason why I should absence myself from the activities of the world is so that I don't get polluted by the world.

And you tell me careful careful careful. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. But the Bible says go into the world. And now we tell people, listen, the world will corrupt your soul. Don't do politics because of the dirty game. Don't allow you to affect your life. And then when those who are evil do politics and after destroying your life, what do we do? We pray to God. So we have believers who are largely religious but completely absent from the assignment that God gave humanity from the beginning. James chapter one verse 27 says, pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this, What?

To visit and widows Uh-huh. And leave ourselves for them, Lord. So when the orphans and the widows are in trouble, don't you say pray for them? Do you see that the responsibility of what happens in this world when people are in trouble still falls back at you? And this is not to mean that we will not pray. This is not to mean that we will not pray. Are you with me? This is why understanding the difference between religion and kingdom is so important. The issue is not that religion talks about God and kingdom too talks about God. No.

No. No. No. Both of them do. The issue is that religion stops at devotion, at activity, whilst kingdom moves into representation, into purpose, into an agenda. Religion ends with attendance in church. Kingdom is concerned about the assignment that the believer is playing whilst in his devotion to God. Religion creates observers. Kingdom creates ambassadors. Religion creates spectators.

People that are inside the world but spectating what is happening around them. Hoping that somebody comes to save them. But in second Corinthians five verse 20, the Bible says, we have become ambassadors of Christ. We are enablers of the kingdom. We are enablers of the kingdom. We are enablers of the kingdom. That's what we are. That's why when you read the functional name that the believer is called in scripture, the classification of the believer by function in scripture that I was teaching on Tuesday, one of the names you'll find is salt. Oh, God. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Yes, sir. You see, listen, if religion was helping people find God, then when you read a new testament, one question immediately presents itself. Why is it that most of the religious people in Israel in the time of Jesus became the greatest opposition to Jesus? Think about it for a minute. Why was it not prostitutes that plotted against him? Why was it not tax collectors that wanted him dead? Why was it not sinners and outcasts that constantly rejected Jesus? Why was it the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Scribes and the religious leaders who became his greatest opposition? Are you with me? Yes, sir.

If you are a religious person in those days, when you see a prostitute, what comes to your mind immediately? You are a sinner. That was how the Titus and the Pharisees lived their lives. They were the righteous ones, and this other set of people were the evil ones. And imagine their shock when Jesus came in Matthew 21 and verse 31. And watch what Jesus was saying. Assuredly, said to you, the tax collectors, the harlots, enter the kingdom of God before you. These are the same people that religious people... Do you understand what I'm saying? So how would they not fight him when they saw that the kingdom grounds was shaking their religious footings?

The question is important because it forces us to confront the reality that many believers are uncomfortable with discussing. It is possible to become so committed to a religious system that you begin to resist the very thing that God is doing. It is possible to come so attached to tradition that you become blind to transformation. It's possible to know scriptures to attend meetings, to perform all kinds of religious duties, to still and and and yet still stand in opposition to the purposes of God is possible. That was the one that Gamaliel gave in acts five thirty nine. If it is God, you cannot overthrow it, he said. Lest you even be found to fight against God. But he was speaking to Pharisees. And he was telling Pharisees that listen to me, you can be fighting against God, practicing religion, worshiping God. That that a man can be worshiping God and be fighting against God.

When Jesus arrived, his first public message in Matthew four and verse 17 was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus never preached religion. Jesus preached kingdom. And that statement sounds familiar to many of us because we have heard it repeatedly. But imagine those in his days hearing it for the first time. Not knowing that what he was doing was just bringing back what was lost. It wasn't a new thing. It was just a restoration of what Adam lost. And he was telling them, listen, the kingdom is now at hand again. The kingdom is now near to you.

Why was it near? Why was it at hand? Because what will bring them into the kingdom was now Jesus. He had now come. When he's buried and become resurrected, they can now enter into the kingdom and now begin to function from the kingdom. And now he begins to preach to them, the kingdom is now at hand. And everything Jesus preaches was kingdom. I don't wanna go into all of that. Everything he preaches was what? Kingdom.

Kingdom. Jesus did not spend all his ministry talking about how to escape hurt. But that's what we've done on pulpit. He spent his ministry talking about how the rule of heaven enters into the earth. That's what he taught when he was teaching us how to pray. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That was his teaching. The parables he taught were about the kingdom. The miracles demonstrated the kingdom.

His teachings explained the kingdom. Are you with me? Yes, sir. He even tied his miracles to the kingdom. Because he said in Matthew 12 and verse 28, if I cast out a demon, then has the kingdom come upon you. Even in in the resurrection, Acts of Apostles one tells of they continue speaking about matters pertaining to the kingdom of God. The kingdom message produces a different mentality from a religious mindset or a religious message rather. Because religion produces spectators. Say it with me. Religion produces observers.

You know, this thing is so terrible that when you go watch a football, when you go watch a football match or you're watching a football match on station, how many people are playing that match? 22 persons. Yeah? How many people are seated in the stadium? There was a match yesterday. How many people were playing on that match? What was the size of that stadium? What was the number for me? About what? 62,000 plus.

62,000 plus were watching. 62,000 people, that's aside from the millions like yourselves watching around the world. On-site, 62,000 people were watching 22 people play. You see, the numbers can be that few. That's what I'm trying to tell you. That's why we have a problem because we have more people watching than there are doing. The difference between a football field and this is that the field is large enough for all of us to play. But just that religion has told people that what God wants them to do is watch. That's why somebody sees the vision of things in his family and feels as though the problems will be solved when he sows a seed. And as he sows a seed, the pastor will prophesy.

And as the pastor prophesies, a wind will come in the family. And the father whose mind is all renewed and his own renewed mind and thinking is why he's in the poverty that he's in, is why there is conflict in the family. There's a mentality the woman, the mother does not even have. A mentality that... The mentality she currently have is what is sponsoring poverty, sponsoring lack of peace in the home. But the lady has been taught that all you gotta do, You got no responsibility. I mean, why would you be responsible when there's a God in heaven who answers by fire? And peradventure that God does not answer you, what do you do? Hardfast into it. Because the moment you hardfast into it, it shows your desperation.

Because the God you were introduced to is a bal. It's bal. It's bal. It's not Jesus you are worshiping bal. That's why that people like me will now tell you, maybe if you caught yourself, maybe your God is sleeping. Maybe if you caught yourself, he will answer you Because you've been taught if I... Fasting for that guy is if I if I inflict pain on myself, maybe God will answer me. What what is that? What is that? Some of us saw the same thing.

You see, it's so it's so crazy because even those who are not believers saw the situation of things around them and decided to do something about it. They don't know God. They don't know kingdom. They don't know Jesus. They might not even know any type of God. But they just saw things around them and decided to do something about it. And the guy built a business employing you who knows God inside his office, paying you $150,000 naira. And God is challenging you. Now listen to me. You can build something that changes the world too, that solves the problem of hunger in your family, in your generation.

But no, the guy would rather spend time in church. You see. When you ask the guy, this mentality has so entered into many people. That that's the reason why a student is not reading for his exam. He's careless all through the time he's meant to be reading for his exam. Doesn't go to class. Maybe he even goes but sleeps off in class. He's discussing with someone in class. Now he misses everything lecturer said. Now it's time to read.

He doesn't understand Jack. He's reading the the the slide. Everything looks like Greek and Hebrew. And somewhere in his mind, he just... Instead of him to even look for solutions to stand up from there, find somebody that can explain, somebody that can teach, he just closes the thing and slips off. After all, I'm a Christian. And who God don't bless? He knows that just a week after the exam starts, I'm gonna package a seed. I'm gonna approach apostle. And I'm gonna say, apostle, my exams are coming.

I just believe you can speak a word. That guy is about to become a father like that. About to become a mother like that, thinking that the responsibility of his life falls over to God, and God tells him, I've given the edge to you. What are you gonna do with it? Guess what religion teaches you? Give it back to God. Give it back to God. Give it back to God. So wait for God to come and change Nigeria. Wait for God to change your nation, to do something about every single thing that is wrong with your nation.

When he says... You see, that... That's the foolishness of of of believers. That's why some people look at us and and think they are fools. Think all of us are fools and dummies because they look at countries that do not have this much prayers and vigils and churches. And they see the kind of development happening there. And they say things like, wow, we praying and we are not seeing development. And pastors are very sensitive to such comment. Immediately, we hear people talk like that. We come on pulpit and we do what?

We start defending and saying all kind of things instead of telling our people who hear us. Rise up and do something about this. Responsibility of the church is to produce nation builders. That you hear something in church that strikes you so deep that you go back outside and you cannot rest. Because you know that heaven demands something from your life. The expectation is be fruitful and multiply. But you know that if my family is in the mess right now, it is my responsibility to bring them out of that mess in partnership with God. So the question becomes, what advantage does my knowledge of God bring to my family? What advantage does my knowledge of God bring to those around me, bring to my generation? And the fact that I know God translate to answers for my generation?

Translate to answer. Do you understand what I'm saying? Can I provide something? Because it says those that know their god. There was a god Joseph knew. Is it the same god you now know? Because it's a it's a different one. There was a god Joseph knew. When famine struck the head and everybody was gonna die, including Joseph's father and brothers, they came to Egypt and they found that Joseph had become a principality in Egypt. Do you know Joseph knew God?

Oh, he knew God. He knew God. Because he said to Potiphar's wife, how can I do for the thing and sit against the Lord my God? That means there was a fundamental relationship. There was image. Are you with me? Yes. But all he had was not just the ability to interpret dreams. That alone could not have made him prime minister. At best, that would grant him freedom.

That's all that believers have, freedom. So we are we are we are we are free, but we are still poor. We are free, but we are still broke. We are free because there's no intelligence that we have built to actually solve problems. When Joseph got to the front of pharaoh and interpreted the dreams, he said, let the king look for someone who is wise. Oh, God. And Joseph tapped into his wells of study and intellectual dexterity, and he was given a canonical problems, challenging astrologers and nation builders who were there. They were at the king's court, but they had no solution. And whilst he was speaking, the king knew this is the answer to the preservation of this nation. This is the answer.

Ah, who is wise like Joseph? That was what made him prime minister. The ability of Joseph to give an intellectual solution, it wasn't spiritual. It was intellectual. This was agricultural systems, irrigations, building storehouses. That is wisdom from study. Wisdom from knowledge. That is someone who has insisted that my knowledge of God will produce something tangible in my life. And it is up to me. Joseph knew it is up to me.

It is up to me because when his brothers came and they wanted to start becoming, you know, sad and condemning themselves, Joseph said, no. No. No. No. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. God sent me here before you. Oh, God of Nazareth. Image, dominion.

Can't you say this thing again? God sent me here before you. There's a relationship I had with God. He sent me here, but I had a purpose here. Even though I was an employed servant working on that potiphar, I knew that I cannot remain small because as I entered Egypt, I was seeing the throne. I was seeing the sun and the moon bowing down to me. Even whilst I was in the pit, I was still seeing the sun and the moon bowing down to me. I might not have started in Pharaoh's palace, but even in Potiphar's house, employed, being paid 50 k, $1.50 k, and rising to the top. They will look at me and say, what quality of service is this? Where did you learn this one from?

You're not just a careless believer. They won't give you a concern by God, I will do it, but with grace. Say, is thou a man diligent in his work? This I tell you is the reason why many believers will never prosper because they've taken the responsibility of their prosperity and handed it over to God. And God is saying, calm down now. The rich and the poor meet together. The Lord is the maker of them whole. He doesn't make them so. He makes them whole. It will be unfair if God made some rich, some poor.

It will be so unfair. The decisions those ones were making were separating them. They made themselves so. It means I can decide as I'm alive. I can never be poor. And I'm not just saying this thing as as a stop. Do you understand what I'm saying? Doors open to one of the young girls in this church and got a job remotely, remotely. She just has to work, do a few things she's given. She doesn't have to go to office.

You can do that same thing and be a student, and it doesn't affect you at all. But whilst you are doing that job, they are still complaining about you every day. Before the door opened, we were the one asking God, when will this door open? Applying, applying. Now the door has opened. And what is the pay? $150,000 naira just to test your soul, to see if you can handle more. And then you start complaining, start saying no kind of foolish things. Something that if if somebody that is not a believer has more sense than you get, that will become a launching pad into success. But we must have excuses.

Excuses here and there for why we cannot rise, for why we cannot do. And then in our excuses, we... The greatest excuse a religious man has is God. Let me say that again. The greatest excuse a religious man has is God. Is God. Oh, am I am I boring you? No, sir. We're we're closing now. Closing now.

All you should know, you should know that they will have an expectation of your real life in this kingdom. And the version of Christianity you might be practicing might just be a religious thing that you received. You owe it to your life to get exposure. You owe it to your life to have a global world view that is governed by the word of God. You owe it to your destiny. It's not God that will give you. Do you understand what I'm saying? You're the one that will pick up a book and read. Have you read your bible? The bible says let your light so shine.

It places responsibility on you. You are the one to let that light shine. But you're not the one that sources the light. It means if you refuse to study, if you refuse to lead, if you refuse to read and to study and to be hardworking and to be diligent and you prefer rather to dwell in laziness and procrastination, you are refusing that your light shines. There is light in you. You have just said, I have determined how far I want it to shine. It's not what you say with your mouth. So there's a way I approach ministry that's a reflection of where I'm going and the responsibility heaven has on my life. I don't expect anybody to come and save me. You know, people are so funny.

You reach out to an uncle for money and then maybe they don't respond to your method or something and they become offended. It's religious believers. We are a plague. We're a plague. I remember those days many years ago. Many years ago. These are not even stories we'll tell now. These are stories that will make more sense later. Many years ago, we're still in Abadina then, and we need money to to do something. I think it was a con...

I can't remember. Maybe a conference that was coming up or we wanted to get a building a building project or something. I can't remember this. We wanted we wanted money. I think how much we did then was about a 100,000 naira. It was in 2019, it wasn't really a big deal, But we did not have it. A 100,000 naira was a far fetched thing. We didn't have a 100,000 naira. So you know what I did? I sent a message.

I I told some some of my leaders then, said go get me emails of some believers that you know who are in places of influence. Let's see if you can send them a message at the church and see if we can raise a 100,000 naira. I think we even printed letters. We printed letters to give it to some people to help and support us. First of all, letters brought nothing. No. They just all received it and said they've heard. Maybe threw it inside one dunk somewhere. The one that got my attention the most was an email I sent to a particular guy, influential guy. You know what he told me?

He replied the email. He said stop this 419. You call yourself a pastor and you are begging. Take your life seriously. I will never forget it. If I see that man tomorrow, will hug him like this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I will now hold offence and say, all these great people, all these successful people, oh, you are not ready.

Oh, are not ready. You are not ready. You You are ready for this thing we are saying. You are not ready for this thing we are saying. I faced my God. I said, God, you have sinned this. Because that's the advantage of the devotion. Answers must come because I know God. Do understand what I'm saying? We told God this will never...

We will never ever do this again. Jesus said, I did not send you. I didn't send you. But we were pushing. I think it was... I remember. It was 1,000,000 we're trying to raise. 1,100,000. That was how much we wanted to raise. Then the reason was because we had seen a venue somewhere in Ojob.

Oh, we had prayed. We had done everything, and then we wanted to go there. Then we were writing all kind of things. One millionaire. One millionaire. We spend it in a week now for this same church. Our budget on the weekly service is 1,000,000 for Sunday and Tuesday. And it's not your offerings that is doing that because you know how much it gives. Let your conscience... Don't even think that.

There's profit in this ministry. Somebody that has not given in prevital coming to church is saying there's profit in this ministry. Go and start the ministry. No. No. No. I dare you to try it. I dare you to try it. If you will not sell your house to buy venue. Oh, God.

People have died for this same thing. You think anybody that slumped on the pulpit whilst preaching was a demon? You think it was a demon? Oh, god. Has accumulated high blood pressure. Has heart attack. No, it's not a narrow, it's just heart attack. Man is not sleeping well again. Is not eating well again. You don't need demons again when there are bills all around you doing the same thing demons will come and do.

The demons are pressing me, said I cannot wake up bills are pressing me, cannot wake up. The same thing happened. That will never be my experience I decided long time ago. Because I realized heaven heaven expects something of my life and I will not blame anybody. I won't hold anybody. I won't hold anybody responsible and say I could not do this because this person, because that person. Eyes up on your feet. I want us to pray, and the prayer is simple. Open my eyes to see. Very simple.

Open my eyes to see. Father, just open my eyes. Let let it be one thing that you do for me in this meeting. Open my eyes to see. Let my perspective change. It's the way I'm seeing life right now that's affecting me. It's affecting me. It's affecting me. Open my eyes to see. Thank you for listening to this message.

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