Implication of the Cross 4

[Speaker 1] Peace. We appreciate Him for His goodness to us. And as we gather again today, we trust the Lord that it is going to be a time of refreshing in His presence in the name of Jesus Christ. We have been considering the implication of looking at Jesus in His cross, the implication of looking at the cross. And we are trusting the Lord again that as we move on on the matter from where we left it last week, the Lord will bless us all. We who are here physically, our brethren who are joining us on Mishla, our brethren who are joining us online, who are joining us on Telegram, we trust the Lord that it will be a time of blessing in the name of Jesus Christ. Today, we trust the Lord to move on on the implication of looking at Jesus in His cross, the implication of looking at the cross. Let us have a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank You for Your mercies and Your love. We thank You for Your goodness. We thank You for Your grace. Our Father, as we move on again to look into Scriptures, Lord, we pray, meet with us in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray for Your people. Lord, meet every individual at the point where they need You most in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, our eyes are on You. Nothing will prevail against Your purposes over our lives in Jesus' name. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. We concluded last week from looking at Galatians 2:20-21. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." I will take that in the NLT translation. "I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I am not one of those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die." The NIV translation of that reading: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing." I take that in the Amplified translation. "I have been crucified with Christ. In Him, I have shared His crucifixion." We are talking about the implication of looking at the cross. The implication of looking to Jesus in His cross. The implication of taking the cross for the believer. And we are reading a very crucial verse of the Scripture this evening, Galatians 2:20 and 21. And I thought I am reading this verse in various versions in a bid to practically demonstrate the meaning, the implication, the practical way of experiencing this crucifixion in our mortal body. It says, "I have been crucified with Christ. In Him, I have shared His crucifixion. It is no longer I who live, but Christ, the Messiah, lives in me. And the life I now live in the body, I live by faith, by adherence to, and reliance on, and complete trust in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Therefore, I do not treat God's gracious gift as something of minor importance. I do not treat God's gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its purpose. I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the grace of God. For if justification, righteousness, acquittal from guilt comes through observing the rituals of the law, then Christ, the Messiah, died groundlessly and to no purpose and in vain. His death was then wholly superfluous." Now, the reason why I am reading these verses of the Bible is so that we can properly appreciate and understand this matter of our crucifixion with Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ." Nevertheless I live, yet it's not I, but Christ that lives in me. I am not among those who treat the grace of God as having little importance. If we could be made right by observing the law, then the death of Christ is in vain. Now, last week I rightly noted something very important in looking at that Galatians. I said what Paul was having issue with was the life of Peter. Peter, who saw the Jews when they came to visit the brethren in Galatians and quickly shifted away from the Gentiles and was also confusing Barnabas and other believers. And Paul had to rebuke him that he's not doing right, that we know that a man cannot be made right by keeping those laws. Now, how is this matter of being crucified with Christ practically demonstrated? I want us to go to the book of Romans. How do I, the practicality of our being crucified with Christ? Let's look at Romans 6. We want to look at chapter 6 particularly, Romans 6. In Galatians 2:20-21, we noted now, just noted, that a man cannot be justified by obeying the law. A man cannot be made right by obeying the law. A man is made right by faith. Now, in Romans chapter 6, the practicality of our crucifixion with Christ was written down in Scriptures for our learning. From verse 1, it says, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" That is, if a man is not justified by observing the law, a man is simply justified by looking at the cross of Jesus, a man is simply justified by faith. So the matter is, is there a ground for us to say since we are not made right by the law, we can continue in sin? Of course, the answer came in verse 2. "Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" Now, what I want to particularly speak on in Romans 6:1-14 is understanding your crucifixion with Christ. Or understanding, that is, when you look at the cross, what you need to understand about yourself. What you need to know. And please, I keep saying something. We need to always understand that iniquity is a mystery. Sin is a mystery. We did not, becoming sinners is not a matter of what a man did or did not do. It is a matter of something that happened as a mystery. Sin is a mystery. A mystery simply means something that was once hidden but later revealed. When we talk about the mysteries of God, we are not talking about mysticism. We are talking about something that was once hidden in God and later God now revealed it. Now, what was hidden in God in Adam that was later revealed in the Gospel, in the good news, was that when Adam sinned, Adam sinned consequentially for humanity. That is, the whole of humanity sinned in Adam. That is what we understood in the good news. The Gospel revealed that Adam did not sin and sin for himself. No. When Adam sinned, Adam sinned and brought mankind into sin. That is what was revealed in the Gospel. Now, we are calling it a mystery because many people have refused to believe the Gospel on account of this truth that the Gospel revealed. Because for many people, we cannot be sinners in Adam. It's not possible. But that is the truth that the Gospel revealed. The truth the Gospel revealed is that a man is not a sinner because he's sinning. Rather, a man is a sinner because Adam sinned. That is the Gospel. Now, the reason why I am saying this is to understand that our being condemned is a matter of a mystery that happened in Adam. It's not something that has to do with what we did or did not do. No. It was a mystery in Adam that when he sinned, as far as eternity concerned, we all sinned in Adam. And to prove that we all sinned in Adam, the Bible says thousands of years later, God gave the law through Moses so that sin can abound, so that God can prove that we actually became sinners in Adam. That is why God gave the law. Now, the reason why I am giving this background is so that when you look at Romans chapter 6, the implication of looking at the cross, when you say, "I am crucified with Christ," what you are also saying, please understand, that your condemnation became a reality because the truth of the word of God says you are condemned in Adam. There is nothing logically that connects you with Adam. But there is something in God that connects you with Adam. That is the mystery of sin. The mystery of sin. God said when Adam sinned, humanity sinned. Now, the good news for us is that we also need to realize that our becoming righteous, our becoming acceptable to God, that we are no more a sinner, it is not also a matter that has to do with what we do or we don't do. It also has to do again with a mystery that is revealed in the Gospel. What is the mystery? The mystery is that we were crucified with Christ. The mystery, that is, the same way we sinned in Adam, the same way we also died with Jesus on that cross. The same way. What I am trying to say, hallelujah, please look at something in 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3, so that maybe it will make what I am trying to say clearer. I'm just trying to make a point as I go into the practicality of our being crucified with Christ. Many times we don't, when we say "I'm crucified with Christ," people just say so. They don't understand what it means for them, what it holds for them as a result, this truth for them. You still find a lot of believers still struggling with different sinful habits, sinful things in their life, struggling to get out of one matter with sinfulness, not being able to live victoriously over sin. And what they don't understand is that the more you think there is something you need to do of yourself in overcoming sin, I want to tell you, the more you live that way, the more you will never gain victory over sin. Victory over sin is a mystery. And it's a mystery of our crucifixion. It's a mystery of our crucifixion. So that when you understand your crucifixion, all you need to do is to appropriate your crucifixion and mysteriously you will find victory over sin. Mysteriously. Just as mysteriously we discovered that before we met with God, we know right from wrong. But the more we wanted to do right, we do the wrong. It is the wrong that we don't want to do that we are doing. And then we just wonder what is the problem with me? In my heart, I desire to do what is right. Why am I doing what is wrong? Because there was a mystery of iniquity operating in our life. There was a mystery. That is the mystery of sin. The law of God is good, but man is a slave to sin. And so there's a mystery over man's life. And that mystery makes him, brings what I call the inability of man to live victoriously over sin. Now, the victory over sin is also a mystery. The mystery of godliness. Now when you look at, I just want to say something from that 1 Peter chapter 3. Let me read from around verse 18. "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God)..." Please, I want to look at 2 Peter chapter 3. There is something I want to connect that with. 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3 is the actual verse that I was really looking for. It says this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts. That wouldn't be our portion in the name of Jesus. Saying, please look at what they are saying. Saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." Now, why scoffers are scoffing, look at what the Bible says. "For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God..." By the word of God. That is what I want you to see. They forgot. What did they forget? They forgot that by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in water. He's talking about the creation story. That God said, "Let there be firmament above, let the water above gather to one side, let the water below also gather to one side." And all of those things took place. Now, what he's saying is that the creation of heaven and earth was by what? Was by the word of God. That's what he's trying to say. That they willfully forget that by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. Now, he says, "But the heavens and the earth which are now, preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Now, what am I trying to make you see? What I am trying to make you see, I want us to appreciate that the heavens and the earth before it was destroyed, it was standing by what? By the word of God. When it was to be destroyed, it was destroyed again by the word of God. The present heaven and the present earth is sustained again by what? By the word of God. What I want you to understand is that God fashions and rules by what? By His word. God fashions and rules by His word. Now, it now becomes very, very crucial. The more I said something when looking at the cross and principalities and powers, that as long as a man can be deceived, then the devil can operate. As long as a man cannot be deceived, the devil cannot operate. Crucial to our victory is the truth. Now, what is the truth? The truth is the word of God. To know that it is by the word of God that anything stands or falls. Everything stands and falls by the word of God. Romans chapter 6. The Bible says, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" Now, are you noticing something in the verse 2? What is it that the word of God is saying about we and sin? What is the first thing we need to see? "How shall we who died to sin..." How did we die to sin? How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? The first thing this Scripture is calling our attention to is that the matter between we and sin is not that we will die to sin. The matter is that we died to sin. It is not something that will occur. It is something that had occurred. How shall we who died to sin? Not how shall we who will die to sin. So when I look at the cross, when I say I am crucified with Christ, the first understanding about my relationship to sin is that I actually had died to sin. Not that I will die. I had. Now, I move on. I want you to notice something. I will read verse 3 through to around verse 12. I want to call your attention to something there quickly. It says, "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. If we have been united in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God." I want you to see something very, very clear I have read. How many times did the Bible make reference to "know"? Look at it. In the verse 3. "Or do you not know..." Now, oh thank you. In the verse 3, it said, "Do you not know?" In the verse 6, it said, "knowing this." In the verse 9, it said, "knowing that." We have used "know" how many times? Three times. The matter of knowing. Knowing. What I am saying is that victory over sin is first a matter of knowing. It's not a matter of doing. Do you hear what I just said? Do you hear what I just said? Victory over sin is first a matter of knowing. A matter of knowing that when you say you have been crucified with Christ, what you mean is that you need to know. What is it that you are to know? In the verse 3, you are to know that as many of us that were baptized with Christ were baptized into His death. In the verse 6, you are to know that your old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that you should no longer be a slave to sin. In the verse 9, you are to know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For that death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. So the practicality of looking to the cross, when you say, "I have been crucified with Christ," is the news that number one, you need to know. What are you to know? You need to have this knowing. This knowing, please, is not just a head knowledge of knowing. It's not a head knowledge knowing. No, that's not what I'm talking about. It's talking about an experiential knowing. It's talking about a knowing that comes by revelation, a knowing that comes by encounter with the Scripture. You need to say God, help me to know. Not just in my head, but in my heart that actually number one, I need to know that as many as were baptized with Christ were actually baptized to His death. I need to know that, look, my old man, that person you are struggling with, until you know that actually he is dead, you will not. You see, do you struggle with a dead man? I don't know why you think that your struggle is a deception. Your struggling is a deception. Because the reality is that the person you are struggling with is dead. The reality of your life, when you say "I am crucified with Christ," the reality is that the sin you think is so powerful, it's holding you, is actually a dead man. But you are wondering why is it able to still hold you? It's able to hold you because you don't know that it's dead. What I am saying, until you know in your spirit man that your old man has been crucified, don't forget where we started from. It is only in the cross that the powers of the serpent on the floor are rendered useless. It is in your knowing. It is in your knowing, in your understanding that no, the old man is dead. That his grip over you loses its power. As long as you keep thinking he's alive, the grip will be real. And the grip is actually real. The struggle with sin is real. It's real. Because the bite of the serpent in the wilderness is real. And as long as they are looking down, the bite will be killing them. So when people say that they are struggling with sin, it's real. It's not as if it is fake. But what is also real is that if they agree with God that the old man is dead and they begin to look at no, why should I be struggling with a dead man? This man is dead. He cannot rule over me. He does not have a rule over me. I know you are dead. That understanding. Do you know something? What I was saying in 2 Peter chapter 3, the reality of your condemnation is by the word of God. God said we died in Adam. The reality of your freedom is also by the word of God, if you also believe His word. These two things are sustained by the word of God. The reality of your freedom is also by the same word. You believe that yes, there is a struggle. You know it is real. I'm also telling you that your freedom is also real. Because what brought your struggle into operation is the word of God. What also brought your freedom into operation is the same word. So the other one cannot be stronger than the present one. The working of the old man can never be stronger than the working of the new man. They are sustained by the same word. There is nothing about sin that's stronger than the reality of your righteousness. Hallelujah. There is nothing about sin, brethren, listen to me and get it clear. There is nothing about the working of sin that is stronger than the working of the righteousness that is in you. It is not. What is giving it so much power is because you don't know. To understand about your being crucified with Christ is that, "I have died with Him. I have been crucified with Him." And what you should understand, the Bible says, "knowing this..." Can I read that from another translation? NLT. "Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives." Don't you understand, brother? Don't you understand, sister? You are, don't try to free yourself from sin. You are free from sin. That is what I am saying. The more you believe that you are not free, the more you will not be free. The day you jump on your feet and say wow, I have been made free, I have been set free, that is the day you begin to experience your freedom. Oh, Jesus told Thomas, He said, "Thomas, because you now see, you believe; blessed are those who did not see but believed." I'm praying that today you will believe so that you can experience. Don't wait to experience before you believe. Believe that your old man was crucified with Christ and that crucifixion is so that you might be set loose. It says, "we are no longer slave to sin." That is what you need to believe. The day you believe that is the day your liberty begins. When you keep holding that sin is powerful, I cannot, you know, God please come and set me free. You are praying a foolish prayer. When you are saying God, come and set me free from sin, which sin is God setting you free from? Have you not been set free? You have been set free from your struggle. That old man. The victory over the old man is not in our effort; it is in our resting on what Christ did for us. What I am trying to say is this: until you assume your position in Christ, you can never live the life of Christ. It is until you rest on His promises, you sit on His promises, you will now be able to walk, W-A-L-K, in the reality of the new life. If you don't first sit, if you don't first rest, you cannot walk. That is the mystery. You must first rest on it. When you rest on it, it will now carry you. So that the life you live will be by faith in the Son of God. That is what Paul was saying. And that will take away from you arrogance and pride. You don't begin to say, "You see me, I am so disciplined." You know it's not about you. You don't begin to say, "You see me, I am so strong." You know it's not about you. You know that it is the grace of God that works effectually in you. And that is where, when you see arrogance prosper, when you see arrogance, is that our life is hidden in Christ in God. That's the reality of our Christian life. The reality is that we look unto Jesus, we look unto what He has said, we take His cross and we'll experience the victory so that we are not conquerors, we are more than conquerors. We don't fight, but we win. The conqueror of our salvation is Jesus. We are more than conquerors. We are not conquerors. There's only one conqueror, and that is Jesus. And what we are asked to do is to walk in the victory that He gave us. That is what we are asked to do. We are not asked to start fighting. we are asked to walk in that victory that He gave us. And no man can walk in this victory that does not know the truth about this victory. That's why Jesus said, "You will know the truth, then the truth that you know, it is that truth that you have known that will set you free." No man can walk in a liberty that is more than the level of his revelation of God. That is the reality of it. No man can experience true spiritual liberty than the level of his personal revelation. No amount of people lay hands on your head and say get away, get away, you spirit of lust, get away... that is not where victory comes from. Victory comes from knowing. What you are giving is not sustainable. And sometimes, I'm hoping that what they are giving you will not make your situation worse. Because if you cast out a demon and he come back and find the place empty, he'll go and look for seven more wicked demons. And sometimes, I don't know, maybe that is why sometimes people say that I have done all kind of deliverance but it is getting worse. Maybe because you have not taken time to have, to walk in the revelation of what the Gospel is. What the Gospel is, the good news about your victory over sin, is that my brother, my sister, you are not a conqueror. You are not asked to go and fight. You are asked to come and enjoy a victory that has been given to you. How do you enjoy it? Know that you have been given. That's the first thing. Know it. Know it. If what I am saying is not clear to you, I will advice you to go to Colossians chapter 1 and go and pray God with that Scripture. Go to Colossians 1:15-16, go and sit down with God with that verse of the Scripture. I hope I'm correct, is that what I want? Is that what I want? No, I think it's Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. I just want to show you a prayer. A prayer you may go and take and pray and pray and pray over your life. Look, nobody can do for you what only God can do for you. Are you understanding me? Nobody can do for you what only God can do for you. And the way God does things for us is by making us to know the truth. Church attendance, fellowship this, commitment to this, these things are very, very good. Please, I'm committed to a church. I'm committed to a fellowship. But I'm saying those are not the things that save. In fact, if you are struggling with sin, you are a problem to our fellowship. Do you know that? The Scripture says if we walk in the light as He is in the light, that is when we can have true fellowship with one another. When you are walking in darkness and me I'm walking in light, our fellowship can never be sweet. When both of us meet, you will be giving my life a problem, the way Achan was giving the Israelite army a problem. By the reason of his life, they lost 36 men. You will become an Achan in the fellowship. So understand the matter of your victory. Yes, it's Ephesians chapter 1. You may need to go and take that prayer and pray and pray God with this prayer, be deliberate and intentional about this prayer. Paul was praying for the church when they became born again. He said, "Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and of your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." My brother, my sister, if you don't know what I'm saying, if what I'm saying about knowing is not clear to you, what I'm saying is that go and take this Scripture, don't cease to pray for your life. Every morning, be deliberate with what I'm telling you now. Be deliberate and intentional about it. Be deliberate and intentional, you know when you are intentional about something because you want to get result, you stay with God. Let me tell you, the Bible says he that asks receives, he that seeks find, unto him that knocks it will be opened. I'm showing you a way. If you are not getting this knowing, if you are still what am I to know, I'm not knowing, look, go and pray this prayer. Be deliberate and intentional about this prayer. Paul said I do not cease to pray. What is the prayer? That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Stay with God. Say God, give me the spirit of wisdom. Give me the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of You. Stay there with God. Morning after morning, day after day, week after week, month after month, year into year, God will answer you. I'm saying so because at a point in my life, I also saw this Scripture. I saw this Scripture close to some 30 or over 30 years ago. And I tell you the truth, I also stayed with the Scripture. It became my only prayer: God, give me the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of revelation, the knowledge of You. The verse 18: "that my eyes of understanding might be enlightened; that I might know what is the hope of my calling." This calling that You call me, I want to know what is the hope of this calling. I want to know what is the riches of the glory of Your inheritance, what are my inheritance in You. Lord open my eyes. Do you know that I stayed with this Scripture? I stayed with just these two verses of the Scripture, praying daily after day. Brethren, I want to tell you, when you ask you will receive. When I got the spirit of revelation, the spirit of wisdom, the knowledge of God, when my eyes were enlightened, when I got it I knew. That is why I said, seek you will find, knock it will be opened unto you. Don't just sit there and be saying I don't understand this thing. I don't even know this thing. How did I die with Christ? That is what you will be doing until Jesus Christ will come and you will not have victory over sin. Because I am telling you, there is only one Savior. That Savior Jesus Christ. [unclear]. There is only one Savior. The person who saves us from our sin is Jesus. If you don't encounter Him and know Him and walk with Him, you can never have victory over sin. All you need is Jesus. All you need is Jesus. A continuous revelation of what He did for us. That is the whole essence of Christianity. And I want to tell you, any fellowship or church that you go to that is not making you to know Jesus better and better and making you to become more and more like Jesus, run from that church or fellowship. They are not fellowship, they are not churches. Everything about us is in Christ. We are complete in Him. He is the hope of our glory. He is our light and our salvation. He is the glory and the lifter of our head. It is Christ in us the hope of glory. Everything about us is Christ. So when you say I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. What you are actually saying is that which we are reading in Romans chapter 5, in Romans chapter 6, what we were reading in Romans chapter 6, that is what you are saying. When you say I have been crucified with Christ, what you are saying is this: sin cannot continue in my life. Why? Because I have died to sin. I have died. Not I will die. Tell yourself I have. You may not be seeing the reality of it, but believe it. Don't say until I feel it I will not believe, that was the mistake of Thomas. Begin to tell yourself I have died to this telling lie. I have died to bearing malice. I have died to fornication. I have died to pornography. I have died to being easily provoked. I have died, I have died, I have died! The more you say that you have died, you will see reality of your death. Tell yourself that you have died. When it comes, tell yourself no, speak to yourself, whatever your name is. Like sometimes I speak to myself, "Wole you have died. You have died to bitterness. How can you continue in bitterness? You have died to bitterness. You have died to unforgiveness. You have died!" The more I tell myself, the more I see the reality in my life. Speak the truth of the word of God into your life. That is the reality of your existence. And you will see it. Because the Bible says in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God. It says through Him were all things made, without Him was nothing made that was made. [unclear]. It is by the word. Speak the word of God. The Bible says by faith we understand that the universe was framed by the word of God, so that the things that are seen are not created by the things which appear. They were created by the word of God. Speak the word of God and you will see the creation of that thing in your life. Speak the word of God: "I have died. I died to malice." How? I have been crucified with Christ. "I've died to lust." I've been crucified... The more you speak the truth of the word of God to the reality of your existence, you will see it. Because by faith you can fashion your life. It says by faith in the Son of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God. And what did the Bible say? If you believe in your heart and you do what? You confess with your mouth, what will happen? You shall be saved. Believe the truth of what the reality of your life in your heart. Confess it with your mouth. Stop confessing I cannot overcome this thing. It is in our lineage. I saw it in my father. This sickness is from my mother. I got it as an inheritance. This one is from my mother-in-law. That one is in my gene. This one is in our family line. I don't know what you understand, but I want you to understand this: that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. You can trace your DNA to Jesus Christ because the Bible says the seed of God is in us. Bible says he that is joined to Christ is one spirit. What that means is that the way there is sexual intercourse between a man and a woman and a life is produced, the same way, the Spirit of God brought the seed, the spermatozoa of God, into our spirit, so we have the DNA of God. We can live as He. Proclaim the truth of your liberty. Believe it in your heart and proclaim it. I have died to this thing. What is that thing troubling your life? Can you begin to rise and tell that thing that no, I have died to you? Don't be afraid of it because you have been set free from it. I hope I won't do it again tomorrow... okay let me see whether it will work... that is the foolishness of your life. You don't need to see whether it will work, you need to know it will work! Because it is the reality! And let me tell you, what Christ made available for you is far greater than what happened to you in Adam. So what I'm talking about, about our being crucified with Christ, there are three principles in that Romans chapter 6. There are three things there. The first principle is the principle of knowing, and I'm addressing knowing. The second one is reckon. We should get there. We cannot get there today, we'll get there next week. But I'm still knowing. The third principle there is yield. And we're going to see all of them one by one. I'm dealing with knowing. Know. If you don't know, you cannot reckon. The first thing is to know. And if you don't know, I'm telling you how to know. I'm telling you how to cry to God. I'm dealing with knowing. Know. If you don't know, I'm telling you how to know. I'm telling you how to cry to God. Baba, I have not received the spirit that comes from this world. I receive the Holy Spirit, not to just be speaking in tongues. No! I've received the Holy Ghost that I might know! I did not receive the Holy Ghost to remain ignorant! No! I receive the Holy Spirit to be a man of knowledge, to be a woman of knowledge! I should not be ignorant! I do not receive the Spirit of God to remain ignorant! No, brothers and sisters! Rise and cry to God and say, "God, I can't remain like this! I can't remain like this! Lord, open my eyes! Lord, open my understanding! Lord, give me the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of You! Cause my eyes of understanding to be open!" Thank You, Jesus. Let me call Sister Comfort to close this meeting for us today. Please come and close this meeting for us today. It's almost 6:30. [Speaker 2] Dear Lord, we are grateful to You for Your word that is true. It is true. And we receive it as truth. We are grateful, we thank You, we bless Your holy name. Thank You for the way You came forth for us today. Lord, addressing the issues that make us Christians. The character of Jesus Christ and what He has done to perfect that character in us. To make us just exactly like He was in the days of His flesh. The Scripture says He was tempted to every point, to every extent, yet He did not sin. And the same Spirit that helped Him at that time is what has been given to us freely. And so Lord, we have no excuse. But we thank You, we bless Your holy name. Lord, accept our thanks in Jesus' name. Lord, having come to this realization, oh God, we pray, let this word be actualized in our lives in the name of Jesus Christ. It is not a fiction, it is not a telltale. It is real. And the intention of God is that it be experiential in our lives. Father, we pray, oh Lord, as many that have heard this word today, let this be our experience in the name of Jesus Christ. Father, we are begging You, we are pleading with You, oh Lord, that the eyes of our understanding will be enlightened, that the spirit of understanding and of wisdom will possess us. And Lord, we will begin to walk in the reality of this truth that we have heard tonight and that we will keep on hearing in the name of Jesus Christ. None of us, oh God, will continue to be slave to sin, either obvious sin or non-obvious sins, in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, everlasting Father. Thank You for Your son that You have used again, thank You for the grace tonight. Thank You for the door of unction and utterance. We pray, oh Lord, that this door will continually be opened wide in the name of Jesus Christ. According to Your promise, oh Lord, as often as he open his mouth to speak, that Your Spirit will fill him up to speak the word of revelation in the name of Jesus Christ. My prayer for everyone that have heard this word today is that none of us will ever recover from it until we see Christ face to face in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, everlasting Father. May prayer as we go, please let Your presence go with us and abide with us, for it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The grace together: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forever more. Amen. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! [Speaker 3] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission aid. Our regular activities are: Discipleship Class, every Monday 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club, every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches and everyday counseling. For further counsel, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp, by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Very Joy filling station along Idjere Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are: 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.