Third Heaven Discourse

  Genesis 4:7 (NKJV) - "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Have you ever critically examined why Cain's sacrifice was rejected? This is especially important because Hebrews 11:4 tells us Abel offered a "more excellent" sacrifice than Cain, implying that Cain's sacrifice was excellent, only that Abel's was more excellent . An appreciation of the new covenant presents an answer. In the old covenant, you only needed to present animal sacrifices, sacrifices that get slaughtered on the altar. However, in the new covenant, you need to present living sacrifices. Rom 12:1 informs that this "living sacrifice" is you, your body . This means that under the current dispensation of grace, you present yourself first to God, and then you present your material offering. Jesus taught that when you come to present an offering to God at the altar and you r...

  Jeremiah 30:19 (NASB1995) - " From them will proceed thanksgiving And the voice of those who celebrate; And I will multiply them and they will not be diminished; I will also honor them and they will not be insignificant." Have you ever wondered why Abel and Cain were completely different? They were both the first generation born in sin, and so the full weight of sin was on both of them. It was, therefore, no surprises that Cain's life went the way it did . But how is it that Abel seemed to be different?  While Cain was a sinner and the first man to be angry, first murderer, schemer, liar, and progenitor of sibling rivalry, Abel was righteous and listed among the heroes of faith (Heb 11:4). So, how did that happen? Beloved, it is my position that Eve's acknowledgement of God when Cain was born was basically an intercession that altered the destiny of Abel . When Cain was born, Eve said, " I have gotten a man from the Lord" (Gen 4:1). It is my opinion that...

  In a previous post Responding Right To Adverse Life's Experiences (1) , we considered why current life realities, for many, are largely adverse. We saw that current life realities are in line with prophecy about the last days, which we are in. Moreover, we saw that current realities is consistent with the character of the devil, who is the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4). We then concluded with a message of hope, that Christ has overcome the world and made us more than conqueror. Nevertheless, it is important ot critically examine how a believer is expected to respond to adverse life experiences.  1. Respond from PEACE (John 14:1, 27) Beloved, you have the  peace of God . Jesus left HIS peace with us when He was returning to heaven, knowing that we will need His peace to sanely and calmly navigate the chaos in a world filled with trouble, distress, frustration, agony, etc. He forewarned us that we will have tribulation in the world. It is important to understand th...

  Genesis 8:20 (NKJV) - "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar." After God saved Noah, his family, and the other living things that entered the Ark from the flood, the first thing Noah did, in appreciation to God, was to build an altar unto the Lord. Afterwards, he offered burnt offerings on the altar (Gen 8:20-22, please read for context). There are several lessons we can draw from this story; First, every manifestation of God's goodness should turn you towards your altar . Giving your altar the attention it needs is one powerful expression of gratitude to God. If God blesses and promotes you, and you then allow that blessing or promotion to draw you away from God or make you too busy to service your altar, that's ingratitude. Secondly, altars are designed as a platform for offering sacrifices. Approach and service your altar with a consciousness of sacrifice. Sacrifices ...

Gal 5:22 - 23 (NKJV) - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law ." We live in an incredibly troubled world. The troubles show no signs of abating. Be it economic or financial, marital or parental, health including physical, emotional, and psychological, there seems to be crisis upon crisis upon crisis that don't look like going away anytime soon. You look around you, and you see someone who is going through some form of difficulty, or has recently been through one. And sometimes, that person is us. And even though these experiences are disturbing, for us Christians, it's unsurprising because what we see is in consonance with the prophecy concerning the last days (Matt 24:12, 2 Tim 3:1, Isa 60:2).  Moreover, the devil is the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), and global realities, which are largely disturbing, are consistent with his character . The Bible said...

Deuteronomy 9:4‭-‬6 (NKJV) “Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. In a previous post  Crossover to take over (1) , we were given the assurance of a victorious 2022 because God has already conquered 2022 and delivered victory to us. And that though we may face of with intimidating and overwh...

Deuteronomy 9:1‭-‬3 (NKJV) “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you. In a previous post  God is the reason , the reference scripture was considered from a reflective or retrospective perspective. In this post, I will like to examine the context of the scripture and present the futuristic dimension. In the passage, the Israelites were about to cross the Jordan river and God needed to give them a pep-talk or charge to prepare them for the victories He had already secured them on th...

Colossians 1:15 (NKJV) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation . God created man in His image and likeness. However, when man sinned, he still had the "image" of God, but lost the "likeness". In other words, he still looked like God but he lost the capacity to display his likeness or similitude to God . Consequently, what became the norm were behaviors that were completely atypical of God. Man took turns to misrepresent God from their distorted perspective of the likeness of God or their inability to replicate how God was really like. Cain killing Abel was a case in point among many others. Recall, man was supposed to learn and perfect his knowledge of God and the capacity to flawlessly exhibit the likeness of God from the time God set aside to spend with man in the Garden of Eden. The Bible says God came down everyday, in the cool of the day . Why did He do that? He wanted fellowship with man with the intent that man would get to know...

Deuteronomy 9:4‭-‬6 (NKJV) “Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. Beloved, in a previous post  God is gracious , we were told that " it was not the righteousness of the Israelites (adherence to the law of Moses) that made God give them "a land flowing with milk and honey", No, not...