DON’T BE A PASSIVE CHRISTIAN

Dearly Beloved, I bring you greetings in the name that is above every other name, Jesus Christ the Son of the living God and our soon coming King. It’s almost impossible to believe that today is the last Sunday in the month of January! Only a “few” days ago, we rung in the new year, but now it feels like the month has just flown by. In all, we truly give God all the praise for keeping us alive, strong and healthy to see today.

 

Last week I shared with us on taking action and today, we are going to continue along the same line of that conversation, because I believe that in order for us to truly enjoy All Grace, we must truly know and believe in the finished works of Jesus, by reason of His death, burial and resurrection, and in doing so, take our stand and exercise our God-given authority here on earth.

 

“And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.” (1John 4:16 AMPC)

 

The text aptly describes what it means to “know and believe” in something. For far too long, many of us have wrongly thought and assumed “knowing” to simply mean giving mental assent, and also that believing is passive in nature, or better still, acute inactivity where you just wait for things to fall on you like a bag of cherries — John shows us that it is much more than that. To know and believe means to take positive action or give a positive response, in light of that which you are said to know and believe in. What does this mean? When you know and believe that Jesus paid the full price for your total salvation, then it causes you to stand (take action) in the liberty Jesus gave to us (Galatians 5:1).

 

For instance, if a person is believing God for healing, 1Peter 2:24 (KJV) tells us “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” Then the individual must understand and recognize that his/her healing was already obtained at the cross, and so it’s already done, and must therefore walk in the consciousness of this truth, must adhere to it, against all odds, against all pain and aches, against the doctor’s report. Therefore even with the pain there, he/she must keep speaking the truth that they’re walking in, which is “I am healed.”

 

Child of God, this is what it means for you to know and believe. Belief is not passive, certainly not! God has not called us to a passive life, but to a life full of total faith and dependence on Him. Jesus already won the victory concerning your health, prosperity, mind, family, children, and all the areas of your life, therefore adhere to that victory — walk in the consciousness of that victory, dig your feet into that victory and you will see the manifestation. The truth that you must know and settle in your heart, is that no matter what your expectations are, there is grace available to meet your expectations (2Corinthians 9:8 TPT).

 

Beloved, it’s time for us to live out this faith we profess. Have a great week.

 

Maranatha!

 

In His Royal Service,

 Dr. Mike Okonkwo

The Presiding Bishop