THE MAN GOD USES

                    

               THE MAN GOD USES

                     By Mike Okhihiemen

                     

                                   

     Who is the man God uses?

The Man God needs is the man God uses; who has the Spirit of God, the leading of the Holy Spirit… within the tight ground of Purpose, where he  dominates on this GROUND) in obedience towards multiplication  – Gen. !: 27 – 28.

M

any people are still  in doubt about the essence  of their lives.  Consequently they resort to asking questions. For examples in about 900 B.C  king David asked    “LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Psalm 15 :1 )

In 1984, before his death, Chief Obafemi Awolowo asked: “Is there life after life?” These two great men got answers to their questions.

        For centuries before and after the coming of Christ, man had used philosophical inquisition and divination  to seek knowledge within the circumference of the unknown.

In deep the  remoteness of Africa, what acted as philosophical inquisition was divination – a system of seeking information via the agency of priests from deities.(ovia , olokun , sango, amadioha etc )

That is to say what was unknown was usually sought from spirits or from the mind of man.

Within these profession of seeking things, philosophical inquisition or divination are people  that were  well known: Socrates, Plato, Orunmila, Ifa priests, Alfas, dibia, obohs, etc.

The methods used by these groups of people were primarily speculation. That is they guessed, they theorized, and more craftily, they asked demons, like reincarnation spirits who were on hand to lie and crush man through deceit. So for  centuries past, they deceived . These deceit led Benin warriors to depend on human sacrifices to enlarge their territories. This lie also made the traditional Yoruba man Igbo man , and Edo man  to believe that he his dead father will  return to continue life  in his son, so he call him  Babatunde, Iyare, etc

Good enough, these lies never lasted long.

For example, when Mathematical Philosophers speculated before 1905 that the world was flat, the Bible was telling the truth  back in 700BC  that   “  it is he(  God ) that sitteth upon the circle of the earth- Isaiah 40:21-22.

21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

In August, 1988, Scientists claimed that they have finally discovered fire to be at the crust of the earth (this was reported by the Daily Times of that day). But Job, who lived about 600 BC said  As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.( Job 28:5)

From these, one can tell that philosophical  or academic knowledge  without God, never ever helped man.

Back to the Theme of our talk:

 WHO IS THE MAN GOD NEEDS?

Or more centrally, who is the MAN GOD USES?

 From the forgoing, it will be risky and foolish if we resort to the reasoning of philosophy  of man to solve this question. The Biblical answer to this question will form the foundational point of this inquisition.

Genesis 1: 26

“26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth...”

In analysing this scripture, one must be mindful of one underlying theory, and that is the concept of purpose which overrides all created or manufactured things. That is to say, all manufactured things have purposes; otherwise their usefulness would be lost. Let this concept guide us in our text today.

 “So, God CREATED man....”

The chief underlying words here are:

a)     He (God) created. (Note the purpose)

b)    His creation is composed of His IMAGE and likeness

c)     He blessed them to DOMINATE and…

d)     “Be fruitful and multiply.”

In partial summary, we have two end of the same stick: created to  DOMINATE  and MULTIPLY But between these two ends (creation and multiplying), there are other salient factors, which we must bring out before we can answer the question on our topic.

The salient factors can be found by asking another question, what is God’s IMAGE   And likeness?

If we find this answer, we could discover a personality or agent of multiplying. Let us see 2 Corinthians 4:4.

“In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, WHO IS THE IMAGE OF GOD SHOULD SHINE UPON THEM.”

So Christ is that image.

He is the personality behind our fruitfulness. But when Christ left, he sent His Holy Spirit in our hearts to take His place.

Again, the Agency of our fruitfulness is now THE HOLY SPIRIT.

What does He do?

Primarily, He leads.  “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”  (Rom 8:14)

To where?   To our  dominion and  multiplying!

So again we paraphrase God’s original purpose. “God created man to dominate and multiply with the leading of the Holy Spirit, who leads us to our multiplying.”

ANOTHER CHALLENGE:

 Will the Holy Spirit lead  ALL OF US  in the same  ground  in dominion and  multiplying?

Common sense says No because Jabez prayed:

“Enlarge MY COAST”.

 We all have our coasts on which the Holy Spirit leads or performs our multiplying .  Isaiah 54:2-3 and 54:16.

“Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; 3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Isa   54: 17

“Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy”.

BACK HOME: (Gen. 1: 26)

We can again collate our findings so far and say: The man God uses or the man God likes is the man who:

a)     Has the IMAGE of God (CHRIST)

b)    Who is LED by the Spirit

c)     Who has or who locates His ground.

d)    Who dominates his ground

e)     And asks for expansion.

Here we have our four points

A  THE IMMAGE OF GOD

B   THE SPIRIT LEADING

C  PURPOSE DISCOVERY

D  PRAYER FOR EXPANSSION

Let us dwell briefly on each point … BUT OUR CHIEF EMPHASY WILL BE ON  THE THIRD POINT …PURPOSE DICOVERY But before then, lets talk briefly on   points A and B...

DISCOVERY:

We must discover where our coast is located. Failure to discover this PLACE is the cause of failure among men. The man who discovers His coast will pray the Jabez prayer, otherwise, the Holy Spirit’s leading will end up in cynical movement.

 Interestingly, the Holy Spirit thus leads us to our coast. But the greatest malady is that more often than not, men DO NOT COMPLY.

 Rather…

They stubbornly eject,

 Ignorantly refuse,

Stupidly delay

or proudly shun His leading.

 Examples exist.

A great number.

One wonders IF ALL   born again Christians (i.e. about 10 % of all the church attendance), know and follow and adhere to their purpose are infinitesimally too small.

But we should all remember that God does not

 Sponsor our Greed,

Our need

Our selfish desires

Or  our wants

 but only our vision – which is the offshoot of purpose. Impediment to purpose discovery:

HINDERANCES TO PURPOSE DISCOVERY:

1)    Ignorance

2)    Job satisfaction

3)    Fear of occupational change

4)    Error (passion/ purpose)

5)    Sin/ disobedience

6)    Stupidity (like the Pharisee/ Jesus)

7)    Pre-occupation with Church activity

Every man coming into the world came with a purpose, just as every manufactured product came as a result of a need or purpose. Consequently, it is every man’s duty to discover what that purpose is. There is so much confusion and ignorance here. The fact remains that without the discovery and adherence to our purpose, God cannot and will not commit enormous resources into our hands, because God does not sponsor our greed or needs but our vision (from His purpose).

So the none discovery of purpose remains one reason why “my people are destroye” God decides every man’s work” but one thing is clear, every man has a place where his Multiplying would take place. The discovery of that place is the beginning of victory.

Lets repeat this :  Just as every manufactured product has a purpose, so does every man. (Isaiah 54:16). Our responsibility is to search for that purpose, which becomes the ground of our tent. (Isaiah 54:2).

Consequently, we have our physical occupation and the spiritual calling. Sometimes, your physical occupation fore- shadows your spiritual occupation.

Passion and purpose

Passion may not always equate purpose . Sometimes, it does, like we saw in the occupation of Simon and Andrew, James and his  brother (Matthew 4:18), who were fisher men. 18 ¶ And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.

But that of Matthew the publican tax collector and Luke the physician do not tally. This is where the error of those who preach that purpose is discovered in what we have passion for becomes clear. Our passion may not tally with our calling.

“You can’t find purpose in your passion but in him” (Col. 1:16) –msg.

“The Lord made everything for His own purpose” Pro. 16:4 (NLT)

Life is about letting God use you for His purpose, not the other way round.

You discover your IDENTITY and PURPOSE through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

D     PRAYER FOR EXPANSSION

“ Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured.”

CONCLUSION:

The man God needs is the man  who has the Spirit in his spirit , who is led within the circumference of his reason for coming to earth…. whose finances, vision, goals are neither wild nor selfish, or based on need or greed, but on the singular divine vision of God for him… whose purpose has been discovered, appreciated, nurtured, followed and worked and walked upon.. he is the man  whose end will naturally Dominate to  fruitfulness and multiplying as ordained from the beginning of purpose. That man is the man God needs. This is the man God uses.

                                               

                     THE LORD’S HOUSE

                       (ACHIEVERS’ ASSEMBLY)

               THE MAN GOD USES

                          A theme paper delivered at the Men’s Convention of

                                   By Mike Okhihiemen

                       On April 13 , 2013.

                                       At the Church auditorium

                                   Chief host : Rev. Ademola Iroko  

     Who is the man God uses?

The Man God needs is the man God uses; who has the Spirit of God, the leading of the Holy Spirit… within the tight ground of Purpose, where he  dominates on this GROUND) in obedience towards multiplication  – Gen. !: 27 – 28.

M

any people are still  in doubt about the essence  of their lives.  Consequently they resort to asking questions. For examples in about 900 B.C  king David asked    “LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Psalm 15 :1 )

In 1984, before his death, Chief Obafemi Awolowo asked: “Is there life after life?” These two great men got answers to their questions.

        For centuries before and after the coming of Christ, man had used philosophical inquisition and divination  to seek knowledge within the circumference of the unknown.

In deep the  remoteness of Africa, what acted as philosophical inquisition was divination – a system of seeking information via the agency of priests from deities.(ovia , olokun , sango, amadioha etc )

That is to say what was unknown was usually sought from spirits or from the mind of man.

Within these profession of seeking things, philosophical inquisition or divination are people  that were  well known: Socrates, Plato, Orunmila, Ifa priests, Alfas, dibia, obohs, etc.

The methods used by these groups of people were primarily speculation. That is they guessed, they theorized, and more craftily, they asked demons, like reincarnation spirits who were on hand to lie and crush man through deceit. So for  centuries past, they deceived . These deceit led Benin warriors to depend on human sacrifices to enlarge their territories. This lie also made the traditional Yoruba man Igbo man , and Edo man  to believe that he his dead father will  return to continue life  in his son, so he call him  Babatunde, Iyare, etc

Good enough, these lies never lasted long.

For example, when Mathematical Philosophers speculated before 1905 that the world was flat, the Bible was telling the truth  back in 700BC  that   “  it is he(  God ) that sitteth upon the circle of the earth- Isaiah 40:21-22.

21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

In August, 1988, Scientists claimed that they have finally discovered fire to be at the crust of the earth (this was reported by the Daily Times of that day). But Job, who lived about 600 BC said  As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.( Job 28:5)

From these, one can tell that philosophical  or academic knowledge  without God, never ever helped man.

Back to the Theme of our talk:

 WHO IS THE MAN GOD NEEDS?

Or more centrally, who is the MAN GOD USES?

 From the forgoing, it will be risky and foolish if we resort to the reasoning of philosophy  of man to solve this question. The Biblical answer to this question will form the foundational point of this inquisition.

Genesis 1: 26

“26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth...”

In analysing this scripture, one must be mindful of one underlying theory, and that is the concept of purpose which overrides all created or manufactured things. That is to say, all manufactured things have purposes; otherwise their usefulness would be lost. Let this concept guide us in our text today.

 “So, God CREATED man....”

The chief underlying words here are:

a)     He (God) created. (Note the purpose)

b)    His creation is composed of His IMAGE and likeness

c)     He blessed them to DOMINATE and…

d)     “Be fruitful and multiply.”

In partial summary, we have two end of the same stick: created to  DOMINATE  and MULTIPLY But between these two ends (creation and multiplying), there are other salient factors, which we must bring out before we can answer the question on our topic.

The salient factors can be found by asking another question, what is God’s IMAGE   And likeness?

If we find this answer, we could discover a personality or agent of multiplying. Let us see 2 Corinthians 4:4.

“In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, WHO IS THE IMAGE OF GOD SHOULD SHINE UPON THEM.”

So Christ is that image.

He is the personality behind our fruitfulness. But when Christ left, he sent His Holy Spirit in our hearts to take His place.

Again, the Agency of our fruitfulness is now THE HOLY SPIRIT.

What does He do?

Primarily, He leads.  “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”  (Rom 8:14)

To where?   To our  dominion and  multiplying!

So again we paraphrase God’s original purpose. “God created man to dominate and multiply with the leading of the Holy Spirit, who leads us to our multiplying.”

ANOTHER CHALLENGE:

 Will the Holy Spirit lead  ALL OF US  in the same  ground  in dominion and  multiplying?

Common sense says No because Jabez prayed:

“Enlarge MY COAST”.

 We all have our coasts on which the Holy Spirit leads or performs our multiplying .  Isaiah 54:2-3 and 54:16.

“Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; 3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Isa   54: 17

“Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy”.

BACK HOME: (Gen. 1: 26)

We can again collate our findings so far and say: The man God uses or the man God likes is the man who:

a)     Has the IMAGE of God (CHRIST)

b)    Who is LED by the Spirit

c)     Who has or who locates His ground.

d)    Who dominates his ground

e)     And asks for expansion.

Here we have our four points

A  THE IMMAGE OF GOD

B   THE SPIRIT LEADING

C  PURPOSE DISCOVERY

D  PRAYER FOR EXPANSSION

Let us dwell briefly on each point … BUT OUR CHIEF EMPHASY WILL BE ON  THE THIRD POINT …PURPOSE DICOVERY But before then, lets talk briefly on   points A and B...

DISCOVERY:

We must discover where our coast is located. Failure to discover this PLACE is the cause of failure among men. The man who discovers His coast will pray the Jabez prayer, otherwise, the Holy Spirit’s leading will end up in cynical movement.

 Interestingly, the Holy Spirit thus leads us to our coast. But the greatest malady is that more often than not, men DO NOT COMPLY.

 Rather…

They stubbornly eject,

 Ignorantly refuse,

Stupidly delay

or proudly shun His leading.

 Examples exist.

A great number.

One wonders IF ALL   born again Christians (i.e. about 10 % of all the church attendance), know and follow and adhere to their purpose are infinitesimally too small.

But we should all remember that God does not

 Sponsor our Greed,

Our need

Our selfish desires

Or  our wants

 but only our vision – which is the offshoot of purpose. Impediment to purpose discovery:

HINDERANCES TO PURPOSE DISCOVERY:

1)    Ignorance

2)    Job satisfaction

3)    Fear of occupational change

4)    Error (passion/ purpose)

5)    Sin/ disobedience

6)    Stupidity (like the Pharisee/ Jesus)

7)    Pre-occupation with Church activity

Every man coming into the world came with a purpose, just as every manufactured product came as a result of a need or purpose. Consequently, it is every man’s duty to discover what that purpose is. There is so much confusion and ignorance here. The fact remains that without the discovery and adherence to our purpose, God cannot and will not commit enormous resources into our hands, because God does not sponsor our greed or needs but our vision (from His purpose).

So the none discovery of purpose remains one reason why “my people are destroye” God decides every man’s work” but one thing is clear, every man has a place where his Multiplying would take place. The discovery of that place is the beginning of victory.

Lets repeat this :  Just as every manufactured product has a purpose, so does every man. (Isaiah 54:16). Our responsibility is to search for that purpose, which becomes the ground of our tent. (Isaiah 54:2).

Consequently, we have our physical occupation and the spiritual calling. Sometimes, your physical occupation fore- shadows your spiritual occupation.

Passion and purpose

Passion may not always equate purpose . Sometimes, it does, like we saw in the occupation of Simon and Andrew, James and his  brother (Matthew 4:18), who were fisher men. 18 ¶ And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.

But that of Matthew the publican tax collector and Luke the physician do not tally. This is where the error of those who preach that purpose is discovered in what we have passion for becomes clear. Our passion may not tally with our calling.

“You can’t find purpose in your passion but in him” (Col. 1:16) –msg.

“The Lord made everything for His own purpose” Pro. 16:4 (NLT)

Life is about letting God use you for His purpose, not the other way round.

You discover your IDENTITY and PURPOSE through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

D     PRAYER FOR EXPANSSION

“ Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured.”

CONCLUSION:

The man God needs is the man  who has the Spirit in his spirit , who is led within the circumference of his reason for coming to earth…. whose finances, vision, goals are neither wild nor selfish, or based on need or greed, but on the singular divine vision of God for him… whose purpose has been discovered, appreciated, nurtured, followed and worked and walked upon.. he is the man  whose end will naturally Dominate to  fruitfulness and multiplying as ordained from the beginning of purpose. That man is the man God needs. This is the man God uses.