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.
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.
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.
