The other day while going through the story of Cain and Abel with my two brothers, it got me thinking about how Cain could have conceived in his heart to kill his only brother and furthermore go ahead to carry out something so unspeakable!-Genesis 4:1-15. I could not imagine any of my brothers thinking of something so horrific no matter how much they get at each other in the house, God help them.
But sadly, the world has heard and seen so countless numbers of unspeakable things. Why? You may ask me, a man dominated by his flesh is why I will tell you. Men and women who do not allow themselves to be led by the spirit of God is why we have so many evils around us.
When God first created the human race He put him and her in a place called Eden, a place void of anything evil or gruesome as we see around us now. However, Eden probably was not enough for the first species of the human race created, so they went for a bite of a fruit that was supposed to give knowledge of good and evil against the wish and instruction of God.
The bites into the fruit by Adam and Eve indeed did give them access to the knowledge of good and evil whilst God only wanted them to have knowledge of all things good. This also meant death for them both; spiritual death and separation from God. Despairingly, these “knowledge” traits and features are transferred down lineages through genes and blood; hence the human race have also inherited the knowledge of good and evil from birth.
In actual sense, the disobedience by our ancestors- Adam and Eve gave the devil access into our lives, the ability to manipulate mankind for his unspeakable mission which is to kill, steal and destroy – John 10:10 as against God’s purpose for us which is to give us a rich & satisfying life- John 10:10
Do you see the constant decisions we have to make? Either to live out God’s plan or to live out the devil’s plan.
Once Adam and Eve left the garden of Eden, the human race has pretty much struggled with living out God’s purpose but thankfully God did not leave us to fight it out by ourselves. The devil must have thought that he had it all figured out and perhaps had the upper hand but God is the Almighty!
The human race has always yearned and longed for the presence of God so much so that innocent and pure animals’ blood were shed, put to death and burned to raise holy incense to bring down God’s presence in order to access Him.Genesis 4:4, I Kings 3:4, This must have been cost and time intensive but people kept doing it regardless, perhaps because they saw the great good the presence of God dispensed.
Thankfully with His immense and hidden wisdom God sent us an ultimate sacrifice- one and for all. Through which we all could access the presence of God unending, His name is Jesus Christ!
The death of Jesus Christ :
Jesus came, lived His life doing good everywhere He went showing us a perfect example of what a perfect world may have been like if everyone lived like Him.
However, He had to die to fulfill His cause which was destroy the grip of the devil on mankind-I John 3:8 And the accounts of this death as narrated in the bible on the cross is so painful to imagine, nonetheless it happened so many years ago in old city Jerusalem for a valid reason. Luke 23:26-49.
God knows if I had a choice in it, I couldn’t bear to see a man and more so an innocent man die such a horrifying death.
Thank God I did not have a say in it, God was so bent on reconciling us with Him at any cost! Praise be to God who loves us regardless of how much we spit at his face.
Jesus’ death meant that He stooped Himself so low from His throne in heaven where life is in abundance and came down to the grave to fight the devil in order to bring to mankind deliverance from the power of death forever – I Peter 3:18
And once He was raised on the third day by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God was able to come and dwell inside of us, power us and enable us to live just like Him, doing good all the days of His life. – John 16:7
The daily death of saints of old :
As promised by the promise keeper Himself, the Holy spirit did come upon the disciples on the day of pentecost in the upper room – Acts 2:1-12. Afterwards, as instructed by Jesus, they took it upon themselves to spread the good news of Jesus Christ which they had to do by living Christ-like.
And for them to live Christ-like they had to put off their old self, disallow their flesh from dominating and giving the spirit of God in them full control.
Apostle Paul sums it all in Galatians 2:20 where he tells us that, his old self has been crucified with Christ, he lives no more but Christ lives in Him and He lives His life in faith in Jesus Christ. This is why no account of Apostle Paul doing evil was recorded after he came to Christ.
The other apostles did similar too, putting others’ needs before themselves, showing and sharing the love of God with the world round about them. In summary, they went about doing good & living Christ-like.
Thanks to them, we got the name christians because they were first called so in Antioch by people who saw them living Christ-like – Acts 11:26
Death has no grip of a believer’s body:
Have you ever thought how saints of old were more than ready to die for the cause of the gospel. Neither scared or moved by the mention of death; Stephen who was a saint filled with the Holy spirit in the face of his accusers looked up to heaven and saw God in all His glory with Jesus seated at His right hand- Acts 7:54 . He expressed his vision to his accusers but was stoned to death for doing so and even in the face of his death, he prayed to God for his accusers just like Jesus on the cross- Acts 7:59. It does not make any human sense! He was just being Christ-like with the help of the Holy Spirit.
I pretty much imagine that many of these saints if not all see this vision of heaven, God in all His splendour and could not be bothered about death.
More so they knew they were living for Christ and were rest assured their souls will be raised with Christ from the grave into paradise in heaven.
I believe as christians, this should be our state of mind even if God does not open our eyes to see visions like the saints. We have an inner witness within us, the Holy Spirit .
Believers’ Death to self daily :
For us to be able to do good all the days of our lives and not be part of the statistics of evil doers,we need to first accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, saviour and friend. You can say the prayers here to accept Him today.
Once you do so, a measure of the Holy spirit comes into you but I recommend that you don’t stop there. Just like the disciples did in Acts 2, pray and wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit because it is through Him that you can live for Christ and be Christ-like.
And ultimately, just like Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20 die to your flesh daily by simply listening to the directions of the Holy spirit and doing the exact opposite your flesh wants you to do.
A simple way to know the voice of the Holy Spirit is to check if what you are hearing aligns or corresponds with the written word of God in the bible.
That the world will receive Jesus Christ, the baptism of the Holy Spirit and decide to die to flesh daily I pray in Jesus name.