Christian Life

"Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

(Mark 10:24-25)

This passage has been greatly misunderstood by many who suppose Jesus was advocating financial poverty as a requirement for salvation. The real issue however is our heart condition, not the fullness or otherwise of our pockets.

Those who find it difficult to enter God's kingdom are those who TRUST IN RICHES.
We should therefore note the following:
1. Many who are rich do not trust in riches, but in God.
2. Many are actually quite poor and yet, in their hearts, they trust in riches.
3. Riches go beyond finances and materials but all things with which we believe we can achieve our goals - talents, beauty, intelligence, connections, etc.

Whosoever trusts in any of such things will definitely find it difficult to come to God and make heaven. Yet, God is gracious and will make all things possible to him/her who believes, riches or no riches.

Do you believe?

Text: Psalms 34: 3 

Magnification is a theme encountered in the Scripture often more by actions than by words. While many incidences of magnification explicitly use the word "magnify" (Luke 1:46, Psalms 143: 6), it is not uncommon to come across instances where the word is not mentioned at all. (Exodus 15: 11-18) 

Magnification concerns a personal estimation or reckoning of the worth of the object being magnified. In the natural, the efforts of human beings to magnify tend to be inappropriate and wrong. We either magnify the wrong things or magnify the right things wrongly. The reason for this is the inherent imperfection of the human nature. Yet, much of our success, or otherwise, depend on what and how we magnify in our earthly experience. Therefore, it becomes quite important for us as believers, to learn about the nature of magnification and how to engage its power to achieve our God-given roles and purposes on earth. 

From the outset, let us understand that magnification may be either physical or spiritual, and the same basic principles apply to both. However, our direct concern in this message is on spiritual magnification.

 

Nature of Magnification

Magnification is a relational activity willfully performed by a person towards another being whereby the person develops a personal and private estimate of the worth of the target being and as a result associates such estimate with the being concerned. The magnified object may be living or non-living (God, angels, human, or institutions) 

A Decision Based on Evidence
Naturally, we tend to magnify (or despise) a being based on subjective emotional considerations. However, the counsel of God is to engage in magnifying only based on rational impetus. The incidences of magnifying God recorded in Scripture are associated with objective evidence of God's faithfulness in provision, protection, favour, honour, giftings, etc. They are not baseless emotional outbursts. The principle involved is that God's kingdom is ruled by clear divine precepts rather than the emotional whims of some hoodwinked impressionable ignoramuses. Neither is it, as some unbelievers imagine, based on some haphazard caprices of a spiritual autocrat in the sky. 

An Act of Faith
Spiritual magnification is an act of faith. Based on and internal divine enlightenment, it extrapolates from what is and/or what has been done, to arrive at a higher estimate of the worth of the object. The person doing the magnification is therefore able to ascribe to the object things that are not yet done or visible. This is not premised on an emotional spur of the moment but on an assurance of the veracity of the internal revelation. It means then that the extent of magnification can only be to the extent of the revelation received, otherwise, it will be no more than mere presumption. 

The Impetus Need Not Be Fresh
Magnifying should be a regular, even habitual, spiritual exercise. It need not be in response only to current or fresh impetus. Previous reasons for magnifying should regularly be brought to remembrance and used to serve as stimulant for fresh magnification. For example, the Israelites of old certainly magnified the LORD immediately concerning the miracle of crossing the Red Sea. Still, such a response was oft-repeated decades and centuries after (even up to the present day) simply by bringing up the glorious event for remembrance. 

Entirely Internal In Essence
The private and personal nature of spiritual magnification needs to be stressed. It is an internal movement in the soul of a person which may or may not be associated with any external manifestation. It is a personal reckoning by a person concerning the object being magnified which has absolutely no structural effect on the magnified object. 

This truth is evident even in physical magnification with say, an optic lens. The object under the lens, such as a bacterium, may appear like 10cm long to the observer whereas its actual size remains the same being smaller than tip of a needle. 

Similarly, when we spiritually magnify God (or any other being for that matter), we have not made Him bigger or smarter or more powerful. God does not change in His attributes. All we have don is to increase our ow appreciation of the worth of God. 

External Expressions are Optional
While magnification is essentially internal to each person, what others sees are various external demonstrations of the act. This tends to make us to think that those external actions are the magnification. Nothing could be more wrong! The observed externalisations such as talking, singing, dancing, waving of hands, bowing or lying down, hugging, giving gifts, etc are just desirable and beautiful effects of a deep internal reality that is overflowing. They do not define magnification. Without them, magnification is not diminished. 

The Importance of Magnification

The question may then be raised: how then is magnification important if it does not impart the inherent worth of its object? 

Again, we may start our learning with physical magnification. Regardless of the magnification power of the lens, the characteristics of the bacterium are established and unchanged by the magnification event. However, magnification brings tremendous benefits to the observer, who is now able to gain more knowledge and insight into those characteristics which were unknown prior to magnification. He is better informed and empowered to properly deal with the bacterium. 

Spiritual magnification operates in somewhat similar but much more complex and mysterious way. Generally, our success or failure with a person or a thing is not so much dependent on his/its power or weakness but on our magnification or despising of the person or thing. Spiritually, magnification is one of the requirements to see, receive and utilise the full worth of a person or thing. The household members and townspeople of the proverbial prophet fail to receive the benefits of the ministry of the prophet not because of the weakness of the ministry but because of a failure to appreciate and magnify that ministry (Mark 6: 4). 

Whatever we magnify becomes big and powerful FOR OUR PERSONAL GOOD and whatever we fail to magnify (or, worse, demean) becomes small and weak FOR OUR PERSONAL GOOD, regardless of its real size and/or power. For us to succeed in our Christian walk, we must make a habit of magnifying righteous things and despising unrighteous things. A Christian that fails to magnifies righteous things will be weak spiritually and as well be on his/her way to becoming a prey to the enemy. 

What Magnification is Not

In both the Old and the New Testaments, the words used to express the idea of magnification take their meanings in situational contexts. Because of this, acts such as basic praise, thanksgiving, glorifying, etc would be the proper rendering in some of the passages. The difference between such acts and magnification can be clarified as below, using God as the object of magnification. 

Praise: This means appreciating God for who we already know Him to be. This is basically as revealed in the Scripture. Therefore, we need to know God to praise Him. We do this by proclaiming His attributes, names and titles, and wondrous works. 

Thanksgiving: This means expressing gratitude to God for specific things He has done. Such things would be be individually identified and mentioned 

Magnification: This means extrapolating existing deeds of God by revelation and faith, to arrive at an enhanced esteem of God. 

Exaggeration: This is a lie. It happens when we embellish what God has done with fabrications. Those who practice it may suppose it they are trying to honour God but in reality, are liars whose evil acts may cause the name of the Lord to be blasphemed. Our praises and thanksgiving must be true to what they are about. 

In the follow-up sermon, we shall be looking at the Scope of Magnification. 

In closing, let me invite you as I join Don Moen in this chorus: 

Be magnified O Lord,
You are highly exalted
And there is nothing you can't do
O Lord, my eyes are on you, be magnified,
O lord be magnified, O Lord be magnified. 

God bless you.

Text: Matthew 4: 1-11 

Our text here is usually seen from the angle of the devil tempting Christ - and by extension, tempting Christians to sin. Indeed, the passage is commonly given the appellation ,"The Temptation of Christ". While there is no denying of the veracity of such a perspective, there is more to the message of this scripture, which we shall now consider by God's leading. 

Let us first realise that the nature of sin the devil is tempting us commit is for us to tempt God. Whatever the appearances, when we succumb to satanic temptation, what we have actually done is tempt God. And that is a grievous sin. (Deuteronomy 6: 16). But then, what is it to "tempt"?

What Does The Word Tempt Mean?

In its most basic form, tempt means to make proof of, or to try something or someone. Therefore, the same word can also be rendered as "test". It has both positive and negative connotations. 

Positive
This refers to situations when God places His children in circumstances that give them opportunity to prove and establish their faith and loyalty to Him (Genesis 22: 1; Deuteronomy 13: 3; John 6: 6). It makes no difference whether God personally does the placement or mere allowed it to happen via the agency of some people. The goal is always to make the believer become better (Job 23: 10). Typically, the positive sense is called "testing" or "trying" while the term "tempt" is reserved for the negative. God tests people in order to grant the crown of life (Revelation 2: 10) but He never tempts anyone to sin (James 1: 12-14) 

Similarly, man, or more precisely, believers an also test or try God positively (Malachi 3: 10). As a matter of fact, we are admonished to confirm for ourselves practically by personal experience, the validity of God's claims and promises. We are not to be robots but loyal children who by faith and obedience have found God to be real and true. On the other hand, the scoffer hears God's word and despises it. He does not even bother to believe talk less of practice it. 

Negative
One type of the negative sense of tempting is the enticement of luring of people to sin. The purpose is not establish faith but to rebel against God. Only the devil (and his demons) does this, which they effect by exploiting man's sinful desires (James 1: 12-14) 

The second type of negative tempting is to act in such a way as to try to put God on the defensive. This is a gross sin committed by both the devil (Job 1: 9-11) and human beings alike and it is the subject of the sermon which Jesus referred to above. (Matthew 4: 7). As the passage shows, there are three ways in which this may be done as follows: 

1. Doubting God's Ability (Matthew 4: 3-4)

Often, believers act out of deep seated unbelief while facing challenges of life. Jesus did not fall into the tempter's suggestion because He had settled assurance of God's faithfulness and provision - and does not require the prompting of the enemy to dictate His relationship with the Father. This is in sharp contrast to the behaviour of the Israelites when they lacked water in the wilderness. The Bible clearly shows us that they doubted God's ability to provide and were actually challenging Him to prove His divinity, in effect, tempting Him (Exodus 17: 2, 7). Their heart was wrong. This is to be contrasted with the fleece of Gideon whose heart was right before God although he was unaccustomed to spiritual things - so he wanted to be sure that it was really God and not an impostor trying to lure him into an improper mission. 

Look again at the language of the tempter, "IF You are REALLY the Son of God..." Such words are obviously designed to stir up the works of the flesh! How many times have we too, as children of God, made similar statements to God, thus tempting Him? Consider the following:

"If you are really God You will make me have blessing *a, b, c* this month!"
"If You are really there for me, You won't let that man go scot free from the insult he gave me."
"If You are really a faithful Father, You will turn my lack of study for my school examinations in outstanding success. Afterall, I am born again and therefore the head and not the tail."
"If You are the Son of God, You will turn my job interview to employment (So I won't have to sleep with the employer as I am already considering doing if You fail to show up for me.)"

In these and similar situations, we sin by challenging God to prove His worth according to our own self-prepared "tests" which He must pass! 

2. Engaging In Unwarranted And Unnecessary Risks (Matthew 4: 5-7)

Sometimes we tempt God by engaging in reckless exercises contrary to God's pleasure and direction, just to show off our presumed spirituality. Such spiritual pride is especially common among Pentecostals and Charismatics. Just as the devil asked Jesus to jump down from a height, wrongly applying God's promise of protection, so do many believers today tempt God by willfully doing things that are outside the will of God for them. There was a certain brother in Nigeria years back who overcame all safeguards and boldly entered the lions den of the Ibadan zoo, claiming his God was the God of Daniel. Of course, he was promptly killed by the lions for his sin of tempting God. 

Similarly, many young and overzealous believers venture into enclaves of satanic operations without any instruction from God and without any proper preparation. Such is not ministry but tempting God. Other situations include: 

- Refusal to flee scenerios that could lead to fornication or adultery, believing you are too spiritual to fall for any sexual sin. I am aware that no genuine Christian who fornicated started out with a plan to fornicate. All they did was place themselves in conducive situations and refuse to flee until it was too late. 

- Deliberate planlessness, saying that "The Holy Spirit will direct my steps as I go." The Bible is clear about the need for prayerful, God-led planning of everything that we do as believers. (Luke 14: 28-30) 

- Of special importance nowadays, especially among leaders is tempting God through the reckless spending of God-given resources. Instead of repenting, we often excuse our wastefulness by claiming that we can spend anyhow as we are kids of the King of kings. We imagine that the promise of God to reward our faith with provisions gives us the licence to waste kingdom resources and merely apply more faith to get more resources to waste again. Such tempting with impunity is a willful sin before God. 

3. Bowing Down To Idols (Matthew 4: 8-11)

Worshipping idols is the ultimate tempting of God. God hates idolatry perfectly. He is a jealous God who will not condone or excuse our bowing down to any other being we treat as god. Sometimes, idolatry is not in the direct act of worship but by a subtle recognition of their claim to divinity e.g. by supporting or appeasing them. A believer who worships in a temple dedicated to a being other than Jehovah (e.g. for the marriage of a friend or family) has implicitly bowed to the spirit of that place even if he/she does not recognise such a being as his/her God. In some cultures, it could also take the form of fellowshipping through partaking in covenanted meals especially during their festivals. (1 Corinthians 10: 21-22). 

Whatever the situation, any form of idolatry is tempting God. 

And Now...

Would you now take some moments to consider these words and what God may be telling you through them? The sin of tempting God is not as far from us as it may seem! But if we choose to be humble before God and confess our errors in this regard, we have the assurance of His forgiveness and leading against every future tricks of the enemy. 

I pray that the Lord release His grace afresh on each of us that we no longer fall prey of the temptations of the evil one and that we too would not in consequence be found guilty of tempting God. 

It is well.