Deborah Olayiwola

When we hear of the word “Church”, what comes into our head is the building, inclusive of chairs, tables and all other adornments in our respective places of worship. Little did we have an understanding that each and every believer is a partaker of the Church while Christ Himself is the Head of the church. Reading through Ephesians 5, we would see how the relationship between a man and a woman as husband and wife is related to the one between Christ and the church.
According to this text, we were made to understand that Abba is the head of the church just as the man is the head of the wife and another interesting part is the love he bestowed upon the church by laying his life for all. Being the church, we are automatically the body of Christ while he is undoubtedly the head no wonder we are admonished in that Ephesians 5:22-24 that we as the church or the body of Christ be subject unto Christ i.e His will. I see no reason why we claim to be His body and still be involved in other atrocities just as the world have it.
Furthermore, we were made to see that just as no individual will hate his own flesh and body so also Christ loves us and as such this love should not be taken for granted and how can this be so? we should endeavor to read and follow the word of truth and life and that is automatically our bible, we should know the truth and make it set us free. Being the body of Christ undisputedly makes us to be exclusive to Christ Himself as we cannot even afford to be living our lives subject to the leading of flesh. The body of Christ is expected to be kept holy as Christ Himself who is the head of the body is Holy.
In a nutshell, the Church of God is the body of Christ and Christ Himself is the cornerstone of the Church and as such we should work towards presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord as it is established that it is the temple of the Living God.
I pray as we make up our minds to live to the expectation of the holiness and right doing embedded in the body of Christ we will be graced to do so. Amen!

Deborah Olayiwola

I once attended a program and the prayer minister in charge raised a prayer point. She said we should pray that we should not be like signboards. I was almost laughing and I was like what kind of a prayer point is this. Going forward, what kept bothering my mind is the meaning of a signboard. Literally, we all are aware that a signboard is to make an awareness of a particular place, in the world we see signboards everywhere on the streets which are majorly pathfinders to people
of a particular place especially when the address is not clear enough.
Spiritually, I began to ponder what she could have meant by we not becoming signboards then I realized that truly signboards are like pathfinders to a place and it is very rare to see signboards in places that they describe to people, immediately my understanding opened to what she meant by we not becoming signboards spiritually.
Having given one’s life to Christ, authenticates one as a child of God and we automatically become a carrier of His grace, also a direction or a pathfinder for people to come to the El shaddai. I have seen instances that some say that people of the world no longer read the scriptures but read Christians attitude. Are we sure that our attitude would not make us a cast away in the kingdom of God? the little things we think it does not matter? . Imagine those we are struggling to pull to the kingdom of the Father gets to enter and we ourselves finds it hard to make it, God forbid!
In short, this piece is an awakening call to all children of God out there that we hold on to our position firmly and mind the way we behave even behind the scenes lest we become castaways. In the book of (1 cor. 9:27), brother Paul had it that ” But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection…” if we read through that verse we get a detailed understanding of his plight.
The conclusion of this whole matter is that we should subject our flesh always under the leading of the Holy spirit so we would not commit sins which will make us castaways or signboards to the kingdom of God as the Father expects us to all to be a partaker of His eternity. I pray the Lord grants us the grace not to become castaways. Amen

Deborah Olayiwola

To put off something is to do away with a thing, discard such thing totally. When one puts off the old man scripturally, it simply means doing away with sinful things of the past. The past here is talking about all forms of unrighteousness and iniquities before one gives his or her life to Christ . To put off the old man also means such person is trying to forsake all forms of corrupt nature the individual has been in before such person surrenders his or her life to Christ, no wonder the bible reveals it in (2nd cor. 5:17) “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new”.
An old man scripturally, gets involved in old things which is totally against the will of God. In order to do away with old things, an individual needs a total and constant renewal of mind. Hence, such individual becomes a new man in Christ. (Ephesians 4: 22-24). As Christians, we all need to learn and receive the grace of putting off the old man in us at every point in time and seek the new man (col.3:9-10).
In conclusion brethren, to put off the old man is to do away totally with the devil and his tactics in brainwashing us to go back to the sins we have earlier renounced. This however can be achieved with constant fellowship with the Father and I pray as we continue the heavenly race, the ability to always resist the devil the Lord will grant us. AMEN

Deborah Olayiwola

I cannot ever imagine investing my money into a business again and break even not to talk of making losses. I remembered a time I took a risk of investing my hard earned money into a so called “profitable business” It did end in tears.
A sole aim of setting up a business is to make profits, as we have secular businesses we also have the eternal business. In our secular businesses, we seek to maximize returns to ourselves and if we discover any iota of loss or low returns we might be forced to close down the business as we claim it doesn’t have a foreseeable future.
The eternal business seeks to maximize returns to the Father, it can be achieved by taking the Lord’s work passionately and winning souls for Him by the works commissioned into our care as this is the Joy of the Father.
In the books of (Mathew 25:14-30), we are made to understand how the Father expects us to go about His business, vv 30 says “And cast ye the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness”. Do we want to be unprofitable with the Father’s business? . How often do we take His business seriously, I mean the works He has commissioned into our hands (John 4:34).
Furthermore, the book of (Luke 2:49) made us to see how Christ while on earth sought after the Father’s business passionately. This should be a worthy example to us.
In conclusion, we should inculcate the habit of taking the Father’s business seriously, it’s in this that Abba takes pride in us . Although, this cannot be done without the help of the Spirit of God. We should always remember that “The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few”.
May the Lord help us as we pursue this. Amen.