UNDERSTANDING GOD

“The entrance of Your words gives LIGHT; it gives UNDERSTANDING to the simple.”
Psalm 119:130 (NKJV)

• You cannot understand God without His Word (Psalm 19:8).

• We get to know God, be intimate with Him, through the knowledge of His Word (Psalm 119:104).
• Many want to receive blessings from God, yet they do not want to know Him and understand Him.
• Someone you do not understand, how can you relate intimately with Him and how can you receive a blessing from Him?
• If your knowledge of God is shallow, your relationship with Him would be shallow as well—thus receiving a blessing from Him would be a mirage, an illusion.
• Until you know Him intimately, you may not be able to receive the best of Him (Psalm 119:2).

• Many relate with God peripherally, their relationship with Him is not deep and sound, yet they want Him to bless them. They lack depth in Him (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37.

• God is not a thing, He is the Supreme Being.
• You do not use God and dump Him and come later when you need Him.
• God wants relationship, fellowship, intimacy.
• To flow with Him, to keep abreast of His blessings and move in your life—you need to pay attention to your fellowship with Him.

• You short-circuit God’s move, flow of His blessings in your life, when your fellowship with Him is truncated.

• Although you can receive some help from God through His servant, under which you are, who has good covenant relationship with Him.
• God blesses on the platform of the covenant He made with His servants (2 Chronicles 20:20; Isaiah 44:26).
• God, however, would want you to grow in your relationship with Him that He may later use you to bless other people (2 Corinthians 1:4; Hebrews 5:12).
• If you refused to grow, with time, you may not be able to receive answers to your prayers on the platform of the covenant He made with His servant—your pastor or whoever takes spiritual oversight of you.
• God wants you to grow to the point of cutting a covenant with Him, that is, you as an individual establish a covenant with Him.
• Many believers want to remain a baby Christian for the rest of their lives, but God does want you to grow to maturity—perfection (Hebrews 512-14).
  “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become MATURE in our understanding…”
  Hebrews 6:1 (NLT)

• When you study God’s Word, you understand Him (Psalm 119:105).

• You cannot understand God without the knowledge of His Word.
• We go to church to learn how to walk, relate with God; not to collect prayers from the pastors.
• A number of people nowadays go to church to collect prayers and visions from pastors.
• The primary assignment of those in ministry offices is to equip the saints and edify them.

1. “Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”
2. And He himself gave some to be APOSTLES, some PROPHETS, some EVANGELISTS, and some PASTORS and TEACHERS,
3. for the EQUIPPING of the SAINTS for the work of ministry, for the EDIFYING of the BODY of CHRIST,
4. till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
5. THAT WE SHOULD NO LONGER BE CHILDREN, TOSSED TO AND FRO AND CARRIED ABOUT WITH EVERY WIND OF DOCTRINE, BY THE TRICKERY OF MEN, IN THE CUNNING CRAFTINESS OF DECEITFUL PLOTTING.”
   Ephesians 4:8,11-14 (NKJV)

• Some so-called ministers of God are not helping people; they only gather them to tell them visions and prophecies.

• If you as a minister does not feed the people under your leadership with the Word of God, you have forsaken your primary assignment (Acts 6:2,4).
• Ministry is not about telling people visions and prophecies and to collect money from them.
• If this is what you do, then it means you are making merchandise of the people. The people of God under your leadership have become a business– you make money through them.
• If at all you are called a prophet, and prophetic gift is operational in your life; it is not for money making—it is for the edification of the People of God (1 Corinthians 14:3).

• I am not against the people giving their prophets material things; however, a prophet should not milk the cow he has not fed (1 Corinthians 9:13,14).

• You feed them with the Word of God before you have the right to collect material things from them (1 Corinthians 9:10,11).
  “And I will give you SHEPHERDS according to My heart, who will FEED you with KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING."
  Jeremiah 3:15 (NKJV)

“If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?”
1 Corinthians 9:11 (NKJV)

• Spiritual things first, before the material things!

• Some ministers have not sown anything to the lives of the people, and they want to reap material things!
• Many are victims of fake ministers because they are desperate and gullible, they want quick results, solutions, to their problems (2 Timothy 3:5,6).
• Every minister who makes merchandise of the people of God should remember they will give account of their stewardship, when the Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, Comes.

1. “Shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, NOT FOR DISHONEST GAIN BUT EAGERLY.
2. nor has been lords over those entrusted to you but being examples to the flock.
3. and when the Chief Shepherd appears you will receive the crown 👑 of glory that does not fade away.”
   1 Peter 5: 2-4 (NKJV)

• God has no problem in blessing His people, but His primary concern is having their heart (Matthew 6:33).
“And not only as we had hoped, BUT THEY FIRST GAVE THEMSELVES TO THE LORD, and then to us by the will of God.”
2 Corinthians 8:5 (NKJV)

• If you can give your heart, your attention, and your whole being to God, that age long problem would be attended to.
• Every minister who feeds his people with God’s Word and has oversight in prayer will not lose his reward both here on earth and eternity (1 Timothy 4:15,16).

• You cannot obey God without understanding His Word, and without obedience you cannot eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19).

• In every land of inheritance that God has apportioned an individual, there are good in it.
• It is your willingness to walk with God steadfastly and obedience to His Word, that makes you eat the good He has for you in the land.
  “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.”
  Isaiah 1:19 (NKJV)

• Note: To understand God’s Word, pray the Pauline prayer in Ephesians 1:17-21.

• If you personalize the above-mentioned prayer: you pray it consistently for a couple of days, weeks, or months; you discover your eyes of understanding is enlightened—your level of understanding of the Scriptures changes, increases, and your depths in God increased.
• Where ‘you’ is mentioned in the prayer you put ‘me’ i.e., yourself—You personalize the prayer.
  “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
  Give to you [me] the spirit of wisdom…”
  Ephesians 1:17 (NKJV)

• You will not fail in Jesus’ name.
Peace!