By LGD media
Founder and Leader of Love God’s Direction Power Ministries, Pastor Emmanuel Irame has said that disobeying the commandments of God and hating to live according to the will of God lead to temptation and hence, cautioned disobedient person not to run away from the consequences of the temptation which oftentimes, the result is evil.
The warning was given in a sermon he delivered recently at the Church auditorium in Warri.
In the sermon the Cleric attempted to give vivid explanation, line by line, of the Lord’s Prayer, to the Congregants whom he charged to apply the content in their daily life.
Pastor Irame said the congregation and the body of Christ were already familiar with the whole Gospel of Christ which clergymen preach daily and on every Sunday when the Congregants come to church.
“We pray and pray, now you know how to pray and the entire sermon we preach all over the world is all centered on the Lord’s Prayer. Even the doctrine of LGDISM is based on the teaching and doctrine of the Lord’s Prayer.
Taking a cursory look at the Bible Book of Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV), Pastor Irame explained the import of the prayer line by line.
Citing “Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed by thy name,..”; Pastor Irame reiterated when Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray,and then Jesus said, “This is how you are to pray:;
Our Father, who art in Heaven Hallowed by thy name,
Pastor Irame said while teaching his disciple, Jesus did not address God as being a Divinity on earth rather as a divine being in heaven.
Hallowed be thy name, he said means that glory and hounour are ascribed on to the name of God and described this attribute as the kernel of the eternal Gospel.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Pastor Irame explained that the context is reflections of a prayer asking God to let the prototype of the reign of his kingdom in heaven come down to earth so that humanity could enjoy the bliss and prosperity of God’s rule and dominion.
“After the kingdom has come down, man would not be living freely according to his own will but would be obeying and doing the will of God as in heaven. In which case, there would be no lying, no killing of a fellow man, no hatred, gossiping and slander etc. And when this happens, there would be two kingdoms: the kingdom of heaven where God reigns and the kingdom of earth which would be an extension of the kingdom of heaven.”
Give us this day our daily bread
Continuing, Pastor Irame said this line does not accommodate provision of meals for all days, but specifically for the day of asking and reassured that God would not fail to make provision for the daily needs of his people and hence, there needed to be no room for murmuring and frowning as men need only to thank God for answering their prayers and since everyone has something to eat daily no matter how small in this time of national economic hardship. “Don’t be selfish, God has blessed you so do your own part to God. Obey his Command because he has given you your daily bread.
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Interpreting debts as connoting sins, he said the prayer entails a request for God to grant forgiveness to the Petitioner who rationalizes his qualification for such benediction on his readiness, willingness and disposition to forgive and pardon the sins, pains and offences that his fellow man has caused him.
“Let us check our hearts, look at your children, your father, your mother; your family members from your cousin to your aunts and uncles, your nephew, niece, your community members and your king as well as the administrative leadership of your village. Because of offence most of us avoid the village, family meetings, deleted so many persons’ names from our phone contact. Check your phone and see how many people you have blocked their lines out. This reveals why we are trapped, why God is not pleased with us. That we are taught and we know but we don’t follow. We are too stubborn and our hearts are too wicked. We read it daily in our bible and plead God to forgive us our sins as we forgive others who sin against us and yet, some persons sinned against you and you dropped them. But only you confessed to God, you made the prayer to God to forgive you your sins as you forgive those who sin against you. Your agreement with God was for you to forgive those who offended you first before God would forgive you. That is why Jesus said, ‘if you brought a sacrifice to give to God in the temple and while dancing with your offering to the altar you remember that a person sinned against you and you grudge, not even you sinning against the person; drop that sacrificial offering, don’t worry yourself because God will not accept that sacrifice until you go and settle with that person. If the settlement fails, go and look for someone to accompany you for the reconciliation and if there is no headway, seek the assistance of a man of God to intervene and should that not work either, you could leave and consider the person as an unbeliever. But don’t argue and keep malice with him because one day, your continued love would make him repent. He drew the congregation attention to the number of times prescribed by Jesus as the minimum number of times one could tolerate offences from an individual to be seven times seventy times, that is effectively 490 times for a particular offence by the same individual in a day before one could decide to retaliate. But practically such occurrence is impossible and purports that the Christian should endeavour to forgive his neighbor or any person for that matter, any time an offence is committed.
“That means that in your entire lifetime you should not keep grudges. That means if you keep grudges God cannot answer your prayers again. So, if God is answering our prayers and we are still keeping grudges it is by grace. That is why we enjoy grace here in the church. But grace is for earth here; in heaven judgment will come to you and will take you to hell. Grace means pardon hoping that you would have a change of behavior through repentance in future but the day the person dies there would be no grace, no pardon again because there is no repentance in grave. It is better now that you know the secret, begin to reactivate and re connect those you blocked their number, ask about their welfare, say how are you?
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.
Here again you ask God not to lead you into temptation but deliver you from evil, Pastor Irame proceeds, stressing “that means there is a way to temptation, an evil that we find difficult to extricate ourselves from. Evil of sickness, quarrel, pain, sorrow, poverty; anything that is not good is evil, anything you don’t like in your life is evil. But you are asking God to deliver you from the evil and you know that before the evil there is a way of temptation before the evil will appear. So, you are begging God that he should not let you fall into the temptation and allow the evil to prevail. God will not lead you into temptation because it is already written and in our doctrine to Love God’s Direction (LGD), and hating God’s direction will lead you to temptation and when you do that don’t run away from the consequential evil that follows. If you don’t love God’s direction it will lead you to temptation but don’t run away from the result of the temptation which is itself EVIL. So, quarrelling, backbiting, gossiping, judgment, name-callings are ways of temptation and whatever that will come out of them will not be good. They are evil. God does not lead his children to temptation but men lead themselves to temptation and fall into evil. But the mercy of God again delivers them and then, should we be leading ourselves to temptation every day? Tomorrow may be too late. Remember the Bible cautions that if any part of our body would lead us into temptation we should cut it off for it is better you had one eye, one leg than the whole body is evil and evil in this context means eternal condemnation, the last day of evil. When you are still alive such evil could be rated as minor but when the sinner dies it is complete eternal condemnation. Therefore, the Christian should check his heart to find out the way he is motivating and luring himself to temptation. If you begin to reconcile with your enemy it means you are departing from the way of temptation to the path of goodness and life.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever, Amen.
Recall that we started with an adoration of the name of God who lives in heaven and in the process submitting in obeisance to do his will, worshipping him and respect the rights and existence of neighbours who also recognize and respect you; while you make effort not to commit sin and not partaking in activities that would get you involved in temptation and thus, glorying in the presence of God to hate wrong and love just what is right in accordance with the doctrine of LGDISM.
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