Relationship with God
When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, God comes into our lives, and the first thing He deals with is our hearts. He takes out what is found in the human heart and brings what should be found in the heart of a Christian. A human heart is full of things like worry, jealousy, gossip, unforgiveness. This is why the Bible says in Ephesians 4:31 “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice”.
For as long as your heart as a Christian is full of the things which are found in a human heart, you will not be able to walk in the spirit, and when you don’t walk in the spirit, you will not see the manifestation of God’s power. The contents of your heart will form a habit, and those habits will develop your character. So if you have anger in your heart, you will have a habit of saying bad things to others and you will develop a violent character.
As a child of God, you have to make every effort to develop a Godly character. Some of the habits may not be easy to let go, and you may need deliverance, but after that deliverance, you must maintain a heart free from that bad habit. Like anger, this is why when we deliver people you see spirit of anger manifesting, and when you question the motive of that spirit, it’s always destruction. These bad habits are just there to destroy you and to destroy your relationship with God.
God wants to have a relationship with all of us as his Children, but He cannot relate to us for as long as our hearts are not full of the fruits of the spirit. In Galatians 5:22 & 23, the Bible says “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” When you have these fruits of the spirit, you will know how to forgive, you will know how to live a Godly life and you will fulfil your God given purpose.
God wants to bless all His Children, but for as long as you don’t have the fruits of the spirit, He cannot bless you because you will not be able to control those blessings. Those blessing might even destroy you. But when you have the fruits of the spirit, you will use your blessings to bless others and to Glorify God. When you look at the fruits of the spirit, they are things that cannot be bought with money, because these are directly from God. So no one can say “I don’t have the fruits of the spirit because I’m poor”.
But when you humble yourself to God by prayer, and you devote yourself to reading and meditating on the Word of God, you will develop all the fruits of the spirit. It might not be all at once, but one by one they will come. And as you develop the fruits of the spirit, your relationship with God will grow closer and stronger. When you have a close relationship with God, you start hearing directly from God.
When you hear God directly, you start seeing the power of God in your life. Many are complaining that they don’t hear from God or they are not seeing the manifestation of God’s power in their lives, but they don’t check the contents of their hearts. When you don’t see the power of God, you must check your heart. Do an introspection, look at what is it that you have in your heart, because that will hinder your relationship with God.
Many of the sicknesses we see today, are a result of not having the fruits of the spirit in the heart. Like depression, this shows that a person does not have peace, they are worried and full of complaining, this shows that their heart is carnal. Some of the headaches and migraines are a result of stressed caused by unforgiveness. So when you don’t have the fruits of the spirit, you end up hurting even yourself.
Someone may say “oh man of God, it’s not easy to forgive”, but if God forgave you, why can’t you forgive? If God forgave a murderer, why can’t you forgive? Moses was a murderer when God called him, he had killed an Egyptian. But God washed him and cleansed him and began to use him to deliver the children of Israel. When God called Paul, the Apostle, he was also a murderer, killing Christians, but God cleansed him and today we are reading all the Epistles that he wrote in the Bible.
This is why my father in Lord Prophet TB Joshua says, don’t reject someone because of their weakness. So what I’m saying to you today is that you need to have an intimate relationship with God, and for you to have that kind of a relationship, your heart must have the fruits of the spirit. If your heart is not bearing the fruits of the spirit, don’t lose hope, we are going to pray, and ask God for a new heart.
Whatever you did in the past, whatever your heart had in the past, it will be washed by the power of God today. The Bible says in James 5: 16, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” When God gives you a new heart, just remember and keep in mind that He washed you so that he can have a relationship with you. Maintain that relationship by prayer and the Word.
To God be the Glory.