Delightsome Agbabo

July 1 THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. — ROMANS 6:4 Some translations of Romans 10:9 read, “. . . if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart . . . thou shalt be saved.” That means you must confess Jesus as your Lord and acknowledge His lordship over your life in order to be saved. The reason for this is obvious. We’ve been the servants and the subjects— as well as the children — of Satan, the enemy of God. We have belonged to the kingdom of the devil. Now we want to leave that kingdom and become “naturalized citizens” of God’s Kingdom. But before we can do this, we must swear allegiance to the new fatherland, so to speak. We must make an absolute, unconditional break with our old fatherland. So, the Bible says, we must confess Jesus Christ as Lord. He is the new Ruler of our inte

June 30 CONDUCTOR OF LIFE . . . God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life . . . . — 1 JOHN 5:11,12 Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. . . . And these signs shall follow them that believe . . .” (Mark 16:15,17). One of these signs Jesus said would follow believers — not the Early Church, not apostles, not pastors, not preachers, but believers — is, “. . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover”(Mark 16:18). Why? Because the life of God is in believers! Sometimes people are specially anointed to minister healing, but that isn’t what Mark 16 is talking about! Every born-again believer has the life of God, the nature of God, the God-kind of life, in him — and by the laying on of hands, that life can be imparted into the physical bodies of others! That’s why you should lay hands on the sick. When you lay hands on them, that life of God in you is conducted through your hands to

June 29 MADE MANIFEST Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life [zoe] also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life [zoe] also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. — 2 CORINTHIANS 4:10,11 Paul is talking about zoe being manifested in our mortal bodies. But he’s not talking about the resurrection of the body, for “mortal” means subject to death. When we’re raised up, we’ll have an immortal body. No, Paul is talking about having this zoe life of God which came into our spirits at the New Birth manifested during thislife — in our deathdoomed mortal flesh! I am convinced that if we learn how to walk in the light of life, and let that life which came into us at our New Birth dominate us, there is no reason at all why we can’t live to a great age, if Jesus tarries His coming. I know the outward man is decaying, but the zoe life of God can be made manifest in o

June 28 WALKING IN THE LIGHT OF LIFE Then spake Jesus again unto them,saying, I am the light ofthe world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.— JOHN 8:12 I began to see some truths about eternal life before our children were born. And I believed by the grace of God that I could walk in the light of eternal life. (If God tells me in His Word I can, then I can.) I knew walking in the light of eternal life would affect my children, and so I could predict how they would turn out. I also predicted how some of the babies born in our church around the same time would turn out. I could do that because I knew what sort of light their parents were walking in and how that would affect the children. I was right one hundred percent of the time. People can have eternal life, but if they don’t walk in the light of it, developing themselves — if they don’t take advantage of that life and nature — things won’t turn out right in their lives. We have eternal

June 27 MIRACLE LIFE For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light. — EPHESIANS 5:8 The greatest miracle I’ve seen of eternal life affecting mentality was in a girl I’ll call Mary. Mary had spent seven years in the first grade without even learning to write her name. The authorities asked her parents to take her out of school when she was fourteen years old. As an eighteen-year-old, she behaved like a two-year-old. If she happened not to be sitting with her mother in the service, she would crawl or slide under the pews, or else she would lift up her skirt and step over them, to get where her mother was. Then one night, during an evangelistic revival meeting, Mary came to the altar. There she received eternal life — the nature of God. A drastic change occurred instantly. The very next night she sat in the service and behaved like any eighteen-year-old young lady. She had fixed her hair and dressed up. Her mentality seemed to have increased o

June 25 KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. — DANIEL 1:17 “. . . God gave them knowledge and skill. .” God gave Daniel and the other three Hebrew children, knowledge and all skill. Eternal life is the nature of God. You’ve got God’s nature in you. Know that! Believe that! Confess that! Then that nature will begin to dominate you! Learn to walk in the light of life. Learn to put that life into practice in your being. Walking in the light of that life will enhance your entire personality, and will increase your intelligence. Confession: I am a new creation. I am born again. I am a new creature. I have the life and nature of God in my spirit. That life is the light of men. I purpose to walk in the light of life. God’s life is in me. God’s knowledge is in me. God’s skill is in me. God’s ability is in me. God’s wisdom is in me. He is instructing me. He is leading

June 24 FAVOR Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. — DANIEL 1:9 I didn’t know anything about confession of faith when I was first saved as a teenager. But somehow my spirit impelled me to say these things. Second Corinthians 5:17 was a favorite scripture of mine. I would tell everyone I met, “I’m a new creature!” They’d reply, “What’s that?”And I would start preaching on it. Before I knew it, I’d have a crowd gathered around me right there on the street! Every morning, as I walked to school, I made my confessions based on John 1:4 and Daniel chapter 1. Sometimes a bunch of us students took up the whole street as we walked along. They thought I was crazy, but I’d explain it to them as we walked along. I would say, “Now, you see Daniel had favor with the prince of eunuchs (or, as we would call him in modern times, the dean of the college). And it was God who gave Daniel favor with him.” Then I would say to God, “God, give me favor with ev

June 22 DEVELOPMENT In him [Jesus] was life [zoe]; and the life [zoe] was the light of men. — JOHN 1:4 The life that came into you at the New Birth can affect your mental processes by governing your thinking and your intellect. It certainly did mine. I received eternal life as a teenage boy on the bed of sickness, April 22, 1933. Then on August 8, 1934, I was healed by the power of God through faith and prayer. After my healing, I returned to high school. During the sixteen months I had been bedfast, I missed one school year. And in the two years of high school I had completed before, I had been a“D” student. At that time, I didn’t have a Greek concordance, so I didn’t know about zoe. But I had my Bible, and the Spirit of God led me. Every day as I went to school I would say this: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. That life is in me. The life of God is in me. That life is the light. (I knew light stood for development.) That life is developing me. That life is develo

June 21 CHANGE For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. — GALATIANS 6:15 For neither is circumcision [now] of any importance, nor uncircumcision, but [only] a new creation [the result of a new birth and a new nature in Christ Jesus, the Messiah].— GALATIANS 6:15 (Amplified) The first thing zoe does in a man is to change his nature. It changes his spirit. Zoe makes him a new creature. All things become new in his inward man, or spirit. What this new man, or new creature, must do now is allow his inward man to dominate him. When we believers allow our spirits to dominate us, we permit the life of God in us to dominate us. People are able to see the effects of this life of God within us. They see changes in a person’s habits, conduct, speech, and so forth. Criminals become law-abiding citizens. Thieves become honest. Drunkards become sober. Prostitutes become moral. No case is incurable! With this life (zoe) that comes into man,

June 19 RECEIVE HIM But as many as received him [Jesus Christ], to them gave he power [the right] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. — JOHN 1:12 Receiving Jesus Christ is an act of the will. So man acts on the Word of God by an act of his will. Man knows he is without a Savior, without an approach to God, without eternal life, so he can look up to God and pray, in essence: Father, I come to You in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know You will not turn me away, or cast me out, because You said in Your Word, “. . . him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that He died for my sins, according to the Scriptures. I believe that He was raised from the dead for my justification, according to the Scriptures. “Justification” means that I might be set right with God. I believe that because of His death, burial, and resurrection, I am set right with God. So I receive Jesus as my Savio

June 18 WHAT TO BELIEVE For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. — 1 CORINTHIANS 15:3,4 I read some time ago about a so-called minister of the Gospel who was a man of some acclaim. Some reporters interviewed him when he arrived in a large city about an article he had written. In the article, he had stated, “There is some question as to whether Jesus ever rose from the dead. And it doesn’t really make any difference whether He did or not.” It makes all the difference in the world! It makes the difference between spiritual life and spiritual death — because that’s the way you receive eternal life. That’s the way you are born again — by believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died for your sins according to the Scriptures, and that He arose from the dead! Confession: I believe that Jesus Christ is t

June 17 HELPING OTHERS TO LIFE And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life [zoe] through his name. — JOHN 20:30,31 Jesus did many things that are not recorded in John’s Gospel, or in the other Gospels. But the things that are recorded in the Gospels are recorded for a purpose. What is this purpose? “. . . That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have zoe through his name.” The object is that we might receive eternal life!As a Christian, you need to know how to help others receive eternal life. The first step is to get them to read or hear what is written in the Gospels so they may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that as the Son of God, He has made spiritual life available to spiritually dead men. John 3:15 and 16 shows us how: “That

June 16 ZOE For as the Father hath life [zoe] in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life [zoe] in himself. — JOHN 5:26 The Greek word translated “life” in our text today is zoe. It is pronounced zo–a. Reading through the King James Version, or any English translation, when you see the word “life,” you might think it’s always talking about the same thing, but it isn’t. Three other Greek words in the New Testament are translated as “life.” Briefly, these words and their meanings are: psuche, natural life, or human life; bios, manner of life; and anastrophe, behavior. Zoe means eternal life or God’s life. It is God’s nature. It is life as God has it — that which the Father has in Himself — and that which the Incarnate Son has in Himself. It is called eternal life, everlasting life, and sometimes just life in the Word of God. No matter what “manner of life” or “behavior” you have, it won’t do you any good unless you have zoe! And that’s what Jesus came to bring you! Confession: F

June 15 DIVINE NATURE Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. — 2 PETER 1:4 When you became a child of God, God imparted His own nature — eternal life — to you. This life, this nature, this being, this substance of God, instantly changed your spirit. You passed from spiritual death — the realm of Satan — into life, which is the realm of God (1 John 3:14). You passed from the dominion of Satan into the dominion of Christ. When you received eternal life, the satanic nature passed out of you. The corruption from which you have escaped is spiritual death, the satanic nature (2 Peter 1:4). The satanic nature passed out of you, not theoretically, but actually. Second Corinthians 5:17 states, “. . . old things are passed away . . . .” And God’s nature came into you. Now you are a partaker of God’s divine nature — the nature of God — the life of Go

June 14 WHY DID JESUS COME? The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. — JOHN 10:10 Why did Jesus come? Did Jesus come to give us some creed to live by? Did He come to give us a code of ethics — a list of “do’s and don’ts” — to straighten us out? Did He come to start a new religion, or to found a new church? No! Jesus came for one purpose: That we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly! This word “life” is the biggest word of the Gospel. Manneeded life, because he was spiritually dead. Spiritual death, which is the nature of the devil, was imparted to man at the fall of man, when Adam sinned. The eradication of this devil-nature is what God has worked toward in all the ages. It was the reason why Jesus came to the earth. Jesus stated, “. . . I am come that they might have life . . . .” The only thing that will meet man’s need is the nature of God: eternal life

June 13 RESTORING THE SOUL He restoreth my soul . . . . — PSALM 23:3 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. — ROMANS 12:1,2 Writing to born-again, Spirit-filled Christians in Romans 12, Paul tells them to do something with their bodies and their minds. Man’s spirit is born again at the New Birth, but he still has the same body and the same soul. He is to present his body to God, and he is to see to it that his mind is renewed. The Hebrew word translated “restoreth” in Psalm 23 and the Greek word translated “renewed” in Romans 12:2 have just about the same meaning. For example, a valuable, antique chair which looks like a wreck can be restored. Afterwards it’s still the same chair, but it has been

JUNE 10 HEART HUNGER And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. — JOHN 6:35 Before Adam sinned, he walked and talked with God. Adam had fellowship with God. But when Adam fell, his spirit became estranged, or separated, from God. Since that day, in the life of every person born into this world, there is a heart hunger — a spirit hunger. This heart hunger causes men to seek something to satisfy it. Some look to worldly possessions. Some look to false religions of this world. Yet nothing can satisfy this heart hunger but God. Although this heart hunger may have driven a man to all kinds of things, it ends when he finds Jesus Christ. When he becomes acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ and receives eternal life and is born again, he becomes the child of God. Man then has a relationship with God! He can fellowship with God! His heart hunger is satisfied! Confession: I come to Jesus. Therefore,

June 9 THREE DIMENSIONS OF MAN And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. — 1 THESSALONIANS 5:23 It will help your spiritual growth immeasurably to know the difference between your spirit and your soul. Many people believe that “spirit” and “soul” are the same thing. Even preachers believe this! They preach about the soul as if it were the spirit. But they can’t be the same thing. It would be just as scriptural to say that the body and the soul are the same, as it would be to say that the spirit and the soul are the same. But Hebrews 4:12 says that by the Word of God, soul and spirit can be divided. To help you understand the three dimensions of man, go through this process of elimination: (1) With my body I contact the physical realm. (2) With my spirit I contact the spiritual realm. (3) With my soul I contact the intellectual and emotional realms. Man is a spirit. T

June 8 OUR CHOICE For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith. — PHILIPPIANS 1:21-25 Paul is talking here about physical death. Of course, the real Paul, the inner man, is not going to die. He’s going to go on living either way: departing and being with Christ, or abiding in the flesh. Paul said he hadn’t decided yet. “I’m in a strait,” he said, “between the two. I want to go on and be with Christ, which is far better.” (If Paul had just said it would be better, that would have been wonderful, but he said it’s even better than better!) Then he said, “Yet I know to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” I

June 7 GAIN! For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. — PHILIPPIANS 1:21 When the body dies, the inward man still lives. In today’s text, Paul was talking about physical death — and he said it is gain. That does away with the theory that when a man is dead, he’s dead like a dog, and that’s the end of it. There certainly wouldn’t be any gain to that. It also does away with the theory that when you die, you just float around like a cloud in the sky. There wouldn’t be any gain to that, either. And it also does away with the theory of reincarnation. (That’s all it is — a theory! It’s certainly not scriptural.) Some people think they will be born again into this life — that the next time they might be a cow, or a horse, or even a fly. There wouldn’t be any gain to coming back as a cow — you might get eaten. If you were a mosquito, you might get squashed. How foolish people can become when they leave the Bible and get off into false teachings! The truth is just as the Bible presents

June 6 CONFIDENT, KNOWING Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. — 2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-8 “. . . We are always confident, knowing . . . .” I like that! Not hoping. Not guessing. Not maybe so. But knowing! Knowing that while “we” are at home in the body, “we” are absent from the Lord. Yes, God’s Spirit is in our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father,” but Jesus Christ, with a physical, flesh-and-bone resurrected body is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. And when “we” are absent from the body, “we” will be present with Him there. Who is “we”? At the time of his physical death, man leaves his body. When he does, he is no less man than when he had his body. I don’t have space here to recount my entire testimony concerning my experience of dying (for the complete account, please

June 5 ETERNAL UNSEEN THINGS While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. . . . For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. — 2 CORINTHIANS 4:18, 5:1 The outward man is seen. The inward man is that “hidden man.” He is unseen. Paul is still talking about this inward man we read about in yesterday’s scripture text, Second Corinthians 4:16. Paul is saying that this inward manbis unseen — and that he is eternal. Our “earthly house of this tabernacle” is the outward man Paul was talking about in verse 16. Our earthly house (body) is decaying. When it dies, it is put into the grave, is dissolved, and goes back to dust — that is not the end! The inward man is eternal! The hidden man of the heart is eternal! The hidden man is a spirit man — and he is etern

JUNE 4 THE INWARD MAN For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. — 2 CORINTHIANS 4:16 The outward man, or the body, is decaying. It’s growing older, just as the house you may live in at 504 Chestnut Street is growing older. But do you know what? You are not getting any older! What does the scripture text say about the real you? Does it say, “Yet the inward man is perishing”? No. “Is decaying”? No. “Is growing older”? No! It says, “. . . the inward man is RENEWED DAY BY DAY”! You will never be any older than you are right now! You’re no older now than you were a few years ago. You may know more, but you’re not any older. The inward man — the real you — is renewed day by day! Confession: I am a spirit being. I am the child of the Father of spirits. The real me is a “hidden man,” an inward man. I am not getting any older. I am an eternal spirit being. I am being renewed day by day.

June 3 MAN OF THE HEART Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the HIDDEN MAN OF THE HEART, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet SPIRIT, which is in the sight of God of great price. — 1 PETER 3:3,4 No one knows what you look like! They may think they do, but they don’t. You — the real you — are a hidden man. You are a spirit; you have a soul; and you live in a body (1 Thess. 5:23). What people see is only the “house” you live in. I’ve heard ministers quote two-thirds of First Peter 3:3 and say that women shouldn’t fix their hair and shouldn’t wear gold. But if that’s what Peter meant, then women shouldn’t wear clothes, either! Because if Peter told women not to plait their hair and not to wear gold, then he also told them not to put on apparel. (Apparel is clothing.) No, Peter is really saying — probably because women are more prone to do this — “Don’t

June 2 IN HIS IMAGE And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him . . . . — GENESIS 1:26,27 For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people . . . . — PSALM 149:4 If man is made in the likeness of God, and God is a Spirit, then man, of necessity, must be a spirit. God made man for His own pleasure. He made man to fellowship withHim. Man is not an animal. Man is in the same class with God; otherwise, he couldn’t fellowship with God. Did you ever try to fellowship with a cow? Cows are in a different kingdom than you are in. They are in a different class. You can’t fellowship with them. But we can fellowship with one another. And we can fellowship with God, because we are in the same class of being as God. God is a Spirit. And man, created in the image and likeness of God, is also a spirit being. Confession: God is a Spirit, and I am a spirit. I am created in God’s image and in His likeness. I am in