BECOMING GREATER
(week 37)
Olubi Johnson
Most Christians, including myself, have often wondered why so many of the things in the Word of God that we believe, confess and act upon take so long to become a reality in our experience. In fact there are some things that we have been praying about, believing and confessing that we have not yet experienced in our conduct or life.
This is particularly true about our perfection in Christ and in particular cleansing and manifesting perfection.
The reason for this is what we will be considering in our article for this week.
God always starts small
We need to understand that it is a principle of the Kingdom of God that God starts small. And when God starts small it seems Satan has the upper hand at first. This why we do not quickly experience the reality of the Kingdom of God in our experiences, even though we believe and are praying and confessing the Word of God diligently.
This truth is portrayed by the Lord Jesus in one His parables on the Kingdom:
Mark 4:30-32 KJV: And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.
Here the Lord Jesus reveals to us that the Kingdom or the dominion of King Jesus in our different areas of our lives, always starts like a small grain of mustard seed which when it is sown is at first smaller than all the other seeds in the earth.
For instance, let’s say you need the dominion of God over some bad habit like spiritual laziness in prayer. When you sow the Word of God to overcome that habit by saying each day ” I’m not slothful in prayer, I pray diligently and redeem the time”. At first the seeds of spiritual laziness that have already been sown in your soul and flesh over many years will be greater than the seed of the Word of God you have just sown and started watering daily by prayer, confession and corresponding actions. So your initial actions will not seem to be very successful: many times you may fall asleep when trying to pray early in the morning or during an all-night prayer meeting. However, if you continue and do not give up, with time that seed of the Word of God will grow to be greater than the seeds of spiritual laziness. So that praying diligently and redeeming the time will become your experience and habit.
So as Christians we should not be discouraged by initial failures or despise the day of small beginnings:
Job 8:7 KJV: Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
Zechariah 4:10 KJV: For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
How to sow the Word
The way to become greater is to first of all sow the Word in our hearts:
Mark 4:32 KJV: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.
Many times, though we hear the Word, it simply just falls on our hearts but is not sown in the ground of our hearts. For instance, if I drop a seed of grain on a concrete floor it will fall on the floor but it is not sown in the ground. To sow it in the ground I need to break up that hard concrete surface with a drill or some other implement and dig up the ground and then put the seed in the earth and cover it up.
In the same way, many times there is a ‘concrete’ surface on unbelief in our hearts that does not allow the Word of God that falls on our hearts as we hear it to be sown. So many times God has to use afflictions that cause sorrow to break up that ‘concrete’ surface of unbelief in our hearts so that the Word can be properly sown and grow.
Hebrews 3:12-13 KJV: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Hosea 10:12 KJV: Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Psalms 119:71 KJV: It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
Proverbs 15:13 KJV: A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
2 Corinthians 7:10 KJV: For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
So, we sow the Word of God in our hearts by receiving it in faith with a sincere determination to follow it up with corresponding physical actions. We should do this and not wait until God has to allow some affliction to come break up our fallow ground to enable us sow the Word in our hearts by faith.
How to grow the Word in us
Having sown the Word in our hearts by sincerity and faith we then let seed of the Word grow to become greater than the other seeds in our hearts and flesh.
Mark 4:32 KJV: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.
The seed of God’s word becomes greater by growing. We grow the seed of the Word in us by speaking the Word consistently, daily, in faith, even when we are not yet seeing the results in our experience.
Ephesians 4:15 KJV: But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Romans 4:17 KJV: (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
Hebrews 10:23 KJV: Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Hebrews 10:35-36 KJV: Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
We speak the truth of the Word of God in love and faith, and as we do this we grow. This speaking of the Word in love and faith can be likened to the watering of the seed in the earth that causes it grow:
Joshua 1:8 KJV: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Psalms 1:2-3 KJV: But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Becoming greater than the Antichrist Spirit
The scripture reveals to us that there is now already in operation in the Church an antichrist spirit.
I John 2:18-19 KJV: Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
This antichrist is a spiritual force that comes in the name of Christ against the purpose of Christ: which is to be conformed to the image of Christ, even the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
This spiritual force works subtly in minds of Christians causing them to overemphasize secondary issues and omit the weightier matters of the law or the Word of God in particular in this end time the perfection and fullness of Christ.
When the seed of the Word of God on perfection is planted in our hearts initially the seeds of this antichrist spirit are greater and so this prevails over the saints, until the time comes, when as the seed of the Word of perfection in them, grows and they now overcome the antichrist spirit and possess the Kingdom. This truth is revealed in type and shadows in the book of Daniel:
Daniel 7:21-22 KJV: I beheld, and the same horn (representing the antichrist spirit) made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
I John 4:3-4 KJV: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh (i.e. in our flesh in perfection in this 3rd. day) is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them (antichrist spirits): because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
So to be greater than the antichrist spirit and so attain the perfection and fullness of Christ, let us sow the Word on perfection. Then water it by prayer and confession to let it grow in us until it becomes greater than the antichrist spirit and produces the perfection and fullness of Christ in our experience.
