Godliness: A Tool Of Raising The People Of God!

Godliness is the mastery of the mystery of Grace, which is the visible expression of the invisible workings of grace within us. Although the works of repentance from dead works can quickly be seen; but the workings of godliness in the soul are not quickly seen. As unpopular as this statement may seem, it is the difference between a Believer and a Disciple. For the new birth person, fruits of repentance are expected of him.

For instance, he should have stopped lying, fornicating and the likes; but much more than this is a spiritual thing he has found; this is an identity in the spirit and a place of right standing with God. By calling yourself a child of God does not make you one; it is New Birth that makes you one. Also when someone is born again the workings of the Holy Ghost begins in them. A place where God and His people have an expectation and corporate impact on the world is the New Birth.

Attitudes of Godliness - Commitment to the Word of Truth

Matthew 5:2-12 contain the teaching of the attitude of the Kingdom. The people Jesus was addressing were His disciples and not just believers; a believer believes what the Lord says because his heart tells him it is true but he has not made a secondary commitment on what he is hearing. There is a kind of tribulation that is commensurate to the Word that we hear, which is meant to try our hearts so that it can be said that we have heard it. The spirit does not come to try the word of God but it comes to try our hearts. The Word of God is settled in Heaven but it has to be settled in our hearts. There is a tribulation commensurate to the Word that God allows to try us so that the Word can become our word.

The people stayed three days on the mountain and went home because the Word was not yet their life; it was hard for them. There can be people who come to church but they are not committed to the Word that they hear which means that they cannot know Truth; they can have an idea but cannot know Truth for Truth dwells in the heart. These disciples showed commitment to his teachings and Christ raised attitude in them. These disciples were already likened to prophets because they had followed Jesus so much.

Making God Visible Through Godliness

Matthew 5:13-14 KJV - Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 

We have to be salt first before becoming light. The first place of the light is in the house. It, first of all, lightens the house before it can lighten the earth. It is the light that lightens the house that flows into the city. When you talk about the city, it is not about the person but the people. God is about His people and not just a person; He wants corporate people. He wants many; He wants the whole earth to be filled with His people.

All the nations of the earth must be visible with the Lord. He must fill the earth and be visible. The Lord must be a city everywhere. This is the intention and the reason the Light cannot be seen in a person, else it will be clothed. The Church has spent time in developing mighty people who want to shake nations but there have been great men who have appeared and disappeared for it is about many people, not one person.

Raising a People as Light by Godliness

We cannot understand the Gospel naturally with our mind; it is the wisdom of God. It cannot make sense that is why we have believed to understand. Our believing is to prepare us to understand. The apostles wherever they went planted church which became local candlesticks with destiny for the communities. The local assemblies are not the building but a people who are connected by the Spirit and have one mind to manifest the Lord. The Lord cannot show himself in a person for it is not by power or might. The attitude of the Church to bring a man to shake the earth cannot make her grow; growth that is not in population but ascension. Whatever we do that does not bring People to God is not ascension.

The local churches are candlesticks. They are light and then a city set on a hill. The city is the first thing seen before the stature is seen. The people of God are the bulb and the glow lamp. The lamp here is Christ appearing as God, giving the Light to the people in the city. A city is God’s people who have built allegiance to Christ and the message. They will show the visibility of the Light. Some may not have the same stature, but some people have the stature as seen in Acts 6:3-5. These are the people who are given the strength or light for the Church as seen in verse Acts 6:7.

Some who had been in the church had been raised to show the Light which they did; they were the first fruit or visibility of the Light. The Church as long as it is an individual showing forth cannot shine. It is in the midst of the first fruit that we have work. The way God designed it is that he wants to generate the Light amid the house, amid His people. Everyone wants praise and fame. We don’t usually like whatever we do that hides us.

If we come to the Gospel this way we will do damage and merchandise the Gospel for gain. God is raising a people who can bear the light and there is an attraction, a relationship among them. They are from a source, a genealogy, and one generation because they must have a source and the source is Christ who separated them from the world. It is not light mingling with darkness but light staying as light and darkness staying as darkness. This means there are different entities.

We work in a place and relate with them but we are an extension of Light. We do not mingle with them but we are better when we have someone who is like us. The problem of indoctrination is that it pulls us apart, not allowing us to see Christ. For instance, an average believer you see is not connected to Christ, all he thinks about is his church. Light is supposed to exist separately from the darkness. If anyone on the earth here will function, he should because he is part of the body.

Growing the Church by the Faith of Godliness

Anywhere Godliness begins to show, the increase is seen in the Church. The summary of all we do in Church is edification, which is how we grow and are raised. The more we see people growing up to this invisibility of Christ the more light we see. For us who are pressing into Eternal Life, the point we are must be well understood. For us to be able to hold the mystery of Life the path must be well seen.

Colossians 1:6-10 KJV - Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 

They had been fruitful with the early message in Christ but our knowledge of his Will and spiritual understanding should move us to the knowledge of God.

1 Timothy 6:18 KJV - That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; 

If we do not have the foundation there is no guarantee that we can lay hold. There is a difference in belonging to the church system and the people. It is possible for a man to hate the people in the church but like what they say and as a minister, you will brood viper by associating with such a person. The Light is the conveyor of the Life, so when we see Light we will soon see Life.

We can’t improve the world system because it is another life entirely.

1 Timothy 5:3-7 KJV - Honour widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God. Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. And these things give in charge, that they may be blameless. 

You cannot find blame not that they are without anything wrong, but they understand Faith life which is believing and living by Jesus. Faith life is not getting from God it is believing and living by Jesus.

1 Timothy 5:8-9 KJV - But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, 

This scripture talks about widows indeed who have practised Faith; that is they have lived the Gospel. These widows have practised the Faith and raised children not biologically but children for the Church, not by feeding them naturally but feeding them with Truth. You can take care of children and not raise them. Taking care of children might be a platform for some things to be done in us but it is a platform, not the working.

To feed a child like your own means you have been saved from yourself. Faith has saved these widows from themselves which proved that the mystery of faith has been understood. These have expressions of the Life of Godliness. When we are in church and we are asked to do some things, we are practising believers’ love to grow to the love of Christ.

Love without dissimulation or preference makes the light glow. The mystery of Faith is the mystery of divine knowledge. It means that we can forget another’s tribe and not relate with such based on that. These widows saw a world above their immediate environment and decided to open themselves to others.

1 Timothy 5:10 KJV - Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work. 

Conclusion

Without Christ’s mystery unveiled, to do Christ will be difficult. Strangers here are church people who move from place to place sometimes they come with letters of recommendations and they are strangers because we are not used to their lives. We are weak when we cannot respond to our brethren because of the way they look or dress but when our hearts practice truth, these sicknesses and diseases of the soul are taken away.  These widows enjoy that saints are being blessed. We are endowed with natural things to help saints. These widows have served those who are lesser. When we are carnal, we are blind. If these widows are not fruitful in every good work then they are not increasing. We must grow in faith and the true grace for it is possible to stand in a false grace. The separation between older widows and younger widows is that because of staying in the Church they had acquired stature.

A church in the hand of Jesus is sweet. As we are growing in the spirit, heaven will arrange how men can draw from us. Finances can never increase if men do not draw from us. If they do not arrange people then we are not growing. These widows are not yet in the realm of Eternal Life; they are preambles but notable preambles that are needed to acquire Eternal Life. Life and understanding are realities, charge, guidelines that should guide our lives. Each time we see light shining we should think about our company and not just an individual.

May the Lord grant our hearts help to grow in the Spirit. Amen!