My mentor of blessed memory, Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa said: "If light can't replace darkness, you don't need light." If life can't replace death, you don't need life." I add; what's the essence of claiming to have light and still be overcome by darkness? What is the meaning of professing life, while living under the captivity of death? 

It's really an irony, when we talk of the death and resurrection of Christ and even preach it on our pulpits with so much emotion and end up committing suicide; living a life of addiction and lacking the power over sin, disease and demonic forces. 

It seems most preaching and teaching today is, but mere theater; the way we live shows we don't believe most of what we say. Most news headlines about the happenings in the church, especially among the clergies say it all. 

How can we experience the victory the dead and resurrection of Christ brings, when we are busy looking for excuses for every known moral failure? If it were possible, we would rewrite the Bible to accommodate our addictions. Phrases like these would be added to our new Bible versions.

i) It's normal to profess Christ and still die by taking one's own life

ii) You can profess Christ and still live a life of sin

iii) Its normal to be an addict for life even as a professing Child of God, etc.

In fact, our new Bible version would be more about excitement in Church, busyness in religious activities, rhetoric s of faith without the life of faith.

Thank God, the works were finished since from the foundation of the world, so we can't add to the finished work of Christ or take from it. If we fail to live up to expectation, we shouldn't blame it on God, but on our lust.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. (James 1:13-15)

If the dead and resurrection of Christ can't give us victory in this life, then most of our talk about the gospel is vain. DrBenard Etta 

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: (MATT 4:5-6)

The anointing, God's grace and favor aren't just a privilege, but a huge responsibility. This responsibility isn't just limited to touching lives, but being able to combine the anointing and God's grace on our lives with the character that goes with it. Charisma-minus-Character is equal to Disaster.

The greatest crisis plaguing Christendom isn't the absence of the anointing, but the presence of anointing without character. This makes some in the ministry today to look more like rascals; reckless and unruly in the eyes of God and man.

For us to walk in the fullness of the grace of God like Christ, we need to overcome the temptation of using the anointing on our lives to show off. Christ did it; we can do it!

It's very easy for one to use the gifts of God to promote oneself and not God's kingdom. Our Church building programs, congregations, television outreaches, philanthropic activities, healing and miracle meetings, etc, might actually be serving us than Christ. God is so generous, he can allow us use his grace to build for ourselves empires until the day of reckoning.

In our foundation text, the devil was simply tempting Jesus to use the anointing at his disposal to show off. Jumping from the pinnacle of the temple to the ground could have attracted onlookers since the masses are drawn to such manifestations. But Christ resisted the temptation. 

The power of God is not for entertainment or for showing off, but for Godly influence and impact, which counts in time and eternity. When God's ministers look more like magicians in their manner of demonstrating God's power, it's a call for alarm. Jesus didn't go about trying to satisfy the curiosity of people by performing miracles and signs. Each time he performed a supernatural act, the motivation was to meet a need, show compassion and above all, to glorify the father. In some cases, he asked those he healed to tell no one, but to glorify God.

There is nothing wrong with publishing testimonies of God's miracles in a meeting if our motives are right, but we need to watch against the carnal competition among ministers of God today for who is the greatest in anointing, and the most accurate in words of knowledge, etc. This carnal competition has reached a point where some drunk with the wine of self promotion have gone to the extent of using mystical powers and charms to perform miraculous signs so as to boost their recognition among the “greatest” in Christendom.

It's very common today to find someone faking prophecies and words of knowledge and forcing people to accept them. Others use information provided during private consultation and counseling to form the base for their so-called prophecy extravaganza. Millions of ignorant Christians are right now under tremendous delusion and some are giving just everything they have to these self style con men masquerading as prophets.

It's time for the truly anointed of God to stand up strong for the truth and for righteousness. It's time to speak out! It's time to put away the altitude of using the anointing to show off. Let Christ be our example! DrBenard Etta

If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. (Matt 4:3)

Those who blessed the world in all times, lived for something much more than what the average man lives for. They were truly in the world, but not of the world in their values and perspective. 

Before Jesus actually began his earthly ministry, he was tested by the devil to turn the grace of God in his life, meant to save mankind into something for achieving his physical and material wants. He had to overcome that basic test to receive the mandate for his divine assignment. 
I think, the devil meant this in other words. 

If you are the son of God, why should you go hungry when you can use the anointing to get anything you want? His goal was to deviate Jesus from what really matters to the pursuit of trivialities, by using the authority and power given to him to fulfill his divine assignment to solely acquire physical breakthroughs.

There is nothing wrong with being blessed with bread as one carries out the work of the kingdom. What is wrong is when that becomes the motivation and hidden motive for ministry work. And, when one’s definition of ministerial success becomes something measured by one’s physical and material breakthrough, it becomes difficult to really see and think right.

Each of us should strive to overcome the temptation of using the grace of God on our lives for physical and material attainment. Jesus did it, we can do it!

When it comes to real ministry, something greater than just the craving for mere bread and butter have to stir one from the inside. If the goal is simply to makes ends meet, then everything will definitely go wrong with the quality of delivery of such an individual. It's time to live for something much more than bread and material possession. DrBenard Etta

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It is written, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus". Well lets examine that for a moment. What was the mind of Christ?

Was it to party and have fun all the time? Was it to see how many women he could bed before he turned thirty? Maybe his mind was to get all the money he could, thinking only of his self and to hell with what anyone else needs? I speak as a fool: Perhaps his mind was to fight with the disciples about who is the greatest, or argue about positions and titles, then become all arrogant when the title is obtained: not being able to be called by his first name, or not answering those who called him until they called him Christ. Maybe Jesus was busy looking for different careers, fame, and fortune. I wonder if he used his platform to become famous in the eyes of man.

There have been many things written about our Lord and savior, but I have never read, or seen this kind of mind in Jesus. Jesus had one mind, one faith, and one baptism meaning his only focus was to do the work the father gave him and to finish that work. He was humble, meek, and lowly; terms that would make most men feel like punks today, but Jesus was anything but. He stayed with his assignment through being ridiculed, persecuted, slapped, punched, spat upon, lied to, tempted, whipped and beaten within an inch of his life, rejected by his own people, and finally hanged on a cross to die for our sins saying: "It is finished". He didn't start his new assignment until he had finished the first one: He came as redeemer, and left as savior and king.

This brings us to the so called "church" the body of believers who say they are Christians (Christ like) and have the mind of Christ. If you will now say: "I don't think I have the mind of Christ, or I never said I had the mind of Christ" then you are wasting precious time and energy, because you can't fulfill the assignment of Christ without his mind being within you. He whose spirit dwells inside of you, if you have the Holy Ghost, of whom it is written: "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth (the Holy Ghost), is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come" (John 16:13).

We the blood washed people of God who are supposed to represent Jesus Christ in the same manner in which he represented himself, have not truly represented him. We who are arrogant over titles and can't be called by the name our parents gave us without pastor, apostle, prophet, or minister being placed before our names. We who fight and spar over positions within the four walls of a building instead of attending to the true war in the kingdom. We don't finish one assignment before we are off starting another one; many times without the Lord. Jesus had one assignment, one mission, one purpose, and here we think that we can split our focus between 5 different ministries. This is not what Jesus meant when he said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father".

We are unforgiving, prideful, selfish, self-willed, liars, adulterers, murderers (if you hate your neighbor you are a murderer), lacking of faith, destitute of truth, and distasteful in the Lord's nostrils. We don't want to hear the truth though we are born of the truth, and we house the spirit of truth. We have said as it were: "...Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits". We would rather continue in our folly, than to adhere to the true word of God; this Jesus did not do. We spend our time stroking our egos while seeking others to do the same.

We lie before the Lord saying: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me". We quote this scripture with such vigor, yet when it comes to the practice of if we fall short. To be crucified with Christ means that I am dead in Christ, but many of us are not dead. We have our own mind, thoughts, dreams, gifts, and hopes which we use to benefit ourselves and not the purpose of God. Even the gifts given by God we use to promote ourselves to cause our own names to be called, or become great. It is written: "A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men", it does not say that man shall make room for his own gift. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

The Lord Jesus never promoted himself, but he promoted the father in word and deed for he did only those things he had seen with his father. He spoke only those words which would magnify the Father, and would bring glory to his Father. Therefore, out of the confidence he had with the father he could say who he was while promoting the father. He even told us to pray to the father in my name. In other words, don't pray to me, pray to the father and he will give you the desires of your heart in my name. Yet we want people to come to us, depend on us for prayer, and we make ourselves a mediator between God and man.

We think that we are so ready to see Jesus yet because of the way we have represented him, there is no fear of God in the body of Christ, or the world. We have no fear in sacrificing our salvation for a quick moment of lust, anger, or hatred and for these we would use scripture to attempt to justify our actions, which scripture has no justification for!

We have embraced the dead thing, the accursed thing in order to draw in the world, and we have removed the spirit; the Holy Ghost from our presence and have replaced him with entertainment. Do you think Jesus will justify you for this? No dead thing has ever resurrected a dead thing. Jesus drew the world, but not by the world's stuff, but by the spirit of God for it is written: "The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee" (Jer. 31:3). Also: "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44). We can not hope to draw the world by incorporating the world's music, dance, or anything that is the word's for what is of the world is of the devil, and is death.

Blood washed believers, It is past time that we allow the mind of Christ to be in us, and choose again the things of God. Without the mind of Christ it is impossible for us to fulfill the assignment and commandments of God the Father. Without the mind of Christ we are doomed to continue the works of destruction. Without the mind of Christ we are simply doomed.

Please heed the words of the Lord, deny yourself pick up your cross and follow Jesus. Renounce all the hidden things of dishonesty. Put off promoting your self, and get back to promoting the Lord Jesus. Die in Christ that he might live in you. Love your enemies, do good to those who mistreat you and despitefully use you. If one hits you on the one cheek turn to him the other. Being reviled (to speak abusively), revile not again. Suffer yourselves to be defrauded. Suffer the loss of all things. Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Let this mind which was also in Christ Jesus, BE IN YOU!