If you are going to define life based on your journey, what would your definition be?
PASTOR MORIN OSUNMAKINDE:
The Bible says “The life of a man does not consist in the abundance of things that he has.” That means the way God defines life for man is totally different from how we define life. Usually, we measure life based on the things we have, for example, resources, achievements, and all of that. But to me, life is when you create room for God to express Himself through you. We can go through life barely existing, and we can go through life truly living. To truly live, you need to be in Christ that is how you can truly live.
Life can mean different things to so many people. As I said earlier, life is commonly measured based on the quality of life; possibly on how healthy you are, the things you have, the things you are able to attain, your achievements. But LifeLifor me, life is about the presence of God in me that is what gives quality to my life.
So, without God, I’m barely existing which a number of people are doing. But I don’t just want to exist because I found out something about life. My life on this side of the divide wasn’t a happenstance (coincidence). It wasn’t something that just showed up or happened because God needed to populate the earth. In fact, I recently found out and it became clearer to me that my existence predated my conception. What do I mean by that? God said to Jeremiah, “I knew you before you were formed in the womb”. So, the question becomes, before the egg or ovum and sperm came together, where did I exist before I was an embryo?
I existed in the thoughts of God, and Psalm 139 buttresses that. Psalm 139 made me understand that God knew me before any of the days fashioned for me as written in the script of my life happened. So, my life is a product of God’s thinking. God thought about me, God imagined what I would be, who I would be, whom I will be with, and the kind of uniqueness I will possess.
That’s why when you read in Psalm 139, it says “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” It means God thought about my making. For example, when you go into a factory and they mass produce something, you just see them turning out baby dolls or whatever it is. That’s how we sometimes believe we were brought into this world; like God just mass-produced us, like He just said ‘“batch A,’ all of you go to the earth.” It’s when we reach the earth, He (God) now begins to figure out “what is the assignment for this guy?” No! What even produced my existence was my purpose, my calling, my reason for living was what gave birth to me, and the timing of my birthing was as a result of my purpose and my calling.
So, I want to say that when I am now finally here that my life would make sense only in God because it existed in His thought and mind ever before I showed up. So, it only makes sense to reconnect back and ensure that it is in alignment with what existed in His thought concerning me.
So, our life is beyond here. Our life doesn’t cease here. That’s what also motivates us to know that you don’t do things based on here alone, you do things with eternity in mind. So, there is a life predated before I was conceived, and there is life even after I passed on from this side of the divide. My life has to be based on what God was thinking concerning me. And for me to live through that life, it requires Christ in me.
God is multifaceted. There is no end to the searching of God. So, you can’t box Him and that’s why you see this in the diversity of human nature. Even in ministry, you see the diversity; you see God expressing Himself in diverse ways through His creations, through humanity, through man in diverse ways. So, we can’t box God. God is unique and diverse so He would express himself in different ways, and it is a unique privilege for us to have God express Himself uniquely through us.
The way God will express Himself through Morin would be different from the way He would express Himself through Lara. It will be different from the way He will express Himself through Bisi or through Yinka or through Kemi. But it’s the same God, but He just expresses Himself through different ways. It is a slap on God’s face to try to be somebody else. And this understanding will also kill any form of competition or comparison amidst us because you realize that God is unique and He can choose to express Himself uniquely through you in a different way than He did through the other person. It’s a slap on God’s face when you are trying to be somebody else. It’s like you are trying to say God has exhausted His options, and it’s this one particular prototype that he has to keep using.
No! He is diverse; it’s the same God that is working through Paul, to the Gentiles, that is working through Peter to the Jews. It’s the same God but He expresses Himself diversely. Appreciating that, embracing that liberates us. It put us in a place where I am not in competition with you. God has not exhausted His options, diversity in God cannot be exhausted. The twenty-four elders (24 elders) keep bowing down every time because they see another glory of God. It’s like every second God is just unveiling, unraveling and they are just like “wow”. There is no end to the mysteries in God.
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Tags: #abundance #child #choice #definition of life #development #fashioned #focus #God #growth #journey #Life #ministry #plan #Purpose #script #will