The Shrine Of Flesh

A shrine is not a strange thing to an average person living in Africa because in many of the communities, there are shrines where people worship every time. God is in the business of disqualifying men and women when they do not meet His standard. This is because everyone has this personal shrine which he or she worships everyday. Some people spend hours in the bathroom every morning trying to worship this shrine. Some people feed this shrine at least three times everyday. This shrine complains at every little inconvenience. It hates any form of discomfort.

The most difficult thing in life is for one to know oneself. It is true that the easiest person to deceive is oneself. And the worst fraud is to deceive oneself. But it is surprising to know that many people actively deceive themselves. Some know within them that they are not on the path to heaven at all, yet they pretend.

The chief usher of a certain church came to me crying, that God had taken away his peace. He told me that any time they finished counting the offering in his church, the pastor would pick all the fifty naira notes for himself. He watched the pastor do this for about three years, expecting him to fall down and die, but found that the man was getting fatter instead. Therefore, he decided to be picking the twenty naira notes after the pastor had picked the fifty naira notes. But the first day he did it, an angel appeared to him in the dream and said, “Son, you have just started a process that your generation coming will also reap the punishment because you are stealing from the Lord.” He told the angel that the pastor too was doing it. God told him that the pastor was just a temporary staff. It was then he ran to me. What pushed that man to do that kind of thing was the shrine of the flesh.

Ninety per cent of what many people carry about are materials used to worship this shrine: a comb to comb the hair of the shrine, a mirror to watch the shrine very well, lipstick to give it read colour, and sometimes, you find a very tiny Bible hiding in their midst.

If you want an increase of Christ in your life, there must be a decrease of self. Somebody once said that madness is to increase your speed where you have already lost your way. Many are saying they want Nigeria or the world to change, but few people are ready to change themselves. The command now is loud and clear: “Lay aside the shrine called self or God will lay you aside.”

There are many people who are busy comparing themselves with others forgetting that the Bible says the battle is not to the strong, neither the race to the swift. God has an agenda for your life. You must understand that life is not about how fast you go but how well you do it. Lay that shrine aside, let God use you, so that God does not lay you aside. At this juncture, I would like you to make the following confession: "I live to die, I die to live; the more I die, the more I live." This is why Paul said, “I die daily.” The more the shrine of the flesh dies, the more of God rises up in your life. The flesh is our greatest enemy. Our greatest enemy is not the devil, witches and wizards; but this shrine, which we carry about. Temptations are effective because of our sinful nature, the sin in us welcomes them, and they start causing problems for us. Immediately you are able to put Mr. Flesh in its proper place, demons will run away from you. There will no longer be a ladder for them to climb in to work in your life.

A certain man was in big trouble and believed the whole world was against him because he lost his job five times, his wife ran away, somebody impregnated his daughter that was in the secondary school, and he became so depressed. He cried to the Lord in desperate prayer to deliver him. And the Lord appeared to him and he was very happy because he wanted the Lord to sympathize with him, promote him, give him justice and deliverance from all his troubles. But to his amazement, the Lord pointed at him and said, “Your problem is rooted in you and not your enemy.” This is the hardest part of Christian life. Many people are not willing to admit that they are their own problem. The Lord told him that he was only deceiving himself by blaming the devil. The Lord said further, “Son, listen to me well, I am the Almighty, I am not struggling with the devil. I desire that your flesh be in submission to my Spirit. I want to dethrone you from the centre of your life and be your Lord. Your flesh is doing more to hinder my work than any evil power you are praying against. So, the devil is not the issue as much as the power of your flesh.” The man was dazed because he thought the Lord would deal with witches and wizards on his behalf. But the Lord told him that he was the problem.