======================================================================== YOU ARE OF GOD by Gbile Akanni ======================================================================== Summary: Gbile Akanni teaches that believers are inherently victorious because they belong to God, carrying eternal life through Jesus which empowers them to overcome the world and possess spiritual gates. Duration: 55:03 Topics: "Victory In Christ", "Eternal Life", "Spiritual Identity" Scripture References: 1 John 4:4, 1 John 5:11-13, Romans 8:35-37 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In this powerful teaching, Gbile Akanni explores the profound truth that believers are inherently victorious because they belong to God. He explains how eternal life through Jesus Christ empowers Christians to overcome the world and possess spiritual gates of influence. Drawing from key scriptures, Gbile encourages believers to fully consecrate themselves to God and live out their divine identity with confidence and perseverance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Living Seed Media brings to you God's Word, which is his comprehensive equipment for changing lives. May the Lord impact your heart as you encounter his Word. For further inquiry or counsel, contact Peace House, PO Box 971, Boko, Benue State, Nigeria. Telephone numbers 0703 03636 59, 0703 76811 98. Email address lsmediaatlivingseed.org or visit our website at www.livingseed.org. Let us sit back and listen as the servant of God brings forth the Word of Life. Now, I would like for us to note that God has been very clear to us that the gates themselves are waiting for us. The gates are tired of disorderly management. The gates are tired of unrighteousness, of corruption. They are tired of wickedness ruling and manning them. And the gates are calling out to see the children of God to be made manifest. Those who have made a covenant with the Almighty by sacrifice. Those who have chosen to be unto him a living sacrifice that is wholly acceptable unto the Lord and who would serve God with all their being. We are seeing these examples not only in the messages that are coming. We are seeing them in the practical illustration even of the place setters, the path finders that we have just concluded with. And we are saying, O Lord, may you continue to do this even more and more. And may you go on ahead to accomplish this purpose of yours even in the rest of our lives. What we want to note tonight as we pray is that all that God is doing with the lives we have just seen, all that he has done with the lives we have been looking at in scripture, is what he will do with us. For as it is written, he is not a respecter of persons. He is not one who picks and chooses those that he will favor and those that he will disfavor. He is open to show us mercy equally. He wants every one of us to go and possess the gates for the benefit of his kingdom upon the earth. I'd like for us to read just two scriptures, and then we will do one or two issues. Now, first I'd like to read from 1 John 4, beginning at verse 4. 1 John 4, verse 4. And I would desire to just read that verse and leave it there. Now, the Bible said, you are of God, little children, and have overcome them. Because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them. Because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. I would desire for us to note that all that God will seek to establish is the question of who are you of? Who truly do you belong to? On which side are you? What actually is the side to which you belong? And there are clearly two sides here. There is the side of God and the side of the world. Now, it looks clearly to me that as lives that God is interested in upon the earth, we have a choice to make. In the morning, we saw that that choice reduces to the point of our deciding whether we will live by our natural human ability and nature, or whether we want it to be God that is both the nature and the driver of our lives. And when you are living naturally, you are living under the control of a government that is called the world. This world we are talking about is an organized system that is opposed to God's authority, God's control, God's principles of orderliness. It's an organized system of rebellion. And this organized system of rebellion is also having a ruler over it. It's having for its own ruler the chief rebel for creation that is called Satan, the devil. And it's having a structure in its government. And this structure includes both disembodied spirits, well as the spirits that are human, that are deciding to follow in the pattern of life that is of this present world. Now, I would like you to note that the Bible says you are of God. I have to say, when you are of God, even if you just arrived in the family of God, He said your own victory, your prevailing, your overcoming is already established for you. We would like to note that our being of God, the Bible is telling us as we have been going through today, that it begins with Christ in us that is the seed of God. The seed of God that is able to work out the life of God in us, that is able to bring forth the responses that are of God in all given situations, that is able to enable us to live a life that is pleasing to God, that is acceptable to God, and that is profitable to His kingdom. You are of God. Our being of God begins by our receiving the life that God has given to us of Himself. That life is called eternal life because God Himself is the eternal one. The life of God is the eternal life. The Bible said that God, this is the witness that He has brought before us. And this you will find in the same 1 John, but in chapter 5, that this is the witness that God has brought concerning His Son Jesus, that He has given to us eternal life. I want to read verse 11 and verse 12 of 1 John chapter 5 very quickly in this light. And this is the testimony that God has given us the life that is eternal. And this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. He who has not the Son of God does not have life. Now verse 13 said, These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God and who have received the Son of God into your own being, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue working in the manners to keep believing in the name of the Son of God. Now this scripture says this is God's testimony. This is God's own witness, His own confession. He says He is happy to offer to us eternal life, to offer to us the life that puts His seed in us so that we are carrying the life that is eternal, that is after His own image and likeness, the life that is after God's own kind. But that this life, He only pursues it inside of His only begotten Son that He has sent to us, whose name is Jesus. This life is in Jesus. Whoever carries Jesus carries this life. Whoever does not carry Jesus does not carry the life that God has in store for us as human beings, men and women on earth who may be interested in living the life that heaven intended for us to have. Now one issue here in this same 1 John 5, I would like to note quickly before we go from here. Did you note that the verse 11 said this is the testimony of God that He has given concerning His Son. And verse 12 said that He who has the Son has life. The testimony is that He has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. But 12 says He who has the Son has life. Now I'm wondering this is not looking very consistent except the consistency is by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. God was qualifying the life in verse 11 and He said He has given to us eternal life. Now of course for us to know it is life that is after His own kind. The life we saw in the morning as the seed of God that when we receive it and it abides in us we are able to live lives that are following after the desire, the longing and the interests of God. Now but He said He has given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son. Of course in the morning we also saw that it is Christ Jesus that is this seed. The seed that when you possess you carry what gives us a capacity to possess the gates to where so ever God sends us. Now in verse 12 He is saying He who has the Son has life. But he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Now this is looking more emphatic and more conclusive and more comprehensive as if that eternal life is the only life anybody can have. Is to say if you don't possess eternal life you miss life all together. For there was no other life God had intended us created to be in His image and likeness to possess and there was no other life He put inside the man He made from the beginning but this life that is His very life eternal. Now so whoever does not receive the Son will not only have missed eternal life actually that eternal life is the only opportunity of carrying life at all. When you miss Jesus in your life you have actually lost out on carrying what life really is. In fact you will exist ever wondering even why you are even existing. You believe in your life lost inside life because you don't carry the life to be able to live life. And he said when we possess the soul that's when we possess life. Now of course those who don't have life cannot possess any gate. Actually you are conquered and defeated even in the matter of your living. When your own living has suffered great defeat you don't have life. You can't possess a gate. We cannot elect a person to be president of a country when he is dead and buried or dead and waiting in the mortuary. You will need to be first living before you can be given opportunity to possess a gate. And the life, the only life available that is capable of possessing a gate is the life of the one seed that can possess the gate of His enemies. And that life is Jesus. It is Christ who is the life we must carry. Now if you come back now quickly to our 1 John 4 where we were a moment ago. I would like you therefore to note that when the Bible say you are of God it means you are first born of Him. But having been born of Him you have willingly decided to consecrate yourself to Him. You are of God meaning He can count on you. And we are going to be praying that in the course of this cycle God will not only secure your life in the sense that you possess the Son, you possess Jesus. And it is Jesus that is operating life in you but also it will be crystal clear. It will be a settled matter that you are unavailable to anybody or anything else. Unavailable even to yourself. You are only available unto God. You are of God. Many people are wondering why they are not overcomers even though they pray to receive Jesus. You receive Jesus but you were of yourself. You receive Jesus but you were belonging unto another pursuit of life. You were belonging to a different burden for which you are living. It's not God that is using you. It's not God that owns you and that is able to spend you and to throw you wherever He needs you and can be sure you are going for Him. And that you will represent His own interest squarely, solely, wheresoever He plans you. You are of God. But that when you are of God you can be guaranteed to overcome the world. It's not about how much experience you have gathered. Would you note that little children are the most inexperienced of the entire scale of human life. You begin as a little child. But because you are of God, even though you be the least experienced, victory at any gate God places you will be yours to enjoy, yours to experience, yours to ever walk in and to keep glorifying God thereby. Because you are of God. As a little child you are likely to still be going through your training. And we have noted that birth alone is not sufficient. There must be a process of training. That process of training is what makes you to become graded for one responsibility that is higher than the last. And from one level to another. It is the training that will qualify you for all the placements in handling kingdom responsibility. All the various levels of gates. But even as a little child, from the point you are of God, He begins to trust you with what a little child can do and you will be victorious right there. You will be overcoming at your level. But the fact that you are overcoming at a given level is no reason for you to stop growing, to stop your training or to abort the process of your discipleship. You must continue to learn under the hand God brings around you, to learn from the word of God, to learn by the experiences He is bringing into your life and to continue to therefore receive more and more endowment of the manifestation of the life of Jesus you carry, more and more understanding of the wisdom and the ways of God, more and more of the knowledge of His will concerning your life. But victory is ours first and foremost because you are of God. So the prayer we are praying today is that God should take us beyond just that we receive Christ and bring us to the point where we have presented our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. That we ourselves are all together at God's disposal for all of our lives. That in whatever we find ourselves, for us to live will be opportunity for Christ to manifest Himself and to achieve His own purpose, to realize His own mission and objectives. And the day we are through, we are only looking forward to the opportunity of our final decoration as effective soldiers of the cross like our brethren from Niger sang a moment ago. You are of God. Now, but would you notice the last part? The last part said, because. Why is it that you are the overcomer you are? You know, in Romans chapter 8 that you will recall, the Bible said in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. And I like to take a quick look at that just to add it together for you to gain as good an understanding of what God is dealing with. Now, would you like to note in verse 37 of Romans chapter 8, where the Bible said, even though so many things were happening to the believer, perhaps that's where to start so you get the context. Verse 35 began to say, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for your sakes we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Now this thing we are reading is not just a Bible reality. Several of my brothers and sisters that are hearing the voice of God through my mouth have in recent times watched as their own members of their own family have been brutally killed in their very presence. Some have passed through such terrible situations only God spared their lives. Some have been persecuted in very, very unfair circumstances simply because they are carrying the life of Christ. What shall separate us from the love of Christ? What will be strong enough as to discourage us from holding on to the life of Jesus? Will it be tribulation? Will it be distress? Will it be lack? Will it be persecution? Will it be famine? Hunger? Will it be nakedness? Will it be peril or sword? The Bible said even though we are counted as sheep for the slaughter, unless we are the ones who are deciding to throw in the towel, unless we are the ones who chose to back out, in all these things, verse 37 says, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. It's like what you carry to be a conqueror has no relationship with the circumstance in which you live, actually. In terms of whether you are poor or rich financially, whether you are high or low socially, in terms of whether you are passing through a difficulty in life or all looks easy and nice, it has no relationship with whether you are naked or well clothed, whether you are facing perils, dangers or facing even death and living under the risk of death. Some of us are sitting in our centers as young people and our hearts are asking if we will come back home and still meet our villages, our families intact. In all these things, the Bible said, if you decide that you have found life and you will not exchange it for anything else, in all these things, none of them can separate you from the love of Christ. We are more than conquerors. It's like carrying the life of Christ guarantees our victory. This is what this scripture is saying. There's nothing else actually apart from carrying the life of Christ and securing it and continually living by that life, staying true to it when we are faced with any given situation, confessing him before anybody who cares to hear, and not being ashamed of him in this sinful and adulterous generation, that by itself positions you to possess any gate to which you arrive. We are more than conquerors. Why more than conquerors? It's because the conqueror is only a conqueror by event. He's only a conqueror by each circumstance and opportunity. And he may be a conqueror in this situation, and if he faces the next one, he can be defeated. He is temporary, he is circumstantial as a conqueror. And he may be a conqueror today, for the rest of his life another person may beat him and collect that world championship belt. He is no longer the conqueror. He will become the conquered. But we are more than conquerors because our own being conqueror is a permanent matter. It resides in the eternal life we carry. It resides in the kind of life that is defining us. It resides in the fact that it is God himself that is the life operating in our physical being. We are also more than conquerors because before we will meet any situation, we are already conqueror of that situation before we engage in the conflict. We are more than conquerors because we are already conquerors before any difficulty will present itself to us. We know the end of our victory from the beginning of every conflict. We are more than conquerors. Our own being conquerors is not the normal kind. Our own being conquerors is the divine sort. The one that God has always overcome, and shall always overcome, and has come to reside in you and I so that we will ever be overcoming. But do you note that in the scripture we read, we are still trying to understand the 1st John chapter 4 that we read to finish understanding it and then we will pray. We probably won't be able to read anything else in addition. That verse 4 of 1st John 4 said, You are of God. And even though you are little children, your own is already settled as an overcoming life. You have overcome them. The them are those that are not of God. If you were to read the verse 5, the Bible said, They are of the world. The them is talking of those who have chosen to live for self, who have chosen to live for sin, who have chosen to live for Satan, who have chosen to live for the world. Those who have chosen to live for anything and anyone other than God, the almighty our maker. Those who carry a different life from the life of the almighty and therefore have no seed of God in their own lives. You are of God and you have overcome them. Now if I have overcome a group of people, can there be anything in their lives that I can ever envy? If me, already where I stand, I have already overcome everybody that is living on earth, will anything anybody has on earth matter to me? Will it be a source of envy, of jealousy, of lust, of covetousness, of desire in my own heart? Can I find anything that anyone that I have already overcome? I am on top of them. I am living well above them. My life is far beyond their level. Will it be the toys that those that are of the world are moving about with here on earth that will be a challenge to my heart? No, we have overcome them. And we have overcome them means we have also overcome all that they may have to throw at us in wanting to overcome us. Whether they are the temptations of sin, yes, we will face the temptation, but sin will no longer have dominion over me. We no longer have dominion over sin, nor will I have overcome them. You will be facing situations with a quiet fear. Will I fall? Will I stand? You have overcome them. I would like to note here that Scripture said because. Is that because I want to conclude with before my time will end so that we can pray together? It said because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Did they say because you are more intelligent than those that are in the world? Did they say because you have more money than them? Did they say because you are more handsome or more beautiful than them? Did they say because you actually have more physical muscles to flex than they have? Did they say because you have seven heads on your own seven necks that stand on your seven shoulders that have seven hearts while they have one head on one neck that has one shoulder? Or that there's something about you particularly that is better than them? No, they said because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. So again, as we'll be talking to God, this matter of he who is in you. He who must be the one working in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Who is the one in you now? Would you like to tell God it's important now that no matter what I'm passing through, what to secure is he who is in me. Because when you are of God and it is the almighty with whom all things are possible, that is the life in you, the life of Jesus, the seed of God. The Bible said he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Now this is making the whole matter very exciting at this point of conclusion. The fact that every conflict you face, hey, that God will help you to know as one who is of God, as one who is standing at that situation and at that gate for God, who is of God. Even if you are one among a hundred million, but you are of God. You have already overcome them. Did they say you shall overcome them? No, your own is already settled. You have overcome because you have got the matter where it matters. Because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. So as we pray this evening, I want you to know the decision of the outcome in every conflict, in every challenge, in every moment of battle, every moment of difficulty you face, even in any temptation to sin. The Bible said it's not about you and them. It's not even between you and the devil. It's a matter of weighting you carry, O God, weighting you carry. What is the life you have? That look, the conflict actually is between he who is in you and he who is in the world. So if you carry the right one that is the Almighty, who created all things visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, who created all beings, including the ones that became devil, the Bible said it is about he that is in you, who will strive with his maker and prevail. I am seeing, as we come to this point this evening, a provision that God was bringing to us in the morning, the seed, that is so critical that must not be toyed with, that we can't exchange for any condition. Nothing can take this from us. Why is the winning joker? Once he who is in you is the seed of God. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. That's what determines the overcomer. Can you now see why? Because you are of God, your being more than a conqueror was a settled matter. It's not subject to negotiation at any point. It's settled. Unless where you are not of God, then it's a different ballgame altogether. And as we pray to God together, because I want us to take a good moment to speak to God, and so I'm reserving up to eight to nine minutes of this time so that we can pray. I want you first, as we pray, I want you to stand on your feet if you are ready to join me to speak to God in prayer now. Let's stand up as we pray together. Wherever you are, let's stand as we pray. And as we stand up in prayer, would you like to begin by giving thanks to God? God has been quite in haste to show us mercy in this cycle. Already we know the secret of the life we need in order to possess the gates. It is the life that possesses the gates. Would you like to thank God that he has shown us mercy and has brought us in an accelerated manner, in a speedy manner thus far, to bring us to the point where he can be showing to us several other equipments that this life draws into us. I'd like you to pray that, Lord, help my heart not to miss these important issues you are raising with me. Lord, help me personally not to miss collecting the seed. Are you coming in after we had prayed that if you don't have the seed, you should ask Jesus to come into your heart? You should ask Jesus to take away that old life that was of the human nature, that was the enemy of God, not having anything to represent him. And we said, receive the seed of God. You can be in harmony with God. Now, if you came thereafter, would you like to tell God where you are praying now? Lord, I also want you to end the old life I carried and give me the life of your Son so that me also, having received life, I will stop just managing to survive in my life and will really carry life, the life that is more than a conqueror, more than ordinary conquerors that we know on earth, a life whose victory was already determined by nature, by the life he carries. Lord, make me one that is carrying your own seed. I want to carry your seed. We receive his seed. You will no longer be taking back. Sin will no longer have dominion over your life because of the seed that is a righteous seed, is the seed of righteousness. Help me to carry this life. And I want to give an opportunity quickly before we go on to pray the other issues of prayer, who is there saying, Lord, I now realize that I really need this life that is my own seed. Lord, make me one that is carrying your own seed. And I want to actually have Jesus be the life that I carry. I am accepting his life. He is the life of sin, a life of defeat in many situations. I want to know the life that is more than a conqueror. Would you like to raise your hand where you are standing? Let me first pray with you before we go on to anything else. God bless you as you are doing that. And I pray God to reach out to you right where you are, to reach out to you, to bring that newness of life, that replacement of life that gives you the seed of God, the life that is eternal, the only life that is light, that when he shines in darkness, the darkness cannot comprehend it, the victorious life. And as you are praying over this, I want to throw another issue of prayer. We have looked through today the need to grow. Though starting as a little child, already you carry the victorious life. That's true. But it is by growth that you will qualify for responsibility in higher degrees of trust. And this growth is discipleship, is the growth of following the life that God introduces to you in order to learn how to know Jesus better and how to live a life that is more and more like Jesus. Would you like to tell God, I am interested in becoming a disciple of Jesus. I am interested in stepping into discipleship. Show unto me, you would have me to learn you from and grant that I will step into this experience from today. Two minutes on my own watch. Would you like to say, Lord, I have heard and I want to offer my life to begin to learn to be completely like Jesus in all my ways. I want you to take me seriously, to enroll me and to begin to guide me into what you will have me to do. Would you like to pray this prayer and ask that God will grant you an entrance in discipleship? Who is putting up his hand to take that decision? To say, Lord, discipleship is what I have chosen now. And finally, are you there and you have actually received Jesus? But you didn't understand that the value of carrying God, of carrying his seed, is by far more important than anything you will suffer or ask. And so you've been fully arising. Now you understand. And you want to tell God, I'm very sorry. I want to rededicate my life to Jesus. And I want to commit myself to ever follow the Lord and never again become unstable in my own walk with God. You want to rededicate your life to him. To say from today, no more joking with my commitment to the Lord. No more relating with God half and half. And some of you, you were even envying people in the world, not knowing what you have and what you do not have physically does not in any way compare to the kind of life you carry, to who is in you. Would you like to say, Lord, I'm dedicating my life to you? Can you raise that hand, too, unto the Lord? Now, very quickly, if you have raised your hand for any of these three aspects and you are saying, I'm not going to be relating in and out with God anymore or that today I'm receiving the seed into my life permanently or you are saying, Lord, help me so that I can be engaged in discipleship to grow to understand how to carry Jesus in all aspects of my life. Would you like to step out towards the altar, wherever the altar is? Very, very quickly, I'm borrowing the minute or two that I'm using now to ask you to please step out to the altar. I ask that God will seal that decision and cause that the yoke of discipleship will come upon your whole heart as to continue to steadfastly follow in your learning Jesus. Can you do that very, very quickly? Very, very quickly, wherever you are, and as you step out, kneel before God and begin to pray and to say, Lord, here am I. I'm asking that you will accomplish this in my life. Just kneel right there at the altar where you are and begin to pray. Begin to say, Lord, today is a turning point in my life. It's a turning point in my commitment to discipleship. It's a turning point in the aspect of my being stable in following Jesus. I'm recommitting my life for keeps today. And it's a turning point because I'm asking that Jesus will become the life I carry from this day forward, the very seed of God, the life that is more than a conqueror. Lord, we give you thanks. We bless you. As many as are still coming forward, step out and kneel down and let's pray now. You just have 30 more seconds to quickly do that. You are stepping out. Just kneel down at the altar. The Lord will meet you there. The Lord will come to touch you there. He will change something about your life permanently. Oh, Lord, we thank you. We give you praise. Be exalted forevermore. Hosanna unto your Lord our King. Thank you, Heavenly Father. Be thou exalted. Be thou magnified. Let's pray together. As you place your right hand on your heart, I want to pray with you where you are now. And when we are through, our leaders in the Onsi Center will arrange to speak with you to guide you further. And please submit yourself to them for this purpose. Father, we are so very grateful for the entire day. As a matter of fact, you've been really very, very gracious unto us. You've opened yourself and released your heart to us at every session that we gathered. And we are thankful to you. We give you praise. Not only in the online sessions, even on-site. We have a feel of your presence everywhere that our people are gathered. Lord, we thank you. Father, we bless you. And so, we know you never wanted any of us to go empty-handed. That's why you are doing this. You are here to recruit for yourself the lives that you can rely upon that will go forth and will be the possessors. The ones who will take over. Who will conquer the gates for you. Those who never go anywhere for you and fail. Who have more than conquered us. Make these brethren more than conquerors in the name of Jesus. Don't permit that any of them will be conquered. Even in their own life. In their own day-by-day living. Give them victory in themselves. And cause that there will be arrows of victory for you as they go forth in your name. There will be going forth, some of them, to institutions. Some are still students. And they are going back into school. There will be arrows there. Some are going back into the market. They are traders. There will be arrows for you there. Wherever you will be sending them. Lord, from today. Because they are of God. Lord, they have overcome. And overcoming will be the only story about their life hereafter forevermore. Never shall they be overcome themselves in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Father, for answering us. We give you praise. We bless you. We adore you. We magnify your name. Oh, be thou exalted forevermore. Thank you, Almighty Father, for in Jesus' name we have prayed. Amen. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/gbile-akanni/you-are-of-god/ ========================================================================