Pity, the likes of Professor Wole Soyinka do not think so. He was quoted as saying that religion has become irrelevant in the public domain. And I ask, since when? He and people like him need to read the book, “HE MADE THE DIFFERENCE, the Dynamic Story of Ambassador Christopher Kolade in Britain” written by Pamela Chinekwe and published in Nigeria by KP Books.
I said in closing last week that Senate President, David Mark was right and wrong in his answer to a reporter’s question on the crude oil price benchmark used in calculating the 2009 budget. He had been quoted as saying: “Really who can see the future? If we all can, we will be more than happy. But because we didn’t foresee these and they have come now, who knows what the dollar is going to be against the naira tomorrow, do you know? Nobody! We can’t really predict that. There is no accurate or specific way of doing it.”
Of course, he is right – on one level. He is right to declare that man, as he is generally understood, is finite. He may manifest extreme brilliance and rare intelligence; she may be most instinctive and intuitive. Man may even be clairvoyant, but they are, at their very best, limited.
The Bible did say that man is fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:4) and that is as true as anything you’ll ever find in the Bible. Finis Jennings Dake, the Bible scholar and writer, obviously quoting scientists, in the Doctrine of Man, records for instance, that the body consists of “various chemicals—iron, sugar, salt, carbon, iodine, phosphorus, lime, calcium, and others”; that it “has 263 bones; 600 muscles; 970 miles of blood vessels; 400 cups on the tongue for taste; 20,000 hairs in the ears to tune in to all sounds; 40 pounds of jaw pressure; 10,000,000 nerves and branches; 3,500 sweat tubes to each square inch of skin (or 40 miles long); 20,000,000 mouths that suck food as it goes through the intestines; 600,000,000 air cells to the lungs that inhale 2,400 gallons of air daily; and a communication network that relates to the brain instantly any known sound, taste, sight, touch or smell;” and also that “the heart beats 4,200 times an hour and pumps 12 tons of blood daily.”
Benjamin Carson, the Black American neurosurgeon, is severally quoted as saying that the human brain has hundreds of billions of interconnections and is therefore much more sophisticated than anything that man has ever or possibly would ever create and call a computer. He should know; he is one of the most brilliant brain surgeons the world has ever known, and has been successfully involved in procedures that were considered impossible.
In spite of all of these, man, the one that we see, is limited in everything including the ability to see tomorrow. That is the level at which the respected soldier turned politician and lawmaker is correct. And that is why, those who fail to see the place of God in the affairs of man in general, as well as, in particular situations, circumstances and settings need to do a rethink. That is why the Bible says and I have repeated this here again and again, that the wisdom of man will fail.
But the Senate President is wrong fundamentally, because, man in his fullness can indeed “see” tomorrow! Yes, man properly defined, and operating at the level God would have him operate; need not be subjected to the beggarly elements of this world.
Now, what do I mean by “man in his fullness”, “man properly defined”, and “operating at the level God would have him operate”? As many Christians should know, man properly defined, is a spirit which has a soul and resides in a body! God made man in his image and after his likeness (Genesis 1:26), remember? And it is said that God is a Spirit (John 4:24). At creation therefore you were a spirit, like the One who created you in His image. After the fall, man required to be restored to his original state, the spirit-man state; and that’s what happens when you accept the gracious gift of salvation and become a Christian. Immediately upon rebirth, you are regenerated, your spirit comes alive and it becomes fit for God’s own spirit, the Holy Spirit to live with – inside of you. As Kenneth Copeland, the American preacher puts it “the spirit is that part of you which takes on the nature of God”
But you also have a soul, which is the seat of your will, your emotion, your intellect. This is where the action is. This is where you think your thoughts; make your plans and eventually take action.
Then, you have a body. Created to house you for the period of your earthly sojourn, (Kenneth Copeland calls it your “earth-suit”), it is simply the part of you that enables you, the spirit, to operate in the material world of nature.
Now, the soul receives stimuli from two sources, the spirit and the body. The spirit which is the seat of the Holy Spirit of God is able to influence your thoughts, your plans and therefore your actions. So is your body. Whereas, your spirit receives knowledge and wisdom from an infinite source and is therefore able to communicate them to your soul and thus lead you into all truths, show you things to come and guide you thereby; the body interfaces with the soul more easily because it is fed from the outside, from stimuli received through your five finite senses that are essentially earth-tools. The result is often that our soul becomes more “body”-conscious than spirit-conscious. We tap more into the material world with its tunnel or even keyhole vision than into the omniscience of the spiritual.
God did not plan for it to be so. He wants His children to be led of His Spirit. Chapter 8 of the Book of Romans says a lot about this all-important subject: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (14); “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God, And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ…”(16-17).
Speaking of the things we have access to in the Holy Spirit which is ours by faith, Apostle John recorded the Lord Jesus as putting it this way: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth…and he will shew you things to come…(John 16:13-14).
Yet the current aberration is avoidable. If we will feed our soul from the abundance of truth, revelation and wisdom that is available from the Spirit of God through His Word, the Bible; if we will meditate upon His word, we will become exactly who we ought to be – children of God endued with wisdom, insight and power. Instead, we feed our soul from the abundance of junk that the world has to offer. When we develop the intellect with the finite wisdom of the world, which at best enables us to discover or adapt rather than create, we get puffed up and begin to enthrone such “knowledge” to the level of deity. The result: political, economic and social crisis.
Now, I have said all of that simply to say these: Children of God are expected to make the difference wherever they are. God expects so and so does the rest of the world! Verse 19 of the same chapter of Romans cited above says: “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God”.
When a child of God is Spirit-led, he knows “things to come” because the Holy Spirit will show him. The same Spirit is able to teach him how to communicate what he knows at the right time and place and to the right people. And that applies everywhere. Do you work in an establishment, if you are sufficiently committed to your work; God is willing to bless the outfit for your sake and can give you insight that’s otherwise not yet available to anyone else. If you are a legislator; God expects you to make a difference and He will enable you to, by showing you things to, and granting you the wisdom that you need to carry your colleagues along.
There are three critical elements here. First is the need to understand that you are first and foremost a spirit with access to the all-knowing, all-able and everywhere present Spirit of God. The second is that you keep it so by keeping your soul fed much more from that source than from any other. Finally, understanding that what God has given you is applicable as much to your personal affairs as it is even to public affairs at every level you chose to diligently apply it. Pity, the likes of Professor Wole Soyinka do not think so. He was quoted as saying that religion has become irrelevant in the public domain. And I ask, since when? He and people like him need to read the book, “HE MADE THE DIFFERENCE, the Dynamic Story of Ambassador Christopher Kolade in Britain” written by Pamela Chinekwe and published in Nigeria by KP Books.
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