BY: VITALIS UGOH Calabar
Ministers of God at a one day conference organised by God’s Arena of Liberty outreach have identified the Word, Obedience and Faith as a clear cut root to the spiritual growth of a believer.
This recommendation was contained in their various presentations as guest speakers at the auditorium of the ministry at the weekend.
The aim of the conference is “to provoke Divine Intervention and to discover that which must be put in place to manifest as Sons of God in the order of Christ “.
Presenting his paper entitled “Go for the Word: Not for the World”, Pastor Udah Okey, regretted that a lot of ministers and Christians today had abandoned the true word of God. Rather, they have preferred the path of the world because of their selfish interests.
According to him, “if really, we are called by God, then we must believe His Word and stop giving excuses”.
Citing the Bible as in John 1:1-4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.
He urged Christians to go for the Word that will help us in time of trouble. There is power in the word of God. It removes pains and heal sicknesses.
He made references to the following Bible verses Isaiah 40:8, Gen:15:1-2, Joshua 1:8, PS 119:130 to buttress his points.
Okey summarised his paper by quoting 1 Peter: 1:25 “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you”.
In his paper “The Love of God And Love For God” taken from John gospel 3:16, 1 John 5:3/4:7-8, Pastor Eno Omini O. (ACA) attempted to define the various types of love”.
They include, “Agape, Philia, Storge and Eros” He said the highest among them all is the unconditional, immeasurable and incomparable love for mankind” as recorded in John 3:16.
It states John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.
He said “God loves us so much and He loves us unconditionally. His l weove for us is ever faithful and ever sure, hallelujah”.
“God admonished every believer to obey His words and His commandments as a sign of the expression of our love for Him. (John 14:15)”.
He cited Matt 22:37-38 as the first commandment while the second commandment can be found in Matt 22:39/22:40/Matt 22:36-39 respectively.
Other commandments are “Evangelism (Mk16:15), Holy Communion (Lk22:19-20) and the Ten Commandments in Deut 5:6-21”.
He however listed 12 benefits of loving God that are unquantifiable in PS 119:165, Neh 8:10, Roms 1513, 1Cor 8:3 and Deut 11:13-15 amongst others.
Omini said “let us learn to express our gratitude and love to God for the Supreme sacrifice of Christ Jesus by submitting to God’s will through total obedience to God’s words and commandments”.
Also speaking, the Father of the Ministry, Papa Abraham in his paper entitled “provoking divine intervention is the key to the miraculous”, gave the history of divine intervention by saying “Divine is God, every Divine intervention comes after Divine Encounter”.
Said he “when the word of God comes to you, it must be believed to bring its profiting alive. Read Hebs,4:2, Mk. 9:23, 11:23-25, 2Chr. 20:20”.
He talked about the fear of God, Obedience to God, faith and whole hearted obedience to God to further illustrate his teachings. God is a Spirit. They that encounter Him must do so in spirit because He is Spirit. The Bible says in Rev. 2:7.”He that has ear, let him hear, what the spirit says to the church”.
He referenced Isaiah 55:1, Num23:19, Luke 16:17, Isaiah 40:8 and Peter 1:25.
Papa Abraham concluded by urging Christians to believe what a prophet says in (Deu 18:18) “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him”.
Finally, Pastor Thomas Ubong, who spoke on the theme “Service and Reward of Service”, said “God gave everybody special gifts that can be referred to as “Talent”. This can be confirmed in Luke 19:13, 1st Chronicles 12:4-6″.
According to him, “the work in God’s vineyard must cost you time, energy,strenght, money and finance when you work for God or in his vineyard “.
He warned Christians against been self centered and must be ready to offer quality and good services to God at all times. Jeremiah 1:5, and Roms 8:29-30 says who you are before creation.
The benefits and rewards of service include, prosperity and financial blessings, good health, food security as recorded in Ps 92:13-14,Exd.22:25, and 23:25 as well as in 1st Cor.9:17″.
In his remarks, the General Overseer of the Outreach, Prophet Sunday Obi, who expressed his gratitude to God and the committee, prayed for God’s Divine intervention on the lives of ministers and workers and more especially to the guest speakers for a well researched spiritual papers.
He lauded the Chairman of the committee Father Abraham for working so hard to ensure the success of the first spiritual conference in the year 2021.
Obi thanked those who created time to attend the conference and hope that it had enriched their spiritual lives.
