CHAPTER ONE

The Principle of a True Church

Christ is both the content and the reality of the church. The church’s reality
is simply Christ realized by many individual Christians in a corporate way.
When most people hear the word church, they probably think of a building
where believers gather. But biblically speaking, a church is much more than
a building.

In order to understand what a church is we must traced back to Gods

original intents for creating man this would enable us to understand the
scope behind the church and see exactly how we have lost our way as
believers. Because checking the present works of men how we go about the
things of the spirit, all we do are mare ideas that bore out of men’s religion.
If we must accept this we have lost the road map of the divine instruction
which should have constituted our ways of doing things.

What is a true church? The church is that which is taken from Christ it
is bore out of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus had to die and by His
resurrection to life the church finds expression. Do you remember peters
confession? Jesus replied flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but
my father in Heaven on this rock would I build my church and the gate of
hell will not prevail this is the true foundation of the Church.

What did Jesus meant by the gate of hell will not prevail? Devil attempted
this on the life of the first man Adam and Eve but he succeeded. We need to
see the two sides of Adam. Adam is himself; on the other hand, he is a type
of Christ. Not only was Adam created, but Eve also was included in him.
"God created man in his own image. This "man" is singular and typifies
Christ. "In the image of God created He them. “Them" is plural and typifies
Christ and the church. God not only wants to have an only begotten Son, He
also wants many sons. The many sons must be just like the one Son.
From the above statement, we see that if the church is not in a state which
corresponds with Christ, God will not rest and His work will not be
completed. We know that not only is Adam created in the image of God, so
also is Eve. Not only does Christ have the life of God, the church also has
God’s life. God’s purpose is not only accomplished by Christ but is also
accomplished by the church. The Lord God said, "It is not good that the
man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him." God's purpose
in creating the church is that she may be the help meet of Christ. Christ
alone is only half; there must be another half, which is the church. God
said, "It is not good that the man should be alone." This means that in
God's sight Christ alone is not good enough to do that which he intended to
do on earth.

Below are the principles that distinguished the true church and is lacking in
the life of many who claims to be for God. This is not an attempt to make us
feel bad but that we return humbly to God for restoration.
The principle of the revelation of Christ

The normal Christian life must begin with a very definite `knowing', which
is not just knowing something about the truth nor understanding some
important doctrine. It is not intellectual knowledge at all, but an opening of
the eyes of the heart to see what we have in Christ. Paul speaking in
Philippian that I may know him and the power of His resurrection. The first
principle is the knowledge of Christ. This type of knowledge is not a mental
based knowledge. It must be by revelation.

To sum up all things in Christ”. Is the mystery of God's will how very urgent
it is for believers to know the reality of Christ as being our all and in all as
the body of Christ which is the only gift that God has given to us

The early life of Jesus as a man and also being the second Adam through
which God intended to have what the first Adam failed to have
Through the first Adam man became a living being this is below the
intention of God for mankind. Through the second Adam we entered into
the very life of God which gives us the ability to know God He could not
enter into man. There was the need for incarnation to bring God into the
human essence.

There was the need for the crucifixion to terminate the old, fallen creation.
There had to be redemption to bring back God’s chosen people. This reality
is what every true church would have.

There had to be propitiation to appease the problem between God and

man. There was the need of resurrection to bring the redeemed creation
into the divine situation. All this has now been accomplished. The Word
became flesh this is the incarnation. As flesh He was the Lamb of God to
accomplish redemption for us and to remove our sins. Then in resurrection,
as the last Adam, He became a life-giving Spirit as the Spirit He imparts
Himself into us as life.

The reality of Christ is imparted to us by the spirit of God. It is the work of

the Holy Spirit to bring us into all truth. Hence there is a necessity to
cooperate with the Holy Spirit no other foundation is established.

Do you remember an incident that happened when Paul passed through

Athens he saw an altar with this inscription: “To An Unknown God” though
it was an altar of worship but it was erected unto an unknown God? This is
the same with many people we claim to go to church without the actual
knowledge of the God will serve. This is a call unto repentance that the
glory of God will not rest on us where we failed to acknowledge the reality
of the finished work of God through Christ jesus.
 The principle of the knowledge and submission to Gods will

The second principle that distinguish a living church from a lost church is
the ability to acknowledge the will and submit to it. The greatest demand
God has on man or His church is not to the cross, consecration, or self-
sacrifice. God’s greatest demand on man is submission to the will of God no
matter what any man may encounter in his work with God the only thing a
man must seek to know is what the mind of God His in every situation.

Is one thing to know the will of God is another thing to obey this is the basic
principle? and if the principle of rebellion is present, even a sacrifice is an
enjoyment and a glory to Satan.

When Adam and eve took the fruit, the first question that should have been
asked was whether or not this was in submission to God. All of the work of
a Christian should come out of submission. Nothing is of our own initiative;
everything is responsive. No act is active; everything is passive. In other
words, everything should be initiated by God; nothing should be initiated
by us. Eve only thought of the fruit being good for food. She did not know
to whom she should submit in eating. From the very beginning, God
wanted man to submit rather than to propose his own ideas. Eve’s act,
however, originated from her own

The fall of man has revealed how the church can easily fall out of the divine
order. This is the most important aspect in the services to God. If all of our
services doesn’t originate from the mind of God such service would not
satisfy God. The intention of God is that man will function by the Spirit of
God but this is contrary to most of the vessel in the vineyard of God. How
has it affected us? Many of the ideals we have as church originates from the
wisdom of men. It could be through lack of patience or other way but the
condition of the present day churches show we have lost directions
When we traced back the story of Eve rebellion against God. Notice Satan
did not persuade eve to sin what Satan did was too reasoned with her and
stirred her up to think. It was eve that looked up and saw that the fruit was
pleasing to the eyes and also good for food that was how it can be easy to
lose our purpose of being a true church. Just by given Eve a suggestion the
first person that typifies the Church fell. The fall of man can be categories
into 3 the lust of the flesh, the. These are the three ways by which the devil
has brought many people down.

The story of Soul gives a perfect interpretation to this God commanded Saul
to smite the Amalekites and utterly destroy all that they had. But after Saul
overcame the Amalekites, he spared Agag the king of Amalekite. He also
appreciated the best sheep, the best oxen, and all that was good and refused
to destroy them, hoping instead to offer them as sacrifices to go. But
Samuel said to him, “To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed, than the
fat of rams.

Saul could offer up sheep and oxen, but God would not recognize that as a
sacrifice because the principle of Satan was present. The extent at which we
have fallen as a church is dependent on how far we have gone out of the
knowledge of His will.

We can learn from the example of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord’s will and the Father’s will were not one will; they were two wills.
When we read the words, "Not as I will, but as you will we realize that the
Lord Jesus’ will and the Father’s will were two different things. There is
clearly a distinction between "My own will" and "the will of Him who sent
me Although the Lord Jesus’ desire and the Father’s desire were two
different wills that issued from two different channels, we see that our dear
Lord’s will and the Father’s will never contradicted each other.

Although the Lord Jesus had His own will, He dropped His own will to do
the Father’s will. He placed His will on God’s side. He subjected His
preferred will to the Father’s will. He did not do God’s will in a passive way.
Rather, He voluntarily laid down His own will to do the Father’s will.
 He chose to "not want" His self-will and to "want" the Father’s will. His
only will was to do the Father’s will. Originally, His will was different from
the Father’s will. Yet He resolved to do the Father’s will with a will that was
different from the Father’s will. Thus, His own will was to do the Father’s
will. This is why the Father was pleased with Him all His life.

Our own experience indicates that our self-will keeps us from

understanding God’s will. Sometimes, our self-will is hidden in the
innermost part of our heart. If we do not remove our own will, we will
encounter many difficulties in understanding His will.

The principle of consecration

Another principle that differentiate a true church is the principle of

consecration and brokenness. Throughout the scripture, every member or
congregation that God intended to use must embrace the dealings of God
and our wiliness to the dealings of God lies our consecration

It is through dealings by consecrating to God that we know God it is

through His dealings that the glory of God find expression

What is consecration? Consecration is merely an expression of our

willingness to be in the hands of God, when God deals with a man it can
FINISH His dealings with us in this short time and it can extend for a while
any how it may be, we must be willing to offer our lives completely to God,.

After consecration, there must be the discipline of the Holy Spirit—this is

the pathway. It takes consecration plus the discipline of the Holy Spirit to
make us vessels fit for the Master's use.

consecration is an inevitable aspect of the Christian life if we intend to be

useful to heaven and when we see Abraham’s journey after that he had
accepted the call of god the first thing that he did was that he had to raise
an altar and to offer his sacrifice if you see the circumstances around that
altar you’re going to see that the first
Thing that Abraham did when he accepted the call to respond to the voice
of god was that he built an altar of consecration if the father of faith had to
operate that way then all his descendants because we are all recipients
carriers of the dna of Abraham and so there's an expression of Abraham in
your life the pattern that god has used his faith to establish becomes an
insight into the journey of every believer.

The testimony of the life of a true Church it is such people that have
acknowledged recognized the authority of the Christ so much so that they
have submitted to service will that are part of his end time army those are
the people he calls his battle-axe see so we must understand that the fact
that someone is born again doesn't mean he's profitable to god doesn't
mean his life is adding anything to the agenda of god only consecrated men
can bring about a change.

.Consecration is a declaration of the fact that i'm now separated to serve the
will of god and it's going to have consequences on your Choices it's going to
have consequences on the kind of friends that you can keep. it's going to
have consequences on the kind of movies you can watch it's going to have
consequences on every aspect of your life life for you is going to be different
from what life is for the other guy walking on the street because you need to
become a setting kind of man for your life to be that altar that god wants
The principle of Love

Every true engagement has it source from our love Life towards God. One
of the thing that has distinguished the true church from the lost church is
the depth of Love towards God.

The passion of knowing the depth of God is by the reality that was
furnished by experiencing the Christ own love life. Do u love Him above all
things, do u love him above anointing and above your salaries above your
spouse? When it comes to prayer we may pray but when our prayer life
doesn't originated from Christ love life it amount to nothing many works in
The kingdom that doesn't originate from Christ own love life those works
originates from self-ambition something we want to do in the name of God
because of the benefit we would get from it. This is not the kind of life God
demands from us but a life lived to gloried the name of God

Peter one the disciples of Jesus Christ walked with him for several years he
saw how Jesus performed miracles and wonders , he saw how Jesus raised
his mother from the sick bed. Peter did not know when Jesus spoke to His
disciples in vs 31 "Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended
because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the
sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.""But after I am risen again, I
will go before you into Galilee."

but peter ingloranttly said to Jesus vs 33

"Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended
because of thee, yet will I never be offended.", peter was trying to show
Jesus that he loved Jesus above all men little did he knw that words are
not enough to reveal our love for God but our attitude in the face of trial .
but Jesus declared to him that peter before the cock crows u wil deny me
three time but he disagree with Jesus again in Matthew 26:35

"Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny
thee. Likewise also said all the disciples." Let notice this statement was like
the one job made in Job 13v 15 thou he slay me yet wil I trust Him

But the difference was that Job made this statement in the mist of His trial
but the disciples made there statement prior to the trails we saw how Peter
denied Jesus three times someone that said he would die with Jesus denied
Him in the face of death is this not the picture of your life what is your
attitude in the face of ur trials what is your attitud whenever we pray and
heaven seems close what. I wacthed many Christian react in the face of
goodness but when trials comes they never behave as Christian. It s time
we return to our first love, it is time we let the Holy spirit work on us
because this kind of Christianity we practice are mostly directed by feelings
which can not witstans the test of time.
Loveth thou me more than this things

Some days after the resurrection of Jesus in the book of john 15:23 the bible
says When they had finished eating, Jesus said toSimon Peter, "Simon son
of John, do you love memore than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know
that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs.. Jesus asked peter loveth thou
me more than this things, Peter had learnt a great lessons in his first fall he
could not boast in himself He said to Jesus u knw that I love u and the
bible says Jesus said feed my sheep . I

Paul

It is evident in the book of act after Paul's encounter with Jesus. That he
and the other descipe faced a great trail of of there faith. Paul wrote in Phip
3:10That I may know Him, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his suffering. A careful reading we make us to see the progression that
Paul analysis 1 to know Him 2 His power & fellowship in suffering .Paul
made it clear that knowing God doesn't stop at just a revelation of Him and
His power but also in fellowship in His suffering.. How many Christian are
ready to suffer for the name of Christ.. It saddens my heart that the kind of
Christianity we embrace van not stand the test of time because we are not
a bearer if the cross . how can a man bears the cross when his life has not
been grounded in the reality of the love of God

In Romans 8:35-39 King James Version (KJV) Paul said 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 thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted
as sheep for the

slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more thanconquerors through him
that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, norangels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.this is the mind of God