Die to Live; Live to Die

“

I surrender all
I surrender all
All to Thee my blessed Saviour
I surrender all

”

But church people can lie sha? Mehn!

So you see Bro Micheal singing this song in church. Man is singing the song with raised hands and eyes closed. Brother Michael is even sprinkling some ‘skibanj shebang chennai mumbai’ tongues inside. Man is all sweating and all but when he opens his eyes and sees Bro John, you know the one that took the microphone from him that did not let him finish sharing his testimony one year ago, dimensions will change. Thing is ‘ordinary’ John that only started going to church 4 years ago had the temerity to cut short the testimony of an ‘important’ Christian like Bro Michael. A whole Brother Michael fa? He even called him Michael and did not but the ‘brah’ in front. The share guts of John.

Sighs.

The latter bit of 1 Cor 15:31 states very clearly “.. I die daily”. The ‘daily’ bit in the sentence brings it all together. It is not suddenly total neither is the process of surrendering immediately absolute. Yet, the ultimate goal is to be completely dead to self and take on all of God. Spirits don’t have bodies so have absolutely no need to have their bodies and souls serviced by food and pride respectively. While we have bodies, we have limitations unfortunately but seeking to be as close as possible to a position of forgoing all the trappings of the physical body is the aim. It will only be perfected in physical death or transfiguration of man but getting as close as possible to that state is the biggest single secret to walking with God (well, God or whatever other spirit you want to walk with).

The above song was obviously written by someone who must have got to the point of understanding the secret of giving everything over to God but the song is unfortunately sung by many people who have not. If telling a lie is bad, is singing a lie also as bad? That however is an aside.

Stepping out of yourself is hard. Awfully hard. At least initially it is. Keeping quiet when you have the answer is not the naturally human thing to do. Naturally speaking, no one was made that way. Yet I know it gets easier, hence the ‘daily’ bit. I have studied a bit and done a little bit of observation as well to know God disables before he enables. He breaks before he moulds. If every of man’s righteousness are like filthy rags, it could be safe to also assume all of man’s abilities that are outside God could also be seen by Him as inabilities. For instance, there is a level of ego that has been said that all great men possess. However, could it be safe to say that is a no no with God? If God is going to take it away like it does not exist, what is the point building up on it? Why not kuku die before He kills you? Why not humble yourself before He humbles or even in some cases humiliates you?

There could be men who would get away with having their way but there are some that will not. There are some that have been designed to only find succour in Him. If you are one of those, know that the only way to truly flourish in Him is to die to everything else and only have Him as your source. How much frustration will I have to face before I realize there must be an easier way? I insist man was created to fulfil a void within. In the popular Westlife song (yes, I am a big Westlife fan, sue me) ‘Flying without wings’, Shane Filan said “Everybody’s looking for that something.. that makes it all complete”. Not sure Shane should always be quoted as a reference while talking church stuff but that one line is apt. Very apt. The lie is to think the ‘something’ will fill the void. It WILL NOT. What fills the void is not something, it is SOMEONE. And I call that someone God. And yet, the only way to truly be happy in this walk with God is to take on as much of HIM as possible. Coming to God with credentials is more foolish than trying to impress a mermaid with how much water you have. And in reference to that analogy, if you think just because I am a Yoruba boy, I have good experience in trying to impress women/girls, I can neither deny nor confirm these allegations. **Silently pleads the blood of Jesus over my past life and does the sign of the cross**.  

The key to truly live in God is to die to everything else. The way to live is to die. And for every moment of living, dying should take place. We’ve go to die to live and live to die every day. The assignment: die to live and live to die.

PS.. Words like ‘sha’, ‘kuku’ and ‘fa’ are written by a Nigerian for the understanding of other Nigerians. Please speak to a Nigerian around you for further clarification. 😊