TFS BIBLE TRAINING PROGRAM VOL. 4 (JULY – SEPTEMBER 2013) Activities include reading and studying the Bible Teaching, praying on the Bible Teaching, answering questions on the Bible Teaching and Bible Reading. NOTE: You will need to send Reports Of Understanding "ROU" to us after studying this teaching and the Bible reading; Reports Of Understanding answers to the questions on the teaching, your personal understanding of the teaching and of the Bible reading. Please send this before next week Tuesday. This Bible Training Program is not just to seek more Bible or theological knowledge, but it is to develop a better relationship with God and be equipped for the work of God. Activity One: BIBLE TEACHING ON RESTITUTION Leviticus 6:4, “then it shall be, because he has sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore what he has stolen, or the thing which he has extorted, or what was delivered to him for safekeeping, or the lost thing which he found” One of the most important issues in Christian doctrines is restitution, it determines our eternity, and it determines our relationship with Jesus after we are saved. Restitution is so important after Salvation that it has to be done immediately one is genuinely saved. Salvation without restitution is half freedom and unconfirmed salvation. The center of restitution is confession to men as the Bible commands us to confess to one another, but in a larger and clearer sense, restitution is restoring things wrongly acquired in old life, returning wrongly taken or borrowed in the past; revealing lies, faked, falsified, fraudulent information and documents of past; reconciling with people we offended by apologizing and people who offended us by FORGIVING them; lastly it is also repaying debts we owed in the past which we refused to pay or forgot to pay. By reality, everybody is involved in at least one or two aspects of restitution. When you are truly saved and the Lord has forgiven and cleansed you from all your sins, the Spirit of God enters and immediately He begins to point to you what you need to amend and restitute. The First and Greatest Teacher of restitution after salvation is the HOLY SPIRIT, speaking to our mind, our conscience what to restore, reveal, and return and who to reconcile with. It’s spiritually natural after genuine salvation. If you are truly saved and nothing is ministered to your spirit to correct something of the past or confess some covered up secret to the necessary people it means there is need for second touch to see clearly or you are blocking the speaking of the Spirit into your heart. Everybody was born a sinner, grew in sin to a particular level before we become born again. Since nobody is sinless before salvation, everybody has one or two restitution to do. Sin is offending God and man, when we come to Jesus, confess our sins to Him and ask Him to forgive us, He does just that. After God has forgiven and cleansed, then we reconcile with fellow men. The most and first important thing is to settle and reconcile with God, because every sinner is fighting with God, but when we come to God through Jesus, repent from all our sins, confess them and accept Jesus into our lives, we reconcile with God and that made us to be children of God Almighty instead of His enemies. Paul said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” Acts 23:1. When we repent from our sins and confess them, we have good conscience before God, and that is the beginning of everything in our Christian lives. The salvation of our souls is the basic and foundation of Christian living, Christians without genuine salvation are religious Christians, not reckoned with God, and they are the majority in Christianity. After our genuine salvation that gives good conscience before God, we move on to having same conscience with men as a confirmation and evidence people will see. Apostle Paul furthered in Acts 24:16, “This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.” If truly we have a conscience without offense towards God, it will be also go towards men likewise. If God knows, men also will know. It is just like somebody saying “I love God” but he hates fellow men; how can he love God he doesn’t see and at the same time hates fellow men he sees? Bible says such love is false. The same is applicable with confession, when you confess to God you don’t see and find it hard to confess to fellow men you see, how genuine is that confession? If you are afraid of what people will say or do if you openup, it means you fear men than God. You were not afraid to confess to Almighty God, Awesome God, All knowing God, who can kill and make alive; if you are not afraid to confess to that fearful God, then why are you afraid to confess to fellow men? Here is what Jesus Christ says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28. The worst men can do to you after restitution is to kill your “temporal” body but only God has the power to destroy that body and soul, only Him you should fear. Fear brings snares; fear ensnares people, even after they are saved, not to claim their total freedom in Christ through restitution. Why will you be afraid to confess the sin to creatures after you have confessed and settled with the CREATOR? THE SNARES OF UNDONE RESTITUTION Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.” Refusing to do restitution is as a result of fear; fear of people and profit, you don’t know or see so that you will not lose their favour, and you are afraid of losing life’s profits – your position, possession, properties, popularity, prestige or papers. Yielding to such fear will hold people in perpetual snares of Satan after salvation. Here are some of the snares: Snares of Persistent Sin When restitution is not done immediately you are saved, you will keep telling lies to cover the past sins. For example, a wife who runs a secret bank account without the knowledge of the husband and after she is saved, she needs to open up to her husband and reveals; but if she doesn’t, she will need to keep telling lies to cover up. If you are using a false certificate or travel documents, after you are saved, you need to open up, if not you need enough lies to keep those papers. And that is how it is applicable in every area of life if you don’t open up, you will need to keep telling lies, because you need millions of lies to keep a lie, but you need a single to destroy several lies. But if you keep lying to keep the past sin, where is your freedom in Jesus? Snares of Profits of Sin The benefits of sin are bondage in disguise, and you might have gotten one or two before you were saved, and so after you are saved, the only means you can be free from those snares of the benefits of past sins is by restitution. You return or reveal those benefits. The papers you got by sinful means, the possessions you got in sinful manners and the properties, positions and prestige you gained by sinful way or in sinful life must by relinquished. If you, by mistake, keep those things it means you are still keeping yourself in the snares of Satan, because they belong to Satan, things got by sinful means belong to Satan. Snares of Poisoned Minds Before you were saved, you offended people and people offended you. Those you offended are holding it against you with their minds poisoned in the process; you are holding unforgiving poisoned mind against those who offended you, because what they did were terrible, right. After you are saved, you need to reconcile with people; you forgive from your heart those who offended you, and as much as possible you notify them. Likewise you strive as much as possible to apologize to those you wronged in the past. By so doing you release yourself from the snares of offense and unforgiveness. Snares of Unsettled Mind Undone restitution brings uncertain and unsettled mind. As a child of God, if you are delaying restitution, you will persistently have uncertainty about your eternity and unsettled mind ever AFTER you have confessed all to God. That shows restitution is important to God, even after confessing to God, your mind will still be unrest until you confess to some people. You don’t need to deceive yourself and harden your heart in the present of persistent unsettled mind. Snares of Satan’s Access and Accusation After salvation, if necessary restitutions are not done, Satan will be using that means to have access into such life and to accuse such person before God. That will bring attacks from the enemies, spiritual stagnations and unanswered prayers. And it can also bring premature death. Many problems and spiritual attacks can only be settled by restitution, not by fasting praying or deliverance. Snares of Missing Heaven If a child of God denies or delays restitution for any reason, and he or she dies in such situation, hell is their eternal abode, painful but period! Many children of God, ministers of God will miss rapture, not because they were not genuinely saved, not because they were not living righteous lives after salvation but because of undone, unsettled restitution as a result of fear of losing people or earthly profits. THE BLESSINGS OF RESTITUTION Judges 17:1-2. Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2 And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears—here is the silver with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my son! There are many blessings that follow after restitution is done, here are few of them: Peace with Men In our past old life, we wronged God and men, when we are saved, we make peace with God and so we must complete the process of peace by making peace with people. People we fought, we offended, harmed before we were saved must be contacted and apologized to. People we had rancor, malice and animosity with must be settled with, even if we think they wronged us, even if we have decided not to greet them again, yet we must make peace with them for the sake of peace and to remove the bitterness, malice and others so that we don’t give room to the devil in our new lives in Christ. “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men” Romans 12:18 People you are living with, working with, schooling with; family members, friends and neighbors, every one we had issues with, as much as we can, we should settle peacefully with them. When we make peace with all men, both right and wrong, it confirms our peace with God, it gives us peace and it’s the only way to see God, to enter heaven. “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” Hebrews 12:14. When we settle with people peacefully, it shows we are truly children of God the King of Peace; Jesus the Prince of Peace and we, the children of peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9. It Settles Old Accounts Restitution is to settle our old accounts and close them. If you are saved and you have not made some past wrongs right by restitution, it simply means you keep your old account open which may stand against you here on earth and eventually disallow you to enter heaven. Undone restitution has the capacity to block God’s blessing in your life here on earth and block you from entering Heaven. The old records which stand against you can only be settled and closed by restitution. “Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” Colossians 2:14. It confirms your new life in Jesus Christ In different online and phone transaction, after you have sent your desired transaction, you will be asked to confirm your transaction. If you fail to “just” confirm, thinking since you have filled all the forms, supplied all the needed information and it has been sent and accepted, you feel confirming again is of no use, your transaction will be invalid and will not be processed. The same is in reality with restitution. After you have repented and confessed your sin to God and He has forgiven, cleansed and accepted you, you need to respond back to confirm your salvation by restitution. Think about it, if I were your neighbor and I stole your stuffs in past and using them. You knew and just kept quiet, then later I got saved and come to preach to you and still using what I stole from you, how will you feel? It turns curses to blessings Many curses in life are caused by wrong things that was done in past, and many problems facing children of God after they have been saved are not because the enemies are powerful over their lives in Christ but because they allow the old curses to have access to their new lives because of ignoring necessary restitutions they need to do. Undone restitution allows the unsettled wrong of your past to haunt your present life even though you are now a child of God. You give access to Satan, enemies, generational curses and many attacks when you refuse to do needed restitution. This can also block the free flow of God’s blessing, progress and God’s promises for your life. Undone restitution gives Satan to accuse you and oppose you in the present of God. Most of the problems making us to do fasting, special prayers, deliverances and attend several programs and the problems remain the same; those problems can be solved if we do simple acts of apologizing, forgiving or any necessary restitutions as the case may be, and that will end the mountainous problems, and that begins the progress and prosperity in your life, marriage and ministry. “And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears—here is the silver with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my son!” Judges 17:2 It Gives Blessed Assurance When restitution is settled, you have peace, you have more confidence in the Lord and you have assurance of heaven. Satan will not have anything holding against you and you have that strong boldness in your prayer. Here is what the Word of God says, “And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” 1 John 3:19-22. WRONG NOTIONS ABOUT RESTITUTION So many Christians and pastors, especially these modern day pastors and lost ministers, do not have the biblical understanding of God’s command about restitution, they see it as unnecessary and they teach just that. They say when you are saved, God forgives your sins and that settle all without restitution. What that mean is that you can keep using what you stole before you were saved, you can keep covering the evil you did before you were saved, but the truth is that Christians who believe such will not want people to do so to them. They will not want their husband who left them with children for strange women to continue staying with the strange women after the husbands are saved; they will want the husbands to return. Pastors who say restitution is of no use will not want their wives to continue keeping secrets from them even after their wives are saved. Christians who disagree with restitution will not want the thieves who stole their only cars or life’s precious belongings to keep them after the thieves are saved; they will definitely want the thieves to return them, they might even be praying that God should touch their hearts If a dubious person ganged against you and used his influence to claim your developing housing property which you have spent all your hard earned money to build, after the dubious person is saved, wouldn’t you expect him to come to you, at least to apologize? Restitution is infallible truth of Christianity that cannot be biblically or humanly denied, it is soul depravity and self-deception that make “so called” preachers to ignore or deny restitution after salvation. If you go to such people for counsel, they will counsel you wrongly and cancel your life. Such preachers can tell you to just forget about it since God has forgiven you, they may tell you to fast and forget about it, they may tell you to give special offerings, sow into their ministries and God will pardon you. But the truth is that there is no substitution for restitution expects to restitute. You can contact us at RTEM for godly counsel on restitution or any genuine and godly preachers you may know that have biblical understanding about restitution. If you attend any of these prosperity, modern churches, be sure they will not give you needed encouragement. Restitution is biblical command to the saved children of God, it’s not an option. HOW TO DO RESTITUTION Restitution is urgently important but then all restitutions, either simple or serious, must be done the following manners: (i) Prayerfully - Pray for God’s guidance, grace, favor and then take a move. You can also share with godly people to pray along with you. (i) With Godly counsel. You need godly, unbiased counsel for restitution from godly ministers who have biblical understanding about restitution. (ii) With Humility - Know that when you are restituting – maybe returning something, revealing something, restoring something, etc, you are actually doing yourself, your soul, your life a favor not the person you are doing the restitution to. So you must do it with a humble spirit no matter your position or the level of the person, not arrogantly. (iii) Now - Restitution must be done “now” without delay because you may not have “later”. Satan will always suggest that you postpone, delay or even defy the restitution so that he can destroy you forever. As previously said that undone restitution can hinder you from making the Rapture, causing untimely death, hinder you from entering heaven; as well hinder your prayer and blessing. Restitution is more important than your service to God, than your offerings, your prayers, fasting or your business and work. It determines your better life and eternity. In doing restitution, you may suffer loss, shame, even death but it worth more than that. Don’t allow Satan or anyone to scare you, God is right with you and He will definitely see you through to the end. Look ahead at the joy, blessing and glorious eternal rewards, look at Jesus! Don’t look at the present, temporal pain but at the eternal, permanent gain! “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:28-33 PRAYER: Minimum of 10 Minutes prayer, at least, on the Bible teaching AS THE Spirit of God leads you. If you have general question on this study, you can send to us on facebook or on our email depending on the means by which you got the teaching, but every personal question must be sent to our personal inbox either on facebook page or to our email or you call us on phone (+234) (0)80 392 49751, (0)705 937 3351, (0)802 578 7942. Activity Two: PRAYER PRAYER POINTS LORD, open my eyes to see where I need to make restitution LORD JESUS CHRIST, please empower me by Your grace and strength to settle every necessary restitution. NIGHT PRAYER: Every participant must create time between today and next week Tuesday to wake up at night and spend at least 30 mins for only Praise and Worship. You can sing hymns if you have, or sing and praise God generally. You should thank God for your salvation; you thank God for what He has done and what He is doing in your Christian life, life generally, in your family and ministry. Activity Three: QUESTION AND ANSWER 1, From this teaching, what is your understanding about Restitution? 2, Can you state some of the blessings of Restitution? 3, Mention one Bible passage in the Bible where restitution is found. Activity Four: BIBLE READING – PHILIPPIANS CHAPTERS 1 & 2 Please include what you understand in the Bible reading with your understanding in the Bible Teaching and answers to the questions in your ROU. We look forward to receiving your ROU as soon as possible. If you have any question, please forward it to rtemonlinebiblecourse@gmail or send it to us on facebook in box; like the facebook page of the program and send message to the inbox of the page, /onlinebibletrainingprogram If you are just joining the program, and you want to be receiving the Bible Teachings on email, send your name, phone number and location to rtemonlinebiblecourse@gmail Be blessed in Christ TFS Bible Training Program
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 08:30:38 +0000
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