I have seen people, who quarrel and fight at the least provocation, but they will not exhibit that ‘anointing’ during the Church service. They believe that it is a wrong place to do that, but outside the Church, they can do anything, even making every place their warfront. When I was born-again, I was persecuted in my village because of my faith. One of our prominent leaders could not understand why his colleagues were doing that to me, being a Church member like them.

Ridiculing them, he said, “I do not attend the Church as they do because I don’t believe in it but why are they angry with Osondu, who goes to Church like them? Are they not the people who said that we should be going to Church and I told them I will not? He goes with them but insists on sincere worship of God. Why are they then troubling him? Church people – you are very funny! Is there anything I do that they don’t do? The only difference is that if we are to sacrifice to the gods at Iyinta on a Sunday, they will go to Church first, before joining us. They will hide their Bibles on top of the big tree at the stream.” He would laugh at their hypocrisy. Well, people respect the Church auditorium and will not do sacrifices there because it is God’s House. Church members, who are addicted to alcohol, do not drink there.

Thieves, whether they are professional or amateur, may be Church members and may be giving their offerings and paying their tithes, but they may not steal the money collected. The reason is that, though they are evil men, who break into banks and people’s homes, they respect the Church because it is the House of God. There are some men, who will molest sexually any beautiful lady they see. There are some ladies, who do the same when any handsome youth crosses their path. In the Church, nobody exhibits any of these evil tendencies.

The reason, once again, is because they respect the Church as God’s House. At home, most of the time, Uncle may be beating Aunty or it is Uncle being beaten by her. In the Church, you will be surprised to see them, holding hands and dancing, when singing some songs.

The Bible tells us that the believer’s body is the Temple of God. It means that our body is greater than any Church building. It is only the Spirit of God that can help us to understand this, how our small body can be greater than the magnificent buildings, where some of us worship. Imagine these mighty edifices, their architectural craftsmanship, lofty furnishing, large environment, et cetera! In spite of their grandeur, God, in His wisdom, has placed higher value on our body than on them. It will be unfair if we do otherwise.

If fornicators, adulterers, thieves and all types of evil men, refrain from committing atrocities inside the Church, God expects from us, therefore, greater honour to our bodies. He does not live inside the four walls of the Church building, but He lives inside us. It is a special privilege to me that the Almighty God has made my body His temple. I must be grateful to Him for this. It means that any place I go, He goes there with me. If I sneak out from my house at any time to visit a lady, God goes there also, with me, listening to our discussions and seeing what we do. It is my responsibility to drive this consciousness in every aspect of my life.

The Lord Jesus lives in the body of a child of God because He has the legal right to do so, having bought us with a price. “You are bought with a price,” the Bible tells us. My body belongs to Him but He allows me to use it. I borrowed it from Him to live. No wonder the Bible says that we will give an account of our body at the last day. People, even the most careless ones, are very careful, when they use the things they borrow from others. I must be very careful, therefore, in whatever thing I do with my body, whether someone sees me or not. “Aunty, please be careful how you dance, so that you don’t tear my mum’s cloth,” a youth told a lady dancing in excitement with the cloth she borrowed from the mum,”

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Satan has no right anymore to afflict my body with sickness. Knowing how stubborn he can be, it is my task to resist him, when he brings any sickness to me. Some people spread their hands to welcome certain sicknesses, claiming that they run in their family. “It happened to my grandfather, my father and now it has come to me,” they say. Some believers confess with their unbelieving relations that some sicknesses attack them annually. The Bible says in 2 Cor. 5:17, “If anybody is in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away and everything has become new.” As a new creature in Christ Jesus, we should no more be subject to the evil things that happen to our unbelieving friends or siblings. Our insistence is that the Lord Jesus lives inside us and as a result, our bodies are no more accessible to sicknesses. We may still be taking our drugs, unless the Lord objects.

The confidence of a Ghanaian magician in his magical acts in 1953, when I was in our primary school, surprised us. He was sold to an Indian goddess and he was proud of her and very confident that she would do all his bidding. Apart from some obvious gimmicks we noticed, she did! Children of God should have more confidence in God that lives inside us. Unlike the Indian goddess of Uncle Ghanaian, He is real. “Draw near to Me and I will draw to you,” He declares to us.

We should be bolder than that magician who would advertise his false goddess and we, the school pupils, and teachers, would go to our various villages to advertise him and we would still pay toro (three pence), the gate fee, to watch him.

May we go to our friends and indeed, the world, to advertise the Lord Jesus Who lives inside us. When we are in the bus or airplane, we should inform the person sitting by our side that Jesus lives inside us. Recall my narration in this column sometime ago, how in 1972, I visited my friend and he took me and a friend of ours to greet a lady teacher posted there newly. I was surprised that she turned out to be the lady I had rebuffed her sexual advances. She was excited to see me and insisted shamelessly that I must sleep in her house. How would I, with the Lord Jesus living inside me! I ignored her. We left.

If it requires carrying a placard to announce to ourselves and to the whole world that Jesus lives inside us, if He does really, let us be doing that. And if He lives inside us, may our lifestyle portray it and may the people around us see it. Satan, for sure, will run away once he sees ‘Dangerous Zone.’

For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi:  0802 3002-471; [email protected]