ALEX OGUH 2024 JOURNAL TOWARDS GUIDING THE BRETHREN TOWARDS THE FUTURE

2024 JOURNAL – DAILY GUIDES TO THE BRETHREN FOR THE FUTURE

2024 JOURNAL – DAILY GUIDES TO THE BRETHREN FOR THE FUTURE

PREDESTINATION EXPLAINED – Day: 01.01.2024

Welcome to 2024. May the year be good for you in Jesus name. 

You may already have your plans for the year, 2024. I ask you to recheck your plans to see whether they are in line with where you are going in your salvation and your final shaping for God. I must remind you of God's plan for every person in Christ. It is to become like the son of Man. That's why I want us to look at Roman 8:29 together.

Romans 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Many people think that predestination or to be predestined is to be really tied to what you must become in life. This is not totally true, in the sense that you can opt not to become what God has in mind for you.

Predestination is like knowing where you are going to finally drop from a bus or a plane on your journey. You may drop many times but you get on the bus or plane again. People drop to eat, to ease themselves and buy things on their journeys in a public transport. The normal thing is to continue your journey after eating, visiting the toilet or buying what you wanted to buy.

Conversion into Christ brings you into a journey. Unlike the normal worldly way of movement, you do everything inside this divine bus. Christ is the way (Jn 14:6) means that He is the means of transport.

What Roman 8:29 is saying is that the moment you are born again you embark on this journey. Again you can see that this journey is not the matter of moving from one location to another. It is a transforming journey. You are becoming, you are transforming and you are changing until you look like the Son of God. That is the journey. The journey of changing from the human being that you were - in your in your will, in your words and in your actions to becoming like Jesus, the son of God.

I hope I can say it in the way you can understand it. Inside this bus there is no sin. You can know that you are not in the bus if you have habitual sins. That's what we hear from 1 Jn  3:8-9 

The one who practices sin [separating himself from God, and offending Him by acts of disobedience, indifference, or rebellion] is of the devil [and takes his inner character and moral values from him, not God]; for the devil has sinned and violated God’s law from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, because God’s seed [His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character] remains [permanently] in him [who is born again—who is reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose]; and he [who is born again] cannot habitually [live a life characterized by] sin, because he is born of God and longs to please Him. 1 John 3:8‮-‬9 AMP‬

ARE YOU IN THE BUS, IN CHRIST?

Here are five signs that you are in the Bus/Christ. I'm not giving them in any particular order.

DEEP CONVICTIONS OVER SINS

This is the first sign that you are in Christ. You keep having encounters that make you feel you need to confess and need to cry to God for help over your sins and your sinful habits. Have you ever cried over your sins? If not your condition has never been deep. It will affect your commitment to remaining in the bus.

LOVE FOR GOD'S WORD

Here is the paradox. It's the word of God that makes you know your sins and yet you cannot drop looking into the mirror of the word of God. True Christians have this contradiction in their lives. He or she is like the mad man or Gadara (Mt 8:28-30 & Mk 5:1-20) who was cutting himself with stones and was crying but never dropped the stones. We are all like that. We get addicted to the reading and to the hearing of the word of God. Like Christian in PRIGRIM’S PROGRESS, we cling to the book that troubles our natural life. The more we read and the more we hear the word of God, the more we discover the wrong things in our lives that need correction. All those in this bus have the habit of private personal bible study and reading or the word of God. Are you in the bus? Are you in Christ? You can use this acid text to know - your love for the word of God.

PRIVATE AND PERSONAL PRAYER LIFE

The third indicator that you are in the bus and that you are becoming like Jesus is your private prayer life. All the persons becoming more and more like Jesus pray in secret. I'm not talking about public praying. Even the Pharisees were doing that. Is your private prayer alive? Is it ever increasing? Then you are in the vehicle. Or is it erratic? Are you sometimes spiritual and sometimes very dull? That is a dangerous sign that you have not committed yourself to remaining in the vehicle that will make you to become like Jesus.

HOLY LIFE

All of the above points will make you a holy person. That's the way God makes his followers holy. Is it not written?

You shall consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep My statutes and do them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Leviticus 20:7‮-‬8 AMP‬

God makes us, believers, holy. He does this through a process. Follow Him and you will be holy - no exceptions.

Are you the type that has been going to Church and your sin has remained with you? Has the sin been on the increase? Then you are no longer in the bus. Perhaps, the food or delicacies of the people of this world have so attracted you and you jumped down to eat. 

Most men of God easily forget that no devil has power to carry you out of the bus. The devil has no such powers. Every man is only enticed out of the bus. The devil can show you what you like – delicacies on the way, women of foreign cultures, enticing wines and clothes. You are the only one who determines what happens to you in this race set before us (Heb. 12:1). Return to the bus if you are out.

Let this warning keep you inside the bus. The moment you drop, you return to your base, your starting point.

Ezekiel 18:24  But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

FAITH IN CHRIST FOR EVERYTHING

The final sign is growing faith in Christ and in Him alone. Many may be running up and down to make ends meet. Many may be troubled in their troubles, but you have this calm or that peace that pass all of that standing (Eph. 4:7).

Imagine what could make Peter to sleep so soundly when it was a night to his proposed execution. Why was the Lord able to sleep in the storm? How was it that the Lord kept speaking calmly all through the persecutions that ended in His death? We didn't hear that Daniel was struggling and shouting when they were carrying him to the den of lions. He must have looked calm - so calm that the King came there the following day to check on him. It was such calm that made it possible for Stephen at the point of death to kneel down and pray for his Killers.

The longer you remain in the bus, the more faith you develop. Faith is the assurance based on the word of God. It is different from believe. Believe is whatever you consider to be true. Faith is what you say or do that is based on what you believe.

Study this five indicators or signs of those who are inside Christ. Where are you lacking? Where do you need help? Why not make that your goal in 2024?

WHY YOU SHOULD SET GOALS TOWARDS BECOMING LIKE JESUS

We are at the end of time.

Persecutions of Christians are going to be on the increase.

Many international boundaries are going to be locked and fenced against Christ.

The nature of Ministry to these countries or nations are going to be different from what we have always known.

The web and technology are going to be important keys to use to help humanity.

Being in the bus or in Christ helps you to receive inspired directions on how to reach and to help men to take them out of hell.

Remember that the first reason God called you and the main reason is to have you to be with Him. Sending you to do anything for him is optional (Mk 3:13-14). This is what I feel is the first thing to tell you on entering 2024. Gird yourself to serve the Lord. Stay close to Him for more instructions. Read the Bible to become wise and to know about the kingdom you belong to.

Alex Oguh

+234 806 579 2749

alexoguh@gmail.com