sealed by god

There are some scriptures you read and you have that aha moment, a deep sense of revelation and God’s Word getting into your heart. Am currently doing the book of Corinthians, just finished the first part of it and onto 2^nd part of the Epistle. Paul is such an amazing writer, every time you read what he’s written, relating and connecting to the Word is just effortless. Reading about the trouble and persecution that he went through, being imprisoned all because of speaking about God, really humbles me because it’s because of him and many other servants of God, that we are getting to read history and have an opportunity to know God’s Word and apply it into our lives after all God’s Word is alive and active. It has the power to transform our lives today, just the same way it did to the early churches, the disciples, the gentiles and everyone else. 

So am reading 2^nd Corinthians (NIV) chapter one and verses 21-22 come alive like literally. “Now it is God who makes both of us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

As a Christian, we go through all sorts of hardships and trials and there have being times we’ve thought of giving up, like why should I keep struggling while I can just have the easy way out? Enjoy life without caring about what I do, after all you only live once right? I personally think that this phase YOLO has made people do crazy things all in the name of having freedom and enjoying life to the fullest, only for them to regret their actions later on. Don’t get me wrong, am not saying that we shouldn’t enjoy life, no! however, we need to enjoy life responsibly and make the right decisions, because every decision that we make today, will determine what our life will be tomorrow. Paul reminds us that it is God Himself who makes us to stand firm in Christ, just pause for a moment and allow that to marinate and sink in. Think about the times you wanted to give in, the times you thought you were not strong enough, not worthy enough… But you did pull through, you endured till the very end and that was because of God Himself was giving you strength to stand firm in Christ. The next time the enemy brings thoughts of giving up, remind yourself that God will give you the ability to stand firm like a solid rock, cemented in Christ Jesus. 

“He anointed us.” There was a time I used to think that only certain people were anointed by God, and the rest of us were just Christians who were saved yes and followed Christ, but were not anointed as the rest. Reading this just woke me up from my sleep and slumber. We have being anointed by God, I feel like I could speak in tongues (if only I could type it out) to explain the excitement that I have. Whenever I read the word anointed, the image that comes to mind is how the prophets of the Bible used to anoint the king or someone that was chosen by God. They would carry a jar of oil and it would be poured onto the chosen leader on their head. 1^st Samuel 16:12-13… Then the Lord said, ‘Rise and anoint him; this is the one.’ So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him (David) in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Picture the same image and see yourself being anointed by God, just thinking of this image in my mind sends shivers down my spine, we are special in God’s eyes. Peter reminds us of who we are in 2^nd Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” You are chosen by God, so stop short changing yourself, you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation and God’s special possession, and to add onto that, you have being anointed by God. Therefore you need to go through life with confidence that The King of Kings has got you 👍👌. 

The part that I love about this verse is “Set His seal of ownership on us & put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit.” Let’s start with the first one, God has set His seal of ownership on us, on you. We all own a mobile phone, have things that are valuable to us and should they get lost, we have the right to report to the police and the person who’s stolen will get arrested, locked up or get a punishment. Reading this gets me so excited to know that we have the seal of ownership of God, a mark on your life and on your body to show and tell the enemy to keep off! She’s mine/He’s mine. What we see in the physical realm is just a tip of what happens in the spiritual realm. In the spiritual realm, you have being sealed by God and every time the enemy looks at you, He sees the mark of God and it pisses him off. That is why he has set targets on all God’s children to frustrate them until they give up. However, we have hope and that hope is in Christ, that no matter what life brings at you, you have the seal of ownership of God Himself. You have being trademarked for special purposes. When something has being trademarked, it has being legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product, and no one can use a trademarked company, logo and if you do, you get into trouble and sued!  Now picture the same scenario as a child of God. You have being Trademarked by God, if the devil tries to touch you, God deals with Him personally. This should excite us and make us not fear because we are on the winning side!

Finally we have being given The Spirit of God. The Spirit of the Living God, He who sits on The Throne has given you His own Spirit. Before Jesus left this earth, He promised us a gift and that was The Holy Spirit. The disciples were all in one place when they heard the sound of a rushing mighty wind and then The Holy Spirit descended upon each one of them and tongues of fire rested on their heads and they began to speak in new languages as The Spirit gave them utterance. The same Spirit that was on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, is the same Spirit that has being poured and given unto us, you have God’s Spirit in your heart. This should give us courage and boldness to go through life knowing that God is living in us and will be with us everywhere we go. 

God’s promises are Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus. God isn’t a wishy woshy kind of God. He doesn’t say yes today and give you a no tomorrow. What He says yes to, stands! The doors that He opens stay opened and those that He closes stay closed. That’s how powerful God is. May this message bring you hope that no matter what you go through…

You are anointed by Himself. You have God’s seal of ownership. You have God’s Spirit in your heart.

Blessings!!