YOUR PLACE OR STAND IN GOD

1 SO THEN, SINCE CHRIST SUFFERED PHYSICAL PAIN, YOU MUST ARM YOURSELVES WITH THE SAME ATTITUDE HE HAD, AND BE READY TO SUFFER, TOO. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.
2 YOU WON'T SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIVES CHASING YOUR OWN DESIRES, BUT YOU WILL BE ANXIOUS TO DO THE WILL OF GOD."
1 Peter 4:1,2 (NLT)

• Whoever wants to walk with God should not do it because of material benefits.

• Your stand or uprightness in God is of paramount importance than any material benefit. Nothing can be compared to it!
• Your stand in God, your place in Him, or steadfastness in Him, could also be known as your relationship and communion with Him. And It cannot be bought with money.
  THUS, you should value it than any other thing in the world.
• What should be treasured or valued mostly is, your stand in God, or your uprightness, or your being LOYAL to Him.
• A believer who is Wise would not play with this, his or her upright standing in God. This is known also as having a communion or fellowshipping with God.
• It is the treasure of inestimable value! Your joy and fulfilment are found in it. Do not let it slip away from you, guard it jealously.

• Keeping your stand in God, your relationship, fellowship or communion, with Him.
I. Obedience is a major key in having a long lasting, enduring relationship and communion, with God.

• When a believer started disobeying God's Word, the instructions specifically given him or her; such has started breaking the chord of agreement that binds him or her with God.
• It is obedience that makes your stand in God, the Fellowshipping with Him, strong and intact!

II. Sacrifice. Willingness to deny yourself of whatever you had, in order to please Him, do His Will, or obey His instructions, and strengthened your stand in Him; is equally important.

• If you cannot make SACRIFICES, pay the necessary prices, you cannot have a strong stand with Him—a strong relationship and fellowship with Him.
• The self should be relegated in your life, If a quality communion or fellowship would be built or established with God!

III. Separation. Having time with God.

• Many find it difficult to take time out to stay with God and seek His face.
• If you did not have a quality time with God; to stay in His presence and seek His face, He may equally not have the time for you (2 Timothy 2:11,12).
• God delights in our fellowship; when you choose to forgo all other things, in order to camp with Him, and have communion or fellowship with Him (Luke 5:16).
• Whatever you are looking for could only be gotten in His presence: "YOU WILL SHOW ME THE PATH OF LIFE; IN YOUR PRESENCE IS FULLNESS OF JOY; AT Your right hand are PLEASURES FOREVERMORE" (Psalm 16:11 NKJV).
• Staying in His presence, having time with Him, could mean taking a number of hours, or days off, in a solitary place, seeking His face and fellowshipping with Him (Mark 1:35; Luke 4:42).

IV. Giving. Seed sowing.

• Your stand in God, that is, your fellowship or communion, is strengthened by your acts of Giving.
• Giving granted you an audience before God. If doors were shut against you, your ministry, career, or whatever; check your Giving.
• Giving is a means of deliverance! It attracts God's attention, and provokes His blessings over your life (1 Kings 3:3-5).

V. Fasting and prayer. To have a good stand-in-God, you would have to pay attention to fasting.
a. Fasting subdues the flesh and makes your spirit ascended or arisen.
b. Fasting is a strong weapon in the hands of Champions, And it is a way to seek and get God's attention (Nehemiah 1:4; Esther 4:16; Daniel 9:1-3; 2 Corinthians 11:27).

• If things are not working, endeavour to go to God with fasting to inquire. But do observe the fast in the acceptable Way (Isaiah 58:6-11; Matthew 6:16-18).
• There are different categories of fastings:
  a. There is a fasting you observe, which you have to break with meals in the evening (Acts 10:30; 14:23).
  b. There is another one that you abstain from food but you take fruit juice for little energy and strength; and that could be for a number of days (Daniel 10:2,3).
  c. There is one of total abstinence from food, but taking water only:
  "AND WHEN HE [Jesus] HAD FASTED FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS, AFTERWARDS He was hungry" (Matthew 4:2 NKJV).
  [We do not have the record that Jesus did not drink water during His forty days fasting.]
  d. Then total fasting of abstinence of food and drink. But it has to be with God's leading:
  "SO HE [Moses] WAS THERE WITH THE LORD FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS; HE NEITHER ATE BREAD NOR DRANK WATER. AND HE [God] wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS" (Exodus 34:28 NKJV).

• God demands for Sacrifices, Prices to be paid, for certain things, and for deeper intimacy with Him (Mark 9:29).

• If you wanted to be more deeper in God, you cannot do it without a consecration; reading, studying, and pondering on the Word of God, and prayers, added with fastings. Deep calls for the DEEP.
• Thus, dare to pay the price, that you may rise and be strong in God! Do what no one has done before, and get the results which no one has gotten before.
• The truth is, there is no cheap success in life and in God's Kingdom.
• What could make you get a strong backing of God is, the practicing of the Principles that are mentioned in this piece.
• A good stand or uprightness in God would earn you both spiritual and physical Blessings—the physical success and attainments you may have been craving for. Albeit, prices would be required to be paid.

• You will not fail in Jesus' name.

• Should there be any sickness in your body, I declare your healing now in Jesus' name.
• That growth in your body, making life uncomfortable for you, is cursed and uprooted in Jesus' name.
  Peace!