The duration of any product regardless of how shining it was or is at a point of sale is dependent on whether the product is the original or the fake/imitation of the version of the product you have bought or you're willing to buy.

Sometimes, it amazes me how men and women are not careful enough to hear GOD about a central truth about the life that the children of men live by default. Maybe if we were to be careful enough, we should have realized that the life we live on the earth just like the products we buy and sell has both original copies and fake copies.

This is not what is sweet to hear but it is the truth, it is either the life you live daily, pursue daily, or am willing to die for, is original or it is the fake version.

Let's see this conversation that took place between the Trinity on the day that man fell in the garden of Eden. And I don't want either you or me to become too emotional about this truth, rather we should do the needful to have our lives realign to the original order to forsake the one that fades.

One outstanding thing about what is fake is that it doesn't last, sometimes, after buying it from the market, it is at the point that you thought you should start enjoying it that you suddenly discover that, the colour is either fading out, or peeling, or sticking, losing its freshness. Somehow, you know this is not what you bought or wanted from the market. At that point, you don't need anyone to tell you that you have bought an inferior product.

I remember when we were growing up in my village, there was a song we often sang back then anytime we go out for way-keep, "to keep our brethren that lost their love ones’ company". This song is so real and touching. It is not a song people sing on ordinary days, except during funeral services or in a way-keep. But I know we make such choices because we don't want to accept that the life, we now live is fake, and it is just but a passing shadow: here today, gone tomorrow. Look for it in the blink of an eye, you might not see it again.

The song says, "Oh death where is your sting (2x), Oh death, you that will not allow a man to enjoy himself, where is your sting, oh death, you that will not allow children to enjoy their fathers, where is your sting, oh death, you that will not allow husbands to enjoy their wives, that will not allow parents to enjoy their children; your sting is vanity".

This is the reality of the fake version of life, unfortunately, this is what many live and die for daily. This is what many kill one another for daily, this is what many will not give rest to their eyes for daily, do you also know that many people thought they could keep this fake life for tomorrow as if it is in their power to add a second to the time it has to last?

 

It takes only the original to abide forever, it takes the original not to fear that maybe when tomorrow comes, I might not be here again. Jesus told Martha, "Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26, NKJV.)

You could be tempted to say that if death is proof that a particular life is fake, why did Jesus have to die?

Of course, the death of Jesus is a topical proof of both the original and the fake, that the fake must die and see corruption, but the original does not see corruption. The original is life eternal, it does not die, but the fake is earthly, the Lord GOD said, "You are dust, and to the dust, you shall return". This is like a consequence, a punishment for the rebellion of man against the eternal GOD.

Hence, Jesus needed to die in our place instead, so we can have access to the original having lost the original due to rebellion in our first copy; Adam. The death of Jesus is a sacrifice offered up to the Father, our God; Merciful and Gracious, so He can pardon us in the Son of His beloved, and restore the original to us so that you and I can willing in Christ Jesus pick up our original identity to live for, or be spent for.

Praise the Lord!

Let's return to our conversation about how the original was lost and the fake version came as the default setting of everyone that is born by the will of man and blood. No man can deny this default setting. We all got it from birth, but Jesus Christ is our resetting or reconfiguration to the original identity according to Genesis chapter 1 verse 26. The default setting from birth is a fake version of life that everyone that has not come to Jesus Christ for a reset is living, and such has no hope of eternal life, getting the promise of rest as it has been covenanted to the original identity of the man in God. The fake is due to rebellion and there no is rest for the fake in God but it is only due for eternal punishment hereafter.

In Genesis chapter 3 verses 22 to 24, see what the Bible says:

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So, He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24, NKJV.)

This is the darkest of days on the earth, there has never been any day like unto it, and the only day that could ever be like it again is the day that man shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ Jesus to be judged according to what he or she has done while alive, in the default setting, those who have gone for a reset, as if there came to the consciousness that the product they came with is the fake (like when a man bought a fake product from the market and went for an exchange).

That was how man lost his original identity to rebellion or the man of sin — the devil. There is an original life man was created with, he became dead to that original life the moment he sinned; he lost the life he got after the likeness and image of GOD, the nature he got from GOD originally, sin robbed him of it. He became another being by nature, form, lifestyle, and state. He lost purity, became filthy, unfit for spiritual union and functioned according to the order of GOD. He became a product of time, subject to lifespan, but in the beginning, it was not so.

Man has perpetual life from creation, he has access to the tree of life that can make him live endless life, but he missed everything and became subject to decay, and vanity.

The Bible says, "And GOD drove him out of His inheritance to go and source survival for himself." Man, that was lord over everything become subject to everything, everything lost their regards for man. Even animals became threats to him. To be fake is truly terrible. It is so funny that, while in that state, what was ordained originally to fear you become things you dread. Fear is associated with the fake because it is without a cover and no protection. The day man was driven out of the garden by GOD, he left without any protection. Man didn't leave with anything, apart from what is within him, talents, some gifting, but unrefined. If they must become useful, they must be developed or remain dormant to a very large degree. Many people don't even get to know about their gifting till death, they fade away, because the gifts are spiritual, and they are deposited deep down in his spirit. And funny enough his access to his spirit is too fainted that he can't find them on the surface to pick, but the moment when a man attains regeneration, resetting back into the image and likeness of Him that created him; he is changed; his spirit comes alive, and he will be able to access all the potentials in him by the help of the Holy Spirit.

This is the story of man. This is the reality of the life we live, and the life we are failing to live, or missing or are shortchanging ourselves when we take to the fake that shall take nothing out of all his labour on the face of the earth at departure, and we refused to desire the original identity we have in GOD.

What are you spending on or for, what is it you pursue daily, is it the original or the fake version of life? The choice is ours to make. We could say we are comfortable with the fake, the default setting we got at birth and don't want the original we lost before our conception in Adam, and fail to genuinely pick our original identity in Christ, but this is it, for every choice we make, God will bring everything into judgment, to judge both the weak and the great.

I pray you will not be comfortable with the fake version of man or woman, to live a life that you won't be able to take a pin out of life because everything fades away from your hold at the point you are done on the earth. The fake will prove it is fake when death comes to take us away.

For a clearer understanding, it is good if we differentiate between the fake life and the original life, we live from the perspective of how we live them on practical terms.

The fake like is lived based on the 5 human senses. It is lived based on the morals and norms that are picked upon by society and the environment we find ourselves in, whether at the workplace, market, home, religious arena, school, or the like. It is the life we live in the FLESH. And the verdict or conclusion of God about this low order of life is that "those who are in the FLESH can't please God",

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷ Because the ^]carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:6-8.)

It is not as if there is nothing man can do in the FLESH; there are so many, both good and evil, charity and evil works, that man could carry out in the FLESH, this fake-passing-shadow-life-like nature, but it is unfriendly with GOD, and does not have God as a focus nor as an end, nor future. It is ending life. It has no rest from birth to eternity. The Glory of this life is like the Glory of grass. It fades and is passing away like a shadow. Everything it does is sourced in self and the world system, and the Glory of it belongs to the devil the father of rebellion.

While the original life is the life that is lived according to GOD. It is the life that man was fashioned at the beginning. The man lived it in Genesis chapter 2 and it was glorious. And when we see the life in Christ Jesus, it is also glorious and admirable. It is the life of the Spirit. It is the life that is God-centred, Spirit-led, and purpose focus. It is Kingdom life among men. It is the very life of GOD. It is the life of dominion and power. It is the life of kingship and priesthood. It is never-ending life. And the Lord speaks of this life in this wise, saying, " “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," according to Matthew chapter 3 verse 17.

The Glory of this life is God and is eternal. All that is done by this life, and in this life, and through this life is sourced in God, and it is for the pleasure and the Glory of GOD.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am John Ojoagbene!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!