Loosely speaking, anyone of us could find it easier to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour, but many have problems with accepting Him as their Lord. Perhaps, where we are missing a vital matter is that we fail to understand that while we were yet to be born again, Satan was our Lord, and we live our lives according to the influence of our senses and elements of the world. Our choices were according to what is trending in the world — we live life according to the trajectory of what we see, hear, feel, touch, and smell — we sold ourselves to Satan through lust; he was our Lord. (Read Genesis chapter 3.)

Apostle John said, “We know [positively] that we are of God, and the whole world [around us] is under the power of the evil one [the Devil]" (1 John 5:19).

We are not delivered from it for as long as we refused to change our Lord; the government that we want to submit to. Accepting Jesus as Saviour but not also as Lord is the same as going against or disbelieving the Word of Jesus that says, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money" (Matt. 6:24).

Of course, no man or woman can be loyal to two lords at a time. Look at it, the problem is not about a man marrying two wives or having double landlords, yes, he could take turns between the two wives on a different date, but the injustice in it is that he is playing or living a falsehood life. Anytime he is with either of the wives, he does as much as he could to make the wife he is with currently to believe she is the best of his wives, but it is not true; it is a mere show of deception.

Do you also know that because his dealing is just about humans and with humans, the two wives can believe him that he is saying the truth? Even the landlords could take his word for it since he comes home to sleep and he pays his rent promptly, but how far could anyone go in deceiving the Almighty that He will not know that such a man is only paying a lips service in disguise?

Until we change our lord, our loyalty to the old master, the world, the prince of the world, we can never behave our love correctly for the Lord Jesus.

Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one’s resources or the stability of earthly things]—these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself]. ¹⁷ And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever. (1 John 2:15—17.)

 

The Bible in the text above warns us against our loyalty to the old master, our old lifestyle. Living life according to the details of the old fashion. Moving according to the convenience of the world; going according to the choices of the world. When the world becomes the standard or perimeter that runs or we use to measure our lives’ ambitions and desires, it is because we are in love with the world.

Love is like a force, a control mechanism. Every one of us moves according to the attraction of the object of our love. One thing or direction we can't ignore is the enticement of our choice of love attraction. It is like a magnetic force pulling a piece of iron to itself. Or two magnets pulling another towards another — that is what the force of nature that's inherent in love. We behave according to our object of love. We go towards or are pulled towards what we love and yearn for. Whatever we love; lords over our wills and desires. It acts on our whole being and holds us in subjection dearly, we can't deny it, and God too is aware of this.

Whom have you chosen as your Lord, who are you loyal to, and what is the force of attraction that pulls your affection so dearly? Is your force of attraction material, elements of this world, or it is the Lord Jesus?

Accepting Jesus Christ as our saviour is a good THING, in fact, very good, but beyond accepting Him as our Lord, until every one of us has accepted Him as Lord, it is all a matter of lips service. Your love is for your Lord.  It is either for Christ or crisis — the world. The Devil will not stop you from attending fellowship meetings, or denominational fellowship. No, the Devil is not without knowledge, he knows that as long as he is still the landlord, the one in your core of heart, he uses the elements of this world to remote control your affection, he won't struggle with you, he won't try to keep you at home on Sundays or during midweek services so that you don't begin to suspect anything, nor the members of your local assembly. He knows the moment they don't see you in meetings again, they will begin to check on you and your activities, so to keep you from that stress, and to keep preying on you, and nursing you for hell, he allows you to keep attending your usual place of service.

But deep down in your soul, you know you are just playing church, you still have the retention of your former ways of lifestyle; your friends are still your friends, your former joints are still your joints, your culture is not changed, your ways are not changed. You get angry as usual, you womanize, as usual, and you consume all your regular substances: alcohol, smoking, partying, abusing people, hating people, and the like. Yet, you are always in the sanctuary.

You can deceive me, I can also deceive you, and we can both deceive ourselves, but far be it from the King of the KINGDOM that we claim we belong, we can't deceive God.

God can't be mocked; we are either in or we were never in. It is Christ's lordship over our lives that is the Kingdom of GOD that we have entered. Abiding in the Kingdom of God requires Jesus to rule over us as our Lord.  Until Christ Jesus becomes the Lord over your life, over my life, we are not members of His kingdom. This is easy and simple for us to understand from the physical kingdoms we see or watch in movies. It is the lordship of kings over a people that makes them citizens of a particular kingdom and their loyalty is to that king. And it becomes the legal duty of the KINGDOM to protect them and give them an enabling environment to live and work.

 

Check it today, beyond Christ is your Saviour, is Christ your Lord? If yes, what has been the role of His lordship over you; how submissive are you to His will for you, do you even seek the Will of His Kingdom and progress amid the world?

We must be sure of this before our time is spent on the earth, if we make mistakes with it, we can't undo it when our time is been spent. We must redeem the time now that we still have it, the night is fast to come when all work shall cease.

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!