Attaining Greatness ~ Precious C Philip

What I am sharing today is one of the things that fuels my passion to live and preach the gospel, because I must reach the height that God has purposed for me to attain.

Someone might be saying, "What does she know about greatness? Does she think she is already great?" Well, I must let you know that greatness is not simply having money and material possessions; that could be the world's definition of greatness, but not God's definition of greatness. Greatness is unquantifiable because God is the One that makes any man great, and when He does, you cannot quantify it - no man can explain or grasp it. Jesus, the Son of Man, was a great man. Can you quantify His greatness? Can you quantify Abraham's greatness? If your "greatness" or the "greatness" of that influential person you're using to define greatness can be quantified, it is not true greatness.

I am on that journey to true greatness and God is teaching me a lot. What He recently taught me is what I'll be sharing with you in this article, in the hopes that you'll catch the revelation and join me on this journey to real greatness. Add this knowledge to the knowledge you've already garnered on the biblical steps or keys to greatness.

Let's read together, Matthew 5:19 "So then, whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven."

Please take note of the last statement: whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven. Conversely, whoever does not obey the law (God's word) and teaches others not to obey the word, will never be great in the kingdom of heaven.

What light do we get from this? Obedience to God's word is not all a Christian needs to be great on earth. Any Christian who wants to be great must teach others to obey God's word in addition to their personal obedience to God's word - to taste and enjoy greatness. This is what a lot of Christians do not do today, yet, they blame God for their suffering, hardship and stagnation.

God's word cannot be broken. You either believe it and act correspondingly and have your desired result, or you reject it and die in penury, obscurity, and mediocrity. Don't stop at practicing the word, you must teach it to others; you must preach it and encourage others to practice it if you really want to be great in the kingdom of heaven. A great person in the Kingdom cannot be a loafer in the world. You must go the extra mile to teach others to obey God's word. It is not proper to do the word and fail to encourage or teach others to do it. It becomes worse when you do not obey the word of God and at the same time teach and encourage others not to obey God's word; greatness becomes absolutely improbable.

You know that it is a sin to lie, and you not only tell lies, you encourage others (your children, your siblings, your friends, your work colleagues...) to lie, and you also spread false rumors, promote ideas and teachings that are false, you can't be great as a Christian.

Drinking alcoholic beverages is unacceptable in God's family, but though you no longer consume it, you still buy them for your unbelieving friends when they come visiting, when you go out for a drink, or when you're having a party/event; you sell alcoholic beverages as a merchant; you make available alcoholic beverages for your customers to buy and drink in your restaurant; you okay alcohol consumption on your social media platforms; you post pictures and videos of you and your unbelieving friends drinking alcohol on your platforms, you cannot enjoy the greatness that comes from God if you fail to stop doing these things. Have nothing to do with alcoholic beverages: don't consume it, don't buy it for others, don't offer it to others, don't sell it to people, don't encourage others to drink it, and don't promote or okay it.

You are aware that fornication and adultery is a sin. You engage in it and encourage others to engage in it - by producing comedy skits, music videos, or movies that make such immoral sexual acts look okay; you even tell people on social media that pre-marital sex is expected in pre-marital relationships to know if you're sexually compatible; you encourage young people to engage in pre-marital sex and adults to engage in adultery by sharing articles, videos, pictures, jokes that make such acts look morally right, you can't be a great Christian unless you repent and do right.

Abortion is contrary to the teachings of the Bible, but you perform abortion as a Christian doctor, thereby encouraging young ladies and married women to have premarital sex and extramarital sex respectively and abort the unwanted babies. You can't be great except you cease doing evil and encouraging murder.

The word of God is against cohabitation and pregnancy before wedlock, yet you publicly and unashamedly celebrate celebrities or influential people who are living together and having children without being married, and those deliberately choosing to become pregnant before marriage without remorse, by so doing, encouraging young people especially, to cohabit before marriage, you need to stop if God will make you great.

You know that secular corrupt music do not glorify God, yet you listen to it as a Christian and increase the volume for your neighbors to hear and dance to, you play them for your children, you play them on parties and share them on your platforms on social media; you play them at weddings and other fetes as a Christian DJ; you also watch satanic/sexually explicit movies and share them with your unbelieving friends and advertise them on social media via your stories, status, posts, ... such does not encourage God in any way to make you great.

Provocative, indecent dressing does not please God, but you don't care, you dress seductively publicly and push some weak Christians to lust after you; you encourage other women to dress the same way by gifting indecent clothes to them or telling them to buy such clothes to look attractive; even female teenagers emulate your dressing because you're their "big Auntie". As a Christian tailor or clothier, you sew and sell provocative clothes for your customers, you can't taste real greatness if you persist. You may remain at your current level till Jesus comes or your time on earth is over.

You are perfectly and fully aware that pornography, nude pictures, masturbation and lust is evil in the eyes of God, yet you watch porn and share such videos and pictures with your friends. You introduce your friends to pornography and teach them how to masturbate. You post sexually explicit pictures, vulgar jokes, crude comedies on social media, and incite people to masturbate, lust or fornicate... you don't want true greatness.

The word of God is against fast money (get-rich-quick schemes), smoking, drug peddling, against cheating, against fraud, against stealing and armed robbery, against kidnapping, against envy and jealousy, against murder, against revenge and violence, against taking and giving bribes, against racism, partiality, and prejudice, against hate and unforgiveness, but you champion some of these things and encourage others to practice them, sister, brother, if you don't stop doing these things and encourage others to stop practicing them, your hands can't handle greatness.

Therefore, any Christian who wants to enjoy true greatness; any Christian who wants to be great, must practice the word of God and also teach others to practice the word of God. If you only practice and don't teach others, you will not taste greatness. The requirement is practice and teach others to practice it too. This is not for pastors and preachers only, but for all children of God. 

"Every child of God is expected by God to be a doer and a teacher of His word."

I pray for you today that as you begin to practice God's word and to teach others to practice and obey God's word, you will be great and the entire world will see and hear of your greatness in Jesus Name. However, to be able to practice God's word, you must first become a child of God through faith in Jesus. So, make a firm and honest decision to accept Jesus today and serve God, and you'll be empowered by God the Holy Spirit to obey God's word and teach it.

Until next week, have a wonderful week. God bless you and come back next week Monday for another powerful piece that will enrich you.

Shalom.