Teaching By: Alabi Olamilekan Peter
Tonight, with the help of the holy spirit, we’ll be looking at the topic: The man after God’s heart. We’d be brief and precise, but i want you to have a receptive heart irrespective of how constrained the time is.
Looking through the scriptures, i figured out that while it wasn’t exactly put as ‘a man after God’s heart’, there were other personalities who walked uprightly and they meant so much to God. In James 2v23 (Abraham was called a FRIEND of God). In genesis 18, God was soliloquizing on how that he won’t be able to do a thing without informing Abraham first. Somebody say hmmmmm
In the book of Job, scriptures say that the sons of God gathered and the devil also came amidst them, God asked him where he was coming from and he said he was coming from gallivanting the surface of the earth. And God asked him a profoundly interesting question. ‘Has he seen his son Job?” It takes a hight level of confidence in the ability and capacity of a person for God to boastfully say that. Job wasn’t the only one on earth at that time but he had struck a chord in God’s heart such that God had reposed so much confidence in him to warrant him being bragged about. In (phillipians 2 v 9-11) We see how God took pride in rewarding Jesus with so much rewards. 9.Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Once again, it takes a person having a special place in God’s heart to attain this kind of position. All these 3 characters mentioned have a similar pattern of behavior that distinguished them among everyone. These characteristics, all that were found in David, Job and Abraham were amplified fully by Jesus Christ. In the verses preceding the vs 9 to 11, we’ll find it, Though simple yet powerful.
Philippians 2
King James Version
1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
The behavioural pattern of people who God had a special thing for is embedded in that portion of scripture. The first and overall pattern to being a man after God’s heart is having the mind of Christ
Once an individual submits himself to having the mind of Christ it becomes easier for him to:
1. Take the form of a servant
2. Showcase humility
3. Become obedient
Look at the life of Job, David and Abraham and tell me if these patterns weren’t present. Therefore, if any man wants to become a man after God’s heart, he just needs to follow this pattern
Will it be easy…NO!
Will it be worth it…YES!.
I pray God will help us in Jesus name. I stop here tonight and pray that God will yield us in the path of more understanding of his word, ways and will in Jesus mighty name.
