(0:00)Icebreaking: The Nigerian Experience
[Music] [Music] unfilter hello hello everybody and welcome to another episode of PF unfiltered I'm joined by alen Taylor and as always Pastor FEI ran Pastor feu Pastor OK do how many other variations of it let us not get carried away with varations spend the whole day PF okay PF is fine um before we actually start uh I'm curious as an engineer your curiosity is very problematic it actually is but that's also good right very questionable he h it's also good sometimes not everything that is good is good Depot actually curious like your your experience as as an neran obviously well I don't know if you do you claim Niger or is it I'm I'm a Nigerian American I like that I'm an American of Nigerian extraction he said so did it take n okay that sounds good but what is what is one of the I guess two part first part question is what is the best thing about being Nigerian about being Nigerian yeah and the second one is I'm not going to say what's the worst thing because I think that's not no no no awesome why are the areas of growth you know why are the areas of [ __ ] honestly I don't know how to answer that question because I don't think being Nigerian is just who I am he's like asking what's the best thing about being me you know what I mean what's the best thing about being me what is the worst thing about being me it's my identity right it's but actually the question is about what is the best thing about being me because Nigerian you can't separate me from being Nigerian or being Nigerian from being me you can't separate the two it's like what the best about being a man I can peace standing up really okay so okay so so let's just explore that so P standing up is better than peeing sitting down is it do you see the point but then again what I said doesn't make because we make a PE stand know why are we talking about this I don't know I I'm really just like where did we get how did we get called breaking the ice okay the ice has been very much broken very much broken okay as always we are appreciate your presence thank you very much I appreciate my presence to oh you guys your presence is always welcome um but our topic for today yeah
(2:38)Faith vs. Fear: What are we actually exhibiting?
is Faith the question would be what is Faith to start us off and do you think what we exhibit today as Christian in church yeah would you define that as Faith or fear masked as Faith okay this is how I Define faith faith is a strong confidence in that something will go or do as expected or as planned I just have a strong confidence in it that it will be as I think so I have faith that this chair will hold up my weight it's basically I have confidence that this chair has been constructed in a way that it would hold up my weight as to whether what we exhibit in church is Faith or fear Master's faith I I think it would be very presumptuous to speak to what is going on in everybody's mind because it's complex with each person and that question itself is complex with each person I think many times we swing right between actually trusting God and actually being afraid of God right we swing between confidence in God that God will do what he will say he will do and a lack of confidence that he will do what he says he will do but I think ultimately it all comes back to what we have been taught about God what we have been taught about what God expects of us what God demands of us and I think that that is what drives it so our faith really is based on our education our education about God our knowledge of God
(4:05)The Old Covenant God vs. The New
the more we know the Old Testament God and I and I'm careful to use that expression because a more accurate expression will be the old Covenant God so the more I look at what we have been taught and I think this is where the faith of fear comes in I feel like a lot of what we have been taught is that God right the god of Mount Si the God who gave the ten Commandments The God Who wrote Leviticus and Deuteronomy and numbers and exodus and the God who walked with the Israelites from Genesis to the Acts of the Apostles yeah so the angry jealous sometimes violent destroying the world with water if you miss one one Mark or you miss one commandment you miss all of them the god that punishes which is I I think that is the real God the just God I think that is who God is he never he has never stopped being that God okay right I don't think there's a new God okay I don't think there's a new version of God right right I I think that we see a different facet of him but it doesn't take away that aspect of him he is a consuming fire he kills and he makes alive he burns people up you know he opens up the ground and people are swallowed in this I think that that God is real yeah and I think that that God is the real God but I think that that God has changed the way he can I think that there's a potential change in how we can interact with him and I say potential in the sense that until you choose that path then you will not be on that path and that is the path of the New Covenant I think that when we start to walk in the fullness of the New Covenant our relationship with God will be based solely on faith when it comes to getting things from God we operate with faith when it comes to how God sees us we operate with fear we're constantly trying to please him not just so that he can bless us but so that he doesn't judge us so we say things like you don't even fear God you don't even fear God but the truth is the truth is we all understand I believe the modern Christian I believe at least in this
(6:20)Why we revert to the Law
church that we are saved by grace through faith I believe we all to some degree have a basic understanding of that that's intellectual I think it is it doesn't start off intellectual it starts off spiritual right we come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ died for me and we accept that and we accept that because he died for us I can and I accept it I'm born again full stop so rather than move forward what we do is we go all the way back right so we come to God at Zion we come to God by grace through faith yeah we come to God knowing we have the same righteousness that Abraham had in that he believed God Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness that's how we come to God but then we don't continue with God on that path we don't continue with God the way that we started with God we go back and I think that was what Paul was saying to the church in galatia when he said oh foolish Galatians who has convinced you that what you started in the spirit you're going to finish in the flesh we all understand we're saved by grace through faith but we believe that we live our lives by obedience to the 600 plus laws of the old Covenant we all know that we enter the kingdom of God through Grace but we believe we live in the kingdom of God through law so what would you say to those that pick a side and say okay look P for that's the Paul approach we hear you show me your your faith without the works how would you say look I get the point you're making and and I think this is a false dichotomy this is a false it's our own brain leading us and I'm being charitable to the Demonic folks now because it's demonic that's a question that the devil ask the expression of my faith in Christ is the fruits that I
(8:20)Who does the cultivating? The Gardener’s Work
bear and the fruits that I bear the Bible says that righteous man is like a tree that is planted by rivers of water that bears fruit in Du season the Bible says and the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love and then he breaks it down into multiple dimensions of love but the Bible uses word fruit and we were taught that you cultivate fruit you have to cultivate the fruit do the work feir me they said but the tree which tree have you seen with a Coe in its hands and a weeder or fertilizer the tree to produce the fruit here is just who does the cultivating is the farmer The Gardener Jesus Christ says say I am the husband Man Of Your Divine he is the one that does the work and I say and I dare anybody to contradict me he did the work we yes I dare he finished the work so my question is why do you think it's so hard for us to like you said live in the finished work of Christ I think inste of going back I think God himself recognizes that that's he said labor to enter into my rest it is hard and that's the only time by the way you see the word labor used in the New Covenant work to rest labor to enter into my rest and the reason why
(9:35)The pressure to earn God's approval
is this I think everything we have been taught everything around us our society the way the world operates points in the other direction it's a more natural vibe to say that you have to earn God's love we say it today even men will tell a woman well if you want me to love you you have to earn it women will tell men if you want me to respect you have to earn it we're always earning things so we think that we have to earn God's approval and the truth is this in a sense we do but not in the way that we think right I think that makes sense the way that we earn it is by being in Christ and remaining in Christ we're trying to get the life of God to manifest while we are walking in the ways of Moses and what we keep forgetting is that because people feel like oh PF are you saying we should abandon the law that's usually the and it's such an interesting question but old question they've been asking this question since the time of Paul and Paul said the law is Holy the law is good there's nothing wrong with the law now Paul can say that because he understands the purpose of the law we don't the reason why God gave the law was to show us what sin is Paul said if I did not have the law I would not know what covetousness was so I would just go on being cous but now I know but the law is incapable of making me not be cous on the contrary the law working with my sinful nature will always lead me to covetousness so the Bible says by The Works of the law shall no man be justified what are we all doing what is all this stuff we're doing it says abide in me my words abide in you and you will bear fruit and your fruit will remain it will remain you're not going back and forth today I am Holy tomorrow I am
(11:25)How sin consciousness hinders transformation
Unholy your fruit will remain and that happens when we Behold Him when I come before God or I come before Jesus with that filter of oh gosh what a wretched sinner am I what happens is this the guilty conscious the consciousness of sin interferes with the interaction between me and Christ and that interaction hinders transformation and where there is no interaction there is no transformation where there is no transformation there's no fruit for us to see it is that transformation that produces fruit and when the flow is flowing when the flow is FL when the flow is flowing when the flow is Flowing you will see things drop off you let me rephrase that you remember things you used to do but you don't do any but you
(12:10)Personal Story: My radical deliverance
don't do anymore and I'm talking about things that I'm not going to sit here and pretend as if oh the flow has flowed and everything has dropped off me but some things have dropped off me that technically I was addicted to I used to smoke a heck of a lot of cigarettes and I have an experience with God and I think God did that for me to show me what can happen when the flow is Flowing I smoke two three packets of Maro cigarettes every day and I have an encounter with God and it's so profound now I don't remember for 2 weeks that anything like cigarettes existed on the face of the Earth literally the concept the idea of cigarettes were literally wiped from my memory for two weeks yeah it didn't occur to me now this is somebody who's smoking two three packets of my every day this is somebody who didn't want to stop smoking hey I enjoyed it most addicts will tell you they're good I was addicted if I had a meal and didn't smoke afterwards I would throw up that was how bad it was I had to smoke every time no matter how hot it was no matter where I was I had to have a cigarette and I go to church the Lord touches me two weeks later somebody annoys me and when I get angry I I'll light a cigarette that's that's how I coped with anger in those days and that person annoyed me and I'm like I was I was in a car with a driver and I said to driver here stop let me get a cigarette and I'm like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa I actually haven't smoked in two weeks and I started to laugh and I told him don't never mind and we kept going and I haven't smoked a cigarette in 20 30 years right in 30 years I've smoked a cigarette there's no craving that I'm fighting there's no urge that I have to count to 10 you know is gone and that is what happens that is fruit it remains it doesn't rise it doesn't you know but the one that I'm trying by my own willpower to not do when I'm upset I will do it you know willpower is not an unlimited resource that's why I always tell folks that when you're on a diet and you're trying to save yeah you're going to mess up somewhere else because we all have a limited amount of willpower and you can only deploy it across so many projects and that is why you find that people always just you know what I've been good I've been good I've been good I'm just going to just I just yes right but when the Holy Spirit does it when the Holy Spirit does it it remains but that only comes from abiding the reality of what we do sh is that we start off in Christ we see the water we see sin in ourselves and we are afraid that God will judge us so we start doing the work to prevent
(14:55)Free will and the logic of worship
that potential judgment guess what Paul acknowledges that sin is a force and a power that we are not able to overcome by ourselves you see this thing that we forget Free Will is a critical component of worship where there's no free will God cannot a accept your worship or punish your sin if you are worshiping God because you don't have a choice what else will you do before you worship now how does anybody somebody who loves them because they don't have a choice I'm the only man on this planet so when a woman tells me I have no choice that's why I love you so if you had a choice would you love you love me yeah you get my point now that the law what the law does is point out good and evil the law points out this is good and this is evil and that's the job of the law so technically the devil or the serpent pointed out yes good and evil yes but was very deceptive about it he didn't point out pointed out good and evil right being able to tell the difference but what they did understand was that that being able to tell the difference meant judgment that is why for example nobody beats a six-month old baby who poops on you yeah because the baby can't tell the difference now if he's 14 years old or long a 14y old baby right a 14y old child who I want to say beats please I'm not talking about beat nobody claimer I'm not I'm not an advocate of child abuse in any way I'm just talking from The afrian Experience nobody punes a child who messes up at 6 months and a child who messes up at 8 years old is different because there's an expectation that that child knows the difference between good and evil when we didn't know the difference between good and evil we were innocent so to speak there was no judgment cuz again God cannot judge you based on what you don't know or that would not be just that would not be Christ is a corrective Expedition a corrective it is God fixing Adam's mistake that was not God's intention when he made Adam I think part of the problem one of the why we don't appreciate what Jesus did is we don't fully understand what the sin nature is and I don't say that to be condescending or poning imply that I know everything think about how the extent that God went to bring Jesus into the world he was very careful to exclude man the male why did he exclude the male because the thing that would have corrupted Christ is in the male is in the male seed the male carries the seed Jesus Christ had been born of a man he would have had the sin nature of man there's no good deed he could have done subsequently that is why God put his own seed in a woman man shout out to all the women D this is like this is like flowers right here no no this just women are born of men so they also carry the same but they don't carry the I'm trying to think of I don't know the biology but they don't carry the seed right the seed is where the sin is so when we tell somebody be holy what are we saying really if you understand that what are you saying are you saying to the person go and clean your hands okay has cleaned his hands okay go and clean your heart that's very difficult almost impossible let's just assume that he has done it how does he approach that seed he can't that is why God said all of your righteousness is as a filthy rag through me because he understands that that we are stained with a stain we cannot actually remove by ourselves and that is why he sent Jesus and that is why we are not righteous we are the righteousness of God God gave us his own CU our own was trashed so he gives us his own righteousness Jehovah siku it's not I'll be righteous in front of God is that the Lord is my righteousness he gave us his own righteousness because there was no Reformation of our own so I guess it's making sense so I guess like for Me Maybe it's what you said earlier right maybe it is that's not truly understanding the completeness of Christ of work of Christ it's because we don't understand because I can confess with my mouth yeah yeah but do I believe and this is what I was trying to tie in the do I believe in my heart yeah maybe that's the CU you can believe to the extent that you know right so as far as many people are concerned Jesus Christ washed my hands and he washed my feet he washed my my heart right but many of us don't also realize that he washed our nature he cleansed us inside and out right and without him we cannot be clean no matter what you don't do your very existence is a sin let's leave people to behold Christ let's tell them the truth your sins have been paid for right all of them all your sins have been paid for now look at Christ he's the one who paid for it the Gratitude of knowing that what see if I think that I contributed to the gift you gave me that my is just politeness in my mind I'm like before I give 20s you bought him 20 I brought 20 in why you when you realize that man what Jesus Christ did oh my God had nothing to oh my God it's not just that he cleaned my hands he cleaned me he cleaned me so I cleaned to him I I cling to Christ I cling to him for their life that's why Paul could say it is in that I live and I move and I have my being I never leave the realization never that my very existence is acceptable to God only because of what he did everything that I do emanates from that now when I now decide that okay let me go back to Moses so that I can get God to give me a job right let me go back to the ten commandments so that I can get God to give me a job life that's where the problem is now should I remain in sin if you are beholding Christ if you are grateful for what Christ has done sincerely yeah you would the desire for sin yeah because the Bible says and this what the Bible says we are transformed from one level of Glory to another it diminishes my question is how do you practically live that beholding Christ what does that look like on a day-to-day basis let me tell you I can tell you cuz I think I'm I think that's how I'm living now but let me tell you I think for me we wake up every day I'm just thinking about how awesome he is how glorious he is you know I let my mind Wonder to the things that he has done and as I contemplate those things that he has done one of the things that I do is I start to think about the Earth for example and I think about the Niagara Falls you know Victoria Falls in South Africa I think about the hippopotamus I think about the eagle I think about all of these things and like God did that God did those things you know the Bible says the heavens declar the glory of God and I'm thinking about the heavens I'm thinking about the Stars Cades Orion and the vastness of the Universe I read an article about how we do not know how deep the ocean is we only know how deep the Mariana Trench is right so the depth of the ocean will never reach there yeah waves cannot go to the bottom of the ocean there are levels that whales cannot go to but there are creatures there there microscopic organisms there you think of geothermal PES that are so hot if you put a human being inside in seconds he would be born but there are organisms there when you start to think about that you you you start to contemplate realize that this God is wise so when we say the all wise God you have basis for that and you start to think about what God has done for you first of all this whole Jesus thing when you realize how comprehensive it is and how undeserving you are of anything and everything once I start to think about what God has done I get extremely emotional and the reason why I'm getting emotional is because I'm confronted with the reality of how little of how the only thing I have contributed to is Judgment if there's anything good in my life I have not added I have not said one prayer that end it it all starts with Christ and it ends with Christ all of it right and as I think about those things as I be hold him in those things in the ways in which he manifest himself to me remember when I think it was Moses who said to God he said I want to see your face he said Show Me Your Glory and God said you can't see me you see me you die so the Bible says that God hid him in the Cliff of The Rock and he caused his goodness and mercy to pass in front of him and thereby Moses saw the back of God when I think about the goodness and mercy of God in my life what I am literally doing looking at God but the Bible says that Jesus is is the express image of God so in looking at goodness and mercy in contemplating the goodness and the mercy of God in my life I am looking at Jesus the more I do that the more I will become like Jesus the more I do that the less likely that I will sin but it is from glory to glory it is a process it is in stages it is in phases call it what you may I will not overnight stop everything that I struggled with I will continue to stop there will be a journey of stops in quote And when I say stops I mean stopping sins if I live for 120 years by the time I've been on this plan for 120 years there are some sins that have been associated with me that you will not see at that point hopefully if I'm here that long all of it would be gone but there are things that I don't struggle with anymore and there are things that I still struggle with now we can put labels to it and say this one is bigger than this one this one bigger that's your business all I know is that I am getting brighter and brighter like the Noonday Sun that is the word of God the message of Grace does not abolish sin it does not say sin is okay sin is bad sin is bad and it will continue to be bad but the solution right to not living a life of sin yeah is it more works is it more works you know what the Bible says about prayer let me just say this it says you don't get from God because you don't pray and you don't pray and when you you pray you pray and miss you pray and Miss how that you may squander it on your own lust let's say that in 2020 the reason why you don't get from God is because you don't pray and when you actually do pray you're only praying for yourself yeah the motives are all you're praying for yourself question right no the mo it's not questionable no to squander on your own lust to spend on yourself to waste on yourself so technically every prayer that you pray for yourself is unacceptable to God because it comes from a place of selfishness and it makes sense if I was conceived in sin what good can come from me do you get my point that is why Jesus Christ said that when you pray don't mention your name pray in my name because my name covers your name my perfection covers your imperfection my strengths cover your weaknesses and because God is looking not at your weaknesses but at his strength God is looking not at your imperfections but his Perfection God will answer you so when we pray in Jesus it's not just a tagline that we add to the end of prayer when we pray in Jesus is just a tagline we're literally saying it's not me it's Jesus he the one asking yeah you know I remember when I came out of college and I was looking for a job a friend I met a guy who gave me a letter to his friend really good friend and I took the letter to the friend and I said here sir this is for you CU first said what do you want I said said this is for you he read the letter and in the letter his friend said hey this is FEI he's my guy right he's my guy is a good guy I beg find him you know the guy said to me no problem sit down there my secretary will collect your ID and you're good I didn't get that joke my qualification I got it because I came in the name of his friend with your connections of my connection exactly but we think we think that we praying and God is answering us because of our he's answering us because we are praying in the name of Jesus so it it really is that lack of understanding yes so so when we are in Christ in the eyes of God we are perfect he says you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus he didn't say you will be he says you are well p no no no no no no that's not how the Bible works okay but he also says he was wounded for our trans transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him and by his stripes we will be healed no no no no no PF he says we are healed so why is it we are when it comes to healing but when it comes to righteousness it is we will be even though the words are the same I I have a I I feel like because we store and this is just my own radical believe we we literally store our like Christ said we are storing our Treasures in things that DEC things that thieves can break in as to example certification right or the flesh which we know is dust and we return to d right but I think we are so focused let me not say we let me just say I I think where I struggle is there where I'm so focused on my flesh that I'm assuming that this is what I need to protect my faith my salvation my righteousness like you said don't check I mean I'm good there but the more I cling on to what is temporary that's how I see it the more I would always have this okay let me go and fast let me go and pray so that way I don't fall sick so I know when like again to the point you made if I step outside my door anything can happen we we we have to come to realize that and I agree with you eternal life doesn't start when we leave this body it starts from the minute right the life of God comes into us it doesn't come after we die it comes from the and If Heaven was the goal we would not receive the life of God until we die no we receive it at the point where we accept the sacrifice of Jesus right and God would not reside in us if there was any sin in US Jesus Christ said pray thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven what we are doing right is seeing the manifestation of what has already been done in heaven in heaven we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus where right we are beholding him so that that thing that has been done in heaven is Manifest in our lives right but what we are in reality what we do in reality yeah is we acknowledge it has been done in heaven but we're not asking for a transfer from Heaven to Earth we want to go and build it on Earth and then make it align with Heaven what is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the spirit is Spirit full stop what whatever comes from the flesh is flesh right but what comes from the spirit that is spirit so when we are in Christ we give an offering it is a perfect man giving an offering when we in Christ and we we we we do something God takes it as if Christ did it yeah and as we walk in that Revelation that it is finished as we see ourselves the way God sees us and calls us we will see a manifestation of those things the same way that I call my body what God has called my body I will see the healing right we we understand that principle right God calls those things which are not as though they are so it says you are healed what do we tell people we say keep confessing the word keep believing the word keep walking in the word and you will see it manifest right that's what we tell people so why can't we tell people that about Sin sin is wrong as sickness is wrong but Jesus Christ paid for sickness and he paid for sin why do I confess healing into being but I have to create into being what is of the flesh is flesh when you think about the fact that the Bible says that all our righteousness you know God is very interesting he he didn't say all our works he says all our righteousness he acknowledged this for what it was is as a filthy rag before him we don't get what Jesus came to do I don't think we get it I don't think we get the comprehensiveness of the sacrifice I don't think we fully get the the far reaching consequences of the sacrifice right it is not enough for your hands to be clean your heart has to be clean your very Nature has to be clean when you understand that that can only be achieved through Jesus yeah and Jesus has has done it he he's done so God's verdict on you God's report card of you is you are my righteousness in Christ Jesus you're my masterpiece how will you not have faith if I gave you the most important thing I had right and demanded nothing of you why would I demand that you pay for things that I consider trivial and worthless I give you the life of my child then I'm going to demand payment for trinkets how does that make sense to us it's backwards Jesus died while we were still Sinners while we were still Sinners bing bing that's when Jesus died but now I want he's going to demand no all I need to do is remain in Christ remain in Christ and two things will happen two things I will change I am changing and when I pray he will hear me this is not a call to remain the same that's not what Jesus came to do to to justify bad behavior bad behavior is bad behavior Sin is Sin and if you keep doing it you go to hell and that is why you need Christ because without Christ you will go to hell yeah yeah I was going to you know here have you know two minutes to kind of give us a summary you know on faith just our time is gone man you you hear it really really well our time is gone yeah but I do want to I want to just one word before sh one close this is how I just want like I'm going to say like through a word and then you give me one one word response the first that comes to your mind and we keep in mind the the conversation the topic of of of Faith right all right so pain sometimes stress not of God eternal life I love that I feel like with this I was a little bit more quiet cuz I think I was just processing the whole time that you were speaking yes take time and I'm still processing and and I think that as I was just processing I was like oh my goodness the freedom if we actually started to live like we understood the what Christ did for us just the fre Freedom that we would have to live is is wild cuz I was like if we actually did that life would be so much better and not that the situation we have will change much but the way that we would walk through life would be very different we'll have joy and we'll have peace and we'll have right standing with God and through us through us God can move yes cuz I'm even thinking like even people that don't know Christ like if they see that life like lived out in in full Freedom they like you would even have to be like oh come they'll ask you wait what is going on why do you live like this how does life look like this is for Li sake that Christ has set us free that's why Paul said it is it is a bewitching it is that's witchcraft that we would receive this kind of Freedom the Village People the Village People that's the b in they pring that you will receive the freedom and go back to bondit that's Madness like wild yeah wild wow this is this has been really like edifying for me and I hope that everyone who has listened has been edified as well thank you guys for tuning in again and we will see you on the next episode like sub subscribe what T they said sh sh conversations weable yes more conversations and behold Christ like P4 always there man you got to man that's it if you if you have a problem with yourself you do stupid crap until sorry I'm not allow to say that no crap is not okay if you do things that you know you should not be doing behold Christ it will take them from you all right that's a WRA awesome thanks a lot guys thank you