msg title:God’s Generals Do Not Fear Death (Phil.

1: 20-24)

We live just once. God has given us this precious gift of life, and it is too short
to waste time on things that have no lasting value. There is always an
assignment for every moment. What are you doing with this moment? The plan
of God is beautiful in its time. What do I mean? I mean everything is beautiful
in its time, yet that time is limited. The beauty in creation is that human beings
long for eternity, yet they cannot understand what God has done from
beginning to the end. God’s time is fixed. He has allotted time for everything.
He has set the right time for everything under the sun. You cannot add to it or
take anything away from it. The Bible says for everything, there is a season and
time. Ecclesiastes 3: 1 – 8: A time to labor and a time to reap the products of
grace. A time to be born, a time to grow and a time to die. A time for the sun
to rise and a time for it to set. A time to face persecution and a time to reap the
proceeds of victory.

msg title: God’s Generals Do Not Fear Death (Phil.1: 20-24)

The age at which one dies is not what God reckons with. Rather, it is one’s
achievement for God and in God here on earth that is important to Him. What
are your achievements before God? Before men, many of us have arrived, but
before God our accounts are still in red. Our achievements before men are
those visible material things, i.e, things on the outside that can be quantified in
terms of money, property, position, influence or those things that can be
touched, felt, or seen. On the other hand, our achievements before God are the
invisible things of the spirit that are on the inside: love, joy, peace, comfort,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness etc. They are exclusively only for those
Christians who possess God’s character. I mean, those whose aim, focus, and
desire are to build God’s kingdom. This means there are two kinds of
achievements: achievement before God and achievement before men. The
achievement before God comes with peace and comfort while achievement
before men is by power and might. Proverbs10: 22.
That death is certain should affect the way you live your life today. The Bible
instructs us to live each day as if it were our last day here on earth. When you
read your Bible, you will discover that great biblical characters or God’s
generals, lived each day as if it were their last. That is why Jesus specifically
instructed them in Matthew 10: 9-10 “Do not take along any gold or
silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey or extra
tunic, or sandals, or staff, for the worker is worth his keep”. The best
remedy against anxiety is to cast our burdens upon God, believing His divine

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will to calm our spirits. To cast our burden upon God is to rest our trust in His
providence and promise. His promise does not say He would keep us free from
cares and anxiety but that He would give us enough grace to stand and resist
those troubles that cause our anxieties, cares and unnecessary fears. If we
commit our ways and works to Him, He promises to carry us in the arms of His
power, as a nurse carries a child and will strengthen our spirit by His Spirit. He
who bore the burden of our sorrows, worries, cares, anxieties and fears, at the
price of great suffering, desires us to leave it entirely for Him because He alone
knows what it takes to give us rest. Why don’t we trust and let Him prove
Himself? After all, He is the Governor of our future. I mean, He owns our
future. To this extent, anxiety and care about our future is tantamount to
unbelief, which is sin. In Matthew 6:24-34, our Lord Jesus Christ warns us
against being too anxious about temporal things: food, clothings, the number of
days we are to spend in life or other thoughts of the future. As we must not
boast of tomorrow, so we must not care for the events of it. In other words, we
must not be anxious for the future. We should remember that our times are in
God’s hands. He who neglects the present for the future is acting opposite to
the order of God and sound wisdom. Life does not end here. Let us live for
eternity and we shall secure all that is available in it. God knows the challenges
before us so he gives us enough grace for each trial we face. Each day, He
sends His loving aids to strengthen you and me; we need to use today’s
supplies and let tomorrow be. God knows our needs and will provide for
them, although He may not necessarily provide all that we want – as human
wants are unlimited.
Food, clothes, property and money are for the body. If we take care of
our souls – our salvation which is more than the body and its fleshly desires,
we may leave to God to provide for us food and clothes, which are less
(Matthew 6:33). Fleshly desires and spiritual desires are two different,
opposing masters. No man can serve two masters with equal concentration,
attention and loyalty. Remember, both masters want us to run a straight race
with them. Jesus knows that we need those fleshy comforts to live for Him but
He would rather that we have all we need not all we want. Human wants are
unlimited.
Sin brings fear, guilt, condemnation and inferiority complex. The reason
why many fear death is because they live in sin. If you see a dying person
weeping and struggling, know that the spirit is resisting the unpleasant place it
is going to. On the contary, children of God die smiling because of the angels of
God that surround them to escort them to eternal life. Let us examine the lives
of some of God’s generals and their attitude towards death. Our Lord Jesus

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Christ, like many matyrs, was tortured, flogged, stripped naked, humiliated and
crushed before being brutally murdered. It was a bloody death; yet He
responded with forgiveness: “Father forgive them for they know not what they
do”. Stephen faced life’s final deadline with boldness, confidence and courage of
a dying saint. When he was being stoned to death, he looked beyond bodily
pains and saw the heavens open, with the Son of man seated at the right hand
of the Father. In the case of Daniel in that Daniel 6:10, When a decree was
published to execute Daniel, he did not panic or fear death. To Daniel life or
death made no difference when it comes to matters of security, because God's
security goes beyond the grave. That was why Daniel was never afraid of dying
for what he believed. He did not panic, because he knew that even if he died he
would still need God as much as when he lived. In fact, he would need God
more in death than in life. Daniel was given two options to choose: First to
become false to his God and worship the gods of the Babylonians and then
become the right hand man of the king with all the mouth-watering rights and
privileges. Or, remain faithful to his God and have his bones crushed by those
hungry lions in the pit. Certainly, they were extreme options requiring the grace
of God for the right choice. To Daniel, whether we sit on the throne or end up in
the belly of hungry lions, we still need God. Whether we become rich or end up
in the graveyard, we still need God. As Christians, we all need God, but we do
not know how much we need God. We need God to sit on judgment throne just
as much as we need Him in death and in the transition of our souls. Daniel
knew that physical death only enhances our early transition towards God -
knowing that when we die in the body, we continue to live in the spirit. This is
why Daniel and many God’s generals in his class never feared death. To him,
the king, his princes, princesses and the lions put together were only able to
destroy the flesh and not the soul. (Luke12: 4-5). Like Daniel, his three friends,
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego preferred to die in the blazing furnace than
to bow down to foreign gods. When they were confronted, rather than panic or
lose control, they stood their ground fearlessly without wavering - knowing that
the king must submit in the name of Jesus (Daniel 3: 15-17)
Just like trouble, Death requires no invitation before it comes. That is why
the Bible reminds us in Ecclesiastes 8: 8 that no one has power over the day of
his death. When you take time to read your Bible, you will realize that of all
God’s generals, no one endured pain and agony close to Job after Our Lord
Jesus Christ. In a split second on that fateful day, Job lost all his children,
livestock, estate and treasured possessions, and as if that was not enough, his
body was covered with sores from head to toe. One great lesson we learn from
Job’s trials is that no matter the gravity of the torments he went through, he

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never sinned by charging God with any wrong doing. He knew that in his
spiritual journey with the Lord, there were bound to be good times and hard
times. The Bible says in Job 1: 20-21 “ At this, Job got up and tore his robe
and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship, and said, “
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The
Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be
praise”. In other words, Job was saying, “Whether I live or die I am an integral
part of the Lord, because I am inseparable from Him”. Whether Jesus heals me
or not, I know He is my Healer all the time. No matter what symptoms I am
experiencing, whether He saves me or not I know He is my Savior all the time.
Your body may be full of sickness, when it is time for prayer, as a man of faith
you will say, thank you Lord for healing me, whereas you are still sick. You can
be sick and yet be a candidate of heaven. If you are a true child of God
whatever situation you are facing is mere challenge to your God and He would
not allow you to be devoured. Whatever situation you are in as a Christian; a
true believer, it is an opportunity for our God to prove Himself/ to glorify His
name. Today our prayer is to instruct God in the way he should go. Job did not
grumble murmur or complain but simply left it for God to establish his integrity
because he knew that whether he lived or died, he was permanently married to
Jesus. God indeed turned his wasted years into success. See the care God takes
for His true worshipers
Apostle Paul says in Philippians 1: 20-21 that he wanted to have Christ
exalted in his body, “whether by life or by death. 21 …for to me, to live is Christ
and to die is gain” And in that 2 Timothy 4:6 he says “For I am already being
poured out like a drink offering and the time has come for my
departure”. With what pleasure he speaks of dying! He calls it his departure or
his release. Death to a good man is his release from the imprisonment of this
world and his departure to the enjoyment of a superior world. He does not
cease to be but he is only removed from one world to another. Physical death
only enhances the transition of our soul towards God. When we die in the body,
we continue to live in the spirit. We do not cease to be, we are only removed
from one world to another.
Life is uncertain, death is sure, sin is a curse and Christ is the cure. It is
an inevitable end, an unchangeable event that only God Almighty has control
over. James 4: 15;1: 10-11. You may have power to change the Constitution of
your country and become life president. But you have no control over the day
of your death. When a true Christian dies, his death is a miracle because it is a
great opportunity for him to meet with his Creator face to face and receive the
keys of his mansion promised in John 14: 1-3. If Christ has prepared a room for

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you, He will prepare you for it. The Bible advises Christians in Jer. 22: 10 not to
weep for the dead. Your lamenting and rolling on the ground, tearing your
garment or wearing sackcloth is but the tradition of men. All your tears cannot
force Jesus to be sentimental. If crying could save souls, many souls would be
saved by now. When you are emotionally controlled, you lose all sense of
objectivity. Jesus’ objectivity is founded on commitment and genuineness of
faith and not on our tears or the praise of men.
As a follower of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the hour of your death is the
conclusion of the process of your redemption. It is an opportunity for you to
meet face to face with your Creator, your Maker, your Redeemer- the God of
Host, the Holy One of Israel, who lives in His sacred temple, cares for your soul
in the bosom of Father Abraham.
So the age at which you die is immaterial. God is interested in your
spiritual gains not on how much riches you have amassed here on earth. You
are a Christian to change your family, your village and your country. Whose life
are you capable of changing? Whose income are you capable of improving?
People want to succeed in life. They want their lives improved. Build your life
around your contribution to others. What is your contribution towards others?
This is the record God expects of you on your last day not your fat bank
account, chain of concubines, mansions or fleet of cars. God sent you to the
world for a purpose. You are included in His master plan for His creation. That
is why He made adequate provision for you to contribute to the well being of
your fellow brothers. The Apostles of old are no longer in our midst today. But
their indelible record of works liter the pages of the Bible in our appreciative
memory till the close of the age of humanity. They took after the lifestyle of
Jesus Christ. What is the lifestyle of Christ? Jesus was and is still a soul winner. He
is the greatest soul winner the world has ever known. This is what He came for,
lived for, died for, and rose again for.[Lk.19: 10; Mk. 2: 16-17] God’s children
bear a likeness to their Father in Heaven. If millions in this generation are to
believe, they must witness proof that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today
and forever. Heb.13: 8. What is your proof? The evidence of Jesus in you, is
your life changed, your health, business, your character, friends, attitude, and
philosophy of life changed. Our Lord Jesus Christ is no longer living physically in
our midst today, yet, we all bear testimony to His good works. That is why He
is our role model. Be an effective witness. People want to see proof of Jesus
Christ in you because the Bible says that Christ in you is the hope of glory. The
world is tired of listening to preaching, preaching, preaching. Preaching only
strikes the ear, it does not conscience ring. The words you speak only fill the
air. Do not just fill the air, speak words that build other people’s lives up. I

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mean, words that edify, heal, deliver, save and bless others. We Christians are
called to utter the deep things of God, for edification, for comfort and for the
conviction of sin. People want to see Jesus in action not philosophers on the
pulpit. One thing you must know is that you cannot build one up spiritually on
philosophies or on theory about the word or on history of the word. One cannot
be built on theory or philosophy. We are made spiritual only when we live in
the word and the word lives in us.
Death is coming some day. You have not been told when that will be.
God has purposely, deliberatively and intentionally kept us in the dark so that
we might always be ready. So one day you will no longer live because where
you are sitting right now was once the graveyard of someone. Tomorrow it
could be yours. However, if whatever you are doing now is of God, what you
will leave behind will be light to this generation and generations yet unborn. So
live for a good name and let your goodness speak for you whether you are alive
or dead. Mt5:16. Remember you are rewarded either for righteousness or for
your sin. 2 Cor.5:10 says we shall all give account of what we have done with
our earthly body. How foolish it is for us to neglect the preparation necessary
for this inevitable accounting.

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