Pastor Matt Beemer started his message by speaking about the love walk and the image Christians project to the world and the ability to change the current perception of not just the way we are viewed but also as a nation. He said we need to be conscious of what we say, the way we speak, act and generally communicate with each other and others. The world currently has negative things to say about Nigeria, but as the Body of Christ if we walk in love (towards each other and the world at large) and demonstrate God’s love, the ramifications of doing so are immense. It will obviously portray a different Nigeria to the entire world.
Pastor Matt Beemer recounted how the late Rev. Kenneth .E. Hagin had said that all through his ministry, he had only experienced the glory of God in its full form twice. Other times all through his ministry, it was in measures. He then went ahead to show what could hinder the glory of God from manifesting in a gathering of believers.
2 Chronicles 5:13, Acts 2:1-3, Acts 4:24-31, Ephesians 4:29
In the scriptural references when the glory of God was manifest, it was reported that they were in ‘one accord’. This means that in order to experience God’s glory, there has to be unity. For this to happen we must walk in love and forgive each other.
‘You can’t be a great man of faith, if you’re not a great man of love’. He testified of how Rev. Kenneth. E. Hagin exuded that spirit of love and how this caused people that encountered him to suddenly burst into tears and experience that love in often physical and tangible ways.
Pastor Matt reminded everyone present that anything we do to someone in the Body of Christ, we do to Jesus. To buttress this point, he cited Saul’s encounter on the road to Damascus where Jesus asked him, ‘why persecutest thou Me?’ Notice Jesus said me and not ‘the church’. If we imagined that our brethren were actually Christ, we would treat them better.
In conclusion, Pastor Beemer pointed out that forgiveness is a compound word comprised of fore and give. This essentially means that before we get offended, we should decide that we will take no offence. The power to take offence or not is a choice you can exercise. Seek the best and believe the best. As the Body of Christ if we fail to walk in love, we hinder the manifestation of the fullness of God’s power.