The devil also gives abundant life.
I was at a service of songs, and a man preached a rousing message about going to heaven. Then he said, “You will not have to pay any rent in heaven.”
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I was amused by this initially. But the more I thought about it, I realised how dangerous this statement is. In the bid to popularise heaven, this man decided to present heaven carnally. He recreated heaven in the desire of men. He fashioned heaven according to the carnality and vainglories of men.
And so men should desire heaven, not because they want to worship and fellowship with God, but because they want to escape from the demands of the landlord. Well then, there is no rent paid in hell either, so men should go there also.
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Abundant Life
“(Jesus) spoke a parable saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”‘ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21).
Jesus says:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10).
Devilish Abundant Life
Before Jesus came, the thief had visited us. He came to steal, kill, and destroy. But he kills, steals, and destroys with finesse. He does this by giving us a gift. He gives us his own version of the abundant life.
Then Jesus came to give us the abundant life. But, to our disappointment, the life Jesus gives is not the life we want. We want the life the world gives, which is the life the devil gives.
But John warns:
“All that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:16-17).
This abundant life the devil gives is the life of the rich. This life is counterfeit. A man spends all his life working, earning a living, providing for himself and his family, and forgets about God.
Solomon asks:
“For what has man for all his labour, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23).
The devil gives deceitful riches. He gives houses, lands, fame, and fortune. Yes, he gives the abundant life. But he gives all this using one instrument: sin. The worship of idols and demons.
Most of the big positions in Nigeria are covenanted to idols. They are reserved for those who have made a covenant with the devil. They make a covenant with death, which promised them an abundant life. And the devil delivers it. They have wealth, houses, fame, and fortune. What they do not know is that their abundant life is a life of sin and death.
I invited my granddaughter to lunch. She spent the time taking pictures and posting them on social media. The devil is devious. He created social media so that men would seek the approval of men. But the approval of men is a waste of time. What matters is God’s approval.
Devilish Counsel
When we think of the abundant life, we automatically think of the life lived by rich men. Their lives display abundance and extravagance. They are abundant in houses, in wealth, in property. The deceitfulness of riches enthrals them. What they fail to realise is that the lovingkindness of God is better than life. (Psalm 63:3).
We must always remember that the ways of God are counterfactual. They are different from the ways of men. If God says something is white, thanks to the devil, men will consider it to be black. Therefore, the abundant life of God can never be the abundant life of men.
Men had life before Jesus came. They had riches, property, fame, and fortune. So, Jesus could not have come from heaven to give us the life we already had. He must have come to give us the life we did not have.
Jesus’ Abundant Life
In Jesus’ abundant life:
“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” (Luke 12:15).
Clearly, Jesus’ abundant life is not what many Christians presume it to be. Everything about the kingdom of God is counterintuitive. Everything about the kingdom of God is diametrically opposite to what occurs in the kingdoms of men.
In the kingdom of God, the rich are poor, and the poor are rich. Jesus’ abundant life glorifies the life of the poor. The first becomes last, and the last becomes first.
Jesus says:
“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” (Luke 6:20-21).
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:24-25).
James also amplifies this:
“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.” (James 5:1-6).
Solomon concurs:
“Do not overwork to be rich, because of your own understanding, cease! Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven.” (Proverbs 23:4-5).
Life of Jesus
What kind of life did Jesus Himself live?
Once we ask this question, the contradiction to popular thinking becomes apparent. Jesus did not have many of those things we normally attribute to the good life. He was born in a manger. He grew up as the lowly carpenter’s son. He had no formal schooling or education. He had neither chariots nor horses. He had no land or houses. He did not have a wife. He had no children.
When a certain man volunteered to be His disciple, Jesus warned him that they would not be staying at the Sheraton Hotel:
“Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (Matthew 8:20). CONTINUED.
