WHERE DOES MAN GO AFTER DEATH?

Physical death is the passing from the earthly plane into the world beyond; a birth into the beyond. For the person who has lived a life based on obedience to the Will of God, fear of death is misplaced.

Those who should fear death are those who have lived wicked and careless lives. Such people have every reason to be afraid. What awaits them is so terrible that it is often better for them to continue living on earth - if that were possible!  

For the departed, there is help awaiting them as they arrive in the beyond. Let us rejoice with them inwardly and wish them well on their journey instead of lamenting their passing. In fact, if we express our grief too much, it might distract the departing one and make the transition more difficult. Also, there is no need to wish them eternal rest as there is no such phenomenon in Creation where everything is in constant motion! The departed are still living and have only shed the physical body!

Each man goes to the place he has prepared for himself through his thoughts, words and deeds while here on earth. The spiritual weight of the individual determines where he goes after leaving the flesh. Those of evil disposition who for instance always engage in deeds of anger or hatred become heavy in the spiritual sense. This heaviness attaches to their inner bodies and makes these wicked ones sink into the lower regions of the beyond as a natural consequence. These lower regions are of despair and damnation.

On the other hand, the human beings who strive for spiritual maturity and obey the Laws of God joyfully through the purity of their thoughts words and deeds become light spiritually. For example, when we help someone in difficulty, we feel happy and light within us. If we continue in this way, then, on leaving the flesh, we will ascend to the lighter parts of the beyond. In these light regions, human spirits of a similar nature work joyfully and continue to live in bliss! Their works are like hymns of praise to the Lord Who they serve by doing works that accord with His Laws!

Therefore, when we are faced with the departure of a loved one, let us send our loving thoughts to the departed and pray that their path onwards be blessed and that they recognise all the help that now surrounds them. We should also wish the close friends and family the strength to carry on courageously with life on earth.

WHAT IS GRACE?

Many think that grace is unmerited favour from the Almighty. Some also give it a meaning of a free gift from above. While these interpretations have some merits, we will now take this concept in a more objective way.

One of the greatest Graces granted to mankind was the coming of Jesus to this world to bring us the Word of Truth. Majority of men did not deserve this as they met this Act of Grace with scorn and hatred. The few who followed the path of righteousness shown them by Jesus however were able to save themselves from the bondage of sin and the darkness. Let us also note with shame that without exception, every helper great or small and even blessed Prophets all had to suffer mockery, scorn, persecution and attacks from men!

Other forms of Grace include our existence, our planet earth, the regular outpouring of power by the Holy Spirit for the renewal and maintenance of the entire Creation and many more! We simply cannot recount all the gifts granted us daily and hourly through the Grace of God!

Does Grace mean that the Laws of the Almighty Father are suspended for some special people and for some special reasons?

No! The Laws of the Almighty are irrevocable, cannot be waived and must be fulfilled as the Laws are synonymous with the Will, Love and Word of God. Just as the Word of God is always fulfilled, the same goes for His Laws! It is instructive that in the Yoruba language the same word “Ife” means Love and Will! Creation itself came into existence and is sustained strictly by God’s Laws!

The same Laws also encompass the Grace of the Almighty! Is it not grace as we observe in nature that a planted seed of corn yield ears of corn? Our words, thoughts and deeds too are like seeds and the Laws ensure that we reap what we sow with these in multiples. This is grace; and we can only be thankful if we sow good seeds as we will in turn reap in multiples.  If we sow what is bad, we also reap in multiples. The same Laws ensures that if we repent in time, we will experience the Grace of forgiveness! After all, a repentant person stops sowing evil and engages in that which is good thus bringing into effect results that will counteract the returning evil fruits. The repentant person is thus forgiven and he is free!

That is Grace pure and simple!

May we be able to live our lives such that we will remain worthy of the Grace of God which surrounds us all the time!

CAN WE “COMMAND” THE ALMIGHTY?

Many have the strong opinion that they can command the Almighty!

However, when we think about this matter carefully, we will come to an understanding that this opinion cannot stand!

We must first realise that the Almighty is Creator of all that exist and that we are creatures. We ought to be ever grateful that the Almighty in His Love had even permitted that the knowledge about He the Creator be carefully brought to us by helpers chosen for this purpose over a long period of time.

Just like the clay cannot question a potter as to the design of the pots the potter is making, we as creatures are not in a position to argue with our Maker.

Instead of this let us realise with thanks that the Almighty has placed into His Creation, the laws that guides, helps and protects us. In the operation of these laws, our welfare is assured and each of us can move about and enjoy the abundance in this wonderful creation as a child at play in a beautiful garden. If indeed we learn to recognise these laws, our lives will be beautiful and we will have all that we need for our spiritual benefit which is actually what is important. These laws indeed work out what is of spiritual benefit for us and not what satisfies our selfish interest which are usually very short-sighted demands of material advantages.

If instead of learning and obeying the Creation laws, we proceed along the lines of always demanding from the Almighty what we consider as important, then we act in arrogance and some of us carry it as far as wanting to command the Creator.  This attitude is not credible as it is an attempt to put oneself above the laws of the Creator which actually rules the universe regardless of our opinions in this regard! The Grail Message compared this ambitious attitude towards our Creator to that of a toad standing before a high rock and wanting to order it to move out of its way.  Can man command the ocean, the sun or the moon? No doubt, attempting to command the Creator of all is audacious, extremely bold and arrogant to say the least.

The right attitude is to fit ourselves willingly into how Creation works through the laws of God.

Let us endeavour to recognise the laws of God as the ever-present help that we need and seek to understand them in humility. Then we shall be happy, devoid of empty demands and we will be able to serve the Lord Who had mercifully permitted us to come into existence!

ARE WE SAVED BY GRACE ALONE?

The demands of walking the right path of salvation appears so difficult for many a man. Therefore, it is easy to subscribe to the belief that man can only be saved by the grace of the Almighty alone. Can this be true? Is this view an attempt by man to avoid the responsibilities of working relentlessly for his own salvation?

Yet, grace plays a part in our salvation. The grace here is that which is bestowed on us through the knowledge and adherence to the Laws of our Creator.  It is indeed GRACE that we are permitted to know of the laws of God which have been explained fully to us by many blessed Prophets of old and later by the Son of God Jesus.

In addition, our faith plays a role in that when we come across the Word of Truth and embrace it even if at first through faith and belief, our subsequent decision for what is good will establish the good in us leading us to a clear understanding of the Word of Truth. Thereafter follows full conviction. Our initial belief which has grown into CONVICTION then leads us to conscious, continuous and victorious adherence to the laws of God. This adherence to the Word of Truth are the deeds or the works which saves us!

Let us note carefully that we are not saved by deeds or works arising from a blind faith in the dogmas imposed by men and their religions! Such religious dogmas are familiar: we must fast, we must not celebrate birthdays nor eat certain types of food and so on. These types of work cannot save us and are not to be compared to the works of repentance and works based on an adherence to the Word of Truth. For example, obedience to the Law of Love as explained by Jesus is real work. However, such work will save us! Imagine giving so much love to our neighbour to the extent that such a neighbour then changes for the better. That is pure love and service. That is living in accordance with the Will of God. Such works of love redeems us, saves us and leads us back to our Creator, Who is Love!

Salvation and redemption will come to us only in the Word of God which we must absorb, so that by

living in accordance with It, we may release ourselves from the bonds of wrongdoing and false beliefs that holds us down through misunderstanding and distorting the true concepts. 

Let us therefore constantly stand in prayer to God to grant us the power to carry out ourselves the works that count towards our salvation and our redemption!

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF: “BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED”?

One day, I posted on Facebook: “Grace and forgiveness can only be obtained by strict adherence to the Laws of God!”  Promptly, a friend responded: “If it is by adhering to the law then it is no longer Grace”.  He then went further to cite Ephesians 2:8-9. In the King James Version we read ^“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Now, what is written in scripture also needs to be understood.

By grace are ye saved means: by the grace bestowed through the knowledge and adherence to the Laws of our Creator we are saved!  It is GRACE that we are permitted to know of the laws of God which was also explained fully to us by the Son of God Jesus. Great grace! This Grace came about by a great sacrifice.  Jesus descended from all glory to this low-level earth to proclaim the Will of His Father which shows us the way of salvation and redemption. A  Mission  so dangerous and made even more perilous  because mankind for whose benefit all the sacrifice was made eventually sided with the darkness to wage war against the Son of God leading to the dastardly crucifixion!

We are saved through faith means that when we come across the Word of Truth and embrace it even if at first through our faith and belief, our decision for what is good will establish the good in us leading us to a clear  understanding. Thereafter follows full conviction. Our belief which has grown into CONVICTION then leads us to conscious and victorious adherence to the laws of God as brought to us through the Word of Truth.

“Not by works” in the sense of the cited scripture simply means that we are not saved by following the dogmas imposed by men and their religions! Such religious dogmas are familiar: we must fast, we must not celebrate birthdays or Easter,  we must pray 39 times a day, we must go on some pilgrimage, we must not eat a type of meat, we must wash hands and feet  and must worship only on a particular day of the week! And so on…Tenacious adherence to such dogmas are the works Paul is referring to. These types of work cannot save us and are not to be compared to the works of repentance and works based on an adherence to the Word of Truth. For example, obedience to the Law of Love as explained by Jesus is real work. However, such work will save us! Imagine giving so must love to our neighbour to the extent that such a neighbour then changes for the better. That is pure love and service. That is living in accordance with the Will of God. Such works of love redeem us and lead us back to our Creator, Who is Love!

Salvation and redemption will come to us only in the Word of God which we must absorb, so that by

living in accordance with It, we may release ourselves from the bonds of wrongdoing that holds us down through misunderstanding and distorting the true concepts.

Let us therefore constantly stand in prayer to God for the strength to live in accordance with His Will, to grant us the power to carry out ourselves the works that count towards our salvation and our redemption!

ARE WE SAVED BY WORKS?

When we are told that we are not saved by "works" it means that works emanating from a robotic adherence to the dogmas of our religions will not save us!

We may say: Oh,  in my religion we don't wear gold, we don't consume pork, we must not work at all on a particular day, we must convert others, we must pray till we sweat, we don't celeberate birthdays, we don't celebrate Easter, we must do pilgrimage etc... All of these are works linked to the dogmas of our religions and will surely make us shine before our religious leaders but not before our Maker!

Paul in his epistles referred to such works and was quoted to have  said that  the "righteousness" based on such works is like "filthy rags!"

This conclusion of Paul however does not apply to works arising from a  heartfelt obedience to God's Primordial Laws! For example,  the Law of Sowing and Reaping is a Law of the Almighty.  Obedience to it is a necessity and will definitely liberate us! In the operation of this particular law, no one can stand in the place of another as each will have to bear the responsibility for what they think,  say and do! There is no escape for anyone except  total repentance! There is  no other way!

We turn around, change  from our evil ways first and then we obtain forgiveness. Works of repentance and works based on obedience to the laws of our Creator are works which are pleasing to God and cannot be compared to a superficial following of  religious dogmas earlier mentioned. It is the dogma based works  which are described as similar to filthy rags.

A clear distinction is hereby made between works that redeem and works that are lifeless and of no effect.

May we all be strengthened to work out our salvation by turning our back on sin forever and adhering in all honesty to the redeeming laws of the Lord of all! Amen.

ARE WOMEN AND MEN EQUALS?

Women need not seek to be equal to men as they already stand higher than any man!

However, there is a need for woman to know her real vocation as a true guide for humanity. Her influence from the home makes her so influential and so powerful. For example it is usually the case that every man aspires to be what the woman in their lives take them to be! What a great influence to wield!

Therefore, competing with men is like going half a step down! Let woman remain at her post and fulfill her Heaven ordained task as Priestess of Purity and peace will reign on this heavily troubled earth!

May women and girls of this earth recognise their high office!