Living Under The Influence

By Kwaku Agyeman

No retrograde habit or character trait is immune to the transformative influence of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. If you need help in overcoming a weakness or character deficiency that is taking the joy out of your life, the Word of God is your remedy. The Word of God has an immeasurable ability to effect the change it talks about. No matter the state of affairs in your life, the Word is well able to bring about change that will put you back on track. The Word can bring you out of a crisis if you find yourself in one. It is sad to see people who have no business experiencing hardship, find themselves in that position. Some people endure hardship because the devil convinces them that a 'good life' is a contradiction to the will of God. They endure hardship to showcase their 'humility and submission to God's will'. But God doesn't wish to see you live an impoverished life. His declared wish for your life is the exact opposite of poverty and deprivation. God desires that you experience grace and abundance in all things that pertain to your life. When you live under the influence of His Word, that's what you are guaranteed to experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kwaku Agyeman
• Release date: Dec 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370546145

Kwaku Agyeman

Kwaku Agyeman is a teacher of the Word of God by grace and calling. He is also a Family and Life counsellor and a graduate of Central University's School of Theology & Missions. He has a real passion for teaching and motivating people through the Word of God. He describes his heart's desire as seeing people overcome poverty and sickness through the knowledge of God's Word.

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Chapter 1

Why You Need The Word

When you engage the Word of God sufficiently, it will transform your life no matter how imperfect into one worthy of good mention. It is God’s desire that we live under the positive influence of His Word. Living under the influence of the Word will cause your life to reflect the beautiful life of Christ and help you appropriate His grace.

People are inherently good because we are all created in the image and likeness of God. However in the course of life, the social setting a person is exposed to and the situations he or she experiences can influence their behaviour along a paradigm in opposition to God. But the Word of God can help a person who goes off track to chart their way back to the paths or righteousness. God has given His Word to influence the behaviour of man in a manner that will help him prosper in all things through Christ.

No bad habit or character trait is immune to the influence of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. There are people who are at their wits end over ‘failings’ in their lives they would love to change but are unable to do so. The good news is that there is an ‘Agent of change’ that can make a difference in that regard. The Agent of change is the Word of God. The Word has an immeasurable ability to effect the change it talks about. No matter the state of affairs in your life, the Word is well able to bring about change that will put you back on track.

If you find yourself in some sort of crisis the Word can bring you out of it. It’s sad to see people who have no business experiencing hardship, find themselves in that position. Some people endure hardship because the devil manages to convince them that a ‘good life’ is a contradiction to the will of God.

Others choose to live destitute lives to showcase their ‘humility and submission to God's will’. But God doesn't wish to see you live an impoverished life. His declared wish for your life is the exact opposite of poverty and deprivation. He desires that you experience grace and abundance in all things that pertain to your life.

3 John 1:2

Beloved, I pray that you prosper in all things and be in health

Just as your soul prospers

God desires that you prosper in all things - finances, relationships, health and endeavours. When you prosper you reflect His glory, that's why He desires prosperity for you. To be poor, sick and deprived is a poor reflection on the God who is mighty in all things and the creator of all. Deprivation brings Him no pleasure and He demands no such sacrifice from you. Jesus already made that sacrifice and God’s eternally satisfied with that.

Know that if you fail to shine in any area of your life, God is not glorified. You don’t put God to the test or stretch His resources by seeking to shine. That's His expectation of you. How can people recognize and acknowledge the greatness of God if His children are poor, sick and deprived? People need to see and seek for themselves the glory that envelopes citizens of the Kingdom of God. Consequently He gave His Word (Book of Inheritance) so you would study and apply His format for shining in life.

It's not okay to be ordinary and irrelevant because it amounts to throwing God's investment in your life back in His face. God went to great trouble to set you up for a great life. And you fulfill this by living under the influence of His Word. The beauty of this glorious life is that you pay nothing to enjoy it. Jesus has done all the work. Yours is just to accept and believe what His Word says and have access to this life granted you.

People are challenged by the simplicity of salvation because it promises so much but requires nothing to attain it. It's easy to doubt how so much can be obtained in one's life without having to pay for it. But that's the defining nature of God. His greatness is revealed in the seemingly ‘simple and foolish things’ He employs to achieve complex and comprehensive results.

To appropriate what God promises, all He desires is for you to fill your heart with His Word and keep your eyes unwaveringly focused on it. When you do that, the dynamic power inherent in the Word is released to transform your circumstances to mirror the promise you focus on.

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord

Are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory

Just as by the Spirit of the Lord

Proverbs 4:20-22

My son, give attention to my words

Incline your ear to my sayings

Do not let them depart from your eyes

Keep them in the midst of your heart

For they are life to those who find them 

And health to all their flesh

The Word of God is an effective resource for resolving all forms of life situations. Don’t fail to embrace this resource in the face of challenges. Your failure to do so will result in needless suffering because the remedy to all human ills is available in the Word.

The influence of alcohol and narcotic substances impairs people’s ability to function effectively. But under the influence of the Word, the ability of people to function efficiently in all they do is IMPROVED. The Word of God is the source of all wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Hence anything done under the influence of the Word will be done well and guaranteed to be a blessing.

Believers are required to LIVE UNDER THE INFLUENCE (LUI) of the Word of God. It's not an optional lifestyle but the only way one can enjoy the blessings and benefits freely made available by God. No other way exists to access and enjoy the blessings of the Most High God.

One of the names I use for my Bible is ‘The Book of Inheritance’. Which in fact is what the Bible really is - a book about one’s inheritance in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ

Acts 20:32

So now brethren I commend you to God 

And to the word of His grace which is able to build you up

And give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified

The Word of God is the source of life itself. Hence it's imperative you don't allow your Bible to become a stranger to you. Don't only get acquainted with your Bible when it’s time to attend church. It should be your constant companion and easily accessible to you at all times. For most people the one thing within reach at all times is their mobile phone. It’s good to be within reach of a phone call. But for the child of God the Word should be the most accessible thing at all times.

Don't be embarrassed to carry your Bible wherever you go. I used to be embarrassed doing this when I was a baby Christian but I'm not any longer. You may get queer looks and be scoffed at for carrying a Bible. But that shouldn’t embarrass you. You should be proud carrying a Bible as a king is wearing his crown on his head. The ‘embarrassment’ is the devil’s idea. It’s a pathetic attempt to separate you from the Word.

There are people attached to oxygen tanks wherever they go because of the respiratory challenges they face. They need to have the oxygen handy because without it they can't breathe on their own. For you as a believer, the Word of God is oxygen for your spirit man. Without it ‘he’ can't breathe effectively on his own. Your spirit man can't function and showcase the glory of God as well as God intends without the ‘oxygen’ the Word provides.

Don't attend church without your Bible. Church attendance is all about the Word. Everything else is secondary. You don't attend church only because you sing in the choir or usher members and visitors to their seats. Serving in the House of God in any capacity is great and a blessing. But your appointment with the Word comes before everything else. Don’t only carry you Bible everywhere but make sure to study it.

You will not experience a significant impact of God's grace on your life with a limited amount of time devoted to Bible study. Don’t limit your Bible study to the one hour you spend in church on Sundays. Spending an hour a week in the Word is inadequate to say the least. In some instances even this limited amount of Bible study time isn’t achieved because of the failure to attend church. If you spend an hour in the Word once a week on Sundays, that works out to only one out of the 168 hours available in a week. When this happens you cede to the ‘world system’ and its master (the devil) 167 hours every week to influence you.

The devil is thus gifted with more than enough time to ‘work on you’ with fear-driven ‘breaking news stories’ from the media, spiritually corrupting and sexually suggestive movies, soap operas, anxiety heightening statistics on the poor state of the global economy and revelations of impending terrorist attacks.

If you fail to make it to church once at least once a week, even the paltry amount of time devoted to Bible study doesn’t happen. So you end up leaving the devil with all the 168 hours available in a week to ‘define’ your world with corrupt content. When you inadvertently allow the devil to feed you on a diet of spiritually corrupting content much of the time, that’s what influences you.

The Word In You Should Be Greater Than The World In You

The Word of God is your source of life. You were generated from it and you are kept alive by it. Your life is inseparably tied up to the Word, just like a branch to the tree from which it receives life. There is no life in a branch once it’s cut off from the tree to which it was attached. That's how God has designed it. To separate yourself from the Word is to separate yourself from your source of life.

John 15:4-5, 7

Abide In Me and I in you

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine

Neither can you unless you abide in me

I am the vine, you are the branches

He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit

For without Me you can do nothing

If you abide in Me and My words abide in you

You will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you

Jesus Christ is the Word of God become flesh. And that makes you the Word of God in the flesh also, because you were ‘born again’ through the Word. The seed from which you were spiritually reborn is the incorruptible Word of God.

1 Peter 1:23

Having been born again

Not of corruptible seed but incorruptible

Through the word of God which lives and abides forever

Let the Word of God dwell in you richly. A substantial amount of the Word needs to be ‘present in you’ to counteract the lies the devil consistently endeavours to convince you with. When you fail