The Divine and the Alternative

Introduction: My Father Rev. Olusola Areogun said that God once told him that if he is only seeking God to receive riches from Him (God) that the devil can equally give him the same riches…there is a choice of whom to receive from. I thank God that he chose God not just richies and he is now not only blessed but he also a blessing unto many. I am one of the beneficiaries of the correct choice he made.

Let us never forget that there is no sorrow added to what God gives. Amen!

From the introduction we can gather that for what is Divine there is also an alternative.

Alternatives, Alternates, Alter, Altered…

I was talking with my wife not too long ago about alternatives, that if we looked back through our journey in Christ and to where we are now under the life transforming and destiny fulfilling ministrations of Rev. Olusola and Mummy Rev. Oyenike Areogun; it has been an upward and forwards battle against alternatives.

For every choice we have had to make there was the option of going with God in faith, or going to a man to bail us out. Where we had chosen the alternative, we recounted how we were severely burnt by it and how it took us a while to recover. Had we continued down the path of alternatives, had God not shown us mercy and ordered our steps aright we would not have gotten to where we are today.

The battle against alternatives has long since existed even in the biblical-times and in the general human history till date.

The choice to do what you want or to do what is right has long been in existence.

In Genesis 2, God created the man and the woman and placed them in the most beautiful place ever and gave them all they needed to be the best they could be. The serpent possessed with the spirit of the devil came and offered an alternate reality which looked harmless, progressive and positive. The offer of being a better being than what God had made them to be. The serpent said to the woman: your eyes will open and your knowledge and awareness will be heightened. And it is written “when she saw…”.

An alternative is received not just when one is doing the act or living it, it begins from the change of your perception. The choice we make to do evil and not good is first a change of perception; the consideration that maybe the evil one is about to do is not that bad and the base analogy that probably others would have done much worse.

Or it could be that you always have a way of justifying why you have to do the evil you did.
Have you ever heard yourself saying, “I had no other choice”? But if you were being really truthful, you did had options, but you went with the easier, juicer, flesh satisfying…alternative option.

Proverbs 9:17 Expanded Bible (EXB) 17 Stolen water is sweeter, and food eaten in secret tastes better.”

Alternatives may look better but would always offer you something lesser than the best. 

It seems logical and pleasurable but in righteousness it is evidently wrong.

An alternate destiny will never bring a man into fulfilment like his True and Divine Destiny would.

So, has we’ve read in Genesis 3: Eve ate the fruit from the forbidden tree and gave also to her husband Adam who was with her. He ate it and their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked and they were ashamed…

Genesis 3:7 New King James Version (NKJV)
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves [a]coverings.

But we read in the previous Chapter that they had always been naked but were not ashamed. 

Genesis 2:25 New King James Version (NKJV) 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

So, what changed? An altered state of spirit and mind? That should highlight to us something about alternatives; it is never experienced the same way as it initially seemed, it is never what was promised.

They were offered the promise of an awareness, a knowledge that would equate them to God. Suddenly the fruit that had no attraction became desirable. Was it really the fruit or the damned offer that made the fruit attractive? I assure you of this truth No true wisdom comes through disobedience to God:

Genesis 3:2-6 New King James Version (NKJV) 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;

The seemingly desirable awareness only brought shame, it caused them to behave irrationally.
An awareness that made them hide from their Creator. Have you ever considered how absurd that behaviour was? They hid from the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing, the All-Seeing, their Creator and life-giver, the Creator of Heaven and earth? What an absurdity, …what a madness for anyone to think that they can hide from God!

They ended up being thrown out of the garden of bliss and copious supplies into the alternative lifestyle that came with choosing what God had not chosen for them, an alternative destiny.

Whom you choose to obey becomes your god. Satan became the god of this world after the fall of Adam and Eve through disobedience. From the protection of God, they moved into unprotected territories of dealing with the god of alternate destinies and choices, satan even had the ordersity to take over their son Cain and pushed him to murder his own brother (Abel).

2 Corinthians 4:4 King James Version (KJV) 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

O but the awesomeness of our God and Father. He would not allow the onslaught of alternative destiny to cut His children off from Him and His perfect plan. He established a path back into His glorious Divine Destiny for us.

Rev Olusola Areogun in one his teachings said that the two most powerful things on earth is the will of God and the will of man. God gave man the will to make a decision and to make a choice. The same will is not available to Angels even in all their glory and strength. The devil is aware of that fact and he knows all he has to do to trap man is to make man choose the alternative, make man submit his will to him (satan) and come short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23-26 King James Version (KJV)
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

But Praise God! As part of His Divine involvement He paid the price of Grace through Christ Jesus to bring as many as would choose the Divine Destiny over the alternative course that the devil set Adam and Eve and their off-springs (the original sin) and bring all back into the Divine Destiny initially planned and purposed for man.

John 14:6 New King James Version (NKJV)
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Acts 4:12 New King James Version (NKJV) 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

John 3:16 New King James Version (NKJV)
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

“Jesus” The Way The Truth and Life. There is no other name given by which man can be saved. For God So Loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Whosoever believes is an offer to make a decision for a Divine Destiny or to continue on the path of the damned alternative, the way that seems right unto men trapped by the devil of which destruction is the final destination.

The Lure of the Alternative

So why are many still choosing the alternative over the genuine, which is the correct, the right, the accurate, the precise and the Divine?

It is in the packaging of the alternative satanic-crafted and tailored to look and sound and feel suitable to the prey by the Predator (devil, doer-of-evil). The devil has been in the game for a long time. Rev. Olusola Areogun would warn us not to call the devil stupid nor to think him not smart. 

1. The alternative is made more acceptable and more normal.

2. The alternative does not require the soundness of righteousness nor the diligent work of faith.

3. The alternative does not make you wait.

Observe this though, instant coffee, instant popcorn, microwaving and such, you faster preparation but sacrifice authenticity.

Or you may think that you can pay for sex, and or consider yourself matured for it and or think it should be part of the package of dating, so press to have it now for the pleasure of it, damning the consequences. Why wait till after marriage.

Go get money now at all cost, why work for it, why trust God for it: the end justifies the means.

4. The alternative does not need God’s involvement. You get to do it your own way, how you like it under the guidance of satan. The alternative makes you feel good in yourself, that you are doing all by yourself and so you have the right to glorify yourself, “glory be to you!”.

The alternative is about the I-consciousness – I-know, I-aware, I-smart, I did it before and I can do it again, I am that I am – at the same level with God, and so I can deny His existence. People in this entrapment are the devil’s I-fools.

The same Foley that caused the fall of satan and condemned him forever is being offered to man and most do not know it.

Isaiah 14:12-14 English Standard Version (ESV) 12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

Only a fool says in His heart that there is no God and the most damned is one who knows that there is God but would seek to put himself in the same place of Power and Might as God.

The delusion that the alternative destiny is better can only be broken by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the Salvation and Lordship of Jesus Christ. You must be born again into the life set on the path of the fulfilment of Divine Destiny.

An alternative is a demonic entrapment. A strategy that the devil has mastered through the years:

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 King James Version (KJV) 3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Satan the God of this world has blinded the minds of many with alternatives (the ways that seems right) and makes thus making the Genuine/Divine unattractive to those who are perishing.

The alternative is to prevent those who are not yet in Christ from escaping the camp of the devil – like a cow being fattened up for the day of slaughter. “The end thereof is destruction”.

Luke 15:11-24 New King James Version (NKJV) The Parable of the Lost Son
11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons.
12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So, he divided to them his livelihood.
13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with [a]prodigal living.
14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the [b]pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,
19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, [c]‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
23 And bring the fattened calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry;
24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.

The prodigal son chose an alternative destiny, he did not just take his inheritance unlawfully and before time, he also chose independence – that his father should have no more say in His life.

It initially felt great to live life without discipline or self-control. As always, this alternative life, path and destiny fizzled out and he was brought so low that he found himself feeding from the trough of pigs. And if he had not awoken from the delusion, had he not realised the fault in the alternate path he had chosen…no doubt he probably would have died shamefully. Praise God he returned to his father just as a repentant sinner by the conviction of the Holy Spirit and through Grace in Christ Jesus is made right with God must.

The prodigal son in returning home was warmly received by his father with celebration, a cleansing, a change of attire… restored. He was back on the path of is genuine destiny. Although time had been wasted.

In coming to Christ confessing and believing Him as Lord and Saviour there is an immediate and progressive change, a closer walk with God, a deeper intimacy, a brighter revelation of God’s Word.

“Divine destiny is God’s design and man’s discovery. Thus, to discover destiny, mankind must be in good terms with the Designer. Therefore, salvation (being born-again is the incontrovertible entry point into destiny. Divine destiny is only relevant in the life of a believer who is genuinely born again” – Rev. Olusola Areogun

Are you born-again? Do you want to be born-again? 

Then pray this prayer with all sincerity: Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I know that I’m a sinner and cannot save myself. But Jesus died for me, He shed His blood that I might be saved, today I accept Jesus as my personal Lord and saviour, forgive me all my sins, wash me with your blood and make me whole. I forsake the devil, the world and all sinful habits, I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is my Lord. Father I thank you because you have saved me in Jesus name. Amen.

If you have said that prayer, I congratulate you “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”(Ephesians 2:8-9) and I want to encourage to please visit www.lifeoasisinternationalchurch.org  to access very important resources for your growth and development in your new life in Christ Jesus. It is vital that you start attending a Bible Believing Church. Should you be led to join the Dream Centre Church the Church I am a member of under the ministry of my father and mother in the Lord, Rev. Olusola and Rev, Mrs. Oyenike Areogun; which has the mandate from God “to help men achieve their God given dreams”; Please Ensure you complete the online First-timers-form: www.lifeoasisinternationalchurch.org  with your details and an ordained Pastor would contact you really soon.

Welcome to the family of God beloved! Also, note that as you are now born-again you are qualified to be baptised in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Speak to the Dream Centre Pastor about what to do next.

Remain blessed!

The Message Bearer
Cornelius Bella