Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. [Luke 3:8]


“...Fruits worthy of repentance…”

There is only one message to preach in preparing the way of The Lord: This is the message of repentance. The coming Lord is not going to plant His seeds on hardened soils, His efforts will result in futility because it is clear that nothing will penetrate the ground. If the hearts of men are not first broken up, whatever Jesus wants to sow into their lives will be a waste, and the only thing that breaks the hearts of men is the message of repentance. Jesus is not asking men to continue in their normal ways, and that such is how He will add to them blessings, no. There must be a change of heart, and a definite turn around.

Today, many Johns are not preparing the way of The Lord. They may be shouting and preaching, but since there is no repentance message on their lips, neither is the repentance and conversion of men their passion, they are only making a crooked path for The Lord, and men will only change their styles, there will be no divine touch upon them.

Unless a man has repented, whatsoever sacrifices, gifts or offerings he may be giving, they are all odious unto God. God is not foolish, He is not mocked. He cannot be bribed with sacrifices of goods, money, praises, prayers, fastings, commitments or labours. Whatsoever must appear before Him must be clean. He is not so much interested first in the gifts, He is more concerned about the giver. He is not wowed by the presents, He first checks the manner, the nature and the cleanliness of the vessels that are offering Him the presents/service. If the vessel is marred, dirty or stinking, be sure that no matter what is offered in that vessel, no matter the quality or the value of the content, the vessel has already contaminated it. Can a man give freshly cooked eggs, but with polluted, filthy, putrid hands to someone, will it be acceptable?

It is not the nature of any sacrifice (per-se) that determines how acceptable it is before God, rather, it is the nature of the giver. God accepted the offerings and sacrifices of Abel, but He rejected that of Cain. Why? Is God a tyrant?, must I get and offer exactly what Abel got before I can be acceptable unto God? If I am a mechanic, must I change my profession to that of a cattle reader or a Shepherd like Abel, so that I can have animals to sacrifice to God like Abel? Does God have more respect to those cattle rearers (nomads) than He does for farmers and teachers? Is God more particular about me being a clergyman than a teacher in the classroom? Why would God reject a man based on what he has to offer to Him? Of course, it was not the items in Cain's offering list that disqualified him, it was not that he offered rotten apples or expired fruits that made God turned His eyes on him, no, it was his own personal inner life and inner vessel that was rotten, therefore, no matter what he offered as a polluted, sinful man, it was useless and a bunch of garbage before God. Even if Cain offered exactly the items that Abel presented, and Abel gave to God the exact items that Cain gave, Abel will still be accepted while Cain will be rejected.

That a man is a pastor is not what qualifies and grants him constant access to God, it is the inner state of his life that determines his acceptability before the throne of grace before God will consider his offerings. Your sacrifice is odious to God if your vessel is odious, it is the altar that sanctifies the gift, it is not the gift that God is looking for, but the giver. The altar is your heart, and YOU determine whether your sacrifice is acceptable or not.

Many people say that it was because Cain offered fruits that his offerings were rejected. They say that Cain's offerings were not a "living" offering, because it had no blood for atonement..., but the Bible never said or insinuated that. If Cain brought the best of lively flocks, his best would still have been stinking before God because it came from a polluted life. The Bible simply told us that God had no respect unto CAIN (first) AND (next) TO HIS OFFERING, so the rottenness of Cain was the rottenness of his offering even if the offering smelled nice.

Relationship with God is NEVER a mechanical activity. It is NEVER based on rules and regulations. Being acceptable before God is not an issue of dogma or doctrine, it is that of life. The church is getting confused today, thinking and propagating that a man's blessings are tied to the giving of his tithes and monetary offerings to God. We are beginning to explain bountiful giving as the quantity of goods and money a man releases to the church, but no, what makes a gift worthy, invaluable and bountiful is the heart that gave it, not the quantity, size, bigness, beauty or the physical worth of what is given. That you paid huge tithe does not mean God sees or accepts it. That your hands are full of offerings before God (in church) is not what God is looking for. He needs a full heart instead. You cannot offer the sacrifices of fools and expect to be accepted, God is not a beggar as many of us have presented Him today.

Worshiping God is not physical, it's not about how beautiful the church is, it's not about how much I brought in tithes - physical, it is a relationship with Jesus. We are beginning to encourage churchianism without godliness. Our emphasis is no more God but church. That the church accepted your offerings and even heaped so much praises and blessings on you, does not mean that God has accepted you. Much of our religion has blocked God out and we never seek to please God anymore because we're thinking that church is enough.

These Israelites came to the water with their religious regalia, thinking that having a touch of the water on their bodies would satisfy God, but God was not interested in that, He wanted a relationship, an encounter with Him.


"...God is able of these stones to raise up children..."

Those people that we call stones, those that we have concluded that they can never be saved: the adamant and hard-hearted men, who have nothing to do with The Lord Jesus, Bible here says that "God" is able to raise unto Himself children from these. It is God who saves men. It is His blood alone that is capable of transforming the vilest offender. My singular duty is simply to call on Him and to introduce the sinner unto Him, He will perfect the rest.

Sometimes, you have gathered some people together, by your judgment, you look at them and conclude, "can anything good come out of Nazareth?", your idea about them is that they cannot be used mightily of God. Maybe you check and discover that several of them are school dropouts, illiterates, slow in grasping issues, men who don't have deep understanding of spiritual things… Some others may lack fire, they may be prayerless, they appear so cold, dry and slow..., and eventually you conclude that these are hard stones, you conclude that trying to crack them is a waste of energy and life..., but God here is saying that HE is able of these dead, hardened stones to raise up unto Himself children - vibrant soulwinners, fiery Pauls and Peters.