Southgate International

February 27. “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,  the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power”  (Ephesians 1:17-19) Jesus’ coming was to help the suffering humanity and the time has come to clear the rubble of religious, tradition that has obscured the believers understanding of his identity in Christ; a time to re-establish fundamental truths on the bedrocks of the finished, complete work of Christ. Many believers today are being taken  in by the devil’s deception witnessed in teachings that make the believer look like a weakling even though he is seated with Christ in the heavenlies, far above all powers, princip...

February 25. “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12) When God raised Jesus from the dead, you were raised together with Him and now you’re seated together with Christ, “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this word, but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:21). When you became born again not only was your sins forgiven, your position changed eternally. Verse 13 of Colossians 1 says, “who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath TRANSLATED us into the kingdom of his dear son”. Your being translated affected, your nature, position and language. You’re now the righteousness of God; you’re seated where He (Jesus) is seated; and because you’re now a king, your language has changed, you don’t beg when speaking, you don’t appeal when speaking; you issue orders and you command having realized the auth...

  February 24 "… For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4) There’s a way some people think about the kingdom of God, the Gospel of the kingdom and Jesus that’s inconsistent with the complete purpose of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. A lot of people think that He only came to save us from sin and that’s true because the Bible says, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commandeth his love towards u, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). Beyond their salvation, many people are not taught that there’s much more in the kingdom that the coming of Jesus has made possible. The death of Jesus Christ was to handle the issue of sin because the Bible says that the...

February 23. “But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job 32:8) Sidney Poitier, a Bahamian-American, actor, film director, author, and diplomat. In 1964, became the first Bahamian and first black actor to win an academy award for the best actor andthe Golden Globe award for best actor for his role in Lillies of the Field. After his first audition, the casting director told him, “Why don’t you stop wasting people’s time and go out and become a dish washer or something?” But  according to Sidney Poitier, it was at that moment he decided to devote his life to acting. He wasn’t going to let someone else decide his life path. And driven by this resolve, he became a huge success in life. From God’s perspective, you’re lavishly blessed and the word of God says that all things are yours (1 Corinthians 3:21). But too many people are like wheelbarrows, trailers or canoes. They desire to be pushed, pulled or paddled. You’re eith...

February 20. “Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought” (Isaiah 60:11) Beloved, every child of God has a right to be happy and prosperous. But unfortunately, unbeknownst to many believers today, the enemy has launched malicious disinformation campaigns that have effectively enslaved them for years to low self-esteem, self-hatred, guilt, inordinate fears. But today, I want to expose the devil’s lies and to help you see with pristine clarity his deceptive manipulations. As  a child of God, your weapons to overcome the devil’s manipulations and antics are found in the truth of God’s word and they’re mighty and have the power to overthrow and destroy every stronghold that has been built up through disinformation and wrong believing. And the only way we can destroy these strongholds in our mind is by “bringing every thought into captivity t...

  February  21. “Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come” (1 John 16:13) The TLB version of the above verse of the scripture goes thus: “When the Holy spirit, who is truth, comes…. He will tell you about the future”. Beloved, knowing what will become of you in the future is very important and one that is born again ought not to be anxious about the future. But in every place we find people who are afraid of their tomorrow; they are uncertain about their future. Most of the time, this creates a scenario where you see people struggle to succeed, they live trying to merely survive and never reaching the peak of fulfillment. What stifles a great future is your inability to see it because it is what you see that will ultimately determine the size of your life. The moment you can dare to see, that’s the moment th...

February 18. “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available (dynamic in its working)” (James 5:16 Amp) The happenings in our environments and the world over calls for our importunity in prayer. Out of ignorance a lot of people are blaming God for certain occurrences in their lives. But if things must change in the direction of God’s original plans and purposes, then we must keep praying. God knows that there’s no situation a child of His cannot change because the divine power necessary to effect such change is already resident in you; it was deposited in you the moment you became born again. God doesn’t expect you to cry out for help or start complaining but He expects you to enforce your victory in the place of prayer. I Kings 17 tells us of Elijah’s  confrontation with Ahab the king where he said, “… As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my ...

  February 16. “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:22) The revelation communicated in the above verse of the scripture is a reflection of our identity in Christ Jesus.Jesus in the above statement wants us to know that the Father loves us so much and we are same species as Him (James 1:18). Jesus even confirmed this in the next verse when He said, “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:23). The implication of the above truth is that you are not different from Jesus Christ if you’re born again. Jesus is the “First begotten” of the dead (Revelation 1:5). The word “first begotten” is the Greek word “prototokos” and it means prototype, model or sample. It means the every born again child of God is modeled after Christ Jesus. (Not the incarnate Christ but the resurrected Christ)....

                      February 15. “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should SHOW forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9) The Greek word translated “show”in the above scriptureis “kataggello” and it means to declare, announce, and teach. At salvation, the new creation was  delivered from the power of darkness, and had been translated into the very kingdom of God (Colossians 1:13). He now has the extraordinary life called eternal life; the very essence of divinity; the God-kind of life. Apostle John had a unique revelation of what this life meant and gave elaborate teachings on the quality of this life in the believers who are in Christ. In 1 John 5:11-12, he said, “And this is to record that God hath given to us eternal life, and life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life; and he that ha...

                                          February 1 “But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26) The life of the new creation in Christ is transcendent. It’s a life without limits; a life of boundless expression of His glory; a life where nothing can successfully stop you – not even the devil and his cohorts can stop your progress. The Bible tells us how after Jesus resurrected, His disciples were together in a room, and though the doors were shut, the Lord Jesus suddenly came in and stood amongst them. The force of nature was suspended and the supernatural took effect. This year and beyond, natural laws will be violated where you’re concerned and the result would be the manifestation of the miraculous. The Bible sa...

                                                     February 11. “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they…? And why take  ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin! And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”. (Matthew 6:26-29) Some years back, I made up mind to live a stress-free life. I came to the realization that one can live stresslessly successful in life; I discovered that toiling is not part of God’s plan for His children. The birds never struggle for food, even though they neither sow nor gather into barns. God has said in His word that whatsoever we chose to do will prosper (Psalm 1:3). And th...

                                                   Sunday 10. “That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus” (Philemon 1:6) God’s divine pronouncement upon man affirms that He created man for outstanding success. In Genesis 1:26-27, the Bible says, “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it… ” The above verses of the Bible shows that every child of God is wired with potentials to succeed in life and impact his generation for God. But to be able to f...

Saturday 9. ”And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” (Colossians 1:21-22) The new creation has been justified – he will not be justified but has already been justified and that is why he stands before God holy, unblameable and unreproveable. He is not justified by his abilities but by God’s grace hence his boast can only be in the Lord – His grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). This makes your journey in life as a Christian that of honour and unending display of His glory and splendor. What the law couldn’t do, Christ did  it in redemption thereby making your acceptance in Him a thing that only Him can do and not what you can do because you have no ability to save yourself at all. There is nothing law has to offer in your justification as a child of God. It is a simple faith in Christ Jesus that brings justific...

Friday 8. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemeth? It is Christ that died….” (Romans 8:33-34) Some people see God as a judge who is always waiting for you to make mistake so he can strike; they see God as a judge who has exacting demands on man; they see God as one who is mad at them because of their mistakes and as long as they keep repeating those mistake, they remain in the bad books of God. In fact, I have heard some people say they are failing because God is mad at them. Beloved, the truth is that as a believer, God does not bring any charge against you, instead he justifies you because of the blood of His son. Our theme verses affirms this truth as it makes us to know that the one who has the right to condemn us, chose instead to die for us and through that sacrificial death of His, we’re now justified. To justify means to approve or to declare someone upright or to be declared right. It is a word used...

                                                February 7 ”Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is: For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8) Our theme verse is a description of the life of the new creation; he is blessed and ordained to be productive and effective. His success and prosperity is a product of his nature and not based on his location, colour, stature or who he knows or who he doesn’t know. He’s blessed by reason of his “in Christ” status. He’s been chosen and ordained to bring forth results and that his results should remain. A brother had a desire to build a house and he happens to be s...

February 6. “ Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours” (1 Corinthians 3:21) It's 1 Corinthians 6:17  thatsays “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit”, affirms the fact that the new creation is one spirit with Christ; Christ is the head and you’re the body and the head and the body cannot be separated – they are one. So you cannot say that God sees Christ as righteous and sees the body (you) differently; you cannot say that Christ is rich in all things and then see the body (the new creation) differently. Hebrews 2:11which says, “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” shows us that the measure of Jesus’ acceptance by God is the same measure of your acceptance by God. What Jesus is before God, the Father that’s exactly who and what you are before God too (1 John 4;17). The realization of this and the full recognition of same is what aids the dispensin...

February 4. “ There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His”.  (Hebrews 4:9-10) In the above verse of the Bible, its important to know that the phrase “For he that is entered into his rest…” is referring to the rest in Christ. When you became born again, you entered into your rest. So there’s nothing as “year of rest” or “month of rest” as I hear some people say ignorantly. The rest is not for the physical body, it is rest for our souls. Christ is our rest and at salvation when He came into your heart, you entered into your rest; you entered into a struggle – free zone-where you cease to struggle or toil for anything. This is because you’re now wherethe fullness of God is manifestly evident. You’re where everything required for success and the good life has been lavishy made available. Hence, you don’t have to struggle anymore, for you’ve entered into God’s rest; ...

                                            February 3. “He who comes from above (heaven) is (far) above all (others); he who comes from the earth belongs to the earth, and talks the language of earth (his words are from an earthly standpoint). He who comes fromheaven  is (far) above all others (far superior to all others in prominence and in excellence). It is to what He has (actually) seen and heard that he bears testimony, and yet no one, accept His testimony (no one receives His evidence as true)”. (John 3:31-32). The above verses of the scripture is the beautiful description of you as a new creation. You’re from heaven, and by implication are far superior to all other creatures in prominence and excellence. But many have not come to the  realization of this truth. As a believer, you should understand that this natural world has been subjected to the influ...

February 1st “Are not five sparrows sold for two cooper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more valuable than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7) Everyday, we as children of God are bombarded with issues that try to put us down. There are news of conflicts, natural disasters, diseases and many are losing their loved ones in freak circumstances. And we’re templed to ask ourselves, ”Is there a safe place in this world?” Yes, we’re preserved in Christ because in Him we live, move and have our being (Acts 17:28). God has promised in His word that He will never leave us, nor forsake us (Hebrew 13:5). God has promised to take care of every area of our lives. He is interested in both the “big things” and the “small things” in our lives. He loves us so much that He wants to take care of every area our lives, even the smallest detail. The Amplified version of Hebrews 13:5 is very revealing as it show that we can never b...