Where Are You From?

People always like to ask me this question a lot or try to tell me that “I am from so-and-so country.” This particular answer began to trouble my mind a while ago when I began to become aware of the implications.

No, you are not African, not Jamaican, not British, not German, not American, not Asian, simply not from this world, but Heaven. Let me explain.

When people hear this they think it is some Albanian joke or a rioting imagination at work. It is none of the above. It is simply the truth. A truth dug out of a dumbed mindset that this world has sold humanity.

Environmental Association
Your destiny is determined by its association. Association with the dead will make you a dead person. Association with Hell will help you towards the place. Association with pigs will help you live like one. In fact, association with death will speed up your going to the grave!

Association with heaven will influence your mindset. It will shape your attitude and thinking. But it is not just about the association, this is about the truth.

You need to question the fact that you are “born again”. Reborn from what? Where were you before? Into what are you born? Some who used to be smokers, but have stopped smoking call themselves “born again”. Some others who used to be involved in some bad habit and have stopped say they are born again. And we are not talking about any relationship with Christ.

When we are born again, everything changes. Yes, EVERYTHING! You see, these are things they should be teaching us in the churches as early as possible.

At that very early stage of our conversion into Christ, our minds should be transformed and our thought pattern should be switched completely. This would reduce the amount of time it takes for a believer to reach maturity in Christ.

We are born again into a NEW family. This family is heavenly. We became citizens of heaven, ambassadors of a new country or kingdom that is not so well known nor understood in this world.

The country is Heaven. And you are a prince from there as well. You represent the King, a Sovereign state with an innumerable number of angels ready to attend to the citizens of that country. The King there is the King of all kings, His country’s power supersedes all other countries and it the most powerful nation ever!

This is not a figment of imagination, but the truth and very real matter. Heaven is not ephemeral, but a real place. It is not just a place that people visit in dreams and visions, it is a real place with things that are superior to what we see in this earthly realm.

Simply because we are reading about it in a book called the Bible does not make it artificial or fake or a fabled place. It is as natural as your bed or as seeing a road that leads to your house or a mountain in your countryside.

If this was not true then the Bible is a lie and full of falsehood. If not a lie, then there is a problem somewhere. It is either I don’t believe it and my thinking is completely dumb or I believe it with every fibre of my whole being without a shadow of doubt.

When John was asked, “Who are you?” He answered and gave them the truth, “He said quite openly and straightforwardly, I am not the Christ.” Then they tried to help him define who exactly he was and because they kept making the wrong suggestions, he answered, “I am not”.

Finally, out of exasperation, he told them the truth. “He said, I am the voice of one crying in the waste land, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet.” [John 1:23 BBE]

Jesus never doubted where He came from or His nationality. “I am from above” (John 8:23), He would always say. But was He not born by Mary? Yes, he was, but His association and belief system was very different because He knew (or believed) that He would be the firstborn among the dead.

His association was with the God of the living, with the power of resurrection, with those who would rise from the dead. With life!

The family heritage by which you associate yourself is what you will possess. If you associate yourself with an earthly family that is riddled with the holes of poverty and sicknesses, don’t be surprised if you are living in poverty and being sick all the time.

Family Association?
You may have been born in Jamaica at your FIRST birth, but that man is dead. You are now a new man. This new man has a new life and it is predestined to be just like the One who gave Himself for it (Ephesians 1:11). Old things are passed away all things must be new. Does this mean you must deny relatives and people around you and become a nuisance? Of course not.

You are to relate with them as a representative of God. Love them, respect them, care for them, help and do all the good things and MORE for them, but there is a demarcation. There is a line that must be defined.

“My mother and brothers and sisters and friends are those who do the will of God,” that is what Jesus said in Mark 3:35. And Jesus KNEW God was my Father. He was not joking or trying to score points, He meant what He said because it is the truth. He could never tell a lie (Hebrews 6:18).

Then why are you different from Jesus? Were you not born by Him? What did He say in Isaiah 8:18? “Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.” This is either true or false. It cannot be both.

You say, but that is spiritually and not a physical thing. Then I ask you, what is the composition of your physical reality? Matter, particles, atoms, etcetera. How much of the atoms can you see? Are you invisible because you are made up of atoms? No. But you are made up of invisible things. The invisible things that make up your reality are they not visible to you? Ask yourself this, “What makes these things visible to me?”

The more you look into the physical things the more of its true invisibility you will see. And the more you look into the invisible things the more of its true physicality you will see.

Beloved of God, I want you to really see this in your spirit. If all your previous physical generations – grandpa, great grandma, and so on – were to rise up from the dead today, who among them would be referred to as the eldest?

They came at different times into the world. None would be the eldest but all would be like brothers and sisters. Just like we can’t say that Abraham would be younger than Noah or older than David. They are all brothers alike in the Kingdom. And you would be a brother to your son and also to your dad. Radical? No, that is just the way it is in the Kingdom. God is the Father of us all.

In the Kingdom, Elijah is brother to David or Abraham or Ruth. Not bigger nor smaller. Yes, we all have our varying glory, but we are all brothers and sisters.

Yes, some people are going to have a problem with this subject because they can’t understand it, which is unfortunate.

Solomon wrote, “For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.” [Proverbs 8:7]

You cannot continue to see things in the way the world sees things. You must know that you are different. In John 15:19, it is written, “If you had anything in common with the world, the world would love you as one of its own. But you don’t have anything in common with the world. I chose you from the world, and that’s why the world hates you.”

Again, that scripture is either true or false. You either have things in common with the world or not. He said you were CHOSEN FROM the world, from that country, and are given new citizenship. That is what it means to be “born again”.

If we are to experience the fullness of Christ within ourselves we must also recognise that these other countries by which we are called have “entrenched in them great strongholds of hindrances, problems, bondages, evil practices, discouragements, fears, misperceptions, carnal ideas and concepts, fleshly desires, habits, limitations, sin, sickness, and death — all entrenched enemies of  the realization of the mind, nature, victory and power of Christ. We are no threat to them until we begin our march to possess our inheritance!”

That possession begins with association and proclamation. Possession of heaven does not start with physical death as most people believe. It begins from the moment you become born again. You are born into a new place.

The root word of that confession (homologeō), says a covenant is being made by what you say. “Take for us the foxes, the little foxes, which do damage to the vines; our vines have young grapes.” [Songs of Solomon 2:15]. The confession of citizenship is part of the little foxes (imperfections) in our belief system and perception of reality. This has to be corrected.

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” [Proverbs 23:7] Paul explained, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (possession).” [Romans 10:10] A man possesses what he confesses.

Whatever Adam Named Them
Just as Adam named all the things God created and whatever he called them was their name. So many “born again” people are bearing names God did not call them today. They were named by another ungodly person or idol worshipper, who probably died as a sinner. African, Ghanaian, Nigerian, South African, American, Togolese, French, English, etc.

In Africa, for example, the colonial masters divided the land with pen and paper and named them as such as they wined and dined. Flora Shaw, also known as Lady Lugard, gave Nigeria its current name and a typical person born in that land, though born again, still calls himself a Nigerian. Who is supreme to you? Lady Lugard or Jesus Christ?

If you say it is Jesus Christ, why do you struggle or are ashamed to call yourself Heavenly? Flora Shaw did not die for you yet you are excited to stick the colonial name she gave you on your forehead, “I’m Nigerian” and are proud of it. Is that not sad in its reality?

Which one is more real? Nigeria or Heaven? Which one carries a superior value? America or Heaven? Have you seen Heaven abandon her citizens? All you need to do is see in Isaiah 37:36 what ONE angel can do on behalf of its citizens!

Ghana was surnamed by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Dr. J.B. Danquah. Zimbabwe was named Rhodesia by Mr. Cecil Rhodes who treated the country like his company. Then you are very proud to call yourself a Zimbabwean? A Jamaican? An American? A Mexican? Did Jesus call you that?

“A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.” [Proverbs 16:10] Are you not a king and a priest unto the Lord? Are your lips not supposed to be divine, speaking as an oracle of God?

So, I ask you again, “Where are you from?”

Let us hear the conclusion from the Lord Jesus, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” [John 13:17]

I hope you get it.