Translated: Learning What was and What is

Translated: : to bear, remove, or change from one place, state, form, or appearance to another : TRANSFER, TRANSFORM  translate ideas into action, to convey to heaven or to a nontemporal condition without death

Imagine that you were living in Lagos, Nigeria. You went to the office one day and you got an offer from an investor who asked you to resign your job and join his own firm in Abuja

You considered the offer, discussed with friends and family, prayed about it and decided to take the offer

When you told the investor your decision, he goves you a letter of employment and you sign it and then he told you he needed you to resume immediately

Your former office had a policy of notice of resignation in which you give them a month’s notice before you can leave or you pay them a month’s worth of your salary but your new employer had taken care of this by crediting your account with the amount you needed so that you can walk out of your contract without any delay

When you got to your office after taking the offer, what do you do?

You write a letter stating clearly that you would be resigning your position in that office with immediate effect, you go to the accounting department to pay your way out of your contract and then you pack your belongings and say goodbye.

You have walked away from this old company physically, mentally, materially, psychologically and completely. Your terms of engagement with this company has become invalid, your contract with them terminated

The only things you can have of the company that may not be easy to leave behind is the memory, either fond or not. You can also have the experience you gained from that office, either good or bad but you cannot resume in that office as a staff the following day! 

You have left it behind.

You can no longer ise the business card, letter headed papaer, seal, file, official car and name of this old company. The moment you left them, you have relinquished your rights and obligations to them

The next day you resume in a new office, with a different set of people, under the leadership of a new boss. You get a new business cars, a new official car, new business card etc

You have essentially been translated from one office to the other!

However, some people do not honour their contracts as they ought to, they would have left the old company but they would bring the mindset, practice, ideology, mannerism, culture, and mindset of the old office to this new one

Some would go as far as engaging in some business deals with the name and documents of the old firm while under contract with the new firm

Some are very unsure of themselves, they would call their old colleagues or bosses from the former office for instructions, directions, advice, tutelage etc while they are on their new job

Mastering translation seems a bit difficult for human beings, even in marriage, we have many people who didnt or couldn’t

leave their parents house completely for many years even after they had gotten married and started their own family

The man will bring the culture of his father’s house, the woman will bring the culture of her father’s house, old things didnt pass away…Nothing became new

Spiritual beings master translations very easily because they are governed by rules and laws

Look at Genesis 1 for example, there was a realm called heaven and there was a realm called Earth, God created both

The realm called heaven remained healthy and prosperous but something had gone wrong with the realm called earth, it had become void (Empty, fruitless, unproductive, a wasteland) and

it remained so until God decided to translate (transform, change) it

The Spirit of God immediately began to put to action the desire of God and this led to the re-creation of the world! Imeediately after the world was created and man was made, God handed over the dominion of the earth to man in Genesis 2

The Age of Human dominion under the rulership of Adam started, it was immediate and there was no slowness in translation

Adam ruled for many years until in Genesis 3, he and his wife disobeyed God through the cunningness of the devil and what was the result?

Instant judgment and loss of dominion, God stayed in heaven

The earth remained but the rulership of the earth was taken over from Adam by the devil

God had told Adam that the day he ate the forbidden fruit, he shall SURELY die, meaning he would be translated from the realm of life to the realm of death and this happened as soon as 

Adam and his wife did the unthinkable

What took over was the curse, labour, sickness, death and decay under the dominion of the devil in what became the realm of Darkness

Even God couldn’t call any man his son after the realm change

Remember that Adam was referred to as the son of God and certain angels were later referred to as sons of God who slept with the daughters of men in Genesis 6:2 and Genesis 6:4 but God lost the right to call men his son after Adam ate that forbidden fruit

Enoch was not called “Son of God”, He walked with God

Noah was not called Son of God, he walked with God

Abraham was not called the son of God, He was referred to as a friend of God

The change was instant and even God was bound by this change

This reign of the Devil remained almost absolute until Jacob’s encounter with God at Bethel in Genesis 35

Did you notice that all the nations of the earth were under the rulership of the devil (Egypt, Edom, Amalek, etc before Jacob was named Israel in Genesis 35?)

Even after Jacob was named, his descendants had to go into slavery in Egypt according to God’s word to Abraham in Genesis 15 for four generations before they were brought out with a mighty hand through Moses

The devil continued to rule all over the world absolutely while God ruled over only one nation after Israel got to the promise land

Moses was able to give the children of Israel the law but the law did not bring life or any form of redemption. The law did not have the power to break the yoke of death or to translate anyone from the reign of the darkness, the curse and death back to the reign of Adam which was a reign of liberty and dominion of man

Death reigned from Adam to Moses (Romans 5:14) but those who died lived without any consciousness of sin or wrongdoing.

There was no account of Cain repenting, or Lamek asking for forgiveness or Methuselah feeling sorry for the way he lived his life

Do you know why?

Even when death reigned, the people were not conscious of sin

It was the law of Moses that made sin an issue, for without law there can be no sin

Let me rephrase this: From the moment Adam ate the forbidden fruit the dispensation of death and darkness began and we saw the examples all over the bible

Cain was not sorry for killing Abel and Lamek was not sorry for killing a young man in his tent

Wicked imaginations leading to the flood in the days of Noah

Defiance leading to the construction of the tower of Babel and

we didnt see any of those folks repenting or saying sorry

Even Noah’s son who saw Noah’s nakedness was not sorry

Abraham was not sorry for going to Egypt and lying about Sarah not being his wife, Lot was not sorry for sleeping with his daughters, Abraham was not sorry for sleeping with Haggai or having Ishmael (He even asked God to let Ismael live before him) and he was not sorry for casting Hagar and her son out of his house like a wicked, heartless father!

They were making wrong decisions every day and they didn’t see anything wrong with it until Moses brought the law

The law brought a consciousness of sin, condemnation and guilty conscience and yet, it didnt offer any solution

Those who died keeping the law still went to hades (not the lake of fire but the place of waiting called Abraham’s bossom underneath the earth and next door to hell fire (rememeber the Story of Lazarus and the Rich man and the conversation the rich man had with Abraham?)

Even Abraham the friend of God was there in hades, waiting!

and so were all the prophets and heroes of the old testament.

What were they waiting for?

They were waiting for the One who will defeat Devil just as the devil defeated Adam and restore mankind to God, so that once again God can call us sons and we can reign in life as Adam did

This waiting period and the reign of darkness ended when Jesus was resurrected from the dead

It was not a gradual process, it was a translation

As soon as Jesus died, the dead heroes who had been waiting in Hades came out of their tombs and were seen all over Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52)

It was an instant, absolute, total translation from death to life and not just life like the one Adam had but eternal life in Christ!

In the same vein, all those who are alive and have given their lives to Jesus have been TRANSLATED!

It was instant, complete, absolute and total

You were called out of darkness into his marvelous light

“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9)

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:12-13).

In the above verses, the Word declares that the Father not only qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, but also “delivered” us from the power of darkness. Then, it gets climactic where the Spirit says the Father “…hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” How profound!

It would have been good enough if He only delivered us from the jurisdiction of darkness; but to go the extra step of transferring us into the Kingdom of His Love Son, is absolutely transcendent. But sadly, in spite of this glorious truth, some Christians, out of ignorance, still go about seeking deliverance from Satan. Like the fellow who said, “You know, demons are real; I need a powerful man of God to pray for me and deliver me”; no! There’s no true born again person that needs deliverance from Satan. Satan is a defeated foe. You weren’t delivered from the authority of darkness because you prayed hard or because somebody prayed for you; it’s the result of what Christ has done. The moment you accepted the redemptive works of Christ in your behalf, and confessed His Lordship over your life, the dominion of Satan over you was broken.

In the same vein, many believers kept their focus on sin and living a Holy life to make heaven. 

It is because many of them didn’t understand the Bible and had developed a works mentality that handicapped them from benefitting of the fullness of their reality in Christ

The law which Moses brought was unable to keep death at bay and it was unable to give life to anyone

If the people (Jews) who got the law didnt make heaven by keeping it, how can those who were not given the law make heaven by keeping it?

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1:17

You cannot follow the law and Jesus at the same time.

Those who follow Moses obey the Mosaic law and those who follow Jesus are led by the Holy Spirit, if you decide to combine the two, you’re like that man who got a job in a new office but wouldn’t let go of the culture and practices of the old firm or the one who got married but never left his or her parent’s house indeed

2 Corinthians 3:7-9

7 The law that brought death was written in words on stone. It came with God’s glory, which made Moses’ face so bright that the Israelites could not continue to look at it. But that glory later disappeared. 8 So surely the new way that brings the Spirit has even more glory. 9 If the law that judged people guilty of sin had glory, surely the new way that makes people right with God has much greater glory.

The law brought death, Jesus came that we may have life and have it more abundantly

What to do:

Recognize your present status, state, and estate. You’re seated together with Christ in the heavenly realms, “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:21). Live from that realm of victory, dominion, peace and joy evermore, and rule your world with the authority He’s given you.