Life Is A Vapour: How Prepared Are You To Meet Your GOD In Death?

Life Is A Vapour: How Prepared Are You To Meet Your GOD In Death?

Text: James 4:13 “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

One of the English dictionary meanings of a vapour is: Something unsubstantial, fleeting, or transitory; unreal fancy; vain imagination; idle talk; boasting. This clear fits into this message to be passed across here by the grace of God.

A lot of people today have actually forgotten that life is a transition. The moment a child is born, the destiny of that child starts to count in the decreasing motion towards fulfilling the number of years the Almighty GOD has ordain for that individual child. This is supposed to cause a conscious awareness to the living souls of human beings on earth so as to bring into consideration the purpose of our existence in fulfilling our expected objects assigned by GOD to us.
However the moment a child starts to grow up, most people begin to see this child as one that is young who even to some people may never grow old after all. This is why the Bible enjoined us to train up our children in the way of the LORD at their very beginning of their lives. Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

The fact that man has a limited time to live on this earth Psalms 90:10, Genesis 6:3, and a destiny to fulfill and accomplish before departing for the great beyond in eternity either in heaven or in hell fire 2 Corinthians 5:10, one of the thoughts that will enable us to live a life pleasing unto the LORD on a daily basis just as Enoch did Hebrews 11:5, and keeping us in perpetual reminder of eternity after death, is THE THOUGHT OF DEATH Isaiah 22:13, Job 14:1. This will enable you to number your days Psalms 90:12, and then to apply your heart to wisdom which is the fear of the LORD Proverbs 9:10, Psalms 111:10. This should become your daily thoughts to help and keep you in total holiness, obedience and fear of GOD in everything you do, so that it shouldn’t take you unawares when it eventually comes.
But should you continue to live and use this world as if you will never die any day soon then, you are making the most dangerous mistake of your life because whether you like it or not, you are surely going to die some day, despite your daily proclaiming the promises of GOD in Psalms 118:17. So should you die right now, how prepared are you to meet your GOD in eternity? Will you wake in up Abraham’s bosom, or in torments in the horrible pits of hell fire? Examine yourself today!
Job 14:10 “But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?”

LIFE AS A GRASS AND A FLOWER
1 Peter 1: 24 “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”
Psalms 103:15 “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.”
James 1: 9  Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:  10 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. 11 For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.”
Psalms 90:1 “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. 3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. 4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. 5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.”
Isaiah 40:6 “The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: 7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. 8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

Brethren until we begin to see ourselves in the very sense of who we are in the flesh that we are nothing but like ordinary grass that withereth away in a moment, you may be boasting that you are something when actually you are nothing. Do you own your life? Prepare to meet your GOD in death now!
Galatians 6:3 “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”

A MAN'S LIFE DOES NOT CONSIST OF THE ABUNDANCE OF THINGS HE POSSESS Luke 12:15
Sometime ago on 24th May, 2014, in an interview with the Punch Newspaper, Bishop David Oyedepo, President and founder, Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel, while responding to a question that borders on why people claimed that his church is only for the rich people. He answered and I quote “It’s for all the people who believe that Jesus already paid for them to be rich. And those who don’t believe, when they come they start believing when they see it happen in a lot of people’s lives. AND WE ARE NOT ASHAMED TO BE CALLED THE CHURCH OF THE RICH. If they call your family poor, will you be excited? Nobody would be excited…” Visit www.punchng.com/news/we-are-not-ashamed-to-be-called-the-church-of-the-rich-oyedepo/ to read the complete dose of the interview.

With such position like this pastor stated above, every supposed Christian today would think that becoming a Christian automatically enrolled you into the club of the rich, where your physically well-being (care of this life) is placed on the front burner in considering your duties and responsibilities to GOD as a Christian. This concept is not only dangerous to your eternity pursuit, it is also a fast track to the destruction of your soul in hell fire, which is the direct result of greed and the desire to get rich by all means possible, which was responsible for the backsliding of Demas 2 Timothy 4:10, and therefore the Bible warned us against setting our goals on the acquisition of storing treasures here on earth.
Matthew 6:19 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
People and ministries such as Oyedepo posited usually gets their understanding of what it takes to please the LORD beclouded with their vision of ‘once you are rich, it is a sign that the LORD is with you’. If you have been caged and ensnared in this terrible situation today, I pray for the deliverance of your soul from such delusions in JESUS name. Amen.

Even at that, the richest people in the world today are not Christians but pure pagans. Alhaji Aluko Dangote for example who is the richest man in Nigeria and if not in Africa is a Muslim. So what are we not talking about? The fact that you are very rich today as a pastor is not a guarantee that it is well with you in GOD because the richness of your soul surpasses the physical riches you are showing around.
3 John 1:2 “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
Brethren life has no duplicate. Serve God in spirit and in truth, with fear of the LORD and total holiness inside and outside, so that when death knock at your door right now, you will appear worthy before the LORD in eternity Matthew 25:21, 23.
Job 14: 10 “But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? 11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: 12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.”

MAN IS LIKE VANITY AND OUR LIFE WILL SOON FLY AWAY
Psalms 144:4 “Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.”
Psalms 90:7 “For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. 9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. 10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. 12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Friends, we don’t have eternity continuing here on earth and there’s no more time. Let everyone of us examine ourselves with the standards of the word of GOD on a seconds basis so that wherever, whenever, however or whichever way death meet with us today, we will not be a cast away from the presence of the LORD 1 Corinthians 9:27.
Matthew 7: 21 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

To this end dear brethren, if you know that you are working with forged certificates and credentials, or you are falsifying the financial records of your place of work so as to get more money to yourself, or you are giving and taking bribes which is called kickback so as to influence a corrupt judgment, or you are into prostitution to get money to take care of yourself as you are thinking, or you are a fraudster, a 419, a kidnapper, a ritualists, lying against people so as to enjoy undue favour in return, or an embezzler of public funds to enrich yourself, all in the name of getting rich, please repent of your sins right now, confess them to GOD and to your pastor, make restitution where necessary and cleanse your garment for the Master’s use.
If you die with these sins hanging on you, surely you will miss heaven.

Also if you are there cheating on your wife or on your husband, you have secret child outside your matrimonial home, you have a secret bank account hidden from your wife/husband, you have a secret business you are doing outside your wife’s or husband’s knowledge, you have secret building, estate and investment conglomerate hidden from your wife or husband, you have a wife and children in the village but lying to the woman you called your now in the town/city all because of her inability to have children for you right now, and other wicked things which you’ve never considered to be wicked, please confess, correct and rectify all of them now when death haven’t knock on your door.
If you fail to do so, know that you have shut the door heaven against yourself. Should you die in this terrible situation, my brothers and sisters you are heading straight to hell fire without any remedy.

Likewise if you are a divorcee and you are now married to another man or another woman, or you are a second wife in this your present boyfriend/girlfriend relationship you called marriage, or the present man you called your husband never paid your dowry, please make all the necessary restitution now because hell fire is your abode should you die in this terrible situation without amendment and obtaining forgiveness from God.

Moreover if you know that you are a disobedient Christian to the word of GOD in wearing trousers as a woman, opening your hair while praying or ministering as a woman, wearing a cap while ministering or praying as a man in the man of being a bishop, pope, archbishop, or you are painting your face and body with makeup, or you are using and wearing all manner of jewelry such as wedding rings, earrings, necklace, bangles, wrist chains, leg chains, nose rings, and all other satanic materials on your body, please repent and destroy those things now because they are the instrument of hell fire and anyone using them will never miss hell fire.

Should you be involved in changing your natural created being into artificial and unnatural things, such as tattooing your body, permining and jerry curling your hair, fixing gold teeth, fixing attachment and weavon, fixing extra nails, extra eyes lashes, barbing funny hairstyles as a man, undergoing surgical operation to enhance your breast, stomach and buttocks, changing your sexual endowment to that of a man or that of woman vice versa through medical operation, please you are doomed for hell fire.
Please repent of this your wickedness and every other unmentioned sins here today and ask JESUS for mercy and HE will forgive you. Proverbs 28:13 “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Remember that death don’t announce his coming. If you die right now, will you make heaven?

I pray that you will not harden your heart against the truth today because only the TRUTH has the capacity to make you FREE. John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Shalom!